Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, prayer, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations hold regular group worship services. Christianity developed during the 1st century CE as a Jewish Christian sect of Second Temple Judaism, it soon attracted Gentile God-fearers, which lead to a departure from Jewish customs, the establishment of Christianity as an independent religion. During the first centuries of its existence Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, to Ethiopia and some parts of Asia. Constantine the Great decriminalized it via the Edict of Milan; the First Council of Nicaea established a uniform set of beliefs across the Roman Empire.
By 380, the Roman Empire designated Christianity as the state religion. The period of the first seven ecumenical councils is sometimes referred to as the Great Church, the united full communion of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, before their schisms. Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon over differences in Christology; the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism over the authority of the Pope. In 1521, Protestants split from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Reformation over Papal primacy, the nature of salvation, other ecclesiological and theological disputes. Following the Age of Discovery, Christianity was spread into the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the rest of the world via missionary work and colonization. There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, or 31.4% of the global population. Today, the four largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy.
Christianity and Christian ethics have played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization around Europe during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the New Testament, the names by which the disciples were known among themselves were "brethren", "the faithful", "elect", "saints" and "believers". Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as'The Way' coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord." According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" was first used in reference to Jesus's disciples in the city of Antioch, meaning "followers of Christ," by the non-Jewish inhabitants of Antioch. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" was by Ignatius of Antioch, in around 100 AD. While Christians worldwide share basic convcitions, there are differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based. Concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds, they began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith.
The Apostles' Creed is the most accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism and Western Rite Orthodoxy, it is used by Presbyterians and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 9th centuries, its central doctrines are those of God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period; the creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Its main points include: Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit The death, descent into hell and ascension of Christ The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful; the Nicene Creed was formulated in response to Arianism, at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.
The Chalcedonian Definition, or Creed of Chalcedon, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox churches, taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, unchangeably, inseparably": one divine and one human, that both natures, while perfect in themselves, are also united into one person. The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, Trinity in Unity. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. Most Baptists do not use creeds "in that they have not sought to establish binding
Brill Publishers
Brill is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston and Singapore, Brill today publishes 275 journals and around 1200 new books and reference works each year. In addition, Brill is a provider of primary source materials online and on microform for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Brill publishes in the following subject areas: The roots of Brill go back to May 17, 1683, when a certain Jordaan Luchtmans was registered as a bookseller by the Leiden booksellers' guild; as was customary at the time, Luchtmans combined his bookselling business with publishing activities. These were in the fields of biblical studies, Oriental languages, ethnography. Luchtmans established close ties with the University of Leiden, one of the major centers of study in these areas. In 1848, the business passed from the Luchtmans family to that of a former employee. In order to cover the financial obligations that he inherited, E. J. Brill decided to liquidate the entire Luchtmans book stock in a series of auctions that took place between 1848 and 1850.
Brill continued to publish in the traditional core areas of the company, with occasional excursions into other fields. Thus, in 1882, the firm brought out a two-volume Leerboek der Stoomwerktuigkunde. More programmatically, however, in 1855 Het Gebed des Heeren in veertien talen was meant to publicize Brill's ability to typeset non-Latin alphabets, such as Hebrew, Samaritan, Coptic, Arabic, among several others. In 1896, Brill became a public limited company, when E. J. Brill's successors, A. P. M. van Oordt and Frans de Stoppelaar, both businessmen with some academic background and interest, died. A series of directors followed, his directorship marked a period of unprecedented growth in the history of the company, due to a large extent to Folkers' cooperation with the German occupying forces during World War II. For the Germans, Brill printed foreign-language textbooks so that they could manage the territories they occupied, but military manuals, such as "a manual which trained German officers to distinguish the insignias of the Russian army".
In 1934, the company had a turnover of 132,000 guilders. After the war, the Dutch denazification committee determined the presence of "enemy money" in Brill's accounts. Folkers was arrested in September 1946, deprived of the right to hold a managerial post; the company itself, escaped the aftermath of the war unscathed. Brill's path in the post-war years was again marked by ups and downs, though the company remained faithful in its commitment to scholarly publishing; the late 1980s brought an acute crisis due to over-expansion, poor management, as well as general changes in the publishing industry. Thus, in 1988–91 under new management the company underwent a major restructuring, in the course of which it closed some of its foreign offices, including Cologne, its London branch was closed by then. Brill, sold its printing business, which amounted "to amputat its own limb"; this was considered necessary to save the company as a whole. No jobs were lost in the process; the reorganization managed to save the company, which has since undergone an expansion that as as 1990 had been inconceivable.
As of 2008, Brill was publishing around 600 books and 100 journals each year, with a turnover of 26 million euros. Brill publishes several open access journals and is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot. In 2013, Brill created the IFLA/Brill Open Access Award for initiatives in the area of open access monograph publishing together with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Brill is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. List of Brill academic journals Books in the Netherlands The most up-to-date history of the company is Sytze van der Veen, Brill: 325 Years of Scholarly Publishing, ISBN 978-90-04-17032-2 Tom Verde, "Brill's Bridge to Arabic", Aramco World, 66, nr. 3, pp. 30–39 online edition. Brill Annual Report 2012 Official website A list of books published by E. J. Brill Leiden
Bands (neckwear)
Bands are a form of formal neckwear, worn by some clergy and lawyers, with some forms of academic dress. They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck; the word bands is plural because they require two similar parts and did not come as one piece of cloth. Those worn by clergy are called preaching bands, preaching tabs, or Geneva bands. Ruffs were popular in the sixteenth century, remained so till the late 1640s, alongside the more fashionable standing and falling bands. Ruffs, like bands, were sewn to a deep neck-band, they could be either falling ruffs. Standing ruffs were common with legal, official dress till comparatively late. Falling ruffs were popular circa 1615–1640s. In the early sixteenth century bands referred to the shirt neck-band under a ruff. For the rest of the century, when ruffs were still worn, in the seventeenth century, bands referred to all the variations of this neckwear. All bands or collars arose from a standing neck-band of varying heights.
They were tied at the throat with band-strings ending in crochet-covered balls. Bands were adopted in England for legal, official and academical use in the mid-seventeenth century, they varied from those worn by priests, to the much shorter ecclesiastical bands of black gauze with white hem showing on the outside. Both were developments of the seventeenth century lay collar. Bands varied from small white turn-down collars and ruffs to point lace bands, depending upon fashion, until the mid-seventeenth century, when plain white bands came to be the invariable neck-wear of all judges, barristers, students and academics; the bands are two strips of bleached holland or similar material, falling down the front from the collar. Plain linen'falling bands', developed from the falling collar, replaced the ruff about 1640. By 1650 they were universal. In the form of a wide collar, tied with a lace in front, by the 1680s they had diminished to the traditional form of two rectangles of linen tied at the throat.
Bands did not become academically significant until they were abandoned as an ordinary lay fashion after the Restoration in 1660. They became identified as applicable to clerical and academic individuals in the early eighteenth century, when they became longer and narrower in form. From the eighteenth century judges and Queen's Counsel took to wearing lace jabots instead of bands at courts and leveés. Bands are now worn by judges, Queen's Counsel, solicitors, court officials, certain public officials, university officials and less also by graduands; these form part of the full dress of Queen's Counsel, circuit judges, the Lord Chief Justice. Mourning bands, which have a double pleat running down the middle of each wing or tongue, are still used by barristers. Clergy may wear bands, which may be of black material, which are known as Geneva bands. By the end of the seventeenth century Queen's Counsel wore richly laced cravats. From the part of the eighteenth century they wore bands instead of the cravat as undress.
In the eighteenth century a lace fall was used as an alternative to the bands by judges in full dress. Both falling and standing bands were white, lace or lace-edged cambric or silk, but both might be plain; the standing bands, a semi-circular collar, the curved edge standing up round the back of the head. While the straight horizontal edges in front met under the chin and were tied by band-strings, the collar was worn turned down, it was supported on a wire frame attached to the neck of the doublet behind. The starched collar rested on this, it was of linen, but lawn and lace. They were popular for a quarter of a century; the soft, unstiffened collar draped over the shoulders of the doublet were called falling-bands. Until the Civil War barristers wore falling bands known as a rabat, with about six tabs arranged one upon the other, having the appearance of ruffs rather than bands, they differed from the bands of the clergy of that period in that they were not poked as the latter were. Lawyers took to modern bands about the middle of the seventeenth century.
They continued in ecclesiastical use well into the nineteenth century in the smaller, linen strip or tab form- short-bands. These are retained by some priests of the Church of England, academics and ministers of the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the English non-conformist churches. Bands were adopted early in the eighteenth century, by parish clerks and dissenting ministers, as well as by clergymen of the established churches in Europe; the bands were wide, set close together. The outer white edge is the hemmed linen fabric which, being turned over onto itself three times, is opaque; the falling bands, worn 1540s to 1670s, could take three forms. Firstly, a small turned-down collar from a high neck-band, with an inverted v-or pyramidal-shaped spread under the chin and tied by band-strings sometimes visible but concealed, they were plain. These were popular 1590 to 1605 in military or Puritan circles, reappearing 1620–1650, when they were larger. Secondly, they could take the form of a wide collar, spreading horizontally from side to side across the shoulder, with the band-strings as formerly.
These were popular 1630s to 1640s. Thirdly, a deep collar or bib, square-cut, spreading down the chest, the front borders meeting edge to edge flat, or with an
Ruff (clothing)
A ruff is an item of clothing worn in Western and Northern Europe from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. The ruff, worn by men and children, evolved from the small fabric ruffle at the drawstring neck of the shirt or chemise, they served as changeable pieces of cloth that could themselves be laundered separately while keeping the wearer's doublet or gown from becoming soiled at the neckline. The stiffness of the garment forced upright posture, their impracticality led them to become a symbol of wealth and status. Ruffs were made from linen cambric, stiffened with starch imported from the Low Countries. Ruffs were sometimes made from lace. However, lace was expensive; the size of the ruff increased. "Ten yards is enough for the ruffs of the neck and hand" for a New Year's gift made by her ladies for Queen Elizabeth in 1565, but the discovery of starch allowed ruffs to be made wider without losing their shape. Ruffs were separate garments that could be washed and set into elaborate figure-of-eight folds by the use of heated cone-shaped goffering irons.
Ruffs were coloured during starching, vegetable dyes were used to give the ruff a yellow, pink or mauve tint. A pale blue colour could be obtained via the use of smalt, although Elizabeth I took against this colour and issued a Royal Prerogative: Setting and maintaining the structured and voluminous shape of the ruff could be difficult due to changes in body heat or weather. For this reason, they could be worn only once before losing their shape. At their most extreme, ruffs were a foot or more wide. Ruffs could make it difficult to eat during mealtimes, similar to the cangue. By the start of the seventeenth century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in Western Europe, in favour of wing collars and falling bands; the fashion lingered longer in the Dutch Republic, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century, farther east. It stayed on as part of the ceremonial dress of city councillors in North German Hanseatic cities and of Lutheran clergy in those cities and in Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
The ruff was banned in Spain under Philip IV. Ruffs remain part of the formal attire of bishops and ministers in the Church of Denmark and the Church of the Faroe Islands and are worn for services; the Church of Norway removed the ruff from its clergy uniform in 1980, although some conservative ministers, such as Børre Knudsen, continued to wear them. Ruffs are optional for trebles in Anglican church choirs; the judges of the Constitutional Court of Italy wear a robe with an elementar ruff in the neck. Underground artist Klaus Nomi used a ruff as part of his concert attire toward the end of his life, both to complement the Renaissance-era music he focused on during his late career, to hide the Kaposi's sarcoma lesions on his neck. In the twentieth century, the ruff inspired the name of the Elizabethan collar for animals. Piccadill a similar clothing fashion. 1550-1600 in fashion 1600-1650 in fashion Janet Arnold: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, W. S. Maney and Son Ltd. Leeds 1988. How To Starch a Ruff Part I of IV Portraiture illustrating development from modest 1530s ruffs to the gigantic ruffs of the 1590s 17th century millstone ruff at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
Calvinism
Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Calvinists differ from Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, theories of worship, the use of God's law for believers, among other things; as declared in the Westminster and Second Helvetic confessions, the core doctrines are predestination and election. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the religious tradition which it denotes has always been diverse, with a wide range of influences rather than a single founder. In the context of the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli began the Reformed tradition in 1519 in the city of Zürich, his followers were labeled Zwinglians, consistent with the Catholic practice of naming heresy after its founder. Soon, Zwingli was joined by Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, William Farel, Johannes Oecolampadius and other early Reformed thinkers.
The namesake of the movement, French reformer John Calvin, converted to the Reformed tradition from Roman Catholicism only in the late 1520s or early 1530s as it was being developed. The movement was first called referring to John Calvin, by Lutherans who opposed it. Many within the tradition find it either an indescriptive or an inappropriate term and would prefer the word Reformed to be used instead; some Calvinists prefer the term Augustinian-Calvinism since Calvin credited his theology to Augustine of Hippo. The most important Reformed theologians include John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, R. C. Sproul were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I. Packer, John MacArthur, Timothy J. Keller, David Wells, Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of ecclesiastical polity.
Calvinism is represented by Continental Reformed and Congregationalist traditions. The biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 100 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship and the International Conference of Reformed Churches, as well as independent churches. Calvinism is named after John Calvin, it was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552. It was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name; the term first came out of Lutheran circles. Calvin denounced the designation himself: They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism, it is not hard to guess. Despite its negative connotation, this designation became popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later; the vast majority of churches that trace their history back to Calvin do not use it themselves, since the designation "Reformed" is more accepted and preferred in the English-speaking world.
Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvin's own words—"renewed accordingly with the true order of gospel". Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two separate groups: Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition. While the Reformed theological tradition addresses all of the traditional topics of Christian theology, the word Calvinism is sometimes used to refer to particular Calvinist views on soteriology and predestination, which are summarized in part by the Five Points of Calvinism; some have argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, Guillaume Farel; these reformers came from diverse academic backgrounds, but distinctions within Reformed theology can be detected in their thought the priority of scripture as a source of authority.
Scripture was viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper; each of these theologians understood salvation to be by grace alone, affirmed a doctrine of particular election. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, to a larger extent Reformed theologians; the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther. John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, Wolfgang Musculus, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Andreas Hyperius belong to the second generation of Reformed theologians. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion was one of the most influential theologies of the era. Toward the middle of the 16th
Military chaplain
A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term chaplain had Christian roots, it is used today in military organizations to describe all professionals specially trained to serve any spiritual need, regardless of religious affiliation. In addition to offering pastoral care to individuals, supporting their religious rights and needs, military chaplains may advise the executive on issues of religion, ethics and morals as affected by religion, they may liaise with local religious leaders in an effort to understand the role of religion as a factor both in hostility and war and in reconciliation and peace. Military chaplains represent a religion or faith group but work with military personnel of all faiths and none; some countries, like the Netherlands and Belgium employ humanist chaplains who offer a non-religious approach to chaplain support.
In the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Defence employs chaplains, but their authority comes from their sending church. Royal Navy chaplains undertake a 16-week bespoke induction and training course, including a short course at Britannia Royal Naval College, specialist fleet time at sea alongside a more experienced chaplain. Naval chaplains called to service with the Royal Marines undertake a commando course at Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, Lympstone and if successful serve with a front-line Royal Marines unit. British Army chaplains undertake seven-weeks training at The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre Amport House and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Royal Air Force chaplains must complete 12 weeks Specialist Entrant course at the RAF College Cranwell followed by a Chaplains' Induction Course at Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre Amport House of a further 2 weeks. In the United States, the term, nomination, is not applied to the process of becoming a military chaplain. Individuals volunteer, if they are accepted, they are commissioned as military staff officers in the Chaplain Corps.
Members of the clergy who meet the qualifications for service as an officer in the military are free to apply for service with any of the three United States Chaplain Corps: the Army and Air Force each has a Chaplain Corps, with Navy chaplains assigned to serve with Marine Corps units, Coast Guard units, the Merchant Marine Academy. Some clergy, like rabbis, can apply without permission from any individual or organization within their faith group; as the application process proceeds, the military determines whether the applicant will meet standards in areas such as health, physical fitness, education, past criminal history, suitability for service, which includes supporting the free exercise of religion for men and women of all faiths, an endorsement from an endorsing agency, recognized by the Department of Defense, representing one or more faith groups in the United States, will be required, in part to ensure that the separation of church and state is honored. Neither the government as a whole nor the military in particular will be put into the position of determining whether an individual is a bona fide priest, rabbi, etc.
Although ordination is required for chaplain service, some "equivalent" status is accepted for individuals from religious groups which do not have ordination, such as the Church of Christ. Additionally, in cases where an endorsing agency is not yet established for an individual's religion, it is possible for him or her to be endorsed by the endorsing agency of another group, a process, followed for the first Muslim chaplains in the military. In any event, this endorsement is recognized as necessary, but not sufficient for acceptance as a chaplain: in other words, the military will not accept an individual for service as a chaplain, nor allow him or her to continue to serve, without such an endorsement remaining in force; the Geneva Conventions are silent on. However, the Conventions do state that chaplains are non-combatants: they do not have the right to participate directly in hostilities, it is assumed that during World War II, chaplains were unarmed. Crosby describes an incident where a US chaplain became a trained tank gunner and was removed from the military for this "entirely illegal, not to mention imprudent" action.
At least some British chaplains serving in the Far East, were armed: George MacDonald Fraser recalls "the tall figure of the battalion chaplain, swinging along good style with his.38 on his hip" behind the lead platoon during a battalion attack. Fraser asks, "if the padre shot, what would the harvest be... apart from three ringing cheers from the whole battalion?" The Reverend Leslie Hardman, the British Second Army's senior Jewish chaplain, who became well known for his work amongst the liberated prisoners after the capture of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, was a
Glasgow
Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, the third most populous city in the United Kingdom, as of the 2017 estimated city population of 621,020. Part of Lanarkshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as "Glaswegians" or "Weegies", it is the fourth most visited city in the UK. Glasgow is known for the Glasgow patter, a distinct dialect of the Scots language, noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Scotland, tenth largest by tonnage in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric and royal burgh, the establishment of the University of Glasgow in the fifteenth century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. From the eighteenth century onwards, the city grew as one of Great Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America and the West Indies.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the population and economy of Glasgow and the surrounding region expanded to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of chemicals and engineering. Glasgow was the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, although many cities argue the title was theirs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Glasgow's population grew reaching a peak of 1,127,825 people in 1938. Comprehensive urban renewal projects in the 1960s, resulting in large-scale relocation of people to designated new towns; the wider metropolitan area is home to over 1,800,000 people, equating to around 33% of Scotland's population. The city has one of the highest densities of any locality in Scotland at 4,023/km2. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the first European Championships in 2018; the origin of the name'Glasgow' is disputed. It is common to derive the toponym from the older Cumbric glas cau or a Middle Gaelic cognate, which would have meant green basin or green valley.
The settlement had an earlier Cumbric name, Cathures. It is recorded that the King of Strathclyde, Rhydderch Hael, welcomed Saint Kentigern, procured his consecration as bishop about 540. For some thirteen years Kentigern laboured in the region, building his church at the Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, making many converts. A large community became known as Glasgu; the area around Glasgow has hosted communities for millennia, with the River Clyde providing a natural location for fishing. The Romans built outposts in the area and, to keep Roman Britannia separate from the Celtic and Pictish Caledonia, constructed the Antonine Wall. Items from the wall like altars from Roman forts like Balmuildy can be found at the Hunterian Museum today. Glasgow itself was reputed to have been founded by the Christian missionary Saint Mungo in the 6th century, he established a church on the Molendinar Burn, where the present Glasgow Cathedral stands, in the following years Glasgow became a religious centre.
Glasgow grew over the following centuries. The Glasgow Fair began in the year 1190; the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the town's religious and educational status and landed wealth, its early trade was in agriculture and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe and the Mediterranean. Following the European Protestant Reformation and with the encouragement of the Convention of Royal Burghs, the 14 incorporated trade crafts federated as the Trades House in 1605 to match the power and influence in the town council of the earlier Merchants' Guilds who established their Merchants House in the same year. Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. Glasgow's substantial fortunes came from international trade and invention, starting in the 17th century with sugar, followed by tobacco, cotton and linen, products of the Atlantic triangular slave trade.
Daniel Defoe visited the city in the early 18th century and famously opined in his book A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, that Glasgow was "the cleanest and beautifullest, best built city in Britain, London excepted". At that time the city's population was about 12,000, the city was yet to undergo the massive expansionary changes to its economy and urban fabric, brought about by the Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. After the Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland gained further access to the vast markets of the new British Empire, Glasgow became p
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