BEFORMATORY SCHOOLS 474 REFORMED CHURCH any Protestant Church were members only on condition of their accepting the Church's interpretation of the contents of the Bible, and since each different Church deemed itself the special deposi- tary of the only true conception of the perfect will of God. Nevertheless, it was from this attitude of the Protestant reformers to the Bible that the develop- ments of modern thought sprang. A re- former like John Knox would have stamped out every form of thought hos- tile to his own synthesis of things divine and human; but it was not in the power of the Protestant system to do what had been so effectually done by the Church of the Middle Ages. In the mediaeval con- ception Church and State made one organism; what menaced the life of the one menaced the life of the other. Hence the State was at the Church's bidding whenever its arm was needed to deal with any suggestion of heresy. But having no great central head, such an organic union was impossible for any Protestant Church, and religious error could not be regarded as a crime against the existing government. So complete was the revolution wrought by this changed relation of Church and State that toleration of different creeds, and not an iron uniformity, was in time seen to be the indispensable condition of civil society. But in this lies the fundamen- tal distinction between medisevalism and the modern spirit. Medievalism rested on the belief that society was threatened if any of its members questioned the body of truth of which the Church was the custodian; it is the distinctive prin- ciple of the modem spirit that truth shall be followed wherever facts are be- lieved to lead. REFORMATORY SCHOOLS, schools instituted for the training of juvenile offenders who have been convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment. The first reformatory managed under legislative control was the one estab- lished in New York in 1824, known as the New York House of Refuge. Its success was so marked that similar in- stitutions were established throughout the country. See Juvenile Courts. REFORMED CHURCH, the name given first to the Helvetic Church, which rejected both transubstantiation and con- substantiation, regarding the communion as simply a commemorative ordinance. Afterward, the name Reformed Churches was extended to all other religious bodies who held similar sacramental views. The_ founder of the Helvetic Church was Ulrich Zwingli, who began to preach reformed doctrines in 1516. Between 1526 and 1532 the movement was com- municated from Berne; it was at once German and French, and extended to the center of Switzerland from the gorges of the Jura to the deepest valleys of the Alps. In 1532 Geneva took the lead. Here the Reformation was essentially French. The first or German part of the movement was conducted by Zwingli, till his death at the battle of Cappel (Oct. 11, 1531), the second by various reform- ers, the third part by William Farel, and then by John Calvin. REFORMED CHURCH, a religious body in the United States, whose desig- nation has been changed from that of its progenitor, the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, which arose in the Neth- erlands early in the 16th century and attained its form and organization dur- ing the struggle against Philip II. under the leadership of the princes of Orange. The Church was introduced into America early in that century. Public worship was commenced at New Amsterdam in 1643. After the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English in 1664 the growth of the Church was slow. The Dutch language was used exclusively in worship down to 1763. About the middle of the 18th century arose the noted coetus and conferentie controversy, which turned on the question of depend- ence of the Church of Holland. An in- dependent Church organization was ef- fected in 1771. From 1817 to 1857 the Reformed Church co-operated with other bodies in supporting foreign missions; and from 1836 with the American Board. In 1857 an amicable separation from the latter was effected, and the missions of Amoy and Arcot were transferred to the Reformed Church. The doctrinal stand- ards of the Church are: (1) the Belgic confession of faith; (2) the Heidelberg catechism; (3) the canons of the Synod of Dort. The synod of 1874 adopted a revised liturgy, the use of which is optional. _ The government of the Church is according to the Genevan model. The officers are ministers, elders, and dea- cons, who compose the consistory, to which the government of the individual church belongs. The classis, consisting of the ministers within a certain district and one elder delegated from each church, corresponds to the presbytery in the Presbyterian Church. The particu- lar synods, of which there are four, New York, Albany, New Brunswick, and Chi- cago, are delegated bodies composed of four ministers and four elders from each classis within the bounds of each synod. These are courts of appeal from the de- cisions of the classis. The general synod is the highest court of appeal, and exer- cises a general supervisory power over
