1.
Zeno (emperor)
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Zeno the Isaurian, originally named Tarasis Kodisa Rousombladadiotes /ˈtærəsᵻs/, was Eastern Roman Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which succeeded to some extent in foreign issues. His reign saw the end of the Western Roman Empire under Romulus Augustus, Zenos original name was Tarasis, and more accurately Tarasikodissa in his native Isaurian language. Tarasis was born in Isauria, at Rusumblada, later renamed Zenonopolis in Zenos honour and his father was called Kodisa, his mother Lallis, his brother Longinus. Tarasis had a wife, Arcadia, whose name indicates a relationship with the Constantinopolitan aristocracy, the Isaurians were a people who lived inland from the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, in the core of the Taurus Mountains. Like most borderland tribes, they were looked upon as barbarians by the Romans even though they had been Roman subjects for more than five centuries. However, being Orthodox Christians rather than Arians, as the Goths and other Germanic tribes were, they were not formally barred from the throne. According to some scholars, in the mid-460s, Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I wanted to balance the weight of the Germanic component of the army and he thought that Tarasis and his Isaurians could be that counterweight, and called him, with many Isaurians, to Constantinople. This interpretation, however, has been contested, by mid-460s, Arcadia and Zeno had been living at Constantinople for some time, where also Lallis and Longinus lived, the latter married to a Valeria, possibly a woman of aristocrat rank. Through these letters, which Tarasis gave to Leo, the Emperor could dismiss Ardabur, as reward for his loyalty, which Leo praised with Daniel the Stylite, Tarasis was appointed comes domesticorum, an office of great influence and prestige. This appointment could mean that Tarasis had been a protector domesticus, either at Leos court in Constantinople, or attached at Ardaburs staff in Antioch. In 465, Leo and Aspar quarreled about the appointment of consuls for the year, it was on this occasion that Tarasis position was strengthened, as he became friend. To make himself acceptable to the Roman hierarchy and the population of Constantinople, Tarasis adopted the Greek name of Zeno. In mid-late 466, Zeno married Ariadne, elder daughter of Leo I and Verina, as there is no reference to a divorce with Arcadia, she should have died in those years. Zeno, however, was not present at the birth of his son, as in 467, Zeno, as member of the protectores domestici, did not take part in the disastrous expedition against the Vandals, led in 468 by Leos brother-in-law Basiliscus. The following year, during which he held the honour of the consulate, he was appointed magister militum per Thracias, the sources do not clearly state what enemy he fought there, and historians had proposed either Goths or Huns, or the rebels of Anagastes. What happened was that Leo sent some of his soldiers with Zeno to protect him. Zeno was informed of their intention and fled to Serdica, and because of this episode, after the attack, Zeno did not return to Constantinople, where Aspar and Ardabur were and had still considerable power
2.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
3.
Shanxi
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Shanxi is a province of China, located in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is 晋, after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring, the name Shanxi means West of the Mountains, a reference to the provinces location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west, the capital of the province is Taiyuan. In the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Jin was located in what is now Shanxi and it underwent a three-way split into the states of Han, Zhao and Wei in 403 BC, the traditional date taken as the start of the Warring States period. By 221 BC, all of states had fallen to the state of Qin. The Han Dynasty ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou, during the invasion of northern nomads in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, several regimes including the Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan continuously controlled Shanxi. They were followed by Northern Wei, a Xianbei kingdom, which had one of its earlier capitals at present-day Datong in northern Shanxi, the Tang Dynasty originated in Taiyuan. During the Tang Dynasty and after, present day Shanxi was called Hédōng, empress Wu Zetian, Chinas only female ruler, was born in Shanxi. Shanxi was initially home to the jiedushi of Hedong, Li Cunxu, shi Jingtang, founder of the Later Jin, the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a piece of northern China to the Khitans in return for military assistance. This territory, called The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, included a part of northern Shanxi, the ceded territory became a major problem for Chinas defense against the Khitans for the next 100 years, because it lay south of the Great Wall. He founded his dynasty by launching a coup against the Turkic Later Han Emperor. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between Song China and the Liao Dynasty. Later the Southern Song Dynasty abandoned all of North China, including Shanxi, the Mongol Yuan Dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi only gained its present name and approximate borders during the Ming Dynasty which were of the same landarea, with the collapse of the Qing dynasty, Shanxi became part of the newly established Republic of China. During most of the Republic of Chinas period of rule over mainland China, Yan Xishan devoted himself to modernizing Shanxi and developing its resources during his reign over the province. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan occupied much of the province after winning the Battle of Taiyuan, Shanxi was also a major battlefield between the Japanese and the Chinese communist guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army during the war. The soldiers of Shanxi province under Yan Xishan viciously fought against the invading Japanese, right after the defeat of Japan, much of the Shanxi countryside became important bases for the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the ensuing Chinese Civil War. Shanxi was eventually conquered by the communists, resulting in the warlord Yan Xishans retreat to Taiwan Island, for centuries, Shanxi served as the center of trade and banking, the Shanxi merchants were once synonymous with wealth
4.
Greater Poland
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Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied throughout history. Since the Middle Ages the proper or exact/strict Wielkopolska included the Poznań, in the wider sense it encompassed also Sieradz, Łęczyca, Brześć Kujawski and Inowrocław voivodeships. One another meaning included also Mazovia and Royal Prussia, after the Partitions of Poland, Greater Poland was often identified with the Grand Duchy of Posen. The region in the proper sense roughly coincides with the present-day Greater Poland Voivodeship, because Greater Poland was the settlement area of the Polans and the core of the early Polish state, the region was at times simply called Poland. The more specific name is first recorded in the Latin form Polonia Maior in 1257 and its original meaning was the Older Poland, as opposed to Lesser Poland, a region in south-eastern Poland with its capital at Kraków which became the main center of the state later. Greater Poland comprises much of the area drained by the Warta River and its tributaries, the region is distinguished from Lesser Poland with the lowland landscape, and from both Lesser Poland and Mazovia with its numerous lakes. In the strict meaning, it covers an area of about 33,000 square kilometres, in the wider sense, it has almost 60,000 square kilometres, and 7 million inhabitants. The regions main metropolis is Poznań, near the centre of the region, on the Warta. Other cities are Kalisz to the south-east, Konin to the east, Piła to the north, Ostrów Wielkopolski to the south-east, Gniezno to the north-east, and Leszno to the south-west. An area of 75.84 square kilometres of forest and lakeland south of Poznań is designated the Wielkopolska National Park, the region also contains part of Drawa National Park, and several designated Landscape Parks. For example, the Rogalin Landscape Park is famous for about 2000 monumental oak trees growing on the plain of the river Warta. Greater Poland formed the heart of the 10th-century early Polish state, in the testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty, which initiated the period of fragmentation of Poland, the western part of Greater Poland was granted to Mieszko III the Old. The eastern part, with Gniezno and Kalisz, was part of the Duchy of Kraków, however, for most of the period the two parts were under a single ruler, and were known as the Duchy of Greater Poland. The region came under the control of Władysław I the Elbow-High in 1314, in the reunited kingdom, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the country came to be divided into administrative units called voivodeships. In the case of the Greater Poland region these were Poznań Voivodeship, the Commonwealth also had larger subdivisions known as prowincja, one of which was named Greater Poland. However, this covered an larger area than the Greater Poland region itself, also taking in Masovia. In 1768 a new Gniezno Voivodeship was formed out of the part of Kalisz Voivodeship
5.
Bishop of Gloucester
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The Bishop of Gloucester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the County of Gloucestershire and part of the County of Worcestershire, the sees centre of governance is the City of Gloucester where the bishops chair is located in the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. The bishops residence is Bishopscourt, Gloucester, the office has been in existence since the foundation of the see in 1541 under King Henry VIII from part of the Diocese of Worcester. On 5 August 2014, Martyn Snow, the suffragan Bishop of Tewkesbury, on 26 March 2015, it was announced that Rachel Treweek was to become the next Bishop of Gloucester, she legally became the Bishop of Gloucester with the confirmation of her election on 15 June 2015. Chronological list of the bishops of the Diocese of Gloucester
6.
Death by burning
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Deliberately causing death through the effects of combustion, or effects of exposure to extreme heat, has a long history as a form of painful capital punishment. The best known type of executions of death by burning is when the condemned is bound to a wooden stake. For example, pouring substances such as molten metal onto a person, as well as enclosing persons within, or attaching them to, immersion in a heated liquid as a form of execution is considered distinct from death by burning, and classified as death by boiling. For burnings at the stake, if the fire was large, if the fire was small, however, the condemned would burn for some time until death from hypovolemia, heatstroke and/or simply the thermal decomposition of vital body parts. The 18th century BC law code promulgated by Babylonian king Hammurabi specifies several crimes in which death by burning was thought appropriate. Looters of houses on fire could be cast into the flames, furthermore, a man who began committing incest with his mother after the death of his father could be ordered by courts to be burned alive. In Ancient Egypt, several incidents of burning alive perceived rebels are attested, for example, Senusret I is said to have rounded up the rebels in campaign, and burnt them as human torches. Under the civil war flaring under Takelot II more than a years later, the Crown Prince Osorkon showed no mercy. On the statute books, at least, women committing adultery might be burned to death, jon Manchip White, however, did not think capital judicial punishments were often carried out, pointing to the fact that the pharaoh had to personally ratify each verdict. Then he was placed on a bed of thorns and burnt alive, whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her. And bring her to the palace entrance and they shall pour hot pitch over her head. For the Neo-Assyrians, mass executions seem to have not only designed to instill terror and to enforce obedience. In Genesis 38, Judah orders Tamar—the widow of his son, tamar saves herself by proving that Judah is himself the father of her child. In the Book of Jubilees, the story is basically told, with some intriguing differences. In Genesis, Judah is exercising his power at a distance, whereas he. One pulled it one way, one the other until he opened his mouth, thereupon one ignites the wick and throws it in his mouth, and it descends to his bowels and sears his bowels. That is, the dies from being fed molten lead. The Mishnah is, however, a fairly late collections of laws, from about the 3rd century AD, and scholars believe it replaced the actual punishment of burning in the old biblical texts
7.
Pope Gregory XV
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Pope Gregory XV, born Alessandro Ludovisi, was Pope from 9 February 1621 to his death in 1623. Alessandro Ludovisi was born in Bologna in 1554 to Pompeo Ludovisi and he was one of seven children and was born as the third child. He was educated at the Roman College run by the Society of Jesus in Rome and he went to the University of Bologna to get degrees in canon. His early career was as a papal jurist in Rome, and he returned to Rome in 1575 and he served as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura from 1593 to 1596 and was appointed as the Vicegerent of Rome in 1597, a position he maintained until 1598. He also served as the Auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota from 1599 to 1612, on 19 September 1616, Pope Paul V elevated him to the rank of cardinal and appointed him as a Cardinal Priest with the titular church of Santa Maria in Traspontina. He was crowned on 14 February 1621 by the protodeacon, Cardinal Andrea Baroni Peretti Montalto, on the same day, his youngest brother Orazio was appointed Captain General of the Church at the head of the papal army. The future revealed that Gregory XV was not disappointed in his nephew, a second nephew, Niccolò, was made reigning Prince of Piombino and Lord of the Isola dElba in 1634, having married the heiress,30 March 1632. His Declaration against Magicians and Witches was the last papal ordinance against witchcraft, former punishments were lessened, and the death penalty was limited to those who were proved to have entered into a compact with the devil, and to have committed homicide with his assistance. He was a theologian and manifested a reforming spirit. On 6 January 1622, he established the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and his pontificate was marked by the canonizations of Teresa of Avila, Francis Xavier, Ignatius Loyola, Philip Neri and Isidore the Farmer. He also beatified Peter of Alcantara and he was influential in bringing the Bolognese artist Guercino to Rome, a landmark in the development of the High Baroque style. He sat for his busts, one of which was by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and by Alessandro Algardi. On 12 March 1622, the pope canonized several saints, Francis Xavier, Ignatius of Loyola, Isidore the Laborer, Philip Neri and Teresa of Ávila. Gregory XV also beatified five individuals throughout his pontificate, Ambrose Sansedoni of Siena, Albert the Great, Aloysius Gonzaga, Francis Borgia, Gregory XV died in the Quirinal Palace on 8 July 1623 and was buried in the Church of SantIgnazio. He was succeeded by Pope Urban VIII, cardinals created by Gregory XV Ludovisi Alessandro Ludovisi. Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, attribution, This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Baynes, T. S. Smith, W. R. eds. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Ott. Päpstliches Zeremoniell in der Frühen Neuzeit – Das Diarium des Zeremonienmeisters Paolo Alaleone de Branca während des Pontifikats Gregors XV
8.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
9.
Papal conclave
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A papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a new Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope. The pope is considered by Roman Catholics to be the successor of Saint Peter. The conclave has been the procedure for choosing the pope for almost a thousand years, conclaves are now held in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace. Since the Apostolic Age, the Bishop of Rome, like other bishops, was chosen by the consensus of the clergy, the body of electors was more precisely defined when, in 1059, the College of Cardinals was designated the sole body of electors. Since then, other details of the process have developed, in 1970, Pope Paul VI limited the electors to cardinals under 80 years of age. A two-thirds supermajority vote is required to elect the new pope, the procedures relating to the election of the pope have undergone almost two millennia of development. As the Christian communities became established they started to elect bishops, chosen by the clergy and laity of the community with the assistance of the bishops of neighbouring dioceses. St. Cyprian says that Pope Cornelius was chosen Bishop of Rome by the decree of God and of His Church, by the testimony of all the clergy, by the college of aged bishops. As was true for bishops of dioceses, the clergy of the Diocese of Rome was the electoral body for the Bishop of Rome. Instead of casting votes, the bishop was selected by consensus or by acclamation. The candidate would then be submitted to the people for their approval or disapproval. This lack of precision in the election procedures occasionally gave rise to rival popes or antipopes. The right of the laity to refuse the person elected was abolished by a Synod held in the Lateran in 769, the pope was also subjected to oaths of loyalty to the Holy Roman Emperor, whose task it was to provide security and public peace in Rome. The cardinal bishops were to meet first and discuss the candidates before summoning the cardinal priests, through much of the Middle Ages and Renaissance there were a small number of cardinals, down to as few as seven under either Pope Alexander IV or Pope John XXI. Difficult travel further reduced the number arriving at the conclave, with a small electorate an individual vote was significant, and was not easily shaken from familial or political lines. Conclaves could last months and even years, lengthy elections resumed and continued to be the norm until 1294, when a Benedictine hermit was elected Pope Celestine V. Celestine reinstated the strict conclave, but soon resigned the papacy. Beginning with Pope John XXIIIs attempts to broaden the representation of nations in the College of Cardinals, though this remains the theoretical limit, John Paul II exceeded this for short periods of time with knowledge of impending retirements. Originally, lay status did not bar election to the Bishop of Rome, Bishops of dioceses were sometimes elected while still catechumens, such as the case of St. Ambrose
