A council is an assembly met for deliberation, or to give advice. The term specially applies to an assembly of the representatives of independent churches, convened for deliberation and the enactment of canons or ecclesiastical laws. The four general or oecumenical councils recognized by all churches are: 1, the Council of Nice, in 325, by which the dogma respecting the Son of God was settled; 2, that of Constantinople, 381, by which the doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost was decided; 3, that of Ephesus, 431; and 4, that of Chalcedon, 451; in which two last the doctrine of the union of the divine and human nature in Christ was more precisely determined.
Among the principal Latin councils are that of Clermont (1096), in the reign of Urban II, in which the first crusade was resolved upon; the Council of Constance, the most numerous of all the councils, held in 1414, which pronounced the condemnation of John Huss (1415), and of Jerome of Prague (1416); the Council of Basel, in 1431, which intended a reformation, if not in the doctrines, yet in the constitution and discipline of the church; and the Council of Trent, which began its session in 1545, and laboured chiefly to confirm the doctrines of the Catholic Church against the Protestants. On the 8th of December, 1869, an oecumenical council, summoned by a bull of Pope Pius IX, assembled at Rome. This council adopted a dogmatic Decree or Constitutio de Fide, and a Constitutio de Ecolesia, the most important article of which latter declares the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra.
The Council of Constance was a general council of the Church of Rome, held between 1414 and 1418. The German emperor, the pope, 33 cardinals, 3 patriarchs, 47 archbishops, 145 bishops, 124 abbots, 750 doctors, and about 18,000 priests and monks, besides many princes and counts, were present at this assembly, which condemned to deathHuss and Jerome of Prague, expelled the rival popes John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII, and elected Martin V to the papal chair. Research Council of Constance
Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and commentator. He was born in 333. He was the preceptor of St. Jerome, wrote notes on Virgil and Terence, and a grammar of the Latin language so universally used in the middle ages that 'Donat' became a common term for grammar or primer of instruction. Research Aelius Donatus
Albert Durer was a German painter, designer, sculptor, and engraver on wood and metal. He was born in 1471 at Nurnberg and died in 1528. His father was a skilful goldsmith of Hungary. In 1486 he left his father's trade and became an apprentice of Michael Wohlgemuth, then the best painter in Nurnberg. Having finished his studies he entered upon his 'wanderjahre,' the usual course of travels of a German youth. On his return to Nurnberg he married the daughter of Hans Frey, a mechanic, who has been falsely accused for centuries of embittering his life and bringing him to his grave. In 1505 he went to Venice to improve himself in his art.
His abilities excited envy and admiration. He painted the Martyrdom of Bartholomew for St. Mark's church, which painting was purchased by the Emperor Rudolph and removed to Prague. He also travelled to Bologna, to improve bisknowledge of perspective. On his return to Nurnberg his fame spread far and wide. Maximilian I appointed him his court-painter, and Charles V confirmed him in this office.
All the artists and learned men of his time honoured and loved him, and for many years he was one of the chief burghers of his native town. Profound application and great facility in the mechanical part of his art were the characteristics of Albert Durer, and enabled him to exert a great influence on German art. He was the first in Germany who taught the rules of perspective, and of the proportions of the human figure. He not only made use of the burin, like his predecessors, but was also among the first to practice etching and invented the method of printing woodcuts with two colours.
Among his masterpieces in painting are a Crucifixion, Adam and Eve, an Adoration of the Magi, and portraits of Raphael, Erasmus, and Melanchthon, who were his friends. Among his best engravings on copper are his Fortune, Melancholy, Adam and Eve in Paradise, St. Hubert, St. Jerome, and the Smaller Passion (so called), in sixteen plates. Among his best engravings on wood are the Greater Passion (so called), in thirteen plates; the Smaller Passion, with the frontispiece, thirty-seven pieces; the Revelation of St. John, with the frontispiece, fifteen plates; the Life of Mary, two prints, with the frontispiece. Albert Durer has also much merit as a writer, and published works on Human Proportion, Fortification, and the Use of the Compass and Square. Research Albert Durer
Bonaparte was the French form which the great Napoleon was the first to give to the original Italian name Buona-parte, borne by his family in Corsica. As early as the 12th and 13th centuries there were families of this name in Northern Italy, members of which reached some distinction as governors of cities (podesta), envoys, etc. But the connection between the Corsican Bonapartes and these Italian families is not clearly established, though probably the former descended from a Genoese branch of the family, which transplanted itself about the beginning of the 16th century to Corsica, an island then under the jurisdiction of Genoa. From that time the Buona-partes ranked as a distinguished patrician family of Ajaccio.
About the middle of the 18th century there remained three male representatives of this family at Ajaccio, viz. the archdeacon Luciano Bonaparte, his brother Napoleon, and the nephew of both, Carlo, the father of the Emperor Napoleon I. Carlo or Charles Buonaparte, born in 1746, studied law at Pisa University, and on his return to Corsica married Letizia Ramolino. He fought under Paoli for the independence of Corsica, but when further resistance was useless he went over to the side of the French, and was included by Louis XV amongst the 400 Corsican families who were to have rights in France as noble. In 1777 he went to Paris, where he resided for several years, procuring a free admission for his second son Napoleon to the military school of Brienne. He died in 1785 at Montpellier. By his marriage with Letizia Ramolino he left eight children: Giuseppe, or Joseph, king of Spain; Napoleon I, emperor of the French; Lucien, prince of Canino; Maria Anna, afterwards called Elise, princess of Lucca and Piombino, and wife of Prince Bacciocchi, Luigi, or Louis, king of Holland; Garlotta, afterwards named Marie Pauline, princess Borghese, Annunciata, afterwards called Caroline, wife of Murat king of Naples; and Girolamo, or Jerome, king of Westphalia. Research Bonaparte
Correggio was the name taken by Antonio Allegri from his birthplace near Modena. He was an Italian painter and was born in 1494 at Corregio and died in 1534. Little is known of his life, which was very retired. Almost the only anecdote told of him is that on seeing the St Cecilia of Raphael he exclaimed 'Anch 'io son pittore' (I also am a painter), but thia is doubtful. Correggio is unrivalled in chiaroscuro and in the grace and rounding of his figures. Among his best pictures are Night, in which the chief light is the glory beaming from the infant Saviour; the St Jerome; the Marriage of St Catherine; several Madonnas, one of them (called La Zingarella, or the Gipsy Girl) said to represent his wife; the Penitent Magdalene; the altar-pieces of St Francis, St George, and St Sebastian; Christ in the Garden of Olives; the fresco of the Ascension in the Church of St John, Parma; the Assumption of the Virgin in the cathedral of the same city; the Ecce Homo, and Cupid, Mercury, and Venus, both in the National Gallery, London. Research Correggio
Damasus was the name of a pope born about 305, who reigned from 366 to 384. He was a friend of St Jerome, whom he led to undertake the improved Latin version of the Bible known as the Vulgate. Research Damasus
Doctors of the Church is a name given to four of the Greek Fathers (Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chrysostom) and three of the Latin Fathers (Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great). The Roman Catholic Church, however, recognizes seventeen 'Doctors of the Church,' including, besides those already mentioned, Chrysologus, Leo, Isidore, Peter Damian, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, and Alphonsus of Liguori. The title is conferred only after death. Research Doctors of the Church
Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) was an Italian painter of the Lombard school. He was born in 1581 or 1582 at Bologna and died in 1641. He studied under Annibal Carracci, and afterwards went to Rome, where he became painter to Pope Gregory XV. Among his best works are the Communion of St Jerome in the Vatican Museum, the History of Apollo, the Martyrdom of St. Agnes, and the Triumph of David. Research Domenichino
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Council of Constance
