To properly understand the times we live in, it is necessary to understand the spirit of the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century is most typically studied in its relationship to the worldwide Catholic Church, with which it was almost always in conflict. For this reason, this book is not entitled 'The Church in the Nineteenth Century', but 'The Church and the Nineteenth Century'. It studies both in their relationship to each other. Nowhere is the spirit and inner soul of that century more fully revealed than in the attitude of so many prominent and influential figures, governments and rulers, political groups and secret societies, toward the only institution that courageously confronted them, at every turn, in the name of God and eternal Truth. What greatly simplifies the historical treatment of the vast and important subject under consideration here is the fact that the life drama of the Church's actions and sufferings in the nineteenth century can be seen as taking place primarily along a world highway that we might consider to stretch from Rome to the British Isles, provided the road were widened enough midway to include France and Germany. Within this limited area, one can find almost everything that could have influenced the Church's attitude toward the century and the century's attitude toward the Church. In particular, the author has attempted to portray the Church living in its relationship—here too, largely one of trial and conflict—with the dominant bourgeoisie and the ever-increasing masses. Socialism and Communism, as well as unregenerated capitalism, had taken deep root in the fertile soil of the nineteenth century. This was the century of attacks on the papacy, the century of the corcoda, the century of liberalism, blind materialism, and greedy laissez-faire. It is fitting to speak of 'The Nineteenth Century and Beyond'.