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73 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Staupits Steele (graduated, 1866), and after studying music in Rochester, Chicago, and Boston, was director of music in the First Baptist Church, Chicago (1870 1874). He then occupied a similar position at the Clarendon Street Baptist Church and Tremont Temple, Boston (1874-76), and was associated with D. L. Moody and I. D. Sankey in their evangelistic work (1876-99), touring Great Britain and the United States. He likewise spent a winter in India in evangelistic work with G. F. Pentecost, and in the same work has made other extensive tours in Egypt, Palestine, and Europe. Since 1830 he has been con ductor of music at the Northfield Conferences, Northfield, Mass. Besides being one of the editors of Gospel Hymns, nos. 3-6, New York, 1877-91 (in collaboration with I. D. Sankey and J. MeGrana han), and other popular collections of hymns, he has compiled The Northfield Hymnal (1904). STECg, shtec, RUDOLF: Swiss Protestant; b. at Bern Jan. 18, 1842. He was educated at the universities of his native city, Jena, and Heidelberg, and, after being pastor at the Reformed Church in Dresden (1867-81), was appointed in 1881 to his present position of professor of New-Testament exegesis at Bern. In theology he belongs to the extreme critical school; he is a member of the Swiss Geschichtsforschende Gesellschaft. He has written Galaterbrie f, n.ach seiner Echtheit untersucht (Berlin, 1888); Die Piscatorbibel and ihre Einfiihrung ire Bern irrt Jahre 168 (Bern, 1897); Der Berner Jetzerprozess, 1507-1509 (1902); Akten des Jetzer prozesses (Basel, 1904; and Die erstert SeiEen der Bibel, SchSpfung, Parodies and Siindenfall, Sint ftut (Bern, 1909). STEDINGERS, THE: Name of the inhabitants of the lowlands on both banks of the Weser near the North Sea; they were mostly Frisians who retired to these marshlands from the bishopric of Utrecht in the twelfth century. They acknowledged the territorial authority of the archbishops of Hamburg Bremen, but actually lived in independence, with standing the attacks of the counts of Oldenburg and of Archbishop Hartwig II. The struggle was resumed, however, with great energy by Gerhard IL, one of the most prominent archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen in the thirteenth century. With the aid of his brother Hermann von der Lippe, he gathered an army in order to enforce his tithes and humiliate the peasants. On Christmas eve, 1229, in a decisive battle the peasants won a brilliant victory. In order to avenge the death of his brother and crush the Stedingera the archbishop sought the aid of the Church. He called a diocesan synod at Bremen in 1230, and charged them with heresy and contempt of the sacrament. By the bull of Pope Gregory IX. (1227-41) a crusade was preached against them, in order to carry the synodal judg ment into effect. The bishops of Minden, Lubeck, and Ratzeburg, aided by the mendicant friars of North Germany, soon succeeded in gathering an army of crusaders; but the first\ crusade in the winter of 1232-33 failed. The Stedingers advanced to Bremen and found an important ally in Otto of Liineburg, duke of the Guelphs. The wrath of the archbishop was only increased by these misadven- tares. The pope now requested still other bishops, those of Paderborn, Hildesheim, Verden, Munster, and Osnabriick, to preach the crusade against the Stedingers. At his instigation also there was made a solemn compact between the archbishop and the council of Bremen (Mar., 1233) against them. In June, 1233, the second crusade was undertaken, and first against the East Stedingers. Hundreds of men under arms were slain, the captives burnt as heretics; the others, including wives and children, were reduced to submission by fire and sword, murder, spoliation, and rapine. The West Stedin gers repulsed the hostile attacks, although their position became more and more desperate owing to the reduction of the East Stedingers, the failure of expected aid from Friealand to arrive, and the deser tion of their ally. At the same time the number of the crusaders was increased by a fresh bull, ad vancing them the same indulgence and privileges as those extended to the crusaders to the Holy Land. Notwithstanding, the third crusade under the leader ship of Count Burchard of Oldenburg ended with a defeat of the crusaders and the death of their leader at Treffen. The fanatic<d preaching of the crusade on the part of the Dominicans swept over all the low countries, and the revolting tales of heresy and superstitious horrors were exaggerated. The bull of Gregory authorizing mediation for peace came too late. The fanatic hosts of the counts of the broad lowlands, variousl;,· estimated from 10,000 to 40,000, assembled against the 2,000 Stedingers? The decisive battle took place Sunday, before Ascension Day, May 27, 1234, at Altenesch. The Stedingers were overwhelmed by numbers; few resorted to flight; most of them., including women, were slain in battle. A small remnant escaped to the Frisians, and others remained, in submission to the archbishop. The territory R as divided between the archbishop and the count of Oldenburg. Six months after the battle the pope ordered a rededica tion of the churches and burial-places, and in 1235 the anathema upon the Stedingers was removed. In memory of the victory a special festival took place annually at Bremen, by order of the arch bishop, on the Saturday before A.,scension Day, until the beginning of the sixteenth century. On the six-hundredth anniversary of the battle, in 1834, there was dedicated a monument in honor of the heroic peasants. (A. HAUCK.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sources for history are to be found in MGH, Script., xvi (1859). 197-231, xxiii (1874), 83, 516, 265, xxv (1880), 504, and ib. Deutsche Chroniken, ii (1877), 236 sqq. The earlier accounts are; superseded by H. A. Schumacher, Die Stedinper, Bremen. 1865. For comparison there may be consulted: F. R'. Schirrmacher, Kaiser Friedrich 11., i. 227 sqq., GSttingen, 1859; E. Winkelmann, Geschichte Kaiser Friedrichs IL, ii. 437 sqq., Berlin, 1883; R. Usinger, Deutsche-danische Geschichte, pp. 169 sqq., ib. 1863; G. Denio, Ge,rchichte des Erzbistums Bremen-Hamburg, ii. 119 aqq., ib. i.877; J. Felten, Gregor IX., p. 220. Freiburg, 1886; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, v. 1018 sqq.
STEELE, ANNE: English Lymn-writer; b. at Broughton (10 m. w.n.w. of Winchester), England, 1716; d. there Nov. 11, 1778. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister. Her personal sufferings are reflected in her verse, for she was always an invalid. Her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional,
