Pius V., who made him apostolic vicar of his order, and, later (1570), cardinal. During the pontificate of Gregory XIII. he lived in retirement, occupied with the care of his villa and with his studies, one of the fruits of which was an edition of the works of Ambrose; not neglecting, however, to follow the course of affairs, but carefully avoiding every occasion of offence. This discreetness contributed not a little to his election to the papacy on the 24th of April 1585; but the story of his having feigned decrepitude in the Conclave, in order to win votes, is a pure invention. One of the things that commended his candidacy to certain cardinals was his physical vigour, which seemed to promise a long pontificate.
The terrible condition in which Gregory XIII. had left the ecclesiastical states called for prompt and stern measures. Against the prevailing lawlessness Sixtus proceeded with an almost ferocious severity, which only extreme necessity could justify. Thousands of brigands were brought to justice: within a short time the country was again quiet and safe. Sixtus next set to work to repair the finances. By the sale of offices, the establishment of new “Monti” and by levying new taxes, he accumulated a vast surplus, which he stored up against certain specified emergencies, such as a crusade or the defence of the Holy See. Sixtus prided himself upon his hoard, but the method by which it had been amassed was financially unsound: some of the taxes proved ruinous, and the withdrawal of so much money from circulation could not fail to cause distress. Immense sums, however, were spent upon public works. Sixtus set no limit to his plans; and what he achieved in his short pontificate is almost incredible; the completion of the dome of St Peter’s; the loggia of Sixtus in the Lateran; the chapel of the Praesepe in Sta Maria Maggiore; additions or repairs to the Quirinal, Lateran and Vatican palaces; the erection of four obelisks, including that in the piazza of St Peter’s; the opening of six streets; the restoration of the aqueduct of Severus (“Acqua Felice”); besides numerous roads and bridges, an attempt to drain the Pontine marshes, and the encouragement of agriculture and manufacture. But Sixtus had no appreciation of antiquity: the columns of Trajan and Antoninus were made to serve as pedestals for the statues of SS Peter and Paul; the Minerva of the Capitol was converted into “Christian Rome”; the Septizonium of Severus was demolished for its building materials.
The administrative system of the church owed much to Sixtus. He limited the College of Cardinals to seventy; and doubled the number of the congregations, and enlarged their functions, assigning to them the principal role in the transaction of business (1588). The Jesuits Sixtus regarded with disfavour and suspicion. He meditated radical changes in their constitution, but death prevented the execution of his purpose. In 1589 was begun a revision of the Vulgate, the so-called Editio Sixtina.
In his larger political relations Sixtus, strangely enough, showed himself visionary and vacillating. He entertained fantastic ambitions, such as the annihilation of the Turks, the conquest of Egypt, the transporting of the Holy Sepulchre to Italy, the accession of his nephew to the throne of France. The situation in which he found himself was embarrassing: he could not countenance the designs of heretical princes, and yet he distrusted Philip II. and viewed with apprehension any extension of his power. So, while he excommunicated Henry of Navarre, and contributed to the League and the Armada, he chafed under his forced alliance with Philip, and looked about for escape. The victories of Henry and the prospect of his conversion to Catholicism raised Sixtus’s hopes, and in corresponding degree determined Philip to tighten his grip upon his wavering ally. The pope’s negotiations with Henry’s representative evoked a bitter and menacing protest and a categorical demand for the performance of promises. Sixtus took refuge in evasion, and temporized until death relieved him of the necessity of coming to a decision (27th of August 1590).
Sixtus died execrated by his own subjects; but posterity has recognized in him one of the greatest popes. He was impulsive, obstinate, severe, autocratic; but his mind was open to large ideas, and he threw himself into his undertakings with an energy and determination that often compelled success. Few popes can boast of greater enterprise or larger achievements.
Lives of Sixtus are numerous: Cicarella’s, in Platina, De vitis pontiff. Rom., is by a contemporary of the pope, but nevertheless of slight importance; Leti’s Vita di Sisto V (Amsterdam, 1693, translated into English by Farneworth, 1779) is a caricature, full of absurd tales, utterly untrustworthy, wanting even the saving merit of style; Tempesti’s Storia della vita e geste di Sisto Quinto (Rome, 1754–1755) is valuable for the large use it makes of the original sources, but lacks perspective and is warped by the author’s blind admiration for his subject; Cesare’s Vita di Sisto V (Naples, 1755) is but an abridgment of Tempesti. Of recent works the best are Hübner, Sixte-Quint, &c. (Paris, 1870, translated into English by H. E. H. Jerningham, London, 1872); and Capranica, Papa Sisto, storia del s. XVI (Milan, 1884). See also Lorentz, Sixtus V. u. seine Zeit (Mainz, 1852); Dumesnil, Hist. de Sixte-Quint (Paris, 1869, 2nd ed.); Segretain, Sixte-Quint et Henri IV (Paris, 1861, strongly Ultramontane); Ranke’s masterly portrayal, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), i. 446 sq., ii. 205 sq.; and v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, 575 sq., 733 sq. Extended bibliographies may be found in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, s.v. “Sixtus V.”; and Cambridge Mod. Hist. iii. 835 sq. (T. F. C.)
SIZAR, one of a class of students at a college of Cambridge
University and at Trinity College, Dublin, who, being persons of
limited means, are received for lower fees, and obtain free
commons, lodgings or other assistance towards their education
during their terms of residence. At Oxford there was formerly
a similar class, known as “Battelers” or “Batlers,” who
originally waited on the Fellow of the College who had nominated
them, and a still more humble class, the “servitors,” who,
perhaps, answered more to a “subsizar” at Cambridge. The
name “sizar” is to be connected with the “sizes” or “sizings”
(“size” being a shortened form of “assize”), that is the specified
portions of food and drink issued at a fixed price from the buttery
of the college; the sizar was so styled either because as one of
his former duties he had to fetch the “sizes” for others, or
because he obtained his own free. The menial duties of “sizars”
at Cambridge have long become obsolete.
SIZE, a general term for bulk or quantity; also an agglutinant consisting of undried glue. The two words, though they are so widely separate in meaning, are by etymology the same. “Size” (Lat. assidere, to sit down to) is a shortened form of “assize,” through the French and Italian respectively. The O. Fr. assis, assise, and Eng. “assize,” meant a sitting of a deliberative or other body; hence decree, ordinance of such a body, specifically of such as regulated weights, measures, prices; thus it came to mean a standard of measure price, quantity thus fixed, and so merely quantity or measure, in which sense it remains in the shortened form “size.” In the sense of an agglutinant, “size” is an adaptation of Ital. sisa, a shortened form of assisa (Lat. assidere), and seems to have meant by derivation “that which painters use to make the colours sit well or suitably.”
SKAGERRACK, the arm of the North Sea which gives access to the Cattegat and so to the Baltic. It is about 140 m. long and 75 broad. On the Danish shore, which is low and beset with sand-banks, the strait is shallow. Towards the steep Norwegian coast its deepest part is found, 443 fathoms.
For the currents, temperature and salinity of the water, &c., see North Sea.
SKAGWAY (a native name said to mean “home of the north wind”), a city in S.E. Alaska, in lat. 59° 28′ N. and long. 135° 20′ W., at the mouth of the river Skagway, on an indentation of Taiya Inlet, a branch of Chilkoot Inlet, leading out of Lynn Canal. Pop. (1900) 3117. It is the seaward terminus of the Yukon & White Pass railway, by which goods and passengers reach the Klondike; and is connected with Dawson by telegraph and with Seattle by cable, and with Seattle, San Francisco and other Pacific ports by steamers. The climate is comparatively dry (annual precipitation about 21·75 in.); between 1898 and 1902 the minimum recorded temperature was 10° (March), the maximum 92° (July), and the greatest monthly range 73° (March). Though settled somewhat earlier, Skagway first became important during the rush in 1896 for the Klondike gold-fields, for which it is the most convenient entrance by the trail over White Pass, the lower of the two passes to the
