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seventy when he began the work and he wrote it with reference to the similar chronicle of Marianus Scotus. Like the latter he makes the year of the incarnation the basis of his chronological system. The book can hardly be called history, being a bare list of events, among which naturally in the later time notices of the German empire and Sigebert's Belgian home predominate. The accounts of the years from 1105 to 1111 are the most extended and were probably expanded after the first completion of the chronicle. An introduction, explaining the purpose, use, and system of the book, is lost with the exception of some lines. Sigebert's chronicle was often revised and continued and became the source of very many later historical works. The best [almost ideal] edition is by L. C. Bethmann in MGH, Script., vi (1844), 300-374, but the treatment of the sources here is wholly inadequate. After the chronicle Sigebert wrote a book on writers and their works supplementing the De vir. ill. of Jerome and Gennadius (ed. J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca ecclesi^ astica, pp. 93-116, Hamburg, 1718), which is his second important work for the present time. Sigebert took the side of the secular rulers in the contest with the popes which filled the greater part of his life. To a letter addressed by Gregory VII. to Bishop Hermann of Metz in 1081, seeking to prove that popes have the right to excommunicate kings, he wrote an answer which is apparently lost, although Bethmann (cf. MGH, Lib. de lite, i. 454-460, 1890) and A. Cauchie (La Querelle des investitures dans les dioceses de Likge et de Cambrai, i. pp. 66-99, Louvain, 1890) claim to have discovered it. A defense of masses said by married priests, however, is extant, written against Gregory VII. (ed. E. Sackur, MGH, Lib. de lite, ii. 436-148, 1892); and also a very able and sharp reply for the diocese of Li6ge to Paschal II., who in 1103 urged Count Robert II. of Flanders to punish the clergy and people of Li6ge for their ;adherence to the Emperor Henry IV. and to make war on the emperor (ed. E. Sackur, MGH, Lib. de lite, ii. 449-164, 1892). Sigebert's other writings were lives or eulogies of personages connected in tradition or history with Metz and Gembloux. Some are in verse, of which one especially, a long Passio sanctorum Thebeorum, written when Sigebert was forty-four years of age, attests real poetic gifts. Many of his writings are reprinted from earlier editions in MPL, clx.; cf. also lxxxvii. 303-314, and E. Diimmler in Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie, pp. 1-125, 1893.

(0. HOLDER-EGGER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: For an extensive bibliography of editions consult Potthast, Wepweiaer, pp. 1016-18, and cf. Wattenbach, DGQ, ii (1894), 155-162. Almost the only sources for the life and writings of Sigebert are a chapter of the Geata abbatum Gemblacensium by Godescale and the last chapter of Sigebert's Scriptores ecclesiastic:, fn which he gives a list of his writing,, probably in substantially chronological order. Godescalc was a pupil of Sigebert and his work is a continuation of an earlier one by the latter. Consult further: S. Hirsch, De vita et acriptis Sigeberti monachi Gemblacensis, Berlin, 1841; the prolegomena of Bethmann in MGH, Script., vi (1844), 268-299; H. E. Bonnen, Die Anfdnge des karolingixhea Ha uses, Berlin, 1866; L. Demaison, etude critique our Za vie de S. S~eberl . . par Siqebert de Gdmbruq fn Travaus de Zracade'mie nationals de Reims, Ixiv (1880); Huyg hens, Sur la valeur de 'a chroniqme historique de sigebert

de Mom, Ghent. 1889; A. Cauehie, La Querelle des inveetiturea dana . . . LiEDe et Cambrai, 2 parts, Louvain, 1890. SIGISMUND, sf'gis-munt", JOHANN: Elector of Brandenburg 1608-19; b. at Halls N ov. 8 (18), 1572; d. at Brandenburg Dec. 23, 1619. During the sixteenth century there were various changes in the religious situation at Brandenburg, depending upon the attitude of the ruling elector. Joachim I. (1499-1535) was a strict Roman Catholic; under Joachim II. the Reformation of Luther entered the country. The period of Johann Georg (1571-98) was the time of undisputed sway of strict Lutheranism, but his son Joachim Friedrich was inclined toward the Calvinistic doctrine. Johann Sigismund, the son of Joachim Friedrich, was educated as a strict Lutheran, according to the directions of his grandfather, by Simon Gedicke, at that time court preacher in Halls; but in 1588 his father sent him, together with his brother, Johann Georg, to the University of Strasburg, where both princes were favorably impressed by Calvinism. In 1605 he was in Heidelberg, where he became a close friend of Count Palatine Friedrich IV., and his wife, the daughter of William of Orange. His personal intercourse with Reformed princes and theologians led him to become a decided opponent of the Formula of Concord. For some time he tried to keep his change of convictions secret, but in 1613, on Ascension Day, a Reformed church service was held in the court chapel on the occasion of a visit of Landgrave Maurice, to the great vexation of the Lutheran clergy. On another occasion Martin Fiissel, superintendent of Zerbst, administered the Lord's Supper after the Reformed rite. Simon Gedicke, provost of the cathedral, protested against the infringement of the parochial rights of Brandenburg and published a treatise, Von den, Ceremonien bei dem heiligen Abendmahl (1613), against the Calvinists, especially against Salomo Finck, a court preacher newly called from Konigsberg, who showed himself a decided Calvinist. A committee of the estates requested Christoph Pelargus, general superintendent of the Mark and professor of theology in Frankforton-the-Oder, to proceed officially against the court preacher; his refusal made him also a suspect of Calvinism. Before the elector was now placed the alternative either to take measures against Finek and Pelargus or to make his statement of adherence to the Reformed faith. He chose the latter, and on Dec. 18, 1613, announced to the clergy that .he did not claim control over the consciences of his subjects, and similarly no one might dictate in the matter to him. He forbade untimely outbreaks from the pulpit, and permitted communion in the Reformed. manner. He justified himself by appealing to the amended Augsburg Confession (Augustana variata) which, he said, was admitted in the Saxon kingdom. In an edict of Feb. 24, 1614, he again forbade invective from the pulpit and proclaimed as a basis of doctrine for all preachers "the doctrine of the divine Word according to the four chief symbols (including the Chalcedonian), the amended Augsburg Confession, and the Apology." On Feb. 21, 1614, there was designed a complete plan for subjecting the whole country to the Reformed faith. Strict Lutherans like Gedicke and Willich, archdeacon of St.