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Vieira, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Vieira, Antonio əntôˈnyo͝o vyāˈērə [key], 1608–97, Portuguese Jesuit orator and missionary. Born in Lisbon, he grew up in Brazil. He was sent by the Jesuits to Portugal to salute the new kin...

Methodism

(Encyclopedia)Methodism, the doctrines, polity, and worship of those Protestant Christian denominations that have developed from the movement started in England by the teaching of John Wesley. John and Charles ...

Carlstadt

(Encyclopedia)Carlstadt, Karlstadt käˈrôlōshtätˌ [key], c.1480–1541, German Protestant reformer, whose original name was Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein. As early as 1516, Carlstadt presented theses denying fre...

Christian II

(Encyclopedia)Christian II, 1481–1559, king of Denmark and Norway (1513–23) and Sweden (1520–23), son and successor of King John. After several unsuccessful attempts, he asserted claim to Sweden by force. How...

Otterbein, Philip William

(Encyclopedia)Otterbein, Philip William ŏtˈərbīnˌ [key], 1726–1813, German-American clergyman, a founder of the United Brethren in Christ. After pastoral work in Germany, he emigrated (1752) to America as a ...

Ælfric

(Encyclopedia)Ælfric ălˈfrĭk [key], c.955–1020, English writer and Benedictine monk. He was the greatest English scholar during the revival of learning fostered by the Benedictine monasteries in the second ha...

atheism

(Encyclopedia)atheism āˈthē-ĭzˌəm [key], denial of the existence of God or gods and of any supernatural existence, to be distinguished from agnosticism, which holds that the existence cannot be proved. The te...

Christians

(Encyclopedia)Christians, name taken by the followers of several evangelical preachers on the American frontier, notably James O'Kelley, Abner Jones, and Barton W. Stone, all of whom were antisectarian. Some congre...

Tauler, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Tauler, Johannes yōhänˈəs touˈlər [key], c.1300–1361, German mystic. He was a Dominican. He met Meister Eckhart, either at Strasbourg or in Cologne, where he went to study, and he was one of E...

Farel, Guillaume

(Encyclopedia)Farel, Guillaume gēyōmˈ färĕlˈ [key], 1489–1565, French religious reformer, associate of John Calvin. In 1520, Farel joined Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples at Meaux to aid in church reform and to ...