This Catholicity, or universality, is not to be found in any, or in all, of the combined communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church.
The Schismatic churches of the East have no claim to this title because they are confined within the Turkish and Russian dominions, and number not more than sixty million souls.
The Protestant churches, even taken collectively, (as separate communions they are a mere handful) are too insignificant in point of numbers, and too circumscribed in their territorial extent, to have any pretensions to the title of Catholic. All the Protestant denominations are estimated at sixty-five million, or less than one-fifth of those who bear the Christian name. They repudiate, moreover, and protest against the name of Catholic, though they continue to say in the Apostles' Creed "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church."
That the Roman Catholic Church alone deserves the name of _Catholic_ is so evident that it is ridiculous to deny it. Ours is the only Church which adopts this name as her official title. We have possession, which is nine-tenths of the law. We have exclusively borne this glorious appellation in troubled times, when the assumption of this venerable title exposed us to insult, persecution and death; and to attempt to deprive us of it at this late hour, would be as fruitless as the efforts of the French Revolutionists who sought to uproot all traces of the old civilization by assigning new names to the days and seasons of the year.
Passion and prejudice and bad manners may affix to us the epithets of _Romish_ and _Papist_ and _Ultramontane_, but the calm, dispassionate mind, of whatever faith, all the world, over, knows us only by the name of _Catholic_. There is a power in this name and an enthusiasm aroused by it akin to the patriotism awakened by the flag of one's country.
So great is the charm attached to the name of Catholic that a portion of the Episcopal body sometimes usurp the title of _Catholic_, though in their official books they are named _Protestant Episcopalians_. If they think that they have any just claim to the name of _Catholic_, why not come out openly and write it on the title-pages of their Bibles and Prayer-Books? Afraid of going so far, they gratify their vanity by privately calling themselves Catholic. But the delusion is so transparent that the attempt must provoke a smile even among themselves.