RELIGION STATISTICS.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 December 1883, Page 9

RELIGION STATISTICS.

The following from Whitaker's Almanack is the estimated numbers of religious denominations amongst English-speaking communities throughout the world :

MODERN MIRACLES, The Catholics have a Holy Shrine at Caravaggio, the church of which has been visited this year by more than one hundred thousand pilgrims. The Virgin Mary appears there. An eye-witness, writing to the London Court Journal, says : " Each day, at noon, the vision of the Virgin Mary rises from a dark recess behind one of the pillars of the aisle, and the struggles of the thousands of eager devotees to catch a glimpse of the holy apparition are most extraordinary. The shrieks and screams of the victims who are thrown down and trampled on amid the confusion are appalling. Those who cannot approach near enough to the shrine, throw handfuls of copper coin against the iron grating which encloses it, and the shock of the metallic sound amid the deep, monotonous intoning of the priests, seems to produce a kind of frenzy in some of the visitors, who rush wildly about, shrieking, and tearing their hair, and without mercy treading on the limbs of the paralytic patients outstretched upon the pavement. The simple village church, which, in ordinary times, is considered full to overflowing when only containing a few hundreds, is made at this festival to hold not less then ten thousand individuals, who, although suffocating, perspiring, trembling beneath the heat and vapor, yet find strength enough to ' howl' forth their invocations. * * * " It was curious to observe the sudden excitement of the people on the Piazza Maggiore each time the long, dismal howling of the pilgrims within the church announced the appearance of the misty vapor that arises within the shrine just before the appearance of the Virgin Mary. In an instant all the people fall to the ground, and shriek forth the litany composed for the occasion. The crippled patients fall back upon the stones, the mugs and drinking vessels are left to float upon the surface of the fountain, and then a few moments' silence succeeds the din, and all is calm again." Comment would be superfluous.

Episcopalians . . 20,000,000 Methodists of all descriptions . . 15,000,000 Roman Catholics . . 14,000,000 Presbyterians of all descriptions . . 10,250,000 Baptists of all descriptions .. 8,000,000 Congregationalists .. 6,000,000 Unitarians . . 1,000,000 Freethinkers . . 1,000,000 Minor Religious Sects .. 1,750,000 Of no particular Religion .. ... 8,500,000 English-speaking population •• .. 85,500,000