The Protestant conception of the Christian ministry is very different from that outlined above. In spite of exceptions and inconsist encies the logic of Protestantism requires that the Christian minister shall be essentially the pastor and teacher of his people, chosen by them to lead in public worship and to administer the sacraments, and that his position shall be rep resentative, not sacerdotal. Strictly speaking there can be no such thing as a Protestant hierarchy. Nevertheless it must be freely recognized that in many Protestant churches a conception of the ministry still obtains very different from this — a conception which really involves the persistence of Catholic theories within the boundaries of nominal Protestantism.
The distinction between the two types of religion here contrasted has been stated thus: Catholicism furnishes to the individual believer an institutional guarantee of salvation; Prot estantism insists upon personal assurance of sal vation. Looking at the question from a slightly different angle, Schleiermacher said that Cathol icism makes the relation of the believer to Christ depend upon his relation to the Church, while Protestantism makes the relation of the believer to the Church depend upon his relation to Christ. It is obvious that between these two conceptions of religion there is a fundamental difference.
Present-day Protestantism comprehends practically all of those who have dissociated themselves from the Catholic Church in any of its forms. It will, therefore, include many per sons who are not actively Identified with any Church, but who would refuse to be classified as Catholic. In the Protestant Churches there are wide divergencies of opinion upon theological matters and the constant tendency of Prot estantism is away from dogmatic theology and toward the employment of simple religious formulas and the promotion of practical re ligious and philanthropic activities. Dogmatism still lingers here and there in Protestant com munities which are intellectually less progres sive, but it no longer plays an important part in the more enlightened section of Great Britain and America. Protestant creeds and confes sions of faith tend constantly to grow more simple and general in their language, and look toward a definition of Christian duty in practi cal life rather than toward the formulation of a speculative theological system.
Protestant worship is characterized by simplicity and directness, especially in compari son with the stately ritual of the Medizval Church. Catholicism makes the altar central, and emphasizes the sacrificial aspect of Christian worship; Protestantism substitutes the pulpit, and thus shows its predominant characteristic to be that of a teaching church. The idea of mystery in worship gives place to intelligibility. In the early days of Protestantism this sim plicity became at times barrenness, for example among the Puritans. But in modern times there has come a reaction against this tendency, and the forms of public worship have grown more elaborate, resulting often in the adoption of a liturgy not unlike the services of morning and evening prayer in the Church of England.
A great variety of philanthropic activities have been created by Protestants during the past 100 years. Missionary enterprises, both domestic and foreign, educational institutions of every grade, hospitals and other remedial agencies for mind and body, organizations for social betterment, young men's and women's Christian associations, and many related under takings, here have their origin. Similar insti tutions also exist among the Roman Catholics, and in not a few instances Catholics and Protestants now fraternally co-operate, to the obvious advantage of both. Many educational
institutions within the United States, which owe their origin to a distinctively religious mo tive, have lately become unsectarian and to the ordinary observer practically secular. This secularizing tendency, traceable in the history of Protestant education, finds little counter part among the schools and colleges which are under the control of the Roman Catholic Church.
Reliable religious statistics for some coun tries are hard to obtain, but the following table exhibits with a fair degree of accuracy the numerical strength of the various ecclesiastical groups throughout the world at the beginning of the 20th century: Roman Catholics. about 250,000,000.
Greek Catholics. about 125,000,000.
Protestants (including Anglicans), about 175,000.000.
The approximate membership of the prin cipal churches within the United States at the present time may be estimated as follows: Roman Catholics, about 16,000,000 Methodists, about 7.800.000 Baptists, about 6,500,000 Lutherans, about 2,500,000 Presbyterians (including Reformed), about 3,300,000 Disces, about 1,400,000 Episcopalians, about 1,100,000 tionalists, about 800,000 about 350,000 The Protestant groups here listed include in several instances churches which have separate organizations but which are sufficiently alike in doctrine and polity to be included under the same general designation. Some of the smaller churches are omitted entirely, except in the summaries given below. The membership of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Prot estant Churches within the United States may be thus summarized: Roman Catholics, about 16,000,000 Protestants, about 24,000,000 The actual constituency of both is of course much larger than the figures given above, which include only those who are in full membership.
Ever since the period of the Reformation, and until comparatively recent times, church his torians have endeavored to show either that Protestantism was an unjustifiable departure from the principles and usages of the Church for more than a thousand years (the Catholic position), or that Protestantism finds its justi fication in primitive Christianity, that the Medizval Church had grown increasingly cor rupt with the lapse of time, and that the re formers' effort to do away with its corruptions and to return to the simplicity of the New Tes tament was not only legitimate but was also their obvious Christian duty. The latter is the Protestant position. These two tendencies find their best early illustration on the Protestant side in the 'Magdeburg Centuries,) and on the Roman Catholic side in the 'Annals) of Baronius. It was only in the 19th century that the period of critical ecclesiastical histonogra phy began. At the present day writers of all schools exhibit an increasing desire for the impartial treatment of church history, and many of them employ a critical method which is making their subject a true science.
Bibliography.— Among the more important books on Protestantism may be mentioned: Lindsay, T. M., 'History of the Reformation,) (2 vols., 1906-07) • 'Cambridge Modern His tory, Vol. II, The Reformation) (1904) ; Beard, C., The Reformation of the 16th Century in its Relation to Modern Thought) (Hibbert Lectures for 1883) ; Macmillan, K. D., 'Prot estantism in Germany) (1917) ; McGiffert, A. C., 'Protestant Thought before Kant) (1911) ; Moore, E. C., 'Christian Thought since (1912) ; Tulloch, J., 'Movements of Religious Thought in Britain during the 19th Century' (l:.:5).