In English law, a brief is a memorandum of instructions, concisely expressed, drawn up by an attorney for the guidance of the barrister, containing a statement of the facts, points of law, etc. to be developed and expanded before the court, or to be used in the cross-examination of witnesses.
A brief may also mean, in law, an order emanating from the superior courts.
A papal brief is a sort of pastoral letter in which the pope gives his decision on some matter which concerns the party to whom it is addressed. The brief is an official document, but of a less public character than the bull.
A concordat is a convention between the pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and any secular government, for the settling of ecclesiastical relations. One of the most important of the earlier concordats, that of Worms, called also the Calixtine Concordat, made in 1122, between PopeCalixtus II and the Emperor Henry V, has been regarded as the fundamental law of the church in Germany. Another celebrated concordat was that agreed upon between Cardinal Gonsalvi, in the name of Pius VII, and Napoleon in July, 1801. By it the head of the state had the nomination of bishops to the vacant sees; the clergy became subject in temporal matters to the civil power; all immunities, ecclesiastical courts, and jurisdictions were abolished in France, and even the regulations of the public worship and religious ceremonies and the pastoral addresses of the clergy, were placed under the control of the secular authorities. This concordat was practically abrogated in 1905 by the separation of church and state. The government had previously broken off diplomatic relations with the papacy. Research Concordat
The crozier or crosier is a bishop's staff of office. It generally resembles a shepherd's crook in shape, and may have developed from the hooked staff carried by the Roman augurs. The original form of the staff resembled a shepherd's crook, but from the middle of the 14th century the archbishops began to carry, sometimes in addition to the pastoralcrook, sometimes instead of it, a crosier terminating in a cross or double cross. The crosier is carried by bishops and archbishops themselves only in procession and when pronouncing benediction; on all other occasions it is carried before them by a priest. At Rome the right of bearing the crosier is peculiar to the pope himself, his crosier being in the form of a triple cross. The crosier or dikanion used in the Greek Church originally consisted of a simple staff ending in a large knob. At a later period it terminated in a ball (representing the world) with a cross above and two serpents twined round the upper part of the staff. The staff used in the ArmenianChurch is headed with a serpent in the form of a crook. Research Crozier
Drama (from the Greek drew, I act), is a class of writings which almost entirely consist of dialogue, persons being represented as acting and speaking, and the pieces being usually intended to be acted on a stage by parties assuming the characters of the respective persons.
Its two great branches are tragedy and comedy, the former, roughly speaking, melancholy in character, the latter cheerful. The origin of the drama must be sought for in the love of imitation, and dramatic performances of some kind are to be met with probably among all nations.
Dramatic compositions are found in the Old Testament, for example in Job and the Song of Solomon; and ancient India and China both developed a dramatic literature of their own.
The European drama bad its origin in Greece. Both forms, tragic and comic, took their rise in the celebrations of the Greek festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus), at which hymns and chants were sung by choruses in honour of the god, and the chorus continued to be a prominent feature of the old Greek drama. Greek comedy commenced about 580-560 BC with Susarion, but it was long in attaining regular form. Of the old Greek comedy the chief representatives were Oratinus, Eupolis, Pherecrates, and Aristophanes - the last the greatest.
The invention of tragedy is generally ascribed to Thespis about 530 BC, who was followed by Phrynichus. But the true creator of tragedy was Aeschylus, in whose works and those of Sophocles and Euripides it found its most perfect expression. Thespis had only one actor, who from time to time relieved the chorus by declamation. Aeschylus changed this representation into real action by making use of two actors in addition to the chorus. Aeschylus also introduced masks; and by means of a long gown and the cothurnus, or buskin, the lofty stature of the heroes was imitated. A third actor was first introduced by Sophocles. The accommodations for the spectators were improved, and machinery and scenery introduced. The theatres, which had been formerly built of wood, were now large stone erections, capable of containing the greater number of the citizens. The regular drama among the Romans was borrowed from the Greeks. Plautus and Terence were imitators of the Greek comedy, Livius Andronicus (240 BC) of the Greek tragedy. Of the Roman tragedy, the dramas of Seneca are the only specimens extant.
In most modern European countries the regular drama took its rise in the mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities of the middle ages. In Italy, however, it began with a reproduction in Latin of classical models. The earliest tragedy in Italian is Trissino's Sofonisba (1502). Regular comedies in Italian were written by Ariosto, Aretino, Macchiavelli, and others; and to the same period (15th and 16th centuries) belongs the Italian Pastoral Drama, which sprung from the ancient idylls, and aimed at a fanciful delineation of Arcadian and mythological scenes. Among the pastoral dramatists of this period are Poliziano, Tasso, and Guarini. The pastorals gave birth to the opera, early masters of which, so far as it may be included in the poetic drama, are Zenoand Metastasio. The Italian drama waned in the 17th century, but in the 18th genuine comedy and classic tragedy were restored, the former by Goldoni, the latter by Alfieri. Monti, Manzoni, and Niccolini are among the later writers of tragedy.
The other European nations cultivated the dramatic art much later than the Italians. The English and Spaniards devoted their attention to it almost at the game time; the former reaching their acme in William Shakespeare, the latter in Lope de Vega and Calderon. The history of the English theatre and the drama is naturally divided into two parts, the first of which begins with the reign of Elizabeth I and ends with the reign of Charles I. The rapid developmentof the drama during the reign of Elizabeth I was entirely unhampered by foreign influence. Lyly, Peele, Greene, Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletchor, Chapman, Webster, Middleton, Marston, Ford,and Massinger are among the chief names connected with the brilliant period of the English drama.
During the Commonwealth the Puritans prohibited all kinds of plays, and the theatres were shut up for thirteen years. With Charles II the drama reappeared, and exhibited a licentiousness hardly equalled by that of any other Christian nation. Among the chief names belonging to this period are Dryden, Otway, Lee, Shadwell, Wycherley, and Etherege. From the close of the 17th to that of the 18th century British comedy was cultivated with much success by Cibber, Farquhar, Congreve, Sheridan, and others.
During the 19th century many writers have been conspicuous by their dramas. Among the chief of these may be noted Byron, Coleridge, Landor, Shelley, Maturin, Talfourd, Milman, Sir Henry Taylor, the first LordLytton, Knowles, R. H. Home, Arnold, Browning, Swinburne, and Tennyson. Among other 19th-century writers for the stage, who, however, may be called playwrights rather than dramatists, may be named, Douglas Jerrold, Tom Taylor, Charles Reade, Thomas Robertson, W. G. Wills, H. Byron, R. Buchanan, Dion Boucicault, W. S. Gilbert, J. M. Barrie, A. W. Pinero, H. A. Jones, etc.
The French drama was in a miserable state before Corncille (1606-84), who indeed is looked on as the founder of the drama in France. Racine, Moliere, Voltaire, and in later times Hugo, are some of the other distinguished French dramatists. Since about 1820 a new dramatic school has been formed in France, which, departing from the ancient strictness of what is called the classic, approaches more and more to the German or British, or what is called the romantic school. The establishment of this school formed part of the general reaction against the excessive adherence to classic models in literature, the leader in the movement being Victor Hugo. C. Delavigne marks the transition from the classical to the beginnings of the romantic school, and among the 19th century dramatists may be mentioned A. de Vigny, George Sand, A. de Musset, Merimee, Ponsard, Augier, Scribe, Dumas the Younger, and Sardou.
The German drama is of later birth than any thus far mentioned, and for a long time the Germans contented themselves with translations and adaptations from the French. Leasing was the first who, by word and deed, broke the French sway (1755), and he was succeeded by Schiller and Goethe, who rank as the greatest of the more modern dramatists. Prominent names in the German drama are Kotzebue, Korner, Schlegel, Tieck, Brentano, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Ludwig, Gutzkow, Freytag, Laube, Von Moser, etc.
The Dutch drama begins with the classical tragedies of Koster in the beginning of the 17th century, and reached its highest in Vondel (1587-1659). Holberg, Heiberg, Oehlenschlager, Ibsen, and Bjornson are the chief names connected with the Scandinavian drama.
The advent of moving pictures during the 20th century revolutionised drama, and introduced film or movies to the audience, with the USA quickly developing a reputation for film making based in Hollywood, and by the end of the 20th century the Indian city of Mumbai had become a leading center of Hindi language film making producing more films than even Hollywood. Research Drama
Eclogue is a term usually applied to what Theocritus called idyls - short, highly-finished poems, principally of a descriptive or pastoral kind. Research Eclogue
An idyl (from the Greek eidyllion, or a 'little image') is the name originally and still most usually applied to a short and highly finished descriptive poem, especially if it treats of pastoral subjects, though this last circumstance is not an essential character of the idyl. All that is necessary to constitute a poem of this class is that it presents to view a complete picture in small compass. Research Idyl
A plain is an expanse of low and nearly level land. Some plains, such as the Fens of England, large parts of Holland, and extensive areas of Russia, are almost perfectly flat; but generally an extensive plain consists of wide, gently sloping valleys separated by low hills. Such a plain is termed ' rolling' or 'undulating'. Many plains look extremely flat when viewed from the top of the neighbouring hills, but on descending one finds numerous instances of steep gradients, the valley slopes of the streams which cross the plain.
Plains are not all of the same type. Some plains may have been formed by the wearing down of lands that were once much higher. Such areas are more correctly called 'peneplains', e.g. Finland, a lowland area of very old rock, the HudsonBaylowlands, and Anglesey. Secondly, where layers of rock have not been folded but remain almost horizontal, extensive plains also occur. The Central Plains of the United States and the great plains of European Russia are in this group. Thirdly, plains may have been formed by the gradual accumulation of silt brought down by rivers. These are usually called alluvial plains. Good examples are the plain of North China, the Indo-Gangetic plain, the plains of Iraq, and much of the Amazonlowland. Some plains are the beds of old lakes. Rivers entering a lake deposit silt which is spread by the movement of the water over the lake floor. Such plains, though not large in size, are usually very fertile. Much of the great wheat land of Southern Manitoba is the bed of an old lake -lake Agassiz. The fertile plains of Hungary are of similar origin. Finally, some plains, such as the coastal plains of the United States from ChesapeakeBay to Florida, have been formed by the uplift of part of the sea floor bordering a continent.
The plains of the world tend to be areas of most advanced development and densest settlement. They are easier to cultivate than highland areas as the soil is usually deeper and more fertile. Hence the great plains, except where covered with large tracts of uncleared forest or occasional deposits of infertile soil, are important agricultural lands. Some plains, such as portions of Central Asia or of the Murray-Darling Basin, are too dry for successful agriculture. Unless irrigation is a practical possibility such plains are occupied by pastoral farmers engaged in rearing animals, and even the pastoral farmers sometimes have to bore wells for water, as in Hungary and in Australia. Where coal is found in or near plains, densely populated industrial centres usually develop, as in the North-Central United States. Movement is easy in all directions over lowlands, and rivers are generally slow and easily navigable, so that they are used as commercial highways. This is well illustrated by the United States, where the Mississippi and its tributaries provided the main lines of communication before the period when railways were developed.
The Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers - after their founder suggested to Justice Bennet of Derby that he 'quake and tremble at the word of the Lord' - , is a small Christian body that began about the middle of the 17th century, as a revolt of mystical Christianity against the ecclesiasticism and bibliolatry of the Reformed Churches, both Anglican and Non-conformist. Groups of dissatisfied 'seekers' were at that time meeting together, waiting for some authentic revelation from God; and this many of them believed that they received through the preaching of George Fox.
All the distinctive views and practices of the Quakers flow from the root principle of the 'inward light' - the belief that everyone has, or may have, some direct experience of God in the soul. In public worship they discard all professional ministry and arranged services except among the Pastoral body of America, and meet in silent fellowship waiting on God, giving freedom to anyone who is believed to be moved by the Spirit to preach or lead the company in vocal prayer. They do not practise the outward sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, believing that the whole emphasis of Jesus Christ and His Apostles was not upon symbolic acts, but upon inward experience and rightness of life.
They have a unique form of marriage, in which human priesthood finds no place, the man and woman simply taking one another in the presence of God and the congregation. They refuse to take judicial oaths, believing that anyone who walks in the Light will always and everywhere do his best to speak the truth. In church government every member, male or female, has a an equal voice. No question is decided by a vote; but after a time of silent worship matters are discussed in a reverent spirit and the 'clerk' or president gathers what he believes to be the sense of the meeting.
From the earliest days the conviction that the Light of God is in some measure present in everyone has given the Quakers a special sense of human brotherhood, and made them pioneers of philanthropy.
The Society Of Friends was the first Christian body in America to forbid its members to hold slaves, and in England, Quakers led by Elizabeth Fry took the lead in prison reform and also in the kindly treatment of mental patients. The same spirit is at the root of their opposition to war, which involves the double conviction unique to the Society Of Friends within the Christian church, that: 1) war is always contrary to the spirit of Christ and 2) that war is always unnecessary for a nation that will persistently act with justice to all. This twofold conviction was put into practice in Penn's 'holy experiment' - the colony of Pennsylvania having been maintained under Quaker rule for over 70 years without armed defence against Indian marauders, and without being attacked by them. Research Society Of Friends
The Altay is a breed of sheep that originated in the in the regions of China typified by dry, cold mountain basins. They belong to the Kazakh group of sheep which are found in the desert and mountainous areas in west Xinjiang.
Altay belong to the fat-rumped carpet wool type. They gradually formed the fat tail (or rump) as a biological characteristic. The tail (or rump) weighs about seven kg. The rams average 82 kg and the ewes 69 kg at maturity. Due to the sharp seasonal contrast in forage availability in these pastoral areas the sheep tend to deposit a large amount of fat in the body in order to meet nutritional demands during the winter and spring. In addition, the herdsmen working under these climatic conditions need fat as the main source of energy supply, and so have selected towards sheep with high fat deposits. Research Altay
The Tong is a breed of sheep originating from the Mongolian breed. It is a white, polled breed located in the high plains of northern Shaaxi Province in China. The beautiful curls of the lamb pelt look like pearls, and a coat- lining made from it provides warmth with light weight. The Tong sheep have a type of coarse wool commonly called 'carpet wool'. They are adapted to the unfavourable local environmental conditions of the North and NorthwestPastoral Grasslands. They have the ability to deposit fat in the tail (fat- tail sheep). Research Tong Sheep
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Concordat
