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SUPERINTENDENT: The title of a German ecclesiastical officer. Among later schoolmen " superintendent " was applied, as by Gabriel Biel (Super quattuor libros sententiarum, dist. 24, qu. 1), to bishops, in so far as they were governing officers, this translation of episkopoi occurring as early as Augustine ("City of God," xxix. 19) and in Jerome (Epist., lxxxv.), and after them in the Corpus juris canonici (c. 11, C. 8, qu. 1, and D. 93, c. 24). The term was applied in Saxony to the permanent supervisory officers that were instituted after the visitations had been completed (cf. E. Sehling, Die V Kirchenordnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts, i. 142 sqq.). The Saxon superintendents of 1527 and later were intended to be no other than state executive officials. But at the start they officiated as subordinates to the visitation committees, and afterward to the consistories. The example of Saxony was often followed, though the term " superintendent " was not generally retained. In South Germany the designation " dean " is occasionally in vogue (as in Bavaria); in the German Reformed churches " inspector," and, locally, " metropolitan," " senior," " ephor," " provost." But this involves no material alteration. The bishops of the Evangelical State Church of Balkan Transylvania are superintendents.

Within the area of his province, the superintendent exercises supervision over the official administration and conduct of the clergy and of the inferior church servants; also at times over the conduct, and sometimes the studies, of ministerial candidates, who come to him for permission to preach in particular instances. Where pastoral vacancies occur, he must provide proper supplies, conduct the pastoral election, and induct the new pastor. In the event of disputes between pastor and congregation, he is the competent referee. He has, furthermore, oversight of administration of church property. To what extent the superintendent has the right to define disciplinary penalties, or independently to institute official suspensions, is a matter which varies according to special statutes. Various details of the superintendent's activity also involve the cooperation of the civil organism.

There are superintendents of higher and lower grades. The former class especially includes the general superintendents, whose discretion in the several state churches, however, shows very differ-

ent official features. In Old Prussia, they are spiritual consistorial directors beside the temporal consistorial president. Their sphere of action stretches over an entire province; and, if need be, they exercise very personal influence over the superintendents and pastors under their jurisdiction. Elsewhere, while certain superintendents are indeed members, as well, of the church governing boards, it is only in this attribute that they rank higher. Recent modifications in the superintendents' position have their warrant in the introduction of presbyterial and synodical constitutional arrangements, by virtue of which, in most German Evangelical state churches, the previous consistorial church organization has become a so-called mixed one.

The German Evangelical state churches have, for the most part, adopted the synodical limitation of the superintendent's office, which varies in different localities.

$rHLIOaRAPBY: W. W. J. Schmidt, Der Wirkungskreis and die Wirkungsart des Superintendenten in der eeangelischen Kirche, Quedlinburg, 1837; J. C. W. Augusti, Beitrgge zur Statistik .·. der esangelischen Kirche, iii., no. 14, Leipsic, 1837; E. Friedberg, Das geltende Verfassungsrecht der evangelischen Landeskirchen in Deutwhland, Leipsic, 1888; and the works on Kirchenrecht by A. L. Richter, § 72, 8th ed., ed. W. Kahl, ib. 1886, and E. Friedberg, pp. 236 eqq., 6th ed., ib. 1909.

SUPERNATURAL RELIGION: The title of a work in criticism which evoked much attention in the last part of the nineteenth century. Its author, Walter Richard Cassels, was born in London in 1826. His early ventures in authorship were poetical. His first book bore the title Eidolon; or, the Course of the Soul, and other Poems (London, 1850), a critic of which wrote in The Saturday Review (i. 236): " He must do more and also do less; and we will hazard a prediction that he will at last do something which will not be forgotten." The prediction was fulfilled when, in 1874-77, he published Supernatural Religion (3 vols.; latest popular ed., 1 vol., 1902). I ran through many editions, causing a stir similar to but more profound than that made by Essays and Reviews (q.v.).

To understand the purpose of the book and the stir it made, a word regarding the history of Bible study in England is necessary. In the eighteenth century Deism (q.v.) had made a fierce and prolonged attack on the traditional conception of the supernatural. The defense, in substance, consisted in showing that " revelation " was a republication of " reason " with divine authority, that authority being authenticated by the supernatural in two forms, (1) prophecy conceived as prediction of events in the life of Christ, and (2) miracles. For the time being the defense succeeded, in part because deism was lacking in constructive force, but mainly because of the vast revival of religion (Wesleyan and Evangelical movements; see METHODISTS; and REVIVALS). The traditional conception of Holy Scriptures was grappled to the heart of the nation. England had no constructive philosophical movement and no critical movement of her own. The entire strength of the nation went into the