724,507 Roman Catholics left their Church without adopting any other creed. The losses of the other Churches have been insignificant. In 1910 there were only 12,981 persons in the Historic Lands of the Bohemian Crown who professed no religion. Similarly, the Roman Catholic Uniate Church has lost heavily in Sub-Carpathian Russia, where under Hungary, in 1910, only 558 professed the Orthodox faith, whereas in 1921 the Orthodox numbered 60,986. In the regions inhabited by Czechs all the Protestant Churches show a strong increase of membership, quite apart from the adhesions to the Czechoslovak and the Orthodox Churches. Among the German population, on the other hand, the increase has only been normal. In 1910 there were 157,067 Calvinist and Lutheran Czechs as compared with 153,612 Germans. In 1921 the figures were 231,199 Czechs and 153,767 Germans. The smaller Protestant Churches also show an unusual increase—the Brotherhood from 1,022 to 3,093, the Free Reformed Church from 2,497 to 5,511, the Baptists from 4,072 to 9,360, besides 10,000 Unitarians and 1,455 Methodists. Altogether there were, in 1921, nearly 1,000,000 (990,319) Protestants in the Republic.
Even in the Historical Bohemian Lands and in Slovakia the Orthodox (including the Armenian Orthodox Church) have increased their membership, the totals being 12,111 in 1921 as compared with 2,502 in 1910; and the Old Catholics, who are mainly German, have grown from 17,121 to 20,255. On the other hand, the number of Jews has decreased from 361,650 to 345,342. Yet the Jewish communities show a strong religious life, Orthodox Eastern tenets being preponderant in Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Russia, and more liberal tendencies in the West. Among the Jews Zionism and the Jewish National movement play an important part.
It is natural that the religious developments in our Republic should attract foreign attention, because among us Catholicism is losing ground, while elsewhere it is gaining in authority if not in extent. Even abroad it is beginning to be understood that the importance of the Czech question was not solely political. All our Protestant Churches are linked in various ways with our Reformation and with the Hussite tradition, just as, in Sub-Carpathian Russia, there is an analogous movement towards Orthodoxy. The Czech Reformed Church and the Lutherans have united themselves in the Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren, with which other denominations, including the Unitarians, are also associated. The new
