Prince Bismarck, the Luther of regenerated Germany, who once protested that he would "never go to Canossa," made peace with Pope Leo, meeting him half-way, but securing in return his political services in the septennate conflict of 1887 against the threatening war of revenge from France and the socialistic revolution from within. The Pope sent to the Protestant heretic the Christ-order, a distinction shown only to most eminent Catholic celebrities. Leo outbismarcked Bismarck, and Bismarck out-poped the Pope.

For the present the Culturkampf has ended with a substantial victory of the Roman Church under the wise and. moderate statesmanship of Leo XIII. She is now stronger than ever in Germany; for how long, God only knows. Abuse of power will inevitably provoke reactions.

The Evangelical Church, unfortunately, remains in Prussia, as in all Germany, an humble servant of the state, and is much weakened by internal dissensions. The success of the Roman Church has raised a new party among the conservative and churchly members of the Landtag, who demand from the government more liberty and more money, but without much prospect of getting either. The Protestant church cannot expect to secure the right of self-government without discharging the duty of self-support.

During the course of this memorable conflict between the Prussian government and the Roman curia the separation of church and state seems not to have occurred to the cultured leaders of either party as a possible solution of the problem. To be sure, it would be contrary to Prussian traditions, and involve two great sacrifices: the state would have to surrender its entire control over the churches, and the churches would have to surrender all claim upon the support of the state, whether the state were willing to restore the church property to its rightful owner or not. Perhaps, Beziehungen der Ueberordnung, Nebenordnung und Unterordnung zwischen Kirche und Staat," Stuttgart, 1877. Meyer, "Lehrbuch des deutschen Staatsrechtes," Leipzig, 1878, p. 606 sqq. The ablest discussion of the Culturkampf in the English language, to my knowledge, is by Prof. John W. Burgess, "The Culturconflict in Prussia," in the Political Science Quarterly for June, 1887, p. 313 sqq. (New York).

after all, it may come to such a separation in due time. It would save the state and the church the troubles which inevitably arise from the collision of the two powers.

Scandinavia.

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway accepted the Lutheran creed with an episcopal organization. The great mass of the people are still strongly attached to the Lutheran Church, and honor it by their intelligence, industry, virtue, and piety, but are growing more liberal. Formerly every other religion was prohibited, on pain of confiscation and exile. Christina, the daughter of the illustrious Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant hero of the Thirty Years' War, lost her crown and home by embracing the Roman Catholic faith.

At present the Lutheran Church is still the state church, and the kings of Denmark and Sweden must belong to it, but other churches are tolerated as "sects," and the civil disabilities have been gradually removed, in Denmark, by the constitution of June 5, 1849, modified in 1855, 1863, and July 28, 1866; in Sweden and Norway, by special laws in 1860, 1868, and 1873. The dissenters (Roman Catholics, Reformed, Baptists, Methodists, Irvingites, Jews, and Mormons) embrace only about one per cent. of the population in Denmark. But in Sweden the Baptists have grown very rapidly within the national church, and prefer to remain (like the Pietistic sects in Württemberg) an ecclesiola in ecclesia, because they have thus more liberty than outside of it. As a separate body they would, under the present dissenter law, have to purchase independence by asking recognition from the government, and subjecting themselves to its police regulations; while now they are allowed to build chapels, hold separate meetings, and baptize their converts by immersion, without disturbance, on condition of paying taxes for the support of the state church. This anomalous condition will probably end in secession as soon as the dissenter law is more liberalized. The Baptists in Sweden number in this year 1887 over 31,000 members, and have a theological school at Stockholm.

The Methodists in Sweden are a foreign plant, and derive their chief support from America, but commend themselves by their zeal for vital, practical piety.'

Austria.

Austria, under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, has always been the political stronghold of Romanism in Germany, and granted only a very limited toleration to Protestants of the Augsburg and the Helvetic Confessions, and to the Socinians (Unitarians) in Transylvania.

Since 1848 she has entered upon a career of revolution and progress. A law of 1868 grants civil marriage and full liberty of religion, but within the limits of the confessions that are recognized by the government. The Roman Church remains the state religion and controls politics. It depends upon the prevailing sentiment of the provincial and local authorities how far the letter of the constitution can be executed or evaded. In 1879 the General Evangelical Alliance Conference of Basel sent,a deputation to the Emperor Franz Josef I. in behalf of persecuted Protestants in Bohemia, and succeeded.

Since 1867 Austria is a bipartite state of Austria-Hungary, with a double legislature and double cabinet. In Austria proper, Romanism is still all-powerful. The government supports also Lutheran and Calvinistic ministers, but very scantily, and does not even admit the Protestant theological faculty of Vienna to a place in the corporation of the University and the use of its magnificent building.

In Hungary there is no state religion, and consequently more liberty. The Reformed (Calvinistic) Church is strong among the Magyars, and the Lutheran among the Germans; but the Roman Catholic is richer and stronger than both. Besides there are Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and "Non-Christians."

Holland.

Holland stands very high in the history of religious liberty. She achieved by her bravery and endurance her indepen

"Of all sectarian churches," says an orthodox Swedish Lutheran writer (in Herzog, vol. xiii., 743), “Methodism, by its open visor and moral earnestness, has acquired the greatest esteem in Sweden."

dence from the terrible despotism of Spain, which killed more Protestants than heathen Rome killed Christians under Nero or Decius or Domitian. She sheltered the exiled band of the "Pilgrim Fathers" before their departure for the bleak coasts of New England. It is true, the Calvinism of the Synod of Dort (1619), in compact with Prince Maurice, is responsible for the deposition and exile of about two hundred Arminian clergymen and of the great statesman and scholar, Hugo Grotius. But after the death of Maurice (1625) the Arminians were recalled and allowed to build churches in every town.

The present kingdom of the Netherlands, according to the terms of the constitution of November 3, 1848, grants entire liberty of conscience and complete civil equality to the members of all religious confessions. The royal family and a majority of the inhabitants belong to the Reformed Church, which is the national church and supported by the government; but the Roman Catholic Church, and several English Presbyterian ministers in the sea-ports, receive likewise government aid. The national Reformed Church has given up the canons of Dort and allows as wide a latitude of thought to her theological professors and ministers as Protestant Germany and Switzerland. Hence a number of strict Calvinists have seceded and organized a free church (1834) under the name of the "Christian Reformed Church," which numbers several hundred congregations. In 1857 the government, under the combined influence of the Romanists and Liberals, banished all religious instruction from the schools, and in 1876 it abolished the theological faculties in the universities, retaining only such chairs as teach the history and philosophy of religion, and leaving the provision for special theological instruction to the National Synod out of funds granted to it. When the Synod filled the professorships with Rationalists, the orthodox Calvinistic party within the National Church established a Free Reformed University at Amsterdam (1880). The same party has founded all over Holland a large number of free schools in which religion is taught.

France.1

The Latin races of Southern Europe rejected the Reformation, and reaped the Revolution. They preferred the yoke of popery to the liberty of the gospel, and ran into the opposite extreme of infidelity. They aspire to political liberty, but ignore religious liberty which is the strong pillar of the former. The French took the lead in crushing Protestantism by despotism, and crushing despotism by revolutions. They swing from the pope to Voltaire and back again to the pope, but never stop half way. They are the most polished, the most brilliant, and the most changeable nation of Europe.

The Edict of Nantes, which secured a legal existence to Protestants, was revoked by Louis XIV., and the Huguenots were forced to renounce their faith, or to leave their native land. But Protestantism survived the dragonades as "a church of the desert," regained toleration in 1787, and has remained ever since an intelligent, moral, industrious, and influential, though small, minority in France.

Since the radical upheaval of society in 1789, France has lived under nine constitutions (1791. 1793, 1795, 1799, 1814, 1830, 1848, 1852, 1875).

The principle of limited toleration has been acknowledged by all governments since Napoleon, but in subordination to the sovereignty of the State. Religious liberty as understood in England and America does not exist in France to this day. The advocates of political liberty (except among Protestants) are mostly indifferent or hostile to religion. Anti-clericalism with them means anti-religionism. The government supports and thereby controls a certain number of recognized religions.

'F. A. Hélie, "Les constitutions de la France," Paris, 1875. A. Bard et P. Robiquet, "La constitution française de 1875," Paris, 1878. E. Bidault, "Assemblées législatives de la France, 1789-1876," Paris, 1879. G. Demombynes, "Constitutions Européennes," Paris, 1881, 2 vols. E. de Pressensé, "L'église et la révolution française," Paris, 1867, and "La liberté religieuse en Europe depuis 1870," Paris, 1874. Francis Lieber gives several French constitutions, "On Civil Liberty and Self-Government" (Philad., 1859), p. 536 sqq.