St Robert Bellarmine's 15 Marks of The Church

My 'Word of the Day' post was Fr Hardon's definition of the Four  Marks of the Church. Here are St Robert's 15 Marks.

St. Robert Bellarmine, 1542-1621, Doctor of the Church, here enumerates 15 marks or characteristics of the One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ which expands upon the four notes of the Church as found in the Nicene Creed: unity, catholicity, holiness and its apostolic foundation.

Developed by St. Robert Bellarmine,1542-1621, Doctor of the Church, these are marks or characteristics of the true Church of Jesus Christ:

1. Catholicity – the Church’s name, Catholic, universal, and worldwide, and not confined to any particular nation or people
2. Antiquity  – in tracing her ancestry directly to Jesus Christ
3. Duration  – constant duration in lasting substantially unchanged for so many centuries
4. Extensiveness – extensiveness in the number of her loyal members
5. Episcopal Succession – episcopal succession of her bishops from the first Apostles at the Last Supper to the present hierarchy
6. Doctrinal Agreement – doctrinal agreement of her doctrine with the teaching of the ancient Church
7. Unity – union of her members among themselves and with their visible head the Roman Pontiff;
8. Holiness – holiness of doctrine in reflecting the sanctity of God
9. Efficacy – efficacy of doctrine in its power to sanctify believers and inspire t hem to great moral achievement
10. Holiness of Life – holiness of life of the Church’s representative writers and defenders
11. Glory of Miracles – the glory of miracles worked in the Church and under the Church’s auspices
12. Prophetic – the gift of prophecy found among the Church’s saints and spokesmen
13. Opposition that the Church – the opposition that the Church arouses among those who attack her on the very grounds that Christ was opposed by his enemies
14. Unhappy End – the unhappy end of those who fight against her
15. Temporal Peace and Earthly Happiness – the temporal peace and earthly happiness of those who live by the Church’s teaching and defend her interests.