the authority of the Bible, and of the divinity and redemptive work of Christ. At the synod of 1872 the preponderance was also on the conservative side, and a tolerably positive declaration of faith was adopted.

The Lutheran Church in France was much reduced by the transference of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. Out of two hundred and seventy-eight parishes only sixty-four were left on French soil. A recent estimate has placed the number of French Protestants in the Reformed Church at 560,000, in the Lutheran at 90,000. Evangelists from Great Britain have also established Protestant services at various points.

In the Reformed Church of Holland, a supernaturalism tinged with rationalism may be said to have been the doctrinal system which claimed the suffrage of a majority of theologians at the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. While miracles were not denied, a vivid sense of the divine immanence was wanting, the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men received little recognition, and the dogmatic side of religion was estimated somewhat coldly. The practical side of Kant's philosophy was in good repute, but speculative philosophy of any kind evoked only moderate interest. In fine, the characteristics of the old supernaturalist school of Germany were widely illustrated.

At this stage a diversifying element was brought in by the zeal of a group of men in whom a patriotic appreciation for the past of the nation was joined with a somewhat positive confessional bent. The foremost spirits in the group were the poet Bilderdijk, Da Costa, Cappadose, and Groen van Prinsterer. With the con

fessional phase of the movement which they patronized a pietistic came to be associated, the latter being fostered by the writings of prominent representatives of the revival movement in Switzerland and France. With the progress of the agitation dissatisfaction with the religious immobility and doctrinal laxity of the dominant party was sharpened to the degree that the more zealous and impatient broke their connection with the establishment. The schism began under the leadership of De Cock, whose severe strictures upon the church administration caused his deposition in 1834. The separatists, under the name of the Christian Reformed Church, had reached in the latter part of the century a membership of 140,000.

Since the rise of this free church the theological domain in the Reformed Church of Holland has been divided between diverse schools. The Rationalistic School, ably represented by Scholten and Kuenen, has been strongly intrenched at Leyden. Scholten retained little of the old Reformed creed, except its determinism. A theory of naturalistic evolution-denying, not the general superiority of the Old and the New Testament religions, but all supernatural agency in their rise underlies the Biblical criticism of Kuenen. In the Groningen School, represented by Hofstede de Groot, Pareau, and Muurling, one may recognize the central features of Schleiermacher's theological system, his emphasis upon the religious significance of the person of Christ, and also his negative attitude toward the historic doctrine of the Trinity.

The principles of a school which has been termed the Ethical-irenical have been voiced by La Saussaye. In

his ways of thinking he has points of likeness to the Mediatorial School in Germany. He concedes a high function to philosophy, and advocates the reconciliation of reason and faith. The juristic aspect of the Church has but a small place in his interest. In general, his standpoint is remote from ecclesiasticism. "The Church," he remarks, "of which our Lord said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, is an entirely different thing from an institution or a body of institutions." 1 In the writings of Van Oosterzee the Reformed Theology is retained in its general outline, though softened in some points, much as it had been in the modified Edwardianism of the later New England theologians. A stanch champion of strict Reformed dogma has appeared in Kuyper. His views find considerable response in the middle and lower ranks, while the cultured incline largely to the standpoint of the Groningen or the Leyden School.

By the law of Holland, as passed in 1856, religious teaching is excluded from the public schools. The universities have theological faculties; but the provision for the chairs of dogmatics and practical theology is made, according to an act of 1876, from the church fund. The strict Calvinist party, preferring an institution more certain to represent their views, founded a new university at Amsterdam, which was opened in 1880.

The Scandinavian countries remained, both in law and in fact, well-nigh the exclusive domain of Lutheranism till the middle of the century. In Denmark, dissenters first obtained civil equality with the members of

1 La Crise Religieuse en Hollande, 1860, p. 147.

the establishment in 1849. Norway legalized dissent in 1851. By the law of Sweden apostasy from Lutheranism was punishable with banishment till 1860, and full religious and civil privileges were not conceded to separatists till a decade later. With the abolition of restrictions upon outsiders some items of enlarged freedom were at the same time given to the lay element in the establishments. In 1868 Denmark passed a very democratic measure, allowing twenty families, located within specified limits, to select and support, without severing their connection with the State Church, a pastor of their own, in case they should be dissatisfied with the regular incumbent. The right of laymen to conduct devotional services has been conceded in Sweden and Norway. Under this free regime the Baptists and Methodists, in recent years, have made considerable progress in Sweden.

Among the Scandinavian writers of the period Grundtvig, Sören Kierkegaard, and Bishop Martensen, belonging to the Danish communion, have made distinctive contributions to religious literature. The first was a zealous foe of rationalism, an advocate of popular privilege, and a representative of patriotic feeling combined with lyric talent. His service to hymnology is his best title to remembrance. In his theological scheme he gave overwhelming stress to the Apostles' Creed, and adopted the uncritical view that this formula of belief was dictated by our Lord in the interval between His death and resurrection. Kierkegaard wrote treatises which reflect an intense subjective type of piety. Bishop Martensen ranks among the eminent representatives of the mediation theology. His writings indicate a genial,

speculative habit of mind, large sympathy with the mystical side of Christianity, and a somewhat friendly attitude toward theosophy. This last trait qualified him to be an appreciative biographer of Jacob Boehme.

Protestantism received a limited toleration under Austrian rule in the first half of the nineteenth century. Opposition to its legal standing was, however, so fierce in the Tyrolese province that in 1837 about four hundred converts to the Protestant faith were in a manner. forced out of the country. They settled under Prussian auspices in Silesia. After 1848 larger freedom was given to dissenting bodies. The imperial patent of 1861 was especially liberal toward them, and evoked accordingly a strong opposition from the clerical party in Tyrol, who were fully persuaded that their soil ought to be forever sacred to Roman Catholicism. The formal abolition of the concordat with the Roman See in 1870 helped to secure the Protestants in the tranquil enjoyment of their religion. In point of numbers they constitute a respectable fraction of the population. Hungary, including the old province of Transylvania, has the majority of them, her Protestant inhabitants being reckoned at between three and four millions.

After three centuries of banishment by means of fagot and sword, Protestantism was allowed to obtain a slight foothold in Spain. The constitution of 1855 ordained that no Spaniard should be persecuted on account of his faith, so long as he should refrain from acts injurious to religion. Persecution was not indeed ended by the constitutional provision, as the earnest evangelists Ruet and Matamoros found. Still a measure of opportunity was given from this time for the