(Encyclopedia) WadowiceWadowicevädōvēˈtsĕ [key], town (1993 est. pop. 19,600), Bielsko-Biała prov., S Poland, on Skawa River, 23 mi (37 km) WSW of Kraków. Located in a region of rolling hills,…
(Encyclopedia) BorgheseBorghesebōrgāˈzā [key], Roman noble family, originally of Siena. It produced one pope, Paul V, several cardinals, and many prominent citizens. The Borghese were noted patrons…
(Encyclopedia) ÆthelbertÆthelbertĕˈthəlbərt, ă– [key], d. 616, king of Kent (560?–616). Although defeated by the West Saxons in 568, he became the strongest ruler in England S of the Humber River.…
(Encyclopedia) Bruno, Saint, c.1030–1101, German monk, founder of the Carthusians, b. Cologne. He studied and taught at Reims. In 1084 he took six companions and founded a little monastery in the…
(Encyclopedia) Peter II, 1174–1213, king of Aragón (1196–1213) and count of Barcelona, son and successor of Alfonso II. He had himself crowned (1204) at Rome by Pope Innocent III, whom he accepted as…
(Encyclopedia) Constantinople, Second Council of, 553, regarded generally as the fifth ecumenical council. It was convened by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to settle the dispute known as the Three…
(Encyclopedia) Gregory XI, 1330–78, pope (1370–78), a Frenchman named Pierre Roger de Beaufort. He was the successor of Urban V, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the papacy from Avignon…
(Encyclopedia) Old Catholics, Christian denomination established by German Catholics who separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church when they rejected (1870) the decrees of the First Vatican…
(Encyclopedia) ManfredManfredmănˈfrəd, Ger. mänˈfrāt [key], c.1232–1266, king of Sicily (1258–66), the last Hohenstaufen on that throne. An illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II,…
(Encyclopedia) Medici, Giovanni de', or Giovanni delle Bande NereGiovanni delle Bande Nerejōvänˈnē dĕlˈlā bänˈdā nāˈrā [key] [Ital.,=of the black bands], 1498–1526, Italian condottiere; great-…