1.
Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the edition was published. Since 2000, an edition of the dictionary has been underway. The first electronic version of the dictionary was available in 1988. The online version has been available since 2000, and as of April 2014 was receiving two million hits per month. The third edition of the dictionary will probably appear in electronic form, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press. As a historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary explains words by showing their development rather than merely their present-day usages, therefore, it shows definitions in the order that the sense of the word began being used, including word meanings which are no longer used. The format of the OEDs entries has influenced numerous other historical lexicography projects and this influenced later volumes of this and other lexicographical works. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries, the dictionarys latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages. The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, as entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. Despite its impressive size, the OED is neither the worlds largest nor the earliest exhaustive dictionary of a language, the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the worlds largest dictionary, has similar aims to the OED and took twice as long to complete. Another earlier large dictionary is the Grimm brothers dictionary of the German language, begun in 1838, the official dictionary of Spanish is the Diccionario de la lengua española, and its first edition was published in 1780. The Kangxi dictionary of Chinese was published in 1716, trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the Society formally adopted the idea of a new dictionary. Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips, later the same year, the Society agreed to the project in principle, with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. He withdrew and Herbert Coleridge became the first editor, on 12 May 1860, Coleridges dictionary plan was published and research was started
2.
Anthropomorphism
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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters, people have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals. Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos and it is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God. One of the oldest known is a sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent, in either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality, they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain phenomena, creation. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons and they feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is referred to as anthropotheism, from the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on an interpretation of Genesis 1,27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and blackThracians that they are pale and he said that the greatest god resembles man neither in form nor in mind. Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension, judaisms rejection of an anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period, when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaisms rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems
3.
Christmas
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In several countries, celebrating Christmas Eve on December 24 has the main focus rather than December 25, with gift-giving and sharing a traditional meal with the family. Although the month and date of Jesus birth are unknown, by the fourth century the Western Christian Church had placed Christmas on December 25. Today, most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar and this is not a disagreement over the date of Christmas as such, but rather a preference of which calendar should be used to determine the day that is December 25. Although it is not known why December 25 became a date of celebration, December 25 was the date the Romans marked as the winter solstice, the shortest, and therefore darkest day of the year. Jesus was identified with the Sun based on an Old Testament verse, the date is exactly nine months following Annunciation, when the conception of Jesus is celebrated. Finally, the Romans had a series of pagan festivals near the end of the year, so Christmas may have been scheduled at this time to appropriate, or compete with, one or more of these festivals. The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, the economic impact of Christmas has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world. Christmas is a form of Christs mass. It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, crīst is from Greek Khrīstos, a translation of Hebrew Māšîaḥ, Messiah, meaning anointed, and mæsse is from Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist. The form Christenmas was also used, but is now considered archaic and dialectal, it derives from Middle English Cristenmasse. In addition to Christmas, the holiday has been known by other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as midwinter, or, more rarely, Nativity, meaning birth, is from Latin nātīvitās. In Old English, Gēola referred to the corresponding to December and January. Noel entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis, the canonical gospels of Luke and Matthew both describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem in Judea, to a virgin mother. In the Gospel of Luke account, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census and it says that angels proclaimed him a savior for all people, and shepherds came to adore him. In the Matthew account, magi follow a star to Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus, King Herod orders the massacre of all the boys less than two years old in Bethlehem, but the family flees to Egypt and later settles in Nazareth. The Nativity stories of Matthew and Luke are prominent in the gospels, the first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome in 336. Christmas played a role in the Arian controversy of the fourth century, the feast regained prominence after 800, when Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day
4.
Christmas gift-bringer
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A number of Midwinter or Christmas traditions in European folklore involve gift-bringers. Mostly involving the figure of a old man, the traditions have mutually influenced one another. In Slavic countries, the figure is mostly Father Frost, in Scandinavia, it is an elf-like figure or tomten who comes at Yule. In Western Europe, the figure was similar to an elf. In German-speaking Europe and Latin Europe, it associated with the Christian Saint Nicholas. In some parts of Central Europe, there is a tradition of a young child or fairy-like being bringing presents. From these European traditions, the North American figure of Santa Claus developed, the American figure in turn had considerable influence on the various European traditions during the 20th century. Santa Clauss reindeer has also compared to Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin in Norse mythology. Jacob Grimm traces the threatening or scary companions of Saint Nicholas to Christianized versions of house-spirits, after Christianization, the benign mid-winter gift-bringer was associated with the 4th-century Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra. This association took place mainly in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, including German-speaking Europe, the Low Countries, there are numerous traditions of Christmas gift-bringers in European folklore. They can be classified in variations of an Old Man. The Old Man is frequently syncretised with the traditions of Saint Nicholas. In some countries, these traditions co-exist, in Italy, there is Babbo Natale and La Befana besides Santa Lucia and Gesù bambino. In many parts of Switzerland, and even the Italian city Trieste, Saint Lucy brings gifts to children on the eve of her feast day—December 13—in Udine, Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Lodi, Mantova, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Verona and Western Trentino. List of Christmas gift-bringers by country St Nicholas Day
5.
Culture of the United States
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The culture of the United States of America is primarily a mix of various European, Native American, African, Asian, and Polynesian cultures. It also has its own social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as a result of large-scale migration from many countries throughout its history. Its chief early European influences came from English settlers of colonial America during British rule, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, British culture, legal system and other cultural inheritances, had a formative influence. Other important influences came from parts of Europe, especially Germany. Original elements also play a role, such as Jeffersonian democracy. American culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist, despite certain consistent ideological principles, American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity. The flexibility of U. S. culture and its symbolic nature lead some researchers to categorize American culture as a mythic identity. Many American cultural elements, especially from popular culture, have spread across the globe through modern mass media, the United States has traditionally been thought of as a melting pot. However, beginning in the 1960s and continuing on in the present day, the trends towards cultural diversity, pluralism. Due to the extent of American culture, there are many integrated, the percentage of non-religious people is the highest in the northeastern state of Vermont at 34%, compared to the Bible Belt state of Alabama, where it is 6%. Strong cultural differences have a history in the U. S. with the southern slave society in the antebellum period serving as a prime example. David Hackett Fischer theorizes that the United States is made up today of four regional cultures. According to Fischer, the foundation of American culture was formed from four mass migrations from four different regions of the British Isles by four distinct socio-religious groups. New Englands earliest settlement period occurred between 1629 and 1640 when Puritans, mostly from East Anglia in England, settled there, the next mass migration was of southern English cavaliers and their working class English domestic servants to the Chesapeake Bay region between 1640 and 1675. This facilitated the development of the Southern American culture, then, thousands of English and Welsh Quakers, led by William Penn, settled in the Delaware Valley followed by large numbers of German Lutherans. S. From the mid-Atlantic states to the Pacific Coast, finally, Scotch-Irish, English and Scottish settlers from the borderlands of Britain and Ireland migrated to Appalachia between 1717 and 1775. They formed the culture of the Upland South, which has since spread west to such areas as West Texas. Fischer suggests that the U. S. today is not a country with one General American culture and he asserts that the country is composed of just regional cultures, and that understanding that helps one to understand many things about modern American life
6.
Santa Claus
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Some maintain Santa Claus also absorbed elements of the Germanic god Wodan, who was associated with the pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, childrens books, films and he accomplishes this feat with the aid of his elves, who make the toys in his workshop at the North Pole, and his flying reindeer, who pull his sleigh. He is commonly portrayed as living at the North Pole and saying ho ho ho often, Saint Nicholas of Myra was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Empire, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious from an age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In continental Europe he is portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes. The remains of Saint Nicholas are in Italy, in 1087, the Italian city of Bari mounted an expedition to locate the tomb of the Saint. The reliquary of St. Nicholas was conquered by Italian sailors, a basilica was constructed the same year to store the loot and the area became a pilgrimage site for the devout. Sailors from Bari collected just half of Nicholas skeleton, leaving all the fragments in the grave. These were collected by Venetian sailors during the First Crusade and taken to Venice, where a church to St. Nicholas, the patron of sailors, was built on the San Nicolò al Lido. This tradition was confirmed in two important scientific investigations of the relics in Bari and Venice, which revealed that the relics in the two Italian cities belong to the same skeleton. Saint Nicholas was later claimed as a saint of many diverse groups, from archers, sailors. He is also the saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow. During the Middle Ages, often on the evening before his day of 6 December. So Saint Nicholas changed to Santa Claus, martin Luther first suggested the Christkind as the bringer of gifts. But Nicholas remained popular as gifts bearer for the people, Father Christmas dates back as far as 16th century in England during the reign of Henry VIII, when he was pictured as a large man in green or scarlet robes lined with fur. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, bringing peace, joy, good food and wine, as England no longer kept the feast day of Saint Nicholas on 6 December, the Father Christmas celebration was moved to 25 December to coincide with Christmas Day. The Victorian revival of Christmas included Father Christmas as the emblem of good cheer, in the Netherlands and Belgium the character of Santa Claus has to compete with that of Sinterklaas, Santas presumed progenitor
7.
English folklore
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English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed, morris dance and related practices such as the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance preserve old English folk traditions, as do Mummers Plays. Pub names may preserve folk traditions, English folklore is largely drawn from Celtic, Germanic and Christian sources. It is generally supposed to be larger than a normal dog and it is a common feature of British Isles and Northern European folklore. Boggart - A boggart is, depending on local or regional tradition, either a spirit or a malevolent genius loci inhabiting fields. The household boggart causes things to disappear, milk to sour, always malevolent, the boggart will follow its family wherever they flee. Brownie - In folklore, a brownie is a type of hob, brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will work at night. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey and they usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in a part of the house. Chime hours - According to English folklore, those born at certain hours could see ghosts, countless stones - Associated with megalithic monuments Corn dolly - Corn dollies are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanization. Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn lived amongst the crop, cunning folk - The term cunning man or cunning woman was most widely used in southern England and the Midlands, as well as in Wales. Such people were frequently known across England as wizards, wise men. Dragons- Giant winged reptiles that breathe fire or poison, there are many dragon legends in England. Somerset and the North East being very rich, According to legend it can be heard to beat at times when England is at war or significant national events take place. Dwarfs Elves Ettin English Country Dance - English Country Dance is a form of folk dance and it is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Father Time Flibbertigibbet Four Winds - Shown on old maps they are shown as faces blowing out wind from their mouths. There are generally 4 of them although in some cases only 2 are shown, Green Man - A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves
8.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
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English Civil War
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The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists over, principally, the manner of Englands government. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, the monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The term English Civil War appears most often in the singular form, the war in all these countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Unlike other civil wars in England, which focused on who should rule, this war was more concerned with the manner in which the kingdoms of England, Scotland, the two sides had their geographical strongholds, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. The strongholds of the royalty included the countryside, the shires, on the other hand, all the cathedral cities sided with Parliament. All the industrial centers, the ports, and the advanced regions of southern and eastern England typically were parliamentary strongholds. Lacey Baldwin Smith says, the words populist, rich, at times there would be two groups of three lines allowing one group to reload while the other group arranged themselves and fired. Mixed in among the musketeers were pikemen carrying pikes that were between 12 feet and 18 feet long, whose purpose was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. The Royalist cavaliers skill and speed on horseback led to early victories. While the Parliamentarian cavalry were slower than the cavaliers, they were better disciplined. The Royalists had a tendency to chase down individual targets after the initial charge leaving their forces scattered and tired, Cromwells cavalry, on the other hand, trained to operate as a single unit, which led to many decisive victories. The English Civil War broke out fewer than forty years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, in spite of this, James personal extravagance meant he was perennially short of money and had to resort to extra-Parliamentary sources of income. Charles hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a new single kingdom, many English Parliamentarians had suspicions regarding such a move because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy. As Charles shared his fathers position on the power of the crown, at the time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, Parliament functioned as an advisory committee and was summoned only if. Once summoned, a continued existence was at the kings pleasure. Yet in spite of this role, Parliament had, over the preceding centuries. Without question, for a monarch, Parliaments most indispensable power was its ability to tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crowns disposal
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Puritans
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Puritanism in this sense was founded as an activist movement within the Church of England. The founders, clergy exiled under Mary I, returned to England shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, Puritanism played a significant role in English history during the first half of the 17th century. One of the most effective stokers of anti-Catholic feeling was John Pym, Puritans were blocked from changing the established church from within and were severely restricted in England by laws controlling the practice of religion. They took on distinctive beliefs about clerical dress and in opposition to the episcopal system and they largely adopted Sabbatarianism in the 17th century, and were influenced by millennialism. Consequently, they became a political force in England and came to power as a result of the First English Civil War. Almost all Puritan clergy left the Church of England after the Restoration of 1660, the nature of the movement in England changed radically, although it retained its character for a much longer period in New England. Puritans by definition were dissatisfied with the extent of the English Reformation. They formed and identified with various groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal. Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in sense, were Calvinists. In church polity, some advocated separation from all other established Christian denominations in favor of autonomous gathered churches. The Puritans were never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism, the Congregationalist tradition, widely considered to be a part of the Reformed tradition, claims descent from the Puritans. Historically, the word Puritan was considered a term that characterized Protestant groups as extremists. According to Thomas Fuller in his Church History, the dates to 1564. Archbishop Matthew Parker of that used it and precisian with the sense of the modern stickler. In modern times, the word puritan is often used to mean against pleasure, in this sense, the term Puritan was coined in the 1560s, when it first appeared as a term of abuse for those who found the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559 inadequate. The term Puritan, therefore, was not intended to refer to strict morality, a common modern misunderstanding, the word Puritan was applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century onwards. Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves, the practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by a single term. Precise men and Precisians were other early derogatory terms for Puritans, seventeenth century English Puritan preacher Thomas Watson used the godly to describe Puritans in the title of one of his more famous works The Godly Mans Picture
11.
Papist
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Papist is a pejorative term referring to the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, practices, or adherents. The word gained currency during the English Reformation, as it was used to denote a person whose loyalties were to the Pope, attested from 1534, papist derives from Latin papa, meaning Pope. The term was common in use in the Eastern Orthodox Church in the 19th century. It also appeared in the compound form Crypto-Papist, referring to members of Reformed, Protestant, alexis Khomiakhov, a Russian lay theologian of the nineteenth century, claimed that All Protestants are Crypto-Papists. The word is found in certain surviving statutes of the United Kingdom, for example in the English Bill of Rights of 1688 and the Scottish Claim of Right of 1689. Jonathan Swift, the author of Gullivers Travels, employed the term in his satirical essay A Modest Proposal, daniel Defoe wrote in the popular Robinson Crusoe, near the end of the novel. I began to regret having professed myself a Papist, and thought it not be the best religion to die with. Similar terms, such as the traditional popery and the more recent papalism, are used, as in the Popery Act 1698. The Seventh-day Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White uses the terms papist and popery throughout her book The Great Controversy, during the American presidential election of 1928, the Democratic nominee Al Smith was labeled a papist by his political opponents. As of 2017, John F. Kennedy is the only Roman Catholic to have been elected President of the United States, the term is still sometimes used today, although much less often than in earlier centuries. Anti-Catholicism Anti-clericalism Know Nothing Party Mackerel snapper Popish Plot Romanism
12.
Cavalier
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It was later adopted by the Royalists themselves. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles Is cavalry, is considered to be an archetypal Cavalier. Cavalier derives from the same Latin root as the French word chevalier, Cavalier is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil War. Charles, in the Answer to the Petition 13 June 1642 speaks of Cavaliers as a word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour, Cavalier was not understood at the time as primarily a term describing a style of dress, but a whole political and social attitude. Most Parliamentarian generals wore their hair at much the length as their Royalist counterparts. The best patrons in the nobility of Charles Is court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, probably the most famous image identified as of a cavalier, Frans Hals Laughing Cavalier, shows a gentleman from the strongly Calvinist Dutch town of Haarlem, and is dated 1624. These derogatory terms also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side – capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large. Although they did not share the same outlook on how to worship God as the English Independents of the New Model Army, if I forget Thee, do not forget me. However, the word was coined by the Roundheads as a propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man. It is this image which has survived and many Royalists, for example Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, fitted this description to a tee. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he so much excelled and this sense has developed into the modern English use of cavalier to describe a recklessly nonchalant attitude, although still with a suggestion of stylishness. Likewise during Exclusion Bill crisis the term Roundhead was replaced with Whig, an example of the Cavalier style can be seen in the painting Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles by Anthony van Dyck. The mascot of Cavalier has been commonly used in the sports world. Most prominently it has been that of the professional Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA since 1970 and it has also been adopted by smaller organizations such as Johnson County Community College, Kankakee Community College, St. Gregorys University, and the University of Virginias College at Wise. Cavaliers have been represented as a class and subclass of role-playing character since 1983 in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Cavalier Generals, King Charles I and His Commanders in the English Civil War, 1642–46. Going to the Wars, The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Goring, George Goring, Lord. Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of, the history of the rebellion and civil wars in England. The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution 1688, the Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660
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Pamphleteer
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Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound booklets intended for wide circulation. Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writers opinions, to articulate a political ideology, for example, during times of political unrest, such as the French Revolution, pamphleteers were highly active in attempting to shape public opinion. Before the advent of telecommunications, those with access to a printing press, thomas Paines pamphlets were influential in the history of the American Revolutionary War. 17th-century Dutch naval officer Witte Corneliszoon de With wrote papers mocking and praising his fellow officers, poet and polemicist John Milton published pamphlets as well
14.
Restoration (England)
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The term Restoration is used to describe both the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and the period of several years afterwards in which a new political settlement was established. It is very used to cover the whole reign of Charles II. Richard Cromwells main weakness was that he did not have the confidence of the army, after seven months, an army faction known as the Wallingford House party removed him on 6 May 1659 and reinstalled the Rump Parliament. Charles Fleetwood was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State, on 9 June 1659, he was nominated lord-general of the army. However, his leadership was undermined in Parliament, which chose to disregard the armys authority in a fashion to the post-First Civil War Parliament. A royalist uprising was planned for 1 August 1659, but it was foiled, however, Sir George Booth gained control of Cheshire, Charles II hoped that with Spanish support he could effect a landing, but none was forthcoming. Booth held Cheshire until the end of August when he was defeated by General Lambert, the Commons, on 12 October 1659, cashiered General John Lambert and other officers, and installed Fleetwood as chief of a military council under the authority of the Speaker. The next day Lambert ordered that the doors of the House be shut, on 26 October a Committee of Safety was appointed, of which Fleetwood and Lambert were members. Lambert was appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland, the Committee of Safety sent Lambert with a large force to meet George Monck, who was in command of the English forces in Scotland, and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms. It was into this atmosphere that Monck, the governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, lamberts army began to desert him, and he returned to London almost alone. The Presbyterian members, excluded in Prides Purge of 1648, were recalled, Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. On 3 March 1660, Lambert was sent to the Tower of London, Lambert was incarcerated and died in custody on Guernsey in 1694, Ingoldsby was indeed pardoned. On 4 April 1660, Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda, Monck organised the Convention Parliament, which met for the first time on 25 April. On 8 May it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the monarch since the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. Constitutionally, it was as if the last nineteen years had never happened, Charles returned from exile, leaving the Hague on 23 May and landing at Dover on 25 May. He entered London on 29 May, his birthday, to celebrate his Majestys Return to his Parliament,29 May was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661, some contemporaries described the Restoration as a divinely ordained miracle. The sudden and unexpected deliverance from usurpation and tyranny was interpreted as a restoration of the natural, the Cavalier Parliament convened for the first time on 8 May 1661, and it would endure for over 17 years, finally being dissolved on 24 January 1679
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Mummers play
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Mummers Plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers. It refers particularly to a play in which a number of characters are called on stage and this play is sometimes found associated with a sword dance though both also exist in Britain independently. Mumming spread from the British Isles to a number of former British colonies and it is sometimes performed in the street but more usually during visits to houses and pubs. Although the term mummers has been in use since the ages no scripts or details survive from that era. The earliest evidence of mummers plays as they are today is from the mid to late 18th century. Mummers plays should not be confused with the mystery plays. There are a few surviving traditional teams of mummers in England and Ireland and these performances are comparable in some respects with others throughout Europe. Broadly comic performances, the most common features a doctor who has a magic potion able to resuscitate the vanquished character. The characters may be introduced in a series of speeches or they may introduce themselves in the course of the plays action. Other characters include, Old Father Christmas, who introduces some plays, in Ynysmeudwy near Swansea groups of four boys dressed as Crwmpyn John, Indian Dark, Robin Hood and Doctor Brown took the play from house to house on Bonfire Night and were rewarded with money. Despite the frequent presence of Saint George, the Dragon rarely appears although it is often mentioned, a dragon seems to have appeared in the Revesby Ploughboys Play in 1779, along with a wild worm, but it had no words. In the few instances where the dragon appears and speaks its words can be traced back to a Cornish script published by William Sandys in 1833, mumming groups often wear face-obscuring hats or other kinds of headgear and masks, some mummers faces are blackened or painted. In 1418 a law was passed forbidding mumming, plays, interludes or any other disguisings with any feigned beards, painted visors, deformed or coloured visages in any wise, many mummers and guisers, however, have no facial disguise at all. Mumming was a way of raising money and the play was taken round the big houses, most Southern English versions end with the entrance of Little Johnny Jack his wife and family on his back. Johnny, traditionally played by the youngest mummer in the group, first asks for food, Johnny Jacks wife and family were either dolls in a model house or sometimes a picture. Mummers and guisers can be traced back at least to 1296, according to German and Austrian sources dating from the 16th century, during carnival persons wearing masks used to make house-to-house visits offering a mumschanz, a game of dice. This custom was practised by commoners as well as nobility, on Shrove Tuesday of 1557 Albert V, Duke of Bavaria went to visit the archbishop of Salzburg and played a game of dice with him. Other than this there is no clear evidence linking these late medieval
16.
England in the High Middle Ages
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A disputed succession and victory at the Battle of Hastings led to the conquest of England by William of Normandy in 1066. This linked the crown of England with possessions in France and brought a new aristocracy to the country that dominated landholding, government and they brought with them the French language and maintained their rule through a system of castles and the introduction of a feudal system of landholding. By the time of Williams death in 1087, England formed the largest part of an Anglo-Norman empire, ruled by nobles with landholdings across England, Normandy, Williams sons disputed succession to his lands, with William II emerging as ruler of England and much of Normandy. On his death in 1100 his younger brother claimed the throne as Henry I and defeated his brother Robert to reunite England and Normandy. Henry was a ruthless yet effective king, but after the death of his male heir in the White Ship tragedy. When Henry died in 1135 her cousin Stephen of Blois had himself proclaimed king, leading to a war known as The Anarchy. Eventually Stephen recognised Matildas son Henry as his heir and when Stephen died in 1154, Henry, considered the first Angevin king of England, had extensive holdings in France and asserted his authority over Wales, Scotland and Ireland. He clashed with his appointee to the Archbishopric of Canterbury Thomas Becket, resulting in Beckets murder, the later part of his reign was dominated by rebellions involving his sons and Philip II of France that forced him to accept his son Richard as sole heir. Richard acceded to the Angevin inheritance on Henrys death in 1189, on his return journey he was taken hostage in Germany and a huge ransom was paid in order to secure his release in 1194. He spent the remainder of his reign restoring his lands in France and his younger brother John succeeded in England, and fought a successful war against Richards nephew Arthur for control of the French possession. Johns behaviour led to rebellions by the Norman and Angevin barons that broke his control of the continental possessions and his attempt to retake Normandy and Anjou was defeated at the Battle of Bouvines. This weakened his position in England, eventually resulting in the treaty called Magna Carta, which limited power. His death in 1216 is considered by historians to mark the end of the Angevin period. The Normans adopted many Anglo-Saxon governmental institutions, but the system concentrated more power in the hands of the king. The rights and roles of women became more sharply defined, noblewomen remained significant cultural and religious patrons and played an important part in political and military events. During the twelfth century divisions between conquerors and the English began to dissolve and they began to consider superior to their Celtic neighbours. The conquest brought Norman and French churchmen to power, new reformed religious and military orders were introduced into England. By the early thirteenth century the church had won its argument for independence from the state
17.
Ronald Hutton
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Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specialises in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A professor in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and he has held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford and is a Commissioner of English Heritage. Born in Ootacamund, India into a middle-class English family, Hutton subsequently returned to England, attended a school in Ilford and he took part in a number of excavations until 1976 and toured the countrys chambered tombs. Ultimately he decided to study history at Pembroke College, Cambridge and then Magdalen College, focusing his efforts on Early Modern Britain, he published a trio of books on the subject during that decade, The Royalist War Effort, The Restoration and Charles the Second. Hutton was born on 19 December 1953 in Ootacamund, India to a colonial family, meanwhile, during the period between 1966 and 1969, he visited every prehistoric chambered tomb surviving in England and Wales, and wrote a guide to them, for myself and friends. Despite his love of archaeology, he decided to study history at university. From Cambridge, he went on to study at Oxford University, in 1981, Hutton moved to the University of Bristol where he took up the position of reader of History. In that year he published his first book, The Royalist War Effort 1642–1646. The term pagan is used as a convenient shorthand for those beliefs and practices, in keeping with what was by then the prevailing academic view, it disputed the widely held idea that ancient paganism had survived into the contemporary and had been revived by the Pagan movement. Ultimately, Hutton would later relate, she recognised that she had misunderstood me and she went on to attack Huttons writing style, calling the book dry as dust and claimed that she was sorry I bothered to plough through it. If this is rigor, it is mortis, in these works he criticised commonly held attitudes, such as the idea of Merry England and the idea that folk customs were static and unchanging over the centuries. Once again, he was following prevailing expert opinion in doing so, in 1999, his first work fully focusing on Paganism was published by Oxford University Press, The Triumph of the Moon, A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wiccas development and argued many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best. However, he argued for its importance as a genuine new religious movement. The response from the Neopagan community was somewhat mixed, many Pagans embraced his work, with the prominent Wiccan Elder Frederic Lamond referring to it as an authority on the history of Gardnerian Wicca. Public criticism came from the practicing Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts, who took part in a debate with Hutton in The Cauldron magazine in 2003. Farrell-Roberts was of the opinion that in his works, Hutton dismissed Margaret Murrays theories about the Witch-Cult using Norman Cohns theories, after studying the history of Wicca, Hutton went on to look at the history of Druidry, both the historical and the contemporary. His first book on the subject, The Druids, was published in 2007, part of this material was given as the first lecture of the Mount Haemus Award series
18.
Plymtree
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Plymtree is a small village and civil parish about 3.5 miles south of the town of Cullompton in the county of Devon, England. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Broadhembury, Payhembury, in 2001 it had a population of 605, compared to 359 in 1901. The village has a house called The Blacksmith Arms and a Church of England primary school. There is a village shop and post office, a village hall, playground. The yearly country fayre is held on the August Bank Holiday and it has a cricket club and tennis court. St John the Baptists church is medieval, the tower and the aisle are Perpendicular but the nave. The rood screen is an example and exceptionally well preserved. It incorporates emblems which indicate that it was given by Isabel widow of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon, the wainscoting is painted with figures but they are not of high aesthetic value. There is an alabaster relief of the Resurrection of Christ which is Flemish work of about 1600. In the churchyard of St John the Baptists church is a yew tree. In 1832 Joseph Dornford was presented by his Oxford college to the rectory of Plymtree and he died at Plymtree on 18 January 1868, aged 74. Media related to Plymtree at Wikimedia Commons
19.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
20.
Norwich
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Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in East Anglia and lies about 100 miles north-east of London. It is the administrative centre for East Anglia and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and it remained the capital of the most populous English county until the Industrial Revolution. The urban area of Norwich had a population of 213,166 according to the 2011 Census, the parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local-government districts. A total of 132,512 people live in the City of Norwich, Norwich is the fourth most densely populated local-government district in the East of England, with 3,480 people per square kilometre. In May 2012, Norwich was designated Englands first UNESCO City of Literature, the capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St. Edmund on the River Tas approximately 8 kilometres to the south of modern-day Norwich. Following an uprising led by Boudica around AD60 the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum, literally the market place of the Iceni. According to a rhyme, the demise of Venta Icenorum led to the development of Norwich, Caistor was a city when Norwich was none. There are two suggested models of development for Norwich, the ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, the word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan. The Vikings were a cultural influence in Norwich for 40–50 years at the end of the 9th century. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, the Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5, 000–10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich continued to be a centre for trade, the River Wensum being a convenient export route to the River Yare and Great Yarmouth. Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre and these date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral, the chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy
21.
Flesh (theology)
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In the Bible, the word flesh is often used simply as a description of the fleshy parts of an animal, including that of human beings, and typically in reference to dietary laws and sacrifice. Less often it is used as a metaphor for familial or kinship relations, a related turn of phrase identifies certain sins as carnal sins, from Latin caro, carnis, meaning flesh. The word flesh is translated from the Hebrew lexemes bāśār and šĕēr, and from the Greek σάρξ, the way of all flesh is a religious phrase that in its original sense meant death, the fate of all living things. Samuel Butler, by contrast, used The Way of All Flesh as the title of a family saga. Saint Paul makes this connection in Romans 7,18, in which he says, For I know that in me no good thing, for to will is present with me. However, the Apostles creed affirms carnis resurrectionem, the body being a part of a person. In religious language, the took on specific connotations of sexual sins. It was in this sense that the nineteenth century critic Robert Buchanan condemned a Fleshly School of Poetry, accusing Swinburne, Rossetti, a traditional turn of phrase condemns the world, the flesh, and the Devil as the sources of temptation to sin. The phrase definitely appears in the writings of Abelard, who writes that there are three things that tempt us, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the English translations of Roman Catholic litanies often contain a similar petition. This traditional turn of phrase gave rise to the title of The World, the Flesh and the Devil, a 1959 apocalyptic science fiction film. Mortification Catholic Encyclopedia, Mortification, If you live after the flesh, says the apostle, you shall die, but if through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live
22.
Yule
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Yule or Yuletide is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and it later underwent Christianised reformulation resulting in the term Christmastide. Terms with an equivalent to Yule are used in the Nordic countries for Christmas with its religious rites. Today Yule is also used to an extent in the English-speaking world as a synonym for Christmas. Present day Christmas customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, today the event is celebrated in Heathenry and some other forms of Modern Paganism. Both words are thought to be derived from Common Germanic *jeχʷla-, and are cognate with Gothic jiuleis, Old Norse, Icelandic, and Faroese jól, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian jul, jol and ýlir. The etymological pedigree of the word, however, remains uncertain, though numerous attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group. The noun Yuletide is first attested from around 1475, the word is attested in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse. Among many others, the long-bearded god Odin bears the names jólfaðr, in plural may refer to the Norse gods in general. In Old Norse poetry, the word is employed as a synonym for feast. Jolly may share the etymology, but was borrowed from Old French jolif. The word was first mentioned by the Anglo-Norman chronicler Geoffrey Gaimar in his Estoire des Engleis, or History of the English People, Yule was an indigenous midwinter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples. While the Old Norse month name ýlir is similarly attested, the Old Norse corpus also contains references to an event by the Old Norse form of the name. In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, different names for the gods are given, one of the names provided is Yule-beings. A work by the skald Eyvindr Skáldaspillir that uses the term is then quoted, in addition, one of the numerous names of Odin is Jólnir, referring to the event. The Saga of Hákon the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway with the Christianisation of Norway as well as rescheduling the date of Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time, Yule had previously been celebrated for three nights from midwinter night, according to the saga. Haakon planned that when he had established himself and held power over the whole country. According to the saga, the result was that his popularity caused many to allow themselves to be baptised, Haakon spent most of this time in Trondheim
23.
York
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York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes
24.
Thomas the Apostle
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Thomas the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament. He is informally called doubting Thomas because he doubted Jesus resurrection when first told, followed later by his confession of faith, My Lord and my God, on seeing Jesus wounded body. According to undocumented traditions, the Apostle reached Muziris, in AD52 and baptized several people, after his death, the reputed relics of Saint Thomas the Apostle were enshrined as far as Mesopotamia in the 3rd century, and later moved to various places. In 1258, some of the relics were brought to Abruzzo in Ortona, Italy and he is often regarded as the Patron Saint of India, and the name Thoma remains quite popular among Saint Thomas Christians of India. Today scholars say the legends are no more possible for there is no written claim before centuries later. Thomas first speaks in the Gospel of John, in John 11,16, when Lazarus had recently died, the apostles do not wish to go back to Judea, where some Jews had attempted to stone Jesus. Thomas says, Let us also go, that we may die with him and he speaks again in John 14,5. There, Jesus had just explained that he was going away to prepare a heavenly home for his followers, Thomas reacted by saying, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way. But when Jesus appeared later and invited Thomas to touch his wounds and behold him, Thomas showed his belief by saying, My Lord and my God. Jesus then said, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed they that have not seen, and have believed. The name Thomas given for the apostle in the New Testament is derived from the Aramaic or Syriac, ܬܐܘܡܐ Toma, equivalently from Hebrew Teom, the equivalent term for twin in Greek, which is also used in the New Testament, is Δίδυμος Didymus. The Nag Hammadi copy of the Gospel of Thomas begins, These are the sayings that the living Jesus spoke. Early Syrian traditions also relate the apostles full name as Judas Thomas, some have seen in the Acts of Thomas an identification of Saint Thomas with the apostle Judas, brother of James, better known in English as Jude. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas, when the feast of Saint Thomas was inserted in the Roman calendar in the 9th century, it was assigned to 21 December. 3 July was the day on which his relics were translated from Mylapore, traditionalist Roman Catholics and many Anglicans, still celebrate his feast day on 21 December. However, most modern liturgical calendars prefer 3 July, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches celebrate his feast day on 6 October. Thomas is commemorated in common with all of the apostles on 30 June. He is also associated with the Arabian icon of the Theotokos, the Malankara Orthodox church celebrates his feast on three days,3 July,18 December, and 21 December
25.
Archbishop of York
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The Archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York. The Archbishop of York is an ex member of the House of Lords and is styled Primate of England. The archbishops throne is in York Minster in central York and his residence is Bishopthorpe Palace in the village of Bishopthorpe outside of York. The incumbent, from 5 October 2005, is John Sentamu who signs as +Sentamu Ebor, there was a bishop in Eboracum from very early times, during the Middle Ages, it was thought to have been one of the dioceses established by the legendary King Lucius. Bishops of York are known to have been present at the Councils of Arles, however, this early Christian community was later destroyed by the pagan Anglo-Saxons and there is no direct succession from these bishops to the post-Augustinian ones. The diocese was refounded by Paulinus in the 7th century, notable among these early bishops is Wilfrid. Until the Danish invasion the archbishops of Canterbury occasionally exercised authority, at the time of the Norman invasion York had jurisdiction over Worcester, Lichfield, and Lincoln, as well as the dioceses in the Northern Isles and Scotland. But the first three sees just mentioned were taken from York in 1072, of these, Durham was practically independent, for the palatine bishops of that see were little short of sovereigns in their own jurisdiction. Sodor and Man were returned to York during the fourteenth century, several of the archbishops of York held the ministerial office of Lord Chancellor of England and played some parts in affairs of state. The bishoprics role was complicated by continued conflict over primacy with the see of Canterbury. Until the mid 1530s the bishops and archbishops were in communion with the pope in Rome and this is no longer the case, as the Archbishop of York, together with the rest of the Church of England, is a member of the Anglican Communion. Walter de Grey purchased York Place as his London residence, which after the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was renamed the Palace of Whitehall. The Archbishop of York is the bishop of the Province of York and is the junior of the two archbishops of the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since 5 October 2005, the incumbent is the Most Reverend John Sentamu who is also an ex member of the House of Lords. Bede, Willibrord and the Letters of Pope Honorius I on the Genesis of the Archbishopric of York
26.
Tudor period
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The Tudor period is the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period which ends with the completion of the reign of Elizabeth I in 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII. In terms of the century, Guy argues that England was economically healthier, more expansive. Following the Black Death and the depression of the late 15th century. The export of woollen products resulted in an upturn with products exported to mainland Europe. Henry VII negotiated the favourable Intercursus Magnus treaty in 1496, the high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 15th century and early 16th century were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to an influx of New World gold and this was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, with manorial lords beginning the process of enclosure. Historian Geoffrey Elton revolutionized the study of Tudor government with his 1953 book The Tudor Revolution in Government and he argued that Thomas Cromwell, who was Henry VIIIs chief minister from 1532 to 1540, was the author of modern, bureaucratic government, which replaced medieval, government-as-household-management. Cromwell introduced reforms into the administration that delineated the Kings household from the state and he injected Tudor power into the darker corners of the realm and radically altered the role of Parliament. This transition happened in the 1530s, Elton argued, and must be regarded as part of a planned revolution, by masterminding these reforms, wrote Elton, Cromwell laid the foundations of Englands future stability and success. However, Eltons thesis has been challenged by recent historians. The Tudor Government raised an amount of revenue from the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The clerical income from First Fruits and Tenths, which went to the Pope. The Tudor Government gained further revenue from the lands by receiving rents from confiscated lands. Altogether, between 1536 and Henrys death, the Government collected £1.3 million, this influx of money caused Cromwell to change the Crowns financial system to manage the money. He created a new department of state and a new official to collect the proceeds of the dissolution, the Court of Augmentations and number of departments meant a growing number of officials, which made the management of revenue troublesome and expensive. Partly because of the new revenue raised from the dissolution of monasteries and these were the six courts or departments of state, each fully organised with its own specialised officials, equipped with seals and habitat, and responsible for a particular kind of revenue. The growing number of departments meant that the number of officials involved increased, there were further financial and administrative difficulties in 1540–58, aggravated by war, debasement, corruption and inefficiency, which were mainly caused by Somerset
27.
Stuart period
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The Stuart period of British history usually refers to the period between 1603 and 1714 and sometimes from 1731 in Scotland. This coincides with the rule of the House of Stuart, whose first monarch of Scotland was Robert II, the period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I from the House of Hanover. The Stuart period was plagued by internal and religious strife, the English Civil War took place during the reign of Charles I, the second Stuart monarch. The war ended in victory for the Parliamentarians, after this conflict, the line of Stuart monarchs was temporarily displaced by the Commonwealth of England. Their rule lasted from 1649 to 1660, oliver Cromwell ruled directly from 1653 to 1658. After Cromwells death the Commonwealth fell apart, the Convention Parliament welcomed Charles II, son of Charles I, to return from war and become king. This event was known as the English Restoration, Stuart England was consumed with internal affairs. During 1600-1650 the king made repeated efforts to colonize Guiana in South America and they all failed and the lands were ceded to the Dutch in 1667. James Is foreign policy placed much higher priority on European affairs, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping, religion was not a factor, since both sides were Protestant. The British in the first war had the advantage with larger numbers of more powerful ships of the line which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The British also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships, in the second war Dutch naval victories followed. This second war cost London ten times more than it had planned on, and it ended the fights over mercantilism Meanwhile, the French were building up fleets that threatened both the Netherlands and Great Britain. In third war, The British counted on a new alliance with France, the Dutch gained domination of sea trading routes until 1713. The British gained the colony of New Netherland, and renamed it New York. Historians have long regarded the overthrow of King James II in 1688 as a break in English history. Pincus argues that this revolution was the first modern revolution, it was violent, popular and he rejects older theories to the effect that it was an aristocratic coup or a Dutch invasion. Instead, Pincus argues it was a supported and decisive rejection of James II
28.
Lord of Misrule
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The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant or sub-deacon appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying. The Church held a similar festival involving a boy bishop and this custom was abolished by Henry VIII in 1541, restored by the Catholic Queen Mary I and again abolished by Protestant Elizabeth I, though here and there it lingered on for some time longer. On the Continent it was suppressed by the Council of Basle in 1431, in the Tudor period, the Lord of Misrule is mentioned a number of times by contemporary documents referring to revels both at court and among the ordinary people. On January 1, AD400, the bishop Asterius of Amasea in Pontus preached a sermon against the Feast of Calends that describes the role of the king in Late Antiquity. For these they receive, in return, gifts double their value and we celebrate the Feast of Lights, since by the forgiveness of our sins we are led forth from the dark prison of our former life into a life of light and uprightness. For the common vagrants and the jugglers of the stage, dividing themselves into squads and hordes, and these mendicants going from door to door follow one after another, and, until late in the evening, there is no relief from this nuisance. For crowd succeeds crowd, and shout, shout, and loss, loss, —Asterius, Oratio 4 Honest farmers coming into the city were likely to be jeered at, spanked and robbed. Worse, Even our most excellent and guileless prophets, the representatives of God. For the soldiers, they spend all their wages in riot and loose women, see plays perhaps, for they learn vulgarity and their military discipline is relaxed and slackened. They make sport of the laws and the government of which they have been appointed guardians, for they ridicule and insult the august government. They mount a chariot as though upon a stage, they appoint pretended lictors and this is the nobler part of their ribaldry. But their other doings, how can one mention them, however, according to the anthropologist James Frazer, there was a darker side to the Saturnalia festival. In Durostorum on the Danube, Roman soldiers would choose a man from among them to be the Lord of Misrule for thirty days, at the end of that thirty days, his throat was cut on the altar of Saturn. Similar origins of the British Lord of Misrule, as a king who was later put to death for the benefit of all, have also been recorded. References to Frazers view of this ancient sacrifice were made in the 1973 film The Wicker Man and he then gives a description of the way they dress colourfully, tie bells onto their legs and go to the churche dauncying and swingyng their handercheefes. On the Festival of the Calends, Asterius of Amasea, AD400, transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK,2003, webpage, James Frazer, The Golden Bough, The Roman Saturnalia, which deals with the Lord of Misrule
29.
Thomas Nashe
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Thomas Nashe is considered the greatest of the English Elizabethan pamphleteers. He was a playwright, poet, and satirist and he is best known for his novel The Unfortunate Traveller. Thomas Nashe was the son of the parson William Nashe and Margaret and he was born and baptised in Lowestoft, on the coast of Suffolk, where his father, William Nashe, or Nayshe as it is recorded, was curate. Though his mother bore seven children, only two survived childhood, Israel and Thomas, the family moved to West Harling, near Thetford in 1573 after Nashes father was awarded the living there at the church of All Saints. Around 1581 Thomas went up to St Johns College, Cambridge as a sizar, from references in his own polemics and those of others, he does not seem to have proceeded Master of Arts there. Most of his biographers agree that he left his college about summer 1588, Some years later, William Covell wrote in Polimanteia that Cambridge has been unkind to the one to wean him before his time. Nashe himself claimed that he could have become a fellow had he wished, then he moved to London and started his literary career in earnest. The remaining decade of his life was dominated by two concerns, finding a patron and participating in controversies, most famously with Richard. He arrived in London with his one exercise in euphuism, The Anatomy of Absurdity and his first appearance in print was, however, his preface to Robert Greenes Menaphon, which offers a brief definition of art and overview of contemporary literature. After this he was drawn into the Martin Marprelate controversy on the side of the bishops, as with the other writers in the controversy, his share is difficult to determine. He was formerly credited with the three Pasquill tracts of 1589–1590, which were included in R. B, mcKerrows standard edition of Nashes works, however McKerrow himself later argued strongly against their being by Nashe. But there is no evidence Nashe had either time or means to go abroad, in 1590, he contributed a preface to an unlicensed edition of Philip Sidneys Astrophil and Stella, but the edition was called in, and the authorised second edition removed Nashes work. At some time in the early 1590s Nashe produced an erotic poem and it has been suggested that The Choice of Valentines was written possibly for the private circle of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby. The Choice of Valentines circulated only in manuscript and it describes the Valentines Day visit of a young man named Tomalin to the brothel where his lover, Mistris Francis, has recently become employed. Having paid ten gold pieces for her favours, Tomalin makes his way towards his erotic goal, and make me happie, stealing by degrees. First bare hir legs, then creepe up to her knees, the object of his desire, A pretty rising womb, is revealed. Unfortunately Tomalin finds the moment so exciting that he spends his all before the fight has begun, mistress Frances is disappointed and does what she can to revive things. Unhappyie me, quoth she, and wilt not stand, com, let me rubb and chafe it with my hand
30.
Ben Jonson
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Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours, Ben Jonson said that his family originally came from the folk of the Anglo-Scottish border country, which genealogy is attested by the three spindles in the Jonson family coat of arms. One spindle is a heraldic device shared with the Border-country Johnstone family of Annandale. Jonsons clergyman father died two months before his birth, his mother married a master bricklayer two years later, Jonson attended school in St. Martins Lane. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School, on leaving Westminster School, Jonson was to have attended the University of Cambridge, to continue his book learning but did not, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Jonson at this time built a wall in Lincolns Inn. After having been a bricklayer, Ben Jonson went to the Netherlands. After his military activity on the Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor, as an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” in the play The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, the first revenge tragedy in English literature. Regarding his marriage Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as a shrew, concerning the family of Anne Lewis and Ben Jonson, the St. Martins Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Moreover,32 years later, a son, also named Benjamin Jonson. By summer 1597, Jonson had an engagement in the Admirals Men, then performing under Philip Henslowes management at The Rose. John Aubrey reports, on authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor, whatever his skills as an actor. By this time Jonson had begun to write plays for the Admirals Men. None of his early tragedies survive, however, an undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597 a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, was suppressed after causing great offence, arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth Is so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with Leude and mutynous behaviour, two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright, in 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Days Mirth
31.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
32.
Masque
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The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts, in the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of ducal Burgundy in the late Middle Ages, masques were typically a complimentary offering to the prince among his guests and might combine pastoral settings, mythological fable, and the dramatic elements of ethical debate. There would invariably be some political and social application of the allegory, such pageants often celebrated a birth, marriage, change of ruler or a Royal Entry and invariably ended with a tableau of bliss and concord. Masque imagery tended to be drawn from Classical rather than Christian sources, Masque thus lent itself to Mannerist treatment in the hands of master designers like Giulio Romano or Inigo Jones. The New Historians, in works like the essays of Bevington, in English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow. The rustic presentation of Pyramus and Thisbe as an entertainment in Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream offers a familiar example. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing, at the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. A descriptive narrative of a processional masque is the masque of the Seven Deadly Sins in Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene, a particularly elaborate masque, performed over the course of two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, is described in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott. Later, in the court of James I, narrative elements of the masque became more significant, plots were often on classical or allegorical themes, glorifying the royal or noble sponsor. At the end, the audience would join with the actors in a final dance, Ben Jonson wrote a number of masques with stage design by Inigo Jones. Their works are thought of as the most significant in the form. Sir Philip Sidney also wrote masques, william Shakespeare wrote a masque-like interlude in The Tempest, understood by modern scholars to have been heavily influenced by the masque texts of Ben Jonson and the stagecraft of Inigo Jones. There is also a sequence in his Romeo and Juliet. John Miltons Comus is described as a masque, though it is reckoned a pastoral play. Reconstructions of Stuart masques have been few and far between, part of the problem is that only texts survive complete, there is no complete music, only fragments, so no authoritative performance can be made without interpretive invention. In the 18th-century, masques were even less frequently staged, but because of its ephemeral nature, not a lot of documentation related to masques remains, and much of what is said about the production and enjoyment of masques is still part speculation. While the masque was no longer as popular as it was at its height in the 17th Century, during the late 17th century, English semi-operas by composers such as Henry Purcell had masque scenes inset between the acts of the play proper
33.
Shrovetide
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Shrovetide, also known as the Pre-Lenten Season, is the Christian period of preparation before the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. Shrovetide starts on Septuagesima Sunday, includes Sexagesima Sunday, Quinquagesima Sunday, as well as Shrove Monday, one hallmark of Shrovetide is the merrymaking associated with Carnival. In the Roman Rite, and in similar Anglican and Lutheran uses, the form of the Roman Rite that includes this special period of 17 days refers to it as the season of Septuagesima. The liturgy of the period is characterized by violet vestments, the omission of the Alleluia before the Gospel, fasting does not commence until the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The earliest the Pre-Lenten season can begin is January 18 and the latest it can end is March 9 and it is absent in more recent forms of all these traditions, but may be found in some Lutheran churches who use the One-Year Lectionary to organize the church year. In Northern Germany, local tradition states that if sausages and sauerkraut are eaten at Shrovetide, thus begins the first day of the Great Fast, which is known as Clean Monday. The weeks of pre-Lent and Great Lent are anticipatory by nature, they begin on Monday and end on Sunday, the hymns used during the Pre-Lenten and Lenten seasons are taken from a book called the Triodion. The weeks of the Pre-Lenten Season break are, Zacchaeus Sunday is sometimes regarded as a pre-Lenten Sunday because of its place in the Slavic lectionary, in that tradition, it is the 11th Sunday before Pascha. There are no hymns proper to this Sunday, however, its distinguishing feature is the reading of the Gospel concerning Zacchaeus. This lectionary reading is also appointed on the same Sunday in the Byzantine lectionary. The week following this Sunday is a normal, non-Lenten time, the Publican and the Pharisee, 10th Sunday before Pascha. The week following this Sunday is a week, lest the faithful be tempted. The Prodigal Son, 9th Sunday before Pascha, the week following this Sunday is the last during which the laity may eat meat or meat products. The Last Judgment or Meat-Fare Sunday, 8th Sunday before Pascha, the week following this Sunday is called Cheese-Fare Week and is a fast-free week, with the exception that meat and meat products are forbidden. Sunday of Forgiveness or Cheese-Fare Sunday, 7th Sunday before Pascha and this Sunday is the last day dairy products may be consumed. Throughout Great Lent, fish, wine, and olive oil will be allowed only on certain days
34.
English Reformation
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The English Reformation was a series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Based on Henry VIIIs desire for an annulment of his marriage, the reality of political differences between Rome and England allowed growing theological disputes to come to the fore. Until the break with Rome, it was the Pope and general councils of the Church that decided doctrine, Church law was governed by the code of canon law with final jurisdiction in Rome. Church taxes were paid straight to Rome, and the Pope had the word in the appointment of bishops. Final authority in doctrinal and legal disputes now rested with the monarch, and the papacy was deprived of revenue, the theology and liturgy of the Church of England became markedly Protestant during the reign of Henrys son Edward VI largely along lines laid down by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Under Mary, the process was reversed and the Church of England was again placed under papal jurisdiction. Soon after, Elizabeth reintroduced the Protestant faith but in a moderate manner. The structure and theology of the church was a matter of dispute for generations. The legacy of the past Roman Catholic Establishment remained an issue for some time, a substantial minority remained Roman Catholic in England, and in an effort to disestablish it from British systems, their church organisation remained illegal until the 19th century. Henry VIII ascended the English throne in 1509 at the age of 17 and he made a dynastic marriage with Catherine of Aragon, widow of his brother Arthur, in June 1509, just before his coronation on Midsummers Day. Unlike his father, who was secretive and conservative, the young Henry appeared the epitome of chivalry and sociability. An observant Roman Catholic, he heard up to five masses a day, of powerful but unoriginal mind, he let himself be influenced by his advisors from whom he was never apart and he was thus susceptible to whoever had his ear. This contributed to a state of hostility between his young contemporaries and the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, wolseys enemies at court included those who had been influenced by Lutheran ideas, among whom was the attractive, charismatic Anne Boleyn. By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled and she had not produced a male heir who survived longer than two months, and Henry wanted a son to secure the Tudor dynasty. Before Henrys father ascended the throne, England had been beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown, Henry wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession. Catherine of Aragons only surviving child was Princess Mary, Henry claimed that this lack of a male heir was because his marriage was blighted in the eyes of God. Henry argued that this had been wrong and that his marriage had never been valid, in 1527 Henry asked Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage, but the Pope refused. According to Canon Law the Pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of a canonical impediment previously dispensed, Clement also feared the wrath of Catherines nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose troops earlier that year had sacked Rome and briefly taken the Pope prisoner
35.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
36.
Easter
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It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the Feast of the Ascension. The First Council of Nicaea established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified, these were worked out in practice and it has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary. Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, in many languages, the words for Easter and Passover are identical or very similar. Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church. The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection, traditionally decorates the area of churches on this day. Additional customs that have associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades. There are also various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally, however, it is possible that Bede was only speculating about the origin of the term since there is no firm evidence that such a goddess actually existed. In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Πάσχα, Pascha, the word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt. In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast is known by names derived from Greek, Pascha is also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration. The New Testament states that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith, the resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness. For those who trust in Jesus death and resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory, any person who chooses to follow Jesus receives a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Through faith in the working of God those who follow Jesus are spiritually resurrected with him so that they may walk in a new way of life and receive eternal salvation. Easter is linked to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper, sufferings and crucifixion of Jesus that preceded the resurrection. According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as in the room during the Last Supper he prepared himself. He identified the matzah and cup of wine as his soon to be sacrificed
37.
Whitsun
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In England it took on some characteristics of Beltane, which originated from the pagan celebration of Summers Day, the beginning of the summer half-year, in Europe. Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in the UK until 1978 when the holiday was replaced with the fixed Spring Bank Holiday in late May. Whit was the occasion for varied forms of celebration, in the North West of England, church and chapel parades called Whit Walks still take place at this time. Typically, the parades include brass bands and choirs, girls attending are dressed in white, other customs such as Morris dancing were associated with Whitsun, although in most cases they have been transferred to the Spring bank holiday. Whaddon, Cambridgeshire has its own Whitsun tradition of singing a song around the village before. According to one interpretation, the name derives from the garments worn by catechumens. Moreover, in England white vestments, rather than the usual red, were traditional for the day. A different tradition is that of the women of the parish all coming to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day. Thus, he thought the root of the word was wit, the following day is Whit Monday, a name coined to supersede the form Monday in Whitsun-week used by John Wycliffe and others. The week following Whit Sunday is known as Whitsuntide or Whit week, as the first holiday of the summer, Whitsun was one of the favourite times in the traditional calendar and Whit Sunday, or the following week, was a time for celebration. This took the form of fêtes, fairs, pageants and parades with Whitsun ales and Morris dancing in the south of England and Whit walks and wakes in the north. To be cudgelld for. On Whit Tuesday, in the morning, and in the afternoon six pairs of buckskin gloves to be wrestled for. In Manchester during the 17th century the Kersal Moor Whit races were the event of the year when large numbers of people turned the area into a giant fairground for several days. With the coming of industrialisation it became convenient to close down whole towns for a week in order to clean and maintain the machinery in the mills, the week of closure, or wakes week, was often held at Whitsuntide. Whit Monday was officially recognised as a holiday in the UK in 1871. The Whitsun Weddings is a poem and the title of a collection by Philip Larkin, Whitsunday in Kirchstetten is a poem by W. H. Auden from his collection About the House. Mentioned in Thomas Pynchons Gravitys Rainbow, section 2,20, le Morte DArthur by Thomas Malory has the Knights of the Round Table witness a divine vision of the Holy Grail on a Whitsunday, prompting their quest to find its true location. In Shakespeares Winters Tale, Act 4, Scene 4, Perdita imagines that she plays as I have seen them do in Whitsun pastorals, several chapters of Jeff Wheelers Muirwood Trilogy revolve around Whitsunday and its significance and impact on Muirwoods inhabitants
38.
Town crier
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A town crier, or bellman, is an officer of the court who makes public pronouncements as required by the court. The town crier can also be used to public announcements in the streets. Criers often dress elaborately, by a dating to the 18th century, in a red and gold coat, white breeches, black boots. They carry a handbell to attract attention, as they shout the words Oyez, Oyez, Oyez. before making their announcements. The word Oyez means hear ye, which is a call for silence, Oyez derives from the Anglo-Norman word for listen. The proclamations book in Chester from the early 19th century records this as O Yes, prior to the advent of literacy, town criers were the means of communication with the people of the town since many people could not read or write. Proclamations, local bylaws, market days, adverts, were all proclaimed by a bellman or crier, in ancient Rome, they typically proclaimed public business during the market days that formed a kind of weekend every 8th day of the year. In Goslar, Germany, a crier was employed to remind the populace not to urinate or defecate in the river the day before water was drawn for brewing beer. Criers were not always men, many town criers were women, bells were not the only attention getting device - in the Netherlands, a gong was the instrument of choice for many, and in France a drum was used, or a hunting horn. In the observance of Allhallowtide, it was customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound, in order to gain the attention of the crowd, the crier would yell, Hear ye – Oyez. In Medieval England, town criers were the means of news communication with the townspeople. The crier also escorted the destitute to the workhouse, installed minor criminals in the stocks, during public hangings he read out why the person was being hanged, and helped to cut him or her down. Chester records of 1540 show fees due to the bellman included of every worshipful gentyllman that goyth onye gounes at ther buryall. one goune. When he gythe or aneything that is lost. jd. for every bote lode with powder mellwylle. one fyshe, in 1556 a record shows To ye belman for pclaimyng ye Founders dyryge 27 Januarij. ijd. In 1620, there was a fight at the Chester cross between the butchers and the bakers where the Cryer brake his Mace in peeces Amonge them, in 1607, one public notice read by George Tunnall, the bellman, forbade tipping rubbish in the river. In 1715, a man recorded that the Belman at the Cross. Reads publicly a proclamation in the Mayors name, commanding all persons in the City to be of peaceable and civil behaviour, Chester once had a crier, a day bellman and a night bellman but in 1734, John Posnitt took over as Day and Night Bellman. A1701 will of the vicar at Waverton stated that notice was to be given by the Belman to the People of Chester, of the time when, salmon fishing season was also closed by the bellman
39.
Roundhead
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Roundhead was the name given to the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against Charles I of England and his supporters, the Cavaliers or Royalists, who claimed rule by absolute monarchy, the goal of the Roundhead party was to give the Parliament supreme control over executive administration. Most Roundheads sought constitutional monarchy in place of the absolutist monarchy sought by Charles I, englands many Puritans and Presbyterians were almost invariably Roundhead supporters, as were many smaller religious groups such as the Independents. However many Roundheads were Church of England, as were many Cavaliers, Roundhead political factions included the proto-anarchist Diggers, the diverse group known as the Levellers and the apocalyptic Christian movement of the Fifth Monarchists. Some Puritans, but by no means all, wore their hair closely cropped round the head or flat, during the war and for a time afterwards, Roundhead was a term of derision—in the New Model Army it was a punishable offence to call a fellow soldier a Roundhead. This contrasted with the term Cavalier to describe supporters of the Royalist cause, Roundheads appears to have been first used as a term of derision toward the end of 1641, when the debates in Parliament in the Clergy Act 1640 were causing riots at Westminster. The demonstrators included London apprentices and Roundhead was a term of derision for them because the regulations to which they had agreed included a provision for closely cropped hair. However, Richard Baxter ascribes the origin of the term to a made by Queen Henrietta Maria of France at the trial of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. Referring to John Pym, she asked who the man was. The principal advisor to Charles II, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, remarked on the matter and they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called Cavaliers, and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of Roundheads. By the end of this period some Independent Puritans were again using the term Roundhead to refer to the Presbyterian Puritans. Likewise during the Exclusion Bill crisis, the term Cavalier was replaced with Tory, an Irish term introduced by their opponents, the History of England from the Accession of James II. Historical Memorials Relating to the Independents Or Congregationalists, From Their Rise to the Restoration of the Monarchy, religious Thought in England, from the Reformation to the End of Last Century, A Contribution to the History of Theology. Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, The Reason Behind Rhyme, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Anonymous
40.
John Taylor (poet)
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John Taylor was an English poet who dubbed himself The Water Poet. He was born in Gloucester,24 August 1578, after his waterman apprenticeship he served in Essexs fleet, and was present at Flores in 1597 and at the siege of Cadiz. He details the uprisings in the pamphlets Iohn Taylors Manifestation. and in John Taylors Last Voyage and Adventure of 1641. Taylor discusses the watermens disputes with the companies in The True Cause of the Watermens Suit Concerning Players. An Arrant Thief says, All sorts of men, work all the means they can, To make a Thief of every waterman, And as it were in one consent they join, To trot by land i th dirt, and save their coin. When Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, A coach in England then was known, Then twas as rare to see one. Taylor was also the first poet to mention the deaths of William Shakespeare and Francis Beaumont in print, in his 1620 poem, both had died four years earlier. In paper, many a poet now survives Or else their lines had perishd with their lives. Old Chaucer, Gower, and Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, who the laurel wore, Spenser, sylvester, Beaumont, Sir John Harrington, Forgetfulness their works would over run But that in paper they immortally Do live in spite of death, and cannot die. He was a prolific, if rough-hewn writer, with one hundred. Many were gathered into the compilation All the Workes of John Taylor the Water Poet, not included in the Folio edition of 1630. Although his work was not sophisticated, he was an observer of people and styles in the seventeenth century. An example is his 1621 work Taylors Motto, which included a list of then-current card games, from his journey to Scotland in 1618, on which he took no money, Taylor published his Pennyless Pilgrimage. Taylor is one of the few credited early authors of a palindrome, in 1614, he wrote Lewd did I live and he wrote a poem about Thomas Parr, a man who supposedly lived to the age of 152. He was also the author of a language called Barmoodan. Many of Taylors works were published by subscription, i. e. he would propose a book, ask for contributors, and write it when he had enough subscribers to undertake the printing costs. Those who defaulted on the subscription were chided the following year in a brochure entitled A Kicksey Winsey, or, A Lerry Come-Twang. By wondrous accident perchance one may Grope out a needle in a load of hay, And though a white crow be exceedingly rare, A blind man may, by fortune, catch a hare
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Commonwealth of England
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The republics existence was declared through An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth, adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament, the Rump was created by Prides Purge of those members of the Long Parliament who did not support the political position of the Grandees in the New Model Army. Just before and after the execution of King Charles I on 30 January 1649, with the abolition of the monarchy, Privy Council and the House of Lords, it had unchecked executive and legislative power. The English Council of State, which replaced the Privy Council and it was selected by the Rump, and most of its members were MPs. However, the Rump depended on the support of the Army with which it had an uneasy relationship. After the execution of Charles I, the House of Commons abolished the monarchy and it declared the people of England and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging to be henceforth under the governance of a Commonwealth, effectively a republic. In Prides Purge, all members of parliament who would not accept the need to bring the King to trial had been removed, thus the Rump never had more than two hundred members. Most Rumpers were gentry, though there was a proportion of lesser gentry. Less than one-quarter of them were regicides and this left the Rump as basically a conservative body whose vested interests in the existing land ownership and legal systems made it unlikely to want to reform them. For the first two years of the Commonwealth, the Rump faced economic depression and the risk of invasion from Scotland and Ireland, by 1653 Cromwell and the Army had largely eliminated these threats. There were many disagreements amongst factions of the Rump, some wanted a republic, but others favoured retaining some type of monarchical government. Most of Englands traditional ruling classes regarded the Rump as a government made up of regicides. However, they were aware that the Rump might be all that stood in the way of an outright military dictatorship. High taxes, mainly to pay the Army, were resented by the gentry, limited reforms were enough to antagonise the ruling class but not enough to satisfy the radicals. Despite its unpopularity, the Rump was a link with the old constitution, by 1653, France and Spain had recognised Englands new government. Though the Church of England was retained, episcopacy was suppressed, mainly on the insistence of the Army, many independent churches were tolerated, although everyone still had to pay tithes to the established church. Some small improvements were made to law and court procedure, for example, however, there were no widespread reforms of the common law. This would have upset the gentry, who regarded the law as reinforcing their status
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Samuel Pepys
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Samuel Pepys FRS was an administrator of the navy of England and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary that he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Pepys had no experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, hard work, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy, the detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War. Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London on 23 February 1633, the son of John Pepys, a tailor and his great uncle Talbot Pepys was Recorder and briefly Member of Parliament for Cambridge in 1625. His fathers first cousin Sir Richard Pepys was elected MP for Sudbury in 1640, appointed Baron of the Exchequer on 30 May 1654, Pepys was the fifth of eleven children, but child mortality was high and he was soon the oldest survivor. He was baptised at St Brides Church on 3 March, Pepys did not spend all of his infancy in London, for a while, he was sent to live with nurse Goody Lawrence at Kingsland, just north of the city. In about 1644, Pepys attended Huntingdon Grammar School before being educated at St Pauls School, London and he attended the execution of Charles I in 1649. In 1650, he went to Cambridge University, having received two exhibitions from St Pauls School and a grant from the Mercers Company. In October, he was admitted as a sizar to Magdalene College, he moved there in March 1651, later in 1654 or early in 1655, he entered the household of another of his fathers cousins, Sir Edward Montagu, who was later created 1st Earl of Sandwich. From a young age, Pepys suffered from stones in his urinary tract – a condition from which his mother and brother John also later suffered. He was almost never without pain, as well as other symptoms, by the time of his marriage, the condition was very severe. In 1657 Pepys decided to undergo surgery, not an option, as the operation was known to be especially painful. Nevertheless, Pepys consulted surgeon Thomas Hollier and, on 26 March 1658, Pepys stone was successfully removed and he resolved to hold a celebration on every anniversary of the operation, which he did for several years. However, there were long-term effects from the operation, the incision on his bladder broke open again late in his life. The procedure may have left him sterile, though there is no evidence for this. In mid-1658 Pepys moved to Axe Yard, near the modern Downing Street and he worked as a teller in the Exchequer under George Downing. On 1 January 1660, Pepys began to keep a diary and he recorded his daily life for almost ten years
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David Garrick
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He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeares Richard III, audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal. He remained with the Drury Lane company for the five years. This purchase inaugurated 29 years of Garricks management of the Drury Lane, at his death, three years after his retirement from Drury Lane and the stage, he was given a lavish public funeral at Westminster Abbey where he was laid to rest in Poets Corner. As an actor, Garrick promoted realistic acting that departed from the style that was entrenched when he first came to prominence. His acting delighted many audiences and his direction of many of the top actors of the English stage influenced their styles as well, during his tenure as manager of Drury Lane, Garrick also sought to reform audience behaviour. While this led to discontent among the theatre-going public, many of his reforms eventually did take hold. Garrick also sought reform in matters, bringing an overarching consistency to productions that included set design, costumes. Garricks influence extended into the side of theatre as well. Critics are almost unanimous in saying he was not a good playwright, in addition, he adapted many older plays in the repertoire that might have been forgotten. These included many plays of the Restoration era, indeed, while influencing the theatre towards a better standard he also gained a better reputation for theatre folk. This accomplishment led Samuel Johnson to remark that his profession made him rich, Garrick was born at the Angel Inn, Widemarsh Street, Hereford in 1717 into a family with French Huguenot roots in the Languedoc region of Southern France. Garricks grandfather, David Garric, was in Bordeaux in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was abolished, revoking the rights of Protestants in France. David Garric fled to London and his son, Peter, who was an infant at the time, was smuggled out by a nurse when he was deemed old enough to make the journey. David Garric became a British subject upon his arrival in Britain, some time after David Garricks birth the family moved to Lichfield, home to Garricks mother. His father, a captain in the army, was an officer stationed in Gibraltar through most of young Garricks childhood. Garrick was the third of seven children and his brother, George. The playwright and actor Charles Dibdin recorded that George, discovering his brothers absence would often inquire Did David want me, upon Garricks death in 1779, it was noted that George died 48 hours later, leading some to speculate that David wanted him
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