RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sidonius Sieffert
respondent of Sidonius), and Firminus of Aries, the friend of Csesarius (q.v.). About a third of the letters are addressed to ecclesiastics, thirty-six of them to bishops, and the sees of thirty-one of these are known. Perpetuus of Tours, a city which was still Roman, was a correspondent of Sidonius; there are letters to the bishops of Sens, Auxerre, Orleans, and to Lupus of Treves. Though passing by the bishop of Aries, Sidonius was in frequent correspondence with the suffragans of that see, the bishops of Orange, Vaison, and Marseilles; as a native of Lyons, he had a patriotic interest in it. There are letters to the suffragans at Autun and Langres, to the metropolitan of Aix and his suffragan at Riez, to Reims, Toul, and Geneva. His letters set the style for the circle of rhetoricians and the school of which he was a part, as is seen by the letters and writings of Ruricius, and of Alcimus Avitus and Ennodius (qq.v.); in a later period the interest in him arose anew, such men as Flodoard, Sigbert of Gembloux, Vincent of Beauvais, Peter the Venerable, Peter of Poitiers, and John of Salisbury (qq.v.) reading and admiring him. He was not without influence upon Petrarch.
So far as the poems of Sidonius go, they might all have been written by one not a Christian; on the other hand, heathen mythology is for him but a means of adornment, monotheistic thoughts appear in noble form, and he set more His Sig- store by prayer than by the aid of the nificance. physician. However, the Christian writings do not seem to be of sufficiently high value to him, possibly because of his enforced service to the external organization of the Church. He had a sort of contempt for the lower classes who " spoke bad Latin," though he always displayed a kindliness of disposition toward them. As a preacher and saver of souls his repute was not high. His knowledge of the Scriptures, and his dogmatics were alike weak; he spoke, for instance, of the Holy Ghost becoming flesh in Christ. He had little knowledge of and as little interest in the dogmatic controversies of his times. He was urged to apply his pen to the writing of history, but wisely estimated his powers and declined. His service to the better part of the nobility of Gaul is summed up in his advice to the effect that since the Roman state was breaking up, it were better for them to save their nobility in the hierarchy and to carry over their Roman heritage to church offices. And yet he himself failed in large measure to achieve the end he thus set before them, not realizing the opportunity to fill the rhetoric of the schools with a Christian spirit. (F. Arnold.)
Bibliography: Late editions of the works of Sidonius are: that of J. F. Gregoire and F. Z. Collombet, 3 vols., Paris. 1836; in MPL, lviii. 443-748, with the notes of Sirmon'di; E. Barret, Paris, 1879, with valuable introduction and dissertations, though typographical errors are numerous; ed. C. Luetjohann in MGH, Auct. ant., viii (1887), 1- 264; ed. P. Mohr, Leipsic, 1895; cf. E. Geisler, Loci similes auctorum Sidonio anteriorum, Berlin, 1887. There is a Fr. transl. by E. Barret, Paris, 1888.
Sources for a life are Gennadius, De vir. ill., xcii.; Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, ii. 21 sqq. Consult: P Allard, Saint Sidoine Apollinaire, Paris, 1909; M. Fertig, Sidonius und seine Zeit, 3 vols., Wurzburg and Passau, 1845-48 (with valuable essays, and includes some translations); G. Kaufmann, Die Werke des Sidonius als
ein Quelle filr die Geschichte seiner Zeit, Gottingen, 1864; idem, in Neues schweizerisches Museum, pp. 1-28, Basel, 1865; idem, in GGA, 1868, pp. 1001-1021; idem, in Historisches Taschenbuch, 1869, pp. 30-40; L. A. Chaix, S. Sidoine Apollinaire et son siecle, 2 vols., Clermont, 1866 (the fullest and most detailed account) ; F. Ozanan, Hist, of Civilization in the 5th Century, London, 1868; F. Dahn, Konige der Germanen, v. 82-101, Wurzburg, 1870; P. Mohr, In Apollinaris Sidonii epistulas et carmina observationes criticoz, Sondershausen, 1877; idem, Zu Sidonius carmina, Laubach, 1881; M. Budinger, Apollinaris Sidonius als Politiker, Vienna, 1881; T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, book iii., vol. ii., 4 vols., Oxford, 1880—85; L. Sandret, in Revue des questions historiques, xxxii (1882), 210-224; A. Esmein, Sur quelques lettres de Sidoine Apollinaire, Paris, 1885; T. Mommsen, De vita Sidonii, in MGH, Auct. ant., viii (1887), pp. xliv.-liii.; idem, in SB A, 1885, pp. 215-223; L. Duval-Arnould, Etudes d'hist. du droit romain . . d'apres les lettres . de Sidoine Apollinaire, Paris, 1888; M. M tiller, De Apollinaris Sidonii latinitate, Halle, 1888; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, i. 419—148, Leipsic, 1889; W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, iii. 817-S19, London, 1890; W. S. Teuffel, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, pp. 1194-1200, Leipsic, 1890; M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlichen lateinischen Poesie, pp. 218-225, Stuttgart, 1891; E. Bracmann, Sidoniana et Boethiana, Utrecht, 1904; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1894), 97-98; R. Holland, Studia Sidoniana, Leipsic, 1905; Tillemont, Memoires, xvi. 195-284; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, xxxvi (important); Hauck, KD, i. 79 sqq., 83 sqq.; DCB, iv. 649-661 (detailed and thorough, but follows Chaix, ut sup.); ASB, Aug., iv. 597-624.
SIDONIUS, MICHAEL: Bishop of Merseburg. See Helding, Michael.
SIEFFERT, si'fert, FRIEDRICH ANTON EMIL:
German Reformed; b. at Konigsberg, Prussia, Dec. 24, 1843. He was educated at the universities of Konigsberg, Halle, and Berlin (lie. theol., Konigsberg, 1867), and, after being privat-docent at the university of his native city (1867-71), was inspector of the theological seminary at Bonn (1871-73); associate professor at the university of the same city (1873-78); professor of Reformed theology at Erlangen (1878-89); and since 1889 professor of systematic theology and New-Testament exegesis in the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Bonn. He has written Nonnulla ad apocryphi libri Henochi originem pertinentia (Konigsberg, 1867); Ueber den socialen Gegensatz im Neuen Tes-tament (Erlangen, 1888) ; Die neuesten theologischen Forschungen iiber Busse und Glaube (Berlin, 1896); Das Recht im Neuen Testament (Gottingen, 1900); Offenbarung und heilige Schrift (Langensalza, 1905) ; Die Heidenbekehrung im Alten Testament und im Judentum (1908); and Johann Calvins religiose Entwicklung und sittliche Grundrichtung (Leipsic, 1909) ; besides preparing the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of H. A. W. Meyer's commentary on Galatians (Gottingen, 1880-99).
SIEFFERT, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG: German theologian and Biblical scholar; b. at Elbing (32 m. s.w. of Konigsberg) Feb. 1, 1803; d. at Bonn Dec. 2, 1877 He prepared for the university at the Gymnasium of Elbing; entered in 1821 the University of Konigsberg, where he studied under Herbart, and also under August Hahn, with whom he collaborated in issuing Chrestomathia syriaca (Leipsic, 1825), taking there his doctorate. He then went to Berlin for the study of theology, particularly under Ncan-
Sieffert Sigrebert