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 SILESinS

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SILETZ

Upper Silesia, died in 1257 at Cracow. A third native saint of Silesia was a relative of Hyacinth, Bronislawa, who became a Premonstratensian in 1217 and passed forty years in the practice of severe penances. Besides the monastery of Leubus the Cistercians had monasteries also at Kamenz (1248), Heinrichau (1228), Rauden (1252), Himmelwitz (1280), and Griissau (1292). The wealthiest convent was the Abbey of Trebnitz for Cistercian nuns founded by St. Hedwig who was buried there. Celebrated monasteries of the Augustinians were the one on the Sande at Breslau, which was founded at Gorkau about 1146 and was transferred to Breslau about 1148, and that at Sagan, established in 1217 at Naumburg on the Bober and transferred to Sagan in 1284. There were also a large number of houses belonging to the Premonstratensians, Franciscans, and orders of knights, as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of the Cross, Knights Templar. Up to the mifldle of the fourteenth century forty-five monas- teries for men anrl fourteen for women had been es- tablished. The ruling family, the Piasts, repeatedly divided their inheritance so that in the fourteenth century Silesia contained no less than eighteen prin- cipalities. This made it all the easier for the Bishop of Breslau as Prince of Neisse and Duke of Grottkau to become the most important of the ruling princes. Silesia came under the suzerainty of the kings of Bohemia in 1327-29. As Bohemia was controlled by Germany the change was more favourable for coloniza- tion than if it had fallen to Poland. Silesia suffered terribly during the Hussite Wars (1420-37). The Hussites repeatedly undertook marauding expedi- tions, and hardly any city except Breslau escaped the havoc they wrought. About forty cities were laid in ashes. The clergy were burnt or put to death in other ways; the nobility grew poor; the peasants became serfs; the fields lay uncultivated; the "golden" Diocese of Breslau became a diocese of "filth". In 1409 Silesia came under the suzerainty of Hungary. However, as in 1526 Hungary, with Silesia, and Bohemia became at the same time posses- sions of the Habsburgs, from this time the province was once more regarded as a dependency of Bohemia. The Reformation made rapid progress in Silesia. For the causes of this see Breslau, The Prince- Bishopric OF. In the same article also the course of the Reformation and that of the counter-Reformation are fully treated. A large share of the credit for the restoration and firm establishment of Catholicism is due to the Jesuits, who during the years 1622-98 established in Silesia nine large colleges, each with a gymnasium, four residences, and two missions, and brought under their control all the higher schools of the country. This control endured, as Frederick the Great continued his protection of the Jesuits, even after the suppression of the order, up to 1800. In the seventeenth century Silesia obtained great renown through the two Silesian schools of poetry, the chief of these poets being Martin Opitz, Friedrich von Logau, and Andreas Gryphius. In 1702 the Jesuit college at Breslau was changed into the Leo- poldine University (see Breslau, University of). At the close of the three Silesian wars (1740-2, 1744-5, 1756-63) the greater part of Silesia belonged to Prussia. By this change Catholicism lost the privileged position which it had regained in the coun- ter-Reformation, even though Frederick the Great did not impair the possessions of the Church, as happened later (1810-40). In 1815 the Congress of Vienna enlarged Silesia by the addition of about half of Lausitz (Lusatia). During the decade of the forties the sect of "German Catholics" developed from Silesia as the starting-point; this sect was founded at Laurahiitte in Upper Silesia by the ex- chaplain, John Ronge. Finally a brief mention should here be made of the enormous economic de-

velopment of the province in the last fifty years, especially in the mining of coal, the mining and work- ing of metals, and the manufacture of chemicals and machines. In Upper Silesia especially manufac- tures have advanced with American rapidity. Ec- clesiastically the entire province belongs to the Prince Bishopric of Breslau with the following ex- ceptions: the commissariat of Katscher, which con- sists of the Archipresbyterates of Katscher, Hult- schin, and Leobschutz with 44 parishes and 130,944 Catholics, and belongs to the Archdiocese of Olmiitz; the county of Glatz, which has 51 parishes and 146,673 Catholics, and belongs to the Archdiocese of Prague. II. Austrian Silesia. — Austrian Silesia is that part of Silesia which remained an Austrian possession after 1763. It is a crownland with an area of 1987 square miles and a poi)ulation of 727,000 persons. Of its population 84-73 per cent are Catholics; 14 per cent are Protestants; 44-69 per cent are Ger- mans; 33-31 per cent Poles; 22-05 per cent Czechs. As in Prussian Silesia, agriculture, mining, and manu- factures are in a very flourishing condition. The districts of Teschen and Neisse belong to the Prince Bishopric of Breslau, those of Troppau and Jagern- dorf to the Archdiocese of Olmiitz.

Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, I-XVI (Breslau, 1835-97); Codex diplomaticus SilesirB, I-XXV (Breslau, 1857-1909); Grunhagbn, Gesch. Schlesiens, I-II (Gotha, 1884-86); Mor- GENBES8ER, Geschichte von Schlesien (4th ed., Breslau, 1908); Chrzaszcz, Kirchengesch. Schlesiens (Breslau, 1908); Peter, Das Ilerzojjhim Schlesien (Vienna, 1884); SlAma, Oesterreichisch- Schlesien (Prague, 1887).

Klemens Loffler. Silesius, Angelus. See Angelus Silesius.

Siletz Indians, the collective designation for the rapidly dwindling remnant of some thirty small tribes, representing five linguistic stocks — Salishan, Yakonan, Kusan, Takelman, and Athapascan — formerly holding the whole coast country of Oregon from within a few miles of the Columbia southward to the Cahfornia border, extending inland to the main divide of the coast range, together with all the waters of Rogue River. Several of the tribes originally within the range of this territory are now entirely extinct. The others, all on the verge of extinction, are now gathered upon the Siletz Reservation, Lincoln County, North- west Oregon, with the exception of perhaps seventy on the adjoining Grande Ronde reservation to the east. The principal tribes from north to south were the Tillamook (Sal.), Alsea, Siuslaw (Yak.), Coos, Coquille (Kus.), Takelma or Upper Rogue River (Tak.), Six, Joshua, Tututini, Mackanotni, Shasta- costa, Chetco (Ath.). The Athapascan and Takel- man tribes were commonly designated collectively as Rogue River Indians.

Before the beginning of the era of disturbance the Indians of the territory in question may have num- bered 15,000 souls. In 1782-83 a great smallpox epi- demic, which swept the whole Columbian region, re- duced the population by more than one-third. The advent of trading vessels in the Columbia, dating from 1788, introduced disease and dissipation which poi- soned the blood of all the tribes, leading to their rapid and hopeless decline. A visitation of fever and measles about 1823-25 wiped out whole tribes, and by 1850 probably not 6000 survived. In that year gold was discovered in the Rogue River country, resulting in an invasion of miners and the consequent "Rogue River Wars", lasting almost continuously for six years, 1850-56. In these wars the southern tribes of the Oregon coast probably lost over 1000 killed out- right and more than that number through wounds, ex- posure, and starvation due to the destruction of their villages and food stores. On their final subjugation they were removed by military force to the "Coast Reservation", which had been established under vari- ous treaties within the same period, and to which sev-