ate in Rome; for Christianity was
yet a proscribed religion, and the faithful were exposed to the most
violent and unrelenting persecutions that have ever darkened the annals of
history.

The Christians of Rome worshiped for the most part in the catacombs. These
catacombs are subterranean chambers and passages under the city of Rome.
They extend for miles in different directions, and are visited to this day
by thousands of strangers. Here the primitive Christians prayed together,
here they encouraged one another to martyrdom, here they died and were
buried; so that these caverns served at the same time as temples of
worship for the living and as tombs for the dead.

At last Constantine the Great brought peace to the Church. The long night
of Pagan persecution was succeeded by the bright dawn of religious
liberty, and as our Blessed Savior rose triumphant from the grave, after
having lain there for three days, so did our early brethren in the faith
emerge from the tombs of the catacombs, after having been buried, as it
were, in the bowels of the earth for three centuries.

Constantine gave to the Roman Church munificent donations of money and
real estate, which were augmented by additional grants contributed by
subsequent emperors. Hence the patrimony of the Roman Pontiffs soon became
very considerable. Voltaire himself tells us that the wealth which the
Popes acquired was spent not in satisfying their own avarice and ambition,
but in the most laudable works of charity and religion. They expended
their patrimony, he says, in sending missionaries to evangelize Pagan
Europe, in giving hospitality to exiled Bishops at Rome and in feeding the
poor. And I may here add that succeeding Popes have generously imitated
the munificence of the early Pontiffs.

An event occurred in the reign of Constantine which paved the way for the
partial jurisdiction which the Roman Pontiffs commenced to enjoy over
Rome, and which they continued to exercise till they obtained full
sovereignty in the days of King Pepin of France.

In the year 327 the Emperor Constantine transferred the seat of empire
from Rome to Constantinople, the present capital of Turkey. The city was
named after Constantine, who founded it. A subsequent emperor appointed a
governor, or exarch, to rule Italy, who resided in the city of Ravenna.
This new system, as is manifest, did not work well. The Emperor of
Constantinople referred all matters to his deputy in Ravenna, a