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Seabury, Samuel, American clergyman

(Encyclopedia)Seabury, Samuel, 1729–96, American clergyman, first bishop of the Episcopal Church, b. Connecticut, grad. Yale, 1748. He studied medicine at the Univ. of Edinburgh, then turned to theology and was o...

Reformed churches

(Encyclopedia)Reformed churches, in a general sense, all Protestant churches that claim a beginning in the Reformation. In more restricted and more usual historical usage, Reformed churches are those Protestant chu...

Philips, Katherine (Fowler)

(Encyclopedia)Philips, Katherine (Fowler), 1631–64, English poet. Conductor of several literary salons in London, she began the Society of Friendship under the pseudonym “Matchless Orinda.” The first collecte...

Besant, Annie

(Encyclopedia)Besant, Annie bĕzˈant [key], 1847–1933, English social reformer and theosophist, b. Annie Wood. She steadily grew away from Christianity and in 1873 separated from her husband, a Protestant clergy...

Albright, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Albright, Jacob, 1759–1808, American religious leader, founder of the Evangelical Association (later the Evangelical Church), b. near Pottstown, Pa. A German Lutheran, he was converted c.1790 to Met...

White, William

(Encyclopedia)White, William, 1748–1836, American Episcopal bishop, b. Philadelphia, grad. College of Philadelphia (now Univ. of Pennsylvania), 1765. He was ordained in England in 1772, returning to become assist...

Brethren

(Encyclopedia)Brethren, German Baptist religious group. They were popularly known as Dunkards, Dunkers, or Tunkers, from the German for “to dip,” referring to their method of baptizing. The Brethren evolved fro...

Ward, William George

(Encyclopedia)Ward, William George, 1812–82, English Roman Catholic apologist, educated at Oxford. He became (1834) a fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and was ordained in the Church of England. At first a Broad...

Schillebeeckx, Edward Cornelius Florentius

(Encyclopedia)Schillebeeckx, Edward Cornelius Florentius skĭlˈəbāks [key], 1914–2009, Belgian Roman Catholic theologian, b. Antwerp. He entered the Dominican order in 1934 and was ordained in 1941. After stud...

indulgence

(Encyclopedia)indulgence, in the Roman Catholic Church, the pardon of temporal punishment due for sin. It is to be distinguished from absolution and the forgiveness of guilt. The church grants indulgences out of th...