Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to proselytize or perform ministries of service, such as education, social justice, health care, economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem, meaning "act of sending" or mittere, meaning "to send"; the word was used in light of its biblical usage. The term is most used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology. A Christian missionary can be defined as "one, to witness across cultures"; the Lausanne Congress of 1974, defined the term, related to Christian mission as, "to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement". Missionaries can be found in many countries around the world. In the Bible, Jesus is recorded as instructing the apostles to make disciples of all nations; this verse is referred to by Christian missionaries as the Great Commission and inspires missionary work. The Christian Church expanded throughout the Roman Empire in New Testament times and is said by tradition to have reached further, to Persia and to India.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick, Adalbert of Prague propagated learning and religion beyond the European boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent the Gregorian Mission into England. In their turn, Christians from Ireland and from Britain became prominent in converting the inhabitants of central Europe. During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church established a number of missions in the Americas and in other Western colonies through the Augustinians and Dominicans to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the Native Americans and other indigenous people. About the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians and Dominicans reached Asia and the Far East, the Portuguese sent missions into Africa. Emblematic in many respects is Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China from 1582, peaceful and non-violent; these missionary movements should be distinguished from others, such as the Baltic Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, which were arguably compromised in their motivation by designs of military conquest.
Much contemporary Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, with an increased push for indigenization and inculturation, along with social justice issues as a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel. As the Catholic Church organizes itself along territorial lines and had the human and material resources, religious orders, some specializing in it, undertook most missionary work in the era after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. Over time, the Holy See established a normalized Church structure in the mission areas starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures and apostolic vicariates. At a stage of development these foundations are raised to regular diocesan status with a local bishops appointed. On a global front, these processes were accelerated in the 1960s, in part accompanying political decolonization. In some regions, they are still in course. Just as the Bishop of Rome had jurisdiction in territories considered to be in the Eastern sphere, so the missionary efforts of the two 9th-century saints Cyril and Methodius were conducted in relation to the West rather than the East, though the field of activity was central Europe.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, under the Orthodox Church of Constantinople undertook vigorous missionary work under the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. This had lasting effects and in some sense is at the origin of the present relations of Constantinople with some sixteen Orthodox national churches including the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church; the Byzantines expanded their missionary work in Ukraine after the mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century. Orthodox missionaries worked among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the Estonian Orthodox Church. Under the Russian Empire of the 19th century, missionaries such as Nicholas Ilminsky moved into the subject lands and propagated Orthodoxy, including through Belarus, Moldova, Estonia and China.
The Russian St. Nicholas of Japan took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century; the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century, including Saint Herman of Alaska, to minister to the Native Americans. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia continued missionary work outside Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution, resulting in the establishment of many new dioceses in the diaspora, from which numerous converts have been made in Eastern Europe, North America, Oceania. Early Protestant missionaries included John Eliot and contemporary ministers
Hakluyt Society
The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages and other geographical material. In addition to its publishing role, the Society organises and participates in meetings and conferences relating to the history of geographical exploration and cultural encounter, it is a registered charity and a non-profitmaking institution administered by a voluntary team of council members and officers. Membership is open to all with an interest in its aims; the Society is named after Richard Hakluyt, a collector and editor of narratives of voyages and travels and other documents relating to English interests overseas. The Society was created at a meeting convened in the London Library, St James's Square, on 15 December 1846. Under the chairmanship of the geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, it established an eight-man steering group which included the geographer and historian William Desborough Cooley.
Cooley had criticised the Royal Geographical Society for relying too on contemporary materials in the solution of geographical problems, arguing that the scientific study of geography should involve a far wider analysis and appreciation of earlier sources. He took the major role during the Society's formative period, assisted by Corney and Smith, while Murchison occupied little more than a figurehead position. Cooley had proposed that the society should be known as the "Columbus Society", but at the inaugural Council Meeting on 26 January 1847 it was decided that it be named in commemoration of Richard Hakluyt. Not only did Hakluyt's name as a recorder of voyages, rather than an explorer in his own right, better reflect the society's aims, but it proclaimed its central ambition, to advance Hakluyt's work into the modern age. A resolution was adopted whereby the Society would print and circulate to its members, for a subscription of one guinea per annum, rare accounts of voyages and geographical records dating from any period prior to William Dampier's circumnavigation.
Meetings were held in a room at the London Library, but in 1849 transferred to the offices of the Society's printer in St Martin's Lane, from 1850 in Great Queen Street. From 1872 they were held at the Royal Geographical Society's premises in Savile Row and subsequently in Kensington Gore. A General Meeting on 4 March 1847 agreed a list of works to be published; the Society was to be governed by a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and 17 elected council members. The first year's Council included – in addition to the members of the original steering group – Charles Darwin, Charles Beke, Captain Charles Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune and the scholar Richard Henry Major; the Society attracted 220 members in its first two years. Its first publication, Bethune's Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, appeared in December 1847. Richard Hakluyt's Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, which the Society had intended for its inaugural publication, was postponed until 1850. Meanwhile, Sir Robert Schomburgk's edition of Ralegh's voyage to Guiana had appeared, together with Cooley's Sir Francis Drake his Voyage, Thomas Rundall's Voyages towards the North-West, Major's Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia.
Early print-runs were small – around 250 copies to satisfy the existing membership, with a few to spare – at a cost to the Society in the region of £50–60. Murchison served as President until his death in 1871, although his position was honorary, he was succeeded by Sir David Dundas, a lawyer and politician, by Sir Henry Yule, an Oriental scholar and former East India Company soldier. Yule took a more direct interest in the editing of the society's publications than either Murchison or Dundas, it was his decision that all future volumes should be indexed. R. H. Major, who had taken over as Secretary from Cooley in 1849, held the office until 1858 when his place was taken by the geographer and expedition promoter Clements Markham. Markham served as Secretary 1858–87, as President 1889–1909, edited no fewer than 29 volumes. From 1893 he was assisted by William Foster, the East India Company historian and India Office archivist, who served as Secretary until 1902; the first permanent Treasurer, appointed in 1908, was Edward Heawood, the Royal Geographical Society's librarian: he remained in office for thirty-eight years.
In 1908, the final year of Markham's rule, the Society broke with tradition and published its first post-1700 text, Bolton Corney's Voyage of Captain Don Felipe Gonzalez. In 1909 Markham was succeeded as President by Sir Albert Gray, an ex-member of the Ceylon Civil Service. From this time onwards the Society began to extend its activity beyond that of publication, it supported the establishment of a memorial to Richard Hakluyt in Bristol Cathedral in 1911, in 1914 Gray represented the Society on the British Academy Committee involved in organising the Shakespeare Tercentenary. The period saw the emergence of women as editors and translators, notably Sigfus Blondal, Bertha Philpotts, Lavinia Anstey and Zelia Nuttall. Membership increased on account of institut
Lalibela
Lalibela is a town in Amhara Region, Ethiopia famous for its rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large antiquity of the medieval and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Axum, a center of pilgrimage. Unlike Axum, the population of Lalibela is completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. Ethiopia was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the fourth century, its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles; the churches themselves date from the seventh to thirteenth centuries, are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe king Gebre Mesqel Lalibela. The layout and names of the major buildings in Lalibela are accepted by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem; this has led some experts to date the current church forms to the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by the Muslim leader Saladin. Lalibela is located in the North Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, at 2,500 metres above sea level.
It is the main town in Lasta woreda, part of Bugna woreda. The Rock-Hewn Churches were declared a World Heritage site in 1978. During the reign of Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, a member of the Zagwe dynasty who ruled Ethiopia in the late 12th century and early 13th century, the current town of Lalibela was known as Roha; the saint-king was named because a swarm of bees is said to have surrounded him at his birth, which his mother took as a sign of his future reign as emperor of Ethiopia. The names of several places in the modern town and the general layout of the rock-cut churches themselves are said to mimic names and patterns observed by Lalibela during the time he spent as a youth in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Lalibela, revered as a saint, is said to have seen Jerusalem, attempted to build a new Jerusalem as his capital in response to the capture of old Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187; each church was carved from a single piece of rock to symbolize humility. Christian faith inspires many features with Biblical names – Lalibela's river is known as the River Jordan.
Lalibela remained the capital of Ethiopia from the late 12th into the 13th century. The first European to see these churches was the Portuguese explorer Pêro da Covilhã. Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares, accompanied the Portuguese Ambassador on his visit to Dawit II in the 1520s, he describes the unique church structures as follows: "I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more... I swear by God, in Whose power I am, that all I have written is the truth" Although Ramuso included plans of several of these churches in his 1550 printing of Álvares' book, who supplied the drawings remains a mystery; the next reported European visitor to Lalibela was Miguel de Castanhoso, who served as a soldier under Cristóvão da Gama and left Ethiopia in 1544. After de Castanhoso, more than 300 years passed until the next European, Gerhard Rohlfs, visited Lalibela some time between 1865 and 1870. According to the Futuh al-Habaša of Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi burned one of the churches of Lalibela during his invasion of Ethiopia.
However, Richard Pankhurst has expressed his skepticism about this event, pointing out that although Sihab ad-Din Ahmad provides a detailed description of a rock-hewn church, only one church is mentioned. He concludes by stating that had Ahmad al-Ghazi burned a church at Lalibela, it was most Biete Medhane Alem; this rural town is known around the world for its churches carved from within the earth from "living rock," which play an important part in the history of rock-cut architecture. Though the dating of the churches is not well established, most are thought to have been built during the reign of Lalibela, namely during the 12th and 13th centuries. Unesco identifies 11 churches, assembled in four groups: The Northern Group: Biete Medhane Alem, home to the Lalibela Cross. Biete Maryam the oldest of the churches, a replica of the Tombs of Adam and Christ. Biete Golgotha Mikael, known for its arts and said to contain the tomb of King Lalibela) Biete Meskel Biete Denagel The Western Group: Church of Saint George, thought to be the most finely executed and best preserved churchThe Eastern Group: Biete Amanuel the former royal chapel Biete Qeddus Mercoreus, which may be a former prison Biete Abba Libanos Biete Gabriel-Rufael a former royal palace, linked to a holy bakery.
Biete Lehem. Farther lie the monastery of Ashetan Maryam and Yemrehana Krestos Church. There is some controvers
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire known as Abyssinia, was a kingdom that spanned a geographical area in the current states of Eritrea and Ethiopia. It began with the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty from 1270 and lasted until 1974, when the ruling Solomonic dynasty was overthrown in a coup d'état by the Derg; the territory of present-day Eritrea became Italian Eritrea. Following the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, Ethiopia and Liberia were the only two African nations to remain independent during the Scramble for Africa by the European imperial powers in the late 19th century. Ethiopia remained independent after defeating Italians during the First Italo-Ethiopian War. After the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italian Empire occupied Ethiopia for five years and established the Italian East Africa colony in the region; the Italians were driven out with the help of the British army. The country was one of the founding members of the United Nations in 1945. By 1974, Ethiopia was one of only three countries in the world to have the title of Emperor for its head of state, together with Japan and Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty.
It was the second-to-last country in Africa to use the title of Emperor. Ethiopia's human occupation began early, it is believed that the ancient Egyptians claimed that Punt, known as gold country, was in Ethiopia in 980 BC. According to the Kebra Nagast, Menelik I founded the Ethiopian empire in the 1st century BC, around when the Axumite Empire was established. In the 4th century, under King Ezana of Axum, the kingdom adopted Christianity as the state religion, it was thus one of the first Christian states. After the conquest of Aksum by Queen Gudit or Yodit, a period began which some scholars refer to as the Ethiopian Dark Ages. According to Ethiopian tradition, she ruled over the remains of the Aksumite Empire for 40 years before transmitting the crown to her descendants. In 1063AD the Sultanate of Showa describes the passing of their overlord Badit daughter of Maya; the earliest Muslim state in Ethiopia, the Makhzumi dynasty with its capital in Wahal, Hararghe region succeeds Queen Badit. The Zagwe kingdom another dynasty with its capital at Adafa, emerged not far from modern day Lalibela in the Lasta mountains.
The Zagwe continued the Orthodox Christianity of Aksum and constructed many rock-hewn churches such as the Church of Saint George in Lalibela. The dynasty would last until its overthrow by a new regime claiming descent from the old Aksumite kings. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty was overthrown by a king claiming lineage from the Aksumite kings and, from Solomon; the eponymously named Solomonic dynasty was founded and ruled by the Abyssinians, from whom Abyssinia gets its name. The Abyssinians reigned with only a few interruptions from 1270 until the late 20th century; this dynasty governed large parts of Ethiopia through much of its modern history. During this time, the empire annexed various kingdoms into its realm; the dynasty successfully fought off Italian and Egyptian forces and made fruitful contacts with some European powers. In 1529, the Adal Sultanate's forces led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi invaded the Ethiopian Empire in what is known as the Abyssinian–Adal war; the Adal occupation lasted fourteen years.
During the conflict, the Adal Sultanate employed cannons provided by the Ottoman Empire. In the aftermath of the war, Adal annexed Ethiopia, uniting it with territories in what is now Somalia. In 1543, with the help of the Portuguese Empire, the Solomonic dynasty was restored. In 1543, Emperor Gelawdewos beat Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi armies and Ahmad himself was killed at the Battle of Wayna Daga, close to Wegera; this victory allowed the Empire to reconquer progressively the Ethiopian Highlands. In 1559 Gelawdewos was killed attempting to invade Adal Sultanate, his severed head was paraded in Adal's capital Harar; the Ottoman Empire, distated by the defeat of its ally Gragn, made another attempt at conquering Ethiopia, from 1557, establishing Habesh Eyalet, the province of Abyssinia, by conquering Massawa, the Empire’s main port and seizing Suakin from the allied Funj Sultanate in what is now Sudan. In 1573 Harar attempted to invade Ethiopia again however Sarsa Dengel defended the Ethiopian frontier.
The Ottomans were checked by Emperor Sarsa Dengel victory and sacking of Arqiqo in 1589, thus containing them on a narrow coast line strip. The Afar Sultanate maintained the remaining Ethiopian port at Baylul. Oromo migrations through the same period, occurred with the movement of a large pastoral population from the southeastern provinces of the Empire. A contemporary account was recorded from the Gamo region. Subsequently, the empire organization changed progressively, with faraway provinces taking more independence. A remote province such as Bale is last recorded paying tribute to the imperial throne during Yaqob reign. By 1607, Oromos were major players in the imperial politics, when Susenyos I, raised by a clan through gudifacha, took power, he was helped by fellow Luba age-group generals Mecha and Densa, who were rewarded by Rist feudal lands, in the present-day Gojjam districts of the same name. Susenyos reign was marked by his short-lived conversion to Catholicism, which ignited a major civil war.
His son Fasilides I reverted the move. The reign of Iyasu I the Great was a major period of consolidation, it saw the dispatching of
Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition
The Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication; some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time. This edition of the encyclopedia, containing 40,000 entries, is now in the public domain, many of its articles have been used as a basis for articles in Wikipedia. However, the outdated nature of some of its content makes its use as a source for modern scholarship problematic; some articles have special value and interest to modern scholars as cultural artifacts of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 1911 eleventh edition was assembled with the management of American publisher Horace Everett Hooper. Hugh Chisholm, who had edited the previous edition, was appointed editor in chief, with Walter Alison Phillips as his principal assistant editor. Hooper bought the rights to the 25-volume 9th edition and persuaded the British newspaper The Times to issue its reprint, with eleven additional volumes as the tenth edition, published in 1902.
Hooper's association with The Times ceased in 1909, he negotiated with the Cambridge University Press to publish the 29-volume eleventh edition. Though it is perceived as a quintessentially British work, the eleventh edition had substantial American influences, not only in the increased amount of American and Canadian content, but in the efforts made to make it more popular. American marketing methods assisted sales; some 14% of the contributors were from North America, a New York office was established to coordinate their work. The initials of the encyclopedia's contributors appear at the end of selected articles or at the end of a section in the case of longer articles, such as that on China, a key is given in each volume to these initials; some articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time, such as Edmund Gosse, J. B. Bury, Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Muir, Peter Kropotkin, T. H. Huxley, James Hopwood Jeans and William Michael Rossetti. Among the lesser-known contributors were some who would become distinguished, such as Ernest Rutherford and Bertrand Russell.
Many articles were carried over from some with minimal updating. Some of the book-length articles were divided into smaller parts for easier reference, yet others much abridged; the best-known authors contributed only a single article or part of an article. Most of the work was done by British Museum scholars and other scholars; the 1911 edition was the first edition of the encyclopædia to include more than just a handful of female contributors, with 34 women contributing articles to the edition. The eleventh edition introduced a number of changes of the format of the Britannica, it was the first to be published complete, instead of the previous method of volumes being released as they were ready. The print type was subject to continual updating until publication, it was the first edition of Britannica to be issued with a comprehensive index volume in, added a categorical index, where like topics were listed. It was the first not to include long treatise-length articles. Though the overall length of the work was about the same as that of its predecessor, the number of articles had increased from 17,000 to 40,000.
It was the first edition of Britannica to include biographies of living people. Sixteen maps of the famous 9th edition of Stielers Handatlas were translated to English, converted to Imperial units, printed in Gotha, Germany by Justus Perthes and became part this edition. Editions only included Perthes' great maps as low quality reproductions. According to Coleman and Simmons, the content of the encyclopedia was distributed as follows: Hooper sold the rights to Sears Roebuck of Chicago in 1920, completing the Britannica's transition to becoming a American publication. In 1922, an additional three volumes, were published, covering the events of the intervening years, including World War I. These, together with a reprint of the eleventh edition, formed the twelfth edition of the work. A similar thirteenth edition, consisting of three volumes plus a reprint of the twelfth edition, was published in 1926, so the twelfth and thirteenth editions were related to the eleventh edition and shared much of the same content.
However, it became apparent that a more thorough update of the work was required. The fourteenth edition, published in 1929, was revised, with much text eliminated or abridged to make room for new topics; the eleventh edition was the basis of every version of the Encyclopædia Britannica until the new fifteenth edition was published in 1974, using modern information presentation. The eleventh edition's articles are still of value and interest to modern readers and scholars as a cultural artifact: the British Empire was at its maximum, imperialism was unchallenged, much of the world was still ruled by monarchs, the tragedy of the modern world wars was still in the future, they are an invaluable resource for topics omitted from modern encyclopedias for biography and the history of science and technology. As a literary text, the encyclopedia has value as an example of early 20th-century prose. For example, it employs literary devices, such as pathetic fallacy, which are not as common in modern reference texts.
In 1917, using the pseudonym of S. S. Van Dine, the US art critic and author Willard Huntington Wright published Misinforming a Nation, a 200+
Système universitaire de documentation
The système universitaire de documentation or SUDOC is a system used by the libraries of French universities and higher education establishments to identify and manage the documents in their possession. The catalog, which contains more than 10 million references, allows students and researcher to search for bibliographical and location information in over 3,400 documentation centers, it is maintained by the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education. Official website
Lopo Soares de Albergaria
Lopo Soares de Albergaria was the second Governor of Portuguese India, having reached India in 1515 to supersede governor Afonso de Albuquerque. Lopo Soares de Albergaria was a middling well-connected to the powerful Almeida family. Lopo Soares had served a successful term as captain-general of São Jorge da Mina in the Portuguese Gold Coast. In 1504, Lopo Soares commanded the 6th Portuguese India Armada. Regarded as one of the more successful early India armadas, Lopo Soares brought the fleet back in 1505 nearly intact, with one of the best cargos yet received by King Manuel I of Portugal; this placed him in a good position for future preferment and appointments. In March 1515 Lopo Soares de Albergaria was chosen by king Manuel I of Portugal to supersede governor Afonso de Albuquerque, departed from Lisbon to India on 7 April; the seventeen ship fleet transported an embassy to the Emperor of Ethiopia with Portuguese ambassador Duarte Galvão, Ethiopian ambassador Mateus and father Francisco Álvares.
In August, having learned through contacts in Venice that the Mamluk Sultan of Cairo had prepared a fleet at Suez to fight the Portuguese, king Manuel repented to have replaced Albuquerque, wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Albuquerque, provide him with resources to fight. However, when the letter arrived, Albuquerque had died; as governor in India Albergaria made a naval expedition into the Red Sea in 1517 taking on board the embassy to emperor Dawit II of Ethiopia, including Mateus, Duarte Galvão and Francisco Álvares, with the intent of landing them on the coast. First Albergaria reached Aden, which offered to surrender but he felt he could not spare the men to garrison the port; the attempt to land the embassy by reaching the port of Massawa failed, with Albergaria getting no closer than the Dahlak Archipelago, was aborted after the death of old Duarte Galvão at Kamaran. Álvares and Mateus were forced to wait until Albergaria's replacement, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira sent the embassy under D.
Rodrigo de Lima in 1520. In 1518 Lopo Soares de Albergaria captured Ceylon for his king, having landed at Colombo with a large fleet. Here he ordered the construction of a small fort named "Nossa Senhora das Virtudes" or "Santa Bárbara". Portuguese India Armadas
