arc accepted in the main by the Met hodi-ts. by nio-l of
the Episcopalians, and by many in other den illations.
The Socinians denied that i be doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and the proper deity of Jesus Christ were to be found in the Bible. They thus revived the views of the earlier Aria ns. while at the same time they carried their denials much further. Their views have found exprcs-iou in one wing of the Unitarian and Uni- versalis! churches of the present day. Their most gen- eral acceptance is in New England and in pans oi Great
Britain; but there are Socinian churches in nearly if
not quite all Prote.-tani communities. The Reforma- tion in England was partly religious, partly political. Henry VIII did not intend to modify the doctrine ofthe Church, but only its government, and it- government
onlj -o tar a- to secure it- indepeiidc ■ of the papacy
The movement was too deep and popular for him to control: but the royal and ecclesiastical influence com- bined to retain the Episcopal form of government ami
PROTESTANTS
695
PROTODIACON
the union of Cliurch and State. Both are still preserved in the Church of England, and the former in the Epis- copal Cliurch of this country. Its symbols of doctrine allow equal liberty to Arminians and to Calvinists. The civil and religious controversies which, a few centuries later, plunged England into civil war, gave impetus and organization, though not birth, to the idea of absolute ecclesiastical independence. The result was the organ- ization of churches which were mainly Calvinistic in belief, but in which the absolute right of the people of each < Iburch to manage their own affairs was maintain- ed. In England they took the name of Independents, in the United States that of Congregationalists. As early as the days of Luther, the Reformers were divided on the question of baptism ; those who maintained that baptism should be administered only by immersion and to adults took the name of Baptists, which they retain to this day. The 18th century witnessed a general re- vival of religious spirit, especially in England and the United States, differing from that which characterized the Reformation in that it was less a battle against er- ror in doctrine, and more a simple awakening of Chris- tian zeal to use for the redemption of the masses the truths which the Reformation had brought to light. Out of this awakening grew Methodism, which is sub- stantially Arminian in doctrine and Episcopal in gov- ernment, and differs from the Episcopal Church, from which it came out, rather in the spirit and character of its adherents than in theology. These churches rep- resent the chief forms of Protestantism. There is also a large number of minor denominations, but most of them are offshoots from these great branches."
The total Protestant population of the world is esti- mated (in Johnson's Illustrated Family Atlas) to be between ninety-five and ninety -six millions, a little more than half the Roman Catholic population. It is thus divided:
United States 25
British America 2
South America
Dutch American possessions
Danish and Swedish possessions
Hayti
Spain
Portugal
France 1.
Austria and Venetia 3.
Prussia 11
Rest of Germany proper 11,
Italy, without Venetia
Swi i zerlaud 1
Holland 2,
Belgiam
Great Britain and Ireland 23
Denmark 2,
Sweden and Norway
Russia
Turkey
Ionian Islands.
Asiatic Russia
China
East and Farther India
Archipelago —
Persia
Arabia
English African possessions
Algeria
Egypt
Liberia
Madagascar
Australia and Polynesia 1
0011.1)00
oyo.noo
50,000 32,000 50,000 10,000 7,000 10,000 501, '.'50 233,448 2*7.44* 075.5112 50,000 ,482,848 023,000 25,000
,000,000 ,070,0110
,403.0110
,040,000
10,001)
2,000 40,000 30,000 3011,0110 50,000
1.000
2,000 050,000 10,000
2,000 50,000
7,000
100,000
Trof. Schem in his Statistics of the World (3d ed. 1875) estimates the aggregate population connected with or under the influence of Protestant churches at the close of 1874 as follows :
Divisions.
Protestants.
Total Population.
33,000,000 71.800,000 1,800,000 1,200,000 2,200,000
84,500,000
301,600.000
798,000,000
202,500,000
4,400,000
Australia and Polynesia...
See PROTESTANTISM ; REFORMATION. (J. II. W.)
Protesters. See Resolutioners ■ Scotland, Churches in.
Protevangelium, a spurious gospel ascribed to James, containing an account of the birth of Mary and of Christ. It is supposed to have been originally com- posed in Hebrew. Postellius brought the MS. "of this gospel from the Levant, translated it into Latin, and sent it to Oporinus, a printer at Basle, where Bibliander, a Protestant divine, and the professor of divinity at Zu- rich, caused it to be printed in 1552. Postellius asserts- that it was publicly read as canonical in the Eastern churches. See Gospels, Spurious.
Prothade, St., a French prelate who flourished near the opening of the 7th century ; he died before 625. He has been called son of the patrician Prothade, but without proof. It is at least certain that he was the successor of St. Nicet in the metropolitan see of Be- sancon. He compiled a ritual for the use of the two cathedral churches at Besancon— St. E^ienne and St. Jean, which has not reached us without interpolations; it has recently been published by the abbe Richard.
Prother, Amos Summers, a minister of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, was born in Clarke County, Ind., April 17, 1832. He went to Iowa when quite young, and with his parents settled near Libertyville, Jefferson County. He was converted in 184G, and at once joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. His convictions of duty pointed him to the ministry as a life-work, and, the better to fit himself for the sacred office, he entered the Mount-Pleasant Collegiate Institute, afterwards the Iowa Wesleyan University, in 1852, where he continued his studies until 1857, when he graduated. He was li- censed to preach while at college. After graduating he was immediately employed on the Dodgeville Circuit by the presiding elder, and in 1857 joined the Iowa Conference. His appointments were Denmark, Wapello, Dodgeville, Grand View, Crawfordsville, New London, Kossuth, Montezuma, New Sharon, and Birmingham, At the last-named place he died, April 1, 1873, greatly respected by his own people and the Church generally.