SIX'TUS. The name of five popes. SixTus or XYSTUS I., Saint., l'ope c.116-25, under the reign of Hadrian.—titxTus or XYSTUS 11., Saint, Pope 257-258. Under him the communion be tween Rome and the North African churches, broken off by the controversy over heretic bap tism (q.v.) under his predecessor Stephen J., was restored. lle died a martyr under Valerian, three days before his devoted deacon, Saint Lawrence (q.v.).—StxTus III., Saint, Pope 43'2 440. To him is due the restoration of the Li berian basilica (Santa Maria _Maggiore), in Which his work is extant to-day, as also in the nave of another basilica built by him, the present Church of San Lorenzo. He is said to have sent Saint Patrick to Ireland.—S=us IV., Pope 1471-84, Francesco della Rovere. He was born near Savona in 1414, and became general of the Franciscan Order in 1464. Paul II. made him a cardinal three years later and was succeeded by him as Pope. His nepotism is the worst blot upon the memory of his pontificate, and led in direetly, through the ambition of his brother Girolamo, to unfortunate connection with the political affairs of Florence. The Pope's eigh teen-year-old nephew, Cardinal Sansoni-Riario, having been arrested in connection with the assas sination of Giuliano de' in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, Sixths demanded his release of Lorenzo de' Medici and satisfaction for the execu tion of the Archbishop of Pisa. who was suspected of complicity. Interdict, excommunication, and war followed: but after Lorenzo had won over the Pope's ally, the King of Naples, peace was made in 1480, and the Papal forces set free to act against the Turks, who had taken Otranto. Complications with Venice were terminated in favor of the Republic by the Peace of Bag,nolo. Sixtus. regarding it as a bitter humiliation and already ill. died five days later. Many public works were furthered by him, of which the most famous is the Sistine Chapel; the Ponte Sisto also commemorates his reign. Taxation, both
civil and ecclesiastical, was so increased to carry out these projects and to provide for the Pope's family that it contributed not a little to dis affection against the Church. Consult, besides the general histories.of the popes, Frantz, Sixtus und die Republik Floren.z. (Regensburg, 1880).—Styrus V., Pope 1585-90, Felice Peretti. He was born in 1521 in the March of Ancona, the son of a poor gardener. Like Sixtus IV., he entered the Franciscan Order and rose to high dignities, becoming Bishop of Santa Agate in 1566 and cardinal in 1570. He had lived a quiet and retired life before his election as Pope, and surprised the world by the masterful vigor of his reign. He began by repressing disorder and exterminating bands of outlaws in the Papal States: reformed the administration of the law and the disposal of patronage; and entered on comprehensive projects for the moral and mate rial improvement of Rome. He laid down new regulations for the college of cardinals, restrict ing its number to seventy, and organized the modern system of congregations (q.v.), reor ganizing that of the Inquisition which already existed; at the same time he strongly disap proved the excessive rigor of the Spanish Inquisi tion as a State tribunal under Philip II. He published a new edition of the Septuagint, and an edition of the Vulgate (1590) as ordered by the Council of Trent, which contained so many errors that it had to be recalled and its place supplied by another under Clement VIII. The troubles' of the League in France and the growth of Protestantism in England and Germany caused him great anxiety until his death on August 27, 1590. ,)lany of the popular stories concerning him are derived from the Life by Gre gorio Led (1669), a thoroughly work, answered by Tempesti, a Franciscan, in 1755. The best modern Life is by Baron von Hubner (Leipzig, 1S71) : consult also Capraniea, Papa Sisto 1884).