abjuration
The act of renouncing an idea, person, or thing to which one has previously adhered. In the past, RC canon law defined it as the external retractation, made before witnesses, of errors contrary to ...
Adoptianism
1 The heresy, originating in Spain in the 8th cent., according to which Christ, in His humanity, is not the true, but only the adopted, Son of God. Elipandus, Abp. of Toledo, arguing against ...
Alberico da Montecassino
Major representative of the golden age of the monastery of Montecassino, where he was a monk (1057–86). He wrote two rhetorical works, Dictaminum radii and Flores rhetorici, which are pioneering ...
Albi
A modest vicus Albi owed its promotion to the administrative reforms of the 4th c., which made it the capital of a civitas and a diocese. Its importance long remained ...
Alps
Of Celtic origin, the word “Alps” means “high summit”, “rock”, and designates the largest and highest of the European mountain ranges, extending in the form of an arc 1000 kilometres ...
anthropomorphism
The representation of Gods, or nature, or non-human animals, as having human form, or as having human thoughts and intentions. Sometimes this is avowedly metaphorical, the problem being to understand ...
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 ...
Antony, St, of Padua
(1188/95–1231), Franciscan friar. When he was 15 he joined the Augustinian Canons. He was deeply moved when the relics of some Franciscans killed in Morocco were brought to Coimbra in 1220; he ...
Apiqoros
(; heretic), form used in rabbinic literature of the name of the Greek philosopher Epicurus (4th cent. bce). His teaching that pleasure (but only if philosophically and properly understood) was ...
apologetics
In theology, the attempt to show that a faith is either provable by reason, or at least consistent with reason. More generally, the attempts to defend a doctrine.
apostasy
The abandonment of Christianity. Until 1983 the term was used in the RC Church also of public defection from the RC Church and of desertion by a professed religious who had taken perpetual vows.
Apostolici
(Lat., ‘Apostolics’). The bodies to whom the title has been applied, by themselves or others, include: (1) some Gnostic communities of the 2nd–4th cents.; (2) an ascetic body which flourished in the ...
Arianism
In Christian theology, the main heresy denying the divinity of Christ, originating with the Alexandrian priest Arius (c. 250–c. 336). Arianism maintained that the son of God was created by the Father ...
Asia Minor
The term ‘Asia Minor’ denotes the westernmost part of the Asian continent, equivalent to modern Turkey between the Aegean and the Euphrates. The west and south coastal fringes were part of the ...
Azyme, Azymites
Traditionally, the Eastern Christians used leavened bread for the Eucharist and the Westerners unleavened (a-zumos) bread. This difference in rite posed no problems until the 11th c., when it was ...
Benedict XII
(d. 1342), Pope from 1334. Jacques Fournier was the third of the Avignon Popes. A Cistercian monk and abbot, as Pope he inaugurated several ecclesiastical reforms. He fought the rapacity of the ...
Berengar of Tours
(c.1010–88)Theologian involved in the 11th-century Eucharistic controversy. Berengar appealed to reason instead of authority, leading him to question teachings concerning the Real Presence. He was ...
Bernard Délicieux
(died 1319)Born at Montpellier to an eminent family, Bernard Délicieux entered the Order of St Francis around 1284. Reader at Carcassonne, then at Narbonne, he personified the broad intellectual ...
Bernard Gui
(c.1261–1331), Dominican historian. He was appointed inquisitor of Toulouse in 1307 and Bp. of Lodève in 1324. He is remembered chiefly for his contribution to the history of the Dominican Order.
Berthold of Ratisbon
(c.1210–1272)A Franciscan close to the Joachites, companion of David of Augsburg, he was the most important medieval preacher in the German language and was the object of a popular ...
