Although many of the cases of stigmatization are not well attested, it is yet certain that cases have actually occurred ; and it becomes important to account for them. The popes attributed the case of St. Francis directly to '■the sjiecial ami wonderful favor vouchsafed to him in Christ," A better explanation uncpiestionably is ob- tained when we reflect how many ami strong are the formative fiowersof the soul which the imagination may control, and how remarkable are the results sometimes caused by the action of the imagination upon the body. Certain Homan (Jatholic writers, e.g. Jacobus deVoragine ( I3ili century), I'etrarch, Cornelius Agrippa, etc., as- crilxid the stigmatization of St. Francis to his glowing fancy; and the fact of an excited imagination usually connected with an enfeebled body— the effect of sickness or of religious mortifications— may be demonstrated in every instance of the phenomenon in (piestion which had been (iroperly authenticated. The (piestion of the im|>ortniice to lie attached to such phenomena conse- • piently becomes easy of soliilioii. Stigmatization seems only to have occurred where the subject had earnestly aiiddeciNively turned away from the world and its pleas- urcH, and had embraced the Saviour in the fervor of a flowing love; but it was, lie vert heless, not an endowment conferred by (Jod. As a pheiioinenon, permitted rather than caused by him, it iiiiisl be regarded rather as a negative than a i>osiiivt! effect of his thvine working.
S«-o Mal:ui. //ill. ./, S. /V. il'.l^isii,' (Paris, 18 11 ; iu Cicrmaii, Munich, 181}); /liiieres Leiilm iiii.irrf.i Ihrrn JtMU Chruli Willi iltii JMnirfit. der A . Kutli. Kiiimfiirli (8th cd. Munich, 18J2j; Eimemuitcr, Der M (ujittlUmm
till Verhdltn. z. Xalin- v. Religion (2d ed. Stuttg. and Tiib. 1853), § 92-95, 131-142. Giirres, CkrisU. .Vysilk; ii, 410-45(), 494-510. The two works last named afford im|)ortaiit aid in explaining the phenomenon of stigma- tization. See also H engsteiiberg, Ecany. Kircheiizfitum/, 1835, 11. 180-201, 345-390, and an instructive essay by Tholiick, in Veimisclite Schiiften, i, 97-133, On the importance and meaning of stigmatization, see Von Meyer, Blatter Jlir kOhere Wuhrheit, vii, 211-227. — Herzog, Heal-Enci/klop. s. v.
Stikeman, William, a minister of the IMethodist Episcopal Church, was born at Port Kichmond, Staten Island, N. Y., Aug. 9, 1845. He was converted in his sixteenth year, and was licensed to preach Jan. 31, 1802. Me was received on trial by the Newark Conference in 18C6, and ordained deacon in 1868. He was attacked by a pulmonary trouble and obliged to give up his charge in November of the same year, and died Feb. 10, 1809. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1869, p. 57.
Stilbe, in Grecian mythology, was a daughter of Peneus and Creusa, who was beloved of Apollo, and is said to have become by him the mother of Lapithus and Centaurus (Diod. Sic. iv, 09, etc.).
Stiles, Abel, a Congregational minister, uncle of the following, was born at Windsor, Conn., IMarch 5, 1708, graduated at Yale College in 1733, was tutor for a year, and ordained at Woodstock in 1737, where he was pastor until his death, July 25, 1783. In 1760 a breach took place in the Church, Stiles and his adhe- rents setting up worship in the northern part of the town. This bitter contention was healed in 1766 by mutual reconciliation. See Cong. Quar. 1861, p. 350.
Stiles, Ezra, D.D., an eminent Congregational minister, was born at North Haven, Conn., Dec. 10, 1727. He graduated at Yale College in 1747, and was appointed tutor in 1749, licensed to preach in the same year, but in 1753 he was admitted to the bar in New Haven, and practiced law for two years. Having re- ceived a call from Newport, K. I., he was ordained pas- tor Oct. 22, 1755, where he continued a persevering stu- dent and faithful pastor until 1777, when he was elected president of Yale College and professor of ecclesiastical history, upon the duties of which positions he entered in June, 1778, and remained until his death. May 12, 1795. He published, A Funerul Oration on Gorernor Law (1761), in Latin: — a Latin C)ration on his in- duction to his ofHce as President (1778): — Account of the Settlement of Bristol (1785) : — History of the Three Judges of Charles I (1795), See Sprague, Annals of the A mer. Pulpit, i, 470.
Still, Abraham, a minister of the Slethodist Epis- copal Clmrch, was born in lluncombe County, N. C, Aug. 25, 1796. He united with the Church at the age of seventeen, and was licensed to preach in 1817. He was ordained deacon in November, 1821, and elder in October, 1825. He travelled in Virginia and Tennessee until 1838, when he was transferred to Missouri. At the division of the Church in 1844 he adhered to the Church North, and travelled for six years over the Han- nibal and Platte districts. In 18.50 the Missouri Con- ference sent him as missionary to the Shawnee Indians, among whom he l;iborcd until the mission was discon- tinued. The (irst ap|ioiiilments to Kansas were made (1855) by the Jlissouri Conference, and IMr. Still was made presiding elder, which office he continued to hold after tlie Kansas and Nebraska Conference was organ- ized in May, 1856. In 1860 he was made a superannu- ate, but became effective in I8()3, and again took a su- perannuate<l relation. He died Dec. 31, 1867. See Miiiiilis if Annuid Conferences, 1868. p, 72.