Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

quietism

(Encyclopedia)quietism, a heretical form of religious mysticism founded by Miguel de Molinos, a 17th-century Spanish priest. Molinism, or quietism, developed within the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and spread esp...

Peter III, king of Aragón and king of Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Peter III (Peter the Great), 1239?–1285, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1276–85) and king of Sicily (1282–85); son and successor of James I. In 1280 he established Aragonese influence o...

Penal Laws

(Encyclopedia)Penal Laws, in English and Irish history, term generally applied to the body of discriminatory and oppressive legislation directed chiefly against Roman Catholics but also against Protestant nonconfor...

Copts

(Encyclopedia)Copts kŏpts [key], the native Christian minority of Egypt; estimates of the number of Copts in Egypt range from 5% to 17% of the population. Copts are not ethnically distinct from other Egyptians; th...

Gallant, Mavis

(Encyclopedia)Gallant, Mavis (Mavis Leslie Young Gallant) gă-lăntˈ [key], 1922–2014, Canadian writer, b. Montreal. After graduating from high school, she was a newspaper feature writer in Montreal (1944–50),...

Dodsley, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Dodsley, Robert, 1703–64, English publisher and author. He wrote occasional verses, and also several plays, including The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737); a ballad opera, The Blind Beggar of...

Cornelius, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Cornelius, Saint kôrnēlˈyəs [key], d. 253, pope (251–253); successor of St. Fabian. His rule was marked by the support of St. Cyprian and the opposition of the antipope Novatian, and by the prob...

Langham, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Langham, Simon lăngˈəm [key], d. 1376, English prelate and statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He ruled the abbey of Westminster with such skill that Edward III appointed (1360) him t...

benediction

(Encyclopedia)benediction [Lat.,=blessing], solemn blessing usually administered in the name of God by a priest or a minister. The temple worship at Jerusalem had fixed forms of benedictions, and Christians have al...

Spellman, Francis Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Spellman, Francis Joseph, 1889–1967, American Roman Catholic cardinal, b. Whitman, Mass. Educated at Fordham and the American College at Rome, he was ordained May 14, 1916. He was a parish priest in...