IZEIAGION. England has an established State Church, eimmionly called the Church of England. However. there are numerous dissenting churches, and in attendance and membership the country, the State Church is supposed to lead by a slight majority only. The faith of the Church, since the Beformatinn, is known as Protestant Episcopal: but, while the name includes the whole organization, as a matter of fact the Church mem bership is divided into factions whose positions are widely divergent on matters of belief. In recent years the High Church, or Ritualistic fac tion, which is reactionary in its tendencies. ap the Boman Catholic Church in its extremes, lens been most active and aggressive, and has become the dominating element in the Church. The Broad Church, representing an op posite or liberal tendency in belief and ritualism, thought much smaller in its following, has also increased at the expense of the original Low Church. Another feature that is in a way con nected with the recent religious movement within toe State Church is the increased rate of growth of the Roman Catholic Church, as it is a part of tne general tendency to revert to a more definite dogma and a more elaborate ritualism. It is true, however, that the Catholic Church has for a long time gained, and still gains, much from immigration, particularly that from Ireland. The
number of Roman Catholics in England and Wales at the end of the nineteenth century was esti mated as over 1,500,000. There are no govern mental religions statistics from which may be made comparative studies of the different de nominations; but the figures here used (the esti mates include Wales) are taken from reasonably reliable estimates. From these it is found that among dissenting bodies the Methodists are strongly in the lead, the Wesleyan branch, with 522.933 (1900-01) communicants, exceeding all other forms of Methodism combined, including the Primitive Methodists, Calvinistic Methodists, United Methodist Free Churches, Methodist New Connexion, etc. The Congregationalists and the Baptists, with 398,741 and 346,0S3 communi cants respectively, are next in numerical strength, while the Presbyterians, who are so predominant in Scotland, number only 74,541. The Salvation Army has a considerable following, and there is a large number of small denominations, including Bible Christians, Friends, Unitarians, etc. Spe cial emphasis is placed upon Sunday-school work, the number of scholars claimed by most of the denominations being more than twice the num ber of their oommunieants. Throughout England there are 80 synagogues and the Hebrews are estimated at 120,000.