186 



SECULAR CLERGY-SEEBECK. 



widely than the sects above mentioned, on doc- 

 trinal points, are also pretty numerous in England. 

 Seceders (see Secession), Cameronians, &c., are 

 among the more noted of the Scotch sects. The 

 Herrnhutters (see United Brethren), and Sweden- 

 borgians, or members of the New Jerusalem church 

 (see Swedenborg), have proceeded from the Luthe- 

 ran church. In the United States, where perfect 

 religious freedom prevails, and where emigrants 

 from all countries seek refuge, it is not strange 

 that there should be representatives of almost all 

 the modern sects of the Christian world, and also 

 some sects of native origin. (See Christians, 

 Shakers, Tunkers.) Besides the various sects 

 which have formed independent religious communi- 

 ties, there were also, during the course of the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, numerous 

 theological parties and religious enthusiasts, who 

 were united only by the bonds of common opinions, 

 but did not form distinct ecclesiastical societies. 

 Such were the Labadists, whose founder (1666) 

 was Labadie, an ex-Jesuit and preacher at Middel- 

 burg, and who received the doctrines of the Re- 

 formed church, but endeavoured to form a family 

 similar to the primitive Christian societies, by acts 

 of penance, monastic discipline, and community of 

 goods ; the Boehmists, or followers of Bb'hme, also 

 called Gichtelians, from the theosophist Gichtel, who 

 proposed to restore the priesthood of Melchizedek, 

 and Angelic Brethren, from their efforts to attain 

 angelic purity of life (see Bcehme); the Philadel- 

 phists, or Angelic Brethren of England, a short-lived 

 theosophical party, collected by Jane Leade, on 

 Boehmistic principles, towards the close of the 

 seventeenth century; the Dippelians, so called 

 from their founder, Dippel, a physician, who agreed 

 with the Gichtelians in their reverence for the 

 writings of Bb'hme, but occupied themselves much 

 with alchemy; the Pietists (see Pietism), and the 

 Chiliasts or Millennarians, under their various 

 forms. (See Millennium.) See, further, the arti- 

 cles Abrahamites, Theophilanthropists, and Theo- 

 sophists; and the work of Gregoire, Histoire des 

 Sectes Religieuses (2 vols., 1814). 



SECULAR CLERGY; in those countries in 

 which there are monastic orders, the clergy who 

 do not live shut up in monasteries, and subject to 

 monastic rules. They are so called in contradis- 

 tinction to the monks, or regular clergy, who have 

 taken the vows, and are bound by the rules of their 

 order. 



SECULAR GAMES (ludi saculares) ; solemn 

 games, celebrated by the Romans about once a 

 century (sceculum), in honour of Apollo and Diana. 

 They lasted three days and three nights ; and the 

 secular ode (carmen saculare), composed by Horace 

 on one of these occasions, is yet extant. 



SECULARIZATION is the act of rendering 

 secular the property of the clergy. The first great 

 secularization in Germany took place in 1648, on 

 the occasion of the peace of Westphalia. The 

 second took place after the peace of Luneville, in 

 1801. In England, the first great secularization 

 was made under Henry VIII. 



SECUNDUS, JOHANNES. See Johannes Se- 

 cundus. 



SEDGE (carex~) ; an extensive genus of grass- 

 like plants, mostly inhabiting the northern and tem- 

 perate parts of the globe. They are easily distin- 

 guished from the grasses by having the stem desti- 

 tute of joints. The flowers are monoecious or more 

 rarely dioecious, and are disposed in one or several 



dense, scaly spikes. The seeds are triangular, and 

 are enveloped in a sort of capsule, composed ot a 

 ventricose scale, which enlarges after flowering, and 

 often renders the spikes of these plants conspicuous. 

 The roots' are perennial and fibrous, the leaves 

 hard and rough on the edge. The sedges in gene- 

 ral are but of little utility to man. They furnish 

 coarse fodder, containing little nutriment, espe 

 cially after the flowering season is over, or when 

 dried, and which is rejected by most of the domes- 

 tic quadrupeds. The roots and leaves decompose 

 with difficulty, and in the course of time, contribute 

 largely to turn the soil of marshes into peat. More 

 than 300 species are known. They are found in all 

 soils, but the greater proportion are marsh plants. 

 The C. acuta form in marshes the little elevations 

 called tussocks. It grows in dense tufts, and the 

 fibrous roots interlace very closely, so as to retain 

 a portion of the soil, which in places subject to occa- 

 sional inundation, is liable to be washed from around 

 them. At the same time, the mass increases above by 

 successive generation. The C. Fraseri is the hand- 

 somest of the genus, resembling, at a short distance, 

 when in flower, one of the Uliacece. It was disco- 

 vered in the southern part of the Alleghanies, but 

 has not been seen in a wild state by any later 

 botanists. 



SEDLEY, SIR CHARLES, a celebrated wit, of 

 the age of Charles II., was the son of Sir John Sed- 

 ley of Aylesford, in Kent, where he was born in 

 1639. At the age of seventeen he was entered at 

 Oxford, but quitted the university without a degree, 

 and retired to his estates till after the restoration, 

 (1660). His credit with the king was heightened 

 by his never asking favours, although the debauch- 

 ery into which he plunged soon dissipated his pecu- 

 niary resources. A fine of 500 was imposed upon 

 him by chief-justice Hyde, for an indecent riot com- 

 mitted at a public house, where he harangued the 

 mob, naked, from the balcony, in company with 

 lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Ogle. Being re- 

 turned member of parliament for the borough of 

 New Romney, in Kent, in 1661, he sat for that 

 place in four successive parliaments. James II. 

 carried on an intrigue with his daughter, afterwards 

 created by that monarch countess of Dorchester. 

 Sir Charles was so little pleased by this elevation, 

 that it is said to have been the principal cause of 

 his subsequently taking a strenuous part in bringing 

 about the revolution ; and to a gentleman who 

 taxed him with a want of loyalty, he replied that, 

 "as the king had made his daughter a countess, 

 the least he could do was to assist in making his 

 majesty's daughter a queen." Sir Charles died 

 about the commencement of last century. He was 

 the author of six dramatic pieces, printed with his 

 miscellaneous poems, in 1719, in two octavo vo- 

 lumes. The latter consist of pastorals, prologues, 

 songs, epilogues, and occasional pieces, which, 

 though not free from the licentiousness of the age, 

 are clear of much of its grossness. 



SEDLITZ, OR SEIDLITZ WATER ; a mine- 

 ral water obtained from the village of Sedlitz, in 

 Bohemia. The waters are saline and purgative, 

 limpid, sparkling, and of a bitter and salt taste. 

 They contain sulphates of magnesia (Epsom salt), 

 soda (Glauber's salt), lime, and carbonates of lime 

 and magnesia. 



SEEBECK, a distinguished German natural phi- 

 losopher, born in 1770, at Reval, studied medicine 

 in Berlin and Gbttingen, is known by the discovery 

 of thermomagnetism. He also partook in *he dis- 



