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L'Hôpital, Michel de

(Encyclopedia)L'Hôpital or L'Hospital, Michel de both: mēshĕlˈ də lōpētälˈ [key], c.1505–1573, chancellor of France under Catherine de' Medici. He was Catherine's chief collaborator in the policy of reli...

Hades

(Encyclopedia)Hades hāˈdēz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the...

Woden

(Encyclopedia)Woden ōˈdĭn [key], in Germanic religion and mythology, the supreme god. His cult, although widespread among the Germanic tribes, was sometimes subordinated to that of his son Thor. With his brother...

Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan

(Encyclopedia)Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan, 1902–73, English social anthropologist. He made several expeditions to Africa. His major contributions lie in the fields of social anthropology and comparative religion...

church and state

(Encyclopedia)church and state, the relationship between the religion or religions of a nation and the civil government of that nation, especially the relationship between the Christian church and various civil gov...

anthropomorphism

(Encyclopedia)anthropomorphism ănˌthrəpōmôrˈfĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=having human form], in religion, conception of divinity as being in human form or having human characteristics. Anthropomorphism also applies to...

Ghost Dance

(Encyclopedia)Ghost Dance, central ritual of the messianic religion instituted in the late 19th cent. by a Paiute named Wovoka. The religion prophesied the peaceful end of the westward expansion of whites and a ret...

peyotism

(Encyclopedia)peyotism, religion of some Native North Americans in which the hallucinogenic peyote button is used as the sacramental food. It is the most widespread indigenous contemporary Native American religion....

Theresa, Saint (Theresa of Lisieux)

(Encyclopedia)Theresa or Thérèse, Saint (Theresa of Lisieux), 1873–97, French Carmelite nun, one of the most widely loved saints of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Alençon. Her original name was Marie-Françoise...

Tarquin

(Encyclopedia)Tarquin tärˈkwĭn [key] [Etruscan,=lord], in Roman tradition, an Etruscan family that ruled Rome. According to the historian Livy, when the rule of the Bacchiadae in Corinth was overthrown (c.657 b....