ples of the stricter sort; at least, it finds a special barrier in a line of thought which has been continually advancing toward general acknowledgment in the present century. The whole trend of modern Biblical scholarship, with its profound emphasis upon the historical basis of revelation, stands in radical opposition to Swedenborg's procedure in swinging the Bible almost entirely clear of historical connections, and reading into any portion of it indiscriminately the truths which belong to the climax of divine revelation. Some phases of modern science, or scientific theory, may show, it is true, a certain kinship with the thinking of the gifted Swede; but this fact is far from offsetting the impression that his dealing with the Bible was of a highly artificial character.

In the last years of the eighteenth and the first of the nineteenth century, a religious movement of some practical moment invaded the calm of the Lutheran Church in the Scandinavian countries. A lay evangelist, Hans Nielsen Hauge, son of a peasant, was the principal agent in the movement. Travelling extensively, especially in Norway, and preaching with great earnestness, he effected a considerable awakening. Persecution interrupted and finally closed his labors, his strength being broken by long imprisonment; but the impulse which he had given to lay evangelism continued to manifest itself.

The Netherlands underwent several political transitions during the period, some of which had a perceptible effect upon church affairs. In 1747 the Prince of Orange was acknowledged as stadtholder of the seven

provinces. Moreover, large powers were connected. with his office, and it was made hereditary in his family. Only a step now lay between the house of Orange and acknowledged royalty. That step, however, was not to be taken till after a series of overturnings. The French Revolution early swept away the political structure of the United Netherlands. In 1795 the Batavian Republic was constituted. Eleven years

later this gave place, at the instance of Napoleon, to the kingdom of Holland, under Louis Bonaparte. In 1810 this kingdom was incorporated with the French Empire. After the overthrow of Napoleon, the Netherlands, with Belgium added, were erected into a kingdom (1814), over which the house of Orange was given the sovereignty. The joint realm did not prove to be sufficiently homogeneous to hold together. An agitation zealously fomented by the Romish priesthood resulted in the acknowledgment of Belgium as a separate realm (18301839).

With the establishment of the Batavian Republic the Dutch Reformed Church lost its privileged position before the State. During the changes which followed in the Napoleonic era, its organization was not a little impaired. The erection of the new kingdom under the house of Orange gave an opportunity to reconstitute its government, and opened the way also to a sufficiently close connection with the civil power.

As a field of theological activity, the Netherlands were not so highly distinguished in the eighteenth as in the seventeenth century. Still names of considerable distinction were added to the long list which had been handed down from the former period. Among

those representing the State Church were Vitringa, Lampe, Schultens, and Venema. The Remonstrants, on their part, added to their theological succession which had been continued from Arminius through Episcopius, Curcellæus, and Limborch - the names of Le Clerc, Wettstein, and Van Hemert.

In the tenor of their thinking, various writers, both in the Calvinistic and the Remonstrant party, shared in the developments which were characteristic of contemporary German theology. Near the middle of the eighteenth century there were indications of a relaxed dogmatism, and at the end of the century there was a distinct outcropping of rationalism.

A corresponding movement occurred in Switzerland. A majority of the pastors at Geneva in the first years of the nineteenth century were more in sympathy with the abridged creed of average German rationalism than with the rigorous system which had gone forth from their city to conquer a large part of Europe. At Zurich a like transformation was witnessed. Basle, on the other hand, continued to maintain a conservative position.

CHAPTER V.

THE RUSSIAN CHURCH (1725-1825).

O little of special interest is found in the record of the other portions of the Eastern Church for the eighteenth century, that our attention may properly be limited to the Russian branch. Since the days of Peter the Great Russia has been the most important theatre of the Greek type of Christianity.

If we take the governmental point of view, we may specify four eras in Russian history between the death. of Peter the Great and the second quarter of the nineteenth century. At least four of the reigns included in this interval had each its distinctive character.

The first was that of Anna Ivanovna (1730-1740). The peculiarity of this reign was the partiality of the Empress for German counsellors, and the extent to which they were made the instruments of her despotic rule. The jealousy of the Russians was excited by seeing them placed in the foremost positions, and using their authority with scant regard for the traditions of the country. The clergy in particular were exasperated by the way in which their privileges were abridged, as also by the harsh treatment which some eminent representatives of their order experienced. A resentment in fact was awakened, which only awaited the opportunity to declare itself in a pronounced reaction.

The reaction came in the reign of Elizabeth (17411762). Her accession was greeted with an outburst of national and orthodox zeal. Not a few sympathized with the Archbishop of Novgorod, who celebrated the displacement of the German favorites as the overthrow of the "emissaries of Beelzebub and his angels." Various practical indications were given of an awakened affection for the national Church. The Armenian houses of worship in the two capitals were ordered to be suppressed; the Jews were put under the ban as enemies of Christ, and injurious to her Majesty's subjects; and missionary work was pushed forward in the border districts, the civil power aiding the enterprise by such helpful measures as destroying mosques, and releasing all candidates for baptism from the obligations of servitude.

The reign of Catharine II. (1762-1796), distinguished outwardly by a large extension of the Russian empire, was noteworthy as respects internal administration for the exhibition of a relative tolerance in matters of religion, for a revision of the system of ecclesiastical revenues, and for the promotion of an intellectual awakening tinged more or less with free-thinking. The first point was illustrated in the release of schismatics from special burdens, in the permission given to the Tartars on the Volga to rebuild the mosques of which they had been deprived by the harsh policy of Elizabeth, and in allowing the Jesuits, after the dissolution of the Order by papal decree, to find a refuge in White Russia. The interference with ecclesiastical revenues had an occasion in the unequal distribution and abnormal engrossment of Church property. The