Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/80

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SLYTHURST


58


SMITH


consent of the will. The trouble attached to main- tenance of the inhabiting of God by charity arouses tedium in such a person. He violates, therefore, ex- pressly the first and the greatest of the command- ments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. " (Mark, xii, 30).

RiCKABV. MoTal Teaching of St. Thomas (London. 1896); Slater, Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 1908); St. Thomas, Summa, II-II, Q. xxxv; Ballerini, Opus theologicum morale (Prato, 1898).

Joseph F. Delany.

Slythurst, Thomas, English confessor, b. in Berk- shire; d. in the Tower of London, 1560. He was B.A. Oxon, 1.530; M.A., 15.34; B.D., 1543; and sup- plicated for the degree of D.D., 15.54-5, but never took it. He was rector of Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks, from 1545 to 1555, canon of Windsor, 1554, rector of Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks, 1555, and first President of Trinity College, Oxford. He was deprived of these three preferments in 1559. On 1 1 Nov., 1556, he was appointed with others by Convocation to regulate the exercises in theology on the election of Cardinal Pole to the chancellorship.

Warton, Life of Sir Thomas Pope (London, 1772), 3.59; Cnlh- olic Record Socieli/ Publications, I (London, 1905 — ), 118; Fox, Ads and Monuments. VIII (London, 1843-9), 636.

John B, Wainbwright,

Smalkaldic League, a politico-religious alliance formally concluded on 27 Feb., 1531, at Smalkalden in Hesse-Nassau, among German Protestant princes and cities for their mutual defence. The compact was entered into for six years, and stipulated that any military attack made upon any one of tlie confede- rates on account of religion or under any other pretext was to be considered as directed against them all and resisted in common. The parties to it were : the Land- grave Philip of Hesse ; the Elector John of Saxony and his son John Frederick ; the dukes Philip of Brunswick- Grubenhagen and Otto, Ernest, and Francis of Bruns- wick- Ltineburg; Prince \\'olfgang of Anhalt; the counts Gebhard and Albrecht of Mansfeld and the towns of Strasburg, Ulm, Constance, Reutlingen, Memmingen, Lindau, Biberach, Lsny, Magdeburg, and Bremen. The city of Liibeck joined the league on 3 May, and Bavaria on 24 Oct., 1.531. The acces- sion of foreign powers, notably England and France, was solicited, and the alliance of the latter nation .se- cured in 1532. The princes of Saxony and Hesse were appointed military commanders of the confed- eration, and its military strength fixed at 10,000 infan- try and 2000 cavalry. At a meeting held at Smal- kalden in Dec, 1535, the alliance was renewed for ten years, and the maintenance of the former military strength decreed, with the stipulation that it should be doubled in case of emergency. In April, 1536, Dukes Ulrich of Wurtemberg and Barnim and Philip of Pomerania, the cities of Frankfort, Augsburg, Ham- burg, and Hanover joined the league with several other new confederates. An alliance was concluded with Denmark in 1538, while the usual accession of the German Estates which accepted the Refor- mation continued to strengthen the organization. Confident of its support, the Protestant princes intro- duced th(' new religion in numerous districts, sup- pres.sed bislu. pries, cnnfiscMtcd church i)roperty, re- «iste<l inipcriid unliuanccs to the extent of refusing help ag;iiMst tlie Turks, and disregarded the decisions of the Itnpcrial Court of .Justice.

In .self-defence ;igiiin.st the treasonable machinations of the confedenUioii, a C:itholic League was formed in 1.538 at Xm-einhcrg under the le:idership of the emperor. Both sid<'s now actively prepared for an armed conflict, which seemed imminent. But negotia- tions carried on at the Diet of Frankfort in 1539 re- sulted, partly owing to the illuess of the Landgrave of


Hesse, in the patching up of a temporary peace. The emperor during this respite renewed his earnest but fruitless efforts to effect a rehgious settlement, while the Smalkaldic confederates continued their violent proceedings against the Catholics, particularly in the territory of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel, where Duke Henry was unjustly e.xpeUed, and the new religion in- troduced (1542). It became more and more evident as time went on that a conflict was unavoidable. When, in 1546, the emperor adopted stern measures against some of the confederates, the War of Smal- kalden ensued. Although it was mainly a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants, the de- nominational hues were not sharply drawn. With Pope Paul III, who promised financial and military assistance, several Protestant princes, the principal among whom was Duke Maurice of Saxony, defended the imperial and Catholic cause. The beginning of hostilities was marked nevertheless by the success of the Smalkaldic allies; but division and irresoluteness soon weakened them and caused their ruin in South- ern Germany, where princes and cities submitted in rapid succession. The battle of Miihlberg (24 April, 1547) decided the issue in favour of the emperor in the north. The Elector .John Frederick of Saxony was captured, and .shortly after the liandgrave Philip of Hesse was also forced to submit. The conditions of peace included the transfer of the electoral dignity from the former to his cousin Maurice, the reinstate- ment of Duke Henry of Wolfenbtittel in his domin- ions, the restoration of Bishop Julius von Pflug to his See of Naumburg-Zeitz, and a promise demanded of the vanquished to recognize and attend the Council of Trent. The dissolution of the Smalkaldic League followed; the imperial success was complete, but tem- porary. A few years later another conflict broke out and ended with the triumph of Protestantism.

WiNCKELMANN, Dcr Schmalkuld. Bund (1530-32) u. der Nurn- berger Religiousfriede (Strasburg. 1892) ; Hasenclever, Die Politik der SchmalkaldeneT vor Ausbruch des Schmalkald. Krieges (Berlin, 1901); Idem, Die Politik Kaiser Karls V u. Landgraf Philipps von Hessen vor Ausbruch des Schmalkald. Krieges (Mar- burg, 1903); Bekentelg. Der Schmalkald. Krieg in Norddeutsch- land (Munster, 1908); Janssen, Hist, of the German People, tr. Christie, V (St. Louis, 1903), passim; Pastor, History of the Popes, tr. Kerr, X (St. Louis, 1910), 166 sqq.

N. A. Webeb.

Smaragdus, Ardo, hagiographer, d. at the Ben- edictine monastery of Anianc, Herault, in Southern France, March, 843. He entered this monastery when still a boy and was brought up under the direc- tion of Abbot St. Benedict of Aniane. On account of his piety and talents he was ordained and put at the head of the school at his monaster^'. In 794 he ac- companied his abbot to the Council of Frankfort and in 814 Wits made abbot in place of Benedict, who on the invitation of Louis-lc-Debonnaire had taken up his abode at the imperial Court at Aix-la-Chapelle. Smaragdus was honoured as a saint in his monastery. He is the author of a life of St. Benedict of Aniane which he wrote at the request of the monks of Cor- neliiniinster n<-ar Aix-la-Chai)elle, where Abbot Ben- edict. h;t(l died. It was written ui 822,and is one of the most reliable luigiological productions of that period. Mabillon edited it in his " .Vcta SS. of the Benethctine Order" (sa5culum IV, 1, 192-217), whence it was reprinted in P, L., CIII, 353-84. It was also edited by Waitz in "Mon. Germ. Script.", XV, I, 200-29.

Histoire Lit. de la France, V, 31-5; Ceillieh, Histoire genomic des auteurs sacrSs ei eccUsiastiques, XII (Paris, 1S62), 394; Ma- billon, Acta SS. Ord. S. Ben., sffic. IV, I, 589; Ebert, Allge- meine Gesch. der Literatur des Mittelalters, II (Leipzig, 1880), 345-8.

Michael Ott.

Smith, George. See Argyll and the Isles, Diocese of.

Smith, James, journalist, b. at Skolland, in the Shetland Isles, about 1790; d. Jan., 1866. He spent