he "corruptions of Rome" led to
the invention of the term "Protestant," which, though nowhere assumed in
the official titles of the older reformed churches, was early used as a
generic term to include them all.

"Catholic" and "Catholicism" thus again changed and narrowed their
meaning; they became, by universal usage, identified definitely with
"Romanist" and the creed and obedience of Rome. Even in England, where the
church retained most strongly the Catholic tradition, this distinction of
"Protestant" and "Catholic" was clearly maintained, at least till the
"Catholic revival" in the Church of England of the 19th century. On the
continent of Europe the equivalent words (e.g. Ger. _Katholik,
Katholizismus_; Fr. _catholique, catholicisme_) are even more definitely
associated with Rome; they have lost the sense which they still convey to
a considerable school of Anglicans. The dissident "Catholic" churches are
forced to qualify their titles: they are "Old Catholics"
(_Alt-Katholiken_) or "German Catholics" (_Deutsch-Katholiken_). The
Church of Rome alone, officially and in popular parlance, is "the Catholic
Church" (_katholische Kirche, eglise catholique_), a title which she
proudly claims as exclusively her own, by divine right, by the sanction of
immemorial tradition, and by reason of her perpetual protest against the
idea of "national" churches, consecrated by the Reformation (see CHURCH
HISTORY, and ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH). The additional qualification of
"Roman" she tolerates, since it proclaims her doctrine of the see of Rome
as the keystone of Catholicism; but to herself she is "the Catholic
Church," and her members are "Catholics."

Yet to concede this claim and surrender without qualification the word
"Catholic" to a connotation which is at best only universal in theory,
is to beg several very weighty questions. The doctrine of the Catholic
Church, i.e. the essential unity and interdependence of "all God's
faithful people scattered throughout the world," is common to all
sections of Christians. The creed is one; it is the interpretation that
differs. In a somewhat narrower sense, too, the Church of England at
least has never repudiated the conception of the Catholic Church as a
divinely instituted organization for the safe-guarding and proclamation
of the Christian revelation. She deliberately retained the Catholic
creeds, the Catholic ministry and the appeal to Catholic antiquity (see
ENGLAND, CHURCH OF). A lar