Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/818

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SEXTON


748


SHAKESPEARE


people (cf. Cabrol, "Etude sur la Peregrinatio", Paris, 1895, 45-46). The number of psalms is not stated. In the sixth century the Rule of St. Benedict gives the detailed composition of this Office. We quote it here because it is almost the same as the Roman Liturgy; either the latter borrowed from St. Benedict, or St. Benedict \va.s inspired by the Roman usage. Se.xt, like Terce and None, was comiJO.sed at nio.st of three psalms, of which the choice was fixeil, the Deus in adjutorium, a hjTim, a lesson (cai)itulum), a versicle, the Kyrie Eleison, and the customary concluding prayer and dismissal (xvii, cf. xviii).

In the Roman liturgy Sext is also composed of the Deus in adjutorium, a hJ^nn, tlaree portions of Ps. cx\'iii, the lesson, the short response, the versicle, and the prayer. In the Greek Church Sext is composed like the other lesser hours of two parts; the first includes Pss. liii, liv, xc, with invitatory, tropes, and conclusion. The second, of Mesarion which is very similar to the first, consists of Pss. Iv, Ivi, and Ixix. In the modern ^Vlozarabie Office Sext consists only of Ps. liii, tliree "octonaries" of Ps. cxviii, two lessons, the h>nnn, the supplication, the capitulum, the Pater Noster, and the benediction.

Beside the authors mentioned in the course of the article see DrcHESN-E, Christian Worxhip (London, 1904), 448, 449, 450, 492; Bona, De divina psalmodia, viii, de sexta ; Smith. Did. of Christ. ArUiq.. s. v. OM<^e, The Divine; Neale and Littledale, Comment, on the Psalms, I, 7, .32, 34, etc.; Batiffol, Hist, du breviaire romain, 3rd. ed. (Paris, 1911), 19-21.

Fernaxd Cabrol.

Sexton (Old English Sexestein, sextein, through the French sacri.'itain from Lat. sacrisla), one who guards the church edifice, its treasures, vestments, etc., and as an inferior minister attends to burials, bell-ringings and similar offices about a church. In ancient times, the duties of the modern sexton, who is generally a layman, were part of the functions of the clerical order of ostiariatus. The clerics called ostiarii had the keys of the church committed to them and were re- sponsible for the guardianship of the sacred edifice, the holy vessels, books, and vestments. They opened the church and summoned the faithful to the Divine Mysteries. Others of them were specially de- puted to guard the bodies and shrines of the martyrs. According to the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, cap. xvii, De Ref.), the sexton or sacristan should be a cleric, but it allowed him to be a married man, pro- vided he received the tonsure and wore the clerical dre.ss. By custom, however, these conditions have ceased to be efTective, and at present the office is usu- ally held by a layman. In many cathedral churches, e. g. in Austria and Germany, the title of .sacristan or cnstos is still held by a priest, who is genenilly one of the dignitaries of the cathedral chapter, and has su-

Eervision of the fabric of the cathedral and of the uildings that serve for the residences of canons and parochial vicars. This official has special charge of the cure of souls and sees also to the solemnizing of the great church festivals. He generally has an assistant, whose particular duty it is to watch over the perform- ance of the Divine service in choir. According to a de- cision of the Roman Rota, the sacristan of a cathedral church should always be in priest's orders. In Rome the offiw; of sacristan in the Apostolic palace is always committwl to a member of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, by a Decree of Pope; Alexander VI. The sacristan of the conclave for the; (ilection of a new pope has all the privileges of the conclavists.

Ferrarih, Bibl. canonica, VII (Rome, 1891), 8. v., Sacrigla.

William H. W. Fanning.

SeychelleB Islands. See Port Victoria, Dio- cese OF.

Sezze. See Terracina, Sezze and Piperno, Diocehe of.


Sfondrati, Celestino, Prince-abbot of St. Gall and cardinal, b. at Milan, 10 January, 1G44; d. at Rome, 4 September, 169(). He belonged to the noble Milanese family of the Sfondrati, of which Cardinals Francesco and Paolo Sfondrati and Pope Gregory XIV were members. At the age of twelve he was placed in the school at Rorschach, on the Bodensee, which was conducted by the Benedictines of St. Gall, and on 20 April, 1000, he took the Benedictine habit at St. Gall. When twenty-two years old he already tauglit philosopliy and tlieology at Kemjjten, and, after liis elevation to the priesthood (20 April, lOOSj, lie became jirofessor and master of novices at his monastery. From 1679 to 1082 he taught canon law at the Benedictine University of Salzburg. In 1082 he returned to St. Gall to take charge of a small country church near Rorschach for a .short time, whereupon Abbot Gallus appointed him his vicar-general. In 1080 Pope Innocent XI created him Bi.shop of Novara, a dignity which he acceijted only with reluctance. He was, however, jjrevcnted form taking pos.session of his see by being elected Prince-abbot of St. Gall on 17 April, 1687. As abbot he set an examph; of great piety and mortification to his monks, and watched carefully over the ob- servance of monastic discipline; as prince, he ruled mildly and rendered him.self dear to his people by his great charity, which he had a .special opjiortunity to practise during the famine of 1()93. His learning and piety, as well as his able literary works in defence of the papal authority against the jjrincijjles of Gal- licanism, induced Pope Innocent XII to create him cardinal-priest on 12 December, 1095, with the titular church of St. Cajcilia in Trastevere. But he had scarcely reached Rome when his health began to fail. He died nine months after receiving the purple and was buried in his titular church. His chief works are: (1) "Cursus theologicus in gratiam et utilitatem Fratrum Religiosorum " (10 vols., St. Gall, 1070), published anonymously; (2) "Disputatio juridica de lege in praisumptione fundata" (Salzburg, 1081; 2nd ed., Salem, 1718), a moral treatise against Prob- abilism; (;3) "Regale .sacerdotium Romano Pontifici assertum" (St. Gall, 1084; 1093; 1749), published under the pseudonym of Eugenius Lombard us, an able defence of the papal authority and privileges against the Four Articles of the Declaration of the French Clergy (1082); (4) "Cunsus philosophicua monasterii S. Galli" (3 vols., St. Gall, 1680; 1095); (5) "Gallia vindicata" (2 vols., St. Gall, 1688; 1702), another able treatise against Gallicanism, in par- ticular again.st Maimbourg; (6) "Legatio Marchionis Lavardini ejusque cum Innocentio XI dissidium" (1688), a short treatise concerning the right of asylum (les franchises) of the French ambassadors at Rome; (7) "Nepoti-smus theologice expensus" (St. Gall, 1692); (8) "Innocentia vindicata" (St. Gall, 1695; Graz, 1708), an attempt to prove that St. Thomas held the doctrine of the Immaculate Concei)tion; (9) "Nodus pra?destinationis ex sac. litteris doctrina-

3ue SS. Augustini et ThomaJ, quantum homini licet, issolutus" (Rome, 1097; Cologne, 1705), a post- humous work against the Jansenists, in whicli the author expounds the difficult question of grace and predestination in the sen.se of Molina and the Jesuits. It called forth numerous rejoinders but found also many defenders [see Dunand in "Revue du Clerg6 Fran- cais". III (Paris, 1895), 310-20].

Zieoelbaueu, Jlixl. T) ■,^ai-tler, CoUeclaneenhlaiter zur Gesch. der ehem. Ben. Universiiat Satzhurg (Kempten, 1890), 237-4.'>. MiCHAEL OtT.

Shakespeare, The Religion of. — Of both Milton an<l Shaki'spcare it was stated after their deaths, upon Protestant authority, that they had professed Cathol- icism. In Milton's case (though the allegation was made and printed in the lifetime of contemporaries,