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 Shortly afterwards it demanded and supported the condemnation of Joan of Arc; during the Reformation it was the animating spirit of all the persecutions directed against Protestants and unbelievers: without having advised the massacre of St Bartholomew, it did not hesitate to justify it, and it inflamed the League by its vigorous anathemas against Henry III. and the king of Navarre, hesitating to recognize the latter even after his abjuration. From this point dates the beginning of its decadence, and when Richelieu in 1626 ordered the reconstruction of its church and buildings the following prophetic couplet was circulated— "Instaurata ruet jamjam Sorbona. Caduca    Dum fuit, inconcussa stetit; renovata peribit."

The declaration of the clergy in 1682, which it subscribed, proved fatal to its authority with the Curia Romana; it revived for a short time under Louis XV. during the struggle against Jansenism, but this was its last exploit; it was suppressed like the old universities in 1792.

When the university of France was organized in 1808 the Sorbonne became the seat of the academie of Paris; and between 1816 and 1821 the faculties of theology (since disappeared), science and literature were installed there. The university library was transferred to the Sorbonne in 1823. In 1868 was organized the École des Hautes Études, and in 1897 the École des Chartes also found its home at the Sorbonne.

In 1852 the Sorbonne was made the property of the city of Paris; a reconstruction of the buildings, projected by Napoleon III., was begun in 1884, under the architectural direction of Nénot, and completed in 1889. The old church containing the tomb of Richelieu was retained on account of its artistic merit. This new Sorbonne is one of the finest university edifices in the world, and has developed into the chief French centre of learning.

See A. Franklin, La Sorbonne (1875) ; Denifle, Documents relatifs à la fondation de I'université de Paris (1883); J. A. Randolph, History of the Sorbonne.

 SORBS, the tribal name of the Slavonic people, whom the Germans call Wends in Lusatia (Lausitz); they call themselves Serbs or Lužičane. Their country includes the western extremity of the kingdom of Saxony and parts of the districts of Hoyerswerda, Muskau, Kottbus, Kalau, Spremberg and Sorau in Prussia; they are now surrounded on all sides by Germans, but they formerly had them as neighbours only on the west along the Fulda, while on the north towards Köpenick they marched with the Lutiči, on the east with the Poles and Silesians along the Queiss and Bobr, and on the south were separated from the Bohemians by the mountains that now make the Austrian frontier. The Sorbs are divided into High and Low along a line from Sagan to Muskau and Spremberg. They are in all about 180,000 in number; 80,000 Low Sorbs and 40,000 of the 100,000 High Sorbs are in Prussia, and 60,000 High Sorbs in Saxony. These have gained definite rights for their language in school and administration, so that Bautzen (Budyšin), their capital, is the intellectual centre not only for Saxon subjects, but for all High Sorbs and to a great extent for Low Sorbs. The first monuments of both dialects belong to the Reformation period, these being translations of Luther's Catechism by Warichius and Moller. Some Sorbs are Protestants, though the Saxon Sorbs are mostly Roman Catholics. Early in the 19th century the High Sorbs had a revival under the leadership of F. A. Klin, a lawyer and politician; A. Seidler, a considerable poet, and S. E. Smoler, an ethnographer and publicist. More recent writers are J. Ćišinsk and J. Radyserb. A Macica or Literary and Linguistic Society was founded in 1847, and publishes a Časopis or Periodical. Meanwhile Low Sorb has remained almost uncultivated owing to the pressure of the Prussian administration.

The two dialects stand between Polish and Čech: they have lost the nasal vowels, have the accent on the first syllable, and make tj into č, dj into z, like Čech, but they retain x and y and, like Polish, have grod for Čech grad. High Sorb has h, Low the original g. They have kept the old aorist and dual. Sorb is usually printed in German blackletter variously adapted; the Macica publishes some books spelt after the Čech system.

(E. H. M.)

SORBY, HENRY CLIFTON (1826–1908), English microscopist and geologist, was born at Woodbourne near Sheffield on the 10th of May 1826. He early developed an interest in natural science, and one of his first papers related to the excavation of valleys in Yorkshire. He subsequently dealt with the physical geography of former geological periods, with the wave-structure in certain stratified rocks, and the origin of slaty cleavage. He took up the study of rocks and minerals under the microscope, and published an important memoir On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals in 1858 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.). In England he was one of the pioneers in petrography; he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London in 1869, and when president of the society he published in his addresses the results of original researches on the structure and origin of limestones, and of the non-calcareous stratified rocks (1879-1880). He had previously been president of the Royal Microscopical Society. He wrote on the construction and use of the micto-spectroscope in the study of animal and vegetable colouring matter, and in later essays he dealt with such varied subjects as the microscopical structure of iron and steel, and the temperature of the water in estuaries. He also applied his skill in making preparations of invertebrate animals for lantern-slides. In 1882 he was elected president of Firth College, Sheffield. He died on the 9th of March 1908.

, magic, enchantment, witchcraft; the use of supposed supernatural powers by the agency of evil spirits called forth by spells, incantations, &c., on the part of the magician, sorcerer or witch. The word meant originally divination by means of the casting or drawing of lots, and is derived from the O. Fr. sorcerie, sorcier, a sorcerer, Med. Lat. sortiarius, one who practises divination by lots, sortes (see, and ).

SORDELLO, a 13th-century Italian troubadour, born at Mantua, who is praised by Dante in the De vulgari eloquio, and in the Purgatorio made the type of patriotic pride. He is also the hero of a well-known poem by Robert Browning. The real Sordello, so far as we have authentic facts about his life, hardly seems to justify these idealizations, though he was the most famous of the Italian troubadours. About 1220 he appears at Florence in a tavern brawl; and in 1226, while at the court of Richard of Bonifazio at Verona, he abducts his master's wife, Cunizza, at the instigation of her brother, Ezzelino da Romano. The scandal resulted in his flight (1229) to Provence, where he seems to have been for some tune. He entered the service of Charles of Anjou, and probably accompanied him (1265) on his Naples expedition; in 1266 he was a prisoner in Naples. The last documentary mention of him is in 1269, and he is supposed to have died in Provence. His didactic poem, L'Ensenhamen d'onor, and his love songs and satirical pieces have little in common with Dante's presentation, but the invective against negligent princes which Dante puts into his mouth in the 7th canto of the Purgatorio is more adequately paralleled in his Serventese (1237) on the death of his patron Blacatz, where he invites the princes of Christendom to feed on the heart of the hero.

SORDINO,, , Italian terms somewhat promiscuously applied by various writers (1) to contrivances for damping or muting wind, string and percussion instruments (Sordini); (2) to a family of obsolete wind instruments blown by means of a double reed (Sordoni or Sordun); (3) to a stringed instrument. To these must also be added the Surdellina or