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Peter, were forced to flee, and the elector called Abraham Scultetus (q.v.) to carry out the new plan. At his advice there was published on May 10 a " Confession of the Reformed Churches of Germany," the preface of which tried to show that even after the Reformation there were still left many Romanistic errors in the new faith, and that it was necessary to reform the church of Brandenburg anew in order to equate it with other Evangelical churches. This confession was a reprint of one first published at Heidelberg in 1562. In the same year the elector issued his own confession of faith, Confessio Sagit:mundi. It is not a complete confession, but touches merely the points of controversy. The elector again acknowledges the chief symbols and the emended Augsburg Confession as the basis of doctrine while he condemns all other writings " conceived by men," meaning principally the Formula of Concord. He rejects the doctrine of ubiquity and the Lutheran doctrine of the Communicatio Idiomatum (q.v.); in baptism he rejects the ceremony of exorcism; in the Lord's Supper bread and wine are visible symbols of invisible grace. The bread must be real unleavened bread, and the breaking of the bread must be preserved according to the example of Christ. He adopts the doctrine of election. The Confessio Sigismttndi. became authoritative among the Reformed in the eastern parts of Brandenburg-Prussia. Although the elector declared his intention not to interfere with the faith of his people, he continued the " reformation " of his country, by constituting a church council which was to take care of the interests of the Reformed faith. On Oct. 3 a disputation between Reformed and Lutherans was to take place, but the latter were so timid in the assertion of their rights that the elector himself broke off the colloquy and obliged every one present to observe the edict of Feb. 24. The hope of the clergy rested now upon the interference of the estates. In 1615 the estates seriously complained that preachers of doubtful standing were forced upon them, demanded the appointment of Lutherans in the schools and at the university, refused to acknowledge Pelargus as general superintendent, and asked the elector for the renewal and confirmation of his former pledges for the protection of Lutheranism. After they had made their demands a fourth time, the elector round it advisable to yield and declared now that " everybody in his country who desired, might adhere to the doctrine of Luther and the unchanged Augsburg Confession, also to the Book of Concord." Nevertheless, the propaganda in behalf of the Reformed confession was continued. The church council continued its activity; the state university and college were supplied with Reformed teachers; Reformed preachers presided over Lutheran congregations, and Pelargus in his love of peace ordained also Reformed clergymen. But after 1616 the opposition against the renovations became so strong and general both among the clergy and laity, that in 1618 the church council had to be dissolved, and thus the " work of the Reformation " in the Mark of Brandenburg came to an end. The Lutheran Church was preserved, the elector standing almost alone with his change of confession. His wife together with her daughters adhered faithfully to the Lutheran creed.

His change of confession involved the elector in difficulties with the duchy of Prussia, of which he was feudal lord. The Prussian estates uttered the reproach that by adopting the Reformed confession Sigismund had violated the fundamental laws of the duchy. His theologians, Pelargus and J. Bergius, refused to accept an invitation to the Synod of Dort (1618), and its decisions acquired no authority in Brandenburg. The events in Brandenburg occasioned the issue of a great mass of polemical literature. Between 1613 and 1619 there appeared 231 treatises, among the contributors, on the Lutheran side, being Leonhard Hutter, Hoe von Hoenegg (qq.v.), and Friedrich Balduin; the treatises advocating the Reformed faith were mostly anonymous. (G. KAWERAU. )

BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Keller, Die Gegenreformation in Westfalen and am Niederrhein, iii. 219 sqq., Leipsic, 1895; A. Chroust, in Forschungen zur brandenburgischen and preussischen Geschichte, ix (1897), 12 sqq.; J. C. Beemann, Oratio secularis in memoriam a . . Johanne Sigismundo . . . introdueta! reformats religionis, Frankfort, 1713; D. H. Hering, Historische Nachricht von dem ersten Anfang der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche in Brandenburg and Preussen, Halle, 1778; idem, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche in den preussisch-brandenburgischen Landern, Breslau, 1784; W. MBller, in Deutsche Zeitschrift fur christliche Wissenschaft, 1858, pp. 189 sqq.; Wangemann, Johann Sigismund and Paul Gerhardt, Berlin, 1884; E. Clausnitzer, Die markischen Stande unter Johann Sigimund, Halle, 1895; F. Dittrich, in Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte der Altertumskunde Ermlands, xiu (1900), 72 sqq.; ADB, xiv. 169 sqq., cf. xxv. 328 sqq. For the Confessio Sigismundi consult: K. Maller, Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche, pp. lvi. sqq., 835 sqq., Leipsic, 1903, cf. 0. Seger, Zur Confessio Sigismundi, Berlin, 1899.

SIHLER, sirler, EDWARD WILHELM ALEXANDER: Lutheran (Missouri Synod); b. at Bernstadt, Silesia (22 m. e. of Breslau), Nov. 12,1801; d. at Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct. 27, 1885. From the gymnasium at Schweidnitz he entered the army, was a lieutenant of the line in 1819, in 1823 a student of the military academy in Berlin (with Von Moltke and Von Roon), but in 1826 left the service and became a student under Schleiermacher in Berlin (Ph.D., Jena, 1829). In 1830 he became an instructor in the famous Blochmann's Institute in Dresden, in 1838 a private tutor on the Livonian island of Oesel, and in 1840 the same at Riga. About 1835 he was converted and in 1843 came to the United States to labor among the Germans, who were then so destitute of religious teachers. His first charge was in Pomeroy, O., his second and only other charge at Fort Wayne from 1845 till his death. He was one of the organizers of the movement started in his study in 1846 out of which came the powerful Missouri Synod (see LUTHERANS, III., 5, § 1). He was its first vicepresident and the first president of the middle district of his synod. He organized the Practical Seminary at Fort Wayne in 1845, and in it taught exegesis and dogmatics till 1861. He was a prominent preacher among the Germans of the Middle West and also an organizer of churches. He wrote in German several books, including an autobiography (down to 1843, St. Louis, Mo., 1879) and many articles.

SIHLER, ERNEST GOTTLIEB: Lutheran layman and classical scholar; b. at Fort Wayne,