Alexander III
(d. 1181), Pope from 1159. After his election, an antipope (Victor IV) was immediately set up and supported by the Emp. Frederick I. During the 17-year schism, Alexander lived mainly in France. Here ...
Anacletus II
(antipope 14 Feb. 1130–25Jan. 1138)On the death of Honorius II (13 Feb. 1130), while a minority of cardinals led by the chancellor Aimeric rushed through the clandestine election of Innocent II, the ...
apparitor
An officer chosen by an ecclesiastical judge to summon persons to appear before, and to execute the decrees of, his court.
bishop
A senior member of the Christian clergy, usually in charge of a diocese and empowered to confer holy orders.In chess, a bishop is a piece, typically with its top shaped like a mitre, that can move in ...
Brethren of the Common Life
A religious association founded in Deventer (in the Netherlands) in the late fourteenth century by Geert de Groote, on whose death in 1384 the leadership was assumed by Florens Radewijns ...
Cambridge University
Like many medieval universities, Cambridge dates its existence from no formal act of Foundation and from no certain date. It is usually thought to take its origins from a settlement ...
Cassiodorus
Politician, writer, and monk (c. ad 490–c.585). His Bruttian family had a tradition of provincial leadership and official service. He assisted his father, praetorian prefect of Italy, 503–7, under ...
chancery
(from the Latin cancella, ‘screen’, hence a screened-off place, or office) The writing-office attached to the court of a ruler, pope, etc. Since it supplied the writ necessary for a lawsuit to be ...
Clement
(1342–1394)In the absence of official recognition by the Roman Church, Clement VII remains in the eyes of history the first of the Popes of Avignon to inaugurate the period ...
Coluccio Salutati
(1331–1406),Influential Italian humanist. He was born in Stignano in Florentine territory near Lucca (Valdinievole), and spent his youth in Bologna, where his family lived in exile. From 1375 until ...
Compostela
The Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, which has been from the medieval period a pilgrimage centre for its shrine of St James the Great.
Conrad of Gelnhausen
(c.1320–90), theologian, first Chancellor of the University of Heidelberg. From the outbreak of the Great Schism (1378), he was an advocate of the Conciliar theory. His thought is based on an appeal ...
consistory
With the development of the college of cardinals as the chief administrative organ of the papacy in the 11th century, the term was applied to advisory and judicial assemblies of ...
council
The king's council in Ireland was constituted following the Anglo‐Norman conquest. A separate institution from the council following the king, it was charged with advising him and, more immediately, ...
Court of Chancery
The original court of equity, presided over by the Lord Chancellor. By the Judicature Acts 1873–75 its jurisdiction was merged into that of the High Court, of which it became the Chancery Division.
courts
Traditionally the power base of a prince and the refuge for courtiers, took on what is now judged their characteristic form during the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Stable ...
cūria
Was the most ancient division of the Roman people. The curiae were 30 in number. Some bore local names, others personal ones. Membership of the curiae was determined by birth, but as they also seem ...
dean
A title which has two distinct meanings in higher education. It may be used to confer status on a head of department or faculty, in which case the full title will indicate this, as in ‘dean of ...
degrees, academic
In the schools of the 12th c. and at the beginning of the creation of the universities, there was only a single degree, that of licence to teach (licentia docendi).[...]
earls of Kildare
A Fitzgerald family earldom begun in 1250 that reached its peak under Thomas Fitzgerald (d. 1478). Yorkist ties enabled him to reclaim lost territory and serve as both governor of ...
