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members being clerical. The supreme control of the Church, however, devolves on the department for spiritual affairs in the Finnish senate. The laws proposed by the synod must, on the one hand, be approved by the diet and confirmed by the emperor; and, on the other hand, laws may be proposed by the priest diets, which, when affecting the liturgy, must be sanctioned by the congregations. The pastors nominate the provosts, canons, and three candidates for the bishopric, of whom the emperor selects one. The congregations are free to choose their pastors and officers. Since 1868 only religious instruction has been left officially to the Church; but as a matter of fact the majority of the presidents of the school boards are Lutheran clergymen, and all the principal teachers of the secondary schools must be Lutherans. At the University of Helsingfors there are four professors of theology, and the entire school system of the grand duchy is well organized. For the Finnish Bible Society, see BIBLE SOCIETIES, II., § 5. Since 1859 Finland has had its own missionary society which works, in collaboration with the Rhenish mission, in the Ovambo district, West Africa, having five stations and thirteen missionaries. Finnish missionary activity likewise endeavors to reclaim the Lapps of the far north, who have almost fallen back into paganism because of the constant lack of preachers (see LAPPS). In the spiritual life of the Finnish Church two opposing tendencies may be distinguished: one pietistic, laying all its stress on repentance and sanctification, and the other emphasizing forgiveness of sins by grace and joy in the perfected atonement. Also a Biblical stands in contrast with an ecclesiastical tendency. See FINLAND, CHMSTIANIZATION OF. The ten governments of the former kingdom of Poland had, in 1871, a population of 6,026;421, of whom 4,596,956 were Roman Catholics, and 327,845 were Protestants. The Lutheran parishes number sixty-five. At the time of dismemberment only two Lutheran parishes remained, those of Warsaw and Vengrov. The others have sprung from German immigration since. The control of the Polish Lutherans is vested in the Evangelical Augsburg Consistory at Warsaw, which has been subject to the ministry of the interior from 1867. The lay president is appointed by the emperor, and the clerical president, who is at the same time general superintendent, by the minister. Five superintendents (at Warsaw, Kalish, Augustovo, Petrikau, and Plock) are under the control of the general superintendent. The pastors are chosen by the congregations and confirmed by the consistory. They are members of the church boards which, in every congregation, not only administer the secular side of the church, but also supervise the pastors and other officials and provide for the poor. The schools are now withdrawn from Evangelical control. German Lutherans have migrated in large numbers from the polish to the Russian provinces of the empire in recent decades, and it is only of late years that the Polish Evangelicals have thrown off the influence of rationalism.

The Reformed Church in Russia enjoys greater freedom than the Lutheran in the control of its property and the conduct of its Services. On the

other hand, it lacks the bond of a common creed and is less consolidated. It consists of two large

S. Re- bodies, the synod of Lithuania. and the corisistory of Warsaw. The other nine communities are controlled by the independent " Reformed sessions " coordinated with the Lutheran consistories at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, and Mitau, and composed of the secular members of the Lutheran consistories, the Reformed pastors, and one or two elders. Their powers are limited to marriage, the examination and ordination of pastors, discipline of their clergy, and the presentation of candidates for approval to the minister of the interior, under whose jurisdiction they stand. In the consistorial session of St. Petersburg there are the French and German congregations in the capital, and churches at Odessa, Chabag, Neudorf, and Rohrbach. The German Reformed at St. Petersburg number about 3,000, and are active not only in religion, but also in philanthropy and education. At Riga there were, in 1881, 1,843 Reformed; 118 in the smaller cities of Livonia; and 88 in Reval. The Reformed community at Moscow numbered about 2,000 in 1882, and at Mitau about 400. The Reformed Church in Lithuania is controlled by the Lithuanian synod, to which each member of the congregation belongs. The decisive vote, however, rests in the synedrium, a committee composed of the curdtorea nati, the superintendent, and elected lay " curators." The executive body, under the supervision of the minister of the interior, is the Reformed codlegium at Vilna, composed of four clerical and four lay members. The synod comprises three districts: the Samogitian with four Lithuanian communities and 10,600 members (1881), and two Polish congregations with about 300 Poles and Germans in the government of Kovno; the district of Vilna with four congregations in the government of . Vilna; and the district of White Russia with five congregations in the governments of Grodno and Minsk. The schools formerly controlled by the Reformed Church in the Samogitian district were closed by the State in 1869, and replaced by state schools. The Reformed Church of the former kingdom of Poland is governed by a synod and a consistory. The former, in which only delegates of the individual churches are now allowed to vote, rules on general matters concerning the church; while the consistory, chosen from the synod, proposes new measures, carries out the resolutions of the synod, and decides questions concerning marriage. The individual congregations are represented by presbyteries, to which the pastor belongs. This coneia. torial district embraces six pastoral congregations, of which that of Warsaw is the largest with (1887) 2,700 members; three branch congregations with 7,659 pastoral members and 3,957 communicants; the Reformed in Lodz; and a number of scattered representatives of the denomination. The denomination controls several schools, but is compelled to support the elementary crown schools. The small embassy churches are entirely independent, these being the Dutch in St. Petersburg; six Church of England, in St. Petersburg, Kronatadt, Odessa, Moscow, and Riga; and an Anglo-American Con-