Religion 329 



it now. or the amount of power intrusted to the 

 clergy in matters of education, .etc., Ave shall show 

 some instances hereafter. That they do not misuse 

 their powers or interfere overmuch with the liberty of 

 the people, may be judged from the fact that there can 

 hardly be said to be in the country an anti-clerical 

 party. 



There is nothing exciting or outwardly attractive 

 about the religious observances of Norway. The only 

 beauty that the modern Norwegian churches possess at 

 service time is imparted to them by their congregations, 

 tlie women in their picturesque bright dresses, long 

 fair hair, the men in their jackets and buttons and their 

 knee-breeches. But this dull decorum suits the Nor- 

 wegian peasant. Church-going with him is an ancient 

 custom ; and it implies much more than a religious 

 ceremony. It affords the time and place of meeting 

 for men and women from distant parts, many of whom 

 lead very quiet and almost solitary lives. In the 

 intervals between the services they exchange gossip, and 

 even settle questions affecting the township— for the 

 township is generally identical with the parish. Thus 

 the traveller will see on Sundays the boats stealing 

 across the fjords on every hand, and the steamers 

 crowded with peasants in their Sunday dresses. 



A {q\\ of the illuminati, such as Ibsen, who have 

 taken their ideas from abroad, may rail against the 

 narrowness and the formalism of the average Norwegian 

 pra^st (as Ibsen does expressly in Brand and indirectly 

 in many of his social dramas); but no party in the 

 country is eager to curtail the authority of the Church. 



The low standard of sexual morality in Norway 



