received in the medical school of Leyden. But his principal fame arose from his theory of the vital actions, and the cause of diseases, which he chiefly attributed to fermentations, especially to a supposed fermentation between the pancreatic juice and the bile. To a morbid acidity thence produced he ascribed the generality of acute diseases, which he therefore proposed to cure by alkalies; and an oily volatile alkali was his favourite remedy. As the whole of his practice was founded upon a hypothetical theory, it may be readily imagined that in many cases it could not fail of being mischievous, especially when administered by disciples who were more sanguine and confident than their master; and it was one of the greatest benefits conferred on medicine by Sydenham, to have detached physicians from this and other theoretical systems of practice, and fixed it upon the only true basis of experience and observation. The publications of Sylvius were for the most part disputations, in which the principles of his system were proposed and defended. He was also the author of "Praxeos Medica Idea nova," and of various other tracts, which were frequently edited singly, and conjunctly, while his sect continued to hold the sway that for a considerable period it possessed. They are now consigned to that neglect which is necessarily incurred by a mass of opinion founded upon mere hypothesis, and unable to stand the test of inquiry. This physician, who was certainly not deficient in knowledge and ingenuity, died at Leyden in 1672, at the age of 58. Halleri Bibl. Anat. Med. Vander Linden. Eloy. - A. SYLVIUS, (Du Bois,) JAMES, a learned physician, son of a camlet manufacturer at Amiens, was born in 1478. After acquiring, After acquiring, under his brother Francis, professor at the college of Tournay in Paris, a more elegant use of the Latin language than was usual at that time, and perfecting himself in the Greek, he devoted himself to the study of the ancient medical writers, especially Galen, of whom he was all his life a zealous disciple and defender. He did not, however, limit his enquiries to books, but engaged experimentally in anatomical and pharmaceutical researches, and made several journeys to examine the effects of simples in the place of their growth. Returning to Paris, he commenced a course of private lectures in medicine, by which he acquired a reputation that excited the jealousy of the Parisian faculty; and as he had not yet taken a medical degree, he was obliged in 1530 to go to Montpellier for the purpose of graduation.

His avarice, however, would not permit him to undergo the necessary expence at that University; but at length he accommodated his differences with the faculty at Paris, and was admitted a lecturer at the college of Triquet, where he was attended by a numerous audience. In 1650 he became professor of medicine at the royal college, in which post he died in 1555, at the age of 77. The manners of this physician were rude, and his parsimony was so extraordinary as to have afforded several anecdotes, among which is that of keeping himself warm in winter without a fire, by carrying a large billet up and down stairs. To this virtue of frugality he was so much attached, that he published a work for the benefit of poor scholars, intitled, "De Victus ratione facili ac salubri Pauperum Scholasticorum." As a professional writer he merits the greatest praise in anatomy, for though he had few opportunities of human dissection, he made various discoveries and improvements, which are contained in his "Isagoge Anatomica," and his " Observata in variis Corporibus secandis." His bigotted attachment to Galen, however, made him a defender even of the errors of that author; and he wrote with great acrimony against Vesalius, for his presumption in correcting the ancients. Several of his writ ings related to pharmacy, in which he was well skilled for the age, and he published a valuable edition of Mesue with a translation and comments. His works were popular during the reign of the old school, though now obsolete. He was also author of a French Grammar; and he cultivated mechanics so far as to have presented some machines of his invention to the magistrates of Paris. Bayle Dict. Dict. Halleri Bibl. Anatom. & Med. — A.

SYMMACHUS, Q. AURELIUS AVIANUS, a Roman senator of the 4th century, was the son of a prefect of Rome, and himself arrived at the same dignity, with those of pontiff and augur, and proconsul of Africa. Warmly attached to the ancient religion, of which he possessed the highest honours, he exerted himself to save its rites from the abolition with which they were threatened by the triumph of christianity, and was at the head of a deputation from the senate to request from the Emperor Valentinian the restoration of the establishment of priests and vestals, and of the altar of victory. His petition to this Emperor is extant, in which he pleads with all his eloquence for these relics of the religion of conquering Rome. He had a formidable opponent in St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who com

posed an answer to this petition, as did also the poet Prudentius; both, however, treat their antagonist with great respect. Symmachus lost his cause; and for some reason he was banished, either by that Emperor or by Theodosius, but was recalled by the latter, and raised to the consulate in 391. Ten books of Epistles by Symmachus have been preserved, in one of which is the petition above mentioned. Though highly celebrated for oratory in his time, it was of the corrupted kind which characterised the decline of Roman literature. "The luxuriancy of Symmachus," (says Gibbon,)" consists of barren leaves, without fruits, and even without flowers. Few facts, and few sentiments, can be extracted from his verbose correspondence." Of the editions of these Epistles, the best, with regard to the text, is accounted that of Scioppius, 4to. Mogunt. 1608. Moreri. Gibbon. Bibliogr. Dict.-A. SYMMACHUS, POPE. At the decease of Pope Anastasius II. in 498, two parties appeared for the election of a new pontiff. The most numerous made choice of Symmachus, a Sardinian, and a deacon of the Roman church. On the same day, the other party, headed by the patrician Festus, who had promised the Emperor Anastasius to procure the reception of the Henoticon, or edict of agreement with the see of Rome, elected the arch-presbyter Laurentius. A schism thus took place in the church, which occasioned a kind of civil war in Rome, accompanied with murders and other outrages. In order to put an end to these disturbances, it was agreed by the leaders of both parties to refer the cause to Theodoric King of the Goths, at Ravenna, who equitably decided, that he should remain Bishop of Rome who was first chosen, and had the greatest number of votes. Both these circumstances concurring in Symmachus, he was declared the lawful possessor of the pontifical chair, and he ordained his rival Bishop of Nocera. A council summoned by Theodoric in the following year made some regulations to preserve the purity of future elections. The opponents of Symmachus, dissatisfied with his final success, attempted his deposition, and laid before Theodoric a charge against him of various crimes, requesting that he would appoint a delegate to take cognizance of the cause upon the spot. The Emperor's delegate suspended the Pope; in consequence of which the civil tumults at Rome were renewed with greater fury than before. Many lives were lost, and violences were offered even to ecclesiastics and nuns. Theodoric, desirous of restoring con

cord, went himself to Rome, where he wareceived with general acclamations; and dur ing his residence in that capital the disorders were pacified. He summoned a council to determine the difference respecting the holy see, which assembled at Rome in July 501. Symmachus being summoned to appear before it, proceeded from the church of St. Peter, attended by a great body of the populace. They were encountered by an opposite party, and a conflict ensued, in which Symmachus was wounded, and with difficulty escaped back to St. Peter's. He pleaded this danger as an excuse for not appearing to the repeated summons of the council; and his apology was at length admitted. At the final meeting of the council, after a warm debate between the friends and enemies of the Pope, a decree passed in which he was acquitted, without hearing his accusers, of all the crimes laid to his charge, and all persons were required to submit to his pontifical authority, on pain of excommunication. A protest was made against this decree by the friends of Laurentius, but Symmachus from that time kept undisturbed possession of the papal see. It was on this occasion that the position was first advanced, that no assembly of bishops has power to judge the pope, who is accountable for his actions to God alone.

In 502 Symmachus held a council at Rome, in which the law of Odoacer, declaring that the election of a Pope could not be made without the knowledge and consent of the sovereign, was annulled. The Emperor Anasta sius, who had given his interest to Laurentius, being displeased with the success of Symmachus, wrote a letter of invective against him, the Pope's apologetical reply to which is extant. In this, he treats the Emperor with great freedom; charges him with being an Eutychian, or a favourer of that sect; reproves him for despising the authority of the holy see, and endeavours to prove to him the superiority of the episcopal to the imperial dignity. In 503 he held a council at Rome to confirm the acts of the council which had absolved him; and in the following year another was held, which passed a decree for anathematizing all who should seize or appropriate the goods or estates of the church, even though they held them by grants from the crown. Towards the close of his pontificate he made various regulations for the restoration of discipline in the churches of the West, which had fallen into great disorder in consequence of the long wars between the Romans and the barbarous nations. He

SYNCELLUS, GEORGE, a monk, so called, because he was syncellus, or constant resident with Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was a Greek historian or chronicler. He wrote a "Chronography," in which he transcribes the whole of the chronicle of Eusebius, but with a perpetual censure of that author, whom he often justly corrects. He himself, however, frequently errs in history and chronology. This author lived in the time of Charlemagne, and began to write his history in 792. He was prevented by death from bringing it down lower than the times of Maximian and Maximin. This work was published in Greek and Latin by F. Goar in 1652, fol. It is reckoned valuable for the account of the Egyptian dynasties. Vossii Hist. Græc. Nouv. Dict. Hist. - A.

SYNESIUS, a person remarkable for uniting the characters of a Christian bishop and a heathen philosopher, was a native of Cyrene in Africa, of noble extraction. He studied philosophy under the famous Hypatia of Alexandria, who presided in the Platonic school of that city. He passed his early life in secular employments, much honoured for his learning and abilities; and from the year 397 to 400 he resided at Constantinople as deputy from his native city to the Emperor Arcadius. Having become a convert to Christianity, on a vacancy of the see of Ptolemais in 410, he was elected bishop, though he was not in orders, and by his own account was little inclined or qualified to fill such an office. There is extant a remarkable letter of Synesius to his brother on this occasion, in which he very frankly states the objections against his assuming the episcopal function. "My time (he says) has been divided between books and sports. In the hours of study we are perfectly retired, but in our sports every eye is upon us; and you well know that no man is fonder of all kinds of recreation than myself. You know also that I have an aversion to civil employments; as, indeed, my education, and the whole bent of my studies have been quite alien from them. But a bishop ought to be, as it were, a man of God, averse to pleasures and

amusements, severe in his manners, and perpetually employed in the concerns of his flock. But I have still farther reasons for declining this charge, which I will here state; for although I am writing to you, I desire this letter may be made public. I say, then, that God, the laws of the country, and the holy hands of Theophilus, have given me a wife; and I declare to all men that I will neither suffer myself to be separated from her, nor consent to live with her clandestinely like an adulterer; one of which I think impious, the other unlawful. I further declare that it will be my earnest wish to have as many children by her as possible. Again, let it be considered how difficult, or rather how impossible it is, to pluck up those doctrines which by means of knowledge are rooted in the soul with the force of demonstration. But you know that philosophy is diametrically opposite to the doctrines of Christianity; and, for example, I shall never be able to persuade myself that the soul had no existence previously to its union with the body, that the world and all its parts will perish together, and that the trite and thread-bare doctrine of the resurrection, whatever mystery be couched under it, can be true, as it is held by the vulgar. A philosopher, indeed, who is admitted to the intuition of truth, will see the necessity of lying to the people; for light is to the eye, what truth is to the people: the eye cannot bear much light, and if indisposed, is even relieved by darkness: in like manner fable and falsehood may be useful to the people, while presenting truth unveiled might do them harm. If, then, I may freely philosophize at home, while I preach tales abroad; and neither teach nor unteach, but suffer people to retain the prejudices in which they were educated; if this be consistent with the episcopal duties, I may indeed be consecrated; but if it be asserted that a bishop ought to go farther, and not only speak, but think, like the people, I must beg to be excused."

Notwithstanding this very open declaration which, it may be presumed, was not read to the whole assembly, Synesius was consecrated by Theophilus, Primate of Egypt, who conceived that`a man whose life and manners were in every respect exemplary, could not possibly be long a bishop without being illuminated with heavenly truth. Accordingly we are told that he was no sooner settled in his bishopric, than he acquiesced in the doctrine of the resurrection; at least it is certain that, from his own principles, he

would not oppose it. That he was able to employ the episcopal authority with which he was invested, in a dignified and resolute manner, is testified by the following fact. In the reign of the younger Theodosius, Libya was cruelly oppressed by the President Andronicus, who invented new modes of rapine and torture, and added sacrilege to robbery. Synesius, after employing, without effect, mild and pious admonition, launched against him a sentence of excommunication, in which his associates and even their families were involved, and he further made use of his interest with the Byzantine court to bring the offender to submission, which was at length effected. How much longer this bishop survived is not known.

There are extant of Synesius several writings on different topics, and 155 epistles, all in Greek. One of these is "An Oration concerning Government, or the Art of Reigning," pronounced before Arcadius when he was deputy from Cyrene. It is a free and liberal discourse, in which he speaks against the abuses prevalent in courts, dwells upon the duties of princes, and the virtues that become a throne, and points out the source of those evils which infested the empire, and which he traces to the credit and power given to the Goths and other barbarian mercenaries. A singular and ingenious piece of his is entitled "The Praise of Baldness," in which he has enlivened that apparently barren subject with many amusing remarks and images. In his book entitled, " Dion Prusæus," to the praises of that eminent person, he adds an account of his own studies, and a defence of philological learning. He wrote "Homilies," which are much commended; and "Hymns," said to contain a sublime theology, but not to be free from some Platonic and Pythagorean ideas, derived from the schools he frequented before his conversion. In his book "On Dreams," are several curious remarks on the nature and signification of those phenomena. His "Letters" are replete with historical passages, sublime notions, and moral sentiments. Some of them relate to points of church discipline, which are important in ecclesiastical history. The style of this writer is characterised as lofty and dignified, but inclining to the poetical or rhetorical. Several of his pieces have been printed separately the best edition of his whole works is that of Petau, Greek and Latin, fol., Paris, 1612. Synes. Epist. Dupin. Moreri.-A.

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SYNGE, EDWARD, a worthy Irish prelate, was the son of Edward, Bishop of Cork, and

was born in 1659 at Inshonane, near Cork, of which parish his father was then vicar. He received his education first at the diocese school, in Cork, whence he was removed to Christ-church-college, in Oxford; and he finished his course at the University of Dublin. For above twenty years he served a church in Cork; after which he obtained the chancellorship of St. Patrick's, in Dublin, to which was annexed the cure of the parish of St. Werburg. He there preached with great approbation to crowded audiences, and in 1714 he was presented to the see of Raphoe. The succession of the House of Hanover to the crown, in the interest of which he had displayed much zeal, caused his translation, in 1716, to the archbishopric of Tuam; on which occasion he generously gave up the quarter-archiepiscopal parts of his see, and procured an act for settling them on the resident clergy of the diocese. He was made a privy-counsellor; and in some subsequent years was appointed one of the keepers of the Great Seal in the absence of the Lord Chancellor. These political engagements, however, do not seem to have interfered with his duties as a minister of religion; for he was the author of a great number of tracts, partly practical, and partly controversial, which attest his piety and his serious attention to the proper concerns of his function. Some of these pieces were very popular; in particular, his " Answer to the Excuses Men make for not coming to the Communion," reached the 21st edition in 1752. This prelate died at Tuam in 1741. It is mentioned, as an extraordinary instance of close connection with the episcopacy, that he was the son and the nephew of a bishop, and the father of two bishops. Biogr. Britan. A.

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SYPHAX, King of Masæsylia, or the western part of Numidia, was engaged in the second Punic war on the part of the Romans against the Carthaginians, when he was defeated by Massinissa, and obliged to retire into Mauritania. He afterwards made a treaty with the Carthaginians; but a conference with Scipio, who had transferred the war into Africa, induced him secretly to enter into a negotiation with that commander. Asdrubal, however, possessed a means of bringing him back to the Carthaginian interest, in his beautiful and accomplished daughter Sophonisba; and an union with her was the price of a new alliance with Carthage. For some time he acted as mediator between the two contending powers; but finding that his rival Massinissa had positively declared for the