SIX 



S I t 



t»vi a fuperfority over the king, Henry HI. ; yet he 

 thought it becair.e him, as head of the Catholic religion, 

 to promote the exclufion of a Proteftant heir, and he ac- 

 cordingly launched an excommunication arainit the kin<T of 

 Navarre, depriving him of the rijjjht of fucceffion. That 

 prince procured an appeal from this fentence to be fixed 

 on the very gates of the Vatican, which aft, Sixtus had the 

 magnanimity to be pleafed with, on account of the heroifm 

 which it difplayed. When Henry HI. had caiifed the 

 duke of Guife to be aflaflinated, and the cardmal of Guife 

 to be put to death, and the cardinal of Bourbon and the 

 archbilhop of Lyon"; to be imprifoned, the pope, highly 

 incenfed at the violation of the ecclefiaftical immunities in 

 the perfons of tiie three lall mentioned perfons, iffued a 

 monitory, requiring the king to fet at liberty the cardinal 

 and archbilhop within ten days, on pain of excommunication ; 

 and he afterwards approved, in an open manner, the aiiathna- 

 tion of Henry by the Dominican Clement. He refufed, 

 however, to renew the excommunication of Henry IV., fay- 

 ing, that he would pray for his converfion, and tliat no 

 prince was more deferving a crown. He had alfo a high 

 veneration for the character of queen Elizabeth of Eng- 

 land, on account of the prudence and vigour of her govern- 

 ment, though he was under the neceffity of treating her as 

 an enemy on account of her enmity to the Catholic religion. 

 It is faid, and the faft is furely quite in character, that he 

 envied her the good fortune in having had the pleafure of 

 taking off a crowned head, by the execution of Mary, 

 queen of Scots. After the defeat of the Spanifh armada, 

 he entertained the defign of wrefting the kingdom of 

 Naples from Philip, but was prevented by death from 

 making the daring attempt. 



It was the ruling paffion of this pontiff, who, as we 

 have feen, was only a peafant's fon, to perpetuate his 

 memory, by which he was led to many vam and oflcnta- 

 tious, and to fome great and ufeful enterprifes. He had 

 already, while cardinal, engaged the celebrated architefi; 

 Fontana, in erecting a fplendid chapel in the cliurch of 

 St. Maria Maggiore, which he had been obliged to dif- 

 continue, from the withdrawing of his allowance by 

 Gregory XIII ; and now having the means, as well as the 

 good will, he employed the fame artilt m the arduous talk 

 of fetting upright the fallen obelidc of Egyptian granite, 

 which had once decorated the Circus of Nero. This was 

 effefted by great fl<ill and labour, and the obeliflv was 

 dedicated by Sixtus to the Holy Crofs. He afterwards 

 caufed three other obelillcs to be dug out of the ruins 

 among which they lay, and placed before different churches. 

 If mere vanity and oftentation led him to ereA ufelefs 

 buildings at hi.s native place ; it was univerfally allowed, 

 that ufe and ornament were united in moft of the works 

 which he executed at Rome. For the fupply of water to 

 that metropolis, he direfked the colleftion of a number of 

 fprings to one refervoir, at the dillance of thirteen miles, 

 whence it was conveyed by an aqueduft to the Quirinal 

 mount. He undertook to rebuild the Vatican hbrary upon 

 an enlarged and more magnificent plan, by his favourite 

 architeft Fontana, and erefted very near it a very fine 

 printing-office, deflined to give fplendid as well as correft 

 editions of the fathers, and other works relative to reli- 

 gion. There was not a part of Rome to which he had 

 not given decorations, and perhaps no pope left fo many 

 monuments of grandeur after a long reign as Sixtus V., 

 after occupying the papal fee little more than five years. 

 On thefe objefts he muft have expended immenfe fums, 

 yet at his death he left five millions of crowns in the caflle 



of St. Angelo, with an injunftion to his fucceflbr, that 

 they fhould be expended only for the fervice of the church, 

 againll Turks and heretics, or to relieve the people in time* 

 of famine and peltilence. For the fupply of the great ex- 

 penditure of his reign, and the accumulation of the fum$ 

 left behind him, he mull have had reccurfe to a fyilem ot 

 heavy taxation, although he managed his finances witli 

 great economy. He was not free from the papal vice of 

 nepotifm. Though never afhamed of the meannefs of his 

 origin, which could not be concealed, he was determined to 

 leave his family great. He fent for a filler, the widow of 

 a poor countryman, and mftantly gave her the rank of a 

 princefs, with a fuitable maintenance ; and he raiied one of 

 her grandfons to the cardinalate, with a very large re- 

 venue. He was equally liberal to his other relations. He 

 fixed the number of cardinals to ieventy, a number xvhich 

 ha?; been adhered to by his fucceffors ; and he decreed, that 

 four at leall; of the number (hould be doftors of divinity, 

 chofen from the religious orders. He is faid to have been 

 a decided enemy to the .lefuits, and was indignant that they 

 fhould afiuiTie a name that implied, that their founder was 

 the meek and benevolent .Icfus ; hence he propofed that thcv 

 fhould change the name of their order to that of Igaatians. 

 This celebr.ited pontiff died in Augult 1 590, having reigned 

 five years and four months. The news of his death was 

 received with every demonltration of joy at Rome, where 

 his government had been oppreffive and tyrannical ; but the 

 vigour of his adminiftration, and the mighty works which he 

 effeCled, have thrown a fplendour about his name, and gave 

 him rank among the diitinguifhed charafters of the age. 

 In the year 1590, a new Latin verfion of the Bible 

 was made and printed by his order, of which a corrected 

 edition was given in 1592, by Clement VIII. 



SIZADA, in Geography., a town of Hindooitan, in 

 Allahabad ; 20 miles S.E. of Corah. 



SIZANDRO, a river of Portugal, which runs into the 

 Atlantic, N. lat. 39° 2'. W. long. 9° 19'. 



SIZE, the name of an inltrument ufed to find the big- 

 nefs of tine round pearls. 



It confills of thill pieces, or leaves, about two inches 

 long, and half an inch broad ; faftened together at one end 

 by a rivet. In each of thefe are feveral round holes drilled, 

 of different diameters. Thofe in the firft leaf ferve for 

 meafuring pearls from half a grain to feven grains. Thofe 

 of the fecond, for pearls from eight grains, or two carats, 

 to five carats, &c. : and thofe of the third, for pearls from 

 fix and a half to eight and a half. 



Size is alfo ufed for a kind of weak glue. (See Glue.) 

 The fhreds and parings of leather, parchment, or vellum, 

 by being boiled in water and drained, make fize. Com- 

 mon fize is made of leather boiled in water till it becomes 

 of a vifcid confillence. If it is wanted in painting for 

 nicer purpofes, it fliould be prepared by taking any quan- 

 tity of the fhreds or cuttings of glovers' leather, and put- 

 ting to each pound a gallon of water ; let thefe be boiled 

 for fix or eight hours, iupplying water, fo that it may not 

 diminifh to lefs than t'.vo quarts. Then ftrain the hot Huid 

 through a flannel, and afterwards evaporate it till it is of 

 the confiftence of a jelly when cold. The fize ufed in 

 burnifh gilding, and made of cuttings of parchment, is pre- 

 pared much after the fame manner. This fubltance is ufe- 

 ful in many trades. Mr. B^yle mentions, among otlier ufes, 

 that fine red ftands, ai:d hangingflielves, are coloured with 

 ground vcrmihon tempered with fixe, and wlien dry, are 

 laid over with common varnifh. 



Size, Gold. See Gox.'ofize. 



Size, 



