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Diocletian

(Encyclopedia)Diocletian (Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus) dīˈəklēˈshən [key], 245–313, Roman emperor (284–305), b. near Salona, Dalmatia (the modern Split, Croatia). Of humble birth, he obtained hig...

Akko

(Encyclopedia)Akko āˈkər, äˈ– [key], Fr. Saint-Jean d'Acre, Arab. Acca, city, NW Israel, a port on the Bay of Haifa (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea). Its manufactures include ir...

heaven

(Encyclopedia)heaven, blissful upper realm or state entered after death; in Western monotheistic religions it is the place where the just see God face to face (sometimes called the beatific vision). In Judaism, hea...

flagellants

(Encyclopedia)flagellants flăjˈələnts, fləjĕlˈənts [key], term applied to the groups of Christians who practiced public flagellation as a penance. The practice supposedly grew out of the floggings administe...

Mordovia

(Encyclopedia)Mordovia môrdˈvə [key], constituent republic (1990 est. pop. 965,000), c.10,000 sq mi (25,900 sq km), E European Russia. Once a densely forested steppe, it consists of the Volga upland in the east ...

cemetery

(Encyclopedia)cemetery, name used by early Christians to designate a place for burying the dead. First applied in Christian burials in the Roman catacombs, the word cemetery came into general usage in the 15th cent...

Campbell, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Alexander, 1788–1866, clergyman, cofounder with his father, Thomas Campbell, 1763–1854, of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Of Scottish lineage, both were born in Ireland and ...

Westminster Abbey

(Encyclopedia)Westminster Abbey, originally the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery (closed in 1539) in London. One of England's most important Gothic structures, it is also a national shrine. The first church ...

Tokelau

(Encyclopedia)Tokelau tōkəlouˈ, tōkĕläˈo͞o [key] formerly Union Islands, island group (2015 est. pop. 1,500), c.5 sq mi (c.12 sq km), S Pacific, a self-administering territory of New Zealand. It is composed...

Theodore of Mopsuestia

(Encyclopedia)Theodore of Mopsuestia mŏpˌsyo͞oĕsˈchə [key], c.350–428, Syrian Christian theologian, bishop of Mopsuestia (from 392). Together with his lifelong friend, St. John Chrysostom, he studied at the...