Beatification

“ When it shall have been established with the evidence required by the Congregation of Rites that it has pleased God to work two miracles, of the first class, after the death of this venerable servant, through his intercession, a decree may be issued stating that fact, and allowing his beatification. When two other miracles of the same class shall have been proved with the same certainty to have occurred, after his beatification, the blessed servant of God may be canonized and enrolled among the saints of the church. ”

“ Beatification, which frequently precedes canonization, gives an inferior status to the deceased person, and appears rather to recommend him as a fit object for the cultus of his co-religionists than to enjoin it. ”

“ Canonisation, in the Romish Church, is the solemn declaration by the Pope that a servant of God, renowned for his virtue and for miracles he has wrought, is to be publicly venerated by the whole Church, termed Saint, and honoured by a special festival. A preparatory stage is beatification, and the beatification and canonisation of a saint are promoted by a long, tedious, and costly process, much resembling a suit at law. ”

“ Every clergyman takes an oath of canonical obedience to his bishop when he is instituted to a benefice, or licensed to a cure.
CANONISATION. (See Beatification, and Saints.) A ceremony in the Romish Church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of saints. It succeeds beatification. When a person is to be canonised, the pope holds four consistories. In the first, he causes the petition of those who request the canonisation to be examined by three auditors of the rota, and directs the cardinals to revise all the necessary instruments. ”

“ On the day of the solemnity, his Holiness, a considerable number of Cardinals, many other ecclesiastics, all the Capucin Friars in Rome, and a great concourse of spectators attended. The ceremony was performed in St. Peter’s church. An ecclesiastic of my acquaintance procured us a very convenient place for seeing the whole. The ceremony of beatification [454] is a previous step to that of canonization. The Saint, after he is beatified, is entitled to more distinction in Heaven than before; but he has not the power of freeing souls from purgatory till he has been canonized ”

“ All these things being well examined, and verified by persons, without all exception, worthy of credit, his holiness, for the glory of God, honor of the saint, and benefit of the faithful, vouchsafed to pronounce him beatified, to the end that, as he had a perfect fruition of glory in the church triumphant, so he should want no praise or reverence in the church militant. He was beatified on the 18th of April, 1622, and his office is celebrated in the convents of his order on the 19th of October. ”

“ This horrible instrument not only wounds the tongue and occasions excessive pain, but also, from the swelling it produces; frequently places the sufferer in danger of suffocation. This torture is generally had recourse to in cases considered as blasphemy against God, the Virgin, the Saints, or the Pope. So that according to the Inquisition, it is as great a crime to speak disparagingly of a pope, who may be a very detestable character, as to blaspheme the holy name of God. ”

“ The efficacy of Christ's death for the pardon of sin, is secured to the sinner, they suppose, by baptism and penance. The belief is universal, that baptism cancels guilt, and is regeneration. They also believe baptism to be the instrumental cause of justification. ”

“ RITUAL MURDER, a general term for human sacrifice in connexion with religious ceremonies. False accusations as to the practice of ritual murder by Jews and Christians have often been made. “The Christians of the second and third centuries suffered severely under them” (Strack) . Justin Martyr (150–160) in his Second Apology (ch. 12) vigorously defends the Christian community against this charge; Octavius, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Origen and other Church Fathers all refer to the subject and indignantly repudiate the atrocious libel that the Eucharist involved human sacrifice. ”

“ The executioners draw near, and with rough nails, by the blows of heavy hammers, they pierce through the hands and feet of our beloved Redeemer. The spasms of pain that Jesus then endured at this new torture cannot be described for intensity; we can only compassionate them with tears. His flesh is rent with awful wounds; the nerves, the veins, the arteries are wrenched asunder. The more the nails are driven the wider are the wounds made, until four rivers of blood flow from his hands and feet, to wash our souls from the filth of sin. ”

“ As the typical sacrifices under the law purified men from ceremonial defilement, so the real sacrifice of the Gospel saves the believer from moral pollution. Blood was the life of all the services of the tabernacle made with hands, and gave significance and utility to all the rites of the former dispensation. By blood the covenant between God and his people was sealed. By blood the officers and vessels of the sanctuary were consecrated. By blood the children of Israel were preserved in Egypt from the destroying angel. So the blood of Christ is our justification, sanctification, and redemption. ”

“ Here the Gloss of the Decretum says on these words: "In case one soul through this severity, by which that whole household was anathematized, should perish, passing out of the body without baptism, the death of innumerable bodies, if innocent men are violently removed from the church, is not to be compared with this injury." The Gloss, Argumentum, says: "Greater is the sin if one soul perish through the sin of unbelief than if they should put to death the bodies of innumerable martyrs for God's sake." ”

“ We preach a devil and everlasting punishment.
At first they come to the church full of arrogance and curiosity, to see the wandering priest; but when they hear our solemn words on life, death, and the judgment, they are soon prostrate; crushed and trembling before the black draped altar, they soon force their way to our confessional. They deny themselves bread until the setting of the sun, they put sand into their shoes and go on pilgrimages to distant churches and isolated chapels to pray for pardon.
Before each church we erect a high, bare cross. ”

“ The orthodox clergy tell the most vile and debauched villain and bloody assassin, after he has inhumanly butchered and murdered his innocent and virtuous wife, can, by an act of repentance and forgiveness, swing from the end of the hangman's rope directly into a heaven of pure and unalloyed bliss, and, with his fingers all dripping with human blood, join the white-robed saints in shouting, "Glory hallelujah to the Lord God and the Lamb for ever and ever!" ”

“ Only by baptism can the stains of our native guilt be effaced; and thus the unbaptized, even infants, perish everlastingly, and hell, to use the words of a Protestant divine, holds many a babe not a span long. A great Catholic divine says—"Hold thou most firmly, nor do thou in any respect doubt, that infants, whether in their mothers' wombs they begin to live and then die, or when, after their mothers have given birth to them, they pass from this life without the sacrament of holy baptism, will be punished with the everlasting punishment of eternal fire." ”

“ What is the baptism of blood most commonly called? A. The baptism of blood is most commonly called martyrdom, and those who receive it are called martyrs. It is the death one patiently suffers from the enemies of our religion, rather than give up Catholic faith or virtue. We must not seek martyrdom, though we must endure it when it comes. ”

“ Chapter 11.—Martyrdom for Christ Supplies the Place of Baptism. The Faith of the Thief Who Was Crucified Along with Christ Taken as Martyrdom and Hence for Baptism.
Accordingly, the thief, who was no follower of the Lord previous to the cross, but His confessor upon the cross, from whose case a presumption is sometimes taken, or attempted, against the sacrament of baptism, is reckoned by St. Cyprian [1] among the martyrs who are baptized in their own blood, as happens to many unbaptized persons in times of hot persecution. ”

“ All the figures of baptism point to death—all the sacrifices for sin, slain under the law for 4000 years, point to death, declaring that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. There the reality lies. There we are called upon to anchor our faith and hope even within the veil. ”

“ Circumcision was in Egypt, as it is said, 'None uncircumcised shall eat of the passover.' Baptism was in the wilderness before the giving of the Law, as it is said, 'Thou shalt sanctify them today and to-morrow, and let them wash their garments.'" And he adds, "So, whenever a Gentile desires to enter into the covenant of Israel, and place himself under the wings of the Divine Majesty, and take the yoke of the Law upon him, he must be circumcised, and baptized and bring a sacrifice; or if it be a woman, she must be baptized and bring a sacrifice." ”

“ This is the circumcision of the heart, of which the prophets speak, which God transferred from man's body to his soul. For being willing-such was his eternal mercy—to provide for our life and our salvation, in that circumcision he proposed penance to us; in order that, if we cleanse our heart, that is, if, confessing our sins, we make satisfaction to God, we may obtain pardon. This pardon, he, who looks into the secret recesses of the heart, withholds from the refractory, and from those who conceal their crimes. ”

“ A violent death appeared terrible in their descriptions, but we see that it is the affair of a moment. It will be still less terrible to him, who not expecting it, escapes almost all the pain.” Such is the fatal, though absurd reasoning of men who are disposed to commit crimes; on whom the abuse of religion has more influence than religion itself. If it be objected, that almost all nations in all ages have punished certain crimes with death, I answer, that the force of these examples vanishes, when opposed to truth, against which prescription is urged in vain. ”

“ Nevertheless, the general character of Christian observances—baptism, the mass, prayer, the sign of the cross, the rites at marriage, sickness, and death—could not fail to impress a certain tone and demeanour upon the people, and impart some sense of human sinfulness. The general conviction that patent and outrageous crime would bring divine vengeance gained point and power from the terrific doctrine of the Day of Wrath, and the system of penances imposed by the clergy proved an excellent discipline with these rough Christians. ”

“ All the worldly people dwelling within the pale of the church, are their hearts spotless and pure? Or do we find that many sins are committed after baptism, and that many live in sin? So even after baptism the thief is free to enter, and to do what he likes. ”

“ In it the life blood of clean animals was shed and sprinkled, and their bodies burned upon the altar. Thus were represented the shedding of Christ’s blood, and his offering of atonement to the justice of God. But here is no water. It is not the baptism for which we seek.
2. Circumcision.—The second of the Old Testament sacraments was circumcision, whereby God sealed to Abraham and his seed the covenant of blessings to them and all nations through the blood of the promised Seed. Here, again, no one will pretend to identify the ordinance with the baptisms of Paul. ”

“ In the Levitical institutions, the ordinary form of the rite had its primary relation, as we have seen, to a ritual uncleanness by contact with the dead, which symbolized the judicial defilement of the Lord Jesus by contact, through birth of a woman, with our dead nature, and his consequent death under the curse. The baptism symbolized the resurrection of Christ, and of his people with him, in the renewing of their souls, and the final quickening and rising of their bodies. ”

“ The same triple division of repentance recurs in his de Symbolo, § 15. "In three ways are sins remitted in the Church,—in Baptism, in prayer, in the deeper humiliation of penitence; yet God forgiveth not sin, except to the baptized. Those very sins, which He first remits, He remits only to the baptized; when? when they are baptized. The sins, which are afterwards forgiven to us on our praying, and to the penitent, whom He forgiveth, He forgiveth them, as being baptized. For how can they say 'Our Father,' who are not yet born? ”

“ We must say, therefore, that grace was bestowed in circumcision as to all the effects of grace, but not as in Baptism. Because in Baptism grace is bestowed by the very power of Baptism itself, which power Baptism has as the instrument of Christ's Passion already consummated. Whereas circumcision bestowed grace, inasmuch as it was a sign of faith in Christ's future Passion: so that the man who was circumcised, professed to embrace that faith; whether, being an adult, he made profession for himself, or, being a child, someone else made profession for him. ”

“ For Paul says that circumcision (which you understand to be a figure of baptism) , is made without hands, in the spirit, for the putting off of the sinful flesh; whose praise is not of men,—as was done with the hand on Israel—but of God. Col. 2:11; Rom. 2:29. Now, is your infant baptism in the spirit, without hands, and this for the putting off of the sinful flesh, and for sin which they have not yet committed? For to put off the sinful is this, as Paul says: “Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, evil concupiscence;” ”

“ All other persons who have been rebaptized, or who secretly and with premeditation have harbored any of the aforesaid Anabaptists, and who renounce their evil purpose and belief, and are truly sorry and penitent for it, shall be executed with the sword, and the women be buried in a pit. ”