1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Worcester
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Worcester is a city in Worcestershire, England,31 miles southwest of Birmingham and 27 miles north of Gloucester. The River Severn flanks the western side of the city centre, the Battle of Worcester was the final battle of the English Civil War, where Oliver Cromwells New Model Army defeated King Charles Is Cavaliers. Worcester is known as the home of Royal Worcester Porcelain, composer Edward Elgar, Lea & Perrins, makers of traditional Worcestershire sauce, the trade route past Worcester which later formed part of the Roman Ryknild Street dates to Neolithic times. The position commanded a ford over the River Severn and was fortified by the Britons around 400 BC and it would have been on the northern border of the Dobunni and probably subject to the larger communities of the Malvern hillforts. It may have been the Vertis mentioned in the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography, using charcoal from the Forest of Dean, the Romans operated pottery kilns and ironworks at the site and may have built a small fort. In the 3rd century, Roman Worcester occupied an area than the subsequent medieval city. Industrial production ceased and the settlement contracted to a position along the lines of the old British fort at the river terraces southern end. This settlement is identified with the Cair Guiragon listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons attributed to Nennius. This is not a British name but an adaption of its Old English name Weorgoran ceaster, the Weorgoran were precursors of Hwicce and probably West Saxons who entered the area some time after the 577 Battle of Dyrham. The oldest known church was St Helens, which was certainly British, the town was almost destroyed in 1041 after a rebellion against the punitive taxation of Harthacanute. During this time, the relocated to the nearby Bevere Island,2 miles upriver. The following century, the town was attacked several times during The Anarchy, by late medieval times the population had grown to around 10,000 as the manufacture of cloth started to become a large local industry. The town was designated a county corporate, giving it autonomy from local government. Worcester was the site of the Battle of Worcester, when Charles II attempted to regain the crown, in the fields a little to the west and south of the city. Worcester had supported the Parliamentary cause before the outbreak of war in 1642 but spent most of the war under Royalist occupation. After the war it used its location as the site of the final battles of the First Civil War. As part of this and not based upon any historical fact, it invented the epithet Fidelis Civitas, in 1670, the River Severn broke its banks and the subsequent flood was the worst ever seen by Worcester. The closest flood height to what is known as The Flood of 1670 was when the Severn flooded in the rains of July 2007
3.
Worcestershire
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Worcestershire is a county in the West Midlands of England. Between 1974 and 1998, it was merged with the county of Herefordshire as Hereford. The cathedral city of Worcester is the largest settlement and county town, other towns in the county include Redditch, Bromsgrove, Stourport-on-Severn, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, and Malvern. The north-east of Worcestershire includes part of the industrial West Midlands, the county is divided into six administrive districts, Worcester, Redditch, Wychavon, Malvern Hills, Wyre Forest, and Bromsgrove. The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, to the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills and the spa town of Malvern. The south of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the edge of the Cotswolds. Two major rivers flow through the county, the Severn and the Avon, Worcestershire was the heartland of the early English kingdom of the Hwicce. It was absorbed by the Kingdom of Mercia during the 7th century and it was a separate ealdormanship briefly in the 10th century before forming part of the Earldom of Mercia in the 11th century. In the years leading up to the Norman conquest, the Church, supported by the cathedral, Evesham Abbey, Pershore Abbey, Malvern Priory, and other religious houses, increasingly dominated the county. The last known Anglo-Saxon sheriff of the county was Cyneweard of Laughern, on 4 August 1265, Simon de Montfort was killed in the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire. In 1642, the Battle of Powick Bridge was the first major skirmish of the English Civil War, during the Middle Ages, much of the countys economy was based on the wool trade. Many areas of its forests, such as Feckenham Forest, Horewell Forest. Droitwich Spa, situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of production from Roman times. These old industries have declined, to be replaced by other. The county is home to the worlds oldest continually published newspaper. Malvern was one of the centres of the 19th century rise in English spa towns due to Malvern water being believed to be very pure, containing nothing at all. The 2011 census found the population of Worcestershire to be 566,169, while this change is in line with the nationwide trend of White British peoples share of the population shrinking, Worcestershire is still much more ethnically homogeneous than the national average. In 2011 England as a whole was 79. 8% White British, the most notable were Dudley, Evenlode, and the area around Shipston-on-Stour
4.
Christian denomination
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A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organisation, leadership and doctrine. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—are sometimes known as branches of Christianity or denominational families. Individual Christian groups vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another, several groups claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor of the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs. Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term denomination to describe themselves, however, the Catholic Church does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church. This view is rejected by other Christian denominations, Protestant denominations account for approximately 37 percent of Christians worldwide. Together, Catholicism and Protestantism comprise Western Christianity, Western Christian denominations prevail in Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, is the second-largest Christian organization in the world, unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a communion of fully independent autocephalous churches that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others. The Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Christian denominations are represented mostly in Eastern Europe, North Asia, the Middle East and Northeast Africa. Christians have various doctrines about the Church and about how the church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox hold that their own organizations faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other, sixteenth-century Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of theologies and practices that they considered to be in violation of their own interpretation. But some non-denominational Christians do not follow any particular branch, though regarded as Protestants. Each group uses different terminology to discuss their beliefs and this section will discuss the definitions of several terms used throughout the article, before discussing the beliefs themselves in detail in following sections. A denomination within Christianity can be defined as an autonomous branch of the Christian Church, major synonyms include religious group, sect, Church. Some traditional and evangelical Protestants draw a distinction between membership in the church and fellowship within the local church. Becoming a believer in Christ makes one a member of the universal church, a related concept is denominationalism, the belief that some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices. Protestant leaders differ greatly from the views of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, each church makes mutually exclusive claims for itself to be the direct continuation of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, from whom other denominations later broke away. These churches, and a few others, reject denominationalism, Christianity can be taxonomically divided into five main groups, the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism
5.
Church of England
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The Church of England is the state church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor, the Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It dates its establishment as a church to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. The English church renounced papal authority when Henry VIII sought to secure an annulment from Catherine of Aragon in the 1530s, the English Reformation accelerated under Edward VIs regents before a brief restoration of papal authority under Queen Mary I and King Philip. This is expressed in its emphasis on the teachings of the early Church Fathers, as formalised in the Apostles, Nicene, in the earlier phase of the English Reformation there were both Catholic martyrs and radical Protestant martyrs. The later phases saw the Penal Laws punish Roman Catholic and nonconforming Protestants, in the 17th century, political and religious disputes raised the Puritan and Presbyterian faction to control of the church, but this ended with the Restoration. Papal recognition of George III in 1766 led to religious tolerance. Since the English Reformation, the Church of England has used a liturgy in English, the church contains several doctrinal strands, the main three known as Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and Broad Church. Tensions between theological conservatives and progressives find expression in debates over the ordination of women and homosexuality, the church includes both liberal and conservative clergy and members. The governing structure of the church is based on dioceses, each presided over by a bishop, within each diocese are local parishes. The General Synod of the Church of England is the body for the church and comprises bishops, other clergy. Its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament, according to tradition, Christianity arrived in Britain in the 1st or 2nd century, during which time southern Britain became part of the Roman Empire. The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the native Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers as Tertullian, three Romano-British bishops, including Restitutus, are known to have been present at the Council of Arles in 314. Others attended the Council of Sardica in 347 and that of Ariminum in 360, Britain was the home of Pelagius, who opposed Augustine of Hippos doctrine of original sin. Consequently, in 597, Pope Gregory I sent the prior of the Abbey of St Andrews from Rome to evangelise the Angles and this event is known as the Gregorian mission and is the date the Church of England generally marks as the beginning of its formal history. A later archbishop, the Greek Theodore of Tarsus, also contributed to the organisation of Christianity in England, the Church of England has been in continuous existence since the days of St Augustine, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its episcopal head. Despite the various disruptions of the Reformation and the English Civil War, while some Celtic Christian practices were changed at the Synod of Whitby, the Christian Church in the British Isles was under papal authority from earliest times. The Synod of Whitby established the Roman date for Easter and the Roman style of monastic tonsure in Britain and this meeting of the ecclesiastics with Roman customs with local bishops was summoned in 664 at Saint Hildas double monastery of Streonshalh, later called Whitby Abbey
6.
Sacred architecture
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Many cultures devoted considerable resources to their sacred architecture and places of worship. Religious and sacred spaces are amongst the most impressive and permanent monolithic buildings created by humanity, conversely, sacred architecture as a locale for meta-intimacy may also be non-monolithic, ephemeral and intensely private, personal and non-public. Sacred, religious and holy structures often evolved over centuries and were the largest buildings in the world, while the various styles employed in sacred architecture sometimes reflected trends in other structures, these styles also remained unique from the contemporary architecture used in other structures. With the rise of Abrahamic monotheisms, religious buildings increasingly became centres of worship, prayer, the Western scholarly discipline of the history of architecture itself closely follows the history of religious architecture from ancient times until the Baroque period, at least. Sacred geometry, iconography, and the use of sophisticated semiotics such as signs, symbols, Sacred and/or religious architecture is sometimes called sacred space. Architect Norman L. Koonce has suggested that the goal of sacred architecture is to make transparent the boundary between matter and mind, flesh and the spirit, meanwhile, Richard Kieckhefer suggests that entering into a religious building is a metaphor for entering into spiritual relationship. Sacred architecture spans a number of ancient architectural styles including Neolithic architecture, ancient Egyptian architecture, ancient religious buildings, particularly temples, were often viewed as the dwelling place, the temenos, of the gods and were used as the site of various kinds of sacrifice. Ancient tombs and burial structures are examples of architectural structures reflecting religious beliefs of their various societies. The Temple of Karnak at Thebes, Egypt was constructed across a period of 1300 years, ancient Egyptian religious architecture has fascinated archaeologists and captured the public imagination for millennia. Around 600 BCE the wooden columns of the Temple of Hera at Olympia were replaced by stone columns, with the spread of this process to other sanctuary structures a few stone buildings have survived through the ages. Greek architecture preceded Hellenistic and Roman periods, since temples are the only buildings which survive in numbers, most of our concept of classical architecture is based on religious structures. The Parthenon which served as a building as well as a place for veneration of deity, is widely regarded as the greatest example of classical architecture. Indian architecture is related to the history and religions of the time periods as well as to the geography, the diversity of Indian culture is represented in its architecture. Indian architecture comprises a blend of ancient and varied native traditions, with building types, forms and technologies from West, Central Asia, buddhist architecture developed in South Asia beginning in the third century BCE. Two types of structures are associated with early Buddhism, viharas and stupas, an existing example is at Nalanda. The initial function of the stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of the Buddha, the earliest existing example of a stupa is in Sanchi. In accordance with changes in practice, stupas were gradually incorporated into chaitya-grihas. These reached their highpoint in the first century BCE, exemplified by the cave complexes of Ajanta, the pagoda is an evolution of the Indian stupa that is marked by a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in China, Japan, Korea, Nepal and other parts of Asia
7.
Norman architecture
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The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is used for English Romanesque architecture. Ancient Romes invention of the arch is the basis of all Norman architecture, the more inclusive term romanesque was used of the Romance languages in English by 1715, and was applied to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries from 1819. The Norman arch is a point of Norman architecture. Grand archways are designed to evoke feelings of awe and are commonly seen as the entrance to large religious buildings such as cathedrals. Viking invaders arrived at the mouth of the river Seine in 911, at a time when Franks were fighting on horseback and Frankish lords were building castles. Over the next century the population of the territory ceded to the Vikings, now called Normans, adopted these customs as well as Christianity and the langue doïl. Norman Barons built timber castles on earthen mounds, beginning the development of motte-and-bailey castles, by 950 they were building stone keeps. The Normans were among the most travelled peoples of Europe, exposed to a variety of cultural influences including the Near East, some of which became incorporated in their art. In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence before the Norman Conquest of 1066, edward the Confessor was brought up in Normandy, and in 1042 brought masons to work on Westminster Abbey, the first Romanesque building in England. In 1051 he brought in Norman knights who built castles as a defence against the Welsh. The Norman arch is the round arch, Norman mouldings are carved or incised with geometric ornament, such as chevron patterns, frequently termed zig-zag mouldings, around arches. The cruciform churches often had deep chancels and a crossing tower which has remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. Hundreds of parish churches were built and the great English cathedrals were founded from 1083, after a fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 Norman masons introduced the new Gothic architecture. Around 1191 Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral brought in the English Gothic style, nicholas Church, Pyrford, Surrey Southwell Minster St. Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxfordshire St. Swithuns in Nately Scures, Hampshire, an example of a Norman single-cell apsidal church. His successor Máel Coluim III overthrew him with English and Norman assistance, the Benedictine order founded a monastery at Dunfermline. Her sixth and youngest son who became King David built St. Margarets Chapel at the start of the 12th century, Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline grid reference NT089872 St Andrew Cathedral grid reference NO516166 St. With rare examples of late 12th century Norman Transitional architecture[3 The Normans first landed in Ireland in 1169, within five years earthwork castles were springing up, and in a further five, work was beginning on some of the earliest of the great stone castles
8.
English Gothic architecture
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English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520. As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows. The earliest large-scale applications of Gothic architecture in England are at Canterbury Cathedral, many features of Gothic architecture had evolved naturally from Romanesque architecture. This evolution can be seen most particularly at the Norman Durham Cathedral, English Gothic was to develop along lines that sometimes paralleled and sometimes diverged from those of continental Europe. Historians traditionally divide English Gothic into a number of different periods, Gothic architecture continued to flourish in England for a hundred years after the precepts of Renaissance architecture were formalised in Florence in the early 15th century. Many of the largest and finest works of English architecture, notably the medieval cathedrals of England are largely built in the Gothic style, so also are castles, palaces, great houses, universities, and many smaller unpretentious secular buildings, including almshouses and trade halls. Another important group of Gothic buildings in England are the parish churches, historians sometimes refer to the styles as periods, e. g. Perpendicular period in much the same way as an historical era may be referred to as the Tudor period. The various styles are seen at their most fully developed in the cathedrals, abbey churches, according to the originator of the term in 1817, Thomas Rickman, the period ran from 1189 to 1307, Rickman based his defining dates on the reigns of certain English monarchs. In the late 12th century, the Early English Gothic style superseded the Romanesque or Norman style, during the late 13th century, it developed into the Decorated Gothic style, which lasted until the mid-14th century. With all of early architectural styles, there is a gradual overlap between the periods. As fashions changed, new elements were used alongside older ones, especially in large buildings such as churches and cathedrals. It is customary, therefore, to recognise a transitional phase between the Romanesque and Early English periods from the middle of the 12th century, although usually known as Early English, this new Gothic style had originated in the area around Paris before spreading to England. There it was first known as the French style and it was first used in the choir or quire of the abbey church of St Denis, dedicated in June 1144. Even before that, some features had been included in Durham Cathedral, showing a combination of Romanesque, by 1175, with the completion of the Choir at Canterbury Cathedral by William of Sens, the style was firmly established in England. The most significant and characteristic development of the Early English period was the pointed arch known as the lancet, pointed arches were used almost universally, not only in arches of wide span such as those of the nave arcade, but also for doorways and lancet windows. It also allows for greater variation in proportions, whereas the strength of round arches depends on semicircular form. The barrel vaults and groin vaults characteristic of Romanesque building were replaced by rib vaults, the arched windows are usually narrow by comparison to their height and are without tracery. For this reason Early English Gothic is sometimes known as the Lancet style, although arches of equilateral proportion are most often employed, lancet arches of very acute proportions are frequently found and are highly characteristic of the style
9.
Nave
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The nave /ˈneɪv/ is the central aisle of a basilica church, or the main body of a church between its western wall and its chancel. It is the zone of a church accessible by the laity, the nave extends from the entry — which may have a separate vestibule — to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave and it provides the central approach to the high altar. The term nave is from medieval Latin navis, a ship was an early Christian symbol. The term may also have suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. The earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with the form of the Roman basilica and it had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, and with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peters Basilica in Rome is a church which had this form. It was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I, the nave, the main body of the building, is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen, medieval naves were divided into bays, the repetition of form giving an effect of great length, and the vertical element of the nave was emphasized. During the Renaissance, in place of dramatic effects there were more balanced proportions, longest nave in Denmark, Aarhus Cathedral,93 metres. Longest nave in England, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans,84 metres, longest nave in Ireland, St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin,91 metres. Longest nave in France, Bourges Cathedral,91 metres, including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts, longest nave in Germany, Cologne cathedral,58 metres, including two bays between the towers. Longest nave in Italy, St Peters Basilica in Rome,91 metres, longest nave in Spain, Seville,60 metres, in five bays. Longest nave in the United States, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, highest vaulted nave, Beauvais Cathedral, France,48 metres high but only one bay of the nave was actually built but choir and transepts were completed to the same height. Highest completed nave, Rome, St. Peters, Italy,46 metres high, abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram List of highest church naves
10.
Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
11.
Anglican Diocese of Worcester
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The Diocese of Worcester forms part of the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese was founded around 679 by St Theodore of Canterbury at Worcester to minister to the kingdom of the Hwicce, the original borders of the diocese are believed to be based on those of that ancient kingdom. The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries, the Archdeaconry of Worcester the Archdeaconry of Dudley On its creation the diocese included what is now southern and western Warwickshire. On 24 January 1837 the north and east of Warwickshire which formed the Archdeaconry of Coventry in the then Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry was transferred to the Diocese of Worcester. In 1905 an area in northern Warwickshire was split off as the Diocese of Birmingham, from 1993 until 2002, the diocese operated an episcopal area scheme. 2002–present, Mark Santer, a former diocesan Bishop of Birmingham living in Moseley in the neighbouring Birmingham diocese. 2004–present, Humphrey Taylor, retired Bishop of Selby, lives in Church Honeybourne, 2005–present, Jonathan Ruhumuliza, a Rwandan bishop, lives and works as a parish priest in Worcestershire. 2009–present, Michael Hooper, retired Bishop of Ludlow, lives in Eckington, the church in Worcester is believed to have been founded in the late 7th century. It seems to have benefited in the 8th century from the support of the kings of Mercia, consequently, in the 9th century, the bishopric of Worcester can be seen to be the most powerful ecclesiastical power in Mercia during this time. From this position the church was able to use its wealth to buy privileges from the kings of Mercia. Later in the period it was from Mercia, in particular Worcester and it has been argued that these priests brought with them a new attitude towards the churchs place within society and its relationship with the monarchy. Consequently, from the bishopric of Worcester there developed a new ideology that would become the accepted Anglo-Saxon church. The Charters of Worcester are one of the key sources for historians studying the period and are a reason for information about the early Anglo-Saxon church. The charters exist within the Worcester archive which is itself the largest Anglo-Saxon archive of its kind and it contains many texts, ranging from late 7th to the 11th centuries, providing a significant and continuous history of the church. The archive takes physical form in two distinct cartularies, the first one, Cartulary A, contains in it the majority of the charters that make up the archive. It is from these that there develops a coherent picture of land ownership and societal responsibilities during the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond. A prominent example of this is No.95 of Cartulary A which shows the 8th-century king of Mercia, Ceolwulf II, diocesan website Church of England Statistics 2002
12.
Province of Canterbury
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The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York and it consists of 30 dioceses, covering roughly two-thirds of England, parts of Wales, and the Channel Islands, with the remainder comprising continental Europe. Between the years 787 and 803, a province, Lichfield. In 1871, the Church of Ireland became autonomous, and the Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920, the Provinces metropolitan bishop is the Archbishop of Canterbury who also oversees the Falkland Islands, an extraprovincial parish. Bishops of the southern province meet in chapter, in which the roles are analogous to those within a Cathedral chapter. In the 19th Century, Edward Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, discussed with the Bishop of Winchester, Benson ruled that the Bishop of Winchester would be Chancellor of the Province and additionally Sub-Dean only during a vacancy in the see of London. Twenty-one other Anglican Bishops form the other Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords
13.
Bishop
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A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within these churches, bishops are seen as those who possess the full priesthood, Some Protestant churches including the Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops serving similar functions as well, though not always understood to be within apostolic succession in the same way. Priests, deacons and lay ministers cooperate and assist their bishop in shepherding a flock, the earliest organization of the Church in Jerusalem was, according to most scholars, similar to that of Jewish synagogues, but it had a council or college of ordained presbyters. In, we see a system of government in Jerusalem chaired by James the Just. In, the Apostle Paul ordains presbyters in churches in Anatolia, in Timothy and Titus in the New Testament a more clearly defined episcopate can be seen. We are told that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church, Paul commands Titus to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling him to rebuke with all authority. Early sources are unclear but various groups of Christian communities may have had the bishop surrounded by a group or college functioning as leaders of the local churches, eventually, as Christendom grew, bishops no longer directly served individual congregations. Instead, the Metropolitan bishop appointed priests to each congregation. Around the end of the 1st century, the organization became clearer in historical documents. While Ignatius of Antioch offers the earliest clear description of monarchial bishops he is an advocate of monepiscopal structure rather than describing an accepted reality. To the bishops and house churches to which he writes, he offers strategies on how to pressure house churches who dont recognize the bishop into compliance. Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops, either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of episkopoi in a city, plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself — Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6,1. Your godly bishop — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 2,1, therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father, either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters. — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7,1. Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father, and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 13,2. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallesians 3,1. Follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles, and to the deacons pay respect, as to Gods commandment — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 8,1. He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God, he that doeth aught without the knowledge of the bishop rendereth service to the devil — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 9,1
14.
John Inge
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John Geoffrey Inge is a Church of England bishop. He is currently the Bishop of Worcester in the Diocese of Worcester, from 2003 to 2008, he was Bishop of Huntingdon, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Ely. On 26 February 1955, Inge was born to Geoffrey John Inge and he was educated at Kent College, an independent school in Canterbury, Kent. He went on to study at St Chads College, Durham University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977, in 1979, he undertook teacher training at Keble College, Oxford and received a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Having studied chemistry at university and completed training, Inge began his first career as a secondary school teacher. He taught Chemistry at Lancing College, an independent school in Lancing and he also served as a tutor of Teme House, one of the schools boarding houses. He trained for ordination at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, during his ministry, he returned to Durham University for postgraduate study. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1994 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2002, Inge was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1984 and as a priest in 1985. From 1984 to 1986, he was the assistant chaplain at Lancing College and he was junior chaplain at Harrow School from 1987 to 1989 and senior chaplain from 1989 to 1990. From 1990 to 1996 he was the vicar of St Lukes Wallsend in the Diocese of Newcastle where he chaired the Board for Mission. He became a canon residentiary of Ely Cathedral in 1996 with particular responsibility for education and mission and was vice dean from 1999 to 2003. Inge was consecrated as suffragan Bishop of Huntingdon at Westminster Abbey on 9 October 2003, as the warden for readers in the Ely diocese he encouraged and equipped lay ministry, he chaired the Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council and co-chaired the East of England Faiths Council. In July 2007 he was nominated to become the Bishop of Worcester from 1 October 2007 and he was enthroned at Worcester Cathedral as the Bishop of Worcester on 1 March 2008. Inge is chairman of the board of the College of Evangelists and he serves on the Faith and Order Commission of the General Synod. He has served on the council of Ridley Hall, Cambridge since 2008 and he chairs the council for the Archbishop of Canterburys Examination in Theology which awards the Lambeth Degree — an MA, MPhil or PhD in theology. He is also an advisor for the independent public policy think tank ResPublica, Inge has led numerous groups to Africa, India, South America, Russia and the Holy Land. He is a supporter of the World Development Movement which campaigns for justice and development in the Global South. Inge was introduced in the House of Lords on 25 June 2012 and he joins his cousin in the Upper House, Peter Inge, a former Chief of Defence Staff
15.
Dean (Christianity)
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A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic Church, a deans assistant is called a subdean. In the church, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, except for presiding and delegating administrative tasks, they have no authority over the cardinals, acting as primus inter pares. In the academic community, the Dean is the leader of the Faculty who presides over the Faculty Board. He is deputized by a Vice-Dean and equally assisted by a Sub-Dean who can be delegated some of the task of the Dean. The most senior Professor or a Vice-Dean is the person who can act for a Dean in his or her absence from office. In the Church of England and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, the dean is the chief resident cleric of a cathedral or other collegiate church, if the cathedral or collegiate church has its own parish, the dean is usually also rector of the parish. However, in the Church of Ireland the roles are often separated, in the Church in Wales, however, most cathedrals are parish churches, and their deans are now also vicars of their parishes. In some parts of the Communion, the senior resident cleric in a cathedral is a provost. Each diocese of the Scottish Episcopal Church has a dean of the diocese, in this way, a Scottish Episcopal dean is similar to an archdeacon in the other member churches of the Communion. In the Anglican Church of Canada, the roles of senior cleric of the cathedral are combined in one person who is referred to as Rector of Cathedral, thus, Peter Elliott is Rector of Christ Church Cathedral and Dean of New Westminster. The style The Very Reverend distinguishes a cleric as a dean, for example, the Very Reverend June Osborne is Dean of Salisbury Cathedral. In consideration of the status of a Dean, the Very Reverend title is normally a permanent title preferment. Some important deans include the deans of St Pauls, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey is a royal peculiar, not the seat of any bishop or a cathedral, but is led by a dean. The deans of Washington National Cathedral and St. Patricks Cathedral, in many parts of the Anglican Communion, parishes are grouped together to form deaneries, each being a constituent administrative district of the diocese. Usually, a deanery is led by one of the incumbents of the parishes, who is called a rural dean. Such a dean chairs the meeting of the clergy. Rural Deans rank as primi inter pares of their chapters, the head of an Anglican theological college or seminary may also be called a dean
16.
Precentor
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A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question, the Latin derivation is præcentor, from cantor, meaning the one who sings before. The chief precentor was the highest position in many ancient Mesopotamian cities, Jewish precentors are song or prayer leaders, leading Synagogue music. A Jewish precentor is typically called a hazzan or cantor, in the Middle Ages, women precentors leading prayers in the weibershul were known as firzogerin, vorsangerin, foreleiner, zugerin, or zugerke. A precentor is a member of a church who helps facilitate worship, the role of precentor was carried over from the synagogues into the early church. The term precentor described sometimes an ecclesiastical dignitary, sometimes an administrative or ceremonial officer, anciently, the precentor had various duties, he was the first or leading chanter, who on Sundays and greater feasts intoned certain antiphons, psalms, hymns, responsories etc. He was variously styled capiscol, prior scholæ, magister scholæ, victor of St. Hugo tells us that in the care of the primicerius were placed the acolytes, exorcists, lectors, and psalmists. In the Middle Ages the principal dignitaries of cathedral, collegiate chapters, the schola was always in attendance when the bishop officiated in his cathedral, and to the precentor was assigned a place near the bishop and high in dignity. His office was obviously one demanding much learning and executive ability, in the cathedrals of England, France, Spain, and Germany, he ranked sometimes next to the dean, sometimes next to the archdeacon. In some instances his sphere of activity was much broader, including the duty of installing deans, canons, and other dignitaries, and in some monasteries and this baton cantoral is a silver or white staff. In the dioceses of Aix, Carcassonne, Coutances, Dijon, Metz, Orléans, brings the antiphon to the bishop when officiating pontifically. Sacristans, chanters, choir-boys, and employés of the Cathedral are placed under his surveillance and he will also preserve order and silence in the sacristy). A precentor is a person, usually a member, who is in charge of preparing worship services. This position is held in a large church, and is typically used in the churches of the Anglican Communion. Most cathedrals have a precentor in charge of the organisation of liturgy, the precentor of a cathedral is usually a residentiary canon or prebendary, and may be assisted by a succentor. In some cathedrals, the Precentor is a minor Canon, and therefore part of the Foundation, traditionally the precentors stall in the cathedral is on the opposite side of the Quire than that of the Dean, leading to the traditional division of the singers into Decani and Cantoris. Churches that use a manner of singing called lining out are usually led by the precentor. The word precentor is also used at two English public schools, Radley College and Eton College, to refer to the Head of Music and these school precentors have no specific religious duties although, as part of their musical function, they may conduct the college chapel choir
17.
Canon (priest)
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A canon is a member of certain bodies subject to an ecclesiastical rule. This way of life grew common in the eighth century, in the eleventh century, some churches required clergy thus living together to adopt the rule first proposed by Saint Augustine that they renounce private wealth. Those who embraced this change were known as Augustinians or Canons Regular, in the Roman Catholic Church, the members of the chapter of a cathedral or of a collegiate church are canons. Depending on the title of the church, several languages use specific titles, e. g. in German Domherr or Domkapitular in a Dom, Stiftsherr in a prelature that has the status of a Stift. One of the functions of the chapter in the Roman Catholic Church was to elect a Vicar Capitular to serve during a sede vacante period of the diocese. All canons of the Church of England have been secular since the Reformation, mostly, however, they are ordained, that is, priests or members of the clergy. Today, the system of canons is retained almost exclusively in connection with cathedral churches, a canon is a member of the chapter of priests, headed by a dean, which is responsible for administering a cathedral or certain other churches that are styled collegiate churches. The dean and chapter are the body which has legal responsibility for the cathedral. The title of Canon is not a permanent title and when no longer in a position entitling preferment, however, it is still given in many dioceses to senior parish priests as a largely honorary title. It is usually awarded in recognition of long and dedicated service to the diocese, honorary canons are members of the chapter in name but are non-residential and receive no emoluments. They are entitled to call themselves canon and may have a role in the administration of the cathedral, in some Church of England dioceses, the title Prebendary is used instead of canon when the cleric is involved administratively with a cathedral. Honorary canons within the Roman Catholic Church may still be nominated after the Second Vatican Council, on the demise of the Kingdom of France this honour became transferred to the Presidents of the Republic, and hence is currently held by François Hollande. This applies even when the French President is not Catholic, as is the case with the atheist Hollande, the proto-canon of the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major is the King of Spain, currently Felipe VI. The rank of lay canon is especially conferred upon diocesan chancellors and it has traditionally been said that the King of England is a canon or prebendary of St David’s Cathedral, Wales. However, this is based on a misconception, the canonry of St Mary’s College, St David’s became the property of the Crown on the dissolution of the monasteries. The Sovereign was never a canon of St David’s, even as a layman, though he or she may occupy the first prebendal stall, a canon professor is a canon at an Anglican cathedral who also holds a university professorship. Section 2 of the Church of England Measure 1995 was passed for the purpose of enabling Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Historically, the chair in Greek at the university was also a canon professorship and this canonry was transferred to the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in 1940
18.
Organist
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An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, in addition, an organist may accompany congregational hymn-singing and play liturgical music. The majority of organists, amateur and professional, are involved in church music, playing in churches. The pipe organ still plays a part in the leading of traditional western Christian worship, with roles including the accompaniment of hymns, choral anthems. The degree to which the organ is involved depending on the church. It also may depend on the standard of the organist, as most churches can afford to employ only one musician, the organist is usually also responsible for directing and rehearsing the choir. In the twentieth-century, many pipe organs were replaced by electronic and digital organs. Sometimes the organist will be assisted by an organ scholar, the post of organist at most of the great cathedrals includes recital work and choral training. Another function of an organist is often as teacher to future players, few organists hold historically special positions such as Carol Williams who is the Civic Organist of San Diego, the last true Civic Organist position still active in this the USA. Since the strengths and weaknesses of the organ are difficult to understand without a deal of playing experience. Since the majority of pre-twentieth-century organs were installed in churches, classical literature was almost exclusively written for liturgical use. A few carry on the tradition today, there are many organists employed in the production of popular and jazz music. In the United States most of them play the Hammond organ, the Royal College of Organists in the United Kingdom is the oldest institution of organ studies. From that sprang the American Guild of Organists, the Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde in Germany, all these institutions are oriented toward the organist involved in classical music rather than popular music. There is also the American Theatre Organ Society
19.
Anglicanism
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Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising the Church of England and churches which are historically tied to it or hold similar beliefs, worship practices and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to the Magna Carta and before, adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans. As the name suggests, the churches of the Anglican Communion are linked by bonds of tradition, affection and they are in full communion with the See of Canterbury, and thus the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his person, is a unique focus of Anglican unity. He calls the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, chairs the meeting of primates, Anglicans base their Christian faith on the Bible, traditions of the apostolic Church, apostolic succession, and writings of the Church Fathers. Anglicanism forms one of the branches of Western Christianity, having declared its independence from the Holy See at the time of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. Many of the new Anglican formularies of the mid-16th century corresponded closely to those of contemporary Protestantism, the word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English Church. Adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans, as an adjective, Anglican is used to describe the people, institutions and churches, as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the Church of England. As a noun, an Anglican is a member of a church in the Anglican Communion, the word is also used by followers of separated groups which have left the communion or have been founded separately from it, although this is sometimes considered as a misuse. The word Anglicanism came into being in the 19th century, although the term Anglican is found referring to the Church of England as far back as the 16th century, its use did not become general until the latter half of the 19th century. Elsewhere, however, the term Anglican Church came to be preferred as it distinguished these churches from others that maintain an episcopal polity, as such, it is often referred to as being a via media between these traditions. Anglicans understand the Old and New Testaments as containing all necessary for salvation and as being the rule. Reason and Tradition are seen as means to interpret Scripture. Anglicans understand the Apostles Creed as the symbol and the Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith. Anglicans celebrate the sacraments, with special emphasis being given to the Eucharist, also called Holy Communion. Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries and it was called common prayer originally because it was intended for use in all Church of England churches which had previously followed differing local liturgies. The term was kept when the church became international because all Anglicans used to share in its use around the world, in 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer was compiled by Thomas Cranmer, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury. The founding of Christianity in Britain is commonly attributed to Joseph of Arimathea, according to Anglican legend, Saint Alban, who was executed in 209 AD, is the first Christian martyr in the British Isles. A new culture emerged around the Irish Sea among the Celtic peoples with Celtic Christianity at its core, what resulted was a form of Christianity distinct from Rome in many traditions and practices
20.
Cathedral
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A cathedral is a Christian church which contains the seat of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. The counterpart term for such a church in German is Dom from Latin domus ecclesiae or domus episcopalis, also Italian Duomo, Dutch Domkerk, when the church at which an archbishop or metropolitan presides is specifically intended, the term kathedrikos naos is used. In addition, both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have formed new dioceses within formerly Protestant lands for converts, consequently, it is not uncommon to find Christians in a single city being served by three or more cathedrals of differing denominations. In the Catholic tradition, the term cathedral correctly applies only to a church houses the seat of the bishop of a diocese. The abbey church of a territorial abbacy serves the same function, the Catholic Church also uses the following terms. A pro-cathedral is a parish or other church used temporarily as a cathedral, usually while the cathedral of a diocese is under construction, renovation and this designation applies only as long as the temporary use continues. A co-cathedral is a cathedral in a diocese that has two sees. A proto-cathedral is the cathedral of a transferred see. The cathedral church of a bishop is called the metropolitan cathedral. The term cathedral actually carries no implication as to the size or ornateness of the building, nevertheless, most cathedrals are particularly impressive edifices. The building is now under renovation and restoration for solemn dedication under the title Christ Cathedral in 2018, in the ancient world the chair, on a raised dais, was the distinctive mark of a teacher or rhetor and thus symbolises the bishops role as teacher. A raised throne within a hall was also definitive for a Late Antique presiding magistrate. The history of cathedrals starts in the year 313, when the emperor Constantine the Great personally adopted Christianity, in the third century, the phrase ascending the platform, ad pulpitum venire, becomes the standard term for Christian ordination. During the siege of Dura Europos in 256, a complete Christian house church, or domus ecclesiae was entombed in a bank, surviving when excavated. Otherwise the large room had no decoration or distinctive features at all, in 269, soon after Dura fell to the Persian army, a body of clerics assembled a charge sheet against the bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, in the form of an open letter. Characteristically a Roman magistrate presided from a throne in a large, richly decorated and aisled rectangular hall called a basilica. The earliest of these new basilican cathedrals of which remains are still visible is below the Cathedral of Aquileia on the northern tip of the Adriatic sea. The three halls create a courtyard, in which was originally located a separate baptistery
21.
River Severn
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The River Severn is the longest river in the United Kingdom, at about 220 miles. It rises at an altitude of 2,001 feet on Plynlimon, close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes and it then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, with the county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester on its banks. With an average discharge of 107 m3/s at Apperley, Gloucestershire, the river is usually considered to become the Severn Estuary after the Second Severn Crossing between Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire and Sudbrook, Monmouthshire. The river then discharges into the Bristol Channel which in turn discharges into the Celtic Sea, the Severns drainage basin area is 4,409 square miles, excluding the River Wye and Bristol Avon which flow into the Severn Estuary. The major tributaries to the Severn are the Vyrnwy, Clywedog, Teme, Avon, the name Severn is thought to derive from a Celtic original name *sabrinnā, of uncertain meaning. That name then developed in different languages to become Sabrina to the Romans, Hafren in Welsh, a folk etymology later developed, deriving the name from a mythical story of a nymph, Sabrina, who drowned in the river. Sabrina is also the goddess of the River Severn in Celtic mythology, the story of Sabrina is featured in Miltons Comus. There is a statue of Sabrina in the Dingle Gardens at the Quarry, Shrewsbury, as the Severn becomes tidal the associated deity changed to Nodens, who was represented mounted on a seahorse, riding on the crest of the Severn bore. The River Stour rises in the north of Worcestershire in the Clent Hills and it flows north into the adjacent West Midlands at Halesowen. It then flows westwards through Cradley Heath and Stourbridge where it leaves the Black Country and it is joined by the Smestow Brook at Prestwood before it winds around southwards to Kinver, and then flows back into Worcestershire. It then passes through Wolverley, Kidderminster and Wilden to its confluence with the Severn at Stourport-on-Severn, the River Vyrnwy, which begins at Lake Vyrnwy, flows eastwards through Powys before forming part of the border between England and Wales, joining the Severn near Melverley, Shropshire. The Rea Brook flows north from its source in the Stiperstones, the River Tern, after flowing south from Market Drayton and being joined by the River Meese and the River Roden, meets the Severn at Attingham Park. The River Worfe joins the Severn, just above Bridgnorth, the River Stour rising on the Clent Hills and flowing through Halesowen, Stourbridge, and Kidderminster, joins the Severn at Stourport. On the opposite bank, the tributaries are only brooks, Borle Brook, Dowles Brook draining the Wyre Forest, Dick Brook, shit Brook near Much Wenlock was culverted to flow into the Severn. One of the rivers named Avon, in this case the Warwickshire Avon, flows west through Rugby, Warwick. It is then joined by its tributary the River Arrow, before joining the Severn at Tewkesbury. The port of Bristol is on the Severn Estuary, where another River Avon flows into it through the Avon Gorge, the River Wye, from its source in Plynlimon, Wales, flows generally south east through the Welsh towns of Rhayader and Builth Wells. It flows into the Severn near the town of Chepstow, slightly upstream of the Bristol Avon on the opposite bank, the River Usk flows into the Severn Estuary just south of Newport
22.
Bishop of Worcester
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The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the year 680, from then until the 16th century, the bishops were in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. During the Reformation, the church in England broke away from the authority of the Pope, since the Reformation, the Bishop and Diocese of Worcester has been part of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. The diocese covers most of the county of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, the Episcopal see is in the city of Worcester where the bishops throne is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The bishops official residence is the Bishops Office, The Old Palace, Deansway, Worcester, the bishops had two residences outside the city, Hartlebury Castle near Kidderminster from the 13th century to 2007 and a palace at Alvechurch until it was pulled down in the 17th century. From the elevations of Saint Oswald of Worcester in 961 at Worcester and 972 at York, the current Bishop of Worcester is the Right Reverend John Inge, who signs + John Wigorn
23.
Crypt
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A crypt is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics, originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a church, such as at the Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but were later located beneath chancel, naves and transepts as well. Occasionally churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the level, such as St Michaels Church in Hildesheim. Crypt developed as a form of the Latin vault as it was carried over into Late Latin. It also served as a vault for storing important and/or sacred items, crypta, however, is also the female form of crypto hidden. The earliest known origin of both is in the Ancient Greek κρύπτω, the first person singular indicative of the verb to conceal, first known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa at Chlef and Djemila in Algeria, and Byzantium at Saint John Studio in Constantinople. Where Christian churches have been built over mithraea, the mithraeum has often been adapted to serve as a crypt, crypts were introduced into Frankish church building in the mid-8th century, as a feature of its Romanization. Their popularity then spread widely in western Europe under Charlemagne. Examples from this period are most common in the early medieval West, for example in Burgundy at Dijon, after the 10th century the early medieval requirements of a crypt faded, as church officials permitted relics to be held in the main level of the church. By the Gothic period crypts were built, however burial vaults continued to be constructed beneath churches. In more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone chambered burial vault used to store the deceased, crypts are usually found in cemeteries and under public religious buildings, such as churches or cathedrals, but are also occasionally found beneath mausolea or chapels on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will often have a family crypt or vault in which all members of the family are interred, many royal families, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royalty. In some localities an above ground crypt is more commonly called a mausoleum, there was a trend in the 19th century of building crypts on medium to large size family estates, usually subtly placed on the edge of the grounds or more commonly incorporated into the cellar. After a change of owner these are often blocked up and the house deeds will not allow this area to be re-developed, catacomb Mausoleum Tumulus Ossuary Tomb Cemetery Media related to Crypt at Wikimedia Commons Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Crypt
24.
Chapter house
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A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which larger meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there, in monasteries, the whole community often met there on a daily basis for readings and to hear the abbot or senior monks talk. When attached to a church, the dean, prebendaries. The rooms may also be used for meetings of various sorts, in medieval times monarchs on tour in their territory would often take them over for their meetings. Synods, ecclesiastical courts and similar meetings often took place in chapter houses, when part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the cloister, which is next to the church. Since many cathedrals in England were originally monastic foundations, this is a common arrangement there also, elsewhere it may be a separate building. The chapter house comprises a space, in order to hold all the monks of the monastery. Typically there is seating around, often built into, all the walls of the room, often in stone, the seats for the senior members are often larger than the others, and may be raised on a dais. Usually there is one doorway, and though the room is well-lit where the location allows. Many larger chapter houses are designed with vestibules for attendants and those waiting to be called, there is often a fireplace, and altars are found in some examples, sometimes added later. Many medieval rooms use stone vaulting supported by columns in the centre of the space, the shape of the room is usually designed to allow good audibility for speakers from all parts of the room. It may be rectangular, tending towards the square, but octagonal and other near-circular plans are an English speciality, most, like those at Wells Cathedral, Lichfield Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Lacock Abbey have a single central column, from which the high roof vaulting spreads. York Minster has a roof and no central column. Many have elaborate benched arcades round the wall, with crocketed frames for the seats, in some Romanesque or Gothic monasteries, the entrance to the chapter house has an elaborate façade with a door surrounded by highly decorated archivolts, especially when it is a separate building. Many chapterhouses feature elaborate carving or frescos, which include some masterpieces of religious art, in modern settings, the chapterhouse may simply be or use an ordinary office boardroom or meeting room. When it is a building, this often consists of just the single main room. The first meeting place in the morning, after the church services of Prime or Terce. The monks might sit along the length of the walls in strict age-order, but the chapter house is mentioned in the proceedings of the Council of Aachen in 816
25.
Edward Elgar
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello and he also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the Kings Musick in 1924, although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically and he nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. His later full-length religious choral works were received but have not entered the regular repertory. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity, Elgars music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death and it began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of recordings of his works. Edward Elgar was born in the village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester. His father, William Henry Elgar, was raised in Dover and had apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music. In 1848 he married Ann Greening, daughter of a farm worker, Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edwards birth, William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St. Georges Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin, all the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. Elgars mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development and he inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H, Billy Reed wrote that Elgars early surroundings had an influence that permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality
26.
Banknotes of the pound sterling
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Sterling banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in the United Kingdom and its related territories, denominated in pounds sterling. One pound is equivalent to 100 pence, three British Overseas Territories also have currencies called pounds which are at par with the pound sterling. The Bank of England does act as a bank in that it has a monopoly on issuing banknotes in England and Wales. Pounds issued by Crown Dependencies and other areas are regulated only by local governments, until the middle of the 19th century, privately owned banks in Great Britain and Ireland were free to issue their own banknotes. Paper currency issued by a range of provincial and town banking companies in England, Wales. Under the Act, no new banks could start issuing notes, the last private English banknotes were issued in 1921 by Fox, Fowler and Company, a Somerset bank. However, some of the provisions of the Bank Charter Act only applied to England. The Bank Notes Act was passed the year, and to this day. Notes issued in excess of the value of outstanding in 1844 must be backed up by an equivalent value of Bank of England notes. Following the partition of Ireland, the Irish Free State created an Irish pound in 1928, in 1928 a Westminster Act of Parliament reduced the fiduciary limit for Irish banknotes circulating in Northern Ireland to take account of the reduced size of the territory concerned. Elizabeth II was not the first British monarch to have her face on UK banknotes. George II, George III and George IV appeared on early Royal Bank of Scotland notes, however, prior to the issue of its Series C banknotes in 1960, Bank of England banknotes generally did not depict the monarch. Today, notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks do not depict the monarch, the monarch is depicted on banknotes issued by the Crown dependencies and on some of those issued by overseas territories. Their acceptance may depend on the experience and understanding of individual retailers, and it is important to understand the idea of legal tender, which is often misunderstood. The assumption that all sterling notes are legitimate and of equal value, in summary, the various banknotes are used as follows, Bank of England banknotes Most sterling notes are issued by the Bank of England. These are legal tender in England and Wales, and are accepted by traders throughout the UK. Bank of England notes are accepted in the Overseas Territories which are at parity with sterling. In Gibraltar, there are examples of pairs of automatic cash dispensers placed together, one stocked with BoE notes, Scottish banknotes These are the recognised currency in Scotland, although they are not legal tender
27.
Bank of England
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The Bank of England, formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world, after the Sveriges Riksbank, and it was established to act as the English Governments banker and is still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom. The Bank was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946, in 1998, it became an independent public organisation, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government, with independence in setting monetary policy. The Banks Monetary Policy Committee has a responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Banks Financial Policy Committee held its first meeting in June 2011 as a macro prudential regulator to oversee regulation of the UKs financial sector, the Banks headquarters have been in Londons main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known by the metonym The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady, the busy road junction outside is known as Bank junction. Until 2016, the bank provided banking services as a popular privilege for employees. Englands crushing defeat by France, the dominant naval power, in naval engagements culminating in the 1690 Battle of Beachy Head, England had no choice but to build a powerful navy. No public funds were available, and the credit of William IIIs government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 that the government wanted. To induce subscription to the loan, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor, the Bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue bank notes. The lenders would give the government cash and issue notes against the government bonds, the £1. 2m was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the navy. This helped the new Kingdom of Great Britain – England and Scotland were formally united in 1707 – to become powerful, the power of the navy made Britain the dominant world power in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The establishment of the bank was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, the plan of 1691, which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, had not then been acted upon. The Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the first governor was Sir John Houblon, who is depicted in the £50 note issued in 1994. The charter was renewed in 1742,1764, and 1781, the Bank moved to its current location in Threadneedle Street in 1734, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. When the idea and reality of the National Debt came about during the 18th century, the 1844 Bank Charter Act tied the issue of notes to the gold reserves and gave the Bank sole rights with regard to the issue of banknotes. Private banks that had previously had that right retained it, provided that their headquarters were outside London, a few English banks continued to issue their own notes until the last of them was taken over in the 1930s. Scottish and Northern Irish private banks still have that right, the bank acted as lender of last resort for the first time in the panic of 1866
28.
Oswald of Worcester
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Oswald of Worcester was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda, after a number of years at Fleury, Oswald returned to England at the request of his uncle, who died before Oswald returned. With his uncles death, Oswald needed a patron and turned to another kinsman, Oskytel and his activity for Oskytel attracted the notice of Archbishop Dunstan who had Oswald consecrated as Bishop of Worcester in 961. In 972, Oswald was promoted to the see of York, as bishop and archbishop, Oswald was a supporter and one of the leading promoters of Dunstans reforms of the church, including monastic reforms. Oswald founded a number of monasteries, including Ramsey Abbey, and reformed other seven, including Winchcombe in Gloucestershire and Pershore, Oswald also switched the cathedral chapter of Worcester from secular clergy to monks. While archbishop, he brought the scholar Abbo of Fleury to teach, Oswald died in 992, while washing the feet of the poor. A hagiographical life was shortly after his death, and he was quickly hailed as a saint. Oswald, of Danish parentage, was brought up by his uncle Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury and he was also related to the cniht Osulf, who received land while Oswald was bishop of Worcester. Oswald was instructed by a Frankish scholar Frithegod and he held the office of dean of Winchester, but he was sent by his uncle to France and entered the monastery of Fleury about 950, where he was ordained in 959. While at Fleury he met Osgar of Abingdon and Germanus of Winchester, the influence of Fleury was to be evident later in Oswalds life, when it was one of the inspirations for the Regularis Concordia, the English code of monastic conduct agreed to in 970. Oswald returned to England in 958 at the behest of his uncle, lacking a patron, Oswald turned to Oskytel, recently named Archbishop of York. It is possible that Oswald along with Oskytel travelled to Rome for Oskytels pallium, even if he did not travel to Rome, Oswald was active in ecclesiastical affairs at York until Dunstan obtained Oswalds appointment to the see, or bishopric, of Worcester. He was consecrated as Bishop of Worcester in 961, soon after his consecration, he persuaded Germanus to come back to England and made him head of a small religious community near Westbury-on-Trym. This foundation at Ramsey went on to become Ramsey Abbey, Ramsey was Oswalds most famous foundation, with its church dedicated in 974. Later, Oswald invited Abbo of Fleury to come and teach at Ramsey, Oswald directed the affairs of Ramsey Abbey until his death, when the dean Eadnoth became the first abbot. He gave a magnificent Bible to Ramsey, which was important enough to merit a mention in Oswalds Life, alongside the gift of the book, Oswald also contributed wall hangings and other textiles to the abbey. Oswald supported Dunstan and Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in their efforts to purify the Church from secularism, aided by King Edgar, he took a prominent part in the revival of monastic discipline along the precepts of the Rule of Saint Benedict. His methods differed from Æthelwolds, who often violently ejected secular clergy from churches, Oswald also organised the estates of his see into administrative hundreds known as the Oswaldslow, which helped stabilise the ecclesiastical revenues
29.
Fleury Abbey
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Its site on the banks of the Loire has always made it easily accessible from Orléans, a center of culture unbroken since Roman times. Today the abbey has over forty monks and is headed by the abbot Etienne Ricaud, Abbo of Fleury a monk and abbot of Fleury was a theologian of wide-ranging intellect, his life was written by the chronicler Aimoin, also a monk of Fleury. Andrew of Fleury wrote Miracula sancti Benedicti, hugh of Fleury was a monk of Fleury known for his chronicles and other writings. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that from the start the abbey boasted of two churches, one in honour of St. Peter and the other in honour of the Blessed Virgin. The church of St Peter was demolished in the eighteenth century and it was here that the Fleury Playbook was compiled, perhaps in dedication to the new church. The tower of Abbot Gauzlin, resting on fifty columns, forms a unique porch, the Carolingian style church is about three hundred feet long, its transept one hundred and forty feet. The choir of the church contains the tomb of a French monarch, Philip I of France, of the mediaeval abbeys buildings, only this basilica survives in the modern monastery. This was the selected by the Abbot of St-Aignan for his Benedictine foundation. The most famous of the Merovingian abbots was St. Mommolus, the monastery underwent a season of reform in its monastic life, about 930, along the lines first laid out at Cluny. The monk of Fleury named Helgaud, was chaplain to King Robert II, Fleury had particular significance in lending legitimacy to its patrons. Theodulphus, bishop of Orléans established at Fleury a school for young noblemen recommended there by Charlemagne, by the mid-ninth century its library was one of the most comprehensive ever assembled in the West, and scholars such as Lupus of Ferrières traveled there to consult its texts. Later under St. Abbo of Fleury, head of the abbey school, Fleury enjoyed a second golden age. Later, among the non-resident abbots in commendam were Cardinals Odet de Coligny and Antoine Sanguin in the reign of François I, like all Benedictine monasteries in France, the community was scattered by the French revolution. Finally, in 1944, the community was restored to the abbey, the monastery is remembered each day at Evensong in Winchester Cathedral with an additional short said prayer at the conclusion of The Responses - The Fleury Prayer. Fleury is reputed to contain the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western monasticism, Mommolus, the second Abbot of Fleury, is said to have effected their transfer when that abbey fell into decay after the ravages of the Lombards in the seventh century. Benedicts relics, and the Miracula S. Benedicti developed over three centuries by five monks of Fleury, including Andreas of Fleury, attracted pilgrims, bringing wealth and fame. The monks of Monte Cassino impugned the claims of Fleury, boethius, In Librum Aristotelis de Interpretatione, Manuscript probably produced at Fleury, mid-ninth century Anselme Davril, editor,1990. A twelfth-century ritual, Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale MS123 ISBN 978-0-9501009-9-9 Chenesseau, labbaye de Fleury à Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire 1933
30.
Bromsgrove
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Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England. The town is about 16 miles north east of Worcester and 13 miles south west of Birmingham city centre and it had a population of 29,237 in 2001 Bromsgrove is the main town in the larger Bromsgrove District. Bromsgrove is first documented in the early 9th century as Bremesgraf, later in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 909 AD Bromsgrove is mentioned as Bremesburh. Then in the Domesday Book Bromsgrove is referenced as Bremesgrave, the Breme part of the place name is almost certainly an Anglo-Saxon personal name. In the Anglo-Saxon times, Bromsgrove had a woodland economy consisting of hunting, maintenance of haies, at the time of Edward the Confessor, the manor of Bromsgrove is known to have been held by Earl Edwin. After the conquest, Bromsgrove was held by the King, among the manors possessions were 13 salt pans at Droitwich, with three workers, producing 300 mits. The King had the right to sell the salt from his pans before any other salt in the town and it was at the centre of a very large parish and its church of St John the Baptist was certainly of minster status. Bromsgrove, along all the towns in north Worcestershire, was committed to defending the city of Worcester and is recorded to have contributed burgesses to Droitwich in 1086. There may also have been Anglo-Saxon or Norman fortifications in Bromsgrove, Bromsgrove was first granted the right to a market day in 1200, and in 1317 was given the right hold a Tuesday market and three-day fair every 29 August at the Decollation of St John the Baptist. Market day changed several times over the period, settling on Tuesday from 1792 onwards, fairs were held twice yearly, in June and October by the eighteenth century, with the modern pleasure fairs originating from the June horse and pleasure fair. Bromsgrove and the area surrounding it was put under forest law when the boundaries of Feckenham Forest were extended hugely by Henry II, Forest law was removed from the Bromsgrove area in 1301 in the reign of Edward I, when the boundaries were moved back. In the later Middle Ages, Bromsgrove was a centre for the wool trade, manufacture of cloth, particularly narrow cloth and friezes is first recorded in 1533. It fell into decline by the 1700s, by 1778,140 hands were employed in the manufacture of linsey and linen employed 180. By comparison, nail making employed 900 hands by this time, nail making was introduced by the French Huguenots in the 17th century and became a thriving industry. At one point Bromsgrove was the centre of nail making. Mechanisation quickly put the industry into decline, the Bromsgrove Union Workhouse, on the Birmingham Road, was opened in 1838 and closed in 1948 and is in use as an office building today. In 1841, Bromsgrove railway works was established and it was primarily a maintenance facility but also built steam locomotives. The works provided employment for people in Bromsgrove, in 1964, following a reorganisation of railway workshops, the works closed and was demolished
31.
Jewish community of Worcester
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The city suffered the fate of other Jewish communities in the Middle Ages and were finally expelled with the rest of the British Jewry in 1290. The community was reestablished many centuries later during the second World War, after the war the community dwindled and the synagogue was closed in 1973. Worcester, like most important boroughs, contained a Jewry as early as the 12th century, the first reference to a presence of Jews in Worcester is from 1154 when a few Jewish families are known to have lived there. Presumably they earned their living by providing money lending services to the local population, in 1184 a Jew name Bonefei was fined one mark of gold to the Kings court. A few years there is evidence of a money lender named Leo the Jew who lent money to the abbot of Pershore. He was imprisoned for an entry into the hospital of Worcester. Worcester was one of the 26 Jewish centres of these days to have an Archa, the archae were intended to safeguard the royal rights in case of future disorder. The right of Jews to live in Worcester was expressly confirmed by King Henry III who came to the throne in 1216. There is some evidence that there may have been a Jewish Quarter in the area of Cooken or Coken Street, in 1241 Henry III summoned a “Jewish parliament” in Worcester. In 1263, during the revolt of Simon de Montfort. He allowed his soldiers to sack the city and destroy the Jewish community, in 1272 Edward I became King of England. On his marriage in 1275 to Eleanor, Edward gave her by way of dower’, to the cities of Worcester, Bath and Gloucester together with certain other towns. Edward I issued a writ that no Jew may dwell or abide in any of the towns which the queen has for her dower, the Jews of Worcester were finally expelled from England, as were all other Jews, in 1290. Only 651 years later, in 1941, did the Jewish Chronicle announce the reestablishment of the Jewish community in Worcester, the community was reestablished to serve evacuees from London and Birmingham as a result of the German bombings of English cities during World War 2. Together with the British Jews, a number of Jewish refugees from Europe had also settled in the city, the Jewish newcomers to Worcester integrated in the citys economy. One example was the Milore Glove factory that was founded by Emil Rich, despite the fact that he was a refugee from Germany he was appointed by the Queen to manufacture the gloves she wore for her coronation. The Jewish evacuees and refugees were joined for the duration of the war by some American, services were held in the city and, as a result of assistance of Rabbi Reuben Rabinowitz from the Central Synagogue in Birmingham, Hebrew classes for the children were inaugurated. At first services were held in temporary accommodation but a synagogue was consecrated at 2 New Street in March 1943 by the Chief Rabbi of Britain, the opening ceremony was performed by Mr Isaac Wolfson, a well known and successful businessman who lived in Worcester at the time
32.
Peter of Blois
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Peter of Blois was a French cleric, theologian, poet and diplomat. He is particularly noted for his corpus of Latin letters, Peter of Blois was born about 1130. Earlier opinion tended to place the date later in the 1130s and his family were minor nobility of Breton origin. He studied under Bernard Silvestris, who, he recalled, urged him to “take up in truth not fables, but history” and made him memorise the letters of Hildebert. It has been thought Peter also studied under the English philosopher and theologian John of Salisbury, Peter then studied Roman law at the University of Bologna, a centre for legal studies. Here he was tutored by Baldwin of Forde, a future Archbishop of Canterbury, few details of his studies are extant. It appears that he supported himself during his studies by taking students of his own. It was probably during his student years that he composed a number of Latin sequences after the manner of the Goliards and he also wrote Vacillantis trutine libramine. Peter of Blois and his brother Guillaume arrived in Sicily in September of that year, as part of a French party of 37 that included Stephen du Perche and Walter of the Mill. Peter became tutor to the king, guardian of the royal seal. However, the French clique around the regency proved unpopular with the Sicilian nobility, a revolt against French domination forced Stephen to resign the chancellorship and the Archbishopric of Palermo in 1169. Peter left the island to seek opportunities elsewhere, sailing initially to Genoa, there his connection with Archbishop Rotrou proved useful, drawing him into a letter-writing campaign focussed on Henry II of Englands conflict with Thomas Becket. This brought him back into contact with Reginald Fitz Jocelin, his pupil from his days in Paris. When Reginald was made Bishop of Bath in 1173, his role in the Becket affair made papal approval problematic, around 1173, Peter went to England to take up a post as chief letter-writer for Richard of Dover, Beckets successor as Archbishop. He also entered the service of Henry II, acting as a diplomat in his negotiations with Louis VII of France and the Papacy. His arrival in England approximately coincided with the rupture of the ruling family, Peter wrote an open letter to the Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to deplore publicly and regretfully that, while you are a most prudent woman, you have left your husband. However, when in 1183 Henry the Young King died during the revolt against his father, Peter wrote to Eleanor a letter of reasoned consolation. Peter was a well-connected controversialist and propagandist for Henry II. ”At some stage in his education, he had ordained a deacon
33.
Usury
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Usury is, as defined today, the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind, a loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors. Historically in Christian societies, and still in many Islamic societies today, someone who practices usury can be called a usurer, but a more common term in contemporary English is loan shark. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning, taking advantage of others misfortunes—or in a legal sense where interest rates may be regulated by law, historically, some cultures have regarded charging any interest for loans as sinful. Some of the earliest known condemnations of usury come from the Vedic texts of India, similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. At times, many nations from ancient China to ancient Greece to ancient Rome have outlawed loans with any interest, though the Roman Empire eventually allowed loans with carefully restricted interest rates, the Christian church in medieval Europe banned the charging of interest at any rate. Banking during Roman times was different from modern banking, during the Principate, most banking activities were conducted by private individuals, not by large banking firms like the ones that exist today. Since almost all moneylenders in the Empire were private individuals, anybody that had any additional capital and wished to lend it out could easily do so. The annual rates of interest on loans varied in the range of 4–12 percent, the apparent absence of intermediate rates suggests that the Romans may have had difficulty calculating the interest due on anything other than mathematically convenient rates. They quoted them on a basis, and the most common rates were multiples of twelve. Monthly rates tended to range from simple fractions to 3–4 percent, moneylending during this period was largely a matter of private loans advanced to persons short of cash, whether persistently in debt or temporarily until the next harvest. Mostly, it was undertaken by exceedingly rich men who were prepared to take on a risk if the profit looked good. Investment was always regarded as a matter of seeking personal profit, Banking was of the small, back-street variety, run by the urban lower-middle class of petty shopkeepers. By the 3rd century, acute currency problems in the Empire drove them into decline and it was evident that usury meant exploitation of the poor. The First Council of Nicaea, in 325, forbade clergy from engaging in usury, at the time, usury was interest of any kind, and the canon forbade the clergy to lend money at interest rates even as low as 1 percent per year. Later ecumenical councils applied this regulation to the laity, Lateran III decreed that persons who accepted interest on loans could receive neither the sacraments nor Christian burial. Pope Clement V made the belief in the right to usury a heresy in 1311, pope Sixtus V condemned the practice of charging interest as detestable to God and man, damned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian charity. Theological historian John Noonan argues that the doctrine was enunciated by popes, certain negative historical renditions of usury carry with them social connotations of perceived unjust or discriminatory lending practices
34.
Pope Gregory IX
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Pope Gregory IX Latin, Gregorius IX, was Pope from 19 March 1227 to his death in 1241. The successor of Pope Honorius III, he inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his cousin Pope Innocent III. The date of his birth varies in sources between c.1145 and 1170 and he received his education at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. He was created Cardinal-Deacon of the church of SantEustachio by his cousin Innocent III in December 1198, in 1206 he was promoted to the rank of Cardinal Bishop of Ostia e Velletri. He became Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1218 or 1219, upon the special request of Saint Francis, in 1220, Pope Honorius III appointed him Cardinal Protector of the order of the Franciscans. As Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, he cultivated a wide range of acquaintances, among them the Queen of England, Gregory IX was elevated to the papacy in the papal election of 1227. He took the name Gregory because he assumed the papal office at the monastery of Saint Gregory ad Septem Solia. Gregorys Bull Parens scientiarum of 1231, after the University of Paris strike of 1229 and this pope, being a remarkably skillful and learned lawyer, caused to be prepared Nova Compilatio decretalium, which was promulgated in numerous copies in 1234. The supplement completed the work, which provided the foundation for papal legal theory, in the 1234 Decretals, he invested the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to this, the followers of the Talmud would have to remain in a condition of political servitude until Judgment Day, the doctrine then found its way into the doctrine of servitus camerae imperialis, or servitude immediately subject to the Emperors authority, promulgated by Frederick II. The Jews were thus suppressed from having influence over the political process. In 1239, under the influence of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, following a public disputation between Christians and Jewish theologians, this culminated in a mass burning of some 12,000 handwritten Talmudic manuscripts on 12 June 1242, in Paris. Gregory was a supporter of the mendicant orders which he saw an excellent means for counteracting by voluntary poverty the love of luxury and he was a friend of Saint Dominic as well as Clare of Assisi. On 17 January 1235, he approved the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of captives. He appointed ten cardinals and canonized Saints Elisabeth of Hungary, Dominic de Guzmán, Anthony of Padua and he transformed a chapel to Our Lady in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Gregory IX endorsed the Northern Crusades and attempts to bring Orthodox Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe under Papacys fold, at the coronation of Frederick II in Rome,22 November 1220, the emperor made a vow to embark for the Holy Land in August 1221. Gregory IX began his pontificate by suspending the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Frederick II appealed to the sovereigns of Europe complaining of his treatment. The suspension was followed by excommunication and threats of deposition, as deeper rifts appeared, Frederick II went to the Holy Land and in fact managed to take possession of Jerusalem
35.
Henry VIII of England
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Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII, Henry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. Despite his resulting excommunication, Henry remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings to England. Besides asserting the supremacy over the Church of England, he greatly expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were commonly used to quash dissent, and he achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich and his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated, and accomplished king, and he has been described as one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne. He was an author and composer, as he aged, Henry became severely obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI, born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henrys six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary – survived infancy and he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, and was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York, in May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. Henry was given an education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king, as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, Arthurs death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public, as a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship
36.
Dissolution of the Monasteries
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Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henrys military campaigns in the 1540s. Professor George W. Bernard argues, The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. one adult man in fifty was in religious orders. Very few English houses had been founded later than the end of the 13th century, there was a Medieval proverb in England that said if the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the heir would have more land than the King of England. The 200 houses of friars in England and Wales constituted a distinct wave of foundations almost all occurring in the 13th century. Friaries, for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas, however, the religious changes in England under Henry VIII and Edward VI were of a different nature from those taking place in Germany, Bohemia, France, Scotland and Geneva. Bernard says there was concern in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries about the condition of the monasteries. Pastoral care was seen as more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer. English monasticism in the 1530s may have faced grave and urgent problems, Henry wanted to change this, and in November 1529 Parliament passed Acts reforming apparent abuses in the English Church. These Acts sought to demonstrate that establishing royal jurisdiction over the Church would ensure progress in religious reformation where papal authority had been insufficient, the monasteries were next in line. The stories of monastic impropriety, vice and excess that were to be collected by Thomas Cromwells visitors may have been biased and exaggerated. Levels of monastic debt were increasing, and average numbers of professed religious were falling, only a minority of houses could now support the twelve or thirteen professed religious usually regarded as the minimum necessary to maintain the full canonical hours of the Divine Office. Extensive monastic complexes dominated English towns of any size, but most were less than half full, renaissance princes throughout Europe were facing severe financial difficulties due to sharply rising expenditures, especially to pay for armies, fighting ships and fortifications. Most tended, sooner or later, to resort to plundering monastic wealth, protestant princes would justify this by claiming divine authority, Catholic princes would obtain the agreement and connivance of the Papacy. Monastic wealth, regarded everywhere as excessive and idle, offered a standing temptation for cash-strapped secular, in terms of popular esteem however, the balance tilted the other way. By the time Henry VIII turned his mind to the business of monastery reform, the first case was that of the so-called Alien Priories. As a result of the Norman Conquest some French religious orders held substantial property through their daughter monasteries in England, some of these were merely granges, agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right. Such estates were a source of income for the Crown in its French wars. If the property with which a house had been endowed by its founder were to be confiscated or surrendered, then the house ceased to exist, whether its members continued in the religious life or not
37.
Hugh Latimer
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Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Worcester before the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555 under the Catholic Queen Mary he was burned at the stake, Latimer was born into a family of farmers in Thurcaston, Leicestershire. Contemporary biographers including John Foxe placed the date somewhere between 1480 and 1494 and he started his studies in Latin grammar at the age of four, but not much else is known of his childhood. He attended Cambridge University and was elected a fellow of Clare College on 2 February 1510 and he received the Master of Arts degree in April 1514 and he was ordained a priest on 15 July 1515. In 1522, Latimer was nominated to the positions of university preacher, while carrying out his official duties, he continued with theological studies and received the Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1524. The subject of his disputation for the degree was a refutation of the new ideas of the Reformation emerging from the Continent, up to this time, Latimer described himself as obstinate a papist as any was in England. A recent convert to the new teachings, Thomas Bilney heard his disputation, bilneys words had a great impact on Latimer and from that day forward he accepted the reformed doctrines. Latimer joined a group of reformers including Bilney and Robert Barnes that met regularly at the White Horse Tavern and he began to preach publicly on the need for the translation of the Bible into English. This was a move as the first translation of the New Testament by William Tyndale had recently been banned. In early 1528, Latimer was called before Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and he was given an admonition, the following year, Wolsey fell from Henry VIIIs favour when he failed to expedite the annulment of Henrys marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In contrast, Latimers reputation was in the ascendant as he took the lead among the reformers in Cambridge, during Advent in 1529, he preached his two Sermons on the Card at St Edwards Church. In 1535, he was appointed Bishop of Worcester, in succession to an Italian absentee, in 1539, he opposed Henry VIIIs Six Articles, with the result that he was forced to resign his bishopric and imprisoned in the Tower of London. During the reign of Henrys son Edward VI, he was restored to favour as the English church moved in a more Protestant direction and he then served as chaplain to Katherine Duchess of Suffolk. However, when Edward VIs sister Mary I came to the throne, he was tried for his beliefs and teachings in Oxford, in October 1555 he was burned at the stake outside Balliol College, Oxford. On April 14,1554, commissioners from the party began an examination of Latimer, Ridley. Latimer, hardly able to sustain a debate at his age and he argued that the doctrines of the real presence of Christ in the mass, transubstantiation, and the propitiatory merit of the mass were unbiblical. The commissioners tried to demonstrate that Latimer didnt share the faith as eminent Fathers, to which Latimer replied. I have said, when they say well, and bring Scripture for them, I am of their faith, Latimer believed that the welfare of souls demanded he stand for the Protestant understanding of the gospel
38.
Thirty-nine Articles
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The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. The Thirty-nine Articles form part of the Book of Common Prayer used by both the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. When Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and was excommunicated, he formed a new Church of England, at this point, he needed to determine what its doctrines and practices would be in relation to the Roman Catholic Church and the new Protestant movements in continental Europe. These positions began with the Ten Articles in 1536, and concluded with the finalisation Thirty-nine articles in 1571, the Thirty-nine articles ultimately served to define the doctrine of the Church of England as it related to Calvinist doctrine and Roman Catholic practice. The articles went through at least five major revisions prior to their finalisation in 1571, the first attempt was the Ten Articles in 1536, which showed some slightly Protestant leanings—the result of an English desire for a political alliance with the German Lutheran princes. The next revision was the Six Articles in 1539 which swung away from all reformed positions, and then the Kings Book in 1543, during the reign of Edward VI, Henry VIIIs only son, the Forty-Two Articles were written under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1552. It was in this document that Calvinist thought reached the zenith of its influence in the English Church and these articles were never put into action, due to Edward VIs death and the reversion of the English Church to Roman Catholicism under Henry VIIIs elder daughter, Mary I. The articles pulled back some of the more extreme Calvinist thinking. The Thirty-nine articles were finalised in 1571, and incorporated into the Book of Common Prayer, the Ten Articles were first published in 1536 by Thomas Cranmer. They were the first guidelines of the Church of England as it became independent of Rome, the Institution of the Christian Man, published in 1537, was written by a committee of 46 divines and bishops headed by Thomas Cranmer. The purpose of the work, along with the Ten Articles of the year, was to implement the reforms of Henry VIII in separating from the Catholic Church. It was considered reformatory in basic orientation, though it was not strongly Lutheran, the work functioned as an official formulary of the reformed Anglican faith in England. It was later superseded by other creedal and official statements during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. It would evolve into the Kings Book, the work was a noble endeavor on the part of the bishops to promote unity, and to instruct the people in Church doctrine. The Germans presented, as a basis of agreement, a number of Articles based on the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg, bishops Tunstall, Stokesley and others were not won over by these Protestant arguments and did everything they could to avoid agreement. They were willing to separate from Rome, but their plan was to unite with the Greek Church, the bishops also refused to eliminate what the Germans called the Abuses allowed by the Anglican Church. Stokesley considered these customs to be essential because the Greek Church practised them, in opposition, Cranmer favoured a union with German Protestants. The king, unwilling to break with Catholic practices, dissolved the conference, Henry had felt uneasy about the appearance of the Lutheran doctors and their theology within his kingdom
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