In English law, abatement refers to legal proceedings that are formerly abated, or ended, on the marriage, death or bankruptcy of one party, or some change of interest in the matter in dispute.
Abatement of nuisances is the remedy allowed to a person injured by a public or private nuisance, of destroying or removing it himself. A plea in abatement is brought forward by a defendant when he wishes to defeat or quash a particular action on some formal or technical ground. Abatement, in mercantile law, is an allowance, deduction, or discount made for prompt payment or other reason. Research Abatement
In law, an abator is someone who abates a nuisance. Formerly, in law, the term
abator referred to a person who, without right, entered a freehold on the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Research Abator
The Actor's Studio is an acting school in New York that taught an Americanised version of Stanislavsky's Method and was very influential in 1950s and 60s American drama. It was founded in 1947-1948 either by Lee Strasberg or by Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford, depending on which source one consults. Strasberg served as artistic director of the school until his death in 1982. Many notable American actors of the 1950s and 1960s were graduates, including Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Eva Marie-Saint. Research Actor's Studio
The act of Settlement was an act passed by the English parliament in 1700, by which the succession to the throne of the three kingdoms, in the event of King William and Queen Anne dying without issue, was settled on the PrincessSophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body being Protestants. The PrincessSophia was the youngest daughter of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. By this act George I, son of the PrincessSophia, succeeded to the crown on the death of Queen Anne.
Another act of Settlement was, that by which, under Oliver Cromwell's government, a new allotment was made of almost all landed property in Ireland, in 1652. Research Act of Settlement
The Additional Forces Act was passed in Britain by Pitt, owing to the imminent danger of the invasion of the country by Napoleon in 1803 and the following years. The act legalised the formation of second battalions to the regular regiments then serving abroad. The United Kingdom was divided up into districts, which were required by the act to furnish quotas of 3000 men each. The act was repealed after the death of Pitt. Research Additional Forces Act
Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with any other than the offender's husband or wife; when committed between two married persons, the offence is called double, and when between a married and single person, single adultery. The Mosaic, Greek, and early Roman law only recognized the offence when a married woman was the offender. By the Jewish law it was punished with death. In Greece the laws against it were severe. By the laws of Draco and Solon adulterers, when caught in the act, were at the mercy of the injured party. In early Rome the punishment was left to the discretion of the husband and parents of the adulteress. The punishment assigned by the LexJulia, under Augustus, was banishment or a heavy tine. Under Constantius and Constans, adulterers were burned or sewed in sacks and thrown into the sea; under Justinian the wife was to be scourged, lose her dower, and be shut up in a monastery; at the expiration of two years the husband might take her again; if he refused she was shaven and made a nun for life. By the ancient laws of France this crime was punishable with death. In Spain personal mutilation was frequently the punishment adopted. In several European countries adultery was regarded as a criminal offence, but in none did the punishment exceed imprisonment for a short period, accompanied by a fine. In England formerly it was punishable with fine and imprisonment, and in Scotland it was frequently made a capital offence. In the United States the punishment of adultery has varied materially at different times. It has, however, very seldom been punished criminally in the States. Research Adultery
In law, affinity is that degree of connection which subsists between one of two married persons and the blood relations of the other. It is no real kindred (consanguinity). A person cannot, by legal succession, receive an inheritance from a relation by affinity; neither does it extend to the nearest relations of husband and wife so as to create a mutual relation between them. The degrees of affinity are computed in the same way as those of consanguinity or blood. All legal impediments arising from affinity cease upon the death of the husband or wife, excepting those which relate to the marriage of the survivor. Research Affinity
Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as many men many minds; death defies the doctor. 'Apt alliteration's artful aid.' Churchhill. 'Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.' Pope. In the ancient German and Scandinavian and in early English poetry alliteration took the place of terminal rhymes, the alliterative syllables being made to recur with a certain regularity in the same position in successive verses. In the Vision of William Concerning Piers the Ploughman, for instance, it is regularly employed as in
the following lines: -
Hire robe was ful riche of red scarlet engreyned, With ribanes of red gold and of riche stones;
Hire arraye me ravysshed such ricchesse saw I
neyere; I had wondre what she was and whas wyf she
were.
In the hands of some English poets and prose writers of later times alliteration became a mere conceit. It is still employed in Icelandic poetry, and also in Finnish poetry. So far has alliteration sometimes been carried that long compositions have been written every word of which commenced with the same letter. Research Alliteration
Anabaptists (from the Greek anabaptisein, to rebaptize) was a name given to a Christian sect by their adversaries, because, as they objected to infantbaptism, they re-baptized those who joined their body. The founder of the sect appears to have been Nicolas Storch, a disciple of Luther's, who seems to have aimed also at the reorganization of society based on civil and political equality. Gathering round him a number of fiery spirits, among whom was Thomas Munzer, he incited the peasantry of Suabia and Franconia to insurrection - the doctrine of a community of goods being now added to their creed. This insurrection was quelled in 1525, when Munzer was put to the torture and beheaded. After the death of Munzer the sectaries dispersed in all directions, spreading their doctrines wherever they went. In 1534 the town of Miinster in Westphalia became their centre of action. Under the leadership of Bockhold and Matthias their numbers increased daily, and being joined by the restless spirits of the adjoining towns, they soon made themselves masters of the town and expelled their adversaries. Matthias became their prophet, but he fell in a sally against the Bishop of Munster, Count Waldeck, who had laid siege to the city. Bockhold then became leader, assuming the name of John of Leyden, king of the New Jerusalem, and Munster became a theatre of all the excesses of fanaticism, lust, and cruelty. The town was eventually taken in June, 1535, and Bockhold and a great many of his partisans suffered death. This was the last time that the movement assumed anything like political importance.
In the meantime some of the apostles, who were sent out by Bockhold to extend the limits of his kingdom, had been successful in various places, and many independent teachers, who preached the same doctrines, continued active in the work of founding a new empire of pure Christians. It is true that they rejected the practice of polygamy, community of goods, and intolerance towards those of different opinions which had prevailed in Munster; but they enjoined upon their adherents the other doctrines of the early Anabaptists, and certain heretical opinions in regard to the humanity of Christ, occasioned by the controversies of that day about the sacrament. The most celebrated of those Anabaptist prophets were Melchior Hoffmann, the founder of the Hoffmannists or Millenarians; Galenus Abrahamssohn, from whom the sect of the Galenists were called; and Simon Menno, founder of various sects known as Mennonites.
Menno's principles are contained in his Principles of the True Christian Faith, 1556, a work which is held as authoritative on points of doctrine and worship among the Baptist communities of Germany and the Netherlands. The application of the term Anabaptist to the general body of Baptists throughout the world is unwarranted, because these sects have nothing in common with the bodies which sprung up in various countries of Europe during the Reformation, except the practice of adult baptism. The Baptists themselves repudiate the name Anabaptist, as they claim to baptize according to the original institution of the rite, and never repeat baptism in the case of those who in their opinion have been so baptized. Research Anabaptists
Animal worship is a practice found to prevail, or to have prevailed, in the most widely distant parts of the world, both the Old and the New, but nowhere to such an amazing extent as in ancient Egypt, notwithstanding its high civilization. Nearly all the more important animals found in the country were regarded as sacred in some part of Egypt, and the degree of reverence paid to them was such that throughout Egypt the killing of a hawk or an ibis, whether voluntary or not, was punished with death. The worship, however, was not, except in a few instances, paid to them as actual deities. The animals were merely regarded as sacred to the deities, and the worship paid to them was symbolical. Research Animal Worship
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Abatement
