THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The religious needs of the Evangelical population with reference to clergy, church buildings, and funds can not be supplied in equal proportion throughout the country. On Jan. 1, 1905, entire Prussia had 24 genera! superintendents, 639 superintendents (including the metropolitans), 9,620 clergymen in independent offices, 8,390 parishes, 10,456 spiritual offices, 1 1,795 churches, 2. Ecclesi- and 4.322 other buildings devoted to astical church service. The province of Sax- Facilities, ony, the mother country of the Reformation, is best provided for; as it possesses on the average one clergyman for every 1,600 and one church for every 1,000 Evangelicals. The most unsatisfactory conditions exist in Berlin and in the provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia, Posen, Westphalia, and Rhenish Prussia; in Berlin on account of the densely crowded population for whom there are only few churches and proportionately few clergymen; in the provinces on account of the wide extent of local districts, and because these are frequently merged into one parish, owing to the preponderance of Roman Catholic numbers. To illustrate the inequitable distribution in spite of the progress made, the Church of the Apostle Paul in Schoneberg, Berlin, has seven clergymen to 140,000 in comparison with sundry rural congregations of one clergyman to 300. In the matter of dioceses, some consist of twenty to forty parishes; others of only two to ten. The Prussian Evangelical military clergy stands under the chaplain-general of the army, who is at the same time over the imperial body-guard and chaplain of the navy. Every provincial army-corps and the guard have their superior chaplains, of whom there are in Prussia thirteen, with seventy-six subordinate division and garrison chaplains. Special difficulties regarding the care of congregations in individual localities arise from the fact that the language of the Evangelical population is not everywhere German, the Slavic in its various dialects being the main exception. At the close of 1907 there were in Prussia about 197 Evangelical congregations using the Polish language, East Prussia alone having 123 Polish congregations with 136 clergymen, and 71 congregations in which 88 clergymen preached Lithuanian. The Danish language was used in 113 churches of Sleswick-Holstein. The supply of the churches with clergy has not kept pace with the increase of population. From 1895 the number of candidates for the ministerial office has decreased more than one-half. In the old Prussian state church 523 candidates were examined in 1895; in 1906 only 202: ordained in 1895, 312; in 1906, 242. In 1907 there were only 46 candidates available in East and West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Silesia, and Westphalia, in Saxony about 25. In consequence a great many assistant pastorates remain vacant. So far as ascertained for 1907, 38 new parishes with 98 clerical positions were organized to an increase in the Evangelical population of 300,000. The number of theological students decreased from 4,536 in 1900 to 2,228 in the winter semester of 1907-08.
In the mean time a marked improvement and legal regulation in the remuneration of the clergy
and the care of the retired and of the bereft survivors has been made; such as, from 1895, the uniform regulation of a common fund for the widows
and orphans of clergymen; from 1899,
3. Auxiliary of an auxiliary salary fund uniformly
Support, regulating incomes to the limit of 4,800
marks; and the synodical legislation in 1907-08 for the extension of the latter and the establishment of a retired pension fund for the Evangelical clergy. These measures, it is hoped, will offset the alarming decline in clerical and church facilities. The auxiliary salary fund by the act which went into effect Apr. 1, 1908, regulates salaries up to a benefice of 6,000 marks. Below that all positions are divided into nine classes based upon their ground income and ranging by intervals of 300 marks from class I., 1,800 marks, to class IX., 5,400. Thus, a pastor receives, beside parsonage or equivalent", in class I., 1,800 marks, to which the auxiliary fund adds 600. Moreover, this classification serves also as the scale for increments due to length of service, beginning at the end of the third and proceeding by intervals of three years to the end of the twenty-fourth. The auxiliary fund contributes the excess beyond the ground income and advances additions so that every clergyman is guaranteed from 2,800 marks after the third year of service to 6,000 after the twenty-fourth. Besides, in cases of necessity, additions can also be made, even permanently, to the ground income. By the synodical act of Dec, 1907, the pastor will receive a recompense for removal from charge to charge. The auxiliary fund is instituted by the state churches, and enjoys a legal status. It is administered by a presiding board of five members appointed by the king and an administrative committee of fifty-five members, representatives of the national synods. The parishes have to render, under receipt of the income of the prebendary estate, besides the ground income and various additions to the clerical incumbent, an insurance contribution, graduated according to the class to which they belong, ranging from 1,500 marks in class I. to 300 marks in classes V-IX. In the case of inability, they may receive revocable aid from the reenforcement fund of the consistory (see below). To inaugurate the adequate disbursement of the fund the state budget for 1908-09 assigned 10,000,000 marks. The deficit is covered by the state churches which tax their members on the basis of the state levy. With reference to the retired pension fund, by the act which went into effect Apr. 1, 1908, every clerical who is disqualified by physical disability or the decline of physical or mental powers, or in any case after attaining the age of seventy, is entitled to an annual pension, which is in no case to be less than 1,800 marks nor more than 6,000. This fund, organized like the auxiliary fund, is raised, apart from the contributions for the clergy of societies in Prussia and elsewhere, by an annual state appropriation of 1,600,000 marks, and the levy of the state churches which covers the deficit. In consequence of the legislation of 1889 and 1892 there was founded a special fund for the widows and orphans of deceased clergymen. In 1895 the other state churches joined the fund and it is now