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Ajivika

(Encyclopedia)Ajivika äjēˈvĭkə [key], religious sect of medieval India, once of major importance. The Ajivikas were an ascetic, atheistic, anti-Brahmanical community whose pessimistic doctrines are related to ...

East Prussia

(Encyclopedia)East Prussia, Ger. Ostpreussen, former province of Prussia, extreme NE Germany. The region of East Prussia has low rolling hills that are heavily wooded, and it is dotted by many lakes (especially in ...

Malory, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Malory, Sir Thomas mălˈərē [key], d. 1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur. It is almost certain that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire. Knighted in 1442, he served in the ...

chansons de geste

(Encyclopedia)chansons de geste shäNsôNˈ də zhĕst [key] [Fr.,=songs of deeds], a group of epic poems of medieval France written from the 11th through the 13th cent. Varying in length from 1,000 to 20,000 lines...

Lewis, C. S.

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples Lewis), 1898–1963, English author, b. Belfast, Ireland. A fellow and tutor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, C. S. Lewis was noted equally for hi...

James, M. R.

(Encyclopedia)James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes James), 1862–1936, English scholar, educator, and writer. He attended Eton and King's College, Cambridge, became (1887) a fellow at King's, and held various offices the...

Burckhardt, Jacob Christoph

(Encyclopedia)Burckhardt, Jacob or Jakob Christoph yäˈkôp krĭsˈtôf bo͝orkˈhärt [key], 1818–97, Swiss historian, one of the founders of the cultural interpretation of history. He studied under Ranke at th...

pageant

(Encyclopedia)pageant, modern dramatic spectacle or procession celebrating a special occasion or an event in the history of a locality. In medieval times the word pageant had meant the wagon or the movable stage on...

Westminster, Statutes of

(Encyclopedia)Westminster, Statutes of, in medieval English history, legislative promulgations made by Edward I in Parliament at Westminster. Westminster I (1275) practically constitutes a code of law; it covers a ...

Hospitalers

(Encyclopedia)Hospitalers: see Knights Hospitalers. ...