l8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
in their personal religion, and are even, in certain instances, members of Lutheran churches.
It would be a great mistake to imagine that the various forms of Catholic social action, or even the definitely Catholic political parties, have as their aim the aggrandizement, by every means in their power, of the Catholic church at the expense of the sects that decline to acknowledge the authority of the hierarchy. On the contrary, these parties and otherorganizations are endeavoring to secure the triumph, and promote the application, of certain well-defined principles following from the Catholic world-view, and representing, as they believe, immutable laws of nature and of God, which cannot be deviated from without incalculable loss and progressive degeneracy. They are laboring for the com- mon good, for the alleviation of burdens that press on all alike, and it is their sincere conviction that the whole people, without regard to creed or affiliation, will equally profit by their efforts. No one can suffer detriment, they hold, from their movement, save offenders against the laws of justice and charity ; and to prevent crime is a mercy to the wrongdoer himself.
To understand the Catholic position it is necessary to grasp the view of religion and of history that it implies. According to this view, the very idea of religion implies unity and the possession of infallible truth. There has always been one, and there can never be more or less than one, true religion. This religion has passed through three great stages on this earth : the patriarchal or initial, the Mosaic or preparatory, and the Christian or perfect stage. From this one church of God, under these three dispensations, all the other religions of the world have broken away : the pagan sects from the patriarchal church, the Samaritan and Jewish sects from the Mosaic church, and the Nestorian, Monophysite, Mohammedan, Orthodox, Jan- senist, and Protestant sects from the Christian church. To this church of God — which, potentially in its earlier stages, but actually in its final one, is catholic or universal in its doctrine, its worship, its jurisdiction, its geographical extent, its adapta- bility, its representativeness, its sympathies, and in all other
