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orders, holy

(Encyclopedia)orders, holy [Lat. ordo,=rank], in Christianity, the traditional degrees of the clergy, conferred by the Sacrament of Holy Order. The episcopacy, priesthood or presbyterate, and diaconate were in gene...

Sepulcher, Holy

(Encyclopedia)Sepulcher, Holy: see Holy Sepulcher. ...

Louis the German

(Encyclopedia)Louis the German, c.804–876, king of the East Franks (817–76). When his father, Emperor of the West Louis I, partitioned the empire in 817, Louis received Bavaria and adjacent territories. In the ...

Theodoric the Great

(Encyclopedia)Theodoric the Great, c.454–526, king of the Ostrogoths and conqueror of Italy, b. Pannonia. He spent part of his youth as a hostage in Constantinople. Elected king in 471 after his father's death, h...

pontifex maximus

(Encyclopedia)pontifex maximus pŏnˈtĭfĕks măkˈsĭməs [key], highest priest of Roman religion and official head of the college of pontifices. As the chief administrator of religious affairs he regulated the c...

Castelnau, Michel de

(Encyclopedia)Castelnau, Michel de mēshĕlˈ də kästĕlnōˈ [key], c.1520–1592, French diplomat and soldier. He early attracted the favorable notice of the cardinal of Lorraine (Charles de Guise) and performe...

Augustus II

(Encyclopedia)Augustus II, 1670–1733, king of Poland (1697–1733) and, as Frederick Augustus I, elector of Saxony (1694–1733). He commanded the imperial army against the Turks (1695–96), but had no success a...

chronicle plays

(Encyclopedia)chronicle plays, dramas based upon 16th-century chronicles in English, particularly those of Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed. These plays became very popular late in the reign of Elizabeth I, when, ...

Beaufort, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Beaufort, Henry bōˈfərt [key], 1377?–1447, English prelate and statesman. The son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and his mistress (later wife) Catherine Swynford, he was half-brother to Hen...

Louis VII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis VII (Louis the Young), c.1120–1180, king of France (1137–80), son and successor of King Louis VI. Before his accession he married Eleanor of Aquitaine. A controversy with Pope Innocent II ov...