Lukashomilien (Leipsie, 1901); Die Lukaskatene lea Niketas von Herakleia (1902); and has edited Fragmente and Homilien des Cyrill von Alexandrien zum Lukasevangelium, in T U, 1909; besides being NewTestament editor of the Biblische Zeitschrift.

German Empire, and protector of the Reformers; b. in the castle of Ebernburg, near Kreuznach (21 m. s.w. of Mainz), May 1, 1481; d. in the castle of Landstuhl, near Zweibriicken (60 m. s.w. of Heidelberg), May 7, 1523. He was a picturesque representative of the "robber knights" who recognized no superior but their monarch, and enjoyed no occupation so much as that of private warfare. These knights had serious grievances in the early part of the sixteenth century. Growth of commerce and wealth in the cities had been accompanied by agricultural depression, and the knights found their estates becoming valueless and their incomes reduced to almost nothing. They were free to renounce the station and prestige of the order of knighthood and as common civilians and soldiers to enter the service of the emperor; the alternative was wholesale brigandage. Sickingen chose the alternative. Desirous of serving the emperor as with independent authority, this order was opposed to any approximation to orderly government, and considered the territorial princes its sworn enemies. The reforms of the national government, which through the Reichskammergericht (supreme court of the empire) forbade private warfare and installed Roman law in the place of the old feudal customs, endangered this calling, and in 1522 the general discontent broke out, under the leadership of Sickingen, into open repudiation of the actions and authority of the Reichskammergericht.

In Sickingen the revolters recognized an experienced and energetic leader. He had in 1516 made a raid upon the city of Worms, and for five years, in the face of a decree of banishment issued against him, had harassed and ravaged the country around the city; he had been in the service of Francis I. of France in 1516, and in 1,517 had entered that of the German Empire; he had carried on operations against the imperial city of Metz, and against Landgrave Philip of Hesse; and with Ulrich von Hutten (q.v.) he had thrown himself into the cause of Charles V. of Spain. He had proffered aid to Reucblin in his controversy, and with Hutten had frankly declared his approval of Luther, to whom he pledged his assistance. Butzer (q.v.) lived in his castle, the Ebernburg, where (Ecolampadius (q.v.) served as chaplain from Apr. to Nov., 1522, and Johann Schwebel (q.v.) was another Reformer who found refuge with him.

Hutten and Sickingen regarded as urgent and necessary a restriction upon and partitioning of church property (see SECULARIZATION), and they counted on the help of part of the aristocracy, who eyed with growing disfavor the increase of wealth and the display of it in the cloisters and abbeys. Sickingen, favored by Luther, and directly incited against the unregenerate priests, declared hostilities against the pope and the lords of the church. The attack, combning secular and religious interests, was diX.-26

rected against the ecclesiastical princes and restricted to them; for it was their worldly possessions that aroused the Lutheran divines, their jurisdiction that offended the cities, and their territorial powers that opposed knightly liberties. Sickingen, with his attempt to overthrow the constitution of the empire, as a champion of the poorer people, a Gospel pioneer, and a leader of the "Fraternal League" organized at Landau Aug. 13, 1522, for the protection of the nobility, opened the first war of religion to be declared on German soil. Doubtless thoughts of personal advancement served to inspire him in this cause, for he was moved by an inordinate ambition that embraced the electorate of Treves.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Ulmann, Franz yon Sickingen, Leipeic, 1872; F. P. aremer Franz yon Sickingen's Fehde gegen Trier, Stmsburg, 1885; P. M. Rade, Hutten and $ickinoen, Barmen, 1887; J. Janssen, Hilt. of the German people, iii. 276-308, St. Louie, 1900; J. KSstlin, Martin Luther, Berlin, 1903; Cambridge Modern History, ii. 41, 43, 154 eqq., New York, 1904.

SIDONIIUS, si-do'ni-us, APOLLINARIS, CAIUS SOLLIUS MODESTUS: Gallic Roman poet, bishop of Clermont, and saint; b. at Lyons Nov. 5 of some year between 430 and 433; buried at Clermont Aug. 21, 479 (482 or 484). He came of a noble family, his grandfather having held high office and being the first Christian in the family; his father also was " prefect in the pretorium of the Gauls." He received his education in the yet flourishing schools of grammar