Sodomy, an unnatural crime, consisting of the de- filement of man with man, and thus differing from best- iality, which is the defilement of man with brutes. The name is derived from Sodom, in which city the crime was frequent. Sodom}"^ was strictly forbidden in the Mosaic law, and was punishable with death (Lev. XX, 13). Among the pagan nations of antiquity, as still in many heathen countries, this was a very com- mon vice (Rom. i, 27); the Greeks and Romans desig- nated it by the term pcederasty (see Wilcke, De Satyri- cis Roiminis [Viteb. 1760]). In the early Church tliis was considered, not an ordinary, but a monster crime. The Council of Ancyra has two canons relating to this and similar crimes, imposing heavy ecclesiastical pen- alties upon offenders. St. Basil (Can. 62, 63) imposes the penalty of adultery, viz. twenty years' penance; and the Council of Eliberis refused communion, even at the last hour, to those guilty of this crime with boys. There was an old Roman law against it, called the Lex Scantinuu mentioned by Juvenal {Sat. ii, 44) and oth- ers; but it lay dormant until revived by Christian em- perors. Constantius made it a capital offence, and or- dered it to be punished with death by the sword; while Theodosius decreed that those found guilty should be burned alive. According to modern legislation, it is considered a very heinous crime, and severely punished. See Bingham, Christ. Antiq. bk. xvi, ch. xi, p. 9.
Sodor and Man, Diocese of. The Norwegians and Danes, who in ancient times occupied the Orkneys and other islands on the coast of Scotland, divided these islands into two groups : to the former they gave the name of Noi-diireyar, or Northern Isles ; and to the lat- ter, which included the western islands, that of Sui'du- reyar, or Southern Isles. By Sodor, therefore, is meant the western islands of Scotland, especially those most contiguous to the Isle of Man, which, with them, formed a diocese.
SofGt (erroneously Soj/heaf), a ceiling. The word is seldom used except in reference to the subordinate parts and members of buildings, such as staircases, en- tablatures, archwa3's, cornices, etc., the un- der-sides of which are called the soffit. — ■ TarkcTjGloss.oJ'A rcli- itect. s. V.
SoganS (Sojya- VT], Suidas '2tuy avt]), the name of two towns in Pales- tine.
1. A city of Galilee (Josephus, Life, p. 51 ; War, ii, 20, 6), situated twenty stadia from Araba, and the same distance from Gabara (Reland, P<dcest. p. 1021); now Sukhuim, a village in the centre of Galilee, first visited by G. Schultz, and identified by Grossz (Ritter, Erdk. xvi, 708 ; see also Robinson, Later Res. p. 83, 85). There are at Sukhnim graves of some famous Jewish rabbins (Schwarz, Palest, p. 188).
2. A city of Gaulonitis (Josephus, War, iv, 1, 1 ; Re-
Sofflt(SS).
land, Palcest. p. 1021), discovered bj' Dr. Thomson (A'. Y. Observer, Oct. 15, 1857) in a ruin by the name of Sujdn, on the high brow of the mountains that rise above tlie Hialeh marshes on the eastern side.— Van de Velde, Alemoir, p. 350.
Sohar. See Zohar.
Sohn, Georg, a theologian of Hesse, was born in Rossbach, Dec. 31, 1551. In 1571 he obtained the de- gree of master of liberal arts at Wittenberg, and in the following year began to teach at Marburg. In 1574 he entered the faculty, and was intrusted with the exposi- tion of Melancthon's Loci Communes, and soon after- wards with the professorship of Hebrew. In 1578 he was made doctor of theologj'. A constant attendance on the synods of 1578 and 1582 involved Sohn in the controversies of the time. Egidius Hunniiis was the strenuous advocate of strict Lutheranism in the Marburg faculty, while Sohn ranked as the leading supporter of the Melancthonian doctrine in the Hessian Church, and this led to his final removal from Marburg. The land- grave William of Hesse- Cassel vented his anger on Hunnius as the disturber of the Church, and the land- grave Louis, at Marburg, retaliated by holding Sohn responsible for the existing troubles. The latter was accordingly prepared to seek a new field, when he was called in 1584 to the University of Herborn, in Nassau, and to that of Heidelberg. He accepted the latter call, and delivered his inaugural address as professor of the- ology on July 18 of that year. Four years later he be- came a regular member of the Church Council. He died April 23, 1589. The works of Sohn are chiefly doctrinal, and of the Melancthonian type. A complete list is given in Strider, Grundlage einer hess. Gelehrtengesch. xv, 109-112. The more important works were published in 4 vols, at Herborn in 1591, and in a third edition in 1009. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s. v.
Soissons, Councils of {Concilium SuessioTiense), were held in the town of Soissons, department of Aisne, BVance.
I. Held March 3, 744, by order of Pepin. Twenty- three bishops were present. The heretic Adelbert was condemned in this council, and ten canons were pub- lished.
1. Kecognipes the Nicene Creed.
4. Forbids fornication, peijury, and false witness to the I:iity ; orders iill priests to submit to their bishop, to ren- der an iiccount to him every year of their coiuluct, to re- ceive him when making his visitations, and to obtain from him the holy rite and chrism.