Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/119

 S I U S I X 103 mills. St Michael's church, in the Early English and later styles, underwent extensive restoration in 1873 at a cost of nearly .3000. The principal other public buildings are the old town-hall, the corn exchange (erected 1859), and the museum. Public gardens 10 acres in extent have recently been laid out. The local government board was instituted in 1878. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 1004 acres) in 1871 was 6148 and in 1881 it was 7856. Sittingbourne, or Sedynglmrne, received a grant of a market and two annual lairs by a charter of Qneen Elizabeth. The style "guardian and free tenants," applied to the corporation in this charter, was subsequently changed to that of " mayor and jurats. " Sec W. A. Scott Robertson, Sittingbourne and the Names of Lands and Houses in, or near it, Sittingbourne, 1879. SI LIT, or ASYUT (ASIOOT), more correctly OSYTJT, a town of Upper Egypt, and southern terminus of the railway on the left bank of the Nile, by which it is 229 miles from Biilak Dakriir. The population is about 25,000. See EGYPT, vol. vii. p. 775. SIVA. See BRAHMANISM. SIVAS, or SiwAs, a pashalic and capital of a pashalic of great importance in Asia Minor. The town is situated on the right bank of the Kizil Irmak (Halys), in a plain of some 16 to 20 miles in length and 4 to 6 in breadth. From the south the approach is by a good road among the mountains, and the aspect from the heights is pleasing. Dotted here and there with trees, some in large extended clusters, the houses and citadel cover a considerable space and appear much scattered. On the north a military road has been constructed to facilitate communication with the coast. Siv&s is 4670 feet above the level of the Black Sea, and should be a healthy residence for Euro- peans. The population, estimated on the spot in 1864 at 10,000 houses, more than a fifth being Armenians, is stated in Murray's Handbook of 1878 to consist of 5000 Turkish and 1200 Armenian families. There are some respectable residences but not many buildings or monuments of note ; and the streets are narrow and ill- maintained. The bazaars are fairly stocked with goods, British as well as of other European nations. Sivas is the ancient Scbasteia (not to be confounded with Sebaste or Cabira on the Lycus, the modern Uiksar), the capital of Armenia II., and the seat of an archbishop. In 1021 it was ceded by the emperor Basil to the Armenian king, Senekharim. It ngain became Greek in 1080, but soon after fell to the Seljuks. In the 13th century Marco Polo speaks of Sevaste as the place "where the glorious Messer Saint Blaise suffered martyrdom." It was, when he wrote, in the possession of the Turkmans of Kara- mania, living under the government of the Seljuk princes. In the 14th century we have the testimony of Ibn Batuta, who says (ii. 289) : " It is one of the possessions of the king of Irak, and the largest town owned by him in the country. His chiefs and his collectors reside there. It is well-built, and has wide streets and crowded markets." Colonel Goldsmid visited Sivas in July 1864, and was shown some fine monuments described as the mausolea of the Seljuks, the inscriptions on which he found to date no earlier than 670 of the Hijra, though the actual tombs might be traceable to a former period. SIXTUS I. (XYSTUS) figures in the lists accepted by the Roman Church as having been bishop of Rome from about 119 to about 126. He is conjectured to have been a presbyter and a martyr. SIXTUS II. followed Stephanus I. as bishop of Rome in 257, and suffered martyrdom under Valerian in the following year. He restored the relations with the African and Eastern Churches which had been broken off by his pre- decessor on the question of heretical baptism. Dionysius succeeded him. SIXTUS III., bishop of Rome from July 31, 432, to August 18, 440, had Coelestinus I. as his predecessor, and was succeeded by Leo I. SIXTUS IV. (Francesco della Rovere), pope from 1471 to 1484, was born 21st July 1414, near Savona. The statements respecting his parents' situation in life are very conflicting. In consequence of a vow made by his mother he entered the Franciscan order at an early age, and speedily acquired a great reputation for eloquence and learning. After filling several minor offices he became general of his order, and in 1467 was to his own surprise made cardinal by Paul II., at the recommendation, it is asserted, of Cardinal Bessarion. When, upon Paul's death in 1471, the rigour of Bessarion's principles prevented his profiting by the favourable sentiments of influential cardinals, who, nevertheless, expected to be recompensed for their suffrages, Rovere seems to have been found more accommodating. The liberality of his donations after his election, at all events, raised suspicion ; but the friendship of Bessarion has also been enumerated among the causes of the sudden elevation of the most recent member of the Sacred College. He was elected on 9th August 1471, and immediately proceeded to lavish Paul's treasures partly in laudable preparations against the Turks ; partly in embassies, receptions of foreign princes, public improve- ments, and other expenses possibly imprudent, but at least not indecorous ; partly, without any excuse, upon his unworthy nephews, Count and Cardinal Riario. The prodigalities of the latter surpassed all measure, and he compromised his uncle much more seriously by his com- plicity in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, aiming at the assassination of the Medici family. Sixtus was cognizant of the plot, but had positively forbidden the shedding of blood, which he must nevertheless have known to be in- evitable. He deserves still more censure for entering into a fruitless and inglorious war with Florence, which ter- minated in 1480, after having kept Italy for two years in confusion. Scarcely was it over when he allowed himself to be involved in yet more troublesome and discreditable contests, first inciting the Venetians to attack Ferrara, and then, after having been delivered by their general Roberto Malatesta from a Neapolitan invasion, turning round upon them and eventually assailing them on their refusal to desist from the hostilities which he had himself instigated. He relied on the co-operation of Lodovico Sforza, who speedily forsook him ; and the scandal was witnessed of the secular princes and cities of Italy agreeing to a peace which the Father of Christendom did his best to thwart, and vexation at which was believed to have hastened his death. He died, at all events, a few days afterwards, 13th August 1484, leaving an unfortunate reputation as the first pope who brought nepotism into politics, and, not content with enriching his relatives by gifts and lucrative offices, made their aggrandizement the principal object of his policy as a secular prince. His private character was nevertheless estimable : he was pious, of blameless morals, hospitable and munificent to a fault, and so exempt from avarice, says his secretary Conti, that he could not endure the sight of money. His faults were those of a monk who had no natural outlet for strong affections except unworthy relatives, and who had been called from a cloister to fill the most con- spicuous position in the world. His secular policy was capricious and spasmodic ; he neither maintained the peace of Italy like his predecessor and successor nor carried out a consistent and well-considered scheme of conquest like Alexander VI. He was, notwithstanding, always firm in his resistance to the Turks, and showed magnanimity by aiding his enemy the king of Naples against the common foe of Christendom. The brilliant side of his administration was his munificence as a founder or restorer of useful institutions and a patron of letters and art. He established and richly endowed the first foundling hospital, built and repaired numerous churches, constructed the Sixtine Chapel and the Sixtine Bridge, commissioned paintings on the largest scale, pensioned and