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EPISCOPAL CHURCH. each diocese; missionary jurisdictions are entitled to send one clergyman and one lay delegate, who, however, have no votes. Legislation, to be effective, must be passed by a concurrence of both houses, and, in the lower house, of both orders. Each diocese, moreover, holds its own annual convention, composed in most instances of the clergy canonically resident within it and of lay delegates from each parish, sitting as one house and presided over by the bishop. The General Convention can make no alteration in the Constitution or the Prayer Book until it has been laid over for three years, officially signified to every diocese, and then passed again at the subsequent Convention. The diocesan conventions legislate for the internal affairs of each diocese, in harmony with the general canons. Each diocese has also a standing committee, usually composed of both clergy and laity, which has various administrative functions, and in the case of a vacancy in the see acts as the 'ecclesiastical authority' of the diocese: the election of new bishops must be confirmed by a majority as well of the standing committees as of the other bishops of the whole Church.

There are 60 dioceses and 21 missionary jurisdictions (which may be described as embryo dioceses) within the limits of the United States; also one missionary jurisdiction in Africa, one in Cuba, two in China, and two in Japan, besides three bishoprics not strictly forming a part of the Episcopal Church, in Brazil, Haiti, and Mexico. There are also nine organized chaplaincies on the Continent of Europe, which minister primarily to Americans. In 1901 there were 3825 organized parishes, exclusive of mission stations, with 5654 church edifices; the clergy numbered 5009, including 92 diocesan, coadjutor, and missionary bishops; the communicants were 737,095, and the Sunday schools numbered 46,673 teachers and 433,911 scholars. In the twelve months previous to this enumeration there were reported 59,566 baptisms, 45,093 confirmations, and contributions for all purposes amounting to $14,544,917.

As the Church has expanded, many new agencies have arisen to foster and extend its exuberant life. Chief among these are the numerous sisterhoods (q.v.) in which women are bound together for work and devotion, and the revived order of deaconesses (q.v.); the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, to which every baptized member of the Church is considered ipso facto to belong; the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew (q.v.), which enlists the active work of laymen, and the Church Clubs, also for laymen, of which there are over a score; the Daughters of the King (q.v.), for women; the Church Temperance Society (q.v.); the Parochial Missions Society, and the American Church Sunday School Institute. Church hospitals, begun by Dr. Muhlenberg with Saint Luke's in New York and followed by the Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia, have exemplified the humanitarian side of religion; while schools under religious influence, which owe their inception to the same far-seeing founder, have multiplied throughout the country. Colleges such as those at Hartford, Geneva, Racine, Sewanee, Gambier, and Smith Bethlehem, provide for higher education; and a number of theological seminaries train the future clergy. The principal organs of the Church in the press are The Churchman (New York), The Church Standard (Philadelphia), and The Living Church (Chicago).

Perry, History of the American Episcopal church, 1587-1883, with monographs (2 vols., Boston, 1885); id., A Half Century of Legislation, journals of General Convention, 1785-1835, with historical notes and documents (3 vols., Milwaukee, 1874); Coleman, The Church in America (New York, 1895); Tiffany, History of the Protestant Episcopal Church (New York, 1895); McConnell, History of the American Episcopal Church (New York, 1890); Anderson, History of the church of England in the Colonies (3 vols., 2d ed., London, 1856); White, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America (3rd ed., New York, 1880); Digest of the Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1701-1892 (London, 1893); Perry, Historical Collections Relating to the American Episcopal Church (4 vols., covering Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Delaware, Hartford, 1870); Hawks, Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States of America (2 vols., covering Virginia and Maryland, New York, 1836-39); Beardsley, History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut from 1635-1865 (4 vols., Boston, 1883); Burgess, Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England (Boston, 1862); Wilson (edit.), Centennial History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York (New York, 1886); Cross, The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies (New York, 1902).

EPISCOPAL CHURCH, See.

EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. An institution for the education of Episcopal ministers, situated at Cambridge, Mass. It was founded in 1867 by Mr. Benjamin Tyler Reed, whose gifts to the institution amounted to $100,000. The school offers courses leading to the degree of B.D., which is conferred on students holding bachelors' degrees, while students not holding academic degrees receive certificates only. The principal buildings include Reed, Burnham. and Winthrop halls.

EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. An institution for the education of Prot- estant Episcopal ministers situated at Alexandria, Va. It was founded in 1823 and chartered in 1854. Its government is vested in a board of trustees, composed of four bishops, five presbyters, and six laymen. The endowment fund is over $300,000, and scholarships are available for meritorious students. The seminary was made especially well known through Phillips Brooks (q.v.), who obtained his theological training there.

EP'ISCO'PIUS (Neo-Lat., from Lat. episcopus, Gk. ἐπίσκοπος, episkopos, bishop; a translation of his Dutch name, Bisschop, Bishop), (1583-1643). A Dutch theologian, after the death of Arminius the head of the Arminian party. He was born in Amsterdam, studied at Leyden. took his degree of M.A. in 1606, and was ordained pastor of the village of Bleyswyck near Rotterdam in 1610. In the following year the States-General, with the intention of putting an end to the agitations created by the controversies between the Gomarists or Calvinistic party and the Ar-