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 7 l MXTUS and the quarrel ended in 1480. About the same time Sixtus became involved in a war with Krrole d'lMe, duke of Ferrara, whom he t,> dispossess in favor of one of his own m .,,hcu I, lie ua> hacked by the Venetian, ; hut the duke of Ferrara being supported by the king of Naples and the emperor, Sixtus was to yield in 1484. Duringthese troubles .rks besieged Rhodes and ravaged the southern coast of Italy, capturing the city of Otranto and massacring 12,000 of the inhabi- tant-. The pope once more attempted in vain to organize a crusade, but succeeded in driving off the invaders. Among the other acts of his pontificate were the confirmation of the reli- gious order of Minims, May 23, 1474 ; the bull sanctioning the Spanish inquisition, 1478 ; the canonization of St. Bonaventura, April 14, 1482 ; the construction, among many other splendid public works, of the Sistine chapel in the Vati- can ; large additions to the Vatican library ; and the sending of the first missionaries to the Cana- ry islands. The Reguln Cancellaria Romance are attributed to this pope. He also left several Latin treatises, among which are De Sanguine Chritti (fol., Rome, 1473), De Potentia Dei (fol.), and several letters. II. Status V. (FELICE PKRKETTI), born at Grotte-a-Mare, near Montal- to, Dec. 15, 1521, died in Rome, Aug. 27, 1590. He was a Franciscan, and distinguished him- self as a lecturer on ecclesiastical law at Ri- mini in 1544 and Siena in 1546, as a popular preacher, and as an author by works on mysti- cal theology and on the philosophy of Aristotle. In l.">7 he became inquisitor general at Venice, and in 1570 he was created cardinal, when he assumed the name Moatalto. He was elected popd by an almost unanimous vote, April 24, Both as pope and as secular prince he was distinguished for prudence, severity, and energy. He destroyed the power of the ban- ditti and restored order and safety through- out his territory, administered law with the ut- most impartiality and with an appalling rigor, built a great aqueduct, enlarged the library of the Vatican, and in many other ways encour- aged industry. He fixed the number of cardi- nals at 70, required the Catholic bishops of all countries to visit Rome at certain intervals, and reorganized the entire administration of ecclesiastical affairs by the appointment of 15 congregations of cardinals and other officers. He founded a new university at Fermo, and new colleges at Rome and Bologna. From the printing press of the Vatican he published the ! edition of the Vulgate, which had been ordered t,y the council of Trent. He avoided war with tlu- Christian princes as much as j.o-Mhle. though he encouraged and supported III. a-uin-t the Huguenots, Philip II. ' Unhand, and Archduke Maximilian when h- was a candidate for the crown of Poland. Ik- liurk-d his anathemas against the Viiiuiii kiriL' <>f Navarre, and against Elizabeth of England f,.r potting to death Mary Stuart; summoned Henry III. to Rome for or- SKATE dering the assassination of the duke of Guise. He left a vast treasure in the castle of Bant' Angelo, to be used by his successors only in circumstances strictly defined. His biography by Leti (Vita di Sisto V., Lausanne, 1669) is considered untrustworthy, and that by Tempesti (Storia della vita e geste di Sisto V., Rome, 1754) too partisan. See J. A. von Hubner, Sixte Quint, sa vie et son siecle (2 vols., Paris, 1871 ; English translation by Jerningham, Lon- don, 1872 ; German, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1874). SKAGER RACK ("the crooked strait of Ska- gen"), an arm of the North sea or German ocean, lying between the Danish peninsula of Jutland and the coast of Norway, and connect- ing the Cattegat with the North sea. It ex- tends from N. E. to S. W.; length about 160 m., breadth nearly 80 m. It is much deeper on the Norwegian than on the Danish coast, ranging on the former from 150 to 200 fath- oms, and on the latter from 30 to 40. It is subject to severe storms. The harbors are all on the Norwegian coast. SKAMAMA, a S. county of Washington terri- tory, bordering on Oregon, bounded S. by Co- lumbia river and drained by several streams ; area, 1,800 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 133. The surface is generally mountainous, with fertile valleys. The Cascade mountains traverse it from N. to S. Mt. St. Helens, in the N. W. part, is 9,750 ft. high. Capital, Cascades. SKATE (Dutch, schaats), a shoo or sandal with a steel runner for travelling over ice. It probably originated in Scandinavia. The ear- liest skates were made of bone, fastened to the foot with cords. Such skates have been discovered in England, Holland, Sweden, and Iceland, and there are accounts of their use in London in the time of Henry II. The intro- duction of iron skates was doubtless due to the Dutch, who for an unknown period have used them for travel on their canals and rivers. The best facilities for skating are afforded by the countries of N. W. Europe, where the ice is little covered with snow ; but as a pastime it has become widely popular, and is practised with great skill by both men and women. The form of the skate has been much improved. Until witkin a few years it was a block of wood with a runner or keel of iron or steel about an eighth of an inch thick, channelled at the bottom so that two sharp edges cut into the ice, ending in a sharp angle at the heel, and turning up at the toe. It was secured to the foot by a peg or screw entering the heel of the boot, and by straps passing through the block, crossing the front part of the foot, and connecting with a broad strap around the heel. In improved skates the runner is of steel, thicker, and flat instead of channelled at the bottom, the cutting edge forming a little less than a right angle. It is generally curved ^lightly from front to back, and rounded up at both heel and toe. There have been many ha Hires in the form of the body of the skate and the fastenings, the straps sometimes giv-