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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...

Taylor, John, Mormon leader

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, John, 1808–87, American leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, b. England. He emigrated in 1832 to Canada, where he was converted (1836) to the Mormon faith. He moved to ...

Unitarian Universalist Association

(Encyclopedia)Unitarian Universalist Association, Protestant church in the United States formed in 1961 by the merger of the American Unitarian Association (see Unitarianism) and the Universalist Church of America....

Upjohn, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Upjohn, Richard, 1802–78, American architect, b. England. He came to the United States in 1829. A skilled cabinetmaker and draftsman, he lived first in Manlius, N.Y., and then in New Bedford, Mass.,...

Spottiswoode, John

(Encyclopedia)Spottiswoode, John spŏtˈĭswo͝od [key], 1565–1639, Scottish prelate and church historian. Under James and Andrew Melville he studied for the ministry but later veered from strict Presbyterianism ...

Burghers

(Encyclopedia)Burghers bûrˈgərz [key], in the 18th cent., a party of the Secession Church of Scotland, resulting from one of the “breaches” in the history of Presbyterianism. To qualify as a burgess in certa...

Nubian Desert

(Encyclopedia)Nubian Desert, eastern region of the Sahara Desert, c.157,000 sq mi (407,000 sq km), NE Republic of Sudan, NE Africa, between the Nile and the Red Sea. The arid region, largely a sandstone plateau, ha...

Algoa Bay

(Encyclopedia)Algoa Bay ălgōˈə [key], arm of the Indian Ocean, indenting Eastern Cape, South Africa. The Portuguese arrived in the late 15th cent., and it was used as an anchorage. Port Elizabeth is on the shor...

Erpenius, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Erpenius, Thomas ûrpēˈnēəs [key], 1584–1624, Dutch Orientalist, whose name in Dutch was Van Erpe. Erpenius was one of the most celebrated scholars of his day and wrote several grammars of Middl...

Ionian Sea

(Encyclopedia)Ionian Sea, part of the Mediterranean Sea, S Europe, between Greece and S Italy. It is connected with the Adriatic Sea by the Strait of Otranto. The Gulf of Taranto and the Gulf of Corinth are its chi...