title: William Wordsworth

paragraphs: William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an important poet of the Romantic Age in English literature.

paragraphs: Many people think that "The Prelude", an autobiographical poem of his early years is his masterpiece. Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

paragraphs: Wordsworth was born as second of five children in the Lake District. After the death of his mother in 1778, his father sent him to "Hawkshead" Grammar School. In 1783 his father, a lawyer and a solicitor, died.

paragraphs: Although many aspects of his boyhood were positive, he remembered times of loneliness and anxiety. It took him many years, and much writing, to recover from the death of his parents.

paragraphs: Wordsworth went to "St John's College", Cambridge in 1787. Three years later, in 1790, he visited Revolutionary France and supported the Republican movement, although the Reign of Terror later made him change his mind.(see Prelude book 10) The following year, he graduated from Cambridge.

paragraphs: In November 1791, Wordsworth returned to France and took a walking tour of Europe that included the Alps and Italy. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because he was poor and there were tensions between Britain and France, he returned alone to England the next year. But he supported Annette Vallon and his daughter as best he could in later life. War between France and Britain prevented him from seeing Annette and Caroline again for several years. It is likely that Wordsworth would have been depressed during the 1790s.

paragraphs: In 1802 Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, visited Annette and Caroline in France.

paragraphs: In 1793 Wordsworth published the poetry collections "An Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches". In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, Wordsworth and his sister, "Dorothy", moved to Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge's home in "Nether Stowey". Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge produced "Lyrical Ballads" (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement. The to "Lyrical Ballads" is considered a central work of Romantic literary theory. In it, Wordsworth discusses what he sees as the elements of a new type of poetry, one based on the "real language of men" and which avoids the poetic diction of much eighteenth-century poetry. Here, Wordsworth also gives his famous definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility."

paragraphs: A fourth and final edition of "Lyrical Ballads" was published in 1805. He wrote a poem about daffodils and the Lake District.

paragraphs: Wordsworth, Dorothy, and Coleridge then traveled to Germany in the autumn of 1798. The main effect on Wordsworth was that he became homesick. But he began to work on the important autobiographical piece "The Prelude". He also wrote a number of famous poems, including "the Lucy poems." He and his sister moved back to England, now to "Dove Cottage" in Grasmere in the Lake District, and this time with the poet Robert Southey nearby. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey came to be known as the "Lake Poets". Through this period, many of his poems speak of death, endurance, separation, and grief.

paragraphs: In 1802 he married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy continued to live with the couple.

paragraphs: In 1807, his "Poems in Two Volumes" were published, including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood".

paragraphs: Two of his children, Thomas and Catherine, died in 1812. In 1813 his family, including Dorothy, moved to "Rydal Mount, Ambleside" , where he spent the rest of his life.


title: Short Parliament

paragraphs: The Short Parliament in English history lasted from April 13 to May 5 1640. It is called "Short" because it only lasted for three weeks.

paragraphs: Charles I of England, who was also king of Scotland, was having problems with the Church of Scotland and war with them was breaking out again. Charles had spent the last 11 years ruling directly, without calling a Parliament even once. He did this because he had little use for elected representatives trying to decide policy. But now with the problems with the Scots, Charles needed money to pay for his war. To get more money for war meant he had to call a Parliament so they could vote on it.

paragraphs: The problem was that the members of Parliament were unhappy about the things he had done since 1629, when he was ruling without them. They wanted to talk about these things instead of giving the king his money. John Pym, member for Tavistock, gave fiery speeches refusing to give money unless the abuses were talked about. Charles responded by closing the Parliament and sending them home again, and he tried to fight the Scots without the money. But when this did not work and as a result of his defeat had to agree to pay the Scots, he was forced to call Parliament again. This became known as the Long Parliament, and the Constitutional crisis that followed led to the bloody English Civil War.


title: Pelé

paragraphs: Edson Arantes do Nascimento , more commonly known as just Pelé, was born 23 October 1940 in Três Coraçōes, Minas Gerais, Brazil.,

paragraphs: He is a former Brazilian football player. Pelé is the most successful league goal scorer in the world, with 678 league goals. In total Pelé scored 1283 goals in 1363 games, including unofficial friendlies and tour games, for which he was listed in the Guinness World Records for most career goals scored in the history of football.

paragraphs: He was given the title "Football Player of the Century" by FIFA. Many believe that he is the best player in the history of football.

paragraphs: From 1956 to 1974 he played for Santos, had 605 appearances, and scored 589 goals. From 1975-1977 he played for New York Cosmos, when he had 64 appearances, and scored 37 goals. Then from 1978-1980 he played for XI Classic till he retired p


title: Rain shadow

paragraphs: A rain shadow is an area of land that lies behind a mountain which gets almost no rainfall. This side of a mountainous area is away from the wind. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them.

paragraphs: As shown by the diagram to the right, the incoming warm and moist air is drawn by the prevailing winds towards the top of the mountains. As it does so, it cools, condenses and rain falls before it crosses the top. The air, without much moisture left, goes on over the mountains creating a dry side called the "rain shadow".


title: Lesson

paragraphs: A lesson in school is a planned period of time for learning. It involves one or more students being taught by a teacher. A "lesson" may be either one section of a textbook or a short period of time during which learners are taught about a subject or taught how to perform an activity. "Lessons" are generally taught in a classroom but may instead take place in a situated learning environment.

paragraphs: Also, a lesson also means a learner learning something he did not know before. Such a "lesson" can be either planned or accidental, enjoyable or painful. The slang phrase "to teach someone a "lesson"", means to punish or scold a person for a mistake they have made making sure that he does not make the same mistake again.

paragraphs: Lessons can also be made entertaining. When the term education is combined with entertainment, it is called "edutainment".


title: Marián Hossa

paragraphs: Marián Hossa (born 12 January 1979, in Stará Ľubovňa, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a Slovak professional ice hockey player.

paragraphs: His current club is the Chicago Blackhawks, an ice hockey team in the NHL.

paragraphs: He plays in attack, preferably in right-wing. He is considered as one of the fastest skating players of the sport. He wears number 81 on his jersey.

paragraphs: After the 2007-2008 season when his team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, lost to the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup he switched teams to the Detroit Red Wings because he felt he had a better chance of winning the Stanley Cup with them. When the Penguins again met the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup after the 2008-2009 season, Hossa was once again on the losing team as the Penguins won in 7 games.

paragraphs: Hossa signed a 12-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks that's worth 62.8 million dollars.

paragraphs: In his career in the NHL he also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators.

paragraphs: After losing two straight Stanley Cup finals with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, He finally won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010. On June 24, 2013, He won his second Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks after they defeated the Boston Bruins 4 games to 2 in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals.


title: Fashion

paragraphs: Fashion is the form of clothing, accessories, and furniture. It can be used by everyone. It is related to culture, For example, we have warm clothes in the Swedish fashion and we have thin clothes in the African fashion.

paragraphs: Fashion is a source of looking better/attractive.


title: The Good Life

paragraphs: The Good Life is the name of several television series, including


title: South West England

paragraphs: South West England is one of the regions of England. It has the largest area of all regions, and reaches from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. This includes the area often known as the West Country, and much of Wessex. The size of the region is shown by the fact that the northern part of Gloucestershire, near Chipping Campden, is as close to the Scottish border as it is to the tip of Cornwall.

paragraphs: Agriculture and tourism are the important industries of the region. Mining of tin and copper was also formerly very important in Devon and Cornwall. Traditionally, the South West of England has been well known for producing Cheddar cheese, named after Cheddar, Somerset in the Mendip Hills, for Devon cream teas, and for Somerset cider. It is now probably equally well known as the home of the "Eden Project" (in Cornwall), "Aardman Animations", the "Glastonbury festival" (in Somerset), "trip hop" music, Cornwall's seafood restaurants, and surfing beaches. Two National Parks (Dartmoor and Exmoor) and four World Heritage Sites lie in this region.

paragraphs: The official region consists of the following geographic counties and local government areas:


title: South East England

paragraphs: South East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994. It includes Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.

paragraphs: Its population as of the 2001 census was 8,000,550, making it the most populous English region. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297m/974 ft. The major urban areas of the region include Brighton and Hove, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Reading. Settlements closer to London are part of the Greater London Urban Area.

paragraphs: The official region consists of the following subdivisions:


title: North East England

paragraphs: North-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and includes the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and a small part of North Yorkshire.

paragraphs: The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in Northumberland, at 815m and the largest city is Newcastle. Sunderland is the second-largest.

paragraphs: The region is known for its urban centres and for its natural beauty: Northumberland National Park, the region's coastline, its section of the Pennines and Weardale. It also has great historic importance. There are two World Heritage Sites: Durham Cathedral and Hadrian's Wall.

paragraphs: Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *


title: Sussex

paragraphs: Sussex is a historic county in South East England. Its area is more or less the same as that of the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is divided for local government into West Sussex and East Sussex and the City of Brighton and Hove. The city of Brighton and Hove became a unitary authority in 1997; and got City status in 2000. Until then Chichester had been Sussex's only city.

paragraphs: Sussex still has a strong local identity and the county's unofficial anthem is "Sussex by the Sea". The county's motto, "We wun't be druv", shows the strong-willed nature of its people in past centuries.

paragraphs: Major towns and cities of Sussex include:


title: Kingdom of Sussex

paragraphs: The Kingdom of Sussex, ("Suth Seaxe", i.e. the South Saxons), was one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, its area was more or less that of the later county of Sussex. A large part of that district, however, was covered in early times by the forest called Andred. It was ruled by the kings of Sussex.

paragraphs: According to the traditional account given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was in 477 that a certain Ælle led the invaders ashore at a place called "Cymenes ora" and defeated the inhabitants. A further battle at a place called "Mearcredes burne" is recorded under the year 485, and in the annal for 491 we read that Ælle and his son Cissa robbed Anderitum (Pevensey Castle) and killed all the inhabitants.


title: Annals

paragraphs: Annals (Latin "Annales", from "annus", a year) are a short form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year.

paragraphs: Cicero ( in "De Oratore", ii. 12. 52) tells that from the earliest period down to the pontificate of "Publius Mucius Scaevola" (c. 131 BC), it was usual for the pontifex maximus to record on a white tablet ("album"), which was exhibited in an open place at his house, so that the people might read it. On this tablet were written down (according to Cicero) the name of the consuls and other magistrates, and then the important events of the year.

paragraphs: In Cicero's time these records were called "Annales Maximi". The practice of writing annals was carried on by several unofficial writers. Cicero speaks of Cato, Pictor and Piso.

paragraphs: In the Middle Ages in the Western Church there were written tables to show that date of Easter for a certain number of years or even centuries. These "Paschal tables" were thin books in which each annual date was separated from the next by a more or less considerable blank space. In these spaces some monks wrote down the important events of the year. The writing of these Annals was begun at the end of the 7th century and among the Irish – see the Annals of the Four Masters, the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Innisfallen and the Annales Cambriae or Annals of Wales, one of the earliest sources for King Arthur. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is also in annalistic, year-by-year form.

paragraphs: In the 9th century, during the "Carolingian Renaissance", these Annals became the usual form of contemporary history. There were the "Annales Einhardi", the "Annales Laureshamenses" (or "of Lorsch"), and the "Annales S. Bertini". They were written officially in order to preserve the memory of the more interesting acts of Charlemagne, his ancestors and his successors. At this stage, the Annals now began to lose their primitive character, and became more and more Chronicles. But the term was still used for many documents, such as the Annals of Waverley.


title: Cicero

paragraphs: Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, consul, lawyer, political theorist and philosopher. He is often thought to be one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

paragraphs: His Latin is thought to be the model of Classical Latin. He introduced Greek philosophy to the Romans.

paragraphs: Cicero was heavily involved in the politics of the Roman Republic. After Julius Caesar's death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony. In the power struggle, Cicero attacked Antony in a series of speeches. Cicero was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate. He was executed in 43 BC by soldiers working for the Triumvirate.


title: Heavyweight

paragraphs: In boxing, the term heavyweight is used for a specific group of people based on weight. A heavyweight is a boxer who weighs more than 201 lbs. At 201 pounds 91 kg and below is cruiserweight. Boxing organizations created many divisions so that fighters could fight people of the same size but mostly because more champions are created thus more profit. Most divisions only separate each other by few lbs.

paragraphs: The first heavyweight champion under modern rules was John L. Sullivan. Famous heavyweight champions have included Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Vitali Klitshko, Tyson Fury and Lennox Lewis.


title: Genealogy

paragraphs: Genealogy is the study of family history. It is the study of family relationships and ancestry (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.). It is a popular hobby in the United States and in many other countries.

paragraphs: Some people show their family history using a family tree. A family tree is a diagram of the members of a family. With a family tree you use lines to show how people are related, for example, people who are married or have children.

paragraphs: Some people keep track of their family history data in a genealogy database on their computer. Examples of data that a person would save are dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths. Other information that might be saved are records of military service, census records which show where ancestors lived at a certain time, immigration data, education, occupations, and even photos of the ancestors. The person building the database can usually decide to save many kinds of data—news articles, stories that were told in the family (oral history), information on religious ceremonies, wills or inheritances, information from family letters, customs, or how world or local events affected the family. The advantages of using a genealogy database are that it helps to keep the data organized, especially when relationships change; it can generate several types of charts or tables with the data filled in; it may make it easier to share data with others; and it takes up less room than paper and notebooks.

paragraphs: People study genealogy (family history) for many reasons.


title: Niels Bohr

paragraphs: Niels Bohr (7 October 1885 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who helped discover quantum physics, the structure of the atom, and the atomic bomb. Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922 for, in short, discovering the quantization of atomic energy levels. He worked also in a project of physicists known as "Manhattan Project". He married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912. One of his sons was Aage Bohr, who was also an important physicist. Aage won in 1975 his own Nobel prize. Niels Bohr worked also with Albert Einstein. He is also considered one of the most important physicists of the 20th century.

paragraphs: Niels Henrik David Bohr, or Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark,1885 as the son of Christian Bohr, who was also professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. Bohr's mother was Ellen Adler Bohr and was Jewish with a rich family of bankers and politicians. Niels was also the brother of Harald Bohr. Bohr was a mathematician, a physicist, and funnily enough, was a football player of the national team.

paragraphs: In 1903 Bohr began studies of philosophy and mathematics at the Copenhagen University.

paragraphs: In 1905 the Royal Danish Academy of Science organized a competition. Niels Bohr participated with some experiments in surface tension. He used the laboratory of his father in the university, because he knew it since he was a boy.

paragraphs: His work won the prize. For this reason, he decided to stop the studies of philosophy and mathematics and changed to physics.

paragraphs: Bohr did experiments in the Trinity College in Cambridge under the direction of J.J. Thomson. After it, he went to the University of Manchester under the direction of Ernest Rutherford. On the basis of the theories of Rutherford, he published his theory of electrons. He introduces the theory of electrons traveling in orbits around the nucleus of the atom in 1913 and the chemical properties of the orbit.

paragraphs: He introduced the idea that an electron can drop from a higher energy orbit to a lower one. Then it can emit a photon of discrete energy. This is the basis of quantum theory.

paragraphs: Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe Nørlund Bohr had four sons. Their oldest died in a tragic boating accident and another died from childhood meningitis. The others went on to lead successful lives, including Aage Bohr, who became a very successful physicist and, like his father, won a Nobel Prize in physics, in 1975.


title: Świnoujście

paragraphs: Świnoujście () is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with about 42,000 people (). It is situated on the Swina river, which flows into the Baltic Sea. In Świnoujście is the largest and longest beach in Poland. Świnoujście is also a health resort and has a modern harbour.

paragraphs: The port can handle of dry bulk and general cargo (especially coal, ore and chemical materials).

paragraphs: The ferry terminal (run by the Polish Baltic Shipping Company) provides ferry berths and facilities for passenger services to Sweden and Denmark. There are lines to Malmo in Sweden, Copenhagen and Ronne (Bornholm) in Denmark.

paragraphs: There are also facilities for deep-sea fishing, fish processing, and ship repair services.


title: Sky Odyssey

paragraphs: Sky Odyssey is an action/adventure flight simulator (or flight videogame) for the SonyPlayStation 2. It was made by Cross and was sold in store’s in the year 2000.

paragraphs: The games story is a Indiana Jones-like adventure in which the person playing the game flies an airplane in a fictional (or not real) world collecting very old objects as well as pieces of a map.

paragraphs: The game's music was made by Kō Ōtani, who also made the music for "Shadow of the Colossus", different types of "Gamera" films, and many other anime.

paragraphs: It is one of the few videogames that you can fly the Japanese Shinden and Shinden Kai, the Shinden is the airplane shown on the game's box.


title: Landform

paragraphs: A landform is a word that describes a form of land. Each type of landform is defined by its size, shape, location, and what it is made of.

paragraphs: Landforms that are related to flowing water.

paragraphs: Landforms made by erosion and weathering usually occur in coastal or fluvial areas, and many are listed under those headings. Some other erosion landforms that are not listed in those categories include:


title: Piri Reis map

paragraphs: The Piri Reis map is a map of the world drawn on a parchment of gazelle skin by a Turk named Piri Reis (Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed) in 1513. This map has been used to support claims for a pre-modern exploration of Antarctica.


title: Shadow of the Colossus

paragraphs: Shadow of the Colossus is a Japanese-made action-adventure video game made and sold by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) for the PlayStation 2. The game was sold in North America and Japan in October 2005, and was then sold in Europe and Oceania in February 2006. The game was made by SCEI's International Production Studio 1, the same video game makers that made the game Ico.

paragraphs: The game is about a person called Wander, a young man who must travel across a large area on a horse and destroy sixteen giant creatures called the colossi to bring back the life of a dead girl. The game is not a normal action-adventure type of game because there are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters to talk to, and no enemies to destroy other than the colossi. Shadow of the Colossus has been described as a puzzle game, because each colossus has a weakness which must be found and somehow used to defeat the colossi.


title: Verbandsgemeinde

paragraphs: A Verbandsgemeinde (plural Verbandsgemeinden) is an administrative unit unique to the German Bundeslands (federal states) of Rhineland-Palatinate and, since 2009, Saxony-Anhalt.

paragraphs: There are 163 Verbandsgemeinden in Rhineland-Palatinate, which are grouped into the 24 districts and subdivided into nearly 2200 Ortsgemeinden.

paragraphs: Most of these Verbandsgemeinden were established in 1969. Formerly the name of the administrative units was "Amt". Most of the functions of municipal government for several villages are consolidated and administered centrally from a larger or more central village among the group, while the individual villages (Ortsgemeinden) still maintain a limited degree of local autonomy.


title: Osburg

paragraphs: Osburg is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is near Trier. As of 31 December 2018, 2,422 people lived there.


title: Farschweiler

paragraphs: Farschweiler is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As of 31 December 2018, 802 people lived there.


title: Requiem

paragraphs: A Requiem (or Requiem Mass) is a Eucharist service in the Roman Catholic Church to pray for the repose of the soul of someone who has died. There are special words for a Requiem Mass. They are in Latin. The best-known part of the Requiem Mass starts with the words “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine” (“Give them eternal rest, O Lord”). This is why it is called a “Requiem”.

paragraphs: Many composers throughout the centuries have composed music to these words. The word “Requiem” can mean a piece of music which sets the words of the Requiem Mass.

paragraphs: Celebration of the Eucharist to pray for people who have died goes back at least as far as the 2nd century.

paragraphs: In the Middle Ages the words of the Requiem Mass were sung to Gregorian chant.

paragraphs: In the Renaissance church music was generally polyphonic. This sort of music, which has several voices weaving in and out of one another, is the kind of music used at the time for requiems. The composer Johannes Ockeghem is an example of a composer who wrote such music.

paragraphs: Polyphonic settings of the Requiem Mass continued during the Baroque period (17th and early 18th centuries), even although other musical forms (e.g. opera) had developed a much more modern style.

paragraphs: The most famous Requiem from the 18th century is the one by Mozart. Many musicians think it was one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It was left unfinished when Mozart died.

paragraphs: In the 19th century many composers wrote Requiems. Most of these were written for performance at concerts, not for church services, but they still used the Latin words of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

paragraphs: Luigi Cherubini wrote a Requiem in C minor for the annual remembering of the execution of Louis XVI. He wrote another Requiem in D minor, which he wrote for himself. It was performed at his own funeral.

paragraphs: Giuseppe Verdi wrote a very exciting "Messa da Requiem" (1874) which sounds very operatic. Verdi rearranged some of the text (words) of the traditional Requiem Mass.

paragraphs: Bruckner, Saint-Saëns and Dvořák all wrote requiems.

paragraphs: Brahms wrote a work which he called "Ein Deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem"). It is unusual because, instead of setting the traditional Latin words, he took some words from the German translation of the Bible.

paragraphs: In 1888 Gabriel Fauré wrote a Requiem which uses an orchestra without violins except for a solo violin in the movement called “Sanctus”. In 1900 he made some changes and added an important baritone solo.

paragraphs: In the 20th century many composers continued to write Requiems. The most famous one is Britten’s "War Requiem" (1961). The message of this work is that war is cruel and pointless. Britten uses the Latin words of the Requiem Mass, but also some English poems by Wilfred Owen who was killed in the First World War. The baritone and tenor soloists who sing these English words represent the German and the English soldiers. The work was written for Coventry Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the old cathedral had been totally destroyed in World War II.

paragraphs: For example, Mozart's Requiem follows this. In his requiem, the Lux aeterna (written by someone else) is the same as the Introitus, with different words.

paragraphs: This sequence was fixed by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. It was slightly modified in the Second Vatican Council.


title: Middle C

paragraphs: Middle C is the name given to the musical note C which is in the middle of the piano keyboard. It is not actually quite the middle note of the keyboard, but very nearly, and of all the Cs on the piano it is the one nearest to the middle.

paragraphs: When writing Middle C in music notation it is just below the stave when using the treble clef and just above the stave when using the bass clef. This is shown in the first and last notes of the musical example below. The Middle C sits on a ledger line (an extension of the stave written just for one note).

paragraphs: When starting to learn the piano, most books make their easiest pieces start on Middle C. This is because the right hand can then play tunes using 5 notes (C to G) using white notes only (no sharps or flats). It is also easy to recognize Middle C in notation. It is also a help to find the correct place to sit at the piano (Middle C is opposite the player's "middle" (tummy)). One problem can be that young children learning the piano may think that all pieces start on Middle C. Pieces can start anywhere on the keyboard.

paragraphs: Middle C is the lowest note of the flute. It is a fairly low note for a child or woman to sing, but a fairly high note for a man to sing.


title: Principality

paragraphs: A principality (sometimes also called princedom) is a country which is ruled by a prince or princess. Principalities were common in the Middle Ages. Some principalities that still remain today are Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein. Examples of subnational principalities are Asturias (Spain).

paragraphs: Some states claim to be principalities but are not recognised by other countries: Sealand (a Sea Fort off the English coast), Seborga (a small town in Italy), the Principality of Hutt River in Australia and the Principality of Minerva in the Pacific. These states are examples of micronations.

paragraphs: Sometimes the word is also used to mean dependent territories in Africa, Asia and India, pre-Columbian America and Oceania. For these, the word princely states is generally preferred, especially if they came under the authority of a European colonial power.


title: Vlad III the Impaler

paragraphs: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, is more commonly known as Vlad "Țepeș" (the Impaler) . He was born in Sighișoara, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, in 1431. He was the Prince of Wallachia and ruled there three times, in 1448, 1456–1462 and 1476.

paragraphs: In the English-speaking world, Vlad is best known for the legends of his cruelty. These legends gave Bram Stoker the idea for his main character in the popular "Dracula" novel.

paragraphs: Wallachia was placed between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were fighting against the Kingdom of Hungary and this made Wallachia a battle ground between Turks and Hungarians. The rulers of Wallachia were chosen by the Romanian aristocrats, called boyars. The ruler was often from a noble house, sometimes an illegitimate prince born outside of marriage. The country rulers were struggling with each other, and this was resulting in instability, family disputes and murders.

paragraphs: Vlad the Impaler was born in 1431. His father was Vlad II Dracul. His mother is unknown. Vlad II was married to princess Cneajna of Moldavia. He had several mistresses. Vlad III was raised by Cneajna with the help of her household. He had two brothers, Mircea born c. 1430 and Radu born 1435. He also had a half-brother, Vlad the Monk born around 1425-1430.

paragraphs: Vlad II went to the court of Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund of Luxemburg as a young man. Sigismund was supporting Vlad II for the throne of Wallachia, and made Vlad II knight 1431 of the Order of the Dragon ("Societas Draconis" in Latin).

paragraphs: The oldest brother, probably named Mircea, was sent by Vlad II to fight the war against the Turks in 1444. This war called the Battle of Varna was lost. Mircea and his father died in 1447.

paragraphs: Vlad's half-brother. Vlad the Monk was waiting in Transylvania for a chance to rule Wallachia. Vlad the Monk was a monk until he became prince of Wallachia in 1482.

paragraphs: Radu, known as Radu III the Fair or Radu the Handsome, the youngest brother, was also Vlad’s most important rival as he continuously tried to replace Vlad on the throne.

paragraphs: From his first marriage, Vlad the Impaler (or Vlad III) had a son, later prince of Wallachia, as Mihnea the Evil. His first wife, whose name we do not know, died during the war 1462. Vlad III the Impaler was fighting against the Turks. The legend says that the Turkish army surrounded Vlad's castle, the Poienari Castle, led by his brother Radu the Handsome. Vlad's wife threw herself off the tower into the Argeş River below the castle. According to legend she remarked that she "would rather have her body be eaten by the fish of the Argeş than be captured by the Turks."

paragraphs: Vlad had another two sons with his second wife Ilona Szilágyi a fraternal cousin of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Some historians strongly believe they may have also had a daughter named Maria Zaleska (Princess Zaleska).

paragraphs: Vlad was very likely born in the city of Sighişoara in Transylvania, then a part of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the winter of 1431. Sighişoara was a military fortress at that time. He was born as the second son to his father Vlad Dracul. He had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger brother, Radu the Handsome. Although his native country was Wallachia, the family lived in exile in Transylvania because his father had been chased away by pro-Ottoman boyars.

paragraphs: Vlad's father was pressured by the (Turkish) Ottoman sultan. He gave a promise to be the vassal of the Sultan and gave up his two younger sons as hostages so that he would keep his promise.

paragraphs: Vlad suffered much at the hands of the Ottomans, and was locked up in an underground prison; however, his younger brother, Radu, caught the eye of the sultan's son. Radu was released and converted to Islam, and he was allowed into the Ottoman royal court.

paragraphs: These years had a great influence on Vlad. They shaped Vlad's character. He was often whipped and beaten by the Turks for being stubborn and rude. He developed a well-known hatred for Radu and for Mehmed, who would later become the sultan.

paragraphs: Vlad's father and Vlad's older brother, Mircea, were dead at this point. The Turks invaded Wallachia and the Sultan put Vlad III on the throne as his puppet ruler. His rule at this time was short; Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and chased him away the same year. Vlad fled to Moldavia and was put under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II.

paragraphs: Bogdan was assassinated. Vlad took a chance and fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, Hunyadi pardoned him and took him in as an adviser. Later, Hunyadi made him the Kingdom of Hungary's candidate for the throne of Wallachia.

paragraphs: In 1456, Hungary invaded Serbia to chase away the Turks, and at the same time Vlad III invaded Wallachia. Both invasions were successful. Hunyadi suddenly died of the plague. Vlad became prince of Wallachia.

paragraphs: Vlad was spending most of his time at the court of the city of Târgovişte. He made laws, met foreign ambassadors, judged in trials. He reinforced some castles and probably enjoyed hunting with his friends.

paragraphs: The constant state of war since the death of his grandfather, Mircea the Elder, in 1418, led to increased crime levels and less agricultural production. Trade had almost disappeared in Wallachia.

paragraphs: Vlad tried to solve these problems with severe methods. He needed an economically stable country.

paragraphs: Vlad wanted to eliminate all threats to his power, mainly the rival nobility groups, such as the boyars. This was done mainly by killing them and reducing the their economic role. The Wallachian nobility had connections with the Saxon merchants. The Saxons lived in the free towns of Transylvania, making trade flourish. Vlad cut their towns trade privileges with Wallachia, and started war against them.

paragraphs: Vlad gave key positions in the Prince’s Council to people of lower rank who were loyal to him. Vlad preferred to knight men from the free peasants.

paragraphs: Vlad III was always on guard against the Dăneşti clan. Some of his attacks into Transylvania may have been efforts to kill or capture Dăneşti princes. Several members of the Dăneşti clan died at Vlad's hands. Rumors say that thousands of citizens of the free towns that sheltered his rivals were impaled by Vlad. One captured Dăneşti prince was forced to read his own funeral speech while he kneeled at an open grave before his execution.

paragraphs: There was a war between the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom. Following family traditions, Vlad decided to side with the Hungarians. To the end of the 1450s there was once again talk about a war against the Turks, in which the king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus would play the main role. Knowing this, Vlad stopped paying money to the Ottomans in 1459, and at around 1460, he made a new alliance with Corvinus. The Turks did not like this and tried to remove him from power but they failed. In the winter of 1461 Vlad attacked and devastated the area between Serbia and the Black Sea, leaving over 20,000 people dead.

paragraphs: In response to this, the Sultan Mehmed II headed towards Wallachia with an army of 60,000 men in the spring of 1462. With his army of 20,000-30,000 men Vlad was not able to stop the Turks from entering Wallachia. The Turks occupied the capital Târgovişte (June 4, 1462) and chased Vlad away. Vlad was hiding and made small attacks on the Turks. On the night of June 16 Vlad and some of his men entered the main Turkish camp, wearing Turkish clothing, and attempted to kill Mehmed. Later the Turkish army retired and left Vlad’s brother, Radu the Handsome, as the new ruler prince.

paragraphs: Radu the Handsome gathered support from the nobility and Vlad fled to Hungary.

paragraphs: In August 1462 Radu made a deal with the Hungarian Crown.

paragraphs: Vlad was living in exile because he was afraid of the boyars of Wallachia. Vlad escaped to Hungary but he was put in prison there. The exact time of Vlad's captivity is not known for sure. Apparently his imprisonment was not too dangerous. He was able to gradually win his way back into the favor of King Matthias. He was able to meet and marry a member of the royal family (the cousin of King Matthias). However, some do not believe that it was likely to happen that a prisoner was permitted to marry into the royal family.

paragraphs: He had two sons with his new wife. Vlad also became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Diplomatic letters and writings from Buda during this time show that Vlad's actual period of imprisonment was short.

paragraphs: The openly pro-Turkish policy of Vlad's brother, Radu was probably a cause in Vlad's good treatment while in prison. It is interesting to note that the Russian texts, normally very favorable to Vlad Ţepeş, tells that even in captivity he could not give up his favorite games; he often captured birds and mice which he tortured and mutilated, and some were impaled on tiny spears.

paragraphs: The years before his final release in 1474 (when he began making plans for the reconquest of Wallachia), Vlad lived with his new wife in a house in the Hungarian capital. His sons were about ten years old when he reconquered Wallachia in 1476.

paragraphs: Around 1475 Vlad and Stefan Báthory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia with a mixed force of Transylvanians, some dissatisfied Wallachian boyars, and Moldavians sent by Prince Stephen III of Moldavia, Vlad's cousin. Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome, died a couple of years earlier and had been replaced on the Wallachian throne by another Turkish candidate, Prince Basarab the Elder, a member of the Dăneşti clan. When Vlad's army arrived, Prince Basarabs army fled, some to the Turks, others in the mountains. After placing Vlad Ţepeş on the throne, Stephen Báthory and his forces returned to Transylvania, leaving Vlad in a very weak position. Vlad had little time to get support before a large Turkish army entered Wallachia to put back Prince Basarab on the throne. Vlad's cruelties over the years made the boyars to believe that they had a better chance to survive under Prince Basarab. Even the peasants, tired of the cruelty of Vlad, abandoned him. Vlad had to meet the Turks with the small forces at his disposal, which were made up of less than four thousand men.

paragraphs: There are several variants of Vlad III the Impaler's death. Some sources say he was killed in battle against the Turks near Bucharest in December of 1476. Others say he was killed by disloyal Wallachian boyars in the war against the Turks, or during a hunt. Others believe Vlad was killed in the war, surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguards. Still other reports claim that Vlad was accidentally killed by one of his own men. Vlad's body was decapitated by the Turks and his head was sent to Istanbul preserved in honey. The sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that "Kazıklı Bey" was dead. The exact place of his grave is unknown.

paragraphs: Tales and legends about Vlad stayed a part of folklore among the Romanian peasants. By constant retelling they have become confused and created an ideal picture of a big national hero. Among the Romanian peasants, Vlad Ţepeş was sometimes remembered as a prince who defended his country.

paragraphs: But sometimes he is remembered as a very cruel and often capricious ruler. There are several events that are common to all tales.

paragraphs: One tale is about foreign ambassadors whom Vlad Ţepeş was meeting at Târgovişte. All versions agree that Vlad, in response to some real or imagined insult, (perhaps because they refused to remove the hats in Vlad's presence), had their hats nailed to their heads.

paragraphs: A good description of Vlad Dracula survives, courtesy of Nicholas of Modrussa, who wrote:

paragraphs: "He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cruel and terrible appearance, a long straight nose, distended nostrils, a thin and reddish face in which the large wide-open green eyes were enframed by bushy black eyebrows, which made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck supported the head, from which black curly locks were falling to his wide-shouldered person."

paragraphs: His famous portrait was rediscovered in the late 1800s, in the gallery of horrors at Innsbruck's Ambras Castle.

paragraphs: Vlad III Ţepeş has been described as very cruel. The old Romanian word for dragon is Dracul, which in modern Romanian means "devil". In Old Romanian, it means "dragon". Dracul was the name given to his father, Vlad II, by other members of the Order of the Dragon. Impalement was Ţepeş's preferred method of torture and execution. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim's legs while sharpened stake was forced into the body. Vlad often had the stakes arranged in patterns. The most common pattern was a ring outside of a city that was his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The corpses were often left there for months.

paragraphs: One tale says 10,000 were impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu (where Vlad the Impaler had once lived) in 1460. Another tale says that on Saint Bartholomew's Day (in August), Vlad the Impaler had 30,000 people of the free Transylvanian city of Braşov impaled. One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows Vlad the Impaler feasting amongst a forest of stakes outside Braşov, while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims. Impalement was not his only method of torture. Other methods include nails in heads, cutting off limbs, strangulation, burning, cutting off noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive.

paragraphs: His victims included women, children, peasants, great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. However, the vast majority of his European victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and Wallachia. Most of the merchants there were German-speaking Saxons who were seen as bad people because they were not Romanian. He saw the boyars as people who were not loyal (Vlad's own father and older brother were murdered by boyars).

paragraphs: Almost as soon as he came to power, he gave a party for his boyars and their families to celebrate Easter. These nobles were part of the conspiracy around his father's death. Vlad, to avenge his father's death, had all the assembled nobles arrested. The older boyars were impaled on the spot. The younger nobles and their families were marched north from Târgovişte to the ruins of the Poienari Castle in the mountains above the Argeş River. The boyars and their families were forced to work for months rebuilding the old castle. According to the reports, they worked until the clothes fell off their bodies, and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few survived the building of Vlad's castle.

paragraphs: Vlad Ţepeş is also believed to have tortured and impaled some of the Turkish forces. It was reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back when they saw thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the river Danube. In 1462, Mehmed II returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside of Vlad's capital of Târgovişte. Many of the victims were Turkish prisoners of war.

paragraphs: Much of the information we have about Vlad III Ţepeş comes from texts published in the Holy Roman Empire in German texts from 1488 and books written in Russian. These were entertainment in a society where the printing press was new. The texts were reprinted over the thirty years following Vlad's death. The German texts said Vlad Ţepeş was a person who terrorized the land and killed innocents. The Russian texts said his actions were justified, because Vlad helped them. The texts agree on some details.

paragraphs: According to the texts, he was particularly cruel against women and wanted his people to work hard. Merchants who cheated their customers were likely to be killed because of that.

paragraphs: The fictional vampire in the novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker was inspired by the legends of this Wallachian prince. The cruel person of the Impaler was a suitable character for Stoker's purposes possibly combined with Oscar Wilde, a poet whom dated Stoker's wife and was outed as homosexual near the making of Stoker's famous novel. The events of Vlad's life happened in a region of the world that was still medieval in Stoker's time.

paragraphs: Although there were vampire tales originating elsewhere, the vampire, as he became known in Europe, largely originated in Southern Slavic and Greek folklore. The vampire tale is virtually absent in Romanian culture. Vampirism became part of the popular culture in Europe beginning in the late 17th century. Philosophers in the West began to study the phenomenon. It was during this period that Dom Augustine Calmet wrote a famous text on vampirism in Hungary. It was also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire legend. Stoker's novel was a work in a long series of works that were inspired by the reports coming from the Balkans.


title: Fertile Crescent

paragraphs: The Fertile Crescent is a historical region in the Middle East that includes the Levant, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. These countries on a map together have a shape that is similar to a crescent, so archaeologist James Henry Breasted spoke of the "Fertile Crescent" because he wanted to show the similarities of the cultures of this region in ancient times.

paragraphs: All these lands are watered by important rivers: Nile, Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris. Together they cover some 400-500,000 square kilometers, and the region extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. These areas are in present-day Egypt, Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and south-western Iran. The population of the Nile River basin is about 70 million, the Jordan River basin about 20 million, and the Tigris and Euphrates basins about 30 million, giving the present-day Fertile Crescent a total population of around 120 million, or at least a quarter of the population of the Middle East.

paragraphs: The Fertile Crescent has a very long record of past human activity.


title: Crescent

paragraphs: In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points (usually in such a manner that the enclosed shape does not include the center of the original circle).

paragraphs: The crescent was long used as the symbol of Byzantium. Now it is the main symbol for the religion Islam.


title: The Levant

paragraphs: The Levant is a term in geography that refers to an area in the Middle East which includes the historic areas of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Syria.

paragraphs: The Levant is bounded by the Taurus Mountains to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the northern Arabian Desert to the south and Upper Mesopotamia to the east.

paragraphs: The word "Levant" entered the English language in the 16th century, together with the first English merchant adventurers in the region. English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Grand Turk in 1579 (Braudel).

paragraphs: Today, the word "Levant" is usually used by archaeologists and historians who are talking about the prehistory and the ancient and medieval history of the region, as when discussing the Crusades. The term is also used sometimes to refer to modern or contemporary events, peoples, states, or parts of states in the same region, such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.


title: Jordan River

paragraphs: The Jordan River ( ', ') is a river in Southwest Asia that flows through the Great Rift Valley into the Dead Sea. Many people think it is one of the world's most sacred rivers.

paragraphs: The four rivers join to form the Jordan in northern Israel, near kibbutz Sede Nehemya. The Jordan drops quickly in a 75 kilometer run to Lake Hula, which is a little below sea level in the Galilee sea. Then it drops much more in about 25 kilometers to the Sea of Galilee. The last section has less gradient, and the river begins to twist before it enters the Dead Sea, which is about 400 meters below sea level and has no outlet. Two major tributaries enter this last section from the east: the Yarmouk River and Jabbok River.

paragraphs: In 1964, Israel began operating a dam that takes water from the Sea of Galilee, a major Jordan River water provider, to the national water carrier. Also in 1964 Jordan built a channel that takes water from the Yarmouk River, a main tributary of the Jordan River. This caused great damage to the ecosystem. Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouk's waters.

paragraphs: In modern times, 70% to 90% of the waters is used for human purposes and the flow is much smaller. Because of this, and the high evaporation rate of the Dead Sea, the sea is shrinking. All the shallow waters of the southern end of the sea have been drained in modern times, and are now salt flats.

paragraphs: The water from the Jordan is a very important resource to the dry lands of the area. It is a source of conflict between Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

paragraphs: In the Hebrew Bible, the Jordan is referred to as the source of fertility to a large plain ("Kikkar ha-Yarden"), called "the garden of God" (Genesis 13:10). There is no regular description of the Jordan in the Bible.

paragraphs: The New Testament states that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan (Matt. 3:13).

paragraphs: The Jordan is a frequent symbol in folk, gospel, and spiritual music, or in poetic or literary works.

paragraphs: Because the Israelites made a difficult journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in "The Promised Land", the Jordan can be a symbol of freedom. The actual crossing is the final step of the journey, which is then complete. Also, the Jordan can mean death itself, with the crossing from life into Paradise or Heaven.


title: History of Islam

paragraphs: Muslim history began in Arabia when Muhammad recited the Quran in the 7th century. The historical development of Islam has affected political, economic, and military trends both inside and outside the Islamic world.

paragraphs: As with Christianity, the concept of an "Islamic world" is useful when one looks at different periods of human history.

paragraphs: After Muhammad died, the Muslim leadership was assumed by Abu Bakr. He was followed by Umar, Uthman ibn Affan and then Ali. These four are called the "Rashidun caliphs" which means The Righteous Caliphs. The word caliph means religious and spiritual leader. Under these caliphs Islam became one of the most important religions of the middle East. Administrative offices of the Muslim nation were established. Under Umar more than two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire was conquered by the Muslims. Umar also started the Muslim calendar.

paragraphs: The first civil war in Islam, also known as the "First Fitna" broke out in Islam during the rule of the fourth caliph Ali and lasted throughout his caliphate. The third caliph Uthman ibn Affan had been murdered by rebel Muslim groups who had political motives. After Ali took over, the most important problem he faced was that of punishing those responsible for murder. However many people felt that before accepting the position of the caliph, Ali should have focused his attention on finding and punishing the murderers. A group of people led by Muhammad's wife Aisha, her brothers in law Talhah and Zubair ibn al-Awam refused to recognize Ali's caliphate. They instead raised an army which met Ali's army at Basra in Iraq, originally for the purposes of negotiations. In the night, some fighting broke out, probably out of confusion or due to rebel groups who were involved in the infamous murder. This led to the "Battle of Bassorah" (also known as "Battle of the Camel") in which Ali's party emerged victorious. Aisha was escorted back to Medina honorably after the battle by Ali.

paragraphs: This battle however did not entirely finish the tension in the Muslim empire. Ali was soon challenged by Muawiyah, the governor of the Muslim provinces of Syria. He too raised the issue of punishing Uthman's murderers and refused to acknowledge Ali as caliph until the issue had been solved. Muawiyah was a kinsman of Uthman and his army pledged to bring to justice the murderers and those who sheltered them. This reference to people who are sheltering the murderers was towards Ali and his followers. Accordingly, the two groups met and fought a battle, called the "Battle of Siffin". This battle ended in a draw and so both groups decided on arbitration which also did not lead to any concrete decision. Another group of Muslims, "The Kharijites" who had previously been with Ali, meanwhile rejected him because they felt that he was not following true Islam and conducting business over the caliphate as if it were his own property.

paragraphs: In the following years Ali's governors could not prevent his losing provinces to Muawiyah who increased his strength by further expanding his army. Ali had shifted the capital of the caliphate from Medina to Kufa in 656. He was killed by a Kharijite assassin in Kufa in 661.


title: History of Christianity

paragraphs: The history of the Christian religion and the Christian church began with Jesus and his apostles. Christianity is the religion that is based on the birth, life, death, resurrection and teaching of Jesus Christ.

paragraphs: Christianity began in the 1st century AD after Jesus died and resurrected, as a small group of Jewish people in Judea, but quickly spread throughout the Roman empire. Despite early persecution of Christians, it later became the state religion. In the Middle Ages it spread into Northern Europe and Russia. During the Age of Exploration, Christianity expanded throughout the world; it is currently the largest religion of the world.

paragraphs: The religion had schisms and theological disputes that had as result four main branches: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, Oriental Orthodoxy and Protestant churches.

paragraphs: Most of the first Christians were ethnically Jewish or Jewish proselytes. An early difficulty came from non-Jewish converts. There was the question if they had to "become Jewish" before becoming Christian. The decision of St. Peter, was that they did not, and the matter was further addressed with the Council of Jerusalem.

paragraphs: The doctrines of the apostles brought the Early Church into conflict with some Jewish religious authorities, and this eventually led to the martyrdom of SS. Stephen and James the Great and expulsion from the synagogues. Thus, Christianity got an identity distinct from Judaism. The name "Christian" (Greek ) was first used for the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in (Acts 11:26).

paragraphs: Sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include the Gospels and New Testament Epistles. The very earliest reports are in these texts: early Christian creeds and hymns and reports about the Passion, the empty tomb, and appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection. There are reasons to suppose that they were written within a few years of the crucifixion of Jesus and came from the Jerusalem Church.

paragraphs: Christianity kept many practices from Jewish tradition. Christianity thought the Jewish scriptures to be sacred and used mostly the Septuagint translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), the Hebrew Prophets and Writings (the rest of the Old Testament books), and added other texts as the New Testament. Christians professed Jesus to be the God of Israel, having taken human form, and considered Jesus to be the Messiah (Christ) who had been prophesied about in the Old Testament and so was expected by the people of Israel.

paragraphs: Christianity continued many Judaic practices: liturgical worship, including the use of incense, an altar, a set of scriptural readings adapted from synagogue practice, use of sacred music in hymns and prayer, and a religious calendar, as well as other typical features: an exclusively male priesthood, and ascetic practices (fasting etc.).

paragraphs: The time when most of the apostles had died and their jobs as leaders of the Christian communities in the cities had been taken over by bishops, is called post-apostolic period. It includes the time of persecutions until Christian worship was legalized under Constantine the Great. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Greek ) is from this period. The term was used by Ignatius of Antioch "c." 107.

paragraphs: Early Christians were subject to various persecutions. This meant even death. Early martyrs included Stephen () and James, son of Zebedee (). Persecutions in larger scale by the authorities of the Roman Empire began with the year 64, when the Emperor Nero blamed them for the great Fire of Rome as the Roman historian Tacitus reported.

paragraphs: According to Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that the saints Peter and Paul became martyrs in Rome. Several of the New Testament writings mention persecutions and very difficult times. For 250 years there were times when Christians suffered from persecutions, because they refused to worship the Roman emperor. That was seen as treason and punished by execution. But the Christian religion continued to spread throughout the Mediterranean region. In the late fourth century they became the dominant religious force of the Roman Empire.

paragraphs: Galerius issued an edict permitting the practice of the Christian religion in April of 311. In 313 Constantine I and Licinius announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan. Constantine became the first Christian emperor; he had learnt about Christianity from his mother, Helena.

paragraphs: By 391, under the reign of Theodosius I, Christianity had become the state religion of Rome.

paragraphs: When Christianity was legalized the Church took the same provinces for administration as the imperial government and called them dioceses. The Bishop of Rome claimed to be the highest amongst all others and chose the title pope.

paragraphs: During this era, there were several Ecumenical Councils. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes. The two Councils of Niceaea (324, 382) condemned Arianism and produced the Nicene Creed to define the faith. The Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorianism and affirmed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be Theotokos ("God-bearer" or "Mother of God"). Perhaps the most important was the Council of Chalcedon that affirmed that Christ had two natures, fully God and fully man, at the same time. That meant that Monophysitism was condemned.

paragraphs: The Church in the Early Middle Ages saw a "transformation of the Roman world" rather than a "fall of the Roman Empire". With the Muslim invasions of the seventh century, the Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek) areas of Christianity began to take on distinctive shapes, and the Bishops of Rome were more interested in barbarian kings than in the Byzantine Emperors. This led to the coronation of Charlemagne as "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day, 800.

paragraphs: The city of Rome was affected very much by warfare in Italy during the Early Middle Ages. Emperor Justinian I conquered the Italian kingdom of the Ostrogoths. He made Ravenna, Italy a territory with its own governor, but imperial influence was often limited. After the invasion of the Lombards, Rome had to take care of itself. Thus the popes, out of necessity, found themselves feeding the city with grain from papal estates, negotiating treaties, paying protection money to Lombard warlords, and, failing that, hiring soldiers to defend the city. Eventually, the failure of the Empire to send aid resulted in the popes turning for support from other sources, most especially the Franks.

paragraphs: The High Middle Ages is the period from the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 to the close of the fifteenth century, which saw the fall of Constantinople (1453), the end of the Hundred Years' War (1453), the discovery of the New World (1492), and thereafter the Protestant Reformation (1515).

paragraphs: The "Investiture Controversy", also known as the "lay investiture controversy", was the most important conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. The question was who would control appointments of bishops (investiture). The end of lay investiture meant an important loss of royal power, and a loss for ambitious noblemen, for the benefit of Church reform as the pope intended.

paragraphs: Bishops collected revenues from estates attached to their bishopric. Noblemen who held lands (fiefdoms) hereditarily passed those lands on within their family. However, a king had more control of lands under the domain of his bishops. Kings would give bishoprics to powerful friends. If a king left a bishopric vacant, he got the money until a bishop was appointed, when he was supposed to repay the earnings. This seldom happened. The Church wanted to end this lay investiture because of the vacant sees simony and other problems. Thus, the Investiture Contest was part of the Church's attempt to reform the episcopate and get better bishops.

paragraphs: Pope Gregory VII issued the "Dictatus Papae", which said only the pope may make, break, or move bishops to other sees. The Emperor rejected this. With excommunication and a revolt by his dukes, Henry apologized and was forgiven, though the conflict continued. A similar controversy happened in England between King Henry I and St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. The English dispute was resolved by a deal in 1107, where the king gave up making bishops but did require an oath of fealty. The later Concordat of Worms ("Pactum Calixtinum") resolved the Imperial investiture controversy with a similar compromise.

paragraphs: The Crusades were a military conflicts conducted by Christian knights for the defense of Christians and for the expansion of Christian domains. Generally, the crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy Land against Muslim forces sponsored by the Papacy. There were other crusades against Islamic forces in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily, as well as the campaigns of Teutonic knights against pagan strongholds in Eastern Europe, and (to a much lesser extent) crusades against Catharism or other Christian heresies.

paragraphs: The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the Battle of Manzikert. Emperor Alexius I asked for aid from Pope Urban II (1088-1099) for help against Islamic aggression. Instead of sending money, Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom in a speech made at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, combining the idea of pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war against infidels.

paragraphs: The East-West Schism, or Great Schism, separated the Church into Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek) branches, i.e. Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. It was the first major division since certain groups in the East rejected the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (see Oriental Orthodoxy), and was far more significant. Though normally dated to 1054, the East-West Schism was the result of an long time of disagreement between Latin and Greek Christendom over papal primacy and certain doctrinal matters like the "filioque". Bad feelings were intensified by cultural and linguistic differences.

paragraphs: The schism became "official" in 1054 when the Pope's legates notified Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople that he had been excommunicated. A few days later, he excommunicated the legates. Attempts at reconciliation were made in 1274 in Lyon and in 1439 in Basel, but in each case the eastern hierarchs who agreed to the unions were repudiated by the Orthodox as a whole. However, reconciliation was achieved between the West and what are now called the "Eastern Rite Catholic Churches". More recently, in 1965 the mutual excommunications were rescinded by the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, though schism remains.

paragraphs: Both groups are descended from the Early Church, both acknowledge the apostolic succession of each other's bishops, and the validity of each other's sacraments. Though both acknowledge the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy understands this as a primacy of honor with limited or no ecclesiastical authority in other dioceses.

paragraphs: The Western Schism, or Papal Schism, was a prolonged period of crisis in Latin Christendom from 1378 to 1416, when there were two or more claimants to the See of Rome and thus it was difficult to discern who the true Pope was. The conflict was political, rather than doctrinal, in nature.

paragraphs: The Renaissance was a period of great cultural change and achievement, marked in Italy by a classical orientation and an increase of wealth through mercantile trade. The City of Rome, the Papacy, and the Papal States were all affected by the Renaissance. On the one hand, it was a time of great artistic patronage and architectural magnificence, where the Church patroned such artists as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci. On the other hand, wealthy Italian families often secured episcopal offices, including the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were known for immorality, such as Alexander VI and Sixtus IV.

paragraphs: In the early 16th century, movements were begun by two theologians, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, that aimed to reform the Church. Unlike earlier reformers they considered the root of corruptions to be doctrinal (rather than simply a matter of moral weakness or lack of ecclesiastical discipline) and thus they aimed to change contemporary doctrines to fit their idea of the "true gospel". The Protestant Reformation is so called because the movement's leaders "protested" against the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the pope, essentially electing to institute their reforms separately from it. The term "Protestant", however, was not originally used by these leaders; instead, they called themselves "evangelical", emphasizing the "return to the true gospel (Greek: "euangelion")".

paragraphs: The beginning of the Protestant Reformation is generally identified with Martin Luther and the posting of the 95 Theses in 1517 in Wittenburg, Germany. Early protest was against corruptions such as simony, episcopal vacancies, and the sale of indulgences. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura and sola fide. The three most important traditions to emerge directly from the Protestant Reformation were the Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist, Presbyterian, etc.), and Anglican traditions, though the latter group identifies as both "Reformed" and "Catholic", and some subgroups reject the classification as "Protestant".

paragraphs: The Protestant Reformation may be divided into two distinct but basically simultaneous movements, the Magisterial Reformation and the Radical Reformation. The Magisterial Reformation involved the alliance of certain theological teachers (Latin: "magistri") such as Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, Cranmer, etc. with secular magistrates who cooperated in the reformation of Christendom. Radical Reformers, besides forming communities outside state sanction, often employed more extreme doctrinal change, such as the rejection of tenants of the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. Often the division between magisterial and radical reformers was as or more violent than the general Catholic and Protestant hostilities.

paragraphs: The Protestant Reformation spread almost entirely within the confines of Northern Europe, but did not take hold in certain northern areas such as Ireland and parts of Germany. By far the magisterial reformers were more successful and their changes more widespread than the radical reformers. The Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation is known as the Counter Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, which resulted in a reassertion of traditional doctrines and the emergence of new religious orders aimed at both moral reform and new missionary activity. The Counter Reformation reconverted approximately 33% of Northern Europe to Catholicism and initiated missions in South and Central America, Africa, Asia, and even China and Japan. Protestant expansion outside of Europe occurred on a smaller scale through colonization of North America and areas of Africa.

paragraphs: Martin Luther was an Augustinian friar and professor at the University of Wittenberg. In 1517, he published a list of 95 Theses, or points to be debated, concerning the illicitness of selling indulgences. Luther had a particular disdain for Aristotelian philosophy, and as he began developing his own theology, he increasingly came into conflict with other scholars. Soon, Luther began to develop his theology of justification, or process by which one is "made right" (righteous) in the eyes of God.

paragraphs: In Catholic theology, one is made righteous by a progressive infusion of grace accepted through faith and cooperated with through good works. Luther's doctrine of justification was different. He said justification meant "the declaring of one to be righteous", where God imputes the merits of Christ upon one who remains without inherent merit. In this process, good works are more of an unessential byproduct that contribute nothing to one's own state of righteousness. Conflict between Luther and leading theologians lead to his gradual rejection of authority of the Church hierarchy. In 1520, he was condemned for heresy by the papal bull "Exsurge Domine", which he burned at Wittenburg along with books of canon law.

paragraphs: John Calvin was a French cleric and doctor of law turned Protestant reformer in the second generation of the Reformation. He was well known for publishing the "Institutes of the Christian Religion", in 1536 (later revised), and became a leader of the Reformed church in Geneva, which became an "unofficial capital" of Reformed Christianity in the second half of the sixteenth century. He had great authority in the city and over the city council, such that he has (rather ignominiously) been called a "Protestant pope".

paragraphs: Calvin established an eldership together with a "consistory", where pastors and the elders established matters of religious discipline for the Genevan population. Calvin's theology is best known for his doctrine of (double) predestination, which held that God had, from all eternity, providentially foreordained who would be saved (the elect) and likewise who would be damned (the reprobate). Predestination was not the dominant idea in Calvin's works, but it would seemingly become so for many of his Reformed successors.

paragraphs: Unlike other reform movements, the English Reformation began by royal influence. Henry VIII considered himself a thoroughly Catholic King, and in 1521 he defended the papacy against Luther in a book he commissioned entitled, "The Defense of the Seven Sacraments", for which Pope Leo X awarded him the title "Fidei Defensor" (Defender of the Faith). However, the king came into conflict with the papacy when he wished to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, for which he needed papal sanction. Catherine, among many other noble relations, was the aunt of Emperor Charles V, the papacy's most significant secular supporter. The ensuing dispute eventually lead to a break from Rome and the declaration of the King of England as head of the English (Anglican) Church. England then experienced a period of frenetic and eclectic reforms, some more radical and others more traditional, under monarchs such as Edward VI and Elizabeth I, and Archbishops of Canterbury such as Thomas Cranmer and William Laud. What emerged was a state church that considered itself both "Reformed" and "Catholic" but not "Roman" (and hesitated from the title "Protestant"), and other "unofficial" more radical movements such as the Puritans.

paragraphs: The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. The essence of the Counter-Reformation was a renewed conviction in traditional practices and the upholding of Catholic doctrine as the source of ecclesiastic and moral reform, and the answer to halting the spread of Protestantism. Thus it experienced the founding of new religious orders, such as the Jesuits, the establishment of seminaries for the proper training of priests, renewed worldwide missionary activity, and the development of new yet orthodox forms of spirituality, such as that of the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. The entire process was spearheaded by the Council of Trent, which clarified and reasserted doctrine, issued dogmatic definitions, and produced the "Roman Catechism".

paragraphs: Though Ireland, Spain, France, and elsewhere featured significantly in the Counter-Reformation, its heart was Italy and the various popes of the time, who established the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" (the list of prohibited books) and the Roman Inquisition, a system of juridical tribunals that prosecuted heresy and related offences. The Papacy of St. Pius V (1566-1572) was known not only for its focus on halting heresy and worldly abuses within the Church, but also for its focus on improving popular piety in a determined effort to stem the appeal of Protestantism. Pius began his pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, charity, and hospitals, and the pontiff was known for consoling the poor and sick, and supporting missionaries. The activities of these pontiffs coincided with a rediscovery of the ancient Christian catacombs in Rome. As Diarmaid MacCulloch stated, "Just as these ancient martyrs were revealed once more, Catholics were beginning to be martyred afresh, both in mission fields overseas and in the struggle to win back Protestant northern Europe: the catacombs proved to be an inspiration for many to action and to heroism."

paragraphs: The First Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm among Protestants in the American colonies "c". 1730-1740, emphasizing the traditional Reformed virtues of Godly preaching, rudimentary liturgy, and a deep sense of personal guilt and redemption by Christ Jesus. Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom saw it as part of a "great international Protestant upheaval" that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival, and Methodism in England. It centered on reviving the spirituality of established congregations, and mostly affected Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Baptist, and Methodist churches, while also spreading within the slave population. The Second Great Awakening (1800–1830s), unlike the first, focused on the unchurched and sought to instill in them a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meetings. It also sparked the beginnings of Restorationist groups such as the Mormons and the Holiness movement. The Third Great Awakening began from 1857 and was most notable for taking the movement throughout the world, especially in English speaking countries. The final group to emerge from the "great awakenings" in North America was Pentecostalism, which had its roots in the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Holiness movements, and began in 1906 on Azusa Street, in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism would later lead to the Charismatic movement.

paragraphs: Restorationism refers to various unaffiliated movements that considered contemporary Christianity, in all its forms, to be a deviation from the true, original Christianity, which these groups then attempted to "Reconstruct", often using the Book of Acts as a "guidebook" or sorts. Restorationism developed out of the Second Great Awakening and is historically connected to the Protestant Reformation, but differs in that Restorationists do not usually describe themselves as "reforming" a Christian church continuously existing from the time of Jesus, but as "restoring" the Church that they believe was lost at some point. The name Restoration is also used to describe the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and the Jehovah's Witness Movement.

paragraphs: Fascism describes certain related political regimes in 20th century Europe, especially Nazi Germany. When the Italian government closed Catholic youth organizations, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical "Non Abbiamo Bisogno", saying that Fascist governments had hidden "pagan intentions" and expressed the irreconcilability of the Catholic position and Fascism, which placed the nation above God and fundamental human rights and dignity. He later signed agreements with the new rulers of Italy and Germany.

paragraphs: Many Catholic priests and monastics were persecuted under the Nazi regime, such as the concentration camp victims Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Furthermore, many Catholic laypeople and clergy helped in sheltering Jews during the Holocaust, including Pope Pius XII. Various incidents, such as giving aid to downed Allied airmen, nearly caused Nazi Germany to invade the Vatican before the liberation of Rome in 1944.

paragraphs: The relationship between Nazism and Protestantism, especially the German Lutheran Church, is complex. Though the majority of Protestant church leaders in Germany made little comment on the Nazis' growing anti-Jewish activities, some, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Lutheran pastor) were strongly opposed to the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was later found guilty in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and executed.

paragraphs: Fundamentalist Christianity, is a movement that arose mainly within British and American Protestantism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in reaction to modernism and certain liberal Protestant groups that denied doctrines considered fundamental to Christianity yet still called themselves "Christian". Thus, fundamentalism sought to reestablish tenants that could not be denied without relinquishing a Christian identity, the "fundamentals": the Bible as God`s word, viewed as the sole source of authority, the virgin birth of Christ, the doctrine of atonement through Jesus, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the imminent return of Christ.

paragraphs: Ecumenism broadly refers to movements between Christian groups to establish a degree of unity through dialogue. ""Ecumenism"" is derived from Greek "" (oikoumene), which means "the inhabited world", but more figuratively something like "universal oneness". The movement can be distinguished into Catholic and Protestant movements, with the latter characterized by a redefined ecclesiology of "denominationalism" (which the Catholic Church, among others, rejects).

paragraphs: Concerning the Greek Orthodox Church, steady movement was made to reconcile the East-West Schism. On 30 November 1894, Pope Leo XIII publishes the Apostolic Letter "Orientalium Dignitas" (On the Churches of the East) safeguarding the importance and continuance of the Eastern traditions for the whole Church. On 7 December 1965, a Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I was issued lifting the mutual excommunications of 1054.

paragraphs: Concerning Catholic relations with Protestant communities, certain commissions were established to foster dialogue and documents have been produced aimed at identifying points of doctrinal unity, such as the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification produced with the Lutheran World Federation in 1999.

paragraphs: Ecumenical movements within Protestantism have focused on determining a list of doctrines and practices essential to being Christian and thus extending to all groups which fulfill these basic criteria a (more or less) equal status, with perhaps one's own group still retaining a "first among equal" standing. This process involved a redefinition of the idea of "the Church" from traditional theology. This ecclesiology, known as denominationalism, contends that each group (which fulfills the essential criteria of "being Christian") is a sub-group of a greater "Christian Church", itself a purely abstract concept with no direct representation, i.e. no group, or "denomination", claims to be "the Church". Obviously, this ecclesiology it at variance with other groups that indeed consider themselves to be "the Church". But moreover, because the "essential criteria" generally consist of belief in the holy Trinity, it has resulted in strife between these Protestant ecumenical movements and non-Trinitarian groups such as Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah's Witnesses, which are not often not regarded as Christian by these ecumenical groups.

paragraphs: The following links give an overview of the history of Christianity:

paragraphs: The following link provides quantitative data related to Christianity and other major religions, including rates of adherence at different points in time:


title: Timeline of Christianity

paragraphs: This timeline is to show the history of Christianity from the beginning to the present. Question marks on dates mean that dates are not exact.

paragraphs: Western culture and Christian churches use the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar has been in use since 1582 when it replaced the less precise Julian Calendar. The Gregorian calendar began in Europe, in the reign of Pope Gregory XIII. The Gregorian calendar is now used almost everywhere in the world (except for calculating the holy days of other religions).

paragraphs: The Gregorian calendar dates years from before or after the birth of Jesus. Years that are before the birth of Jesus have the initials BC (before Christ) and years that are after (traditionally) have the initials AD (anno Domini – "in the year of our Lord"). Nowadays these are often written BCE ("before the Common Era") and CE ("Common Era").

paragraphs: The "year one" is the first year in "anno Domini" (the Common Era). There is no year zero. When the Gregorian calendar was calculated, the scholars tried to work out exactly when the birth of Jesus happened. The exact date is not certain, but most agree that it was between 6 BC and 4 BC.

paragraphs: This list tells only about the things that happened in the part of the world where Jesus was born. This region is now called Israel and Palestine. In the time of Jesus, it was under the rule of the Romans.

paragraphs: Jesus began his ministry after his baptism by John and during the rule of Pilate, preaching: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (). While the historicity of the gospel accounts is questioned to some extent by most critical scholars and non-Christians, the traditional view states the following chronology for his ministry: Temptation, Sermon on the Mount, Appointment of the Twelve, Miracles, Temple Money Changers, Last Supper, Arrest, Trial, Passion, Crucifixion on Good Friday (, ), Nisan 14th (, , Gospel of Peter) or Nisan 15th (Synoptic Gospels), (7 Apr 30, 3 Apr 33, 30 Mar 36, possible Fri-14-Nisan dates – Meier), entombment by Pharisees Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus of the Sanhedrin, Resurrection by God on Easter Sunday, appearances to Paul of Tarsus (), Simon Peter (), Mary Magdalene (, ), and others, Great Commission, Ascension, Second Coming Prophecy to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment, and establishment of the Kingdom of God and the Messianic Age. See also Chronology of Jesus.

paragraphs: Shortly after the Crucifixion of Jesus (Nisan 14 or 15), the Jerusalem church was founded as the first Christian church with about 120 Jews and Jewish proselytes (), followed by Pentecost, the Ananias and Sapphira incident, Pharisee Gamaliel's defense of the Apostles (), the stoning of Saint Stephen (see also Persecution of Christians) and the subsequent dispersal of the church () which led to the baptism of Simon Magus in Samaria (), and also an Ethiopian eunuch (). Paul's conversion to "Apostle to the Gentiles" is first recorded in (, cf. ). Peter baptized the Centurion Cornelius, who is traditionally considered the first Gentile convert to Christianity (). The Antioch church was founded. It was there that the term Christian was first used (). Saint James was executed by Agrippa I (ruled 39–44) during a Passover (Nisan 15) ().

paragraphs: Constantine called the First Council of Nicaea in 325 to unify Christology, also called the first great Christian council by Jerome, the first ecumenical, decreed the Original Nicene Creed, but rejected by Nontrinitarianism such as Arius, Theonas, Secundus, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis who were excommunicated, also addressed Easter controversy and passed 20 Canon laws.


title: Schism (religion)

paragraphs: The word schism ('sɪzəm or ), from the Greek σχίσμα, "skhísma" (from σχίζω, "skhízō", "to tear, to split"), means a division or a split, usually in an organization or a movement.

paragraphs: A schismatic is a person who creates schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group. "Schismatic" as an adjective means belonging to a schism or schisms, or to those ideas, policies, etc. that are thought to lead towards schism.

paragraphs: The words "schism" and "schismatic" have found perhaps their heaviest usage in the history of Christianity, to speak of splits within a church.

paragraphs: Within Christianity the word "schism" may refer to:

paragraphs: Though it is very important to note the difference between schism and heresy. Heresy is to reject or doubt the beliefs of the Church after having been baptised. Schism means that the opposing parties have a disagreement within the establishment. Both groups have to accept that they are in schism. In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an act of schism, apostasy or heresy brings the penalty of excommunication.

paragraphs: There are divisions between Sunni, Shia, and Kharijite Islam in CE 632 regarding the rightful successor to the prophet Muhammad. In 661 and 680 there were divisions regarding the rightful claimant to the Caliphate.

paragraphs: In Buddhism, the first schism was set up by Devadatta, during Buddha's life. After Buddha's passing away, the early Buddhist schools developed various schisms. In the old texts, 18 or 20 early schools are mentioned. Later, there were the Mahayana and Vajrayana movements, which can be regarded as being schismatic in origin. There are now perhaps thousands of different Buddhist sects.

paragraphs: Throughout the Jewish history, Judaism survived many schisms. Today, major Jewish denominations are Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox: Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist.


title: Proselyte

paragraphs: Proselyte, from Greek "/proselytos", is used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a newcomer to Israel; a sojourner in the land, and in the New Testament (Strong's G4339) for a convert to Judaism from Paganism. It is a translation of the Hebrew word "/ger" (Strong's H1616).

paragraphs: A righteous proselyte was a Gentile who had converted to Judaism, was bound to all the doctrines and precepts of the Jewish economy, and was considered a full member of the Jewish people.

paragraphs: A gate proselyte was a "resident alien" who lived in the Land of Israel and followed some of the customs.

paragraphs: The "religious proselytes" spoken of in Early Christian writings were righteous proselytes, as distinguished from gate proselytes.


title: Twelve Apostles

paragraphs: The Twelve Apostles, (somebody sent forth/sent out) were men that, according to the Synoptic Gospels and Christian tradition, were chosen from among the disciples (students) of Jesus Christ for a mission. Judaism had an office known as apostle (שליח)".

paragraphs: The Gospel of Mark states that Jesus Christ initially sent out these twelve in pairs , to towns in Galilee.

paragraphs: According to the list occurring in each of the Synoptic Gospels (, , ), the Twelve chosen by Jesus near the beginning of his ministry, those whom "also He named Apostles", were

paragraphs: It should also be noted that while the "Twelve Apostles" refer to the twelve who followed Jesus during his lifetime (and later Matthias in place of Judas Iscariot), Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) can be considered as another apostle. Notably, he begins many of his epistles with "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus", or some variant. The original twelve were apostles sent out to the Jews, whereas Paul has the unique role of being the apostle to the gentiles after Christ's resurrection and ascent.

paragraphs: The identity of the other apostle of the twelve, traditionally called St. Jude, varies between the Synoptic Gospels and also between ancient manuscripts of each gospel:

paragraphs: The Gospel of John, unlike the Synoptic Gospels, does not offer a formal list of apostles, but does refer to the "Twelve" in , , and . The following nine apostles are identified by name:

paragraphs: The individual that the Gospel of John names as Nathanael is traditionally identified as the same person that the Synoptic Gospels call Bartholomew, and most would agree that the "sons of Zebedee" is likely to be a reference to James and John, while "Judas (not Iscariot)" probably refers to Thaddaeus, also known as St. Jude. Noticeably missing from the Gospel of John are James, son of Alphaeus, Matthew, and Simon the Canaanite/Zealot.


title: Oriental Orthodoxy

paragraphs: Oriental Orthodoxy means the group of Eastern Christian Churches that accept only the first three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Ephesus — and do not accept the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon. These Churches are also called Old Oriental Churches. Oriental Orthodox churches are different from the churches that call themselves Eastern Orthodoxy.

paragraphs: The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the spiritual leader of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. This is because the Pope of Alexandria is also Patriarch of all Africa on the Holy See of St. Mark the Apostle.

paragraphs: The spiritual leadership is not understood in the same sense as among the Eastern Orthodox Churches to the Church of Constantinople. It is in the spirit of respect and honour for the Apostolic Throne of Alexandria. It does not give any special rights to the Church of Alexandria.

paragraphs: The schism (division) between "Great Church Orthodox and Catholic" and the "Oriental Orthodox Churches" happened in the 5th century after the Council of Chalcedon.


title: Dogma

paragraphs: A dogma is something that should not be disputed or doubted. Most often, this means the basic beliefs and doctrines of a religion. What a majority of followers of an ideology or any kind of organization believe in can also be a dogma.

paragraphs: In the context of religion, the term has a neutral meaning. Outside of religion for most people the term means something negative, because it accepts only a particular point of view. If someone disputes a religious dogma, they can be accused of heresy.

paragraphs: In Christianity, the Resurrection of Jesus is a basic dogma.