SUTRA
41
SUTTON"
the venerable J. McElroy, D.D., of the Scotch Church in New York, and was installed April "28, 18GG. He was obliged to resign in 1872, on account of aphonia, which a journey to Europe failed to remedy. After his return he spent a winter in Florida, and made an effort to sup- ply the pulpit of the Jacksonville Church, but was obliged to relinquish it. Koturning to the North, his health continued to fail, and lie died at Morristown, N. J., June 18, 1875. Dr. Sutphcn was a talented, popular, and useful preacher, a man of genial s[)irit, a Christian gentleman, a laborious pastor, and a hard student, and was successful in all departments of Christian work. He was offered the presidency of three colleges, and at one time a professorship in one of the theological semi- naries of tlie Church, but to none of these did he con- sider his health adequate. He was engaged during the latter part of his life in preparing a Manual of Family Worship. (W. P. S.)
Sutra is the second division of the sacred writings of the Buddhists, addressed to the laity. The following will show how these sacred writings are classified: The Dharmma, divided into the Suttani and .-1 hhidhummnni ; again divided into — 1. Winaya,oT discipline; 2. Sutra, or discourses; 3. Ahhidharmma, ox pre-eminent truths. The Sutra Fitaka contains seven sections, called Saw/is; and, including both text and commentary, has 396,500 stanzas. See Hardy, Eastern Monuckism.
Sutri (near Rome), Council of (Concilium Suti-i- 7nnn), was held in December, 104G, by Henry the Black, king of Germany. Gregory YI was invited to this coim- cil, and came, hoping to be recognised as sole pontiff; but, finding various difficulties and obstacles in the way, he renounced the papacy, stripped himself of his orna- ments, and gave back the pastoral staff, after having held the papal chair about twenty months. After the council, Henry, accompanied by the prelates who had been present, went to Rome, and by common consent (if the Romans and Germans, Suidger was elected pope, who took the name of Clement H, and was consecrated on Christmas-day. See Mansi, Concil. ix, 948; Baro- iiius, Annal. A.D. 1046. — Landon, Manual of Councils, s. V.
Suttee (Sansc. sati, virtuous, i. e. wife), the name given in Hindustan to a woman who voluntarily sacri- fices herself by burning upon the funeral pyre of her husband, and also to the rite itself. The practice has not been confined to India, where it has had eflect for many centuries, but has existed in other countries. Diodorus Siculus gives an instance which occurred in the army of Eumenes more than 300 years B.C. The period of its origin in India is unknown, though it is certainly of great antiquity. Although the practice is not enjoined by their sacred books, yet it is based by the orthodox Hindus on the injunction of their Shastras, and there can be no doubt that various passages in their Puranas and codes of law countenance the belief which they enter- tain of its merit and efficiency. Thus the Brahma- Puj-dna says, " No other way is known for a virtuous woman after the death of her husband; the separate cremation of her husband would be lost (to all religious intents). If her lord die in another country, let the faithfid wife place his sandals on her breast, and. pure, enter the fire." The faithful widow is pronounced no suicide by the recited text of the Biy-Veda. The code of Yyasa saj's, '' Learn the power of that widow who, learning that her husband has deceased and been burned in another region, speedily casts herself into the fire." And the code of Angiras, '• That woman who, on the death of her husband, ascends the same burning pile with him is exalted to heaven, as equal in virtue to Arundhati (the wife of Yasishtha). She follows her husband to heaven, and will dwell in a region of joy for so many years as there are hairs on a human body, viz. thirty-five millions. As long as a woman (in her successive migrations) shall decline burning herself, like a faithful wife, on the same fire with her deceased lord,
so long shall she not be exempted from springing again to life in the body of some female animal. When their lords have departed at the fated time of attaining heav- en, no other way but entering the same fire is known for women whose virtuous conduct and whose thoughts have been devoted to their husbands, and who fear the dangers of separation."
The mode of perfurming suttee varies in some unim- portant respects, but its principal features are the same. An oblong space, seven feet by six feet, is enclosed by bamboo stakes about eiglit feet long, driven into the earth, within which a |)ile is built of straw, boughs, and logs of wood. After certain prayers and ablutions have been gone through with, the body of the deceased hus- band is brought from the house and placed upon the pile; sometimes in a little arbor of wreathed bamboos, hung with flowers within and without. Then the wife appears, and is unveiled by the Brahmins, herself re- moving the ornaments from her person, distributing them among her friends, by whom they are highly prized. She reserves only one jewel, the tali, or amu- let, placed round her neck by her deceased husliand on the nuptial day. Led by the ymncipal Brahmin, she walks three times around the pile, and then ascends to the side of her husband. Embracing the body, she lies or sits beside it, whereupon the nearest relative applies the torch. The shrieks of the dying woman, if she ut- ters any, are drowned by the shouts of the spectators and the noise of drums.