_European Protestant Churches. The Calvinistic Churches._--Rather more of the liturgical element in the shape of a set form of words enters into the service of the French and German Calvinistic Protestants. The Sunday morning service as drawn up by Calvin was to open with a portion of Holy Scripture and the recitation of the ten commandments. Afterwards the minister, inviting the people to accompany him, proceeded to a confession of sins and supplication for grace. Then one of the Psalms of David was sung. Then came the sermon, prefaced by an extempore prayer and concluding with the Lord's Prayer, creed and benediction. The communion service began with an exhortation leading up to the apostles' creed; then followed a long exhortation, after which the bread and wine were distributed to the people, who advanced in reverence and order, while a Psalm was being sung, or a suitable passage of Scripture was being read. After all had communicated a set form of thanksgiving was said by the minister. Then the Song of Simeon was sung by the congregation, who were then dismissed with the blessing. This form of service has been modified in various ways from time to time, but it remains substantially the type of service in use among the reformed Calvinistic churches of Germany, Switzerland and France. _The Lutheran Church._--Luther was far more conservative than the rest of the Protestant reformers and his conservatism appeared nowhere more than in the service-books which he drew up for the use of the church which bears his name. In 1523 he published a treatise _Of the Order of the Service in the Congregation_ and in 1526 he published the _German Mass_. Except that the vernacular was substituted for the Latin language, the old framework and order of the Roman missal were closely followed, beginning with the Confiteor, Introit, Kyrie eleison, still always sung in Greek, Gloria in excelsis, &c. The text of this and other Lutheran services is given in _Agende für christliche Gemeinden des Lutherischen Bekenntnisses_ (Nördlingen, 1853). At the same time Luther was tolerant and expressed a hope that different portions of the Lutheran church would from time to time make such changes or adaptations in the order of service as might be found convenient. The Lutheran churches of northern Europe have not been slow to avail themselves of this advice and permission. Most of them have drawn up liturgies for themselves, sometimes following very closely, sometimes differing considerably from the original service composed by Luther himself. In 1822, on the union of the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinistic) churches of Prussia, a new liturgy was published at Berlin. It is used in its entirety in the chapel royal, but great liberty as to its use was allowed to the parochical clergy, and considerable variations of text appear in the more recent editions of this service-book.