1.
Gap, Hautes-Alpes
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Gap is a commune in southeastern France, the capital and largest town of the Hautes-Alpes department. At 750 m above sea level, it is Frances highest prefecture, together with other Alpine towns, Gap engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Gap was awarded Alpine Town of the Year in 2002, in 2013 Gap was named the sportiest city in France by the national sports newspaper LÉquipe. With its 40,761 inhabitants, it is the town of an urban area of 62,072 inhabitants. The region around Gap is known as Gapençais, the commune of Gap is almost entirely located in the Sillon de Gap, a wide valley bottom located about 735 metres above sea level and including the western slopes almost 2,000 metres. This valley was shaped by the Glacier de la Durance during the last ice age, thus, soils are very often formed by moraine deposits. No less than five levels of lateral and frontal moraines are observable and these are clearly visible, especially on the southern slopes of the Col Bayard, where they were formed in places of the terraces used by agriculture. In retreating, the glacier also left erratics of several metres high, examples include, among others, the erratic boulders of Peyre-Ossel and Justice. The cover of debris is omnipresent in the Sillon de Gap but is not the only vestige of the Quaternary glaciation. There is also the typical topography of glacial valleys, the location of the town of Gap corresponds to an Ombilic glaciaire, where large quantities of clay were deposited. Upstream lies the Verrou glaciaire of Pont-Sarrazin and downstream of Tourronde, the mechanical action of the glacier de la Durance was facilitated by the presence of relatively friable layers. The part which is central and south-east of the town consists mainly of soft rocks and they consist of soft schist of bluish or brown colors. In the northwestern part are the rocks of lighter colours, Tithonian limestone. The geology and terrain of Gap The town of Gap is crossed by the Luye River, during its passage through the commune, the Luye receives several torrents. It merges on the bank with the 5.1 kilometres long Buzon, the Bonne and the torrent du Cristaye, and on the left bank, the La Magdeleine Canal, the Riotord. In the northwest of the commune lie the Petit Buëch sources, around 1,700 metres above sea level, they are formed by several streams which converge at the old village of Chaudun. Waters around Gap Its temperate climate is influenced by a Mediterranean climate, thus the main feature of the local climate is the importance of the sunshine enjoyed by the city. Furthermore, snowfall underscores the mountain character of the city, thunderstorms are frequent in summer, fog is rather rare
2.
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
3.
Old Swiss Confederacy
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The Old Swiss Confederacy was a precursor of the modern state of Switzerland. It was a confederation of independent small states which formed during the 14th century. From a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, the confederacy expanded to include the cities of Zurich and this formed a rare union of rural and urban communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire. Its success resulted in the addition of more confederates, increasing the number of cantons to thirteen by 1513, the confederacy pledged neutrality in 1515 and 1647, although many Swiss served privately as mercenaries in the Italian Wars and during the Early Modern period. After the Swabian War of 1499 the confederacy was a de facto independent state throughout the modern period. The Swiss Confederacy fell to invasion by the French Revolutionary Army in 1798, the adjective “old” was introduced after the Napoleonic era with Ancien Régime, retronyms distinguishing the pre-Napoleonic from the restored confederation. During its existence the confederacy was known as Eidgenossenschaft or Eydtgnoschafft, in reference to treaties among cantons, territories of the confederacy came to be known collectively as Schweiz or Schweizerland, with the English Switzerland beginning during the mid-16th century. From that time the Confederacy was seen as a single state, the foundation of the Confederacy is marked by the Rütlischwur or the 1315 Pact of Brunnen. Since 1889, the Federal Charter of 1291 among the communes of Uri, Schwyz. The initial pact was augmented by pacts with the cities of Lucerne, Zürich, in several battles with Habsburg armies, the Swiss were victorious, they conquered the rural areas of Glarus and Zug, which became members of the confederacy. From 1353 to 1481, the federation of eight cantons—known in German as the Acht Orte —consolidated its position, the members enlarged their territory at the expense of local counts—primarily by buying judicial rights, but sometimes by force. The Eidgenossenschaft, as a whole, expanded through military conquest, the Aargau was conquered in 1415, in both cases, the Swiss profited from weakness in the Habsburg dukes. In the south, Uri led a military territorial expansion that would by 1515 lead to the conquest of the Ticino, none of these territories became members of the confederacy, they had the status of condominiums. At this time, the eight cantons gradually increased their influence on neighbouring cities, individual cantons concluded pacts with Fribourg, Appenzell, Schaffhausen, the abbot and the city of St. Gallen, Biel, Rottweil, Mulhouse and others. These allies became closely associated with the confederacy, but were not accepted as full members, the Burgundy Wars prompted a further enlargement of the confederacy, Fribourg and Solothurn were accepted in 1481. In the Swabian War against Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, the Swiss were victorious, the associated cities of Basel and Schaffhausen joined the confederacy as a result of that conflict, and Appenzell followed suit in 1513 as the thirteenth member. The federation of thirteen cantons constituted the Old Swiss Confederacy until its demise in 1798, the expansion of the confederacy was stopped by the Swiss defeat in the 1515 Battle of Marignano. Only Berne and Fribourg were still able to conquer the Vaud in 1536, the Reformation in Switzerland led to doctrinal division amongst the cantons
4.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
5.
Languages of Switzerland
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The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. In 2013, native speakers of German number about 5 million, French number 1.8 million, Italian,645,000, the German region is roughly in the east, north and center, the French part in the west and the Italian area in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east, the cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual, Graubünden is officially trilingual. In 17 Swiss cantons, German is the official language. In the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Valais, French is co-official, in the canton of Graubünden, more than half of the population speaks German. In each case, all languages are languages of the respective canton. In Germany Welsch and Welschland refer to Italy, there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, the marked subsidiarity of the Swiss federalism, where many political decisions are taken at municipal or cantonal level, supports this attitude. Nevertheless, in 2013,10. 1%, or about 830,000 of the Swiss residents speak High German aka Standard German at home, but probably mainly due to German immigrants. By the Middle Ages, a difference had developed between the rural cantons of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and the city cantons, divided by views about trade. After the Reformation, all cantons were either Catholic or Protestant, Romandy is the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It covers the area of the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of Bern, Valais,1.9 million people live in Romandy. Standard Swiss French and the French of France are the same language, for example, like some other regions of the French-speaking world, Swiss people use septante instead of soixante-dix and nonante instead of quatre-vingt-dix. In the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg, speakers use instead of the Standard French quatre-vingts. Sou is used throughout Romandy for a 5-centime coin, as is tune when referring to a 5-Swiss-franc piece, historically, the vernacular language used by inhabitants of most parts of Romandy was Franco-Provençal. Franco-Provençal is a language considered to be halfway between the langue doïl and Occitan. Standard French and Franco-Provençal/Arpitan, linguistically, are distinct and mutual intelligibility is limited, increasingly, Franco-Provençal/Arpitan is used only by members of the older generations. The term Romandy does not formally exist in the political system, the television channel Télévision Suisse Romande serves the Romande community across Switzerland, is syndicated to TV5, and CanalSat Romande on 2 October
6.
Calvinism
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Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the tradition which it denotes has always been diverse. The movement was first called Calvinism by Lutherans who opposed it, early influential Reformed theologians include Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B, Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, and Gordon Clark were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I, sproul, Timothy J. Keller, John Piper, David Wells, and Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of polity, most are presbyterian or congregationalist. Calvinism is largely represented by Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions, the biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 80 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship, Calvinism is named after John Calvin. It was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552 and it was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name what they perceived to be heresy after its founder. Nevertheless, the term first came out of Lutheran circles, Calvin denounced the designation himself, They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism. It is not hard to guess where such a deadly hatred comes from that they hold against me, despite its negative connotation, this designation became increasingly popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later. Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvins own words—renewed accordingly with the order of gospel. Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two groups, Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition, some have also argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the presence of Christ in the Lords supper. Each of these also understood salvation to be by grace alone. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther
7.
Evangelism
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Evangelism is the preaching of the gospel or the practice of proselytizing a particular doctrine or set of beliefs to others with the intention of converting others to the Christian faith. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in a leadership position, Christian groups who actively encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or evangelist. The scriptures do not use the word evangelism, but evangelist is used in Acts 21,8, Ephesians 4,11, and 2 Timothy 4,5. The word evangelist comes from the Koine Greek word εὐαγγέλιον via Latinised evangelium as used in the titles of the Four Gospels, authored by Matthew, Mark, Luke. The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον originally meant a reward given to the messenger for good news, the verb form of euangelion, occurs rarely in older Greek literature outside the New Testament, making its meaning more difficult to ascertain. Parallel texts of the Gospels of Luke and Mark reveal a relationship between the verb euangelizo and a Greek verb kerusso, which means to proclaim. While evangelism is usually regarded as converting non-Christians to Christianity, this is not always the proper usage of the word, if converting to Christianity includes services or material benefits, evangelism is called proselytism. Different denominations follow different theological interpretations which reflect upon the point of who is doing the actual conversion, calvinists, for example, believe the soul is converted only if the Holy Spirit is effective in the act. Catholic missionary work in Russia is commonly seen as evangelism, not proselytism and it is entrance into the gift of communion with Christ. In recent history, certain Bible passages have been used to promote evangelism, breaking from tradition and going beyond television and radio a wide range of methods have been developed to reach people not inclined to attend traditional events in churches or revival meetings. Dramas such as Heavens Gates, Hells Flames have gained popularity since the 1980s. These dramas typically depict characters who die and learn whether they will go to heaven or hell. The child evangelism movement is a Christian evangelism movement that originated in the 20th century and it focuses on the 4/14 Window which centers on evangelizing children between the ages of 4 and 14 years old. Other entertainment-based Christian evangelism events include comedy, live theater and music, the Christian music industry has also played a significant role in modern evangelism. Evangelists such as Reinhard Bonnke conduct mass evangelistic crusades around the world, sometimes, the regular minister of a church is called a preacher in a way that other groups would typically use the term pastor. The evangelist in some churches is one that travels from town to town and from church to church, many Christians of various theological perspectives would call themselves evangelists because they are spreaders of the gospel. Many churches believe one of their functions is to function as evangelists to spread the evangelist belief that Jesus is savior of humanity. The title of evangelist is often associated with those who lead large meetings like those of Billy Graham, Luis Palau, pérez possibly in tents or existing church buildings, or those who address the public in street corner preaching, which targets listeners who happen to pass nearby
