14 Bille—A History of the Danes in America. 
had at this time associated themselves with Norwegian and 
Swedish churches; but though no statistics can be had on this 
point, it is quite safe to say that not more than five per cent, 
of the Danes in this country were in this way associated with 
the Lutheran church. 
The following table of percentages of the Norwegians and 
Danes in America who belonged to the church of the mother 
country, 1860-90, shows more clearly still the difference exist¬ 
ing between them on this point: 
Norwegians. 
Danes. 
1860 . 
30.2 
1870 . 
34.1 
• • • 
1880 . 
53.2 
6.8 
1890 . 
58.9 
10.1 
In connection with this it must be borne in mind that there 
have always been some Danes within the Norwegian church; but 
if these should all return to the Danish church it would not de¬ 
crease the Norwegian by more than two per cent., nor increase 
the Danish by more than five per cent. 
That the Danish church society should be small would naturally 
be expected from the fact that the settlements were insignificant 
and much scattered; but this certainly can not be assigned as 
a reason for the indifference which the people actually within 
the church have shown towards it and the institutions it has fos¬ 
tered. On this point the difference between the Norwegians and 
Danes is as striking as that shown by the percentages of settle¬ 
ments and church members. 
The Norwegian ministers, especially in the beginning, had al¬ 
most autocratic control over their congregations; while the Dan¬ 
ish ministers, with very few exceptions, had to submit meekly to 
whatever terms their congregations saw fit to impose upon them. 
The only power they possessed was the power of advice, and 
they had to use that with considerable discretion in order to keep 
their positions. 1 
1 But few of them have kept their positions for any length of time. The 
majority do not average more than five years in a place, and they usually 
leave because of some misunderstanding with their congregations. 
