1.
Pope Nicholas IV
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Pope Nicholas IV, born Girolamo Masci, Pope from 22 February 1288 to his death in 1292. He was the first Franciscan to be elected pope, Jerome Masci was born on 30 September 1227 at Lisciano, near Ascoli Piceno. He was a pious, peace-loving man whose goals as a Franciscan friar were to protect the Church, promote the crusades, according to Heinrich of Rebdorf, he was a Doctor of Theology. As a Franciscan friar, he had elected the Orders superior for Dalmatia during the Franciscan general chapter held at Pisa in 1272. Pope Gregory X, was sending a legate to the Greek Emperor, Michael Palaiologos, in 1272, the Popes ambition was to achieve a reunion of Eastern and Western Christendom. St Bonaventure, then Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor was asked to select four Franciscans to accompany the Legation as Nuncios and he chose Friar Jerome Masci as one of the four. Jerome and John of Vercelli were again appointed to the task on 4 April 1278. At the same time, Jerome was ordered to continue for the time being as the Franciscan Minister General, in 1278 Jerome was made Cardinal Priest by Pope Nicholas III, and at some point after 16 May 1279 was assigned the titular church of Santa Pudenziana. Even after his appointment as a cardinal, he was allowed to remain as Minister General of the Franciscans until the general chapter. In the event, however, he was unable to attend the chapter for reasons of ill health, as a letter of apology of Pope Nicholas III, written in May 1279, on 12 April 1281 he was promoted Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina by Pope Martin IV. After the death of Pope Honorius IV on 3 April 1287, the Conclave was held in Rome, at the palace next to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. This was in accordance with the Constitution Ubi Periculum of Pope Gregory X, at the beginning, in April, there were thirteen cardinals in Rome, three Cardinals—Gerardo Bianchi, Giovanni Boccamati, and Jean Cholet—did not attend at all. The Sacred College was for a time hopelessly divided in its selection of a successor, when six of the electors died during the year 1287, the others, with the sole exception of Jerome Masci, left the Conclave and returned to their homes. It was not until the year that they reassembled. On 15 February 1288, the unanimously elected Jerome Masci. It is said that the Cardinals were impressed by his steadfastness in remaining at the papal palace, as he admitted in his electoral manifesto, Cardinal Masci was extremely reluctant to accept, and indeed he persisted in his refusal for an entire week. Finally, on 22 February, he gave in and agreed and he became the first Franciscan pope and chose the name Nicholas IV in remembrance of Nicholas III, who had made him a Cardinal. Given the considerable losses to the numbers of the Sacred College in 1286 and 1287, what is surprising is that he did not even reach the number of cardinals who were alive under Honorius IV, let alone exceed it
2.
Pope Boniface VIII
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Pope Boniface VIII, born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303. Today, he is probably best remembered for his feuds with King Philip IV of France and Dante Alighieri, Benedetto was born in ca.1235 in Anagni, some thirty-one miles southeast of Rome. He was a son of Roffredo Caetani, a member of a baronial family of the Papal States. Through his mother, Emilia Patrasso di Guarcino, a niece of Pope Alexander IV, he was not far distant from the seat of ecclesiastical power and his fathers younger brother, Atenolfo, was Podestà di Orvieto. He took his first steps in the life when he was sent to the monastery of the Friars Minor in Velletri. In 1252, when his paternal uncle Pietro Caetani became Bishop of Todi, in Umbria, Benedetto followed him to Todi and he was granted a canonry of the cathedral in the familys stronghold of Anagni, with the permission of Pope Alexander. His uncle Pietro Caetani granted him a canonry in the Cathedral of Todi in 1260 and he also came into possession of the small nearby castello of Sismano, a place with twenty-one fires. Later in life he expressed his gratitude to Anagni, Todi. In 1264 Benedetto entered the Roman Curia, perhaps with the office of Advocatus and he served as secretary to Cardinal Simon de Brion, the future Pope Martin IV, on a mission to France. Cardinal Simon had been appointed by Pope Urban IV, between 25 and 27 April 1264, to engage in negotiations with Charles of Anjou, Comte de Provence, over the crown of Naples and Sicily. On 1 May 1264 he was given permission to appoint two or three tabelliones for his mission, one of whom was Benedetto. On 20 March 1265, in order to expedite the business with Charles of Anjou and this may have been the occasion on which Benedetto Caetani acquired at least some of his French benefices. On 9 April 1265, on the petition of Cardinal Simon de Brion, there would have been no point in making such a ruling if Cardinal Simon had already ceased to be Legate. Benedetto also accompanied Cardinal Ottobono Fieschi, the future Pope Adrian V, another member of Cardinal Ottobonos suite was Theobaldus of Piacenza, Archdeacon of Liège, who became a friend of Prince Edward, and went on Crusade with him, he was later elected Pope Gregory X. On 29 August 1265 the Cardinal was received at the French Court by King Louis IX, there he learned that Simon de Montfort and his son Henry had been killed at the Battle of Evesham earlier that month. Cardinal Ottobono did not reach Boulogne until October 1265 and he was in England until July 1268, working to suppress the remnants of Simon de Montforts barons who were still in arms against King Henry III of England. This drawback was a concern of Cardinal Ottobono and his entourage. While in England Benedetto Caetani became rector of St. Lawrences church in Towcester, upon Benedettos return from England, there is an eight-year period in which nothing is known about his life
3.
Isernia
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Isernia listen is a town and comune in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia. The commune of Isernia includes 16 frazioni, the most densely populated is Castelromano which is positioned in a plain at the base of the La Romana mount, elevation 862 metres,5 kilometres from Isernia. The citys Roman name, Aesernia, reflects probably a former Samnite toponym, but a connection to an Indo-European root, aeser, which means water, is tenuous. The first mention of it in history occurs in 295 BC, at time it had already fallen into the hands of the Romans. This colony is mentioned in 209 BCE as one of the eighteen which remained faithful to Rome at the most trying period of the Second Punic War. It even became for a time, after the fall of Corfinium (modern and Bovianum. We learn, however, that a colony was sent there by Julius Caesar, and again by Augustus, but apparently with little success, on which account it was recolonized under Nero. It never, however, enjoyed the rank of a colony, but appears from inscriptions to have been a town of some importance in the time of Trajan. The modern city is still the see of a bishop, the massively constructed podium now underlying the cathedral probably supported the Capitolium. Even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Isernia has suffered destruction numerous times in history. Isernia was destroyed by the Saracens in 800, sacked by Markward of Anweiler, Count of Molise, in 1199, in 1519 it was freed from feudal servitude by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and became a city in the Kingdom of Naples. Earthquakes in 847,1349,1456 and 1805 caused massive destruction, on the morning of September 10,1943, during World War II, American planes launched their bombs from B-17 Flying Fortress planes over a crowded town on market day causing thousands of deaths. In the following weeks they came back twelve times without hitting their targets. All the bridges were vital to the German retreat, in 1970 Isernia became the capital of the province of the same name, created out of part of the province of Campobasso. The hills around Isernia produces red, white and rose Italian DOC wine, the grapes are limited to harvest yields of 11 tonnes/ha with the finished red and rose wines needing a minimum alcohol level of 11% and the finished whites required to have at least 10. 5% alcohol. The reds and roses are composed of 45-55% Montepulciano, 45-55% Sangiovese, the whites are composed of 60-70% Trebbiano, 30-40% Bombino bianco and up to 10% local varieties to fill out the blend if needed. Although having suffered repeated destruction, Isernia preserves a number of archaeological remains. The “Fontana Fraterna” is a public fountain with six water jets, with an unusual arcade-shape, made of blocks of calcareous
4.
Kingdom of Sicily
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The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Apennine peninsula from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. Until 1282 the Kingdom covered not only the island of Sicily, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of the southern Apennines, the island was divided into three regions, Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto, val being the Arabic word meaning district. In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, the island became a separate kingdom under the Crown of Aragon. After 1302 the island kingdom was called the Kingdom of Trinacria. Often the kingship was vested in another such as the King of Aragon. In 1816 the island Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1860 the Two Sicilies were amalgamated with Sardinia and several northern city-states and duchies to form the Kingdom of Sardinia which in 1861 renamed itself the Kingdom of Italy, after taking Apulia and Calabria, Roger occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger I of Sicily and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely under Norman control by 1091. The Norman Kingdom was created on Christmas Day,1130, by Roger II of Sicily, with the agreement of Pope Innocent II, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II, who enthroned him as King of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130. In 1136, the rival of Anacletus, Pope Innocent II, convinced Lothair III, Two main armies, one led by Lothair, the other by Duke of Bavaria Henry the Proud, invaded Sicily. On the river Tronto, William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and this was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies were united at Bari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign, Roger offered to give Apulia as a fief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent. At the same period the army of Lothair revolted, then Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, gave Capua and Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Rogers enemies. Innocent protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal claims, Lothair turned north, but died while crossing the Alps on December 4,1137. At the Second Council of the Lateran in April 1139, Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining a schismatic attitude, on March 22,1139, at Galluccio, Rogers son Roger III, Duke of Apulia ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope. On March 25,1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and it was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa, taking the unofficial title King of Africa. At the same time Rogers fleet attacked the Byzantine Empire, making Sicily the leading power in the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century
5.
Ferentino
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Ferentino is a town and comune in Italy, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio,65 kilometres southeast of Rome. It is situated on a hill 400 metres above sea level, ferentinum was a town of the Hernici, it was captured from them by the Romans in 364 BC and took no part in the rising of 306 BC. The inhabitants became Roman citizens after 195 BC, and the later became a municipium. It lay just above the Via Latina and, being a strong place, from 1198 to 1557 it was the seat of the Papal rectorate of Campagna and Marittima province. Strong in textiles and handicraft, after World War II Ferentino experienced a heavy industrial growth, Ferentino still possesses remains of ancient fortifications. Two gates, the Porta Maggiore, a double gate constructed entirely of blocks of tuff. Outside this gate, the testament of Aulus Quinctilius Priscus inscribed in the rock, the highest part of the town, the acropolis, is fortified also, it has massive retaining walls similar to those of the lower town. At the eastern corner, under the present episcopal palace, the construction is more careful. The windows lighting these chambers come immediately above the cornice, the whole of this construction probably belongs to one period. It contains a fine ciborium in the Cosmatesque style and a 12th-century mosaic pavement, the Gothic church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the lower town, has a very fine exterior, the interior, the plan of which is a perfect rectangle, has been spoiled by restoration. Other religious edifices include the Benedictine church of San Valentino and the Romanesque monastery of SantAntonio Abate, the latters heart is preserved in the small convent church of the Clarisse. Ekaterinburg, Russia San Severino Marche, Italy Rockford, United States This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Ferentino. org City, history, people and sightseeing Il Cartello - an artists collective promoting a number of cultural activities in Ferentino Purcell, N. R. Talbert, T. Elliott. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
6.
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
7.
Pope Clement V
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Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got, was Pope from 5 June 1305 to his death in 1314. Bertrand was elected Pope Clement V in June 1305 and consecrated on 14 November, Bertrand was neither Italian nor a cardinal, and his election might have been considered a gesture towards neutrality. The contemporary chronicler Giovanni Villani reports gossip that he had himself to King Philip IV of France by a formal agreement before his elevation. Whether this was true or not, it is likely that the pope had conditions laid down for him by the conclave of cardinals. Among his first acts was the creation of nine French cardinals, at Clements coronation the Duke of Brittany, John II, was leading the Popes horse through the crowd during the celebrations. So many spectators had piled atop the walls one of the walls crumbled and collapsed on top of the Duke. Clement V had to yield to pressures for this trial, begun on 2 February 1309 at Avignon. In the document that called for the witnesses, Clement V expressed both his conviction of the innocence of Boniface VIII and his resolution to satisfy the king. Finally, in February 1311, Philip IV wrote to Clement V abandoning the process to the council of Vienne. For his part, Clement V absolved all the participants in the abduction of Boniface at Anagni, in pursuance of the kings wishes, Clement V in 1311 summoned the Council of Vienne, which refused to convict the Templars of heresy. The Pope abolished the order anyway, as the Templars seemed to be in bad repute and had outlived their usefulness as papal bankers and protectors of pilgrims in the East. Their French estates were granted to the Knights Hospitallers, but Philip IV held them until his death and expropriated the Templars bank outright. In March 1309, the papal court moved from Poitiers to the Comtat Venaissin, around the city of Avignon, which was not then part of France. Clement Vs pontificate was also a time for Italy. The Papal States were entrusted to a team of three cardinals, but Rome, the battleground of the Colonna and Orsini factions, was ungovernable. In 1310, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII entered Italy, established the Visconti as vicars in Milan, in Ferrara, which was taken into the Papal states to the exclusion of the Este family, papal armies clashed with Venice and their populace. Clement died on 20 April 1314, according to one story, while his body was lying in state, a thunderstorm developed during the night and lightning struck the church where his body lay, igniting the building. The fire was so intense that when it was extinguished, the body of Pope Clement V was almost destroyed and he was buried at the collegiate church in Uzeste close to his birthplace in Villandraut as put down in his will
8.
Papal tiara
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The papal tiara is a crown that was worn by popes of the Catholic Church from as early as the 8th century to the mid-20th. It was last used by Pope Paul VI in 1963 and only at the beginning of his reign, from 1143 to 1963, the papal tiara was solemnly placed on the popes head during a papal coronation. The surviving papal tiaras are all in the form, the oldest being of 1572. A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter continues to be used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on documents, buildings. The papal tiara originated from a conical Phrygian cap or frigium, shaped like a candle-extinguisher, the papal tiara and the episcopal mitre were identical in their early forms. Names used for the tiara in the 8th and 9th centuries include camelaucum, pileus. A circlet of linen or cloth of gold at the base of the tiara developed into a metal crown, the first of these appeared at the base of the traditional white papal headgear in the 9th century. When the popes assumed temporal power in the Papal States, the crown became decorated with jewels to resemble the crowns of princes. However, a fresco in the Chapel of Saint Sylvester in the church of the Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome seems to represent the Pope wearing a tiara with two bands and with lappets. The addition of a crown is attributed to Pope Benedict XI or Pope Clement V. The first years of the 16th century saw the addition of a little globe, the third crown was added to the papal tiara during the Avignon Papacy, giving rise to the form called the triregnum. After Pope Clement V at Avignon, various versions of the three-crown tiara have been worn by popes also in Rome down to Pope Paul VI, who was crowned with one in 1963. The increased length had the meaning of dominion of the una sancta ecclesia over the earth. At the summit was a large ruby. Boniface VIII was succeeded in 1303 by Benedict XI, who took the tiara to Perugia, after his death in 1304 there was a period of eleven months before a new Pope succeeded. The Archbishop of Bordeaux was chosen and took the title of Clement V and he removed the papal seat from Rome to Avignon and the tiara was brought to Lyons from Perugia for his coronation on 14 November 1305. In the inventory which was taken in 1315–16 Boniface VIIIs tiara is again described and can be identified by the mention of the large ruby and it is described as having three circlets corona quae vocatur, regnum cum tribus circuitis aureis. It therefore must have been between the taking of the two inventories in 1295 and 1315 that the second and third circlets were added to the tiara and it was during this period that the fleur-de-lis was used to decorate the circlets
9.
Book
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A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side, with text and/or images printed in ink. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page, a set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format for reading on a computer screen, smartphone or e-reader device is known as an electronic book, or e-book. The term books may refer the body of works of literature. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals, in novels and sometimes other types of books, a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books. An avid reader or collector of books or a lover is a bibliophile or colloquially. A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore, Books are also sold in some department stores, drugstores and newspaper vendors. Books can also be borrowed from libraries, google has estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 distinct titles had been published. In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic or e-books, the word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to beech. Similarly, in Slavic languages буква is cognate with beech, in Russian and in Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь or буквар refers specifically to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood, similarly, the Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense, originally meant block of wood. When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, the study of such inscriptions forms a major part of history. The study of inscriptions is known as epigraphy, the Ancient Egyptians would often write on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile River. At first the words were not separated from other and there was no punctuation. Texts were written right to left, left to right. The technical term for that last type of writing is boustrophedon, a tablet might be defined as a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. See also stylus, the instrument used to write on a tablet, clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a stylus. They were used as a medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age. Tablets were used by traders to record sales of such as bushels of grain
10.
Bookbinding
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Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. The stack is then bound together along one edge by either sewing with thread through the folds or by a layer of flexible adhesive, for protection, the bound stack is either wrapped in a flexible cover or attached to stiff boards. Finally, a cover is adhered to the boards and a label with identifying information is attached to the covers along with additional decoration. Bookbinding is a trade that relies on basic operations of measuring, cutting. A finished book depends on a minimum of two dozen operations to complete but sometimes more than double that according to the specific style. All operations have an order and each one relies on accurate completion of the previous step with little room for back tracking. An extremely durable binding can be achieved by using the best hand techniques, Bookbinding combines skills from other trades such as paper and fabric crafts, leather work, model making, and graphic arts. It requires knowledge about numerous varieties of book structures along with all the internal and external details of assembly, a working knowledge of the materials involved is required. Bookbinding is a craft of great antiquity, and at the same time. The division between craft and industry is not so wide as might at first be imagined and it is interesting to observe that the main problems faced by the mass-production bookbinder are the same as those that confronted the medieval craftsman or the modern hand binder. Before the computer age, the bookbinding trade involved two divisions, second was Letterpress binding which deals with making new books intended to be read from and includes fine binding, library binding, edition binding, and publishers bindings. A result of the new bindings is a third division dealing with the repair, restoration, with the digital age, personal computers have replaced the pen and paper based accounting that used to drive most of the work in the stationery binding industry. There is a grey area between the two divisions. There are cases where the printing and binding jobs are combined in one shop, a step up to the next level of mechanization is determined by economics of scale until you reach production runs of ten thousand copies or more in a factory employing a dozen or more workers. The craft of bookbinding probably originated in India, where religious sutras were copied on to palm leaves with a metal stylus, the leaf was then dried and rubbed with ink, which would form a stain in the wound. The finished leaves were given numbers, and two long twines were threaded through each end through wooden boards, making a palm-leaf book, when the book was closed, the excess twine would be wrapped around the boards to protect the manuscript leaves. Buddhist monks took the idea through Afghanistan to China in the first century BC, similar techniques can also be found in ancient Egypt where priestly texts were compiled on scrolls and books of papyrus. Another version of bookmaking can be seen through the ancient Mayan codex, writers in the Hellenistic-Roman culture wrote longer texts as scrolls, these were stored in boxes or shelving with small cubbyholes, similar to a modern winerack
11.
Papal renunciation
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A papal renunciation occurs when the reigning pope of the Roman Catholic Church voluntarily steps down from his position. As the reign of the pope has conventionally been from election until death, before the 21st century, only five popes unambiguously resigned with historical certainty, all between the 10th and 15th centuries. Additionally, disputed claims of four popes having resigned date between the 3rd and 11th centuries, a disputed case may have involved an antipope. Additionally, a few popes during the saeculum obscurum were deposed, the later development of canon law has been in favor of papal supremacy, leaving no recourse to remove a pope involuntarily. The most recent pope to resign was Benedict XVI, who vacated the Holy See on 28 February 2013 at 19,00 UTC and he was the first pope to do so since Gregory XII in 1415. Despite its common usage in discussion of papal renunciations, the abdication is not used in the official documents of the Church for renunciation by a pope. Both the 1983 Code and the 1917 Code make explicit that there is no individual or body of people to whom the pope must manifest his renunciation. During the saeculum obscurum several popes were deposed or coerced into renunciation by political, John X is considered to have been deposed by some, but he seems to have died in prison before his successor Leo VI was elected anyway. As another example, consider the story of John XII, Leo VIII, John XII had been invalidly deposed by the Emperor Otto in 963, never renouncing his claim. Leo VIII was set up as an antipope by Otto at this time, however, John XII won back his rightful place in 964. When John XII died in 964, Benedict V was elected, however, Otto wanted Leo VIII put back on the papal throne and, using military might, forced Benedict to abdicate later that same summer, Benedicts renunciation is considered valid. Leo VIII is then considered the pope until his death in 965. The first historically unquestionable papal renunciation is that of Benedict IX in 1045. Then, in 1045, having regained the papacy for a few months, in order to rid the Church of the scandalous Benedict, Gregory himself resigned in 1046 because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict could have been considered simony. Gregory was followed by Clement II, and when Clement died, Benedict IX returned to be elected to the papacy for a third time and he thus reigned as pope for three non-consecutive terms, and resigned three separate times. A well-known renunciation of a pope is that of Celestine V, after only five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign, and then did so himself. He lived two years as a hermit and then prisoner of his successor Boniface VIII and was later canonised. Celestines decree, and Boniface concurring, ended any doubt among canonists about the possibility of a valid papal renunciation, before resigning, he formally convened the already existing Council of Constance and authorized it to elect his successor
12.
L'Aquila
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LAquila is a city and comune in Southern Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of LAquila. As of 2013, it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants, laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the Aterno river, it is surrounded by the Apennine Mountains, with the Gran Sasso dItalia to the north-east. LAquila sits upon a hillside in the middle of a narrow valley, a maze of narrow streets, lined with Baroque and Renaissance buildings and churches, open onto elegant piazzas. There are several ski resorts in the surrounding province, close to the highest of the Apennine summits, LAquila is positioned at an elevation of 721 metres in the Valley of the Aterno-Pescara, situated between four mountain peaks above 2,000 metres. The mountains block the city off from warm air currents from the Mediterranean, and give rise to a climate that is cool in comparison to most of central Italy. It has been said that the city each year 11 cold months. LAquila is approximately 100 kilometres east-northeast of Rome, with which it is connected by an autostrada through the mountains. The citys construction was begun by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, out of already existing villages. The name of Aquila means Eagle in Italian, construction was completed in 1254 under Fredericks son, Conrad IV of Germany. The name was switched to Aquila degli Abruzzi in 1861, after the death of Conrad, the city was destroyed by his brother Manfred in 1259, but soon rebuilt by Charles I of Anjou, its successor as king of Sicily. The walls were completed in 1316 and it quickly became the second city of the Kingdom of Naples. It was a city, ruled by a diarchy composed of the City Council. It fell initially under the lordship of Niccolò dellIsola, appointed by the people as the Peoples Knight, later, it fell under Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, Count of Montorio, who became the third side of a new triarchy, with the Council and the Kings Captain. Camponeschi, who was also Great Chancellor of the kingdom of Naples, became too powerful and his descendants fought with the Pretatti family for power for several generations, but never again attained the power of their ancestor. In the end, however, the Aquilans had him deposed and imprisoned by the king of Naples, the Fountain of the 99 Spouts, was given its name to celebrate the ancient origin of the town. The City Council was originally composed of the Mayors of the villages, later, the Camerlengo also took political power, as President of the City Council. Negotiations for the succession of Edmund, son of Henry III of England, the pontificate of Celestine V gave a new impulse to building development, as can be seen from the city statutes. In 1311, moreover, King Robert of Anjou granted privileges which had a influence on the development of trade
13.
Urbino
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The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, an illusion only slightly broken by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino and its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana. The city is located in a hilly area, at the foothills of the Northern Apennines. The city is in the area of Montefeltro, an area classified as medium-high seismic risk. In the database of earthquakes developed by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and they include 24 April 1741, when the shocks were stronger than VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale, with an epicenter in Fabriano. Though Pepin the Short presented Urbino to the Papacy in 754–56, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200, eventually, though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. The most famous member of the Montefeltro family, Federico da Montefeltro, federicos brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castigliones Il Cortegiano, set standards of what would characterize a modern European gentleman for centuries to come. Cesare Borgia dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and Elisabetta Gonzaga in 1502, with the complicity of his father, Pope Alexander VI. They moved in 1523 the court in the city of Pesaro, the state was ruled since then by a papal legate, generally belonging to high ecclesiastical hierarchy. These works went on to form the core of the future Uffizi Gallery, among the works that went to Florence is the diptych of the Dukes of Urbino by Piero della Francesca. Other works of the Ducal Palace were brought to Rome, such as the Barberini Ex Tables of Fra Carnevale, the eighteenth century opened with the election to the papacy of Cardinal Giovan Francesco Albani Urbino, under the name of Clement XI. This was a windfall for the city and was its last great era, especially in terms of arts and culture, thanks to funding by Pope Albani and his family. In addition, due to the patronage of the Pope and of his family and this new age of splendor for the city ended with the death of Clement XI in 1721, placing the city in a long decline that has continued to the present day. After the Popes death, the Albani family remained the patron of the most significant works until the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1789, the collapse of the Cathedral dome following an earthquake led to the total renovation of the church. Between 1797 and 1800 the city was occupied by French troops, like much of northern and this event was a further cause of the impoverished local artistic heritage, already tried by the loss of the works following the devolution of the duchy in the seventeenth century. Sergius, now occupied by the Hotel Raffaello. This resulted in a new layout with the large spit of land below the Doges Palace incorporated into the city
14.
Molise
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Molise is a region of Southern Italy. Until 1963, it formed part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise, the split, which did not become effective until 1970, makes Molise the youngest region in Italy. The region covers 4,438 square kilometres and has a population of 313,348 The region is split into two provinces, named after their respective capitals Campobasso and Isernia, Campobasso also serves as the regional capital. Molise is bordered by Abruzzo to the north, Apulia to the east, Lazio to the west and it has 35 kilometres of sandy coastline to the northeast, lying on the Adriatic Sea in front of Tremiti islands. Territory of Molise is mostly mountainous with 55% of mountains and 45% of hills that goes down till the sea, the agricultural holdings produce wine, cereals, olive oil, vegetables, fruits and dairy products. Traditional products are Grass Pea and Farro, molises autochthonous grape is Tintilia which has been rediscovered during the last ten years, and many other PDO wines, both red and white. Though there is a large Fiat plant, the sector is dominated by the construction industry with small. Another important industry is processing, pasta, meat, milk products, oil. In the services sector the most important industries are distribution, hotels and catering, followed by transport and communications, banking, with few exceptions, in all sectors firms are small, and this explains the difficulties encountered when marketing products on a national scale. The tourists are attracted by large expanses of unspoilt beaches, a lack of congestion. The density of the population in Molise is well below the national average, in 2008, Molise registered 72.3 inhabitants per km2, compared to a national figure of 198.8. The region is subdivided into two provinces, Campobasso and Isernia, which together cover 1. 5% of Italys territory, the larger province in terms of area is Campobasso at 2,909 km2, while the smaller is Isernia at 1,529 km2. The province of Campobasso is the densely populated of the two provinces, with 79.4 inhabitants per km2, whereas Isernia registered 58.9 inhabitants per km2. At the end of 2008 the most populous towns were Campobasso, Termoli, in the period 1951-71, large-scale emigration to other countries of the European Union, to other parts of Italy and overseas led to a significant decline in the population of Molise. Negative net migration persisted until 1981, large-scale emigration has caused many of the smaller towns and villages to lose over 60% of their population, while only a small number of larger towns have recorded significant gains. From 1982 to 1994, net migration has been positive, then followed by a negative trend until 2001, between 1991 and 2001, the population of the region decreased by 3. 1%, since 2001 the population remained stable. The region is home to two ethnic minorities, the Molisan Croats, and those who speak the arbereshe dialect of Albanian in five towns of basso Molise in the province of Campobasso. Molise comprises two provinces, Molise has much tradition from the religious to the pagans, many museum, archeological sites, musical, the flavors of Molise are dominated by the many aromatic herbs that grow there
15.
Monk
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A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of other monks. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions, in the Greek language the term can apply to women, but in modern English it is mainly in use for men. The word nun is typically used for female monastics, although the term monachos is of Christian origin, in the English language monk tends to be used loosely also for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, being generic, it is not interchangeable terms that denote particular kinds of monk, such as cenobite, hermit, anchorite, hesychast. In Eastern Orthodoxy monasticism holds a special and important place. Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world and they do not, in general, have as their primary purpose the running of social services, but instead are concerned with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, care for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, the level of contact though will vary from community to community. Hermits, on the hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as are found in the West, basil the Great and the Philokalia, which was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Hesychasm is of importance in the ascetical theology of the Orthodox Church. Meals are usually taken in common in a dining hall known as a trapeza. Food is usually simple and is eaten in silence while one of the brethren reads aloud from the writings of the Holy Fathers. The monastic lifestyle takes a deal of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks conform to a way of living based on the traditions of that particular monastery. In struggling to attain this conformity, the comes to realize his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father in how to deal honestly with them. For this same reason, bishops are almost always chosen from the ranks of monks, Eastern monasticism is found in three distinct forms, anchoritic, cenobitic, and the middle way between the two, known as the skete. One normally enters a community first, and only after testing and spiritual growth would one go on to the skete or, for the most advanced. However, one is not necessarily expected to join a skete or become a solitary, in general, Orthodox monastics have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families
16.
Hermit
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A hermit is a person who lives in seclusion from society. In Christianity, the term was applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction. In the Christian tradition the eremitic life is a form of monastic living that preceded the monastic life in the cenobium. The Rule of St Benedict lists hermits among four kinds of monks, other religions, for example, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism, also have hermits in the sense of individuals living an ascetic form of life. In modern colloquial usage, hermit denotes anyone living apart from the rest of society, or simply participating in social events. In the common Christian tradition the first known Christian hermit in Egypt was Paul of Thebes, an antecedent for Egyptian eremiticism may have been the Syrian solitary or son of the covenant who undertook special disciplines as a Christian. In the Middle Ages some Carmelite hermits claimed to trace their origin to Jewish hermits organized by Elijah, Christian hermits in the past have often lived in isolated cells or hermitages, whether a natural cave or a constructed dwelling, situated in the desert or the forest. They tended to be out for spiritual advice and counsel. Some eventually acquired so many disciples that they had no physical solitude at all, the early Christian Desert Fathers wove baskets to exchange for bread. In medieval times hermits were also found within or near cities where they earn a living as a gate keeper or ferryman. From the Middle Ages and down to modern times eremitical monasticism has also practiced within the context of religious institutes in the Christian West. This applies to both their monks and their nuns, there have also been many hermits who chose that vocation as an alternative to other forms of monastic life. In the 11th century, the life of the hermit gained recognition as a legitimate independent pathway to salvation, many hermits in that century and the next came to be regarded as saints. The term anchorite is often used as a synonym for hermit, not only in the earliest written sources, yet the anchoritic life, while similar to the eremitic life, can also be distinct from it. Anchorites and anchoresses lived the life in the solitude of an anchorhold, usually a small hut or cell. The door of an anchorage tended to be bricked up in a ceremony conducted by the local bishop after the anchorite had moved in. Another window looked out into the street or cemetery, enabling charitable neighbors to deliver food, clients seeking the anchorites advice might also use this window to consult him or her. There are also lay people who follow an eremitic lifestyle
17.
Celestines
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Celestines were a Roman Catholic monastic order, a branch of the Benedictines, founded in 1244. They use the post-nominal initials O. S. B and they built a small convent on the spot inhabited by the holy hermit, which became too small for the accommodation of those who came to share their life of privations. Peter of Morone, their founder, built a number of other small oratories in that neighborhood, about the year 1254, Peter of Morone gave the order a rule formulated in accordance with his own practices. Hearing a rumor that the order was to be suppressed, the reclusive Peter traveled to Lyon, there he persuaded Gregory to approve his new order, making it a branch of the Benedictines and following the rule of Saint Benedict, but adding to it additional severities and privations. Gregory took it under the Papal protection, assured to it the possession of all property it might acquire, the next year Peter of Morrone, despite his reluctance, was elected Pope by the name of Celestine V. From there on, the order he had founded took the name of Celestines, during his short reign as Pope, the former hermit confirmed the rule of the order, which he had himself composed, and conferred on the society a variety of special graces and privileges. In the only creation of cardinals promoted by him, among the twelve raised to the purple and he also visited personally the Benedictine monastery on Monte Cassino, where he persuaded the monks to accept his more rigorous rule. He sent fifty monks of his order to introduce it, who remained there, however, the Celestines had ninety-six houses in Italy, twenty-one in France, and a few in Germany. At that time the French congregation of the order was composed of twenty-one monasteries, the head of which was that of Paris, paul V was a notable benefactor of the order. The order became extinct in the eighteenth century, according to their special constitutions the Celestines were bound to say matins in the choir at two oclock in the morning, and always to abstain from eating meat, save in illness. The distinct rules of their order with regard to fasting are numerous, the Celestines wore a white woollen cassock bound with a linen band, and a leathern girdle of the same colour, with a scapular unattached to the body of the dress, and a black hood. It was not permitted to them to wear any shirt save of serge and their dress in short was very like that of the Cistercians. But it is a tradition in the order that in the time of the founder they wore a brown cloth. Media related to Celestine order at Wikimedia Commons Celestines
18.
Order of Saint Benedict
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Each community within the order maintains its own autonomy, while the order itself represents their mutual interests. Internationally, the order is governed by the Benedictine Confederation, a body, established in 1883 by Pope Leo XIIIs Brief Summum semper, individuals whose communities are members of the order generally add the initials OSB after their names. The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Saint Benedict of Nursia circa 529, was the first of the monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino, there is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. It was from the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome that Augustine, the prior, at various stopping places during the journey, the monks left behind them traditions concerning their rule and form of life, and probably also some copies of the Rule. Lérins Abbey, for instance, founded by Honoratus in 375, probably received its first knowledge of the Benedictine Rule from the visit of St. Augustine, in Gaul and Switzerland, it supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually displaced the earlier codes. Largely through the work of Benedict of Aniane, it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire, Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium, as a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. In the Middle Ages monasteries were founded by the nobility. Cluny Abbey was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910, the abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, one of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese community. The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations, Augustine of Canterbury and his monks established the first English Benedictine monastery at Canterbury soon after their arrival in 597. Many of the sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines. Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak, the monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. Germany was evangelized by English Benedictines, willibrord and Boniface preached there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several abbeys. In the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, during the 19th century they were able to return to England, including to Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the few great monastic churches to survive the Dissolution. St. Mildreds Priory, on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian King of Kent, currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns
19.
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
20.
Fumone
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Fumone is a comune in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region of Lazio, located about 70 kilometres southeast of Rome and about 12 kilometres northwest of Frosinone. The town is on a conical hill upon the Sacco Valley. It borders with the municipalities of Alatri, Anagni, Ferentino and Trivigliano, the castle of Fumone was the main Papal stronghold in southern Latium. Today it houses an archaeological museum, pope Celestine V was jailed here after his renunciation of the papal throne. Also notable is the church of Santa Maria Annunziata, which houses relics of St. Sebastian, media related to Fumone at Wikimedia Commons Fumone official website
21.
Campania
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Campania is a region in Southern Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands, Campania was colonised by Ancient Greeks and was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture, the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture, especially in regard to gastronomy, music, architecture, archeological and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum and Velia. The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, the rich natural sights of Campania make it highly important in the tourism industry, especially along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC, the Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures. Its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, during the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious. They renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania, which remained allies of Rome. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls, Capua was eventually starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, and the Romans were victorious. The rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised. As part of the Roman Empire, Campania, with Latium, Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri. It was also during this period that Christianity came to Campania, Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, and there were also several martyrs during this time. Unfortunately, the period of calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii. The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire, under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples. It was during this period elements of Spanish, French
22.
Antipope
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At times between the 3rd and mid-15th century, antipopes were supported by a fairly significant faction of religious cardinals and secular monarchs and kingdoms. Persons who claim to be pope, but have few followers, hippolytus of Rome is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against Pope Callixtus I. Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtuss second successor, Pope Pontian, eusebius quotes from an unnamed earlier writer the story of Natalius, a 3rd-century priest who accepted the bishopric of a heretical group in Rome. Natalius soon repented and tearfully begged Pope Zephyrinus to receive him into communion, the period in which antipopes were most numerous was during the struggles between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors of the 11th and 12th centuries. The emperors frequently imposed their own nominees to further their own causes, the popes, likewise, sometimes sponsored rival imperial claimants in Germany to overcome a particular emperor. The Pisan line was named after the town of Pisa, Italy, to end the schism, in May 1415, the Council of Constance deposed antipope John XXIII of the Pisan line. Pope Gregory XII of the Roman line resigned in July 1415, in 1417, the Council also formally deposed antipope Benedict XIII of Avignon, but he refused to resign. Afterwards, Pope Martin V was elected and was accepted everywhere except in the small, the scandal of the Western Schism created anti-papal sentiment and fed into the Protestant Reformation at the turn of the 16th century. The following table gives the names of the antipopes included in the list of popes and antipopes in the Annuario Pontificio, with the addition of the names of Natalius, an asterisk marks those who were included in the conventional numbering of later Popes who took the same name. More commonly, the antipope is ignored in later papal regnal numbers, for example, there was an Antipope John XXIII, for the additional confusion regarding Popes named John, see Pope John. The uncertainty that in some cases results has made it advisable to abandon the assignation of successive numbers in the list of the popes, the Catholic Encyclopedia places him in its List of Popes, but with the annotation, Considered by some to be an antipope. Other sources classify him as an antipope and those with asterisks were counted in subsequent Papal numbering. Many antipopes created cardinals, known as quasi-cardinals, and a few created cardinal-nephews, in modern times various people claim to be pope and, though they do not fit the technical definition of antipope, are sometimes referred to as such. They are usually leaders of sedevacantist groups who view the See of Rome as vacant, a significant number of these have taken the name Peter II, owing to its special significance. From the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church, they are schismatics, the following were elected by allegedly faithful Catholics, none of whom was a cardinal, Popes of the Legio Maria, based in western Kenya, Timothy Joseph Blasio Atila. David Bawden, elected in Kansas, USA, another conclave, this time held in Assisi, Italy, elected the South African Victor von Pentz, an ex-seminarian of the Society of St Pius X, as Pope Linus II in 1994. Linus took up residence in Hertfordshire, England, Pope of the True Catholic Church, Lucian Pulvermacher, elected in Montana, USA. Mirko Fabris, elected in Zagreb, Croatia, joaquín Llorens, elected in Elx, Spain
23.
Canonization
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Originally, persons were recognized as saints without any formal process. Later, different processes were developed, such as used today in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The first persons honored as saints were the martyrs, pious legends of their deaths were considered affirmations of the truth of their faith in Christ. The Roman Rites Canon of the Mass contains only the names of martyrs, along with that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, since 1962, that of St. Joseph her spouse. By the fourth century, however, confessors—people who had confessed their faith not by dying but by word, examples of such people are Saint Hilarion and Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the West. Their names were inserted in the diptychs, the lists of saints venerated in the liturgy. Since the witness of their lives was not as unequivocal as that of the martyrs and this process is often referred to as local canonization. This approval was required even for veneration of a reputed martyr, and Saint Cyprian recommended that the utmost diligence be observed in investigating the claims of those who were said to have died for the faith. Evidence was sought from the records of the trials or from people who had been present at the trials. Saint Augustine of Hippo tells of the procedure which was followed in his day for the recognition of a martyr, the bishop of the diocese in which the martyrdom took place set up a canonical process for conducting the inquiry with the utmost severity. Other churches still use the older practice, in the Catholic Church, canonization is a decree that allows universal veneration of the saint in the liturgy of the Roman Rite. For permission to venerate merely locally, only beatification is needed, only acceptance of the cultus by the Pope made the cultus universal, because he alone can rule the universal Catholic Church. In the Medieval West, the Apostolic See was asked to intervene in the question of canonizations so as to more authoritative decisions. Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804, thereafter, recourse to the judgment of the Pope was had more frequently. Pope Urban II, Pope Calixtus II, and Pope Eugene III conformed to this discipline, a decree of Pope Alexander III1170 gave the prerogative to the ope thenceforth, so far as the Western Church was concerned. However, the procedure initiated by the decretal of Pope Alexander III was confirmed by a bull of Pope Innocent III issued on the occasion of the canonization of St. Cunegunda in 1200. The bull of Pope Innocent III resulted in increasingly elaborate inquiries to the Apostolic See concerning canonizations and he further regulated both of these acts by issuing his Decreta servanda in beatificatione et canonizatione Sanctorum on 12 March 1642. His work published from 1734-8 governed the proceedings until 1917, the article Beatification and canonization process in 1914 describes the procedures followed until the promulgation of the Codex of 1917
24.
Province of Campobasso
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The Province of Campobasso is a province in the Molise region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Campobasso and it covers an area of c.2,941 square kilometres and has a total population of 225,622. There are 84 comunes in the province, the eastern part of the province is home to a small Croatian minority who speak an archaic dialect of the Croatian language. The Croatians reside primarily in Acquaviva Collecroce, San Felice and Montemitro, the Samnites, a group of Sabellic tribes, dominated this region of Italy including Campania from around 600 B. C. to 290 B. C. Following the war against Rome in 343 B. C. in 290 B. C. the territory of the ancient Sannio region was included in the Roman Regio IV Samnium. As a result of frequent changes in its ownership, the Lombards called the city Campus Vassorum which later became Campobasso, the feudal lords increasingly gained power at the expense of the church. The principality of Capua, established in 860, included the counties of Venafro, Larino, Trivento, Bojano, Isernia, Campomarino, with the advent of the Neapolitan Republic, a new administrative organization was established, divided into departments made up of cantons. On 27 September 1806, after the French occupation, Molise became a province consisting of the districts of Campobasso and Isernia, to which the districts of Larino. Following a constitutional amendment in December 1963 the province of Campobasso was detached from Abruzzo, given the status of Region, the situation remained unchanged until 1970 when 52 municipalities were detached to form the Province of Isernia, established under Law No.2 of February 1970. The Province of Campobasso is situated in eastern Italy on the Adriatic coast, the terrain is varied extending from the mountainous Apennines, down through hills, lakes and inland rivers to the Adriatic coast. The territory is crossed by the valleys of the Trigno, Biferno and Fortore, flanked by hills. Other rivers of note include the Tammaro, the Saccione, the Sinarca, alflow into the Adriatic with the exception of the Tammaro. The central Valle del Biferno includes the 7.45 km2 Lago di Guardialfiera, the other lake of note is Lago di Occhito to the south east of SantElia a Pianisi. The provincial capital of Campobasso lies in the south of the province, north of the Matese mountains, on the coast, the principal towns are Termoli and Campomarino. The population of the province rose between 1861 when there were 229,393 inhabitants and 1951 when it totalled 289,577, over the next 20 years it fell back to 227,641 after which it rose once again to 238,958 in 1991. It has since undergone a slight reduction to 225,622 inhabitants in 2016. As of 1 January 2014, the most populous communes in the province are Campobasso, Termoli, Bojano, Campomarino, Larino, Montenero di Bisaccia, Guglionesi, Riccia, San Martino in Pensilis and Trivento. Acquaviva Collecroce, with a population of 714, is the largest of three municipalities in the province where the inhabitants are of Croatian origin and it is believed they arrived at the end of the 15th century from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
25.
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
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Farmer
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A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry. However, in the not so distant past a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of by labor and attention, farming has been dated back as far as the Neolithic era. By the Bronze Age, the Sumerians had an agriculture specialized labour force by 5000–4000 BCE and they relied on three-person teams when harvesting in the spring. The Ancient Egypt farmers farmed and relied and irrigated their water from the Nile, animal husbandry, the practice of rearing animals specifically for farming purposes, has existed for thousands of years. Dogs were domesticated in East Asia about 15,000 years ago, goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BCE in Asia. Swine or pigs were domesticated by 7000 BCE in the Middle East, the earliest evidence of horse domestication dates to around 4000 BCE. In the U. S. of the 1930s, one farmer fed only himself, the same farmer now feeds well over a hundred people. More distinct terms are used to denote farmers who raise specific domesticated animals. For example, those who raise grazing livestock, such as cattle, sheep, goats, sheep, goat, and cattle farmers might also be referred to respectively as shepherds, goatherds, and cowherds. The term dairy farmer is applied to those primarily in milk production, whether from cattle, goats, sheep. A poultry farmer is one who concentrates on raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, or geese, for meat, egg, or feather production, or commonly. A person who raises a variety of vegetables for market may be called a truck farmer or market gardener, dirt farmer is an American colloquial term for a practical farmer, or one who farms his own land. In developed nations, a farmer is usually defined as someone with an ownership interest in crops or livestock, and those who provide only labor are most often called farmhands. Alternatively, growers who manage farmland for a landowner, sharing the harvest are known as sharecroppers or sharefarmers. Historically, one subsisting in this way may have known as a peasant. In developed nations, however, a person using such techniques on small patches of land might be called a gardener, Farmers are often members of local, regional, or national farmers unions or agricultural producers organizations and can exert significant political influence. The Grange movement in the United States was effective in advancing farmers agendas, especially against railroad, the FNSEA is very politically active in France, especially pertaining to genetically modified food
27.
Shepherd
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A shepherd /ˈʃɛpərd/ or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards herds of sheep. Shepherd derives from Old English sceaphierde, shepherding is among the oldest occupations, beginning some 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool, over the next thousand years, sheep and shepherding spread throughout Eurasia. Some sheep were integrated in the farm along with other animals such as chickens. To maintain a large flock, the sheep must be able to move from pasture to pasture and this required the development of an occupation separate from that of the farmer. The duty of shepherds was to keep their flock intact, protect it from predators, in ancient times, shepherds also commonly milked their sheep, and made cheese from this milk, few shepherds still do this today. In many societies, shepherds were an important part of the economy, unlike farmers, shepherds were often wage earners, being paid to watch the sheep of others. Shepherds also lived apart from society, being largely nomadic and it was mainly a job of solitary males without children, and new shepherds thus needed to be recruited externally. Shepherds were most often the sons of farming peasants who did not inherit any land. Shepherds would normally work in groups either looking after one large flock, or each bringing their own and they would live in small cabins, often shared with their sheep, and would buy food from local communities. Less often shepherds lived in covered wagons that traveled with their flocks, shepherding developed only in certain areas. In the lowlands and river valleys, it was far more efficient to grow grain and cereals than to allow sheep to graze, thus the raising of sheep was confined to rugged and mountainous areas. In pre-modern times shepherding was thus centered on such as the Middle East, Greece, the Pyrenees, the Carpathian Mountains. The shepherds crook is a strong multi-purpose stick or staff, often fashioned with a hooked end, in modern times, shepherding has changed dramatically. The abolition of common lands in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth century moved shepherding from independent nomads to employees of massive estates. Some families in Africa and Asia have their wealth in sheep, in the USA, many sheep herds are flocked over public BLM lands. Wages are higher than was the case in the past, keeping a shepherd in constant attendance can be costly. Also, the eradication of sheep predators in parts of the world have lessened the need for shepherds, in places like Britain, hardy breeds of sheep are frequently left alone without a shepherd for long periods of time
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Benevento
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Benevento was founded in the first century. During the persecution of Diocletian we find mentioned a bishop of this city Januarius who together with Proculus his deacon, the see of Benevento was elevated in status to an archdiocese on 26 May 969. Assunta in Cielo was founded in Lombard times, but was destroyed by Allied bombings in World War II, it has kept the medieval Romanesque façade and bell tower, and the 8th century crypt
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Asceticism
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Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Asceticism is classified into two types, Asceticism has been historically observed in many religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Judaism. Mainstream Islam has lacked asceticism, except for its minority Sufi sect whose long tradition has included strict asceticism, the practitioners of these religions eschewed worldly pleasures and led an abstinent lifestyle, in the pursuit of redemption, salvation or spirituality. Asceticism is seen in the ancient theologies as a journey towards spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the adjective ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askēsis, which means training or exercise. The original usage did not refer to self-denial, but to the training required for athletic events. Its usage later extended to rigorous practices that are used in all religious traditions, in varying degrees to attain redemption. Asceticism has been classified into natural and unnatural forms of asceticism, natural asceticism is defined as a lifestyle where material aspects of life are reduced to utmost simplicity and minimum. This may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on floor or caves, natural asceticism, state Wimbush and Valantasis, does not include maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer. Self-discipline and abstinence in some form and degree are parts of religious practice within many religious, ascetic lifestyle is associated particularly with monks, nuns, fakirs in Abrahamic religions, and bhikkhus, munis, sannyasis, yogis in Indian religions. Christian authors of antiquity such as Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ignatius, John Chrysostom. Scriptural examples of asceticism could be found in the lives of John the Baptist, Jesus, the twelve apostles, the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed ascetic practices of the ancient Jewish sect of Essenes who took vows of abstinence to prepare for a holy war. An emphasis on a religious life was evident in both early Christian writings and practices. Other Christian practitioners of asceticism include individuals such as Simeon Stylites, Saint David of Wales, according to Richard Finn, much of early Christian asceticism has been traced to Judaism, but not to traditions within Greek asceticism. Some of the thoughts in Christianity nevertheless, Finn states, have roots in Greek moral thought. Virtuous living is not possible when an individual is craving bodily pleasures with desire, the deserts of the Middle East were at one time inhabited by thousands of Christian hermits including St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt, and St. Simeon Stylites. In 963 CE, an association of monasteries called Lavra was formed on Mount Athos and this became the most important center of orthodox Christian ascetic groups in the centuries that followed. In the modern era, Mount Athos and Meteora have remained a significant center, sexual abstinence such as those of the Encratites sect of Christians was only one aspect of ascetic renunciation, and both natural and unnatural asceticism have been part of Christian asceticism. The natural ascetic practices have included simple living, begging, fasting and ethical practices such as humility, compassion, patience, such ascetic practices were linked to the Christian concepts of sin and redemption
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Abruzzo
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Abruzzo is a region of Italy in Southern Italy, with an area of 10,763 square km and a population of 1.3 million. Its western border lies 80 km east of Rome, the region is divided into the four provinces of LAquila, Teramo, Pescara, and Chieti. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Geographically, Abruzzo is divided into an area to the west, which includes the Gran Sasso Ditalia. Abruzzo is considered culturally, linguistically, and historically a region of Southern Italy, the Italian Statistical Authority deems it to be part of Southern Italy, partially because of Abruzzos historic association with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. These ensure the survival of 75% of Europes living species including species, such as the small wading dotterel, golden eagle, the Abruzzo chamois, Apennine wolf. Abruzzo is also home to Calderone, Europes southernmost glacier, visiting nineteenth-century Italian diplomat and journalist Primo Levi said that forte e gentile best describes the beauty of the region and the character of its people. Forte e gentile has since become the motto of the region, Abruzzo is divided into four administrative provinces, Humans have inhabited Abruzzo since Neolithic times. A skeleton from Lama dei Peligni in the province of Chieti has been dated to 6,540 bp. The name Abruzzo appears to derive from the Latin Aprutium, although in Roman times the region was known at times as Picenum, Sabina et Samnium, Flaminia et Picenum. Until 1963 it was part of the Abruzzi region with Molise, Abruzzo Citeriore is present day Chieti province. Abruzzo Ulteriore I comprised the Teramo and Pescara provinces, Abruzzo Ulteriore II is now the Province of LAquila, in this province is found the city of Corfinio, the chief city of the Paeligni,7 m. N. of Sulmona in the valley of the Aternus. The site of the town is occupied by the village of Pentima. It appears also as a fortress of importance in the Civil War and these people were honored by Caesar as citizens of Rome. It is said that the name Italia came from this region because of ancient coins that have found here that date from about the 1st century BC. These coins have the name Italia on them and are proof of this fact. This theory of the origin of the name Italia is debated by scholars, archaeologists and it is also said by the Italian Government that Calabria was once called Italia by the ancient Greeks in honour of its inhabitants who were known as the Itali. This occurred hundreds of years before the coins of Corfinio were apparently minted, the late archaeologist Massimo Pallottino also claimed that the name was derived from the Italic tribes that settled in modern Calabria
31.
John the Baptist
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John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptizer, was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the early first century AD. John is revered as a religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháí Faith. He is called a prophet by all of these traditions, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian traditions, John used baptism as the central symbol or sacrament of his messianic movement. Most scholars agree that John baptized Jesus, scholars generally believe Jesus was a follower or disciple of John and several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus early followers had previously been followers of John. John the Baptist is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, according to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself. Christians commonly refer to John as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus, John is also identified with the prophet Elijah. John the Baptist is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of the Nazarenes, the Synoptic Gospels describe John baptising Jesus, in the Gospel of John it is implied in John 1, 32-34. The Gospel of Mark introduces John as a fulfilment of a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah about a messenger being sent ahead, John is described as wearing clothes of camels hair, living on locusts and wild honey. John proclaims baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, and says another will come after him who will not baptize with water, Jesus comes to John, and is baptized by him in the river Jordan. The account describes how, as he emerges from the water, the heavens open, a voice from heaven then says, You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased. Later in the gospel there is an account of Johns death and it is introduced by an incident where the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, hearing stories about Jesus, imagines that this is John the Baptist raised from the dead. It then explains that John had rebuked Herod for marrying Herodias, Herodias demands his execution, but Herod, who liked to listen to John, is reluctant to do so because he fears him, knowing he is a righteous and holy man. The account then describes how Herods daughter Herodias dances before Herod, when the girl asks her mother what she should request, she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, and his head is delivered to her, at her request, Johns disciples take the body away and bury it in a tomb. There are a number of difficulties with this passage, the Gospel wrongly identifies Antipas as King and the ex-husband of Herodias is named as Philip, but he is known to have been called Herod. Although the wording clearly implies the girl was the daughter of Herodias, many texts describe her as Herods daughter, Herodias. Since these texts are early and significant and the reading is difficult, many see this as the original version, corrected in later versions and in Matthew. Josephus says that Herodias had a daughter by the name of Salome, scholars have speculated about the origins of the story
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Penance
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Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants, the word penance derives from Old French and Latin paenitentia, both of which derive from the same root meaning repentance, the desire to be forgiven. Word derivations occur in many languages, rather, Gods kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. In his Of Justification By Faith, Calvin says, without forgiveness no man is pleasing to God, nonetheless, in traditions formed by a Calvinist or Zwinglian sensibility there has traditionally been a stress on reconciliation as a precondition to fellowship. The attitude of penance or repentance can be externalized in acts that a believer imposes on himself or herself, Penitential activity is particularly common during the season of Lent and Holy Week. In some cultural traditions, this week, which commemorates the Passion of Christ, Advent is another season during which, to a lesser extent, penances are performed. Acts of self-discipline are used as tokens of repentance, easier acts of self-discipline include devoting time to prayer or reading of the Bible or other spiritual books. Examples of harder acts of self-discipline are fasting, continence, abstaining from alcohol or tobacco, self-flagellation and the wearing of a cilice are more rarely used. Such acts are associated also with the sacrament, in early Christianity, public penance was imposed on penitents, the severity of which varied according to the seriousness of the offences forgiven. The act imposed is called a penance or epitemia. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, penance is usually called Sacred Mystery of Confession, in Orthodoxy, the intention of the sacramental mystery of Holy Confession is to provide reconciliation with God through means of healing. Similar to the Eastern Catholic Churches, in the Eastern Orthodox Church there are no confessionals, traditionally the penitent stands or kneels before either the Icon of Christ the Teacher or in front of an Icon of Christ, Not Made by Hands. This is because in Orthodox sacramental theology, confession is not made to the priest, but to Christ, on an analogion in front of the penitent has been placed a Gospel Book and a Crucifix. The penitent venerates the Gospel Book and the cross and kneels and this is to show humility before the whole church and before Christ. Once they are ready to start, the priest says, “Blessed is our God, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages, ” reads the Trisagion Prayers, the penitent then accuses himself of sins. The priest quietly and patiently listens, gently asking questions to encourage the penitent not to any sins out of fear or shame. After the confessant reveals all their sins, the priest offers advice, the priest may modify the prayer rule of the penitent, or even prescribe another rule, if needed to combat the sins the penitent struggles most with. Penances, known as epitemia, are given with a therapeutic intent, epitemia are neither a punishment nor merely a pious action, but are specifically aimed at healing the spiritual ailment that has been confessed
33.
Sulmona
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Sulmona is a city and comune of the province of LAquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is in Valle Peligna, a plateau once occupied by a lake that disappeared in prehistoric times, Sulmona was one of the principal cities of the Peligni, as an independent tribe, but no notice of it is found in history before the Roman conquest. A tradition alluded to by Ovid and Silius Italicus, which ascribed its foundation to Solymus, the first mention of Sulmo occurs in the Second Punic War, when its territory was ravaged by Hannibal in 211 BC, who, however, did not attack the city itself. The writings of that rhetorical writer are not, however, to be taken literally, antonius as soon as he presented himself. Not much more is known historically of Sulmo, which, however, from the Liber Coloniarum we learn also that it had received the status of a colony, probably in the time of Augustus, though Pliny does not give it the title of a Colonia. Inscriptions, as well as the geographers and Itineraries, attest its continued existence as a municipal town throughout the Roman Empire, traditionally, the beginning of the Christian age in Sulmona is set in the 3rd century. The city was part of the diocese of Valva, while a Sulmonese bishop is known from the 5th century, one of the earliest bishops was Saint Pamphilus, an Italian pagan convert to Christianity in the 7th century from nearby Corfinium. He was elected bishop of Valva in 682 and died in 706 and he is the patron saint of Sulmona and is buried in the church dedicated to him, the present Sulmona Cathedral. Sulmona became a commune under the Normans. Despite that, it continued to expand and a new line of walls was added in the 14th century, in the 16th century a flourishing paper industry was started. In 1706 the city was razed by an earthquake. Much of the city was rebuilt in the prevailing elegant Baroque style of the 18th Century. Sulmona experienced a boom in the late 19th Century due its railway hub. The anarchist and labor organiser Carlo Tresca was born there in 1879 and was active in the Italian Railroad Workers Federation until emigrating to the US in 1904, sulmonas strategic position also made it a target for air raids during World War II. The railway station, the sections and parts of the old town were damaged. Campo 78 at Sulmona served as a POW camp in both world wars, the camp itself was built on a hillside and consisted of a number of brick barracks surrounded by a high wall. During World War II, conditions in Sulmona, as in many Italian camps, were good, regular rations of macaroni soup and bread were augmented by fresh fruit and cheese in the summer, and food parcels from the International Committee of the Red Cross were distributed regularly. For recreation, the laid out a football field, and they also had equipment for cricket
34.
Pope Urban IV
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Pope Urban IV, born Jacques Pantaléon, was Pope from 29 August 1261 to his death in 1264. He was not a cardinal, only a few popes since his time have not been Cardinals, including Gregory X, Urban V, Urban IV was the son of a cobbler of Troyes, France. He studied theology and common law in Paris and was appointed a canon of Laon, at the First Council of Lyon he attracted the attention of Pope Innocent IV, who sent him on two missions in Germany. One of the missions was to negotiate the Treaty of Christburg between the pagan Prussians and the Teutonic Knights and he became Bishop of Verdun in 1253. In 1255, Pope Alexander IV made him Patriarch of Jerusalem and he had returned from Jerusalem, which was in dire straits, and was at Viterbo seeking help for the oppressed Christians in the East when Alexander IV died. After a three-month vacancy, Pantaléon was chosen by the eight cardinals of the Sacred College to succeed him in an election that concluded on 29 August 1261. He chose the name of Urban IV. Urban IV endeavoured without success to stir up a crusade to restore the Latin Empire, Urbain initiated construction of the Basilica of St. Urbain, Troyes, in 1262. The festival of Corpus Christi was instituted by Urban IV on August 11,1264, Urban asked Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican theologian, to write the texts for the Mass and Office of the feast. This included such famous hymns as the Pange lingua, Tantum ergo, frederick IIs heir Manfred was immersed in these struggles. Urban IVs military captain was the condottiere Azzo dEste, nominally at the head of a league of cities that included Mantua. Charles was Count of Provence by right of his wife, maintaining a base for projecting what would be an expensive Italian war. For two years Urban IV negotiated with Manfred regarding whether Manfred would aid the Latins in regaining Constantinople in return for confirmation of the Hohenstaufen rights in the realm. Before the arrival in Italy of his candidate Charles, Urban IV died at Perugia on 2 October 1264 and his successor was Pope Clement IV, who immediately took up the papal side of the arrangement. Tannhäuser, a prominent German Minnesänger and poet, was a contemporary of Pope Urban IV—the pope died in 1264, and the Minnesänger died shortly after 1265. Two centuries later, the became a major character in a legend which grew up about the Minnesänger. The legendary account makes Tannhäuser a knight and poet who found the Venusberg, the home of Venus. After leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser is filled with remorse and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is possible to be absolved of his sins, Urban replies that forgiveness is as impossible as it would be for his papal staff to send forth green leaves
35.
Pope Gregory X
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Pope Gregory X, born Teobaldo Visconti, was Pope from 1 September 1271 to his death in 1276 and was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. He was elected at the conclusion of an election that ran from 1268 to 1271. He convened the Second Council of Lyons and also new regulations in regards to papal conclaves. Though briefly annulled by Pope Adrian V and Pope John XXI, these remained in force until the 20th century. Pope Clement XI beatified him in 1713 after the confirmation of his cultus, Teobaldo Visconti, a member of the House of Visconti, was born in Piacenza around 1210. It is said that he began his career by attaching himself to the household of the Cistercian Cardinal Giacomo de Pecorari, Bishop of Palestrina and he was attracted by the reputation of holiness which the Cardinal enjoyed, he had been elected abbot of the monastery of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne. Teobaldo became the Cardinals Oeconomus or Majordomo, and was therefore in constant attendance, the Cardinal was Legate of Pope Gregory IX in Tuscany in 1235, in Lombardy in 1236-1237, and in Provence, France and Germany in 1239-1241. It was probably during the assignment in Provence that Teobaldo became known to important French clergy and he was already Canon of the Basilica of S. Antonino in Piacenza when he returned to Piacenza on business of the Cardinal in 1239. He then returned to the Cardinal, whose new assignment in France was actually to preach a crusade against Frederick II Augustus, the Hohenstaufen Emperor, early in 1239, the Pope had again excommunicated the Emperor. Each had demanded an Ecumenical Council to settle their differences, the Pope was willing, but he planned that the council would meet under his auspices and in his territory. He would also bring to Rome all of the enemies of Frederick Hohenstaufen. It was at point in 1240 that Teobaldo also became a Canon of the Cathedral of Lyons. Pope Gregorys ecumenical council never took place, and he died on 22 August 1241, the search for a successor to Gregory IX took more than two months. The new Pope, Celestine IV, who was old and ill, survived his election by only 17 days, the second electoral assembly of 1241 did not take place for some time, however. Only a half-dozen of the 12 cardinals remained in the city and it was not until June 1243 that all the Cardinals, assembled at Anagni and not in Rome, elected Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi of Genoa as Pope Innocent IV. In 1243, when the Bishop of Piacenza died, Innocent IV offered the position to Archdeacon Teobaldo, Cardinal Giacomo, however, died in Rome on 25 June 1244. Upon the death of his patron and spiritual model, Teobaldo decided not to any longer in the Curia, planning to travel to Paris. When he reached Lyons, however, he was received by the Archbishop-elect, Philippe, Teobaldo initially refused, but the Archbishop insisted and finally Teobaldo accepted the position
36.
Second Council of Lyon
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The First Council of Lyon, the Thirteenth Ecumenical Council, took place in 1245. The Second Council of Lyon was the ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, convoked on 31 March 1272 and convened in Lyon, France. Pope Gregory X presided over the council, called to act on a pledge by Byzantine emperor Michael VIII to reunite the Eastern church with the West. The council was attended by about 300 bishops,60 abbots and more than a thousand prelates or their procurators, among whom were the representatives of the universities. Due to the number of attendees, those who had come to Lyon without being specifically summoned were given leave to depart with the blessing of God. Thomas Aquinas had been summoned to the council, but died en route at Fossanova Abbey, bonaventure was present at the first four sessions, but died at Lyon on 15 July 1274. This innovation marks a stepping-stone towards the acknowledgment of coherent ideas of nationhood, the main topics discussed at the council were the conquest of the Holy Land and the union of the Eastern and Western Churches. The first session took place on 7 May 1274 and was followed by five additional sessions on 18 May 1274,4 or 7 June 1274,6 July 1274,16 July 1274, by the end of the council,31 constitutions were promulgated. The Greeks conceded on the issue of the Filioque, and union was proclaimed, the council also recognized Rudolf I as Holy Roman Emperor, ending the Interregnum. Eastern dignitaries arrived at Lyon on 24 June 1274 presenting a letter from the Emperor, on 29 June 1274, Gregory celebrated Mass in St Johns Church where both sides took part. The Greeks read the Nicene Creed, with the Western addition of the Filioque clause sung three times. The council was seemingly a success, but did not provide a solution to the schism, the Emperor was anxious to heal the schism. Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople abdicated, and was replaced by John Bekkos, michaels death in December 1282 put an end to the union of Lyons. His son and successor Andronicus II repudiated the union in the Council of Blachernae and he is to this day reviled by many in the Eastern Church as a traitor to Orthodoxy. The council drew up plans for a crusade to recover the Holy Land, the plans were approved but nothing concrete was done. James I of Aragon wished to organize the expedition at once, ambassadors of the Khan of the Tatars negotiated with the Pope, who asked them to leave Christians in peace during their war against Islam. The Mongol leader Abaqa Khan sent a delegation of 13-16 Mongols to the Council, among the embassy were David of Ashby, and the clerk Rychaldus. According to one chronicler, The Mongols came, not because of the Faith, according to Richardus, Hulagu had also prohibited the molestation of Frank establishments, and had committed to return Jerusalem to the Franks
37.
Benedict of Nursia
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Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, who is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion and Old Catholic Churches. He is a saint of Europe. Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, Lazio in Italy, the Order of Saint Benedict is of later origin and, moreover, not an order as commonly understood but merely a confederation of autonomous congregations. Benedicts main achievement is his Rule of Saint Benedict, containing precepts for his monks and it is heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian, and shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master. But it also has a spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness. As a result, his Rule became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom, for this reason, Benedict is often called the founder of western monasticism. The authenticity of this work has been disputed, especially by Dr Francis Clarke in his two volume work The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues. Book Two consists of a prologue and thirty-eight succinct chapters, gregory’s account of this saint’s life is not, however, a biography in the modern sense of the word. It provides instead a spiritual portrait of the gentle, disciplined abbot, in a letter to Bishop Maximilian of Syracuse, Gregory states his intention for his Dialogues, saying they are a kind of floretum of the most striking miracles of Italian holy men. Gregory did not set out to write a chronological, historically anchored story of Saint Benedict, but he did base his anecdotes on direct testimony. These followers, he says, are Constantinus, who succeeded Benedict as Abbot of Monte Cassino, Valentinianus, Simplicius, and Honoratus, who was abbot of Subiaco when St Gregory wrote his Dialogues. Gregory’s Dialogues Book Two, then, a medieval hagiography cast as a conversation between the Pope and his deacon Peter, is designed to teach spiritual lessons. He was the son of a Roman noble of Nursia, the modern Norcia, a tradition which Bede accepts makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. If 480 is accepted as the year of his birth, the year of his abandonment of his studies, Saint Gregorys narrative makes it impossible to suppose him younger than 19 or 20 at the time. He was at the beginning of life, and he had at his disposal the means to a career as a Roman noble, clearly he was not a child. Benedict does not seem to have left Rome for the purpose of becoming a hermit and he took his old nurse with him as a servant and they settled down to live in Enfide. Enfide, which the tradition of Subiaco identifies with the modern Affile, is in the Simbruini mountains, about forty miles from Rome, a short distance from Enfide is the entrance to a narrow, gloomy valley, penetrating the mountains and leading directly to Subiaco. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening and is ten feet deep
38.
Maiella
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The Maiella is a massif in the Central Apennines, in Abruzzo, central Italy. The mountain is located at the boundary between the provinces of Chieti, Pescara and LAquila, the highest peak is Monte Amaro at 2,793 m, the second highest of the entire Apennine range. The massif is at the center of the Maiella National Park, vast plateaus are present up to 2,500 m. The slopes are characterized by valleys and gorges, carved out by rivers such as the Orfento. Nearby are the Monte Morrone, Monte Porrara and Monti Pizzi groups, the Maiella includes an iced waterfall, known as Il Principiante, located at 1,600 meters and having a height of 25 meters. The area of the Montagna della Maiella has been subject to a major international geoscientific research Project, list of European ultra prominent peaks Media related to Majella at Wikimedia Commons
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Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Monte Morrone, Sulmona
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Pietro Angelerio had been a hermit at the Mountain, at what is now the Eremo di San Onofrio in Monte Morrone. For centuries, this was the abbey of the Celestine order. By the 19th century, the abbey was deconsecrated, functioning more recently as a prison, the first buildings at the site arose by 1293, and were both enlarged over the centuries and devastated by earthquakes in 1456 and catastrophically in 1706. This led to reconstruction in the present Baroque-style. The local design is attributed to Donato Rocco and this facade has a clock added to the tympanum. The bell-tower was originally built in 1596 and based on that of the church dellAnnunziata in Sulmona, the interior of the church while maintaining some of the chapel space, was reshaped into a Greek-cross layout. The walls and ceiling have baroque stucco decoration, also in the Museum are the altarpieces of Saints Caterina e Lucia, and St Benedict writing the Rule by Anton Raphael Mengs. The wooden choir stools of the church escaped the earthquake of 1706, the organ, built in 1681, has artwork by Giovan Battista Del Frate and gilding Caldarella di Santo Stefano. In the choir, devoid of its polychrome marble altar are openings, one leading to a part of the church building with ancient frescoes
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Santa Maria di Collemaggio
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S. Maria di Collemaggio is a large medieval church in LAquila, central Italy. It was the site of the original Papal Jubilee, a penitential observation devised by Pope Celestine V, who is buried there. The church, which ranks as a basilica because of its importance in religious history. The church is a masterpiece of Abruzzese Romanesque and Gothic architecture, the striking jewel-box effect of the exterior is due to a pattern of blocks of alternating pink and white stone, the interior, on the other hand, is massive and austere. Outbuildings include a colonnaded cloister, with the central fountain typical of other similar Italian cloisters. Parts of the structure were damaged in the 2009 earthquake in LAquila. In 1287 the Celestines bought the land, started construction the following year, and consecrated the still-unfinished church in 1289. A Holy Door similar to the one in Rome was added to the church in the 14th century, the church continued to be embellished during the Middle Ages, impetus being provided by the canonization of St. Celestine in 1313 and the translation of his relics in 1327. It was reported that a wall of the collapsed in the earthquake that hit LAquila on April 6,2009. In the first post-quake images of the area, the facade of the church stands behind the restoration scaffolding. Cracks have appeared in areas of the walls. The most severe damage to the basilica was the roof and dome collapse over the transept, the tomb of Pope Celestine was also damaged. The main decoration of the façade, however, consists in the use of contrasting stone arranged in a sort of tapestry of cruciform elements, the façade lacks any of the customary crowning gables or other superstructures and may be unfinished. An octagonal belfry, reduced to a stub after it had to be demolished following an earthquake, the three portals and three rose-windows are all different. The central door was reworked in the 15th century, decorated with blank niches arranged in two rows over a base composed of square panels carved with floral motifs. A rear view of the shows a congeries of various extensions over the centuries. The interior follows the plan of a nave and two side aisles, each one divided from it by a row of columns, from which arches support a tall wooden ceiling. The floor of the nave is in the red and white stone as the façade
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Perugia
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Perugia is the capital city of both the region of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the river Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about 164 kilometres north of Rome and 148 km south-east of Florence and it covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. The region of Umbria is bordered by Tuscany, Lazio, the history of Perugia goes back to the Etruscan period, Perugia was one of the main Etruscan cities. Perugia is also a cultural and artistic centre of Italy. The famous painter Pietro Vannucci, nicknamed Perugino, was a native of Città della Pieve and he decorated the local Sala del Cambio with a beautiful series of frescoes, eight of his pictures can also be admired in the National Gallery of Umbria. Perugino was the teacher of Raphael, the great Renaissance artist who produced five paintings in Perugia, another famous painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia. Galeazzo Alessi is the most famous architect from Perugia, the citys symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city. Perugia was an Umbrian settlement but first appears in history as Perusia, one of the 12 confederate cities of Etruria. Fabius Pictors account, utilized by Livy, of the carried out against the Etruscan League by Fabius Maximus Rullianus in 310 or 309 BC. At that time a thirty-year indutiae was agreed upon, however, in 295 Perusia took part in the Third Samnite War and was reduced, with Volsinii and Arretium, a number of lead bullets used by slingers have been found in and around the city. Negotiations with the besieging forces fell to the bishop, Herculanus. Totila is said to have ordered the bishop to be flayed and beheaded, st. Herculanus later became the citys patron saint. In the Lombard period Perugia is spoken of as one of the cities of Tuscia. Peter, acknowledged the validity of the statement and recognised the established civic practices as having the force of law. However this dominant tendency was rather an anti-Germanic and Italian political strategy, midway through the 14th century Bartholus of Sassoferrato, who was a renowned jurist, asserted that Perugia was dependent upon neither imperial nor papal support. Civic peace was constantly disturbed in the 14th century by struggles between the party representing the people and the nobles. A citadel known as the Rocca Paolina, after the name of Pope Paul III, was built, in 1797, the city was conquered by French troops. On 4 February 1798, the Tiberina Republic was formed, with Perugia as capital, in 1799, the Tiberina Republic merged to the Roman Republic
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College of Cardinals
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The College of Cardinals, formerly styled Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. A function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory and it also attends various functions as a matter of protocol, for example, during the canonization process. Historically, cardinals were the clergy serving parishes of the city of Rome under its bishop, the College acquired particular importance following the crowning of Henry IV as King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor at the age of six, after the unexpected death of Henry III in 1056. This was significant as the aims and views of the Holy Roman Emperor, churchmen involved in what has become known as the Gregorian Reform took advantage of the new kings lack of power and in 1059 reserved the election of the pope to the clergy of the Church in Rome. Reserving to the cardinals the election of the pope represented a significant shift in the balance of power in the Early Medieval world. From the beginning of the 12th century, the College of Cardinals started to meet as such, in the Catholic church, the Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Cardinal Vice-Dean are the president and vice-president of the college. Both are elected by and from the six Cardinal-bishops, but the election requires Papal confirmation, except for presiding and delegating administrative tasks, they have no authority over the cardinals, acting as primus inter pares. The Fundamental Law of Vatican City State requires that appointees to the legislative body. The word cardinal is derived from the Latin cardo, meaning hinge, the office of cardinal as it is known today slowly evolved during the first millennium from the clergy of Rome. In 845 the Council of Meaux required Bishops to establish Cardinal titles or parishes in their towns and those who were assigned to the latter roles were given the titles of Legatus a latere and Missus Specialis. During the pontificate of Stephen V, the three classes of the College that are present today began to form, Stephen decreed that all cardinal-bishops were bound to sing Mass on rotation at the high altar at St. Peters Basilica, one per Sunday. The first class to form was that of the cardinal-deacons, direct descendants of the original seven ordained in Acts 6, followed by the cardinal-priests, and finally. The College played a part in various reforms within the Church as well. In the 12th century, the Third Lateran Council declared that only Cardinals could assume the papacy, in 1130, under Urban II, all the classes were permitted to take part in papal elections, up to this point, only cardinal-bishops had this role. By the end of the 14th century, the practice of solely Italian cardinals had ceased, between the 14th century and 17th century, there was much struggle for the College between the cardinals of the day and the reigning popes. The most effective way for a pope to increase his power was to increase the number of cardinals and those cardinals in power saw these actions as an attempt to weaken their influence. In 1517, Pope Leo X added another thirty-one cardinals, bringing the total to sixty-five so that he could have a majority in the College of Cardinals. Paul IV brought the total to seventy, Pope Pius IV raised an additional six
"Pope St. Celestine V". Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913.
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