One of the main differences between a church unreformed and a church reformed lies in this: that in the former the externals of public worship are magnified in importance even to the minutest detail, while in the latter the weight attached to such matters is diminished in a greater or less degree. Considerable variety is apparent in the importance attached by different reformed churches to these matters, and, in consequence, considerable variety is apparent in the extent to which they are elaborated. Those churches which at the Reformation retained the episcopate, retained with it, in a more or less modified form, many of the old usages; while those churches which abolished the hierarchical and restored the democratic system of church government, for the most part abolished the customs of their pre-reformation predecessors. Perhaps among no bodies of Christians are the externals of worship so little heeded as among the English dissenting sects; these, being composed of seceders from a reformed church, may be said to have undergone a double reformation, which has had the effect of expunging the last traces of ritual from their services. In the consequent neglect of order, the wearing of robes of office has become entirely optional, not only with the different sects, but even with the individual ministers; and where a gown is worn, as no definite shape of gown is prescribed, the choice of robe remains optional. Hence, these bodies need not concern us further, as the discussion of their vestments would be merely an uninteresting and monotonous account of the practice of isolated modern congregations. The four churches whose usage must occupy our attention in the present chapter are the Lutheran churches of Germany and Scandinavia, the Episcopal churches of England and of Spain, and the Presbyterian churches, with especial reference to the church of Scotland. § I. THE LUTHERAN CHURCHES. Of all reformations, the least thorough, as far as outward observance was concerned, was the reformation in which Martin Luther played the leading part. In Lübeck is the brass of the Lutheran Bishop Tydeman, who died in 1561, representing him in full Eucharistic vestments, in no wise differing from the vestments of his non-reformed predecessors. At the present day the predominance of the Evangelical church in Germany (as distinguished from the Lutheran) has abolished vestments, with the exception of the Geneva gown and its attendants, among the Protestants; but in Sweden and Denmark, where the Protestant Episcopal is still the national church, the old vestments, with some modifications and omissions, are retained.