STEDMAN
1003
STEELE
archbishop of Bremen and counts Otto II and Christian III oCOklenburg. The archiepiscopal Church in lirem- en celebrated the bloody triumph with a procession, and ordained an annual day of commemoration, fixing on the fifth Sunday after Easter for that purpose, be- sides causing a chapel to be erected near the scene of the victory. The abbot Hermann of Corvey exhibited his joy by the erection of two other chapels in the same neighborhood. All the writers prior to the Keforma- tion who mention tliis war condemn tlie Stedingers as heretics, and it was reserved for tlic da\-s of Protestant- ism to vindicate the fame of these champions of liberty. On May 27, 183'4, a simple but durable monument was dedicated to their memory on the site where once stood one of the abbot of Corvey's chapels. See Monachi Chron, in A. Matth. Analect. ii, 501; Chron. Rastad. ap. Langeb. Script/. Re?: Danic. vol. iii ; Stadeus, Chron. ad A. 1197; Wolter, Chron. Brem. ap. IMeibom. vol. ii ; Godefr, Mnnach. S. Pantol. ad A. VIM, ap. Freher- Struve, i, 399; t}p. Gregor. IX, in Raynald, anno 1233, No. 42, complete in RipoU, BuUarium Ord. Priediail. i, 52, and Ejj. Gregor. IX ad Hemici Fiiderici Imp. Filium, in Martene, The^aur. i, 950 ; Mansi, xxiii, 32i5 ; Bisbeck, Die Nieder- Weser u. Osterade (Hanov. 1789) ; Kohl, Handb. d. Herzogth. Oldenburg (Bremen, 1825) : Muhle, Geschichte d. Stedingerlaiides ini Mittelalter, in Strackerjan, Beitr. zur Gesch. d. Grossherzogth. Olden- burg (Bremen, 1837), vol. i; Crantz, Metropolis, lib. vii and viii ; Schminck, Expedit. Crnc. in Stedingns (Marb. 1722) ; Ritter, Diss, de Pago Steding et Stedingis Scec. XIII Hmreticis (Viteb. 1725); Lappenberg, Kreuzzug gegen d. Stedinger (Stade, 1755); Hamelmann, Oldenb. Chronik; Von Halem, Gesch. d. Herzogth. Oldenb. vol. i; Scharling, De Stedingis Comment. (Hafn. 1828). See also general histories of the region and the Church , e. g. Schrockh, pt. xxix ; Gieseler, Lehrbuch, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 599 sq. — Herzog, Reul-Encyklop. s. v.
Stedman, Rowland, a Nonconformist minister, was born at Corston, Shropshire, in 1030. He was ad- mitted commoner of Baliol College, Oxford, in 1G47, and removed to University College in 1()48, taking his degree of A.M. in 1655. He soon after became minister of Hanwell, Middlesex, and vicar of Ockingham, Berk- shire, in 1G60. In 1662 he was ejected for nonconform- ity, and afterwards became chaplain to Philip, lord ^\'llarton. He died in 1673. Stedman wrote. The 3/gstical Union of Believers ti-ifh Christ (Lond. 1668, 8vo) : — Sober Singularity (ibid. 1668, 8vo).
Steel. In all cases where the word " steel" occurs in the A. V, the true rendering of the Hebrew is "cop- per." niziinj, nechushdh, except in 2 Sam. xxii, 35; Job XX, 24; Psa. xviii, 34 [35], is always translated "brass;" as is the case with the cognate word ri^nj, nechosheth, with the two exceptions of Jer. xv, 12 (A. V. "steel") and Ezra viii, 27 (A. V. "copper"). Whether the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with steel is not perfectly certain. It has been inferred from a passage in Jeremiah (xv, 12) that the "iron from the north" there spoken of denoted a superior kind of metal, hardened in an unusual manner, like the steel obtained from the Chalybes of the Pontus, the ironsmifhs of the ancient world. The hardening of iron for cutting-instruments was practiced in Pontus, Lydia, and Lacoiiia (Eustath. //. ii, 294, 6r, quoted in Miiller, Ifavd. d. Arch. v. d. Kuiist, § 307, n. 4). .Fustin (xliv, 3, 8) mentions two rivers in Spain, the Bilbilis (the Salo, or Xalon, a trib- utary of the Ebro) and the Chalybs, the water of which was used for hardening iron (comp. Pliny, xxxiv, 41). The same practice is alluded to both by Homer (Od. ix, 393) and Sophocles (Aj. 650). The Celtiberians, ac- cording to Diodorus Siculus (v, 33), had a singular cus- tom. They buried sheets of iron in the earth till the •weak part, as Diodorus calls if, was consumed by rust, and what was hardest remained. This firmer portion was then converted into weapons of different kinds.
The same practice is said by Beckmann (Flisf. of Inv. ii, 328, ed. Bohn) to prevail in Japan. The last-men- tioned writer is of o])inion that of the two methods of making steel, by fusion cither from iron-stone or raw iron, and by cementation, the ancients were acquainted only with the former. See Coi'i'KU.
There is, however, a word in Hebrew, n^sQ, pal- ddh, which occurs only in Nab. ii, 3 [4], and is there rendered "torches," but wliich most probably denotes steel or hardened iron, and refers to the tiashing scythes of the Assyrian chariots. In Syriac and Arabic the cognate words {polilo,Jaludh, Jhladh) Hxgiufy a kind of iron ofexcellent(juality, and especially steel. SeeMKTAL.
Steel appears to have been known to the Egyptians. The steel weapons in the tomb of Kameses HI, says Wilkinson, are painted blue, the bronze red {Anc. Eg, ii, 154). — Smith. See luos.
Steel, Robert, D.D., a Presbj'terian divine, was born in the vicinity of Londonderry, Ireland, Jan. 9, 1793. In early boyhood he came to the United States, pursued his preparatory studies in the Academy of Philadelphia, graduated at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, N. J., and at the Associate Reformed The- ological Seminary, New York ; was licensed by Phila- delphia Presbvtery, commenced his labors as a city missionary in that city and vicinity, and (Nov. 9, 1819) was ordained and installed pastor of the Presb3'terian Church at Abington, Pa. This was his only charge, and here he performed faithfully and successfully his life-work. He died Sept. 2, 1862. Dr. Steel was a good man, and a pre-eminently effective preacher. The Church was to him "all in all;" tlie cause of missions seemed to absorb all his interest; and the Sabbath- school cause, apparently, possessed his whole heart. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. A Inumac, 1863, p. 207. (J. L. S.)