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Valdés, Juan de

(Encyclopedia)Valdés, Juan de hwän ᵺā väldāsˈ [key], c.1500–1540, Spanish reformer, b. Cuenca. Suspected by the Inquisition, he went soon after 1530 to Naples, where he became the center of a circle of me...

Æthelbert, king of Kent

(Encyclopedia)Æthelbert ĕˈthəlbərt, ă– [key], d. 616, king of Kent (560?–616). Although defeated by the West Saxons in 568, he became the strongest ruler in England S of the Humber River. His wife, Bertha...

Linus, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Linus, in the New Testament, Roman Christian. He is often identified with St. Linus. ...

Leo the Great, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Leo the Great, Saint: see Leo I, Saint. ...

Joanna, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Joanna, in the New Testament. 1 Wife of Herod's steward Chuza. She was a follower of Jesus and was one who found the tomb empty. 2 Ancestor of St. Joseph. ...

Ariel, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Ariel āˈrēĕl [key], in the Bible, aide of Ezra. In two other passages AV calls them “lionlike men” (“two ariels of Moab” in RV). Nothing is known of them. Ariel is also used as a symbolic ...

Lady of the Lake

(Encyclopedia)Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...

law of the sea

(Encyclopedia)law of the sea: see maritime law; sea, law of the; seas, freedom of the. ...

Lake of the Woods

(Encyclopedia)Lake of the Woods, 1,485 sq mi (3,846 sq km), c.70 mi (110 km) long, on the U.S.-Canada border in the pine forest region of N Minn., SE Man., and SW Ont. More than two thirds of the lake is in Canada....

Merchants of the Staple

(Encyclopedia)Merchants of the Staple or Merchant Staplers, English trading company that controlled the export of English raw wool. The first wool staple (i.e., a place designated by royal ordinance as a special ce...