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has always been very orthodox, so also that of Neuchatel, though standing on a broader basis. The churches of Vaud and Neuchatel each possess a general fund, a synod, and a college of divinity. The Geneva Free Church is organically quite separate from the Geneva Evangelical Society's college, although from the beginning it has been connected with it by deep spiritual bonds.

The two former owe their origin to political and religious events; the latter sprang from the r6veil, that great Pietistic movement which spread throughout the whole country in the beginning of the nineteenth century. These three communities, independent of each other, were united in 1902 into a federation. In addition, the Transvaal mission, originating in Vaud and being known as Mission romande, has a budget amounting yearly to $29,250, and is supported by the three churches.

From the days of the Reformation Geneva has been a very important center of religious life for all lands of the French language. There-

r. Geneva. fore when Count Zinzendorf (q.v.) came in 1741, after the period of the barren orthodoxy of the seventeenth century; he found a favorable ground for his Bible lessons and prayer-meetings. In 1817 Robert Haldane (q.v.), Scottish Pietist, arrived at Geneva and attracted to his devotional Bible hours a group of about twenty students of divinity. Among them were H. Merle d'Aubign6, Usar Malan, and Frangois Louis Gaussen (qq.v.). From the time of Zinzendorf, opposition to the Pietist movement grew until a sermon of Gaussen, emphasizing Christ's divinity, raised it to a climax. The church authorities forbade private assemblies. Guers immediately protested, refused submission, and in 1818 founded with a few friends a free congregation whose regular meetings were held at the Bourg de Four. Six years later, Cdsar Malan, having been suspended by the Compagnie des Pasteurs, founded L'Itglise du T6moignage, which soon became a center for Geneva Pietism, but at the same time an object for the fury of the mob, so that the government troops had frequently to protect it. Both congregations, the former Congregationalist, the latter Presbyterian, were united, 1848, under the name of tglise 6vang6lique. In 1831 the " Evangelical Society " (q.v.) was founded, which, without an organic bond with the Free Church, is, however, in intimate connection kith it. Gaussen was dismissed from the Compagnie des Pasteurs and opened L'Oratoire, a hall where the principal divine services of the Free Church of Geneva are still .held. The confession of faith of the Itglise 6vang6lique de Geniive is the so-called Apostolic Creed, and contains seventeen articles embodying the usual Evangelical orthodox doctrines. The difference in dignity between the clergymen and elders is nominal, the church being quite Presbyterian. Admission to membership is by confession of faith in the presence of two elders, and admission by confirmation is not tolerated. The church has a committee of evangelization working in different places in connection with the chapels, and several Sunday-schools numbering more than 600 scholars. From 1884 the whole body has divided into three parishes, each having its own pas-

tor. At present the congregation consists of about 700 members, has an annual budget of $5,265, and contributes $3,140 to the Mission romande.

The Free Church of Vaud, too, had its origin in the revival after the period of religious stagnation.

The preparations were unknowingly 2. Vaud. laid by Dean L. A. Curtat, later a foe

of the Free Church, who, by the power of his preaching and the stimulating intercourse with the students at Lausanne, revived the fundamental truths of the Gospel and the Reformation, bearing fruit in zeal for the Bible, Evangelization, and missionary associations. But the movement encountered the opposition of the government and the populace. The mission 'society, founded at Yverdon (1821), was suppressed, and several of the pastors were dismissed. Many young men being excluded from the state examination were obliged to gain their living abroad. In 1824 a law was promulgated against " the exalted people who are trying to found and propagate a new sect." The Pastor Bauty had to appear before the government because he had frightened his community by his preaching on the Holy Communion; another had to resign because he held a meeting of twenty people in a private house; and Alexander Vinet (q.v.) had to submit to prosecution for publishing two pamphlets on religious liberty. In 1839, by a new law, the government made itself supreme over the church, and abrogated the Helvetic Confession. Immediately eleven clergymen resigned and others soon followed. In Feb.-Nov., 1845, during a revolution, the situation grew more unbearable, the government forbidding private meetings, requiring total submission, taking no notice of a petition signed by 222 clergymen ending with these words: " We are ready to sacrifice everything to our state church but our conscience "; and ordering the reading of a proclamation (July 29) from the pulpit commending its injustice and intolerance to the people. Forty-one pastors refused to read this proclamation, and were suspended. Shortly after, 190 sent in their resignation. To escape the predicament, the government offered to those who had resigned, with the exception of twenty, the privilege of resuming their charges, but conditionally and without reservation. Forty returned: the others, like Charles Secretan and Vinet, were dismissed. A commission of seven clergymen and seven laymen asked Professors Vinet, Chappuls, Herzog, Pastor Bauty, and others to give lectures on divinity. A committee of evangelization was founded for the purpose of establishing new congregations throughout the canton, and the Free Church was born, the first synod being held June, 1847. The Free Church of Vaud comprises 42, churches and numbers not more than 5,000 members, but has over 15,000 auditors at its different services.

The Free Church of the canton of NeuchAtel had a history of quiet development. In spite of the

separation, it maintains the character 3. Neu- and the forms of a state church; such

ments. In 1872 the grand council rejected a bill proposed by the government for the separation of State and Church, and then adopted