>This penultimate installment of Abbé Gaume's Catechism of
Perseverance offers a compendium of Church history, presenting the
earthly sojourn of the Catholic Church from the first to the eighteenth century. Written during a period heavily influenced by rationalist philosophies and the revisionist histories of secular republics, it is gratifying to find Gaume still reminding his readers: "There is but one
history, the history of Christianity, of which all national histories are only episodes. ... There is only one kingdom to which all other kingdoms refer." As the French monsignor explains, this is the only lens through which past centuries (and certainly our own time) may be rightly viewed, in order to be properly understood. Far more than names and dates, the story of the Church comes vividly to life in this volume, leaving readers with a clear understanding and conviction of the Church's supernatural mystery as the continuation of Christ's reign on earth: "She is not dead, that Church whose light alone makes the difference between civilization and barbarism. ... Hail, then, immortal Church!"