Arminianism is a doctrine in Christianity, formulated in the 17th century and named after the Dutch Calvinist Jacobus Arminius, which declares that human free will can exist without limiting God's power or contradicting the Bible. Arminius believed predestination was biblical and true - that God had intended some persons for heaven and others for hell, as indicated by Jesus' reference to ' sheep and goats.' But he focused on God's love more than on God's power in speaking of election, the process by which God chose those intended for heaven. After Arminius died, a group of ministers who sympathised with his views developed a systematic and rational theology based on his teachings. In their declaration, a remonstrance issued in 1610, the Arminians argued that election was conditioned by faith, that grace could be rejected, that the work of Christ was intended for all persons, and that it was possible for believers to fall from grace. At the Synod of Dort, or Dordrecht, the High Calvinists prevailed over the Arminian party and condemned the Remonstrants.
The Synod of Dort declared that Christ's work was meant only for those elect to salvation, that people believing could not fall from grace, and that God's election depended on no conditions. Remonstrants were not tolerated at all in Holland until 1630, and then not fully until 1795. They have, however, continued an Arminian tradition in the Netherlands into the late 20th century. The British theologian John Wesley studied and affirmed the work of Arminius in his Methodist movement during the 18th century in England. American Methodists for the most part have leaned toward the theology of the Remonstrants. In popular expression Arminianism has come to mean that no predestination exists and people are free to follow or reject the gospel. Research Arminianism
Bank Holidays are British public holidays when the banks are closed. They are New Year's Day, EasterMonday, May Day (the first Monday in May), Spring Bank Holiday (the last Monday in May), August Bank Holiday (last Monday in August), and Boxing Day. In Scotland, EasterMonday is replaced by the 2nd of January and the August Bank Holiday is on the first Monday in August. In Northern IrelandSaint Patrick's Day (the 17th of March) is added. In the Channel Islands Liberation Day (the 9th of May) is included.
Bank Holidays have a similar status to Sundays in that bills of exchange falling due on a Bank Holiday are postponed until the following day and also they do not count in working out days of grace. Good Friday and Christmas Day are also public holidays, but payments falling due (including bills of exchange) on these days are payable on the preceding day. When Bank Holidays fall on a Sunday, the following day becomes the Bank Holiday. Research Bank Holiday
Blood-rain is the name given to showers of grayish and reddish dust mingled with rain which occasionally fall usually in the zone of the earth which extends on both sides of the Mediterranean westwardly over the Atlantic, and eastwardly to Central Asia. The dust is largely made up of microscopic organisms, especially the shells of diatoms; the red colour being owing to the presence of a red oxide of iron. Research Blood-Rain
A calendar (named from the Latin calendarium, from calendce, the first day of the month), is a record or marking out of time as systematically divided into years, months, weeks, and days.
The periodical occurrence of certain natural phenomena gave rise to the first division of time, the division into weeks being the only purely arbitrary partition. The year of the ancient Egyptians was based on the changes of the seasons alone, without reference to the lunar month, and contained 365 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five supplementary days at the end of the year.
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months of which they reckoned twelve in the year, intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to maintain the correspondence of the particular months with the regular recurrence of the seasons.
The Greeks in the earliest period also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, but after one or two changes adopted the plan of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of the fact that in a period of nineteen years, the new moons return upon the same days of the year as before. This period of nineteen years was found, however, to be about six hours too long, and subsequent calculators still failed to make the beginning of the seasons return on the same fixed day of the year. Each month was divided into three decads.
The Romans at first divided the year into ten months, but they early adopted the Greek method of lunar and intercalary months, making the lunar year consist of 354, and afterwards of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days and a fraction to be supplied by the intercalary division. This arrangement continued until the time of Julius Caesar. The first day of the month was called the calends. In March, May, July, and October the 15th, in other months the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was called the nones, being therefore either the 7th or the 5th of the month. From the inaccuracy of the Roman method of reckoning the calendar came to represent the vernalequinox nearly two months after the event, and at the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astronomer Sosigenes with the assistance of Marcus Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. The chief improvement consisted in restoring the equinox to its proper place by inserting two months between November and December, so that the year 707 (46 BC), called the year of confusion, contained fourteen months.
In the number of days the Greek computation was adopted, which made it 365.25. To dispose of the quarter of a day it was determined to intercalate a day every fourth year between the 23rd and 24th of February. This calendar continued in use among the Romans until the fall of the empire, and throughout Christendom until 1582.
By this time, owing to the cumulative error of eleven minutes, the vernalequinox really took place ten days earlier than its date in the calendar, and accordingly PopeGregory XIII issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar in all Catholic countries, and introducing in its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or reformed calendar. In this way began the new style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten days were to be dropped; every hundredth year, which by the old style was to have been a leap year, was now to be a common year, the fourth excepted; and the length of the solar year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, forty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the difference between which and subsequent observations is immaterial. The new calendar was adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; in Catholic Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587; in ProtestantGermany, Holland, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden, 1753.
In the English calendar of 1752, also, the 1st of January was now adopted as the beginning of the legal year, and it was customary for some time to give two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March, that of the old and that of the new year, as January 1752/3. Russia alone retained the old style, which by 1906 differed twelve days from the new.
In France, during the revolution, a new calendar was introduced by a decree of the rational Convention, on November the 24th, 1793. The time from which the new reckoning was to commence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, which fell upon the 22nd of September, when the first decree of the new republic had been promulgated. The year was made to consist of twelve months of three decades each, and, to complete the full number, five fete days, or sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to the end of the year. The seasons and months were as follows: Autumn; 22nd September to 22nd December Vendimiaire, vintage month; Brumaire, foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. Winter; 22nd December to 22nd March: Nivose, snowy month; Plumose, rainy month; Ventose, windy month. Spring; 22nd March to 22nd June: Germinal, budmonth; Floreal, flowermonth; Prairial, meadowmonth. Summer; 22nd June to 22nd Sept.: Messidor, harvest month; Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. The common Christian or Gregorian calendar was re-established in France on the 1st of January, 1806, by Napoleon. Research Calendar
Calico-printing is the art of applying colours to cloth after it has come from the hand of the weaver in such a manner as to form patterns or figures. The art was originally brought to Britain from India, and was sometimes practised on linen, woollen, and silk, but most frequently upon that species of cotton cloth called calico. The process was originally accomplished by means of hand-blocks made of wood on which patterns or parts of patterns for each different colour were cut. These blocks were of various dimensions, according to the nature of the work, and where several colours were employed in one pattern, a block for each colour was necessary.
As an improvement in the method of printing from wooden blocks, especially where delicacy of outline was required, engraved copperplates were introduced about 1760; but the greatest improvement was effected by the introduction of cylinder printing about 1785, which had almost superseded the other methods, except for particular styles by 1900. The machinery then generally used consisted of various modifications of the cylinder printing-machine, in which a number of separate engraved cylinders were mounted, corresponding to the number of colours to be printed. Formerly the cloth had to pass once through the machine for every colour; but later, by an arrangement of machinery equally ingenious and effective, any number of cylinders were fitted on one machine, which acted on the cloth one after the other, and by this means the pattern was finished with a corresponding number of colours in the same time that was formerly employed to give one.
A great variety of methods have been employed in calico-printing, but they all fall under the general heads of dye-colours and steam-colours. Under the first head are included all the styles in which the pattern is printed on the cloth by a mordant - a substance which may have little or no colour itself, but has an affinity for the fibre on the one hand, and for the colouring matter on the other - the dye or colouring matter being subsequently fixed by dyeing on such parts of the cloth as have been impregnated with the mordant, and thus bringing out the pattern.
In steam-colour printing the colouring material is applied to the cloth direct from the printing-cylinder, and subsequently fixed by steaming. In steam-colours there is no limit to the number and variety of shades which may be produced, each colour-box on the cylinder printing-machine containing the whole ingredients essential to the production and fixation of a separate and distinct shade of colour. This process was superseding most of the other styles by the end of the Victorian era, the brilliant coal-tar colours so extensively used being almost entirely fixed by steaming.
The bodies used for fixing were tin mordants, tannic acid, etc, which were mixed with the dye-colours and printed together. The effects of calico-printing are varied by numerous other operations, such as the discharge-style, in which the cloth is first dyed all over, then printed in a certain pattern with discharge-chemicals, which either produce a pattern of some other colour, or one purely white, as in the Turkey-red bandanna handkerchiefs. The resist-style, in some respects, is the reverse of the discharge-style; the process being to print a pattern in certain chemicals, which will enable those parts to resist the action of the dye subsequently applied to all other parts of the cloth. After the prints have undergone the printing process they are submitted to a series of finishing operations, the object of which is to give to the fabrics a pleasing appearance to the eye. Research Calico-Printing
Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment is retained in 92 countries and territories, including the 37 states of the USA, China, and Islamic countries. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason - in 1998 the death penalty for treason was finally abolished in the United Kingdom. Methods of execution include electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, garrotting, and decapitation. In Britain, the number of capital offences was reduced from over 200 at the end of the 18th century, until capital punishment was abolished in 1866 for all crimes except murder, treason, piracy, and certain arson attacks. Its use was subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. The punishment was carried out by hanging (in public until 1866).
The improvement in the penal laws of Europe in respect to the reduction of capital punishment may be traced in large part to the publication of Beccaria's treatise on Crimes and Punishments (Dei Delitti e delle Pene) in 1764. At that time in England, as Blackstone a year later pointed out with some amount of feeling, there were 160 capital offences in the statute book. The work of practical reform was initiated in 1770 by Sir William Meredith, who moved for a committee of inquiry into the state of the criminal laws; but the modifications secured by it were few, owing to the opposition of the House of Lords, which continued down to 1832 to oppose systematically all attempts at criminal law reform.
The publication of Madan's Thoughts on Executive Justice, in 1784, urging the stricter administration of the law as it then stood, brought out the opposition of Sir Samuel Romilly, who replied to it in 1785, and introduced at short intervals a series of bills for the abolition of the extreme sentence for minor offences. The influence of Paley and LordEllenborough, and the reaction from the revolutionary principles, which prior to the French Revolution had inaugurated great penal changes in France, told strongly against his efforts; and even his Shoplifting Act, to abolish the sentence of death in cases of theft to the value of five shillings, was resolutely rejected, though passed by the Commons in 1810, 1811, 1813, and 1816. Romilly's work was taken up by Sir James Mackintosh in 1820, and under Peel's ministry with greater success. At his death, however, in the year of the passage of the Reform Bill (1832) forty kinds of forgery with many less serious offences were still capital, though from that time the amelioration was rapid. In the five years following the Reform Act, the capital offences were reduced to 37, and subsequent changes left in 1861 only four capital charges - setting fire to H.M. dockyards or arsenals, piracy with violence, treason, and murder. By 1906 only treason and murder were capital offences in England, andScotland also, though robbery, rape, incest, and wilful fire-raising were still capital crimes in Scottish common law.
Prior to 1868 executions were conducted in public in England, but then in 1868 the law changed that all executions were to be conducted in private within the prison walls. Capital punishment for murder was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965 but still exists for treason, and during the 1980's it was revealed that the police had a shoot-to-kill and summary execution policy for those suspected of being terrorists. In 2005 a 27 year old Brazilian man was executed by being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder after being tackled to the ground by plain clothed police officers who mistakenly believed him to be a suicide bomber.
In 1990, Ireland abolished the death penalty for all offences. In Saudi Arabia execution is by beheading in public. Countries that have abolished the death penalty fall into three categories: those that have abolished it for all crimes (44 countries); those that retain it only for exceptional crimes such as war crimes (17 countries); and those that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone since 1980 (25 countries and territories).
The first country in Europe to abolish the death penalty was Romania in 1864, followed by Portugal in 1867, Holland in 1870, and by Switzerland in 1874. In the USA, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, as a cruel and unusual punishment, but decided in 1976 that this was not so in all circumstances. It was therefore reintroduced in some states. Many countries use capital punishment for crimes other than murder, such as drug offences (in Malaysia and elsewhere). In 1977 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ruled out imposition of the death penalty on those under the age of 18. The covenant was signed by President Carter on behalf of the USA, but in 1989 the US Supreme Court decided that it could be imposed from the age of 16 for murder, and that the mentally retarded could also face the death penalty. Research Capital Punishment
The term coach is now generally applied to a chartered or long distance, usually single-decker bus. However, traditionally coach was a general name for all covered carriages drawn by horses and intended for the rapid conveyance of passengers.
The earliest carriages appear to have been all open, if we may judge from the figures of Assyrian and Babylonian chariots found on the monuments discovered amidst the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, At Rome both covered and uncovered carriages were in use. After the fall of the Roman Empire they went out of use again, and during the feudal ages the custom was to ride on horseback, the use of carriages being considered effeminate. They do not appear to have become common until the 10th century, and even then were regarded exclusively as vehicles for women and invalids. Later on they became, especially in Germany, part of the appendages of royalty.
Coaches seem to have been introduced into England about the middle of the 16th century, but were for long confined to the aristocracy and the wealthy classes. Hackney-coaches were first used in London in 1625. They were then only twenty in number, and were kept at the hotels, where they had to be applied for when wanted. In 1634 coaches waiting to be hired at a particular stand were introduced, and had increased to 200 in 1652, to 800 in 1710, and to 1000 in 1771.
Stagecoaches were introduced into England about the same time as hackney-coaches. The first stage-coach in London appears to have ran early in the 17th century, and before the end of the century they were started on three of the principal roads in England. Their speed was at first very moderate, about 3 or 4 miles an hour. They could only run in the summer, and even then their progress was often greatly hindered by floods and by the wretched state of the roads generally. In 1700 it took a week to travel from York to London; in 1754 a body of Manchester merchants started a conveyance, the Flying Coach, of an improved kind, which did the journey to London in the unusually short period of four days and a half, and thirty years later a Mr. Palmer of Bath, after a considerable amount of opposition, succeeded in inducing the government to put in practice certain suggestions which he made, by which he showed that great saving both of time and money in the conveyance of passengers and letters would be effected. The result was the establishment of the system of mail-coaches, which continued to be the means of travelling in England until their place was taken by the railways. The first mail-coach started between London and Bristol on the 8th of August, 1784. The manufacture of elegant carriages was a proof of much wealth and mechanical skill in a place, many different workmen being employed in their construction, and both the materials and the workmanship requiring to be of the best. British-built carriages, especially those made in London, held the first place for a combination of strength and elegance. Research Coach
A collective noun (or collective name) is a name which denotes or represents a number of individual items. For example, a number of sheep together is known as a 'flock'. The word 'flock' is the collective noun for a number of sheep. Some items have multiple collective nouns, for example a collection of goats can be known as a 'herd', a 'tribe' or a 'trip'.
Ambush is the collective noun for a group of tigers.
Army is the collective noun for a group of frogs, ants,
Array is the collective noun for a group of hedgehogs.
Badelynge is the collective noun for a group of ducks on the ground.
Bale is the collective noun for a group of turtles.
Barren is the collective noun for a group of mules.
Basket is the collective noun for a group of plums.
Battery is the collective noun for a group of barracuda.
Bazaar is the collective noun for a group of guillemots.
Bed is the collective noun for a group of clams.
Bench is the collective noun for a group of bishops, magistrates.
Bevy is the collective noun for a group of quail, roes, swans, pheasants, ladies.
Brace is the collective noun for a group of bucks.
Brood is the collective noun for a group of chickens.
Building is the collective noun for a group of rooks.
Bunch is the collective noun for a group of grapes, flowers.
Bundle is the collective noun for a group of asparagus.
Business is the collective noun for a group of ferrets.
Caravan is the collective noun for a group of camels.
Cast is the collective noun for a group of hawks, falcons.
Cete is the collective noun for a group of badgers.
Charm is the collective noun for a group of goldfinches.
Chatter is the collective noun for a group of budgerigars.
Chattering is the collective noun for a group of choughs.
Chine is the collective noun for a group of polecats.
Clamour is the collective noun for a group of rooks.
Clous is the collective noun for a group of gnats.
Clowder is the collective noun for a group of cats.
Clump is the collective noun for a group of trees.
Cluster is the collective noun for a group of grapes, spiders.
Clutch is the collective noun for a group of eggs.
Clutter is the collective noun for a group of spiders.
Colony is the collective noun for a group of gulls, frogs, penguins, ants, beavers.
Company is the collective noun for a group of widgeon, parrots.
Congregation is the collective noun for a group of plovers.
Convocation is the collective noun for a group of eagles.
Covert is the collective noun for a group of coots.
Covey is the collective noun for a group of partridges, grouse.
Crash is the collective noun for a group of rhinoceros.
The Continental System was a plan devised by Napoleon to exclude Britain from all intercourse with the continent of Europe. It began with the decree of Berlin on November the 21st 1806, by which the British Islands were declared to be in a state of blockade; all commerce, intercourse and correspondence were prohibited; every Briton found in France, or a country occupied by French troops, was declared a prisoner of war; all property belonging to Britons, fair prize, and all trade in goods from Britain or British colonies entirely prohibited.
Britain replied by orders in council prohibiting trade with French ports, and declaring all harbours of France and allies subjected to the same restrictions as if they were closely blockaded. Further decrees on the part of France, of a still more stringent kind, declared all vessels of whatever flag, which had been searched by a British vessel or paid duty to Britain, denationalised, and directing the burning of all British goods. The decrees were annulled at the fall of Napoleon in 1814. Research Continental System
Corn Laws are various enactments designed to ensure an adequate supply of cereal foods to a country, usually by protection allotted to its own farmers.
In Britain the name was commonly given to certain statutes passed to protect the agricultural interest in Britain. The first form of interference by legislative enactment with the corn-trade in England, beginning soon after the Conquest, was the prohibition of exportation, an expedient in those times to prevent scarcity in a sudden emergency. The exportation of grain was prohibited in the reign of Edward III in 1360-61, Calais and other appointed ports being excepted. This provision was relaxed by a statute of Richard II in 1394, by which exportation was permitted from all ports not excepted by royal proclamation.
In 1436, under Henry VI, the exportation of grain was permitted without license whenever the price of wheat did not exceed 6s. 8d per quarter, and barley 3s. 4d. In 1463 a statute of Edward IV prohibited importation until the price exceeded the limit at which exportation was permitted. This was the beginning of protection, properly so called.
At the restoration of Charles II duties were imposed both on exportation and importation, while the old principle of a standard price, beyond which exportation was prohibited, was retained. At the Revolution a new policy still more favourable to the agricultural interest was adopted. By act 1 William and Mary, cap xii., a bounty was granted on the exportation of corn, and the duties on exportation were abolished. The amount of the bounty was 5s. for every quarter of wheat exported while the price was at or under 48s, with corresponding prices for other grains.
The exportation of grain reached its highest point about 1750. From this period the country, which had always been normally a grain-exporting country, began, on account of the increase of population and expansion of mechanical industries, to fall off in this respect, and in 1778 became permanently a grain-importing country. From this time the main efforts of the agricultural interest, largely represented in the parliament and the ruling classes of the kingdom, were concentrated on obtaining the imposition of prohibitory duties on foreign grain. In 1804, for instance, if the price of corn was below 63s. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. was laid on what was imported; if between 63s and 66s, a duty of 2s. 6d; and only when the price at home had risen as high as 66s per quarter was the foreign grain allowed to pass at a nominal duty of 6d. With variations of more or less importance this sliding-scale of prohibitory duties continued in force until 1846, when Sir Robert Peel, influenced by the corn-law repeal agitation, and more especially by the Anti-Corn-law League, headed by Cobden and Bright, carried a measure repealing the duty on imported corn, except a nominal sum of 1s per quarter, which also in 1869 was done away with, but was temporarily re-imposed in 1902-1903. Research Corn Laws
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Arminianism
