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405 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA siefYert si8ehert Siena, and the council was dissolved against the protests of the French participants. (PAUL TBCHACKERT.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: The beat source is John of Ragusa, Initium d prosecutio Basiliensis Concilii, in Monumenta conciliorum generalium awculi XV., i. 12 sqq., Vienna, 1857. Con sult further: Manai, Concilia, vol. xxviii.; Hefele, Con ciliengeschichte, vii. 392-409; the chronicle of Francesco di Tommassso, in Muratori, Scriptores, vol. xx.; Pastor. Popes, i. 238-239; Creighton, Papacy, ii. 145-150; Mil man, Latin Christianity, vii. 535; KL, a. 290 sqq·; and the literature under MARTIN V. SIEVEKING, AMALIE WILHELMINE: Ger man Protestant philanthropist and founder of the Hamburg Weiblicher Verein filr Armen- und Krank enpflege; b. at Hamburg July 25, 1794; d. there Apr. 1, 1859. Orphaned at the age of fifteen, she lived with Fruulein Dimpfel, the daughter-in-law of the poet Wopstock, and there, in instructing the nieces of her patroness, she began a career as a teacher which continued, with only brief interrup tions, until her death. Here, too, her rationalistic and skeptical attitude toward Christianity began to be modified, until later, after the death of a brother, and under the influence of the works of Thomas h Kempis and A. H. Francke, she attained to a deep and abiding faith in the Bible and in prayer. After a brief residence with a widowed aunt in Neumt3h len, Amalie Sieveking was requested, in 1811, by a widowed relative of her mother's, Frau Brunne mann, to assist her in taking care of a sick son, and though the latter soon died, the home thus gained was kept until the death of Fran Brunnemann in 1839. Meanwhile she always had a class of young girls, and likewise taught in a free private school for poor girls. During this time her efforts to clear up for herself certain passages of the Bible seem to have led her to compose her Betrachtungen fiber einzelne Stellen der heiligen Schri ft, which, in the hope that it might help others in that period of the revival of religious life, she published anonymously at Ham burg in 1823. About this same time, moreover, she formed the plan of establishing a Lutheran order of deaconesses (q.v.), but since she did not feel herself divinely called to do this in person, the realization of the concept was left for Theodor Fliedner (q.v.). Nevertheless, she discussed the entire matter with C. F. A. Hartmann (librarian and professor of his tory at Hamburg) and with J. Gossner (q.v.), the latter confirming her in her attitude of prudent hesi tation. In 1827 she published at Hamburg (again anonymously) her Beschaftigungen mit der heiligen Schrift, and her circle of noteworthy acquaintances increased, while her girls' classes still continued with great success. When, in 1831, cholera broke out in Hamburg, Amalie Sieveking deemed that the time had come to carry out her plan, and since none answered her cal) to unite with her in Christian care of the sick, she volunteered her own services, which were ac cepted when the first woman to fall a victim to the plague was brought to the hospital erected for such cases. Regarded at first as a mere enthusiast, her judgment and devotion soon won such recognition that she was appointed inspectress of all the nurses. Even after the completion of her work at the hos pital, she realized that conditions were not yet
favorable for her order of deaconesses, but in its stead she gradually formed the somewhat similar idea of founding a " Women's Society for the Care of the Poor and Sick." This she established early in 1832, the movement spreading from Hamburg to many other German cities. At the initial conference (May 23) she delivered an address (reprinted in Bericht caber die Leistungen des weiblichen Vereins fiir Armen- and Krankenpftege, x. 56-68), in which she emphasized the necessity of devoted Christian faith and love in the care of the sick and indigent. The sick should be visited personally, and the poor should be given work, if possible, rather than money, while every effort should be made in behalf of religious training and life. All the details of the undertaking, which was mainly dependent on voluntary subscription, were most carefully regulated, these including not only the visiting of the poor and sick, but also the distribution of food, assignment of work in Various trades, care of the raw materials, sale of the finished products, and the administration of the poorhouses and the childrens' hospital later founded by the society. While the members of the society, who rapidly increased in number, were naturally exposed to occasional gross deception by their wards, and though they were frequently charged with fostering hypocrisy, yet, on the whole, the movement must be characterized as most admirably adapted to its purpose, and as affording spiritual and physical aid in countless cases where a single individual would not have been able to render assistance. Toward the end of her life, besides having edited the annual Bericht fiber die Leistungen des weiblichen Vereins fur Armen- and Krankenpflege (26 vols., Hamburg, 1833-58), she wrote Unterhaltungen fiber einzelne Abachnitte der heiligen Schrift (Leipsic, 1855), while a compilation from her writings was translated into English anonymously under the title The Principles of Charitable Work-Love, Truth, and Order-a8 set forth in the Writings of A. W. Sieveking (London, 1863).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Denkwfrdigkeiten Gus dem Leben von Amalie Sieoeking, Hamburg, 1860, Eng. tranal., ed. C. Winkworth, Life of A. W. Sieoekinp, London, 1863; J. H. HSek, Bilder Gus der GeschiMU der hamburpischen Kirche wit der Reformation, Pp. 353 sqq., Hamburg, 1900; ADB, xxuv. 217 eqq.
SIGEBERT OF GEMBLOU%: A versatile and productive writer of the early Middle Ages, especially noteworthy as historian; b. probably in the neighborhood of Gembloux (10 m. n.w. of Namur, Belgium) about 1035; d. at Gembloux Nov. 5, 1112. He was educated in the abbey of Gembloux, became a monk there, and spent his mature life as teacher, first in the school of the abbey of St. Vincent at Metz, then (from c. 1070) at Gembloux. As teacher he was highly esteemed, and in general he is to be commended as a good example of the capable and learned Benedictine monk of the older time, filled with genuine piety but disinclined to all ascetic excesses, an earnest seeker after truth, a highly lovable and attractive personality. His best-known book is a world chronicle, Decennalis liber, continuing Jerome's translation of Eusebius' chronicle,
covering the period 381-1111. Sigebert was nearly