Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/259

Rh RELIGION.] ENGLAND 247 number of Protestant dissenters was estimated at 1,958,000, or 10 - S9 per cent, of the population; and ten years after, in 1861, the total number was calculated to have increased to 3,090,000, being 15-36 per cent, of the population. There was an estimated further increase to 3,686,000, or 17 38 per cent, of the population, in the number of dissenters at the end of 1866 ; while the last calculations, going down to the end of 1876, make it probable that at this date the number had risen to 4,500,000, being not far from 20 per cent, of the population. According to the most reliable estimates, the dissenters did not constitute the majority of the population in the year 1876 in any part of England, but they possessed it in Wales. Next to Wales, the greatest number of dissenters were in Monmouthshire, Cumberland, Cornwall and Devon, Durham, and Yorkshire, in all which counties they constituted more than a third of the population. On the other hand, the dissenters were in a small minority m nearly all the southern counties of England, notably in Middlesex, Kent, and Sussex, In the metropolis itself, the Protestant dissenters were estimated to form about 10 per cent, of the population. Under the Act of 1 836, the registrar-general has to keep a list of all the churches and chapels of the various dissent ing religious denominations wishing to be &quot; licensed &quot; for the celebration of marriages. The number so entered was, according to the &quot; Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the Registrar-General&quot; issued in 1877, no less than 122. The following was the reported list of denominations : Religious Denominations in England and Wales. Advents ApostoSics. Armenian Xew Society. Baptists, viz., Baptists. Calvini.-tic Baptist* General RaptMa. General Baptist &amp;gt;&quot;ew Connilon. Old Baptists. Particular Baptli-ts. Presbyerian Baptists. Scotch Baptists. Seventh Day liaptlsts. Strict Baptists. Union Baptists. Unitar an Baptists. Hnptized Believers. Believers in Christ. Bible Christians. Bible Defence Association. Brethren. Calvinists. Catholic and Apostolic Church. Christadelphians. Christians &quot; who object to be otherwise designated.&quot; Christian Believers. Christian Brethren. Christian Eliasitcs. Christian Israelites. Christian Mission. Christian Teetotallers. Christian Temperance Men. Christian Unionists. Church of Christ. Church of Progress. Church of Scotland, Church of the People. Countess of Huntingdon s Connexion. Disciples in Christ. Disciples of Jesus Christ Kastern Orthodox Greek Church. Eclectics. Episcopalian Dissenters. Evangelical Unionists. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, Free Catholic Christian Church. Free Christian Association. Free Christians. Free Church. Free Church (Episcopal). Free Church of England. Free Crospel and Christian Brethren. Free Gospel Church. Free Grace Gospel Christians. F:ce Union Church. German Lutheran. German Roman Catholic. Glassites. Glory Band. Greek Catholic. Halifax Psychological Society. Hallelujah Band. Hope Mission. Humanitarians. Independent Religious Reformers. Independents. Independent Unionists. Inghamites. Israelites. Jews. Latter Day Saints. Moravians. Mormons. New Church. New Jerusalem Church. Orthodox Eastern Church. Peculiar People. Plymouth Brethren. Polish Society. Presbyterian Church in England. Primitive Christians. Progressionists. Protestant Members of the Church of England. Protestants &quot;adhering to Articles of Church of England, 1 to 18 inclusive, but rcjcciing Order and Ritual.&quot; Protestant Union. Providence Quakers lianters. Recreative Religionists. Reformed Church of England. Reformed Presbyterians orCovenanters. Reformers. Revival Band. Reri vallsta Roman Catholics. Salem Society. Sandemanians. Second Advent Brethren. Separatists (Protestant). Society of the N ew Church. Spiritual Church. Swedenborgians. Temperance Church. Testimony Congregational Church. Trinitarians. Unionists. Unitarian Christians. Unitarians. United Brethren or Moravians United Christian Church United Piesbytcrians. Welsh Free Presbyterians. Wesleyan Methodists, viz.. Methodists. New Connexion VVcsleyans. Original Connexion of WesJeyan. Primitive Muthodisti. Reform Free Church of Wesleyan Methodists. Refutre Methodists. Temperance Methodists. United Free Methodist Church. Welsh Calvlnistic Methodists. Wesleyan Metl.odi.-t Association. Wesleyan Me formers. Wesleyan Reform Glory Band. Wesleyans. Working Man s Evangelistic Mission Chapels The total number of &quot;licensed&quot; churches and chapels belonging to Protestant and other dissenters from the estab lished church was 20,480 on the 31st December 1875. The number had fallen to 19,486 on the 31st October 1877. The numerically most important body of Protestant Wesley- dissenters is that of Wesleyan Methodists, founded in 1739 an Me - oy the Rev. John Wesley, clergyman of the Church of thodists England. Subsequently to his death, in 1791, the com- Diient- munity split into various subdivisions, of which 13 are ers. enumerated in the preceding list. The largest of these, known simply as Methodists, or Wesleyan Methodists, had on its roll 402,437 members at the end of 1876; and the next largest, the Primitive Methodists, 181,081 members. Of more or less importance, among the other bodies of Protestant dissenters, are the Baptists, split into nearly as many divisions as the Wesleyan Methodists ; the Indepen dents, also known as Congregationalists ; the Unitarians ; and the Moravians. No authentic returns exist regarding the number of persons adhering to any of the minor Protestant creeds reported by the registrar-general as exist ing in England and Wales. _ More numerous than any single body of Protestant Number dissenters is that of Roman Catholics in England. It is ofRoman stated by Hallam that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Calh - Roman Catholics numbered one-third of the entire popula- lics tion ; but the effect of the many repressive laws enacted against them was that at the end of the 17th century, when the already referred to religious census of 1699 was taken, the total number was only 27,696, being barely one-half per cent, of the population. It was estimated that the num ber of Roman Catholics in England had increased to 68,000 in 1767, being about 1 per cent, of the population, and that it stood at 69,400 in 1780, being less than 1 per cent. On the basis of the marriage returns of the registrar-general, the estimated number of Roman Catholics in England and Wales was 284,300 in 1845, or 1 70 per cent, of the popu lation ; but within the next six years, when there was a large immigration of Irish, the numbers rapidly rose, and at the end of 1851 the total number of Roman Catholics was calculated at 758,800, being 4 22 of the population. The numbers kept rising till 1854, when there were estimated to be 916,600 Roman Catholics in England and Wales, being 4 94 per cent, of the population; but there was a fall after this year, if not in numbers yet in percen tage. The calculated number was 927,500, or 4 61 per cent., in 1861, and 982,000, or 4 62 percent, in 1866. It is estimated that in the middle of 1877 the number of Roman Catholics in England and Wales had barely reached one million, being a less percentage than in 1866, and that about one-half the number comprised natives of Ireland, with their families. It would thus seem that Roman Catholicism has not been progressive in England for about a quarter of a century. However, the wealth of the body increased very greatly during this period, owing mainly to the secession of many rich persons, of both sexes, to the church, which led to a vast increase of Roman Catholic places of worship. They numbered 616 in 1853, and had risen to 1095 at the end of 1877, with a clergy of 1892. The government of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is under 12 bishops ruling dioceses, and 1 archbishop, head of the &quot;province of Westminster/ The Established Church of England, to which adhere the Govern, majority of the population the estimated number of mem- ent bers being 13^ millions in the middle of 1877, leaving fthe about 11 millions to all other creeds was governed, at cf ^ the end of 1877, by 2 archbiahops and 28 bishops, the land, former at the head of two provinces, and the latter of as many episcopal sees. There were as many as 21 bishoprics at the beginning of the 8th century, which number was thought insufficient at the time, for the Venerable Bede,