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Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli (l. 1484-1531) was a Swiss priest who became the leader of the Protestant Reformation in the region at the same time Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) was active in Germany. Zwingli is known as the 'third man of the Reformation'...
Definition
Dagobert I
Dagobert I (l. 605-639) ruled as King of Austrasia from 623 to 634 and as King of All the Franks from 629 to 639. Together with the reign of his father, Chlothar II, the period of Dagobert's rule has been characterized as the peak of Merovingian...
Definition
Michel de L'Hospital
Michel de L'Hospital (also known as L'Hôpital, c. 1505-1573) was a French statesman who served during the reigns of four kings – Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX – as Councillor of Parlement (1537), Chancellor of the Duchesse...
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Early Christianity
Emerging from a small sect of Judaism in the 1st century CE, early Christianity absorbed many of the shared religious, cultural, and intellectual traditions of the Greco-Roman world. In traditional histories of Western culture, the emergence...
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Pliny the Younger on Christianity
Pliny the Younger's (61-112 CE) letter (Epistulae X.96) to Roman Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 CE) is one of our earliest sources on Christianity from an outsider's point of view. It highlights the Christian movement's impact on the old Roman...
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Angels in Christianity
Angels in Christianity act as messengers of God, bring good news, and help believers. Their role developed from the function of angels in ancient Judaism but continued to evolve as Christianity became a separate religion. Jewish & Zoroastrian...
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Zwingli's On Rejecting Lent and Protecting Christian Liberty
Although Huldrych Zwingli (l. 1483-1531) began his Reformation efforts in Zürich in 1519, his first break with the Church came in 1522 when he defended a group of citizens who had broken the Lenten fast by eating sausages. The event, known...
Definition
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror, or simply the Terror (la Terreur), was a climactic period of state-sanctioned violence during the French Revolution (1789-99), which saw the public executions and mass killings of thousands of counter-revolutionary 'suspects'...
Definition
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction refers to the period of the French Revolution (1789-1799) between the fall of Maximilien Robespierre on 27-28 July 1794 and the establishment of the French Directory on 2 November 1795. The Thermidorians abandoned...
Definition
Cult of the Supreme Being
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a deistic cult established by Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) during the French Revolution (1789-1799). Its purpose was to replace Roman Catholicism as the state religion of France and to undermine the...