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Vincent Ferrer, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Vincent Ferrer, Saint fĕrˈər [key], 1350?–1419, Spanish Dominican preacher, b. Valencia. He studied at Barcelona, taught at Lleida, and later studied at Toulouse. After 1379 he became a friend an...

Petavius, Dionysius

(Encyclopedia)Petavius, Dionysius dīōnĭshˈēəs pētāˈvēəs [key], Fr. Denys Pétau, 1583–1652, French Jesuit theologian and philologist. His editions of late-Greek theological works are still important. H...

Celtic Church

(Encyclopedia)Celtic Church, name given to the Christian Church of the British Isles before the mission (597) of St. Augustine of Canterbury from Rome. Founded in the 2d or 3d cent. by missionaries from Rome or Gau...

Te Deum laudamus

(Encyclopedia)Te Deum laudamus tē dēˈəm lôdāˈməs, tā dāˈo͝om loudäˈmo͝os [key] [Lat.,=we praise Thee, O God], early chant of the Western Church beginning, “We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge The...

Æthelbert, king of Kent

(Encyclopedia)Æthelbert ĕˈthəlbərt, ă– [key], d. 616, king of Kent (560?–616). Although defeated by the West Saxons in 568, he became the strongest ruler in England S of the Humber River. His wife, Bertha...

Rule, Britannia

(Encyclopedia)Rule, Britannia, English patriotic song. The music was composed by Thomas Augustine Arne for his masque Alfred, first performed August 1, 1740, in commemoration of the accession of George I. The words...

San Gimignano

(Encyclopedia)San Gimignano sän jēmēnyäˈnō [key], town (1991 pop. 6,956), Tuscany, central Italy. It is a tourist center that has fully preserved its medieval aspect. The city walls, the palaces, and the cele...

Pelagianism

(Encyclopedia)Pelagianism pəlāˈjənĭzəm [key], Christian heretical sect that rose in the 5th cent. challenging St. Augustine's conceptions of grace and predestination. The doctrine was advanced by the celebrat...

West Indies, University of the

(Encyclopedia)West Indies, University of the, autonomous regional institution with main campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados; coeducational; est. 1948 in Mona, Jamaica, as an external university college of t...

Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint ârēŏpˈəjīt [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., Athenian Christian, converted by St. Paul. Acts 17.34. Tradition has made him a martyr and the first bishop of Athens. He ha...