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perfuafion to get him t.o comply with the emperor's requi- 

 fition, but he remained firm. Finding, however, that he 

 had not llrcngth to oppofe his enemies, he took fanftiiary 

 in a chvirch ; but bemg artfully drawn from it, he was 

 ttript of the enfigns of digr.itv, and exiled in the year after he 

 had been elefted pope. When arrived at Patara, a city ia 

 Lycia, the place of his exile, the billiop of the place met 

 him, and, indignant at the treatment he had experienced, 

 undertook to lay the cafe before the emperor, then at Con- 

 ftantinople, and from his rcprefentation, .lultinian ordered 

 the caufe to be re-heard. Silverius, immediately on re- 

 ceiving this order, went to Rome, where his manly conduct 

 and perfonal appearance greatly difconccrtcd Vigilius, who 

 had intruded into his chair. Through the intrigues, how- 

 ever, of Vigilius witii Antonina, the wife of Belifarius, 

 Silverius was put into his hands, and carried to the ifland 

 of Palmaria, on the coaft of Liguria, where he died, from 

 want or hardihip, in or about June, in the year 538 ; 

 though Earouius maintains that he held a fynod of four 

 bifhops in the ifland. at which he excommunicated Vigilius, 

 and that he did not die till June 540. In the church of 

 Romr he is honoured as a martyr to orthodoxy. 



SILVER MINES, in Geography, a fmall town of the 

 county of Tipperary, Ireland, which obtained its name 

 from productive lead-mine; in the neighbourhood, from 

 whicli luch virgin filver was formerly obtained. Tliefe 

 mine'- ilie property of lord Dunally, are no longer wrought, 

 and are thouglit to be exhaulted. Silvermmes is north of 

 the Keeper mt untains, and gives name to a lower ridge of 

 hi!'-. It is 77 miki, S.W. from Dubhn, and about 5 

 miles S. from Nenagh. 



SILVES, a town of Portugal, in the province of 

 Algarve, fituated on .1 river of the fame name, containing 

 1600 inhabitants ; formerly more confiderable than at pre- 

 fent, and from the year 1 188 to 1580 a bifhop's fee, which 

 was afterwards removed to Faro; 15 miles E.N.E. of 

 Lagop. N. lat. 37° 10'. W. long. 8° 21'. — Alfo, a river 

 of Portugal, which runs into the Atlantic, a little below 

 Villa Nova de Portimao. 



SILVESTER I., pope, in Biography, was elefted to 

 the fee of Rome in January 314. In that year was held 

 the council of Aries, to which Silvefler was invited, but he 

 excufed himielt on account of his age, and fcnt two pref- 

 byters and two deacons as his deputies. To the general 

 council of Nice, in 325, he alfo fent deputies, which council 

 was convened by the emperor, and not by the pope, nor did 

 the latter prefide at it. It was during this pontificate that 

 the hierarchy of the Chrillian church, as it has ever fince 

 cxiftcd, formed upon the model of the civil government of 

 the empire, took its origin. Silvefter died in 335, after 

 having held the papal fee nearly twenty-one years. 



SlLVKSTEii II., pope, previoully named Gerlert, was 

 born of an obfcure family in Auverirne, in the loth century. 

 At an early age he entered himfelf as a m.onk in the mo- 

 ualtcry of St. Gerard, Aurillac. After laying a found- 

 ation of all the fcienccs cultivated in that ignorant age, he 

 travelled for improvement, and vifitcd Spain, in order to 

 hear the Arabian dodtors in its univerfities. At length 

 he rendered himfelf fo diltinguiihed, that he was appointed 

 by Hugh Capet preceptor to his fon Robert. At Rome 

 he became known to the emperor Otho I., who placed him 

 at the head of the abbey of Bobbio, about the year 970. 

 Having refided there fome years, he returned to France, 

 but vifited occafionally Italy. In one of thofe vifits he met 

 with Otho II. at Pavia, who took him to Ravenna, where 

 he held a folemn deputation on a mathematical <iuelUon 

 with a Saxon, very eminent fOr liis learning. He was 



afterwards made preceptor to Otho III., who fucceeded to 

 the imperial crown while he was Hill a minor. In the year 

 991, Hugh Capet promoted him to the archbilhopric of 

 Rheims ; but this elevation was a fource of difquiet to 

 him, and after much contention, he was obliged to refio-n 

 the fee to Arnulf, the natural fon of Lothaire, king 'of 

 France, who had been formerly depofed from it. This 

 was in the year 997, and at the fame time Otho III. con- 

 ferred upon him the archbifhopric of Ravenna ; and on the 

 death of pope Gregory V. in 999, he was elefted to the 

 papal dignity, when he adumed the name of Silveller. The 

 adts of his pontificate were but few, and not at all important. 

 In the year looohc is faid to have conferred on Stephen I., 

 king of Hungary, the royal title, with the famous crown, 

 the palladium of that kingdom, and to have conllitutcd him 

 perpetual legate of the holy fee, with power to difpofe of 

 all ecclefiaftical benefices. An extraordinary inftance of 

 ecclefialtical vigour in this popedom is mentioned by 

 Ademar, which, if it may be relied on, proves both the 

 great power of the church at that period, and the dif- 

 pofition to abufe it. Guy, count of Limoges, having 

 imprifoned Grimoald, bifliop of that city, for taking pol- 

 felTion of a difputed monaltery, and afterwards releafed him, 

 the bifhop repaired to Rome, and complained to the pope, 

 who cited Guy to his prefencc. The cauie being heard, 

 the count was condemned by the pope and fenate to be bound 

 to the tail of a wild horfe, and dragged away till he was 

 torn to pieces, the execution of which fentence he efcaped 

 by compromifing the affair with the biOiop, his acculer, 

 and taking flight along with him. Silveitcr died in the 

 year 1003. He was a very meritorious charafter, a pro- 

 moter of learning, and a proficient in various branches of 

 the fciences. He fpent much time and large fums of money 

 in the coUeftion of books from various parte of Europe, 

 compofed himfelf a number of works, particularly in 

 arithmetic and geometry, and with his own hands made 

 globes, a clock, and an aftrolabe. Living, as he did, in 

 the very depths of the dark ages, he fell under the fufpicion 

 of magical praftices, and feveral ridiculous llories are re- 

 lated to this purpofe. There were, however, perfons who 

 knew how to appreciate his charafter : he is mentioned by 

 Otho " as a molt learned man, and eminent in the three 

 branches of philofophy." He wrote a great number of 

 letters on various topics, of which 160 of them were printed 

 at Paris in 161 1. One of thefe, written in the firlt year 

 of his pontificate, is a call to the church univerfal, for 

 delivering the Chrillians in Paleftine ; in other words, a 

 projeft rtir a crufade. 



SILVESTREGRANUM, or Coccus Silvestius, a 

 term ufed by fome authors to exprefs the coccus Polonicus ; 

 and by other-,, for a eoarfe or bad kind of cochineal, pro- 

 duced in the province of Gustimala, in New .Spain ; it is 

 by fome luppoled to be the feed of a plant, but is, in reality, 

 an infedt, as the true cochineal is, only that the fcarlct 

 colour it yields is greatly inferior to the other. See Co- 



l HINKAL. 



SILVIUM, in Anc'teul Geography, a place of Italy, in 

 Pcucotia, E. of Venufi.i. The name is formed from Silva, 

 a grove lound in this place, and probably the " Saltus Ban- 

 tini" mentioned by Horace. 



SILUM, in Geography, a fmall ifland in the Adriatic. 

 N. lat. 44'^ 3,t)'. E. long. 14° 50'. 



SILURES, or, according to the orthography of Plo- 

 lemy, Sy lures, in /Indent Geography, a people of the ideoi 

 Albion, who polledcd, befides the tvvo Englidi counties of 

 Hereford and Monmouth, Radnorfliire, Drccknockflurc, 

 and Glaniorganlhirc, m South Wales. Tlic northern part 



of 



