The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-10
FATHER COYLEA At
ST. PAUL s CHURCH
breaches on Significance of
Edict of Milan
AN HISTORIC ADDRESS
Review of the Time of Constantine.
Prosecutions Cease and the
Church Has Peace-Early
Councils
AN HISTORIC ADDRESS

lee which ends December s. At st. Paul's
church the Rev. Father Coyle occupied
the pulpit and delivered this discourse:
This year of grace, 1913, is the sixteenth
centenary of the Edict of Milan, and the
entire Catholic world is rejoicing, and
celebrating the event with prayer and
praise to the Most High. great ami
versary in truth. We, living today In the
twentieth century. separated by 16 cycles,
each 100 years. from the event we are
called upon to commemorate, may per-
haps at first blush. think that too much
IS made of the matter.
If we have read the Decline and Fall
| Of the Roman Empire, or the works of
| the carping imitators OF the sneerng
iibbon, We may, looking only to the blem-
ishes OF Constantine,s character, realiz-
ing the exigences of his position. Stress
ing his worldly shrewdness, we may think
! that the marvellous event was the happy
bungling of chance. the workings OF inn
| rersonaI fate. But no. Gods hand was
there, and the Emperor himself recog-
nized 1t, and knew that what he achieved,
| he achieved under the impulse and with
the aid of the God of the Christians, and
this belief is attested by the expression,
'lnstinctu divinitatis' (by the guidance of
the Deity, that may be read today in
scribed on the triumphal arch, erected TO
mis- honor by the Senate and the people
of Rome.
In the Far Past
1--WE living today. so long after that
event, can scarcely realize the feverish
joy that possessed our forefathers in the
faith when inhuman persecution and
Dutchery ceased, when the church WAS
no longer prescribed and banned, but
IL,
secret catacombs, but in Gods light of
day. they could meet for mass and sac
iaments, when their bitterest foe, the
Caesar, became a protector and humble
catechumen. 'Lo,' wrote one of them ex-
ultingly, our very enemy is added to our
ranks, tranquility is restored throughout
the world, the church, that ere now lay
PROSTATE, rises up again and by Our
Lords mercy, the Temple of God, which
wicked men had overthrown. is rebuilt
with greater splendor.' Was 1t not so?
Read history and see, how from that
day. the scourge and ignominy of the old
world, slavery, gave way through the
zeal and firmness of the church to uni
versal liberty. See how the poor and the
, needy, became the objects of systematic
charity, how prisoners and debators were
more humanely treated how the sacri-
fee of human lives at the public games
was prohibited, how death by crucifixion
was abolished, how the denominations OF
| the cult of Venus were swept away how
| fathers lost the power of life and death
| over their children. how the ban was re-
moved from life of ceibacy. how wom-
! an assumed her rightfu' place as consort
and companion and coinhertrix of the
| hopes Of man how marriage the sacra-
| ment was substituted for marriage the
mere contract. how the elimination of
divorce. the chief torrent of public inn
morality. was stemmed
| "Oh the church then saved society 80
she afterwards saved IT when barbarian
| hordes swept over the Roman BORDERS.
| and forrred from the emnire's ruin new
| states and natiors. Much. most of our
present day civilization. dates from the
dav in the wear, 31s. when Constantine the
Great signed the Edict of Milan.
Christ's Injunction
'Then, too, began another work. Christ
| had lcId the injunction on his followers.
That hich l tell ye In the dark, tell
We in the light, and that which ye hear
in the ear, preach ye on the house tons.
That injunction had been announced far
and wide, but the novelty of the doc
| trine and the success of the preaching
of the IL, stung heathendom into fury.
and repression ana persecution reigned
| from Claudius to Constantine. Her
teachers had to shun the light of day,
the faithful had to meet in catacom5
! retreats 10 DIeak the DFeaQ OF lIe, ana
millions died in the Roman ampnithea-
tre, torn by wild beasts. to make holi-
day for pagan Rome. hut now. when the
head of the state. the heir of the perse
cutting emperors, proclaimed himself n
son of the church, showed revere nee to
her head and to her hierarchy, restored
her plundered goods and endowed her
anew, ah, then the church came forth
into the light of day to preach abroad,
| TO assemble in council, to vanquish er-
ror. In the very year of the edict Of
Milan. Pope St Melchiades held coun
ell in the Lateran palace. which, since
Ne lays, had belonged to the EN-
pei ut which was now granted in
peri - to the popes. In the neat
yeaI ise important council of Aries was
held, this council and others held
in the east, paved the way for the first
| great general council of Nice, where,
| through his legates, Pope ST. sylvester
presided. where the Son of God was de-
clared consubstantial with the Father
and the date of each succeeding Easter
fixed for Christian people for all time
From that date the church set forth OH
her arduous march, routing error, war
, ring on abuse, strengthe ming the bonds
of discipline, reforming and upraisinS
the world.
| THE creed sung at mass today was
framed for us at Nice and the lineai
succe ssor of Pope st. Sylvester is the
/ grand pont1H, FOR whom we pray today,
our own sanity Plus the Tenth.
/ Hand In hand with doctrinal deveI-
opment went the development of the
churchs liturgy and public Worship.
! We Know from w itten record and cata-
comb painting, what the belief of thu
early Christians was on the central ami
vital subjects of the sacrifice and sacra-
ments of the new law. In the outlines
of their simple ritual We can see the
rudiments of the solemn ordinances
blessings and prayers, W hich, by their
majesty and splendor and variety and
sweetness and teaching symb olism
were to upraise and instruct the minds
of the church's children in after ages
The great liturgies of the east and the
west were expanded till the mass be-
came the noblest of the pageants of
earth. No longer were the sacred rit. $
performed stealthily or underground
Constantine himself set the example In
church building"
| The Great Basilica
I Witness the church of the Holy Spe-
ulchre in Jerusalem. on the spot where
the body of Christ had once lain. Ills
church OF the Lateran In Rome Is still
called the Constantinan Basiliea. That
church was long the model of cathedrals
for the Christian world. Stately basiicas
besan to rise rich In sculptured marbles
and glittering mosaics. and then, later on
in the centuries following, the wonder
full fame of San Sophia the glorious
+ I churches nj Rayapno Ciopa op5 Ar;,.,,