the Great writes: "Because in it (the Church) the good are
mingled with the bad, the reprobate with the elect, it is rightly declared
to be similar to the wise and the foolish virgins."(50)

Listen to St. Augustine: "Let the mind recall the threshing-floor
containing straw and wheat; the nets in which are inclosed good and bad
fish; the ark of Noah in which were clean and unclean animals, and you
will see that the Church from now until the judgment day _contains not
only sheep and oxen_--that is, saintly laymen and holy ministers--_but also
the beasts of the field_.... For the beasts of the field are men who take
delight in carnal pleasures, _the field being that broad way which leads
to perdition_."(51)

The occasional scandals existing among members of the Church do not
invalidate or impair her claim to the title of sanctity. The spots on the
sun do not mar his brightness. Neither do the moral stains of some members
sully the brilliancy of her "who cometh forth as the morning star, fair as
the moon, bright as the sun."(52) The cockle that grows amidst the wheat
does not destroy the beauty of the ripened harvest. The sanctity of Jesus
was not sullied by the presence of Judas in the Apostolic College. Neither
can the moral corruption of a few disciples tarnish the holiness of the
Church. St. Paul calls the Church of Corinth a congregation of Saints,(53)
though he reproves some scandalous members among them.(54)

It cannot be denied that corruption of morals prevailed in the sixteenth
century to such an extent as to call for a sweeping reformation, and that
laxity of discipline invaded even the sanctuary.

But how was this reformation of morals to be effected? Was it to be
accomplished by a force operating inside the Church, or outside? I answer
that the proper way of carrying out this reformation was by battling
against iniquity within the Church; for there was not a single weapon
which men could use in waging war with vice outside the Church, which they
could not wield with more effective power when fighting under the
authority of the Church. The true weapons of an Apostle, at all times,
have been personal virtue, prayer, preaching, and the Sacraments. Every
genuine reformer had those weapons at his disposal within the Church.

She possesses, at all times, not only the principle of undying vitality,
but, besides, all the elements of reformation, and all the means of
sanctification. With the weapons I have named she