absolution
The formal act of a bishop or priest pronouncing the forgiveness of sins by Christ to penitent sinners. A formula of absolution is included in many liturgical acts of worship, but according to ...
Adalbert of Prague
(956–97),bishop and missionary martyr. Born at Libice (Bohemia) of a princely family, he was educated by Adalbert of Magdeburg. On the latter's death he returned to Prague, the proud possessor of a ...
Adam of Petit Pont
(12th c.)This master of English origin taught the liberal arts at Paris between 1132 and 1148. He left an Ars disserendi, a treatise on logic in which he was ...
Adenulf of Anagni
(d. 1289/90)*Canon of Paris, nephew of Pope Gregory IX. He wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s Topics and on the Psalms (edited among the works of Albertus Magnus), Quodlibeta, and Sermons. ...
advowson
In ecclesiastical law, the right to recommend a member of the Anglican clergy for a vacant benefice, or to make such an appointment. The word is recorded from Middle English, in the sense ‘patronage ...
Æthelbald
(d. 757),king of Mercia (716–57). The young Æthelbald was driven into exile in the reign of his second cousin Ceolred, but succeeded Ceolred as king. Writing in 731 Bede says that all the kingdoms of ...
Afonso III, king of Portugal
(1210–79; r. 1248–79)Second son of Afonso II and Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. The prince spent his youth in France at the court of his aunt, Queen ...
Albert Behaim
(c.1180–c.1260) German cleric, born and educated near Niederaltaich, Bavaria;*canon in Passau from 1212; went to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, remaining there in a diplomatic post. ...
Alexander II, Pope
(c.1010/1015–1073)Anselmo da Baggio, the son of a leading Milanese family, was educated from his youth at Milan cathedral. In 1056, thanks to the support of the Emperor Henry III ...
Alexander of Roes
(13th century) Canon,probably identical to Andreas of Leysberg OFM, in service to Cardinal Jacob Colonna; criticised conditions at the Roman curia. In his major work Memoriale de Prerogativa Romani ...
Alfonso VI of Castile
(1040–1109)King from 1065 to 1109, firstly of León, then in 1072 of León, Castile and Galicia, which, separated by his father, he reunified, from 1077 Alfonso entitled himself “Imperator ...
Alfred of Sareshel (Alfred Anglicus)
*Canon of Lichfield, belonged to the circle of Gerard of Cremona at the school for translators in Toledo. Around 1210 he translated from the Arabic the De vegetabilibus of Nicolaus ...
anagnōstēs
A reader, often an educated slave, whose duty in Roman houses was to entertain his master and guests at table by a recitation in Greek and Latin. Cicero (Epistulae ad ...
Andrew of Wyntoun
(c. 1350–c. 1425),a canon regular of St Andrews and author of The Orygynale Cronykil (c.1420), first published in 1795, a metrical history of Scotland in octosyllabics, from the beginning of the ...
anticlericalism
The opposition to the secular influence of the Church, usually the Roman Catholic Church. It was a major theme in the domestic politics of several European countries during the late nineteenth ...
apostolic life
Religious life based on the model of the Apostles. Associated with monks, who claimed the Apostles were the first monks, it was adopted by heretics around the year 1000. In ...
apse
A large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof and typically at the church's eastern end. Recorded from the early 19th century, the word comes from Latin apsis ...
archdiocese
A diocese of which the holder is ex officio archbishop, e.g. Canterbury. The word is used esp. of RC archdioceses, e.g. Westminster.
archpriest
A title of certain clerics in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. From the 5th cent. on, the archpriest was the senior presbyter of a city, who might take the bishop's place at liturgical ...
Aristotelianism
Aristotle's influence originally survived through his own school, the Lyceum. His works were collected and edited by Andronicus of Rhodes, and commentaries continued until Justinian closed the pagan ...
