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original sin

(Encyclopedia)original sin, in Christian theology, the sin of Adam, by which all humankind fell from divine grace. Saint Augustine was the fundamental theologian in the formulation of this doctrine, which states th...

Salisbury, Robert Cecil, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Salisbury, Robert Cecil, 1st earl of, 1563–1612, English statesman; son of William Cecil, Baron Burghley. He entered Parliament and came gradually to rank second only to his father as adviser to Que...

Chippendale, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Chippendale, Thomas chĭpˈəndālˌ [key], 1718–79, celebrated English cabinetmaker. His designs were so widely followed that a whole general category of 18th-century English furniture is commonly ...

Foster, Norman Robert, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

(Encyclopedia)Foster, Norman Robert, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, 1935–, British architect, b. Manchester, grad. Manchester Univ. school of architecture (1961), Yale school of architecture (M.A., 1962). Foster an...

Kauffmann, Angelica

(Encyclopedia)Kauffmann, Angelica äng-gāˈlēkä koufˈmän [key], 1741–1807, Swiss neoclassical painter and graphic artist. From her youth she was known for her artistic, musical, and linguistic abilities. She...

Cain

(Encyclopedia)Cain kān [key], in the Bible, eldest son of Adam and Eve, a tiller of the soil. In jealousy he killed his brother Abel and became a fugitive. ...

James, Cyril Lionel Robert

(Encyclopedia)James, C. L. R., 1901–1989, Trinidadian historian, journalist, and communist activist, b. Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago. A social theorist, anti-colon...

plastering

(Encyclopedia)plastering, house construction technique involving the application of plaster to walls and ceilings, exterior plasterwork being of a different composition and generally known as stucco. Plaster was us...

Walpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford, 1676–1745, English statesman. Walpole is usually described as the first prime minister of Great Britain, but he was not a prime minister in the modern sense. A...

Seth, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Seth, in the Bible, son of Adam and Eve, father of Enosh. In the chronology in the Gospel of St. Luke, Seth is an ancestor of Jesus. The Nag Hammadi codices preserve revelatory discourses ascribed to ...