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land; see below), was distributed as follows: Orthodox Greek including the United Greek Church, 87,123,604; dissidents, including the Old Believers, 2,204; 596; Roman Catholics, who form 74 per cent of the population of Russian Poland, 11,506,809; Lutherans, mostly in the Baltic provinces, 3,572,653; Armenian Gregorians, 1,179,241; Armenian Catholics, 38,840; Reformed, 85,400; Mennonites, 66; 564; Baptists, 38,139; Church of England, 4,183; other Christians, 3,952; Mohammedans, 13,906,972; Jews, 5,215,805; Buddhists, 433,863; Karaites, 12,894; and other non-Christians, 285,321.

1. The Orthodox Greek Church: According to the representation of the procurator of the holy synod the gain was from 79,115,820 in 1898 to 86,259,732 in 1902. In 1902 there were 49,703 churches, including 723 cathedrals, 46,827 priests, and 58,529 cantors. A parish is normally inherited by the son-in-law of the previous incumbent. In 1898 the official income of the Orthodox Church was about 60,000,000 rubles (ruble, 51 cents), 40,000,000 from the State and 10,000,000 direct gifts, while the budget of the holy synod in 1900 was 24,000,000 rubles, and the imperial budget for 1906 was 29,126,000 rubles for the Orthodox Church, and 1,752,000 for others. The czar is the head of the Russian Church and the directing power is the holy synod, which, by the ukase of 1763, must include six clerical members, among them the three metropolitans and the exarch of Georgia; and now includes seven bishops and a proto-presbyter, the confessor of the czar. The presiding officer is the metropolitan of St. Petersburg, and the rank of a clerical member is held by the chief procurator, who is a minister of state. There are three metropolitans (St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kief) and fourteen archbishops, though these have no actual superiority in rank. The exarch of Grusia, or Georgia, alone has jurisdiction over his bishops. Each bishop is aided by a consistory, whose members are appointed by the synod at his nomination; and the supervision of religious instruction and censorship are especially under his control. The eparchies, or dioceses; generally correspond to the provinces, and there are sixty-six, nearly fifty in European Russia. The bishops frequently rise through a series of dioceses. The monasteries number 862, of which only the most famous have many inmates; among these are the cave-monastery, and the monastery of St. Sergius, of Alexander Nevski at St. Petersburg (the three lauras besides the one at Potchaiev in Volhynia), and of Solovetski on the White Sea. In 1902 the monks numbered 8,455 with 8,090 aspirants, and the nuns 10,082 with 31,533 aspirants. The higher clergy are drawn from the monks, but they are such only as a transient stage in their promotion. The real monks guard relics and icons, collect alms, and by singing increase the dignity of the service. Of the half-million white or secular clergy, barely 35,000 were priests (" popes ") in 1887, the remainder being deacons or psalmodists, sacristans, sextons, and bell-ringers. The theological seminaries and academies are more for the education of the sons of priests than of the future clergy. In 1899 there were 58 seminaries with 19,642 students; 4 academies with 930 students; and 185 secondary

schools. The clergy have no fixed income, except in the western provinces, where they must protect the Orthodox Church against Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. They are accordingly obliged to use their sacred calling as a means of gain, and possess scant educational influence. They enjoy little respect except when conducting services, which they make full of pomp. To many Russians worship is chiefly reverence of the icons by crossing themselves, lighting candles, prostrations, and genuflexions. Sermons are rare. The chief saint, next to the Virgin, is St. Nicholas. The rigorous fasting, for which the Russians were long famous, seems to have been mitigated in recent years. In 1905 freedom of worship was granted to the Old Believers, but reclamation from schism, as well as the conversion of the non-faithful, has always formed a prominent activity of the Russian Church with the aid of the State. Between 1840 and 1890 there were 1,172,758 conversions, including 580,000 Greek Uniates, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. The average annual converts from Judaism number 936, from Mohammedanism 1,315, and from paganism 3,104. In Japan Russian missionary efforts are phenomenally successful.

2. The Evangelical Church: The Protestants in Russia, including Poland but excluding Finland, numbered (1897) 3,762,756; of whom there were 1,790,489 Germans, 1,435,937 Letts, 1,002,738 Esthonians, and 351,169 Finns (in Russia). Of

these 3,322,242 were Lutherans: 799;

1. Luther- 748 in the consistorial district of St. an, in Petersburg; 454,912 in Moscow; 659,Proper. 291 in Courland; and 1,156,083 in

Livonia. The confession of the Lutheran Church in Russia is that of the Book of Concord, and of all the Russian Protestants the Lutherans of the Baltic provinces are the most prominent. Livonia sympathized with Lutheranism from the first, but it was unable to withstand the armies of Ivan IV. When, in 1561, it submitted to Poland, protection was promised to Lutheranism. At the same time an Evangelical Church was organized in Courland. Attempts at a Roman Catholic propaganda in Livonia were frustrated by the invasion of Gustavus Adolphus, which assured the continuance of the existing state of affairs. Even when the country came under Russian control, the Augsburg Confession remained supreme, though freedom of worship was guaranteed for the Greek Church. In the reorganization of the church after the war between Russia and Sweden the pietism of Halle found welcome in Livonia, as did the doctrines of Herrnhut (1729-43, 1764). On the other hand, rationalism was disseminated from Riga throughout Livonia, at first finding a foothold even in the new center of spiritual life created by the establishment of the University of Dorpat in 1802. In 1849 the schools were placed under the control of the nobility and clergy, and were raised by the aid of the Church to a standard approximating that of the Germans. In 1832 the Lutheran Church of the Baltic provinces was united with the remainder of the denomination in the interior of the empire by means of a general consistory, meeting at St. Petersburg. This consistory is composed of a lay president