Chief Pastor was resisted. The ministers of religion and the
religious orders were treated with contempt--were persecuted in lands where
they had been so long cherished and revered. The children of a corrupt
nobility were sent to govern the provinces and churches of the falling
Empire. The result was, it is superfluous to say, the decline of
religion--the overthrow of the once flourishing churches of Spain and
Portugal. And yet were they not destined to perish wholly. A remnant was
left; and it was appointed that this remnant should take root and fructify
in a soil which trials and persecution had prepared for a new growth. It
was reserved for the age of Pius IX. to behold Spain and Portugal renew
their early fervor. They have returned to the centre of Catholic unity;
and in both countries arrangements have been entered into for staying the
spoliation of ecclesiastical property, appointing learned and edifying
bishops to the vacant Sees, restoring seminaries and clerical education.
The clergy, who had been infected more or less by the Jansenist heresy,
now purified in the crucible of persecution, have resumed the sound
doctrines and the heroic virtues of the apostolic men who will ever be the
brightest glory of their land--Thomas of Villa-Nova, Francis Xavier,
Ignatius of Loyola, Peter of Alcantara, Francis Borgia, St. John of the
Cross, and Saint Theresa. The Holy See, with the concurrence of the
Spanish Government, has organized anew the churches of Spain. In the
consistory of 3rd July, 1848, Pope Pius IX. instituted bishops for the
following Sees: Segovia and Calahorra, in Old Castile; Tortosa and Vich,
in Catalonia; Porto Rico, in North America; Cuenca and St. Charles de
Aucud de Chiloe, in South America. This last-named diocese, at the time of
the appointment, was newly erected.

(M26) From the epoch of the "Reformation," when the ancient Catholic
hierarchy of England, which had been so successfully founded by St.
Augustine and the disciples of St. Columba, was swept away, until the year
1850, the church was missionary, and governed, as missions usually are, by
prefects, who may be arch-priests, or vicars-apostolic, with episcopal
titles. Until the year 1625, the English mission was under the guidance of
an arch-priest. In that year Pope Gregory II. appointed a vicar-apostolic
for all England. Circumstances appearing favorable to the church after the
accession of King James II., Pope Innocent XI. placed the English m