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Holy Week

(Encyclopedia)Holy Week, week before Easter. Its chief days are named Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. In Christian life it is a week of devout observance, commemorating the Passion and...

Welser

(Encyclopedia)Welser vĕlˈzər [key], German family of wealthy merchants and bankers at Augsburg. It reached the height of its prosperity under Bartholomäus Welser, 1488–1561, who had advanced large sums to Hol...

Gratian, Roman emperor of the West

(Encyclopedia)Gratian grāˈshən [key], 359–83, Roman emperor of the West (375–83). At the death of his father, Valentinian I, he accepted the army's election of his brother, Valentinian II, as his colleague. ...

Roman Empire

(Encyclopedia)Roman Empire: see Rome; Byzantine Empire; Holy Roman Empire. ...

Leopold I, grand duke of Tuscany

(Encyclopedia)Leopold I, grand duke of Tuscany: see Leopold II, Holy Roman emperor. ...

Frederick the Fair

(Encyclopedia)Frederick the Fair, c.1286–1330, German antiking (1314–26), duke of Austria, son of Albert I, German king. On the death of Henry VII, Holy Roman emperor and German king, the split between the supp...

Maximilian I, 1573–1651, elector and duke of Bavaria

(Encyclopedia)Maximilian I, 1573–1651, elector (1623–51) and duke (1597–1651) of Bavaria, one of the outstanding figures of the Thirty Years War and an ardent supporter of the Counter Reformation. His occupat...

Holy Sepulcher

(Encyclopedia)Holy Sepulcher sĕpˈəlkər [key], church in Jerusalem, officially the Church of the Resurrection. It is in the east central part of the Christian quarter, on the supposed site of Jesus' tomb. Steps ...

Klesl, Melchior

(Encyclopedia)Klesl or Khlesl, Melchior both: mĕlˈkhyôr klāˈsəl [key], 1552–1630, Austrian politician, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. The son of a Protestant baker, he was converted to Catholicism b...

Constantine, Roman general

(Encyclopedia)Constantine, d. 411, Roman general. He was proclaimed emperor by the Roman troops in Britain in 407 and led a revolt in Gaul and Spain against the Western emperor Honorius. He conquered part of Gaul a...