would be more than three and a half thousand, its congregations would exceed three thousand, its membership would be more than one and a quarter millions. Most Scots envisage a Reformed Church of Scotland that shall be national and free and inspired for Christian service at home and abroad.

IX

The story of the Presbyterian Church is not complete without a reference to its modern developments in England, Ireland, and Wales. During the eighteenth century the English Presbyterians fell on evil days. There were controversies regarding creed-subscription which pressed heavily upon the Church, and there was a period of defection in which Arian and, latterly, Unitarian doctrine despoiled the Church of its orthodoxy. But help came in various ways. Some of the remnant in the north of England by their faithfulness encouraged drooping hopes; immigration from Scotland led to the formation of new congregations loyal to Presbyterian ideals; and the influence of the Evangelical revival, mainly due to John Wesley and his disciples, stimulated interest in Reformed churches. In the nineteenth century there were several prosperous presbyteries, and in 1876 was formed the Presbyterian Church of England. Today it has fourteen presbyteries, about three hundred and fifty congregations, and more than eight thousand members. Its theological college is Westminster College, Cambridge, and it ranks high among the divinity halls of Britain. In missionary enterprise, also, it has a good record, for the English Presbyterians support about ninety missionaries in foreign fields. The Irish Presbyterian Church, like its neighbor in England, had doctrinal controversies in the eighteenth century; in addition, its unity was disturbed by the sectarian troubles that arose in Scotland. But it had leaders during its crisis, and none more deserves mention than Henry Cooke of Killyleagh, a man of intellectual power and forceful personality. In 1840 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland was formed, and since that year there has

been a steady development. In theology and worship the Irish Church has been more conservative than that of Scotland, a peculiarity partly accounted for by its uncompromising antagonism to the Roman Catholic Church. Its ministers number about six thousand, its congregations about five hundred and sixty, and its members more than one hundred thousand, while it has two well-staffed theological colleges and a band of about forty missionaries in other lands.

Last of all, there is the Presbyterian Church in Wales, a Church that in its origin owes nothing to Scotland because in every way it is peculiarly Welsh. It was born in the days of the Wesleyan revival, though it did not become a Church until the year 1811. Three-quarters of a century before, Howell Harris brought to Trevecca an inspiring evangel lit by the flame of the Methodists in England, and soon he was strengthened by Rowlands and Davies, and most of all by Whitefield, the orator of the movement. There was no attempt to secede from the Church of England, but the societies which were formed in many Welsh parishes were displeasing to the ecclesiastical authorities. Displeasure gave way to resentment and resentment to repression, until inevitably there was a parting of the ways. Thomas Charles of Bala was a leader of the secession, and the Calvinistic Methodist Connection was formed. The Church during the nineteenth century gradually developed its polity, and for almost forty years it has had its characteristic Presbyterian court, a general assembly. Most of the Welshspeaking population adhere to this Church, and with its 1,161 ministers, its 1,486 churches, and its 187,260 members, the Welsh Church has a notable record of service.

The history of the Presbyterian churches in Great Britain has often been chequered. It is none the less a story in which love of freedom, tenacity of belief, and strength of purpose find an honored place.

CHAPTER IV

CALVINISM: ITS PLACE IN THE MODERN WORLD

Calvinism, with its rigid theology and morals, proved best adapted to certain peoples, but by the emphasis it placed on individual rights and duties it has made a great contribution to the general life of mankind.

T

HAT the Reformation was the outgrowth of social conditions in a wide area is clearly seen in the fact that the revolts from Roman Catholic control in Germany and Switzerland, though contemporaneous, were all but independent of each other. In Zurich and in Wittenberg alike we find distrust of ecclesiastical leadership and revolt against ecclesiastical practices. Furthermore, both the Swiss and German Reformations carried forward the theological foundations of the Roman Catholic Church as organized by Augustine. But conditions from which each movement sprang made variation almost certain. The Swiss movement was rooted in a political situation quite different from that of the German. It was largely municipal, whereas the German followed the lines of the new duchies and nations emerging from feudalism. Indeed the municipal character of the Swiss movement is striking. Zurich, Basel, Berne, Geneva were only the most outstanding towns which broke from Rome and adopted their own confessions. The reason for this aspect of a spiritual movement lay in the political history of Switzerland, where the citizens of commercial cities had for centuries been carrying on an increasingly successful struggle with feudal control. Each little canton possessed rights of self-government even when owing formal allegiance to some princely house. Thus it came to pass that whereas in Germany Protestantism became identified with the political fortunes of great nobles, in Switzerland it

embodied elements of an aristocratic democracy. It was in Calvinism alone that the Federal theology appeared.

When non-Lutheran Protestantism passed into the second generation of reformers and found such a leader as Calvin, it was already committed to a form of Church organization that emphasized the power of the congregation. Calvin broke more thoroughly from the ecclesiastical precedent than his fellow Augustinian, Luther. Doubtless one cause was that he came upon the stage when issues were far more sharply drawn than when Luther attempted to reform a Church and found himself involved in a political as well as an ecclesiastical revolution. It is one thing to feel one's way to a reform, and another to systematize a revolution.

The influence of economic and political forces helps explain why Protestantism should have produced two rival if not antagonistic movements in Calvinism and Lutheranism. The two great divisions of Protestantism on the Continent of Europe represented different economic, cultural, and political currents. To some extent also they represented different racial groups. Here again the old frontier of the Roman Empire reasserted itself. The Protestantism of the German and Scandinavian countries which had never been incorporated into the Roman Empire was Lutheran. The Protestantism within the area of the Roman Empire was Calvinist. But such a line of cleavage was to be modified by the course of events. Calvinist Protestantism in the Romance countries was all but annihilated at the very time that it became the characteristic religion of the Dutch and English and Scotch. By the seventeenth century we find Protestantism divided into two different although not antagonistic parties. Seldom if ever did the Lutheran and the Calvinist states unite in the struggle with their common enemy, the states of the Catholic empire. Particularly strong was the feeling of the Lutherans against the Calvinists. "You have another spirit", said Luther to Zwingli at the memorable meeting when the attempt was made to bring the two reformers into a mutual understanding regarding the meaning of the Lord's Supper. Luther's words might almost be said to epitomize the attitude

of his followers towards those of Calvin. Both parties made the Bible the supreme authority in teaching, but they differed radically in their treatment of baptism and particularly regarding the Lord's Supper. The Lutherans, while rejecting the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, insisted with equal emphasis upon the "real presence" of Christ in the elements of the Supper. The Calvinists rejected both views and held that Christ is spiritually present. For nearly a century the Lutheran movement struggled against any sort of compromise with its rival. "Crypto-Calvinism", that is, the use of a formula regarding the Lord's Supper the language of which was susceptible of Calvinist, Lutheran, and Catholic interpretations, became almost as much an object of hostility as the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. The difference between these three forms of interpreting the same Scripture came to have more than a theological meaning. The Christians of western Europe may be said to have had three rival churches. With minor exceptions, the area which most preserved the culture of the Roman Empire was Roman Catholic; the German and Scandinavian countries were Lutheran; the Dutch, English, and Scotch were Calvinist.

These three forms of Christianity accept the decisions of the ecumenical councils, as seen in the Nicene and Chalcedonian Creeds, and all three reproduce the theology of Augustine. Between them there is no radical difference relative to the major doctrines of the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, sin, and justification by faith. All alike accept the Bible as an authority, although the Roman Catholic Canon is more inclusive than the Protestant; the Roman Catholic Church also accepts tradition as a valid basis of dogma. The bitterness between the three parties could never have existed had it not been for the confusion of religion with political and economic rivalries.

Of the two Protestant movements, Calvinism is the more developed theological system, perhaps due to the fact that it was the work of a single man, and he a lawyer. As the Roman Catholic Church may be regarded as a transcendentalized