church is called catholic for the reason that it is universally distributed over all the world." Augustine and Ambrose likewise in their canticle, Praising God, say: "The holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee."[1] And Ambrose, 24: 1 [Friedberg, 1: 976] speaks thus of her: "What house is more worthy of the entrance of apostolic preaching than is the holy church? Or who else is to be preferred above all others than Christ, who was accustomed to wash the feet of his guests and did not suffer any whom he received into his house to dwell there with soiled steps, that is, works?" And, speaking of this church, Pope Pelagius, 24: 1, C. Schisma [Friedberg 1: 980,][2] cites Augustine as saying, "There cannot be two churches," and then adds: "Truly, as it has often been said, there can be only one church, the church which is Christ's body, which cannot be divided into two or more bodies." Jerome also says of the church,
- ↑ The Te Deum, or canticle to the Trinity, beginning, "We praise Thee, O God." According to the legend, first noted by Hincmar in the ninth century, Augustine and Ambrose at Augustine's baptism, 387, under supernatural inspiration, improvised the hymn. In the West it became a part of the church service as early as the sixth century, if not earlier. See Julian, Hymnology, p. 1119 sqq.; Augustine, Conff., 9: 7, refers to the moving impression made upon him by the "hymns and canticles" sung in the church of Milan. For these reasons, Raphael gave Augustine a place in his painting of St. Cecilia, in Bologna.
- ↑ Pelagius I, pope, 555–561, witnessed the ravages of the Goth, Totila, in Rome, and helped to repair them during his pontificate. He was Justinian's choice for the papal office. The quotation is from Pelagius's letter to a certain patrician, John, condemning the ordination of Paulinus of Aquileja by the schismatic bishop of Milan as something to be execrated rather than to be regarded as sacred, See Jaffa, Regesta pontificum, p. 88. In this letter, Pelagius also quotes for the unity of the church Cant. 6: 9: "My dove is one."
ancient authors, classic and ecclesiastical, on a large variety of subjects: medicine, law, the Bible, grammar, warfare, etc. See Bréhaut, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages, New York, 1912. Isidore was one of the very first to write a treatise designed to convince the Jews, de fide catholica c. Judæos. The high church fraud, the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, which appeared about 853, was for centuries ascribed to Isidore. In the chapter quoted by Huss Isidore says, "The holy catholic church tolerates with patience in herself those who live ill, but casts out from herself those who believe ill," and again, "They are heretics who, leaving the church of God, have chosen private societies, that is, they have hewn out broken cisterns for themselves."
