Chesterton, Oxfordshire.
ain, a few of which are of as earh' date as the latter part of the I'ith century; but the majority are later, extend- ing to the end of the Perpendicular style. The earliest form in the catacombs, and repeated at St. David's, was a bishop's throne flanked by collateral seats. In gen- eral they contain three separate seats, but occasionally two, or only one, and in a few rare instances four, as at Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, and Furness Ab- bey; or five, as at Southwell Minster; sometimes a sin- gle seat under one arch, or formed on the back of a win- dow, is found, long enough for two or three persons. They are very commonly placed at different levels, the eastern seat being a step the highest and the western the lowest; but sometimes, when three are used, the two western seats are on the same level, a step below the other, and sometimes the two eastern are level and the western a step below them. The decorations used about them are various, and in enriclied l)uildings they are occasionally highly ornamented, and sometimes sur- mounted with tab- ernacle-work, pin- nacles, etc. Some ancient sedilia con- sist of plain bench- es formed of masses of masonry project- ing from the wall, and it is not im- probable that such may have once ex- isted in some of the churches in which no traces of these seats are now to l)e found. AtLenham Church, Kent, is a single seat project- — iiig considerably Sedile, Leuham, Kent. from the wall
(though the back is slightly recessed), with stone el- bows resembling an arm-cliair: this is popularly called the confessional. At Becklcy Church, Oxfordshire, is also a single stone seat with one elbow. — Parker, Gloss, of A rchitect. s. v.
Sedition. In the early Church, kings and em- perors were looked upon as political parents, whose authority and majesty were reputed sacred and su- preme under God. All disloyalty or disrespect shown them, either in word or action, was always severely chastised by the laws of the Church. For the first three hundred years, Christians gloried over the heathens in this, that though the emperors were heathen, and some of them furious persecutors of the Christians, yet there were never any seditious or disloyal persons to be found among them. The fourth Council of Carthage forbids the ordination of anj- seditious person. The fourth Council of Toledo orders all clergymen that took up arras in any sedition to be degraded from their order, and to be confined to a monastery to do penance all their lives. See Bingham Antiq. of the Christ. Church, p. 985 sq.
Sedlnitzky, Leopold yo^, formerly prince- bishop of Breslau, was born July 29, 1787, at Gep- persdorf, in Austro- Silesia. Appointed for the Church, he was educated accordingly, and in 1798 the cathedral chapter of Breslau already nomi- nated him as dean. In 1804 he commenced his studies at the Breslau University, where ex-Jes- uits or their pupils were his teachers. In 1830, Sedlnitzky (not Seldnitzky, as Dr. Kurtz has it) was made provost of the chapter, and in 1835 prince - bishop. In the different positions which Sedlnitzky occupied, he had the best opportunity of seeing the doings of the hierarchy. A rupture with the see of Rome became finally a mere question of time, and on IMay 10, 1840, he resigned his bishopric. Frederick William IV, then king of Prussia, appointed him as member of the council of state, and thus he was obliged to take up his abode at Berlin, He now studied Church history and symbolics. The authority of the councils lost its power with him, as not founded upon the Holy Scriptures. He saw that the faith in the free grace of God in Christ, and not the episcopal government, was the uniting link of the Church. At first he attended the divine service of his Church, but this he soon abandoned, and listened to the preaching in different evangelical churches. He had a great desire for the Lord's supper, and it was a great pain to him to be deprived of this c<inimuni()n with the Lord and the brethren. After many hard in- ward struggles, he resolved in 18(53 to join the evangel- ical Church, and in the church of P'riedrich Werder he partook of the Lord's supper. From his own means he founded two institutions at Berlin — tlie Paulinum in 18(')2 and Johanneum in 18(54 — both for tlie education of teachers for the school and Church. In Breslau, also, he founded an institution for evangelical students of theology. Sedlnitzky died May 25, 1871, being the first Roman Catholic bishop who after the time of the Reformation became a convert to the evangelical Ciiurch, See Kurtz, Lehrbiich iler Kircheiif/eschickte (1874), ii, 2G2, especially the autobiography of Sedlnitz- ky, which was publislied in 1872, and which is an im- portant contribution to modern Cliurch history. For a review of this biography, see Hauck, Theologischer Juhresbericht, 187 1 , vii, 700 scj. (B. P.)
Sedtilius, Caius Ccelius (or C/ECiLius),a priest and Christian [Met in the reigns of Theodosius II and Valontiiiian III. Little is known respecting his parent- age and life. He is said to have taught philosophy and rhetoric in Italy, and to have subsecjuently become a priest in Achaia, and ultimately a bishop. The year of his death is not known. He obtains recognition chiefly as the author of a number of religious writings, among