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Franck, Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Franck, Sebastian sābäsˈtyän frängk [key], 1499–1542, German religious writer. He was a Roman Catholic priest who came under the influence of the Reformation, but he shortly broke with the Luth...

Sigismund II

(Encyclopedia)Sigismund II or Sigismund Augustus, 1520–72, king of Poland (1548–72). Crowned in 1530 to assure his succession, he assumed the royal functions at the death of his father, Sigismund I. By the Unio...

Münster, Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Münster, Sebastian sābäsˈtyänˌ münˈstər [key], 1489–1552, German scholar and geographer. He was a Franciscan monk but after the Reformation became a Protestant and taught at Heidelberg and ...

Farel, Guillaume

(Encyclopedia)Farel, Guillaume gēyōmˈ färĕlˈ [key], 1489–1565, French religious reformer, associate of John Calvin. In 1520, Farel joined Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples at Meaux to aid in church reform and to ...

Melanchthon, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Melanchthon, Philip məlăngkˈthən [key], 1497–1560, German scholar and humanist. He was second only to Martin Luther as a figure in the Lutheran Reformation. His original name was Schwarzerd [Ger...

Sixtus V

(Encyclopedia)Sixtus V, 1521–90, pope (1585–90), an Italian (b. near Montalto) named Felice Peretti; successor of Gregory XIII. He entered the Franciscan order in early youth. After ordination (1547) he became ...

Bridget, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bridget, Saint, 453?–523?, Irish holy woman. She is often called St. Brigid, St. Bride, or St. Bridget of Kildare. Little is known of her, but she did found a great monastery at Kildare. She is buri...

Craig, John

(Encyclopedia)Craig, John, 1512?–1600, Scottish minister of the Reformation. He joined the Dominican order, but through reading the Institutes of Calvin, he adopted Protestantism. Imprisoned at Rome for heresy, h...

Aleandro, Girolamo

(Encyclopedia)Aleandro, Girolamo jērôˈlämō älāänˈdrō [key], 1480–1542, Italian scholar, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also called Hieronymus Aleander. A principal in the Lutheran crisis, ...

Hilton, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Hilton, Walter, d. 1396, English religious writer, an Austin canon of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire. His spiritual treatise The Scale of Perfection (ed. by Evelyn Underhill, 1923) is a general manual fo...