THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
stations on the same day, or several stopping-places in a procession, as, for instance, at the festival of Christmas, on the day of the Greater Litany, and at Vespers in Easter Week " (Duchesne, ut sup., pp. 122-123). Liturgical stations for Monday and Thursday were instituted later, but the early Church, with the exception of Wednesday and Friday, recognized no other station except Maundy Thursday. Saturday is sometimes erroneously called a station day, but the service for that day is really the Easter Vigil anticipated.
2. Stations of the Cross: This practise, familiar to every one who enters the Roman Catholic Church, is of modern origin. It is said that Alvar of Cordova (q.v.), upon returning from Palestine, caused various oratories to be constructed in the Convent of St. Dominic, forming " stations " where the chief incidents of the passion were portrayed. The idea was no doubt suggested by a reminiscence of the crusades, during which period indulgence was granted those who in person visited the Holy Sepulcher. The Franciscans, who were the ecclesiastical custodians of the holy places in Jerusalem, borrowed the idea and developed it into the " Road of the Cross " (Via cruris) with fourteen distinct stations. The practise obtained but slowly in the church. It was not until late in the seventeenth century that the stations were officially recognized by the popes — Innocent XL, 1686; Innocent XII., 1694; Benedict XIII., 1726; Clement XII., 1731. Each of the fourteen stations recalls some particular incident of the passion, but not all of them are to be found recorded in the New Testament, for example that which has to do with St. Veronica. Each station is marked by a cross which alone secures indulgence; pictures are not necessary, though they are commonly found. The fourteen stations are as follows: (1) The judgment of Pilate; (2) the taking of the cross; (3) Christ's first fall; (4) Christ's meeting with his mother; (5) The bearing of the cross by Simon of Cyrene ; (6) the wiping of Christ's face with a handkerchief by St. Veronica; (7) Christ's second fall; (8) Christ's word to the women of Jerusalem, " Weep not for me "; (9) Christ's third fall; (10) Christ stripped of his garments; (11) the crucifixion; (12) Christ's death; (13) the descent from the cross; (14) the burial. An unauthorized innovation sometimes added is a fifteenth, the discovery of the true cross by St. Helena (see Cross, Ixvextiox of the).
The stations may be within or without the church edifice. The privilege of instituting them pertains to the Franciscan Order. Bishops not belonging to this order and even simple priests, when duly authorized, may, however, establish stations of the crtxs within churches, but not without.
3. In French Usage: In France, until the recent dissolution of the concordat of 1801, the word " station " had a particular application. The fifteenth article of the Articles Organiques, of eighteenth Germinal, year X (1801), provided that " Solemn preachings, called sermons, and those known under the name of Stations, at Advent and Careme shall not be made save by such priests as have received special authorization of the Bishop."
James Westfall Thompson.
Bibliography: L. Thomassin, Traiti historique et dogmatique sur divers ponts de la discipline de Viglise, part ii., chap. 15, Paris, 1682-83; Bingham, Origines, XIII., ix. 2, XXI., iii.; Duchesne, ut sup. ; H. Liemke, Quadragesimal-Fasten der Kirche, Paderborn, 1854; H. Thurston, The Stations of the Cross, their Hist, and Purpose, London, 1906; DC A, ii. 1928-29.
STATISTICS, ECCLESIASTICAL: A numerical representation of the progress and state of the Church within given periods by the collation and classification of religious data. For a long time [in Germany] the church registers furnished the principal material for all statistics, and hence it is that theologians have taken a prominent part in the development of this science. But perceiving that private studies in this respect are not sufficient, in more recent times the authorities of State and Church engage in the periodical publication of official tables, thus making possible more accurate and complete statistics. In the German Empire the quinquennial census includes also ecclesiastical data. The state church authorities make a tabulated report of their districts annually, and these are collated by a statistical committee under the German Evangelical auspices. These results are supplemented by those of societies and private labors, and official experts in empire, states, and cities, by improved methods, carry them to further results and conclusions and combine them with those pertaining to other vital interests. Statistical year-books appear also in most countries. The International Statistical Institute of London assembles every two years a special congress for the mutual promotion of statistical labors. The statistics of missions provides a comparative survey at the time being of Christianity and the non-Christian religions. Besides, denominational statistics has at the present time obtained a prominent place, not only in determining the relative losses and gains but also in the study of significant problems. Specially valuable are these methods for the unbiased tabulation of such items as theological growth and congregational offerings. An application to the concrete conditions and relations of the church life of the present has been made by P. Drews, Evangelische Kirchenkunde. This presents, among other results, the increase and decrease of communicants in the state churches, the ratio of baptisms to births, of sacred ceremonies to marriages, of burials to deaths, the number of members who vote for the governing board of the church, as well as conclusions from the numbers of those entering and leaving the churches.
(F. W. Dibelics.)
In the United States of America the decennial census now includes materials upon religious denominations, and under the general law regarding the census, dated May 23, 1850, in the censuses taken since that year the government has been approaching more nearly the idea of completeness. The publication of the special report on Religious Bodies, 1906, issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census (2 vols., Washington, 1910) makes available to the general public the latest governmental tabulation of statistics, and affords a review almost exhaustive of all matters which are institutionally connected with religious life. Other data (annual) are furnished by