Austria

AUSTRIA.

I. The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Armenian Churches. The Concordat of 1855 (§ 1). Effects of the Concordat (§ 2). Theological Education (§ 3). Revenues (§ 4). Archdioceses and Dioceses (§ 5). Societies and Charities (§ 6). Greek and Armenian Christians (§ 7).

II. The Protestant Churches. The Evangelical Church and its Organisation (§ 1). Changes of Confession (§ 2). Schools (§ 3). Theological Education (§ 4). Financial Status of the Evangelicals (§ 5). Societies and Charities (§ 6). Minor Denominations and Non-Christians (§ 7). Religious Distribution and Statistics (§ 8).

Austria is an empire of southern Europe, forming with the kingdom of Hungary (which is not included in the present article; see Hungary) the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Excluding also the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (q. v.), the area is 115,903 square miles, the population (1900) 26,107,304.

I. The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Armenian Churches:

During the period of the Reformation, Protestantism made much progress among the people and gave rise to a considerable number of sects, especially in Bohemia. But the government remained Roman Catholic and by force and law freed the Church from heresy and then began to rule it. Long before the reign of Joseph II (1780–90) Gallican and Jansenist teachings were introduced and were intensified by Febronianism (see Hontheim, Johann Nikolaus), and Joseph transformed the Austrian Church into a body which was almost schismatic. An ecclesiastical government was formed which regulated the minutest details by state law, sparing scarcely any department of activity, legislation, or administration. (see Joseph II).

1. The Concordat of 1855.

A new period began with the concordat of 1855 (see Concordants and Delimiting Bulls, VI, 2, §§ 6, 8). The imperial patent of Mar. 4, 1849 and the imperial enactments of Apr. 18 and 23, 1850, laid the foundation of the complete independence of the Church and in 1853 negotiations were begun with the Curia for carrying out the new provisions. The result was the concordat of Aug. 18, 1855, which was promulgated by a bull of the pope and by an imperial patent, both dated Nov. 5 of the same year. A definite agreement in regard to all ecclesiastical matters was enacted in thirty-six articles. The jurisdiction and administration of the Church, so far as its internal interests were concerned, were placed entirely under church control, in this category falling the relations between the bishops, the clergy, the laity, and the Holy See; the education and ordination of the clergy; diocesan administration; the arrangement of public prayers, processions, pilgrimages, funerals, provincial councils, and diocesan synods; the superintendence and giving of instruction to the Roman Catholic youth, and all religious instruction from the theological faculties to the public schools; the ecclesiastical right to censor books; jurisdiction 379over marriage; the discipline of the clergy; the right of patronage; ecclesiastical penalties inflicted on the laity; seizing of ecclesiastical property; and the internal administration of religious orders. The State retained control of marriage in its civil aspect, the civic position of the clergy, and the right to punish them. An agreement between Church and State was necessary for the creation or alteration of dioceses, parishes, and other benefices, the collation to livings and ecclesiastical offices, the appointment of professors of theology, catechists, the inspectors of schools, the introduction of orders and religious congregations, and the expenditure of religious funds.

2. Effects of the Concordat.

The results of the concordat, though it was actually enforced in but few points, were especially noteworthy in two phases of public life. The marriage laws hitherto prevailing were subjected to a rigid scrutiny, and by the imperial patent of Oct. 8,1856, the Roman Catholics received a new law corresponding in all respects to the decrees of the Council of Trent, placing divorce under the control of the newly created episcopal divorce court. Seminaries for boys were established in all dioceses,. and received children of lawful birth immediately after they left the public schools, giving them, in addition to their gymnasium training, preparation for later theological studies, thus forming places of education for the future clergy. The expenses of these seminaries were partly covered by ecclesiastical funds and partly by the income from benefices. The influence of the State was limited to the supervision of their financial relations and the superintendence of instruction so far as it concerned the State. The result was an increase in the number of Roman Catholic theological students from 1,804 in 1861 to 3,286 in 1868, after which began a period of decline, due especially to the law of Dec. 5, 1868, which abrogated the previous exemption of theological students from military service, an additional factor being the school laws of 1868 and 1869, which made admission to study in a faculty conditional on the possession of a diploma from a gymnasium. The breach with the concordat widened steadily, and the law of May 25, 1868, repealed the imperial patent of Oct. 8, 1856. The former regulations concerning marriage were again enforced, divorces being referred to state tribunals and civil marriage being again permitted. Finally, by a despatch of July 30,1870, Austria abrogated the concordat altogether.

3. Theological Education.

The theological training of the Roman Catholic clergy is given partly by the faculties of the various universities and partly by the diocesan seminaries. Theological faculties exist in the universities of Vienna, Gras, Innsbruck, Prague (two), Lemberg (for both the Latin and Greek rites), Czernowitz, and Cracow, in addition to two independent theological faculties, not affiliated with any university, in Salzburg and Olmütz. The course given by the diocesan seminaries corresponds essentially to that given by the university faculties, but they are forbidden to confer academic degrees and the bishop is in absolute control. Certain orders provide for the education of their own members in twenty monastic schools, yearly courses being given in successive years in different monasteries in the Tyrol. In 1895 the Roman Catholic Church had 16,132 priests, the Greek Catholic 2,649, and the Greek Oriental 475.

4. Revenues.

In cases where a living has no canonical claims to a definite income, the revenues of the Church, and even the State, come to its assistance. The claim to such an income, either from the property of the living or from the benefice, begins with ordination to the priesthood, but if religious foundations and monasteries desire to give a title to such income to one who does not belong to their own number, they are required to secure the consent of the government. The endowment of the Church has come from the monasteries secularized in the reign of Joseph II and later, abandoned churches, and suppressed communities, canonries, benefices, and ecclesiastical feoffs. It is continually augmented, moreover, by the intercalaries (the income of vacant positions), the auxiliary taxes of dioceses and orders, and, in Bohemia, by a certain percent of the sale of salt. This fund, when the property has been sold, is invested in state bonds which belong to the ecclesiastical province or diocese, the income being administered by the government with the cooperation of the bishop or bishops. It is charged with the defrayal of certain expenses (the cathedral chapters of Budweis, Salzburg, Trent, and Brixen drawing their entire income from it), as well as with the payment of all other disbursements which are not obligatory on a third party. The revenues are devoted to the defrayment of patronage, the income and endowment of new parish, the building of churches, the increase in the income of livings, the salary of chaplains, the malting good of deficits, the support of mendicant orders, the salaries of teachers at the state schools, and the maintenance of theological faculties and seminaries. A second fund is that for students, which is derived from the estates of the Jesuit monasteries suppressed by Maria Theresa on Dec. 23, 1774, and is devoted to defraying the expenses of Roman Catholic education in intermediate and higher institutions of learning. Since the passage of the new school law, this fund is also used for undenominational public schools, since the estates of the Jesuit monasteries are not regarded as the property of the Church. For the value of the livings and the income of the religious orders no recent data are at hand, but in 1875 the former amounted in all parts of the empire to 7,644,611 florins, and the latter to 4,100,375 florins.

5. Archdioceses and Dioceses.

Austria is divided into nine ecclesiastical provinces as follows: (1) the archdiocese of Vienna for Upper and Lower Austria, with the two suffragan dioceses of St. Pölten and Linz; (2) Salzburg for Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg, with the five suffragan dioceses of Secksu, Lavant, Gurk, Brixen, and Trent; (3) Görz for Carniola, Küstenland, and the island of Arbe, with the four suffragan dioceses of Laibach, Triest-Capo d’Istria, Parenzo-Pola, and Veglia-Arbe; (4) Prague for 380Bohemia, with the three suffragan dioceses of Leitmeritz, Königgrätz, and Budweis; (5) Olmütz for Moravia and a portion of Silesia, with the suffragan diocese of Brünn; (6) the Austrian portion of the exempt diocese of Breslau for the remainder of Silesia; (7) the Austrian portion of the archdiocese of Warsaw, with the diocese of Cracow; (8) Lemberg for Galicia (excepting Cracow) and Bukowina, with the two suffragan dioceses of Przemysl and Tarnow; (9) Zara for Dalmatia (excepting Arbe), with the five suffragan dioceses of Sebenico, Spalato-Macarsca, Lesina, Ragusa, and Cattaro.

6. Societies and Charities.

Austria, like Germany, has countless Roman Catholic societies, institutions, and foundations. In almost every parish there are brotherhoods and societies far prayer, associations of both sexes and all ages, societies of priests, congregations of Mary, Franciscan Tertiaries, the Society of the Holy Family (with 25,000 families in the diocese of Lavant alone), societies for pilgrimage and for the building and adornment of churches, church music, home missions, brotherhoods of St. Michael, political Roman Catholic societies, and general Roman Catholic social organizations with 40,000 members in the single province of Upper Austria. Children and youth are cared for in protectories, kindergartens, orphan asylums, refectories, boarding-schools, refuges, training-schools for apprentices, and the like, while the great Roman Catholic school-union has about 40,000 members. Popular education is promoted by reading clubs and societies for the dissemination of educational literature, as well as by reading-rooms and libraries for the clergy and laity, while Roman Catholic science, literature, and art are advanced by the Leo-Gesellschaft, the Czech society Vlast, and by various periodicals. Countless institutions are devoted to charity, including almshouses, memorial foundations, poor gilds, hospitals of the most various characters, and funds for the feeding of the poor in monasteries. There are likewise insurance societies for the protection of masters, partners, apprentices, peasants, workmen, credit and other purposes of economic nature, but clubs of Roman Catholic students are still only in embryo.

7. Greek and Armenian Christians.

There is a large number of Greek and Armenian Christians, some being Uniates and some non-Uniates. The Uniate Greeks, or Greek Catholics, form a special ecclesiastical province with the archdiocese of Lemberg and the suffragan diocese of Przemysl. The Uniates of the Armeno-Catholic rite also have an archbishopric of Lemberg, the archbishop likewise ruling over the non-Uniate Armenians of Galicia and Bukowina. The non-Uniate Greeks of the Greek Oriental rite have a patriarchate at Carlowitz with ten bishoprics or eparchies, of which seven are in Hungary, one in Czernowitz (Bukowina), one at Hermannstadt (Transylvania), and one at Sebenico (for Dalmatia and Istria), in addition to the community at Vienna. The patriarch is chosen by the national congress of Servia, which must remain in session sufficiently long for its candidate to receive the sanction of the emperor, after which the formal consecration takes place. The non-Uniate Armenians of the Armeno-Oriental rite control the Mekhitarist monastery in Vienna (see Mekhitarists) and are accordingly subject to the Uniate Armenian archbishop of Lemberg. The Old Catholics have three parishes at Vienna, Warnsdorf, and Ried, and in 1902 built two new churches at Schönlinde and Blottendorf. The Philippones, or Lippowanians, expelled from Russia, have formed scattered communities in Galicia and Bukowina.

II. The Protestant Churches.

1. The Evangelical Church and its Organization.

Austria is essentially Roman Catholic, and the number of Evangelical Protestants in the Empire has declined from a tenth of the population at the time of their greatest expansion in the sixteenth century to a fiftieth. A patent of toleration was issued in their favor on Oct. 13, 1781, and the Protestant patent of Apr. 8, 1861, conferred upon them full equality before the law. At the same time the political, civil, and academic disabilities of the non-Catholics were removed, and they were no longer required to contribute to the support of another Church, while they were now permitted to adorn their churches, to celebrate their feasts, and to exercise pastoral care. On the day after the patent was issued (Apr. 9), a preliminary church constitution was drawn up, but one which was substituted on Jan. 6 (23), 1866, canceled important rights of self-government, and from this the present constitution of Dec. 9, 1891, differs only in minor details. The Evangelical Church, divided into parishes, seniories, superintendencies, and synods, is unrestricted in respect to its confession, its books, the creation of societies for ecclesiastical and educational purposes, and its relations to foreign religious bodies. It forms a national Church, of which the emperor may be regarded as the bishop, his prerogatives in its control being distinguished from the corresponding functions of the Roman Catholic German sovereigns in degree, not in kind. His position is due, however, to his constitutional relation to the Evangelical Church, and not, as in the case of the German princes, to his ecclesiastical relation. The lawful administration of Evangelical funds, as well as revenues and assessments, is guaranteed by the State.

The Austrian Evangelical Church is divided into ten superintendencies, six of the Augsburg Confession, three of the Helvetic Confession, and one mixed. Those of the Augsburg Confession are: (1) Vienna, with the seniories of Lower Austria, Triest, Styria, the region south of the Drave in Carinthia, and the region north of the Drave and in the Gmünd valley in Carinthia; (2) Upper Austria, with an upper and a lower seniory; (3) Western Bohemia; (4) Eastern Bohemia; (5) Asch (also in Bohemia); (6) Moravia and Silesia, with the seniories of Brünn, Zauchtl, and Silesia. The superintendencies of the Helvetic Confession are: (1) Vienna; (2) Bohemia, with the seniories of Prague, Chrudim, Podiebrad, and Czaslau; and

381

Religious Statistics.—Austria-Hungary, Dec. 31, 1900.

Province	Roman Catholics.	United		Old Catholics.	Oriental.		Evangelical.		Moravians.	Anglicans.	Mennonites.	Unitarians.	Philippones.	Jews.	Mohammedans.	Other Confessions.	Without Confession.	Total
		Greeks.	Armenians.		Greeks.	Armenians.	Augsburg Confession.	Helvetic Confession.
Lower Austria	2,864,222	3,215	96	1,054	4,285	119	58,052	7,408	5	552	7	84	6	157,278	891	265	2,954	3,100,493
Upper Austria	790,178	88	4	193	47	4	18,143	230	. . .	12	. . .	5	. . .	1,280	. . .	4	58	810,246
Salzburg	191,223	7	. . .	7	14	. . .	1,211	73	. . .	11	. . .	. . .	. . .	199	. . .	1	17	192,763
Styria	1,339,240	117	. . .	284	850	2	12,675	484	. . .	35	1	. . .	4	2,283	362	9	148	1,356,494
Carinthia	346,598	65	. . .	9	31	. . .	20,100	383	. . .	10	. . .	. . .	. . .	212	. . .	1	14	367,324
Carniola	506,916	357	1	3	289	. . .	285	128	1	14	1	. . .	. . .	145	. . .	. . .	11	508,150
Triest and territory	169,921	41	2	10	1,378	47	1,346	456	2	134	. . .	1	. . .	4,945	4	22	291	178,599
Gorz and Gradiska	322,139	9	. . .	. . .	59	. . .	269	85	. . .	15	. . .	. . .	. . .	295	. . .	3	22	232,897
Isteria	343,815	61	1	. . .	389	. . .	290	187	. . .	2	1	1	. . .	285	. . .	3	17	345,050
Tyrol	848,157	100	. . .	15	54	. . .	2,806	426	. . .	87	. . .	. . .	. . .	1,008	5	6	46	852,712
Vorarlberg	127,544	7	. . .	8	3	2	946	589	. . .	2	1	1	. . .	117	. . .	1	8	129,237
Bohemia	6,065,213	1,784	15	10,351	369	23	72,922	71,736	483	155	. . .	5	. . .	92,745	2	973	1,894	6,318,697
Moravia	2,325,057	513	4	910	184	1	26,605	37,760	53	25	. . .	. . .	1	44,255	1	50	282	2,437,706
Silesia	576,099	397	1	10	38	. . .	91,264	477	6	3	1	2	. . .	11,988	. . .	12	126	680,422
Galicia	3,350,512	3,104,103	1,532	69	2,233	110	40,055	5,327	. . .	45	383	. . .	4	811,371	1	15	219	7,315,990
Bukowina	86,656	23,388	439	10	500,262	381	18,383	889	1	. . .	. . .	1	3,544	96,150	3	49	40	730,195
Dalmatia	496,778	187	1	4	96,278	. . .	153	29	. . .	2	2	. . .	. . .	334	12	. . .	2	593,784
Total	20,660,279	3,134,439	2,096	12,937	698	365,505	128,557	29	556	1,104	418	104	3,559	1,224,899	1,281	1,414	6,149	26,150,759
Figures for 1890	18,934,166	2,814,072	2,611	8,240	544,739	1,275	315,828	120,524	368	1,296	490	147	3,218	1,143,305	81	745	4,308	â
Absolute change	+1,726,113	+320,367	-515	+4,697	+62,025	-577	+49,677	+8,033	+188	-192	-72	-43	+341	+81,594	+1,200	+669	+1,841	â
Per cent. change	+9.12	+11.38	-19.72	+57.00	+11.39	-45.26	+15.73	+6.67	+51.09	-14.81	-14.69	-29.25	+10.60	+7.14	+1,481.48	+89.90	+42.73	â

382

(3) Moravia, with a western and an eastern seniory. The superintendency of mixed confession is that of Galicia and Bukowina, with three seniories of the Augsburg Confession, western, middle, and eastern, and one of the Helvetic Confession, Galicia. There is also a small Anglican parish in Triest, under the control of the Helvetic superintendency of Vienna. The number of ministers and vicars in 1900 was 299, and there were 640 places of worship.

2. Changes of Confession.

While in the last decade of the nineteenth century the increase of Roman Catholics was but 9.12 per cent, the Evangelicals of the Augsburg Confession showed an increase of 15.17 per cent, as against 9.28 in the preceding decade;. and the Helvetic Confession a gain of 6.67 per cent, as contrasted with the more rapid accretion of 9.05 in the ten years previous. In Bohemia the Evangelical gain was 20.06 per cent, in Styria 25.9 per cent, and in Lower Austria 37.01 per cent. In Silesia and Galicia alone the increase of Evangelicals failed to keep pace with. the gain in population, this being due to the increasing emigration from the German districts of West Silesia and the German colonies in Galicia, an additional factor being the immigration of Galician workmen to Silesia to work in the coal mines.

No statistics are available for a classification of the Austrian Protestants according to language, nor are the figures sufficiently complete to afford a safe basis to determine the changes caused by immigration and emigration. The Los von Rom movement, which began in 1898, resulted by 1900 in the loss of more than 40,000 members to the Roman Catholic Church, some 30,000 becoming Evangelicals, several thousand Old Catholics, an undetermined number joining the Moravians and Methodists, while some broke entirely with denominational Christianity. Many, however, returned to the Roman Catholic Church. A hundred new chapels were erected, and seventy-five preachers, chiefly from Germany, entered upon the work (see Los von Rom).

3. Schools.

Religious instruction is given in the primary and secondary schools by the minister of the parish, or, in certain cases, by secular teachers of religion, either in the school or in ” stations.” By a law of June 17, 1888, an allowance was given or a special teacher of religion was appointed in the higher classes of primary or secondary schools of more than three classes, and more than 160 teachers of this description are active in over 560 ” stations.” The Church also provides for religious instruction in normal and intermediate schools, although state aid is given only when the total number of Evangelical scholars in such an institution is more than twenty. National, district, and local school boards are entrusted with the administration and supervision of normal and intermediate schools in each province, and in almost all the boards the Evangelical Church has a vote (at least advisory) and representatives. In consequence of the rivalry of the state undenominational schools, however, the Evangelical schools tend to become more or less ultramontane, and are gradually decreasing as a result of the double taxes levied on the Evangelicals. In 1869 there were 372 Evangelical schools, a number which has since decreased by two-thirds. An Evangelical normal school exists in Bielitz for the training of Evangelical teachers, while in Czaslau there is a Czech Evangelical Reformed seminary for Bohemia and Moravia.

4. Theological Education.

The education of the Evangelical clergy is confined to the Evangelical theological faculty maintained at the expense of the State in Vienna. Though desired by the estates for this purpose in the sixteenth century, it was first founded as a theological institute after the separation of the empire from Germany and the prohibition to attend German universities (Apr. 2, 1821). On Oct. 8, 1850 (July 18, 1861) it was made a faculty with the right to confer degrees, but although the only Evangelical theological school in all Austria, clerical intrigues, Protestant narrowness, and the disfavor and indifference of the Liberals have prevented it from being incorporated with the university and securing the rooms allotted to it in the new buildings. The school consists of six professors and two privat-docents; teaching Augsburg and Helvetic dogmatics separately. The course of study is at least six semesters, two of which must be spent at Vienna. Since the formation of the dual monarchy in 1861, which denies to Hungary all Austrian subventions, and as a consequence of the Hungarian legislation and the national excitement, the number of students at the theological school has diminished. In 1904-05, however, fifty-one were studying there, although the meager salaries attached to the majority of the parishes gives little hope of an increased student body. In 1901 a small national denominational Utraquist home was established at Vienna by private contributions for the aid of students without means, and is conducted by an inspector and an ephor.

5. Financial Status of the Evangelicals.

In view of the necessity of maintaining their churches, schools, and charitable organizations, the congregations have the right to claim State aid, but this is asked reluctantly, despite the heavy debts of most of the congregations, especially in Galicia. Outside assistance is, therefore, absolutely necessary. The oldest and most generous benefactor is the Gustav Adolf Verein (q.v.) which has spent millions of florins, and which is divided in Austria into a main society with fifteen branch societies, in addition to thirty societies for women, forty-nine for children, and 324 local organizations. This is followed by the Lutherischer Gotteskasten and, more recently, by the Evangelischer Bund (see Gotteskasten, Lutherischer; Bund, Evangelischer), as well as by many societies and private benefactors in Switzerland and Holland. The property of the individual superintendencies is administered by committees of the districts concerned, while the foundations and funds of the superintendencies and seniories are controlled by committees appointed from these bodies, and also by the supreme church council 383and the Gustav Adolf Verein. These funds are devoted to many purposes, such as general ecclesiastical interests, the support of ecclesiastical officials and their widows and orphans, candidates for the ministry and theological students, general educational objects, teachers with their widows and orphans, religious instruction, charities, and burials. The Evangelical Church likewise provides pensions for superannuated pastors and teachers, as well as for their widows and orphans.

6. Societies and Charities.

Societies and charitable organizations are extremely numerous among the Evangelicals of Austria. Women’s clubs exist in many city congregations, and institutions for those intending to be confirmed are also popular. Orphan asylums exist at Biala, Bielitz, Goisern, Graz, Krabschitz, Russic, Stanislau, Teleci, Ustron, Weikersdorf (Gallneukirchen), Waiern, and Vienna (St. Pölten). Summer homes are provided by the Erster Evangelischer Unterstützungsverein für Kinder, while the Oberösterreichischer Evangelischer Verein für Innere Mission cares for the sick, maintaining in Gallneukirchen, in addition to a house of deaconesses, asylums for the sick and insane, as well as homes for convalescents. The deaconesses trained at Gallneukirchen find employment at Gablonz, Graz, Hall, Marienbad, Meran, and Vienna, while in Aussig and Teplitz they have been placed in charge of the municipal hospital after the expulsion of the nuns. Closely connected with this society is that of the Verein für die Evangelische Diakonissensache in Wien with its home, summer sanitarium, and hospital. In 1901 a third house of deaconesses was established at Prague, and a number of other Evangelical homes and hospitals also exist. Provision is made for the dead and their survivors by the Evangelischer Leichenbestattungsverein in Vienna and by the Sterbekasse für Evangelische Pfarrer und Lehrer Oesterreichs. Educational institutions abound, while devotion is fostered by libraries of various types, “evenings at home,” church concerts, Sunday-schools, Young Men’s Christian Associations, and young women’s societies. The Czech “Comenius Society,” the “Evangelical Literary Society of the Augsburg Confession” , and the “Comenium,” as well as the German Evangelischer Volksbildungverein, the first three at Prague and the last at Teschen, are literary in character. The only scientific Evangelical magazine, however, is the Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte des Protestantismus in Oesterreich, founded in 1879 for the investigation and presentation of the history of Evangelical Protestantism.

7. Minor Denominations and Non-Christians.

Among other Protestant denominations, State recognition is accorded only to the Moravians, beginning with 1880. Baptists, Irvingites, Mennonites, Methodists, Congregationalists, the Scotch New Free Church in Vienna, and the Free Evangelical Church in Bohemia are regarded as undenominational, and are allowed to worship only in private. The Jews are now represented in all provinces of Austria, although previous to 1848 no Jew was allowed to reside in Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. The Mohammedans in the army thus far have places of worship only in the barracks.

8. Religious Distribution and Statistics.

With regard to the distribution of various confessions in Austria, it may be said that the Greek Uniates are found chiefly in Galicia, the Armenian Uniates in Galicia and Bukowina, the Greek Catholics of the Oriental rite in Bukowina and Dalmatia, the Armenian Catholics of the Oriental rite in Bukowina and Galicia, the Jews in Lower Austria, Galicia, and Bukowina. The Evangelicals of the Augsburg Confession are far more evenly distributed than those of the Helvetic Confession, who are centered chiefly in Bohemia and Moravia. Almost half of those professing no creed are in Lower Austria. The religious statistics of the empire on the basis of the census of Dec. 31, 1900, are summarized on page 381.

Georg Loesche.

Bibliography: K. Kuzmany, Lehrbuch des allgemeinen und österreichischen evangelisch-protestantischen Kirchenrechtes, Vienna, 1856; J. A. Ginsel, Handbuch des neuesten in 0esterreich geltenden Kirchen-Rechtes, 3 vols., Vienna, 1856–62; Sammlung der allgemeinen kirchlichen Verordnungen der kaiserlichen kirchlichen evangelischen Oberkirchenrates (published continuously since 1873); Statistische Monatschrift (published at Vienna by the Central Commission for Statistics since 1875); M. Baumgarten, Die katholische Kirche unserer Zeit und ihre Diener in Wort und Bild, 3 vols., Munich, 1897–1902; G. A. Skalsky, Zur Geschicte der evangelischen Kirchenverfassung in Oesterreich, Vienna, 1898; G. Loesche, Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte des Protestantismus in Oesterreich (published since 1883 in Vienna); Oesterreichische Statistik (edited under the Central Commission for Statistics, in Vienna), especially vols. lxii-lxiii, 1902; the Quellen und Forschungen zur österreichischen Kirchengeschichte has begun publication under the care of the Leo-Gesellschaft in Vienna, 1906.