The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-04-24

still presided. Barnabas went further.
He sought out Saul at Tarsus and
brought him to Antioch, where the two,
perhaps as presbyters only, labored
together with rich fruits. Thither
Peter, fugitive from prison on his
way to Rome, came, and he came not
as a stranger, but as one to his own
church. He established the Episcopate
and apparently favored for the SUI
preme place one of the founders of the
Church. We find in confirmation of
this statement. that subsequently at
the command of the Holy Spirit this
Church imposed hands on Barnabas
and Saul and sent them on their mis-
sionary journey. Saul, now called
Paul, always reported back to this
Church, by whom he had been sent
out. But the Church of Antioch was a
church of Peter, if not founded by
himself, at least aggregated to the
fold by Barnabas, his envoy. Antioch
is by the Orontes, which flows into the
Mediterranean, Jerusalem by the Jor-
dan, which flows into the Dead Sea.
faithful picture of the influence of
these two churches.
Jerusalem Loses the Supremacy.
While thus Christianity was being
organized on lines radiating from the
mother Church of Jerusalem, events
were fast accommodating to displace this
church from the center of gravity and
to prevent it from imposing it's Gus
toms on all. The selection of James
to be the shepherd of this flock, while
gratifying to the zealots, owing to his
love for Mosaism, must in the long
run be fatal to the prestige of the
Jerusalem Church. Peter was now
free and where Peter went the head
ship of the Church went. Herod's per-
secution, or rather Divine Providence
sent him far forth into the Gentle
world. In his absence, new element
came into the Jerusalem church. ST..
Paul calls them false brethren, who
came in unawares." They tried to
push things to extremes and to extend
the customs of Jerusalem as far as the
Church of Antioch. Thus party spirit
grew. Persecution, famine, poverty
tried the mother Church, but did not
abate the fanatical zeal of its ad-
herents to extend Mosaism every
where, Then a great event happened.
Peter quietly returned from his seven
years long wandering. The matter, as
far as Gentle converts were con-
cerned, could be definitely settled. To
Jerusalem, therefore, Paul and Barna-
bas posted, and obtained the memoir
able decision, that the converts from
Gentilism should not be subjected to a
yoke, which Peter said, neither we
nor our fathers could bear" If Paul
had seen what Peter saw, Christ weep
ing over the city and prophesying it's
utter destruction and the extinction of
it's people, he might have sympathized
with Peters later action at Antioch
more, and found another means, beside
that of upbraiding Peter, to quiet his
own converts. Peters cry from the
first was: Save yourselves from this
perverse generation" (Act H. 400, and
he would make every possible conces-
sion before the breaking of the storm.
The Last Days.
The subsequent history of the
Church of Jerusalem is very sad. All
the zeal of James for the Law did not
satisfy the on-Christian Jews. He
died martyrs death. Then came the
horrors of war. Before the city of
Jerusalem was encircled with the be-
siegers under Titus, ST. Simeon, the
Christian Bishop, aware of the
prophecy of the Lord, withdrew his
flock across the Jordan. They re-
turned afterwards to dwell in the ruins
of the city. Finally, after another
Jewish revolt, they with all other
Jews, falling under the prescription
of Adrian in A. D. 135, were banished
and the church of Jerusalem was no
more.
No heresy has ever been laid to the
door of this church or of her fifteen
Bishops. The Church of Jerusalem
gave to the world the example of the
purest brotherhood, it bravely with
stood persecution, it has left indelible
marks on our Gospels. 1t made the
mistake of clinging to servitude, that
was past, and many of it's members
made the still greater mistake of en-
deavoring to impose this yoke on non
Jews. Like the prisoner of Chillon, it
could not appreciate liberty long de.
layed:
my very chains and | grew friends.
So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are:-even |
Regained my freedom with a sigh
Returning, as much as Christian
faith would permit, to Jewish servi-
tude and identifying itself too closely
with the Jewish nation, the mother
church went down with that nation in
one common ruin.
Meantime was begun the conquering
march of the Gentle Church, which
henceforth went through the shadows
of the globe sweeping into the younger
day."
Irish CHARITIES BENEFIT