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purification

(Encyclopedia)purification, in religion, the ceremonial removal of what the religion deems unclean. The usual agents of purification are water (as in baptism), bodily alteration (as in circumcision), and fire. The ...

Balfour, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Balfour, Sir James, d. 1583, Scottish judge and politician. Captured (1547) at St. Andrews after the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he served a sentence in the French galleys and on his release (1549) abj...

Portland, William Bentinck, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Portland, William Bentinck, 1st earl of, 1649–1709, Dutch statesman in England. He was William III's most trusted personal adviser. In 1677 he engaged in negotiating the marriage of William (then pr...

Orley, Bernard van

(Encyclopedia)Orley, Bernard van bäˈrənt [key], c.1491–1542, Flemish painter. In 1515 he was settled in Brussels, where he became court painter to Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, and to her suc...

Pembroke, William Herbert, 3d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Pembroke, William Herbert, 3d earl of, 1580–1630, English courtier and patron of letters. Son of Mary Herbert, countess of Pembroke, and nephew of Sir Philip Sidney, he was tutored by the poet Samue...

Huns

(Encyclopedia)Huns, nomadic and pastoral people of unknown ethnological affinities who appeared in Europe in the 4th cent. a.d., and built up an empire there. They were organized in a predominantly military manner....

Royal Society

(Encyclopedia)Royal Society, oldest scientific organization in Great Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1660 by a group of learned men in London who met to promote scientific discussion, par...

diary

(Encyclopedia)diary [Lat.,=day], a daily record of events and observations. As distinguished from memoir (an account of events placed in perspective by the author long after they have occurred), the diary derives i...

Louis I, king of Hungary

(Encyclopedia)Louis I or Louis the Great, 1326–82, king of Hungary (1342–82) and of Poland (1370–82). He succeeded his father, Charles I, in Hungary, and his uncle, Casimir III, in Poland. He continued the in...

Ferrari, Gaudenzio

(Encyclopedia)Ferrari, Gaudenzio fār-räˈrē [key], c.1480–1546, Italian painter, one of the leading representatives of the Lombard school. He worked chiefly in the churches of Varallo (N Piedmont), Vercelli, ...