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canon law

(Encyclopedia)canon law, in the Roman Catholic Church, the body of law based on the legislation of the councils (both ecumenical and local) and the popes, as well as the bishops (for diocesan matters). It is the la...

Ivan II

(Encyclopedia)Ivan II or Ivan Asen ēˈvän äˈsən [key], d. 1241, czar of Bulgaria (1218–41). On the death (1207) of his father, Kaloyan, founder of the second Bulgarian empire, the throne was usurped by Ivan'...

Gothic romance

(Encyclopedia)Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and the...

Godfrey of Bouillon

(Encyclopedia)Godfrey of Bouillon bo͞oyôNˈ [key], c.1058–1100, Crusader, duke of Lower Lorraine. He fought for Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV against Pope Gregory VII and against Rudolf of Swabia and was rewarded...

Merovingian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Merovingian art and architecture mĕrˌəvĭnˈjēən [key]. This period is named for Merovech, the founder of the first Germanic-Frankish dynasty (c.a.d. 500–a.d. 751). The Merovingian period was m...

Armenian Church

(Encyclopedia)Armenian Church, autonomous Christian church, sometimes also called the Gregorian Church. Its head, a primate of honor only, is the catholicos of Yejmiadzin, Armenia; Karekin II became catholicos in 1...

trombone

(Encyclopedia)trombone [Ital.,=large trumpet], brass wind musical instrument of cylindrical bore, twice bent on itself, having a sliding section that lengthens or shortens it and thus regulates the pitch. The desce...

papacy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 papacy pāˈpəsē [key], office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see ...

Espartero, Baldomero, duque de la Victoria, conde de Luchana

(Encyclopedia)Espartero, Baldomero, duque de la Victoria, conde de Luchana bäldōmāˈrō āspärtāˈrō do͞oˈkā dā lä vēktōˈrēä kōnˈdā dā lo͞ochäˈnä [key], 1793–1879, Spanish general and stat...

Pius X, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Pius X, Saint, 1835–1914, pope (1903–14), an Italian named Giuseppe Sarto, b. near Treviso; successor of Leo XIII and predecessor of Benedict XV. Ordained in 1858, he became bishop of Mantua (1884...