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concordat

(Encyclopedia)concordat kənkôrˈdăt [key], formal agreement, specifically between the pope, in his spiritual capacity, and the temporal authority of a state. Its juridical status is now generally accepted as bei...

encyclical

(Encyclopedia)encyclical, originally, a pastoral letter sent out by a bishop, now a solemn papal letter, meant to inform the whole church on some particular matter of importance. Benedict XIV circulated the first k...

Adventists

(Encyclopedia)Adventists ădˈvĕnˌtĭsts [key] [advent, Lat.,=coming], members of a group of related religious denominations whose distinctive doctrine centers in their belief concerning the imminent second comin...

Holy Innocents

(Encyclopedia)Holy Innocents, in the New Testament, children of Bethlehem “from two years old and under,” killed by the order of Herod the Great in the attempt to destroy the infant Jesus. The Innocents have be...

Châteauroux

(Encyclopedia)Châteauroux shätōro͞oˈ [key], city, capital of Indre dept., central France, on the Indre River. ...

Barnes, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Barnes, Albert, 1798–1870, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. Rome, N.Y. From 1830 he was pastor of the First Church in Philadelphia, mother church of the Presbyterian denomination in America. In t...

Bourne, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Bourne, Francis bôrn [key], 1861–1935, English prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He entered the priesthood in 1884 and later was made bishop coadjutor of Southwark (1896), bishop of S...

Sint-Truiden

(Encyclopedia)Sint-Truiden sĭnt-troiˈdən [key], Fr. Saint-Trond, town (1991 pop. 36,994), Limburg prov., E Belgium. It is primarily an industrial center but is noted for its cherries. Sint-Truiden developed arou...

canonization

(Encyclopedia)canonization kănˌənĭzāˈshən [key], in the Roman Catholic Church, process by which a person is classified as a saint. It is now performed at Rome alone, although in the Middle Ages and earlier b...

Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von

(Encyclopedia)Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von nēˈkōlous lo͝otˈvĭkh gräf fən tsĭnˈtsəndôrf [key], 1700–1760, German churchman, patron and bishop of the refounded Moravian Church, b. Dresden. Rear...