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Yacub. The famous tower called the Giralda is due to Almanzor. In order to secure the liturgical orientation, when the mosque was converted into a cathedral, its width was made the length of the new church; and it was divided into two parts, the lesser part, on the east, being separated from the rest by a balustrade and grating, to form the chapel royal.

This cathedral having become too small for Seville, the chapter resolved in 1401 to rebuild it on so vast a scale that posterity should deem it the work of madmen. Only the Giralda and the Court of Oranges were left as they were. The work was commenced in 1403 and finished in December, 1506. The dome was as high as the lower part of the Giralda; it fell in, however, in 1511, and was restored by Juan Gil de Mon

by Danchart in 1482 and is the largest in Spain. In the sacristy beyond it are preserved the "Alphonsine Tables" (Tablas Alfonsinas), a reliquary left by the Wise King. The splendid stalls of the choir are the work of Nufro Sánchez, who wrought them in 1475. The Plateresque screen which closes the front of the sanctuary was designed by Sancho Muñoz in 1510. The chapel of S. Antonio holds Murillo's famous picture of the saint's ecstasy and the Infant Jesus descending into his arms. The chapel royal contains the tombs of St. Ferdinand, Alfonso the Wise, and Beatriz, consort of the latter, while in the pantheon, behind the sanctuary, lie the remains of Pedro I, his son Juan, the Infante Fadrique, Alfonso XI, and other princes.

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tañon in 1517. The principal façade, which looks to the east, extends the whole width of the building, and is as high as the naves, to which its five divisions correspond. The decoration of the upper part, including the rose window, are eighteenth-century work. The plan of the building is a rectangle, 380 by 250 feet, the chapel royal projecting an additional 62 feet to the east. It is roofed with seventy ogival vaults, supported by thirty-two gigantic columns. In the windows above the door of the bell-tower is preserved the original design of the Giralda, which, it is said, was constructed by Gever, to whom are attributed the invention of algebra, and the origin of the name (AlGeber). Where the bell-chamber now is there stood another rectangular mass, surmounted with four enormous balls, or apples, of bronze. In the interior is an enormous spike which serves as an axis, from which thirty-five sloping planes radiate. In 1568 Fernán Ruiz, by order of the chapter, added ninetytwo feet to the height of the tower, giving it its present form, and setting up the giraldillo, gyrating statue of Faith, which serves as a wind-vane. This statue, cast by Bartolomé Morel, measures over 13 feet in height and weighs 28 quintals (about 2840 lb.). The magnificent reredos of the high altar was designed

After the cathedral, the Alcázar is the most noteworthy building in Seville. No other Mussulman building in Spain has been so well preserved. Inhabited for a time by the Abbatid, Almoravid, and Almohad kings, its embattled enclosure became the dwelling of St. Ferdinand, and was rebuilt by Pedro the Cruel (1353-64), who employed Granadans and Mohammedan subjects of his own (mudejares) as its architects. Its principal entrance, with Arab façade, is in the Plaza de la Monteria, once occupied by the dwellings of the hunters (monteros) of Espinosa. The principal features of the Alcazar are the Court of the Ladies, brilliantly restored by Carlos I, with its fiftytwo uniform columns of white marble supporting interlaced arches, and its gallery of precious arabesques; and the Hall of Ambassadors, which, with its cupola, dominates the rest of the building, and the walls of which are covered with beautiful azulejos (glazed tiles) and Arab decorations. The University of Seville was founded by Archdeacon Rodrigo Fernandez de Santaella, in virtue of an ordinance of the Catholic Sovereigns dated 22 Feb., 1502, and two Bulls of Julius II, of 1505 and 1506. It could not compete, however, with the powerful institutions of Salamanca and Alcalá. The same Archdeacon San

taella founded the Colegio Mayor, or "Great College" called the Maese Rodrigo. Carlos III took away the general studies from this college, ordering them to be transferred, in 1771, to the professed house of the Jesuits expelled by him.

Among the churches of Seville those worthy of mention are: Santa Ana en Triana, thirteenth-century Gothic, built by order of Alfonso X; S. Andrés, which preserves some considerable traces of the mosque it originally was; S. Esteban, with its mudejar door and paintings by Zuraran; S. Ildefonso, perhaps the oldest church in Seville, dating, like S. Isidoro and the formerly Mozarabic church of S. Julián, from the Visigothic period. S. Lorenzo possesses the "Christ carrying the Cross" of Jan Martínez Montañés which is called el Gran Poder (the Great Power). Other churches are the Magdalena, S. Marcos, Sta. Marina, S. Martín, S. Nicolás, etc. The picture gallery contains more Murillos than any other gallery in the world; indeed, to know this master it is necessary to visit Seville. The archiepiscopal palace (seventeenth-century) has a fine Plateresque doorway. The ecclesiastical seminary, first established at San Lúcar de Barrameda, in 1830, in the archiepiscopate

name of Santa María de Jesús, but its courses were not opened until 1516. The Catholic Majesties and the pope granted the power to confer degrees in logic, philosophy, theology, and canon and civil law. It should be noted that the colegio mayor de Maese Rodrigo and the university proper, although housed in the same building, never lost their several identities, as is shown by the fact that, in the eighteenth century, the university was moved to the College of San Hermanegildo, while that of Maese Rodrigo remained independent, although languishing.

The influence of the University of Seville, from the ecclesiastical point of view, though not equal to that of the Universities of Salamanca and of Alcalá, was nevertheless considerable. From its lecture halls came Sebastián Antonio de Cortés, Riquelme, Rioja, Luis Germán y Rimbón, founder of the Horatian Academy, Juan Sánchez, professor of mathematics at San Telmo, Martín Alberto Carbajal, Cardinal Belluga, Cardinal Francisco Solis Folch, Marcelo Doye y Pelarte, Bernardo de Torrijos, Francisco Aguilar Ribon, the Abate Marchena, Alberto Lista, and many others who shone in the magistracy, or were distinguished ecclesiastics. The influence of the University of Seville on the development of the fine arts, was very great. In its shadow the school of the famous master Juan de Mablara was founded, and intellects like those of Herrera (q. v.) Arquijó, and many others were developed, while there were formed literary and artistic clubs, like that of Pacheco, which was a school for both painting and poetry. During the period of secularization and sequestration (184557) the University of Seville passed into the control of the State and received a new organization. At present it comprises the faculties of philosophy and letters, law, sciences, and medicine, with an enrolment (1910) of 1100 students.

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PRINCIPAL FAÇADE OF THE ALCAZAR, SEVILLE

of Cardinal Francisco Javier de Cienfuegos y Jovellanos, was transferred to Seville in 1848, under Archbishop Judas José Romo, and established in the Plaza de Macse Rodrigo; it now occupies the palace of San Telmo, which belongs to the dukes of Montpensier. The Archives of the Indies, preserved in Casa Lonja, contain immense treasures in the way of documents for the history of early Spanish missions in America and Oceania. Among the benevolent institutions are the Hospital of Las Cinco Llagas (or La Sangre), that of S. Lázaro, that of El Cristo de los Dolores, etc.

DE ESPINOSA, Episcopologios: Antigüedades de Sevilla; DÁVILA, Teatro de las Eglesias de Sevilla; FLÓREZ, España Sagrada, IX (3rd ed., Madrid, 1860); MADRAZO, Serilla in España, sus monumentos (Barcelona, 1884); VALVERDE, Guía de España y Portugal (Madrid, 1886); ALDERETE, Guía ecclesiástica de España (Madrid, 1888).

RAMÓN RUIZ AMADO.

Seville, UNIVERSITY OF.-In the middle of the thirteenth century the Dominicans, in order to prepare missionaries for work among the Moors and Jews, organized schools for the teaching of Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek. To co-operate in this work and to enhance the prestige of Seville, Alfonso the Wise in 1254 established in that city "general schools" (escuelas generales) of Arabic and Latin. Alexander IV, by Bull of 21 June, 1260, recognized this foundation as a generale litterarum studium and granted its members certain dispensations in the matter of residence. Later, the cathedral chapter established ecclesiastical studies in the College of San Miguel. Rodrigo de Santaello, archdeacon of the cathedral and commonly known as Maese Rodrigo, began the construction of a building for a university in 1472; in 1502 the Catholic Majesties published the royal decree creating the university, and in 1505 Julius II granted the Bull of authorization; in 1509 the college of Macse Rodrigo was finally installed in its own building, under the

At the same time that the royal university was established, there was developed the Universidad de Mareantes (university of sea-farers), in which body the Catholic Majesties, by a royal decree of 1503, established the Casa de Contratación with classes of pilots and of seamen, and courses in cosmography, mathematics, military tactics, and artillery. This establishment was of incalculable importance, for it was there that the expeditions to the Indies were organized, and there that the great Spanish sailors were educated. This species of polytechnic school, which, according to Eden, Bourné, and Humboldt, taught a great deal to Europe, following the fortunes of Spanish science, fell into decay in the seventeenth century.

DE LA FUENTE, Hist. de las universidades (1887); ORTIZ DE ZÚNIGA, Anales eclesiásticos y seculares de Sevilla (1667); DE LA CUADRA Y LIBAJA, Hist. del colegio mayor de Santo Tomás de Sevilla (1890); DE AVIÑÓN, Sevillana medicina (1419); CARO, Antigüedades de Sevilla (1634); PICATOSTE, Apuntes para unabiblioteca científica española (1891); MARTINEZ VILLA, Reseña histórica de la universidad de Sevilla y descripción de su iglesia (1886); HAZAÑAS DE LA RUA, Maese Rodrigo (1444-1509) (1909); PADRINO Y SOLÍS, Memorias literarias de la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras (1773).

TEODORO RODRÍGUEZ.

Sexagesima (Lat. sexagesima, sixtieth), is the eighth Sunday before Easter and the second before Lent. The Ordo Romanus, Alcuin, and others count the Sexagesima from this day to Wednesday after Easter. The name was already known to the Fourth Council of Orleans in 541. For the Greeks and Slavs it is Dominica Carnisprivii, because on it they began, at least to some extent, to abstain from meat. The Synaxarium calls it Dominica secundi et muneribus non corrupti adventus Domini. To the Latins it is also known as "Exsurge" from the beginning of the Introit. The statio was at Saint Paul's outside the walls of Rome, and hence the oratio calls upon the doctor of the Gentiles. The Epistle is from Paul, II Cor., xi and xii describing his suffering and labours for the Church. The Gospel (Luke, viii) relates the falling of the seed on good and on bad ground, while the Lessons of the first Nocturn continue the history of man's iniquity, and speak of Noah and of the Deluge. (See SEPTUAGESIMA.)

BUTLER, The Movable Feasts of the Catholic Church (New York, FRANCIS MERSHMAN.

s. d.), tr. IV, ii.

Sexburga, SAINT, d. about 699. Her sisters, Sts. Ethelburga and Saethrid, were both Abbesses of Faremontier in Brie, St. Withburga was a nun at Ely, and St. Etheldreda became Abbess of Ely. Sexburga was the daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, and was married about 640 to Earconbert, King of Kent. She lived with her husband for twenty-four years, and by him had two sons, Egbert and Lothar, both successively Kings of Kent, and two daughters, both of whom became nuns and saints: St. Earcongota, a nun of Faremontier, and St. Ermenhild, who married Wulfhere, King of Mercia, and after his death took the veil and became Abbess of Ely. After the death of her husband in 664, Sexburga founded the Abbey of Minster in Sheppey; after a few years there she removed to Ely, and placed herself under her sister Etheldreda, then abbess. The "Liber Eliensis" contains the farewell speech made by Sexburga to her nuns at Minster, and an account of her reception at Ely. St. Etheldreda died, probably in 679, and Sexburga was elected abbess. She was still alive and acting as abbess in 695, when she presided at the translation of St. Etheldreda's relics to a new shrine she had erected for her at Ely, which included a sarcophagus of white marble from the ruined city of Grantchester. Sexburga was buried at Ely, near her sister St. Etheldreda, and her feast is kept on 6 July. There are several lives of St. Sexburga extant. The one printed in Capgrave, "Nova Legenda", and used by the Bollandists seems to be taken from the Cotton MS. (Tib. E. 1) in the British Museum. There is another Latin life in the same collection (Cotton MS., Calig. A. 8), but it is so damaged by fire that it is useless. At Lambeth there are fragments of an Anglo-Saxon life (MS. 427).

BEDE, Hist. Eccl., iii, c. 8; IV, cc. 19, 21; Liber Eliensis in Anglo. Chr. Soc.; Acta SS., July, II, 346-9; MONTALEMBERT, Monks of the West, ed. GASQUET, iv, 401; HARDY, Cat. Mat. in R. S., I, 360-2; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 6 July. A. S. BARNES.

Sext.-I. Meaning, Symbolism, and Origin.-The hora sexta of the Romans corresponded closely with our noon. Among the Jews it was already regarded, together with Terce and None, as an hour most favourable to prayer. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that St. Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray (x, 9). It was the middle of the day, also the usual hour of rest, and in consequence for devout men, an occasion to pray to God, as were the morning and evening hours. The Fathers of the Church dwell constantly on the symbolism of this hour; their teaching is merely summarized here: it is treated at length in Cardinal Bona's work on psalmody (ch. viii). Noon is the hour when the sun is at its full, it is the image of Divine splendour, the plenitude of God, the time of grace; at the sixth

hour Abraham received the three angels, the image of the Trinity; at the sixth hour Adam and Eve ate the fatal apple. We should pray at noon, says St. Ambrose, because that is the time when the Divine light is in its fulness (In Ps. cxviii, vers. 62). Origen, St. Augustine, and several others regard this hour as favourable to prayer. Lastly and above all, it was the hour when Christ was nailed to the Cross; this memory excelling all the others left a still visible trace in most of the liturgy of this hour. All these mystic reasons and traditions, which indicate the sixth hour as a culminating point in the day, a sort of pause in the life of affairs, the hour of repast, could not but exercise an influence on Christians, inducing them to choose it as an hour of prayer. As early as the third century the hour of Sext was considered as important as Terce and None as an hour of prayer. Clement of Alexandria speaks of these three hours of prayer ("Strom.", VIII, vii, P. G., IX, 455), as does Tertullian ("De orat." xxiii-xv, P. L., I, 1191-93). Long previous the "Didache" had spoken of the sixth hour in the same manner (Funk, "Doctrina XII Apostolorum", V, XIV, XV). Origen, the "Canons of Hippolytus' and St. Cyprian express the same tradition (cf. Bäumer, "Hist. du bréviaire", I, 68, 69, 73, 75, 186, etc.). It is therefore evident that the custom of prayer at the sixth hour was well-established in the third century and even in the second century or at the end of the first. But probably most of these texts refer to private prayer. In the fourth century the hour of Sext was widely established as a canonical hour. The following are very explicit examples. In his rule St. Basil made the sixth hour an hour of prayer for the monks ("Regulæ fusius tractata", P. G., XXXI, 1013, sq., 1180), Cassian treats it as an hour of prayer generally recognized in his monasteries (Instit. Coenob., III, ili, iv). The "De virginitate" wrongly attributed to St. Athanasius, but in any case dating from the fourth century, speaks of the prayer of Sext as do also the "Apostolic Constitutions", St. Ephrem, St. Chrysostom (for the texts see Bäumer, op. cit., I, 131, 145, 152, etc., and Leclercq, in "Dict. d'arch. chrét.", s. v. Bréviaire). But this does not prove that the observance of Sext, any more than Prime, Terce, None, or even the other hours, was universal. Discipline on this point varied widely according to the regions and Churches. And in fact some countries may be mentioned where the custom was introduced only later. That the same variety prevailed in the formula of prayer is shown in the following paragraph.

II. Variety of Prayers and Formula.-Despite its antiquity the hour of Sext never had the importance of those of Vigils, Matins, and Vespers. It must have been of short duration. The oldest testimonies mentioned seem to refer to a short prayer of a private nature. In the fourth and the following centuries the texts which speak of the compositions of this Office are far from uniform. Cassian tells us that in Palestine three psalms were recited for Sext, as also for Terce and None (Instit., III, ii). This number was adopted by the Rules of St. Benedict, Columbanus, St. Isidore, St. Fructuosus, and to a certain extent by the Roman Church. However, Cassian says that in some provinces three psalms were said at Terce, six at Sext, and nine at None. Others recited six psalms at each hour and this custom became general among the Gauls (cf. Hefele-Leclercq, "Hist. des conciles", III, 189; Leclercq, loc. cit., 1296, 1300; Martène, "De antiq. eccl. ritibus", III, 20; IV, 27). In Martène will be found the proof of variations in different Churches and monasteries. With regard to ancient times the "Peregrinatio Sylvia", tells us that at the hour of Sext all assembled in the Anastasis where psalms and anthems were recited after which the bishop came and blessed the

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