1.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
2.
Excommunication
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The word excommunication means putting a specific individual or group out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group, Excommunication may involve banishment, shunning, and shaming, depending on the religion, the offense that caused excommunication, or the rules or norms of the religious community. 1 Corinthians 5, 1-8 directs the church at Corinth to excommunicate a man for sexual immorality, in 2 Corinthians 2, 5-11, the man, having repented and suffered the punishment by the majority is restored to the church. In Romans 16,17, Paul writes to mark those who cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. Also, in 2 John 1, 10-11, the writer advises believers that whosoever transgresseth and he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, within the Catholic Church, there are differences between the discipline of the majority Latin Church regarding excommunication and that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Excommunication can be either latae sententiae or ferendae sententiae, according to Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, excommunication does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities. g. A thus excommunicated bishop cannot validly invest a priest as pastor of a vacant parish and they are urged to retain a relationship with the Church, as the goal is to encourage them to repent and return to active participation in its life. These are the effects for those who have incurred a latae sententiae excommunication. Since excommunication excludes from reception of the sacraments, absolution from excommunication is required before absolution can be given from the sin that led to the censure, in many cases, the whole process takes place on a single occasion in the privacy of the confessional. For some more serious wrongdoings, absolution from excommunication is reserved to a bishop, another ordinary and these can delegate a priest to act on their behalf. Such ceremonies are not held today, and instead are simply announced by the bishop, interdict is a censure similar to excommunication. It too excludes from ministerial functions in public worship and from reception of the sacraments, in the Eastern Catholic Churches, excommunications is imposed only by decree, never incurred automatically by latae sententiae excommunication. A distinction is made between minor and major excommunication and those on whom minor excommunication has been imposed are excluded from receiving the Eucharist and can also be excluded from participating in the Divine Liturgy. They can even be excluded from entering a church when divine worship is being celebrated there, the decree of excommunication must indicate the precise effect of the excommunication and, if required, its duration. They are to be removed from participation in the Divine Liturgy, and they are deprived of the right to vote or to be elected. Minor excommunication is roughly equivalent to the interdict in Western law, under current law, an excommunicate is never vitandus. Persons belonging to an Eastern Catholic Church are never subject to a latae sententiae punishment, according to the Code of Canon Law of 1917, the excommunications reserved to the Apostolic See were grouped in three categories, those reserved 1
3.
Council of Constance
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The Council of Constance is the 15th century ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Western Schism, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining papal claimants, the Council also condemned Jan Hus as a heretic and facilitated his execution by the civil authority. It also ruled on issues of sovereignty, the rights of pagans. The Council is important for its relationship to ecclesial Conciliarism and Papal supremacy, the councils main purpose was to end the Papal schism which had resulted from the confusion following the Avignon Papacy. After thirty years of schism, the Council of Pisa had sought to resolve the situation by deposing the two claimant popes and elected a new pope, Alexander V. The council claimed that in such a situation, a council of bishops had greater authority than just one bishop, therefore, many voices, including Sigismund, King of the Romans and of Hungary, pressed for another council to resolve the issue. That council was called by John XXIII and was held from 16 November 1414 to 22 April 1418 in Constance, according to Joseph McCabe, the council was attended by roughly 29 cardinals,100 learned doctors of law and divinity,134 abbots, and 183 bishops and archbishops. Sigismund arrived on Christmas Eve 1414 and exercised a profound and continuous influence on the course of the council in his capacity of imperial protector of the Church, an innovation at the Council was that instead of voting as individuals, the bishops voted in national blocs. The vote by nations was in great measure the work of the English, German, the four nations consisted of England, France, Italy, and Germany, with Poles, Hungarians, Danes, and Scandinavians counted with the Germans. While the Italian representatives made up half of those in attendance, they were equal in influence to the English, many members of the new assembly strongly favored the voluntary abdication of all three popes, as did King Sigismund. Although the Italian bishops who had accompanied John XXIII in large numbers supported his legitimacy, partly in response to a fierce anonymous attack on his character from an Italian source, on 2 March 1415 he promised to resign. However, on 20 March he secretly fled the city and took refuge at Schaffhausen in territory of his friend Frederick, haec Sancta Synodus marks the high-water mark of the Conciliar movement of reform. The Church declared the first sessions of the Council of Constance an invalid and illicit assembly of bishops, the acts of the Council were not made public until 1442, at the behest of the Council of Basel, they were printed in 1500. The creation of a book on how to die was ordered by the council, in part because of the constant presence of the King, other rulers demanded that they have a say in who would be pope. This would pave the way for the end of the Western Schism, on 4 July 1415 the Bull of Gregory XII which appointed Malatesta and Cardinal Dominici of Ragusa as his proxies at the council was formally read before the assembled Bishops. The cardinal then read a decree of Gregory XII which convoked the council, thereupon, the Bishops voted to accept the summons. Prince Malatesta immediately informed the Council that he was empowered by a commission from Pope Gregory XII to resign the Papal Throne on the Pontiffs behalf and he asked the Council whether they would prefer to receive the abdication at that point or at a later date. The Bishops voted to receive the Papal abdication immediately, former Pope Gregory XII was then created titular Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Ruffina by the Council, with rank immediately below the Pope
4.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
5.
Avignon Papacy
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The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1377 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown, Clement declined to move to Rome, remaining in France, and in 1309, he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. The absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy, a total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all were French, and they increasingly fell under the influence of the French Crown. Finally, on September 13,1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, officially ending the Avignon Papacy. Despite this return, following Gregorys death on March 27,1378 and this started a second line of Avignon popes, now regarded as illegitimate and known as antipopes. The second and final Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France, following five years of siege by the French, he fled to Perpignan on March 11,1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance, after two popes had reigned in opposition to the Papacy in Rome. Parties within the Roman Church were divided in their allegiance among the claimants to the office of pope. The Council of Constance finally resolved the controversy in 1417 when the election of Pope Martin V was accepted by all. Avignon and the enclave to the east remained part of the Papal States until the French Revolution. The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages played a major role in addition to its spiritual role. The conflict between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor was fundamentally a dispute over which of them was the leader of Christendom in secular matters. In the early 14th century, the papacy was well past the prime of its secular rule – its importance had peaked in the 12th and 13th centuries, one exception was Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was twice excommunicated by the Pope during a Crusade. Frederick II ignored this and was successful in the Holy Land. This state of affairs culminated in the declaration of papal supremacy, Unam sanctam. In that papal bull, Pope Boniface VIII decreed that it is necessary to salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff. This was directed primarily to King Phillip IV of France who responded by saying, in 1303 AD, Pope Boniface VIII followed up with a bull that would excommunicate the king of France and put the interdict over France, and depose the entire clergy of France. Before this was finalized, Italian allies of the King of France broke into the papal residence, nicholas Boccasini was elected as his successor and took the name Pope Benedict XI
6.
Christendom
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The term cristendom existed in Old English, but it had the sense now taken by Christianity. The current sense of the word of lands where Christianity is the dominant religion emerges in Late Middle English, English Christianity equalling German Christentum, French christianisme. The reason is the fragmentation of Western Christianity at that time both in theological and in political respect. Christendom as a term is thus meaningful in the context of the Middle Ages, and arguably during the European wars of religion. The Christian world is known collectively as the Corpus Christianum. The Christian polity, embodying a less secular meaning, can be compatible with the idea of both a religious and a body, Corpus Christianum. The Corpus Christianum can be seen as a Christian equivalent of the Muslim Ummah, the word Christendom is also used with its other meaning to frame-true Christianity. In its most broad term, it refers to the worlds Christian majority countries, unlike the Muslim world, which has a geo-political and cultural definition that provides a primary identifier for a large swath of the world, Christendom is more complex. For example, the Americas and Europe are considered part of Christendom and it is also less geographically cohesive than the Muslim world, which stretches almost continuously from North Africa to South Asia. There is a common and nonliteral sense of the word that is much like the terms Western world, when Thomas F. Connolly said, There isnt enough power in all Christendom to make that airplane what we want. In the beginning of Christendom, early Christianity was a spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century Jewish sect. The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations, the earliest recorded use of the terms Christianity and Catholic, dates to this period, the 2nd century, attributed to Ignatius of Antioch c. Early Christendom would close at the end of persecution of Christians after the ascension of Constantine the Great and the Edict of Milan in AD313. Christendom has referred to the medieval and renaissance notion of the Christian world as a sociopolitical polity, in this period, members of the Christian clergy wield political authority. This model of relations was accepted by various Church leaders. The Church gradually became an institution of the Empire. Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380, the Byzantine Empire was the last bastion of Christendom. Christendom would take a turn with the rise of the Franks, on Christmas Day 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne resulting in the creation of another Christian king beside the Christian emperor in the Byzantine state
7.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
8.
Anagni
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Anagni is an ancient town and comune in Frosinone Province, Latium, central Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome. It is a center in Ciociaria. Anagni still maintains the appearance of a medieval hill town, with small twisting streets. It is built inside Roman boundary walls, the built-up area initially included only the acropolis and partially defended by walls in opus quasi-quadratum. Under Roman domination, the map of the city changed, starting from the modification of the boundary walls. The archaic inhabited places spread out protected by the so-called Servian walls, made with stone blocks placed in alternate lines and dating back to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Most of the walls have been subjected to rebuilding and restoration in the course of the first millennium AD. The municipality borders with Acuto, Ferentino, Fumone, Gavignano, Gorga, Montelanico, Paliano, Piglio, the town is divided into eight districts, or contrade of Castello, Cerere, Colle SantAngelo, Piscina, Torre, Trivio, Tufoli and Valle SantAndrea. It counts the hamlets of Ara Stella, Castellone, Cucugnano, Collacciano, Faito, Osteria della Fontana, Pantanello, San Filippo, San Bartolomeo, San Filippo, Tufano-Vallenova and Vignola-Monti. Several objects made of bone and flint stone and also two human molars and incisors belonging to fossil Homo erectus have been found in Fontana Ranuccio, only two words remain of their language, Samentum, a strip of sacrificial skin, and Bututti, a sort of funeral lament. Anagni was an important city and spiritual centre of the Hernici, of these writings, there is a sole survivor, which is the Liber Linteus. It is speculated that, at the foot of the hill on which the city stands, there was the so-called Maritime Circle, in 307 BC, the Hernici, with the exception of Aletrium, Verulae, and Ferentinum declared war on Rome. After suffering setbacks the Hernici offered unconditional surrender, in 306 BC the towns which had not joined the war remained independent, while “Anagnia and such others as had borne arms against the Romans were admitted to citizenship without the right to vote. They were prohibited from holding councils and from intermarrying, and were allowed no magistrates save those who had charge of religious rites. ”Anagni preserved her religious autonomy and strategic importance. In Imperial times, many emperors spent their summers in Anagni to escape the heat of Rome, the most notable ones being Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Commodus, and Caracalla. By the end of the Roman Empire, a deep political, Anagni has been a diocese, the seat of a bishop, since the 5th century. In the 9th century, the first Cathedral was built on the ruins of the dedicated to the Goddess Ceres. As a result, several events connected with the struggle between Papacy and Empire took place in the city, including some of the most important political events in two centuries
9.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
10.
Kingdom of Scotland
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The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843, which joined with the Kingdom of England to form a unified Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the third of the island of Great Britain. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert I it fought a war of independence. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, in 1707, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union. The Crown was the most important element of government, the Scottish monarchy in the Middle Ages was a largely itinerant institution, before Edinburgh developed as a capital city in the second half of the 15th century. The Scottish Crown adopted the conventional offices of western European courts, Parliament also emerged as a major legal institution, gaining an oversight of taxation and policy, but was never as central to the national life as its counterpart in England. In the 17th century, the creation of Justices of Peace, the continued existence of courts baron and the introduction of kirk sessions helped consolidate the power of local lairds. Scots law developed into a system in the Middle Ages and was reformed and codified in the 16th and 17th centuries. Under James IV the legal functions of the council were rationalised, in 1532, the College of Justice was founded, leading to the training and professionalisation of lawyers. David I is the first Scottish king known to have produced his own coinage, Early Scottish coins were virtually identical in silver content to English ones, but from about 1300 their silver content began to depreciate more rapidly than the English coins. At the union of the Crowns in 1603 the Scottish pound was fixed at only one-twelfth the value of the English pound, the Bank of Scotland issued pound notes from 1704. Scottish currency was abolished by the Act of Union, Scotland is half the size of England and Wales in area, but has roughly the same length of coastline. Geographically Scotland is divided between the Highlands and Islands and the Lowlands, the Highlands had a relatively short growing season, which was further shortened during the Little Ice Age. From Scotlands foundation to the inception of the Black Death, the population had grown to a million, following the plague and it expanded in the first half of the 16th century, reaching roughly 1.2 million by the 1690s. Significant languages in the kingdom included Gaelic, Old English, Norse and French. Christianity was introduced into Scotland from the 6th century, in the Norman period the Scottish church underwent a series of changes that led to new monastic orders and organisation. During the 16th century, Scotland underwent a Protestant Reformation that created a predominately Calvinist national kirk, there were a series of religious controversies that resulted in divisions and persecutions. The Scottish Crown developed naval forces at various points in its history, Land forces centred around the large common army, but adopted European innovations from the 16th century, and many Scots took service as mercenaries and as soldiers for the English Crown
