SIXTUS
789
SKANDA
TALS, Pseudo-Isidorian] are attributed to him. He was succeeded by Denis.
Siztus III (St.), pope, was born at Rome about the beginning of the 5th century. He became a priest under Zosimus, whose decree against the Pelagians he wrote in 418, and to him Augustine directed his cele- brated letter on grace. He was elected (July 31,432) to succeed Celestine I, and labored with more zeal than success to reconcile Cyril of Alexandria with John of Antioch. Sixtus built several churches, adorned oth- ers, and enlarged the basilica of Tiberius (now St. Mary Major), as well as that of St. John Lateran. He died at Rome, Aug. 18, 440, and was succeeded by Leo the Great. There remain of this pope eight Letters, some poems, and a few supposititious works. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Sixtus IV, pope (originally Francesco della Ro- ve7-e), was born July 2"2, 1414, it is said of the family of Rovere; but, according to the best historians, he was the son of a poor fisherman. He was brought up by cardinal Bessarion, and entered the Order of the Minor- ites, whose head he eventualh' became. Paul II made him a cardinal, and he succee<led him as pope, Aug. 9, 1471. His pontificate was occupied with schemes of re- form, and with expeditions against the Turks ; but he also engaged earnestly in efforts for the maintenance of the privileges of the Holy See, laying the city of Florence under an interdict, and finally Venice like- wise. Being of a weak and unprincipled character, he wasted the public and papal resources in his extrava- gant intrigues. He died at Rome, Aug. 18, 1484, and was succeeded by Innocent VHI. It was he who built the Sistine Chapel and founded the Festival of the Conception of the Virgin. There are a few theological treatises by him, also some Letters, etc., for which see Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Sixtus V, one of the most celebrated of the popes of Home, was descended from Slavonian parents, who had fled to Italv at the period of the Ottoman conquest of their country. His father, Pereto Peretti, was a vine-dresser in the humblest circumstances, but so hope- ful of the fortunes of his son that he named him Felix, or Felice. This child was born in 1621, and educated b}' his uncle, Fra Salvatore, who had fortunately joined the Franciscan order of friars. Before passing under his care, however, the young Felix had acted as swine- herd, or in any field occupation bj' which a scanty ad- dition could be made to his parents' income. Felix Pe- retti made great progress in scholarship and dialectics, and being ordained priest acquired a valuable reputa- tion by his oratory as Lent preacher in Rome in the year 1552. His firmness in the Catholic faith at this time, un<ler trying circumstances, procured him also the friendship of the grand inquisitor, and the now rising churchman attached himself to the severe party of Ig- natius and others, whose influence was then beginning to be felt. In quick succession he became commissary- general at Bologna, inquisitor at Venice, and procura- tor-general of his order; and these steps gained, by dint of a pushing and resolute ambition, he is said to have assumed the greatest humility, and affected the infirmi- ties of old age. The truth of such statements, however, is denied by Ranke, who justh' observes that the high- est dignities are not to be won by such means. It is much more probable that Peretti's energy as a reformer of his order, and the discriminating friendship of the pope, Pius V, marked him out as the man for the epoch, and we know that he stood firmly by his favorite, whom he clothed with the purple in 1570. The son of the vine-dresser was now ranked with the princes of Italy by the title of cardinal Montalto, and he still varied his public labors by rural occupations. We are not in- formed of all the circumstances attending his election to the papacy, but he succeeded Gregory XIII in 1585, and at once commenced the administrative and social reforms iu Italy that he had so long contemplated. Un-
like a recent example, he carried liis measures with a high and firm hand, and so vigorously enforced justice that the instances often read more like cold-blooded cruelty. His measures had the desired effect, however, of extirpating the bandits who had so long overrun the countrj', and of bringing some show of order out of the general lawlessness of society. We cannot enumerate here his great enterprises in administrative reform, or the magnificence of his public works, but they all mark his passion for order and completeness. His foreign policj' was of the same trenchant description ; no half measures or vaporings were to be tolerated. For exam- ples of this spirit it may be sufficient to name the great Catholic league, and the invasion of England bj' the Spanish Armada. Still more surprising and gigantic were his conceptions as he grew old, as his rigid financial system enabled him to amass a large public treasure in the vaults of St. Angelo. His designs now were sufllcient to prove that he had perfected the government of his own states and improved the discipline of the Church as an instrument of a more universal dominion than the papacy had ever reached; even the Greek Church and the empire of Mohammed were destined to be trans- formed under his hand. Sixtus V breathed his last amid these visions of grandeur Aug. 27, 1590. A storm burst over the palace of the Quirinal at the moment of his death, and it became an article of the popular faith that he had achieved his enterprises by a com- pact with the evil one, which had then expired. See Hoefer, Nouv, Biog. Generale, and the literature there cited.