1.
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
2.
Pope Clement XII
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Pope Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, was Pope from 12 July 1730 to his death in 1740. Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal finances, in his 1738 bull In eminenti apostolatus, he provides the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry, helping bring about the Catholic Churchs longstanding opposition to the order. Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652 as the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano and his wife Elisabetta Strozzi, both of his parents belonged to the old Florentine nobility. He was a distant relative of Saint Andrea Corsini, Corsini studied at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome and also at the University of Pisa where he earned a doctorate in both civil law and canon law. Corsini practiced law under the direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Corsini, now thirty-three, corsini’s home on the Piazza Novona, was the center of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life. In 1690 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and chosen nuncio to Vienna. He did not proceed to the court, because Leopold I. In 1696, Corsini was appointed treasurer-general and governor of the Castel SantAngelo and he advanced still further under Pope Benedict XIII, who made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a judicial branch of the Roman Curia. He was successively appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli, under Benedict XIII, the finances of the Papal States had been delivered into the hands of Cardinal Niccolò Coscia and other members of the curia, who had drained the financial resources of the see. Clement XII was one of the oldest men to be elected pope, as a Corsini, with his mother a Strozzi, the new pope represented a family in the highest level of Florentine society, with a cardinal in every generation for the previous hundred years. His first moves as Pope Clement XII were to restore the papal finances and he demanded restitution from the ministers who had abused the confidence of his predecessor. The chief culprit, Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, was fined and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Papal finances were improved through reviving the public lottery, which had been suppressed by the severe morality of Benedict XIII. A competition for the majestic façade of the San Giovanni in Laterano was won by architect Alessandro Galilei, the façade he designed is perhaps more palatial than ecclesiastic, and was finished by 1735. Clement XII erected in that ancient basilica a magnificent chapel dedicated to his 14th century kinsman and he restored the Arch of Constantine and built the governmental palace of the Consulta on the Quirinal. He purchased from Cardinal Alessandro Albani for 60,000 scudi a famous collection of statues, inscriptions, etc. and he paved the streets of Rome and the roads leading from the city, and widened the Corso. He began the triumphant Baroque Fontana di Trevi, one of the ornaments of Rome
3.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
4.
Cardinal-nephew
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A cardinal-nephew is a cardinal elevated by a pope who is that cardinals uncle, or, more generally, his relative. The practice of creating cardinal-nephews originated in the Middle Ages, the word nepotism originally referred specifically to this practice, when it appeared in the English language about 1669. From the middle of the Avignon Papacy until Pope Innocent XIIs anti-nepotism bull, Romanum decet pontificem, a pope without a cardinal-nephew was the exception to the rule. Every Renaissance pope who created cardinals appointed a relative to the College of Cardinals, the institution of the cardinal-nephew evolved over seven centuries, tracking developments in the history of the papacy and the styles of individual Popes. From 1566 until 1692, a held the curial office of the Superintendent of the Ecclesiastical State, known as the Cardinal Nephew. The list of cardinal-nephews includes at least fifteen, and possibly as many as nineteen popes, one antipope, the first known cardinal-nephew is Lottario, seniore, cousin of Pope Benedict VIII, elected circa 1015. Benedict VIII also elevated his brother Giovanni and his cousin Teofilatto as cardinal-deacons, however, it is beyond doubt that the promotions of papal relatives to the College of Cardinals were common in 13th century. According to historian John Bargrave, by the Council of Bazill, Session 21, the number of cardinals was not to be above 24, and not any nephew of the Pope or of any cardinal was to be of that number. Pope Clement VI created more cardinal-nephews than any other pontiff, including six on September 20,1342, the greatest number of cardinal-nephews elevated at one time. Saint Charles Borromeo, cardinal-nephew of Pope Pius IV, had ensured the subordination of the secretarius intimus to the Cardinal Nephew, Pius IV was notorious for nepotism, between 1561 and 1565 he transferred more than 350,000 scudi to his relatives. However, Pius V relentlessly avoided delegating any real power to Bonelli. The office has been likened by historians to a minister, alter ego. The Cardinal Nephew was generally among a Popes first cardinal creations, the terms of the office of Cardinal Nephew were established by a papal brief developed and refined by Pius Vs successors to Paul V. The Cardinal Nephew was also the liaison for all papal nuncios and gubernatorial legates. The Cardinal Nephew was also the captain-general of the papal army, however, these formal functions only came into force during the pontificates of unusually weak Popes, most Cardinal Nephews were the de facto rubber stamp of the pontiff himself. Although Pope Leo XI died before he was able to elevate his nephew, Roberto Ubaldini, Ubaldini was elevated by Leo XIs successor, Pope Paul V in 1615. For example, in 1616,24 of the 30 abbeys belonging to Borghese were rented out and it is estimated that Paul V Borghese had transferred to his family approximately 4% of the total income of the Holy See during his pontificate. Borgheses personal revenues in 1610 were 153,000 scudi compared to the mere 4,900 scudi that constituted his entire familys income in 1592
5.
Orsini family
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The Orsini family is an Italian noble family, it was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini include popes Celestine III, Nicholas III, according to their family legend, the Orsini are descended from the Julio-Claudian family of ancient Rome. This is fanciful, as is the connection to the German families of Anhalt, Baden. The Orsini were related to the Boboni family existing in Rome in the 11th century, the first members always used the surname of Boboni-Orsini. The first known member is one Bobone, in the early 11th century, father of Pietro, in turn father of Giacinto dei Boboni. The Boboni surname was lost with his children, who were called de domo filiorum Ursi, two of them, Napoleone and Matteo Rosso the Great considerably increased the prestige of the family. The former was the founder of the first southern line, which disappeared with Camillo Pardo in 1553 and he obtained the city of Manoppello, later a countship, and was gonfaloniere of the Papal States. Matteo Rosso, called the Great, was the lord of Rome from 1241. Two of his sons and Napoleone were also Senators, Matteo ousted the traditional rivals, the Colonna, from Rome and extended the Orsini territories southwards up to Avellino and northwards to Pitigliano. During his life the family entered firmly in the Guelph party, the most distinguished of his sons was Giovanni Gaetano, elected pope as Nicholas III, he named the nephew Bertoldo as count of Romagna and had two nephews and a brother created cardinals. The rise of the Orsini did not stop after Nicholas death, bertoldos son, Gentile II, was two times Senator of Rome, podestà of Viterbo and, from 1314, Gran Giustiziere of the Kingdom of Naples. He married Clarice Ruffo, daughter of the counts of Catanzaro and his son Romano, called Romanello, was Royal Vicar of Rome in 1326, and inherited the countship of Soana through his marriage with Anastasia de Montfort, Countess of Nola. After his death, his two sons divided his fiefs, forming the Pitigliano and the southern line. Roberto, Gentile IIs grandson, married Sibilla del Balzo, daughter of the Great Senechal of the Kingdom of Naples, among his sons, Giacomo was created cardinal by Gregory XI in 1371, while Nicola obtained the counties of Ariano and Celano. The latter was also Senator of Rome and enlarged the territories in Lazio. His second son, Raimondello Orsini del Balzo, supported Charles III coup détat in Naples against Queen Joan I, under king Ladislaus he was among the few Neapolitan feudataries who were able to maintain their territorial power after the royal war against them. However, at his death in 1406 the southern Orsini fiefs were confiscated, the links with the court increased further under Sergianni Caracciolo, Joans lover and Great Senechal. A younger brother of Giannantonio married one of Sergiannis daughters, however, the Orsini changed side when Alfonso V of Aragon started his conquest of the Kingdom of Naples
6.
Archbasilica of St. John Lateran
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It is the oldest of and has precedence among the four papal major basilicas, all of which are in Rome, because it is the oldest church in the West and houses the cathedra of the Roman Pontiff. It has the title of ecumenical mother church of the Roman Catholic faithful, the current archpriest is Agostino Vallini, Cardinal Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome. The archbasilica stands over the remains of the Castra Nova equitum singularium, the fort was established by Septimius Severus in AD193. Following the victory of Emperor Constantine I over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the guard was abolished, substantial remains of the fort lie directly beneath the nave. The remainder of the site was occupied during the early Roman Empire by the palace of the gens Laterani, sextius Lateranus was the first plebeian to attain the rank of consul, and the Laterani served as administrators for several emperors. One of the Laterani, Consul-designate Plautius Lateranus, became famous for being accused by Nero of conspiracy against the Emperor, the accusation resulted in the confiscation and redistribution of his properties. The Lateran Palace fell into the hands of the Emperor when Constantine I married his second wife Fausta, known by that time as the Domus Faustae or House of Fausta, the Lateran Palace was eventually given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine I. The palace basilica was converted and extended, becoming the residence of Pope St. Silvester I, eventually becoming the Cathedral of Rome, Pope Sylvester I presided over the official dedication of the archbasilica and the adjacent Lateran Palace in 324, declaring both to be a Domus Dei. The papal cathedra was placed in its interior, rendering it the cathedral of the Pope qua Bishop of Rome, the archbasilica and Lateran Palace were re-dedicated twice. Pope Sergius III dedicated them to St. John the Baptist in the 10th century in honor of the newly consecrated baptistry of the archbasilica, Pope Lucius II dedicated them to St. John the Evangelist in the 12th century. Consequently, the archbasilica remains dedicated to the Savior, and its titular feast is the Feast of the Transfiguration, the archbasilica became the most important shrine of the two St. Johns, albeit infrequently jointly venerated. In later years, a Benedictine monastery was established in the Lateran Palace, and was devoted to serving the archbasilica, the Lateran Palace has also been the site of five ecumenical councils. During the time the papacy was seated in Avignon, France, the Lateran Palace, two fires ravaged them in 1307 and 1361. After both fires the pope sent money from Avignon to pay for their reconstruction and maintenance, nonetheless, the archbasilica and Lateran Palace lost their former splendor. When the papacy returned from Avignon and the pope again resided in Rome, the archbasilica, the popes resided at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere and later at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Eventually, the Palace of the Vatican was built adjacent to the Basilica of St. Peter, which existed since the time of Emperor Constantine I, and it has remained the official residence of the pope. The original Lateran Palace was demolished and replaced with a new edifice, on the square in front of the Lateran Palace is the largest standing obelisk in the world, known as the Lateran Obelisk. It weighs an estimated 455 tons and it was commissioned by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and erected by Thutmose IV before the great Karnak temple of Thebes, Egypt
7.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
8.
Lottery
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A lottery is a form of legalized government gambling that involves the drawing of numbers for a prize. Lotteries are outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to some degree of regulation of lottery by governments. This remained so well after World War II. In the 1960s casinos and lotteries began to re-appear throughout the world as a means for governments to raise revenue without raising taxes, for example, the prize can be a fixed amount of cash or goods. In this format there is risk to the organizer if insufficient tickets are sold, more commonly the prize fund will be a fixed percentage of the receipts. A popular form of this is the 50–50 draw where the promise that the prize will be 50% of the revenue. Many recent lotteries allow purchasers to select the numbers on the lottery ticket, the purchase of lottery tickets cannot be accounted for by decision models based on expected value maximization. The reason is that lottery tickets cost more than the gain, as shown by lottery mathematics. Yet, lottery purchases can be explained by decision models based on expected utility maximization, more general models based on utility functions defined on things other than the lottery outcomes can also account for lottery purchase. In addition to the prizes, the ticket may enable some purchasers to experience a thrill. If the entertainment value obtained by playing is enough for a given individual. The first recorded signs of a lottery are keno slips from the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 and 187 BC and these lotteries are believed to have helped to finance major government projects like the Great Wall of China. From the Chinese The Book of Songs comes a reference to a game of chance as the drawing of wood, from the Celtic era, the Cornish words teulel pren translates into to throw wood and means to draw lots. The Iliad of Homer refers to lots being placed into Agamemnons helmet to determine who would fight Hector, the first known European lotteries were held during the Roman Empire, mainly as an amusement at dinner parties. Each guest would receive a ticket, and prizes would often consist of items such as dinnerware. Every ticket holder would be assured of winning something and this type of lottery, however, was no more than the distribution of gifts by wealthy noblemen during the Saturnalian revelries. The earliest records of a lottery offering tickets for sale is the organized by Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar
9.
Pope Benedict XIV
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Pope Benedict XIV, born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, served as the Pope of the Catholic Church from 17 August 1740 to his death in 1758. Perhaps one of the greatest scholars in Christendom, yet overlooked, he promoted scientific learning, the baroque arts, reinvigoration of Thomism. In terms of the governance of the Papal States, he reduced taxation, a scholar, he laid the groundwork for the present Vatican Museum. Horace Walpole described him as a priest without insolence or interest, a prince without favorites, Lambertini was born into a noble family of Bologna to Marcello Lambertini and Lucrezia Bulgarini, the third of five children. At the time of his birth, Bologna was the second largest city in the Papal States, at the age of thirteen, he began attending the Collegium Clementianum in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, and theology. During his studies as a man, he often studied the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. While he enjoyed studying at Collegium Clementianum, the bent of his mind was well towards ecclesiastical and civil law, soon after, in 1694 at the age of nineteen, he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Doctor Utriusque Juris. On the death of Innocent XII, he was made an advocate by Clement XI. Lambertini was consecrated a bishop in Rome, in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican Palace, on 16 July 1724, the co-consecrators were Giovanni Francesco Nicolai, titular Archbishop of Myra, and Nicola Maria Lercari, titular Archbishop of Nazianzus. He was made Bishop of Ancona in 1727 and he was created a cardinal in pectore, his name being published on 30 April 1728, and was subsequently made the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on 10 May 1728. He also served as the Archbishop of Bologna, after the death of Pope Clement XII, Lambertini attended the papal conclave to choose a successor. It would last for six months, at first Cardinal Ottoboni, dean of the Sacred College, was favored to be elected, but a number of cardinals were opposed to this on account of the cardinal being protector of France. This appears to have assisted his cause for winning the election, which benefited from his reputation for deep learning, gentleness, wisdom. On 17 August 1740 he was elected in the evening and took his new name of Benedict XIV in honour of Pope Benedict XIII. He managed to overcome most of these problems — the Holy Sees disputes with the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice and he had a very active papacy, reforming the education of priests, the calendar of feasts of the Church, and many papal institutions. Perhaps the most important act of Benedict XIVs pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, Ex quo singulari and Omnium solicitudinum and this question was especially pressing in the case of an ancestor known not to have been a Christian. The choice of a Chinese translation for the name of God had also been debated since the early 17th century, Benedict XIV denounced these practices in these two bulls. The consequence of this was many of these converts left the Church
10.
Spanish Steps
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The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The stairway was designed by architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi, following a competition in 1717 the steps were designed by the little-known Francesco de Sanctis, though Alessandro Specchi was long thought to have produced the winning entry. Generations of heated discussion over how the steep slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanised preceded the final execution, archival drawings from the 1580s show that Pope Gregory XIII was interested in constructing a stair to the recently completed façade of the French church. Gaspar van Wittels view of the slope in 1683, before the Scalinata was built, is conserved in the Galleria Nazionale. Mazarin died in 1661, the pope in 1667, and Gueffiers will was contested by a nephew who claimed half. The Bourbon fleur-de-lys and Innocent XIIIs eagle and crown are carefully balanced in the sculptural details, the solution is a gigantic inflation of some conventions of terraced garden stairs. The Spanish Steps, which Joseph de Lalande and Charles de Brosses noted were already in poor condition, have restored several times. A new renovation commenced on May 30,2016 and the steps reopened on September 21,2016, the elder Bernini had been the popes architect for the Acqua Vergine, since 1623. According to a legend, Pope Urban VIII had the fountain installed after he had been impressed by a boat brought here by a flood of the Tiber river, at the top the stairway ramp up the Pincio which is the Pincian Hill. From the top of the steps the Villa Medici can be reached, during Christmas time a 19th-century criba manger is displayed on the first landing of the staircase. During Springtime, just before the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, April 21st, part of the steps are covered by pots of azaleas, in modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, the 1953 film Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, made the Spanish Steps famous to an American audience. The apartment that was the setting for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is halfway up on the right, bernardo Bertoluccis Besieged is also set in a house next to the Steps. The Steps were featured prominently in the version of The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon in the title role. Norwegian singer/songwriter Morten Harket, from A-ha, released a song called Spanish Steps on his album Wild Seed in 1995. Marc Cohns song Walk Through the World, released in 1993 on the album The Rainy Season, includes the lyric From the Spanish Steps to the Liberty Bell, I know the angels have seen us. The title song from Guy Clarks Dublin Blues album contains the lyric, north American & Japanese versions of the Mindfields album released in 1999 by American rock band Toto include the song Spanish Steps of Rome as a bonus track. The song describes a femme fatale romance that takes place on, in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond which aired on October 2,2000, Ray, Debra, Frank, and Marie climb the Spanish Steps during a family vacation in Rome
11.
Augustine of Hippo
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Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia, Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, according to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine established anew the ancient Faith. In his early years, he was influenced by Manichaeism. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin, when the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview, the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustines On the Trinity. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and he is also the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death, Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence, Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites. In the East, some of his teachings are disputed and have in the 20th century in particular come under attack by such theologians as John Romanides, but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant appropriation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky. The most controversial doctrine surrounding his name is the filioque, which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church, other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination. Nevertheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is considered a saint. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is celebrated on 28 August and he was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in the municipium of Thagaste in Roman Africa. His mother, Monica or Monnica, was a devout Christian, in his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to the consciousness of his African heritage
12.
Pavia
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Pavia is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy,35 kilometres south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards from 572 to 774. Pavia is the capital of the province of Pavia, known for agricultural products including wine, rice, cereals. Although there are a number of industries located in the suburbs, Pavia is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pavia. The city possesses many artistic and cultural treasures, including several important churches and museums, dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia, then known as Ticinum, was a municipality and an important military site under the Roman Empire. It was said by Pliny the Elder to have founded by the Laevi and Marici. It was at Pavia in 476 AD that the reign of Romulus Augustulus, ten months after Romulus Augustulus’s reign began, Orestes’s soldiers under the command of one of his officers named Odoacer, rebelled and killed Orestes in the city of Pavia in 476. Without his father Romulus Augustulus was powerless, instead of killing Romulus Augustulus, Odoacer pensioned him off at 6,000 solidi a year before declaring the end of the Western Roman Empire and himself king of the new Kingdom of Italy. Odoacer’s reign as king of Italy did not last long, because in 488 the Ostrogothic peoples led by their king Theoderic invaded Italy and waged war against Odoacer. After fighting for 5 years Theoderic defeated Odoacer and on March 15,493 assassinated Odoacer at a banquet meant to negotiate a peace between the two rulers, with the establishment of the Ostrogoth kingdom based in northern Italy, Theoderic began his vast program of public building. Pavia was among several cities that Theodoric chose to restore and expand and he began the construction of the vast palace complex that would eventually become the residence of Lombard monarchs several decades later. Near the end of Theoderic’s reign the Christian philosopher Boethius was imprisoned in one of Pavia’s churches from 522 to 525 before his execution for treason and it was during Boethius’s captivity in Pavia that he wrote his seminal work the Consolation of Philosophy. Pavia played an important role in the war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths that began in 535, after the capitulation of the Ostrogothic leadership in 540 more than a thousand men remained garrisoned in Pavia and Verona dedicated to opposing Eastern Roman rule. The resilience of Ostrogoth strongholds like Pavia against invading forces allowed pockets of Ostrogothic rule to limp along until finally being defeated in 561, Pavia and the peninsula of Italy didn’t remain long under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire for in 568 a new people invaded Italy. This new invading people in 568 were the Lombards, in their invasion of Italy in 568, the Lombards were led by their king Alboin, who would become the first Lombard king of Italy. Alboin captured much of northern Italy in 568 but his progress was halted in 569 by the city of Pavia. Meanwhile Alboin, after driving out the soldiers, took possession of everything as far as Tuscany except Rome and Ravenna and some other fortified places which were situated on the shore of the sea. ”The Siege of Ticinum finally ended with the Lombards capturing the city of Pavia in 572. Pavia’s strategic location and the Ostrogoth palaces located within it would make Pavia by the 620s the main capital of the Lombards’ Kingdom of Pavia, under Lombard rule many monasteries, nunneries, and churches were built at Pavia by the devout Christian Lombard monarchs
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Benedict XIII". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
