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priority of the Basel society they foster and support Protestantism in scattered places, specially Roman Catholic cantons, as well as in neighboring foreign countries. Associations of the Innere Mission have in hand a great variety of philanthropic work. Religious periodicals in Protestant Switzerland numbered (1904) twenty-nine, in Roman Catholic seven. For Free Churches of French Switzerland see IV., below. Other denominations that have gained followers are, the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodists of the Evangelical Communion, the Baptist, the Catholic Apostolic (Irvingites), the Darbyites, Swedenborgians, Salvation Army, Christian Science, the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church of Zion of Alexander Dowie, and the Mormons. Of these the Methodists and Baptists are the most numerous, the former in 1904 having 60 preachers and 9,083 regular members. Many of the adherents of these continue as members of the state churches.

III. The Catholic Churches: According to the representations of the Roman Curia the diocese of Chur (q.v.) embraces the cantons of Zurich, Uri,

Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, and r. The Graubiinden; the diocese of Basel, the

Church cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Zug, Solof Rome. cure, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Schaff-

hausen, Aargau, and Thurgau; of St. Gall, the cantons of St. Gall and Appenzell; of Lausanne and Geneva, the cantons of Freiburg, Neuchatel, Vaud, and Geneva; and the diocese of Sitter, the canton of Valais. The organization of the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland is lax and for the most part in a state of confusion. The administration of the bishop of Chur is only provisory except in the canton of Graubiinden. This does not include Zurich, the congregations in which were declared absolved from the see of Chur, and were permitted to secure episcopal means individually for themselves as needed according to their own judgment, subject to the supremacy of the State. The bishop of Basel, with his seat at Soleure, is for the time being recognized only by Zug and Lucerne. In a dispute all the other cantons save Schaffhausen pronounced the episcopal office vacated in 1873, and no reorganization has yet taken place. The latter is under the see by provisory arrangement. After violent and lengthy disputes at Bern, the Roman Catholics there organized as free associations. In the diocese of St. Gall the Roman Catholics of Appenzell assume adherence but are not formally united. In Sitter there is no church law, but the church is governed by canonical law. The canton of Ticino, according to the agreement of 1888, is nominally under the Bishop of Basel, but has its own administrator residing at Lugano and chosen by the pope, by agreement with the bishop of Basel. In consequence of a papal encyclical containing strictures on the conflict at Geneva, the papal nunciature was abolished, the federal diet declaring further papal represents, tion inadmissible. The total number of Roman Catholic churches is given as 1,207, and of priests, 1,957. There are 32 monasteries; of Benedictines (with 165 monks), Augustinians (106), Carthusians (22), Franciscans (9), 25 Capuchin monasteries (6-12 each), and a number of hospices. Of nunner-

ies there are 45, besides numerous congregations of sisters devoted to charity and instruction. The institute of teaching sisters at Menzingen, canton Zug, has 700 teachers, who teach in 250 public schools, and care for 45 orphanages, poorhouses, and hospitals; and the congregation of the sisters of mercy iii Ingenbohl, canton Schwyz, numbers 3,400 sisters, 1,350 of whom are active in Switzerland, and the rest in various Austrian institutions. There are organizations in behalf of the Roman Catholic interests, such as the Swiss student societies (600 members), the Roman Catholic associations (30,000), the Roman Catholic association for internal missions, to care for interests in Protestant cantons under the direction of the Swiss bishops, and the associated Roman Catholic men and labor unions (6,000).

After the dispute arising in the Basel diocese in consequence of the Vatican Council of 1870, Bern,

Aargau, Soleure, Thurgau, and Basel z. The rejected the doctrine of papal infalli-

obey, he was removed, and the adherents formed the Association of Swiss Liberal Catholics. Christian Catholic churches were at once organized in the above cantons, and in the towns of Basel and Zurich. Bern and Geneva transferred the state church organization from the Roman Catholic Church to the new churches. They held their first national synod in 1875, chose a bishop, 1876, who, with all his followers, was promptly excommunicated by the pope. The synod consists of the bishop, the synodal council, all clergy in office, and delegates from the churches. It issues general regulations concerning worship and discipline, and chooses the synodal council and the bishop. The synodal council consists of five laymen and four priests, and is the administrative and executive board. At the beginning of 1905 there were 43 churches and associations and 56 priests. The most important reforms are the use of the national language in liturgy and ritual;. and the abolition of enforced confession, the commandments of fasting, and the law of celibacy. The mass is regarded as the outgrowth of the celebration of the Last Supper; and the saints, it is held, can best be honored by emulating their example.

(F. MEYER.)

IV. The Free Churches of French Switzerland: Although in the same relation toward the state, these three bodies of Geneva, Vaud, and Neuchdtel are by origin, ruling principles, and, historical development very different from one another. The community at Geneva is the oldest and most rigid in doctrine, organization, and discipline. Although the Free Church of Neuchatel, which is the latest, has no bond with the government, it resembles a state church most closely, and still claims to be a national church. The Free Church of Vaud, on the other hand, holds an intermediary position between a state and a merely confessional church.

In doctrine, Vaud is the most liberal, the professors of its college of divinity being in constant torch with German theology; the Geneva community