Look at the December 1, 1993 ad. I decided to do what the letter said and just check in the encyclopedia and look for patterns. This page had caught my attention before because I recognized most of the names, but I didn't bother with it because I didn't know what the stuff before the colons were (e.g. alef, beth, gimel). WELL SLAP MY FACE...I stared at it long enough and there was the pattern! They are the letters of the alphabet in roman, greek, egyptian, phoenician, etc. !!
A, first letter and first vowel of the English alphabet and most alphabets of the Indo-European languages. The A shape apparently originated in an Egyptian hieroglyph of an eagle (ahom) in cursive hieratic writing. The Phoenicians renamed the letter aleph ("ox"), from a fancied resemblance to the head and horns of that animal. In the earliest Greek alphabet, aleph became the letter alpha; in turn, this became the Roman A, the form and general value of which were passed on to the peoples who later adopted the Roman alphabet. At present the sound of the a in "late" (long a) is the name of the letter in English. The English a may indicate many other sounds, as in "b at" (short a), "care," and "sofa." Modifications of its sound appear also in other modern languages.
B, (beta, like the Phoenician beth) is used in association with alpha, in the word alphabet. The letter was derived by the Phoenicians from the Egyptian hieroglyph for "crane," but when taken over by them it was called beth,"house."
C, third letter in the English- and Romance-language alphabets. The symbol is derived from Latin C, a rounding of the Greek Ã, gamma, which was derived from a Phoenician symbol called gimel or camel, which was in turn developed from an Egyptian symbol. Latin c had both a g and a k sound. In Anglo-Saxon, c had at first only the k sound, the modern word child having been spelled cild. By the 12th century c had the sound of s in a number of words. From this arose the modern rule that c has the s or sh sound before e, i, y ae, and oe, and the k sound in all other cases.
D, fourth letter in the alphabets derived from Greek and Latin. It originated in an Egyptian hieroglyph that represented a hand. When adopted by the Phoenicians, this sign was called daleth ("door") from its resemblance to the aperture of a tent. The resemblance may be traced in the Greek letter Ä, the name of which, delta, was derived from daleth. In English, the sound of d is the voiced alveolar stop (see Phonetics).
E, fifth and most frequently used letter of the English alphabet. Its form was derived without alteration from the fifth letter of the classical Latin alphabet, which had adapted it from the Greek letter epsilon (~~, e). The letter evolved from the Semitic he,, which in turn had developed from the Egyptian hieroglyph ?, the ultimate origin of the letter. The evolution of the values of e in English is long and complicated. The letter has come to represent a variety of sounds, as in the words eve, here, there, end, and maker, as well as the silent value that lengthens preceding vowels, as in mate and rule.
F, sixth letter and fourth consonant in the English, Latin, and early Greek alphabets. Its Greek name was digamma, from its resemblance to two superimposed capital gammas, the Greek letter for G. Its forms were ?, ?, F, or ~~, and its pronunciation resembled the sound of the English w. Eventually, in Latin, the sound of w was assigned to the letter v, while the Latin f came to represent the sound it has in English, as in the word fit. F is pronounced in this manner in all English words except of and its compounds and variants.1
And so on...I'll send the rest later or if either of you have MS Encarta 99, just look up "A" "B" "C" "D".... Bryan, remember the gematria angle I wrote you about?? I KNOW it or some kind of biblical code has something to do with the mystery! Look at this page http://www.naochan.com/sm/torah.
The really weird things are in the probability and mathematical expressions sections...could this have something to do with all the funky equations? Most of this made no sense to me since I don't know the first thing about computer programming and have a hard time solving a quadratic equation. Maybe it will mean more to the two of you.
Here are the people...in the order listed in this "legend"
Bacon, Francis (1909-1992), Irish-born British artist noted for paintings in which the human body is bizarrely, even terrifyingly, distorted. Bacon's achievement as one of the most powerful figure painters of the 20th century is all the more remarkable because he emerged as a figure painter in the 1940s and 1950s, an artistic era dominated by abstraction. The figures in Bacon's paintings are blurred and twisted and are typically confined within mysterious arenas or boxlike enclosures. Critics stress the horror and violence in Bacon's pictures. But Bacon himself felt a kinship with old masters, including Spanish baroque artist Diego Velázquez and Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, and with 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge used photographs to study the body in motion, and the blurring in Bacon's paintings suggests blurred photographs of moving bodies. Many of Bacon's paintings refer to specific art works from the past. In 1949 he painted the first of a series of so-called Screaming Popes, which were based on a Velázquez portrait of Pope Innocent X (1649-1650, Palazzo Doria-Pamphili, Rome). In Bacon's paintings, the popes' mouths are distorted, and the figures appear as if caged in glass. Later, Bacon concentrated on a series of triptychs (three-paneled paintings) based on a 13th-century depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. An example from this series is Three Studies for a Crucifixion (1962, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York), with mutilated male figures set in nightmarish rooms. Throughout his career, Bacon also painted powerful self-portraits and portraits of his friends. Bacon was born to English parents in Dublin, Ireland, and brought up in Ireland and England. In 1925 he left home, going to London and then on to Berlin and Paris. In Paris he began to take an interest in painting. An exhibition in Paris of works by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso appears in particular to have inspired him. By 1929 he was back in London, and his earliest works from this period reflect the influence of cubism, a style pioneered by Picasso. Moreover, the distorted, elongated figures that Bacon painted soon afterward seem to draw on Picasso's biomorphic forms of the late 1920s. Bacon was entirely self-taught as a painter, and his work remained for the most part unknown until the late 1940s. In 1954, he was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, a major international art exhibition. Bacon enjoyed international renown during the 1980s, when figurative painting regained prominence in the United States and Europe.
Pelagianism, in Christian theology, a rationalistic and naturalistic heretical doctrine concerning grace and morals, which emphasizes human free will as the decisive element in human perfectibility and minimizes or denies the need for divine grace and redemption. The doctrine was formulated by the Romano-British monk Pelagius, a man of considerable learning and austere moral character. About 390 he went to Rome, where, appalled by the lax morals of Roman Christians, he preached Christian asceticism and recruited many followers. His strict moral teaching had particular success in southern Italy and Sicily and was preached openly there until the death (circa 455) of his foremost disciple, Julian of Eclanum. Pelagius denied the existence of original sin and the need for infant baptism. He argued that the corruption of the human race is not inborn, but is due to bad example and habit, and that the natural faculties of humanity were not adversely affected by Adam's fall. Human beings can lead lives of righteousness and thereby merit heaven by their own efforts. Pelagius asserted that true grace lies in the natural gifts of humanity, including free will, reason, and conscience. He also recognized what he called external graces, including the Mosaic law and the teaching and example of Christ, which stimulate the will from the outside but have no indwelling divine power. For Pelagius, faith and dogma hardly matter because the essence of religion is moral action. His belief in the moral perfectibility of humanity was evidently derived from Stoicism. Pelagius settled in Palestine about 412 and enjoyed the support of John, bishop of Jerusalem. His views were popular in the East, especially among the Origenists (see Origen). Later, his disciples Celestius and Julian were welcomed in Constantinople (present-day Ýstanbul) by the patriarch Nestorius, who sympathized with their doctrine of the integrity and independence of the will (see Nestorianism). Starting in 412, St. Augustine wrote a series of works in which he attacked the Pelagian doctrine of human moral autonomy and developed his own subtle formulation of the relation of human freedom to divine grace. As a result of Augustine's criticisms, Pelagius was accused of heresy, but he was acquitted at synods at Jerusalem and Diospolis. In 418, however, a council at Carthage condemned Pelagius and his followers. Soon afterward Pope Zosimus also condemned him. Nothing more is known of Pelagius after this time.
Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator, Quintus (275?-203BC), Roman statesman and general, grandson of Fabius Maximus Rullianus. He was consul in 233BC, censor in 230, and consul again in 228, 215, 214, and 209. He was an ambassador to Carthage in 218. In 217, during the Second Punic War, he became dictator of Rome by popular acclamation; he then put into operation the tactics that won him the surname Cunctator ("Delayer"), by which he is best known. He constantly harassed the flanks of the army of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, and, by avoiding a decisive encounter with the Carthaginian invaders, gave Rome time to build its strength. This policy, although it eventually achieved its objective, gave rise to popular dissatisfaction. Minucius Rufus, commander of the cavalry under Fabius, was elevated to an equal share in the dictatorship. At the expiration of his own term, Fabius resigned as dictator. His resignation was followed by a disastrous Roman defeat at Cannae. During his fifth consulship, Fabius recovered Tarentum (modern Taranto), one of Hannibal's strongholds.
Hance's findings
If small steps fail, they don't do much damage, and you can have another go. If they succeed you can move on quickly. This
small-steps approach has echoes of Fabius Cunctator - or Fabius the delayer -the Roman General who avoided pitched battles
and wore down the enemy by engaging in smaller skirmishes. This was the model for the Fabian society, a 19th century British
socialist movement which saw small eclectic social changes as being more effective than revolution.
http://www.ens.gu.edu.au/eberhard/BOYERL1.HTM
Ireton, Henry (1611-51), English soldier, born in Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, and educated at Trinity College, University of Oxford, and the Middle Temple. He joined the army that supported Parliament at the outbreak of the English Revolution; during the early campaigns he became a close associate of the soldier-statesman Oliver Cromwell. He later became Cromwell's son-in-law. At the Battle of Naseby in 1645 he was wounded and captured by the Royalists but made his escape. Ireton was elected to Parliament in October 1645. He attempted at first to promote moderate means of governmental reform but at length became convinced that it was useless to deal with King Charles I. He then helped to bring about the king's trial and was one of the signers of the royal death warrant in 1648. During his last years he was in Ireland as Cromwell's second-in-command.
Johann Gerhard
Was a Lutheran theologian and that he wrote [at least] three books: The Daily Exercise of Piety, Seven Christmas Sermons, and A Comprehensive Explanation of Baptism and The Lord's Supper. see:
The first great American chess player was Paul Charles Morphy. In 1858 Morphy traveled to Europe, having demonstrated his superiority over all his American rivals at an early age, to prove himself against the finest players in the world. Within six months he had won matches by overwhelming scores against several prominent players, including Anderssen. Because of his youth and the extraordinary quality of his games, Morphy was hailed as a genius and was recognized as the best chess player in the world. But after returning to the United States, Morphy became mentally ill and never again played chess competitively.
Alekhine, Alexander (1892-1946), Russian chess grand master and world champion, born in Moscow, and educated at the universities of Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) and Paris. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 he immigrated to France and became a French citizen. He won the rank of chess master at the age of 16 and the rank of grand master at 21. Alekhine won the chess world championship in 1927 from the Cuban chess player José Raúl Capablanca and lost it to the Dutch chess player Max Euwe in 1935. Alekhine regained it from Euwe in 1937 and maintained it until his death.
Chemnitz, Martin (1522-86), German Lutheran theologian, born in Brandenburg and educated in Frankfurt and Wittenberg. Chemnitz (sometimes spelled Kemnitz) was placed in charge of the ducal library at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1550 but returned to Wittenberg three years later to lecture on Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum (Commonplaces of Theology), by the German religious reformer Melanchthon. This exposition of the Lutheran doctrine became the basis for Chemnitz's own posthumously published Loci Theologici (Theological Arguments, 1591). In 1554 Chemnitz became a preacher in Brunswick (Braunschweig), and in 1567 he was appointed superintendent there. He was influential in inducing the Lutherans of Saxony (Sachsen) and Swabia to unite in accepting the Formula of Concord, which ended a split in the Lutheran movement. His other works include Examen Concilii Tridentini (Examination of the Council of Trent, 4 volumes, 1565-73).
Godel, Kurt (1906-78), American logician, known primarily for his research in philosophy and mathematics. He was born in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic). He was educated at Vienna University and taught at that institution from 1933 to 1938. He immigrated to the United States in 1940 and became an American citizen in 1948. Gödel was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey, until 1953, when he became professor of mathematics at Princeton University. Gödel became prominent for a paper, published in 1931, setting forth what has become known as Gödel's proof. This proof states that the propositions on which the mathematical system is in part based are unprovable because it is possible, in any logical system using symbols, to construct an axiom that is neither provable nor disprovable within the same system. To prove the self-consistency of the system, methods of proof from outside the system are required. Gödel also wrote The Consistency of the Continuum Hypothesis (1940) and Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory (1950).
Hance's finding:
Godel
In Kurt Godel's 1931 paper, he raised some interesting doubts that questions the validity of some methods
of proof in "Principia Mathematica" written by Betrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead.
To the best of my understanding, Godel states that in a formal system, there are fundamental truths called axioms. You can build
theorems using these axioms as foundations. However, there are truths that are expressable by the system but not proveable by
using the axioms and any theorems generated inside the system alone.
http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/tangys/interest.html
Gödel's Theorem, also known as the Incompleteness Theorem, two theorems proposed by Austrian-born American logician Kurt Gödel. These theorems state that some parts of mathematics are based on ideas that cannot be proven within the system of mathematics. Gödel's First Theorem states that any consistent mathematical theory that includes the natural numbers (the counting numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, ...) is incomplete. Gödel's Second Theorem states that such a theory cannot contain a proof of its own consistency; consistency may be provable within some larger theory, but proving consistency within the larger theory would require an even bigger theory, leading to a never-ending sequence of ever-larger theories. In mathematics, a theory is consistent when it is free from contradictions and complete when all statements or their opposites (negations) are provable within the theory. Gödel used an ingenious numbering system to translate statements about a mathematical theorem T into numerical statements within T. Then he used many applications of the rules of logic (called a proof) to show that a theorem could not be proven to be consistent or complete. To understand how Gödel's proof works, imagine a numerical statement within T that means "this statement has no proof in T." Call this statement S and treat it like any other statement in T. If this particular statement S is provable in T, then S is false, which would make T inconsistent. Therefore, S must be unprovable and thus true. If S is true, then the negation of S (not S)-"this statement has proof in T"-must be unprovable; otherwise S would be false. Because neither S or not S is unprovable, T is incomplete. If we try to prove that T is consistent, we prove S, which is impossible. Therefore, T cannot be proven to be consistent or complete. Gödel published his theorem in 1931, around the time when the German mathematician David Hilbert, leading the formalism movement, proposed that every mathematical theory should be given firm logical foundations. Formalism aimed to establish the completeness and consistency of each theory and to decide algorithmically whether any given statement belonged in the theory. This would reduce mathematics to a mechanical process. Gödel's theorem showed that the formalists' first two aims of establishing completeness and consistency must fail for any theory involving the natural numbers. Similarly, the Undecidability Theorems (1936) of American mathematician Alonso Church and British mathematician Alan Turing showed that the third, deciding whether any statement belongs in a theory, must fail.
Flacius Illyricus, Matthias (1520-75), German Lutheran reformer, born in Albona, Illyria (now Istria, Croatia). After attending the universities of Basel and Tübingen, he went to Wittenberg, where he met the German reformer Melanchthon and came under the influence of Martin Luther. In 1544 he was made professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg. After Luther's death, Flacius came into conflict with Melanchthon by opposing the Augsburg Interim (1548), and in 1549 he moved to Magdeburg. Again he became involved in theological controversy, defending Luther's doctrine "by faith alone" against those who claimed that good works following from faith are necessary for salvation. In 1557 he became professor of New Testament at Jena. There he was involved in a controversy over his position on original sin, which he believed was the physical substance of humanity. Most Lutherans rejected this position, and Flacius was dismissed. He served briefly as pastor in Antwerp, then moved to Strasbourg, where he was accused of heresy and expelled. He next fled to Frankfurt, where he died. Besides his defense of a strict Lutheran position, Flacius is best known for his contribution to church history as an editor of the Historia Ecclesiae Christi. A severely Lutheran, antipapal history of the Christian church, from its beginnings until the early 1400s, it later became known as the Magdeburg Centuries.
< Found nothing for Alberich
Melanchthon (1497-1560), German scholar and religious reformer. Born Philipp Schwarzert in Bretten (now in Baden), he was educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Tübingen. When he entered Heidelberg at the age of 12, he changed his real surname on the advice of his uncle, the German humanist and Hebraist Johann Reuchlin, to Melanchthon (the Greek equivalent of his surname, meaning "black earth"). Through his uncle's influence he was elected (1518) to the chair of Greek at the University of Wittenberg; his inaugural address, Discourse on Reforming the Studies of Youth, attracted the interest of Martin Luther, by whom he was so profoundly influenced that he turned to the study of theology and obtained a bachelor's degree in that field the following year. In 1521 his Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum (Commonplaces of Theology) contributed logical, argumentative force to the Reformation, and after Luther's confinement in the castle of Wartburg the same year, he replaced Luther as leader of the Reformation cause at Wittenberg. In 1526 he became professor of theology and was sent with 27 other commissioners to make the constitutions of the reformed churches of Germany uniform. As leading representative of the Reformation at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, Melanchthon presented the Augsburg Confession, consisting of 21 articles of faith that he had drawn up with Luther's advice. The tone of this creed was so conciliatory that it surprised even Catholics. His Apology, published a year later, vindicated the Confession, and his Variata (Variations, 1540) further modified the Confession by generalizing specific statements. Melanchthon served as a peacemaker because of his desire for harmony between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism or for at least a union of Protestant factions, but his views were regarded as heretical by strict Lutherans. The breach was widened by his willingness to compromise with the Catholics for the sake of avoiding civil war. He secured tolerance for evangelical doctrine; for a time he retained most of the Roman ceremonies as adiaphora (Greek, "things indifferent"), matters not of great consequence and therefore best tolerated. Melanchthon died praying "that the churches might be of one mind in Christ."
Found several references to winthrop and none for owsley or peterssen
Farragut, David Glasgow (1801-1870), American naval officer, whose Union victory at Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1864 made him a national hero. Born on July 5, 1801, near Knoxville, Tennessee, he entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman at the age of nine, was captured by the British during the War of 1812, and served in the Mediterranean Sea from 1815 to 1820. For the next 20 years, he held successively responsible commands, advancing to the rank of commander. In the Mexican War, he participated in the blockade of Mexican ports on the Gulf of Mexico. He established the Mare Island Navy Yard at San Francisco in 1854. The next year he was promoted to the rank of captain. Farragut immediately declared his loyalty to the Union on the outbreak of the American Civil War. In January 1862, he received command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and orders to capture New Orleans. On April 18, 1862, he massed his fleet below Forts Jackson and Saint Philip, located on opposite sides of the Mississippi River south of the city. His fleet bombarded the Confederate forts for six days without notable effect, whereupon Farragut determined to proceed up the river. Despite the raking gunfire of the forts, he lost only three vessels. After defeating a Confederate flotilla farther up the river, he forced the surrender of New Orleans on April 25; the forts capitulated three days later. Congress rewarded him with a vote of thanks and promotion to the rank of rear admiral. In the Battle of Mobile Bay, his greatest victory, Farragut rallied his men with the famous cry "Damn the torpedoes!" as he led the greater part of his fleet successfully through a dangerous torpedo-mined area opposite the city. The victory of Mobile Bay was the outstanding naval operation of the Civil War, and Farragut emerged from it a national hero. Congress created for him the ranks of vice admiral (1864) and admiral (1866). In 1867, as commander of a naval squadron touring European waters, he accepted on behalf of the U.S. government the congratulations of foreign nations for the successful conclusion of the war. He died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 14, 1870.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, also Leibnitz, Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von (1646-1716), German philosopher, mathematician, and statesman, regarded as one of the supreme intellects of the 17th century.
Leibniz was born in Leipzig. He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Jena, and Altdorf. Beginning in 1666, the year in which he was awarded a doctorate in law, he served Johann Philipp von Schönborn, archbishop elector of Mainz, in a variety of legal, political, and diplomatic capacities. In 1673, when the elector's reign ended, Leibniz went to Paris. He remained there for three years and also visited Amsterdam and London, devoting his time to the study of mathematics, science, and philosophy. In 1676 he was appointed librarian and privy councillor at the court of Hannover. For the 40 years until his death, he served Ernest Augustus, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later elector of Hannover, and George Louis, elector of Hannover, later George I, king of Great Britain and Ireland.
Leibniz was considered a universal genius by his contemporaries. His work encompasses not only mathematics and philosophy but also theology, law, diplomacy, politics, history, philology, and physics.
Mathematics - Leibniz's contribution in mathematics was to discover, in 1675, the fundamental principles of infinitesimal calculus. This discovery was arrived at independently of the discoveries of the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton, whose system of calculus was invented in 1666. Leibniz's system was published in 1684, Newton's in 1687, and the method of notation devised by Leibniz was universally adopted (see Mathematical Symbols). In 1672 he also invented a calculating machine capable of multiplying, dividing, and extracting square roots, and he is considered a pioneer in the development of mathematical logic.
Philosophy - In the philosophy expounded by Leibniz, the universe is composed of countless conscious centers of spiritual force or energy, known as monads. Each monad represents an individual microcosm, mirroring the universe in varying degrees of perfection and developing independently of all other monads. The universe that these monads constitute is the harmonious result of a divine plan. Humans, however, with their limited vision, cannot accept such evils as disease and death as part of a universal harmony. This Leibnizian universe, "the best of all possible worlds," is satirized as a utopia by the French author Voltaire in his novel Candide (1759).
Important philosophical works by Leibniz include Essays in Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Liberty of Man, and the Origin of Evil (2 volumes, 1710; translated in Philosophical Works,1890), Monadology (1714; published in Latin as Principia Philosophiae,1721; translated 1890), and New Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1703; published 1765; translated 1916). The latter two greatly influenced German philosophers of the 18th century, including Christian von Wolff and Immanuel Kant.
Schrödinger, Erwin (1887-1961), Austrian physicist and Nobel laureate. Schrödinger formulated the theory of wave mechanics, which describes the behavior of the tiny particles that make up matter in terms of waves. Schrödinger formulated the Schrödinger wave equation to describe the behavior of electrons (tiny, negatively charged particles) in atoms. For this achievement, he was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics with British physicist Paul Dirac and German physicist Werner Heisenberg, who also made important advances in the theory of atomic structure. See also Quantum Theory; Atom and Atomic Theory. Schrödinger was born in Vienna, Austria. His father was an oilcloth manufacturer who had studied chemistry, and his mother was the daughter of a chemistry professor. He attended an elementary school in Innsbruck for a few weeks, but Schrödinger received most of his early education from a private tutor. In 1898 he entered the Gymnasium in Vienna, where he studied mathematics, physics, and ancient languages. He then attended the University of Vienna from 1906 to 1910, specializing in physics. Schrödinger obtained his doctoral degree in physics in 1910. After a year in military training, he returned to the university to teach a first-year physics laboratory class. His early research ranged over many topics in experimental and theoretical physics. During World War I (1914-1918) Schrödinger served as an artillery officer and then returned to his previous post at Vienna. Conditions were difficult in Austria after the war, and in 1920 Schrödinger decided to go to Germany. After a series of short-lived posts at the University of Jena, Stuttgart University, and the University of Breslau (now Wroc³aw, Poland) in 1920 and 1921, he became a professor of physics at the University of Zürich in Switzerland in 1921. Schrödinger's most important work was done at Zürich, and his work received much attention. He succeeded German physicist Max Planck as professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin in 1927. Schrödinger remained there until the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi) movement in 1933, when he went to the University of Oxford in England. There he became a fellow of Magdalen College. Homesick, he returned to Austria in 1936 to take up a post at Graz University, but the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938 placed Schrödinger in danger. Schrödinger was not Jewish, but his opposition to Nazi policies made him a potential target. The prime minister of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, helped Schrödinger get out of Austria. De Valera's help also led to an appointment to a post at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin in 1939. Schrödinger continued work in theoretical physics in Dublin until 1956, when he returned to Austria to a chair at the University of Vienna. He stayed at the University of Vienna until his death. Schrödinger's great discovery of wave mechanics originated with the work of French physicist Louis de Broglie. In 1924 de Broglie used ideas from German-American physicist Albert Eintstein's special theory of relativity to show that an electron, or any other particle, has a wave associated with it (see Albert Einstein). De Broglie's work resulted in the equation ë = h/p, where ë is the wavelength of the associated wave, h is a number called Planck's constant, and p is the momentum of the particle. Physicists immediately deduced that if particles (particularly electrons) have waves, then a particular type of partial differential equation known as a wave equation should be able to describe their behavior. These ideas were taken up by both de Broglie and Schrödinger, and in 1926 each published the same wave equation. Unfortunately, while the equation is true, it was of very little help in explaining the behavior of particles. Later the same year Schrödinger used a new approach. He studied the mathematics of partial differential equations and the Hamiltonian function, a powerful idea in mechanics developed by British mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the mid-1800s. Schrödinger formulated an equation in terms of the energy of the electron and the energy of the electric field in which it was situated. Partial differential equations have many solutions, but solutions to Schrödinger's equation had to meet strict conditions to be useful in describing the electron. Among other things, they had to be finite and possess only one value. These solutions were associated with special values of the electron's energy level, known as proper values or eigenvalues. Schrödinger solved the equation for the hydrogen atom, V = -e2/r, in which V is the energy of the electric field surrounding the electron, e is the electron's charge, and r is its distance from the atom's nucleus. He found that the eigenvalues of the electron's energy corresponded with those of the energy levels given in the older theory of Danish physicist Niels Bohr. Bohr's theory of the atom described electrons orbiting atoms in strict circular orbits at particular distances that corresponded to specific levels of energy. In the hydrogen atom (which consists of one electron and one proton), the wave function Schrödinger derived instead describes where physicists are most likely to find the electron. The electron is most likely to be where Bohr predicted it to be, but it does not follow a strictly circular orbit. The electron is described by the more complicated notion of an orbital-a region in space where the electron has varying degrees of probability of being found. Schrödinger's wave equation can describe atoms other than hydrogen as well as molecules and ions (atoms or molecules with electric charge), but such cases are very difficult to solve. In a few such cases physicists have found approximate solutions, usually with a computer carrying out the numerical work. Schrödinger's mathematical description of electron waves found immediate acceptance. The mathematical description matched what scientists had learned about electrons by observing them and their effects. In 1925, a year before Schrödinger published his results, German-British physicist Max Born and German physicist Werner Heisenberg developed a mathematical system called matrix mechanics. Matrix mechanics also succeeded in describing the structure of the atom, but it was totally theoretical. It gave no picture of the atom that physicists could verify observationally. Schrödinger's vindication of de Broglie's idea of electron waves immediately overturned matrix mechanics, though later physicists showed that wave mechanics is equivalent to matrix mechanics. During his later years Schrödinger became increasingly worried by the uncertain nature of quantum mechanics, of which wave mechanics is a part. Schrödinger believed he had produced a defining description of the atom in the same way that the three laws of English physicist Isaac Newton defined classical mechanics and the way that the equations of British physicist James Clerk Maxwell described electrodynamics. Instead, each new discovery about the structure of the atom only made atomic structure more complicated. Much of Schrödinger's later work was concerned with philosophy, particularly as applied to physics and the atom.
Kitchener, Horatio Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener (1850-1916), British military officer and statesman, known for his conquest of the Sudan and as a symbol of British fighting spirit in the early part of World War I.
Kitchener was born June 24, 1850, in Ballylongford, county Kerry, Ireland, and educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1871 and was promoted to captain in 1883 for distinguished service in Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt. In 1884 Kitchener accompanied Viscount Garnet Joseph Wolseley in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the British general Charles George Gordon at Khartoum. Kitchener served as governor-general of the Eastern Sudan in northeast Africa from 1886 to 1888. He was appointed British sirdar, or commander in chief of the Egyptian army, in 1892. A ruthless but capable military leader, he started (1895) the successful invasion of the Sudan. His forces annihilated the army of the Arab leader Abdullah et Taaisha, known as The Khalifa, at Omdurman in 1898 and became firmly established at Khartoum, capital of the Sudan.
Kitchener was promoted to the rank of major general in 1896 and raised to the peerage as Baron Kitchener of Khartoum in 1898. After serving in the South African War between Britain and the Boer republics, he was made a viscount and received the Order of Merit. He served as commander in chief of the British forces in India from 1902 to 1909, when he was promoted to field marshal. Although he greatly strengthened Britain's power, he was refused the viceroyship of India. Instead, in 1911 he was appointed consul general in Egypt, and for his services in Egypt he was made Earlof Broome in 1914.
At the outbreak of World War I Kitchener was appointed secretary of state for war; in that capacity from 1914 until 1916 he was responsible for recruiting the volunteer British army. He was lost at sea on June 5, 1916, when the cruiser Hampshire, on which he was traveling, struck a mine and sank.
KHARTOUM, movie info from the internet movie database
Asbury, Francis (1745-1816), first Methodist bishop ordained in America, born in Handsworth, Stafford County, England, and largely self-educated. At the age of 18, he became a local preacher, and three years later was received by the evangelist John Wesley into the itinerant Methodist ministry. In October 1771, a few years after the establishment of the first Methodist church in America, Asbury came to Philadelphia as a missionary. At that time, the small number of Methodists in America lived in the middle colonies. Although Methodists were suspected of loyalty to Great Britain during the Revolution, Asbury sympathized with the American cause and became a citizen of Delaware. Because of his persuasive preaching and skillful organization, Methodist membership grew rapidly during the 1770s. In 1784 the several Wesleyan societies in the United States were organized into the Methodist Episcopal church, and Asbury and the British missionary Thomas Coke were elected joint superintendents. The next year Asbury assumed the title of bishop and devoted himself to preaching and supervising Methodist organization. It is estimated that during his ministry Asbury traveled more than 434,522 km (270,000 mi), visiting every part of the country; he preached more than 16,000 sermons, ordained more than 4000 ministers, and presided at 224 conferences. The excellent organization and phenomenal growth of Methodism in the U.S. are due largely to his labors. Asbury's only written works are his journals (3 volumes; 1821).
Ridley, Nicholas (1500?-55), English Protestant prelate, reformer, and martyr, born near Willimoteswyke, Northumberland, and educated at Pembroke Hall, University of Cambridge, and the universities of Paris and Leuven. He returned to Cambridge as junior treasurer of his college, thereafter becoming university proctor and, finally, chaplain to the university. In 1537, having shown leanings toward the Reformation, he was made chaplain to Thomas Cranmer, then archbishop of Canterbury, and received other ecclesiastical preferences. He became chaplain to King Henry VIII in 1541.
During the reign of Edward VI Ridley rose to prominence. He had by this time renounced the doctrine of transubstantiation. In 1547 he was named bishop of Rochester. Ridley helped Cranmer to compile the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-nine Articles and was appointed to help establish Protestantism in the University of Cambridge. In 1550 he became bishop of London. After the death of Edward, Ridley supported Lady Jane Grey as successor to the throne and publicly pronounced both of King Henry VIII's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, illegitimate.
When Mary, a Roman Catholic, was proclaimed queen he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he wrote statements defending his religious opinions. In 1554, refusing to recant, he was declared a heretic and excommunicated, and in 1555 he was tried under the penal laws instituted by the Catholic queen, which provided for the execution of heretics. Ridley was burned at the stake with the English prelate and reformer Hugh Latimer. His writings (Works) were published in 1841.
There are several historical Latimers, but considering Ridley's fate, I picked good 'ole Hugh
Latimer, Hugh (1485?-1555), English prelate, reformer, and Protestant martyr, born in Thurcaston, Leicestershire. He was educated and ordained at the University of Cambridge, where he actively supported the principles of the Reformation. In the political and ecclesiastical controversy attendant on the divorce of Henry VIII, king of England, from Catherine of Aragón, Latimer supported Henry. He was made royal chaplain in 1530 and was consecrated bishop of Worcester in 1535. He resigned his see four years later, however, because he could not accept Henry's Act of Six Articles, which severely restricted Protestantism. Latimer was imprisoned, but on the accession of Edward VI to the English throne, he was released and restored to favor at court. Shortly after Mary Tudor became queen, Latimer was condemned for heresy and, with the English Protestant prelate Nicholas Ridley, he was burned at the stake.
Cranmer, Thomas (1489-1556), archbishop of Canterbury, who was one of the leaders of the English Reformation. Born in Aslacton, Nottinghamshire, July 2, 1489, Cranmer was the son of a village squire. In 1526 he received the degree of doctor of divinity from the University of Cambridge, where he had been ordained and was both a lecturer in divinity (at Jesus College) and a public examiner in divinity. In 1529 he gained the favor of King Henry VIII of England by suggesting that the monarch need not wait for annulment at Rome of his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragón, but might refer the question of the legality of the marriage to university scholars. Cranmer shortly thereafter was appointed archdeacon of Taunton, made a royal chaplain, and given a post in the household of Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earlof Wiltshire, father of Anne Boleyn, the English noblewoman who was to become Henry's second wife. In 1530 Cranmer accompanied Wiltshire on an embassy to Rome, sent by the king to explain his request for annulment of his marriage to Catherine. Cranmer returned to England the same year, and in 1532 he became Henry's ambassador to the court of Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, remaining abroad until after Henry nominated him to the archbishopric of Canterbury, which had been vacant. Cranmer was reluctant to return to England, for while in Germany in 1532 he had married a niece of the Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander; in an age when the English clergy was celibate, he would have to conceal his marriage if he were elevated to fill the vacant see. Papal bulls soon arrived confirming the nomination, however, and Cranmer was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury on March 30, 1533. On May 23 he declared that the marriage of Henry and Catherine had been invalid from the first, and within five days he pronounced legal the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn, which had been performed secretly the preceding January. Cranmer served Henry similarly in subsequent proceedings against Anne herself and in the later matrimonial affairs of the king. In return for his services, he was made the highest ecclesiastical authority in England. He granted dispensations, consecrated bishops, issued bulls, and gradually exercised many of the prerogatives traditionally reserved to the pope. Cranmer's policies more than ever identified him with the Reformation in England. He forswore allegiance to the pope, directed erasure of the pope's name from every prayer book, and pronounced the king of England head of the English church. He greatly facilitated distribution of the English translation of the Bible, done by the English clergyman Miles Coverdale, that had been introduced in 1535, and he took the lead in revising the creed and liturgy of the church. In 1538 Cranmer carried out Henry's orders for the desecration of the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral and for the abolition of many festivals of the Roman Catholic church. He endeavored to secure a union of the Church of England with the Lutheran church of Germany and invited to England a number of Protestant refugees, including the Italian reformers Peter Martyr and Bernardino Ochino. In 1547, when Henry VIII lay dying, Cranmer was at his side. The king's will named the prelate one of the regents of Edward VI, the young king of England, and Cranmer proceeded to carry out the religious reforms begun in the previous reign. He directed preparation of the Homilies (1547) and wrote those on salvation, good works, faith, and the reading of Scripture. He compiled the two prayer books of Edward VI, the first of which was sanctioned in 1549, the second in 1552, and wrote in whole or in part the original 42 articles of religion (1552), or doctrinal statements, of the Church of England, which later were reduced in number to become the Thirty-nine Articles. Cranmer had pledged himself to carry out the will of Henry VIII, by which the right of succession fell to Mary Tudor, Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragón. In 1553, however, Cranmer acceded to the deathbed request of Edward VI to support the transfer of the crown to Lady Jane Grey, great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Lady Jane was queen for nine days. On the accession of Mary Tudor, a Catholic, Cranmer was reprimanded for his perfidy and confined to his palace at Lambeth. On September 14, 1553, he was arrested and confined in the Tower of London. He was condemned to death for treason, but the order of the secular court was not carried out; instead he was held for trial as a heretic by a clerical court after Parliament had reestablished papal jurisdiction. In March 1554 Cranmer was removed to Oxford and confined in a common prison. There he was subjected to almost constant examination and exhortation. He made no fewer than seven recantations of his earlier promulgated beliefs, declaring that he believed firmly in the articles of the Roman Catholic church and that his writings were contrary to the word of God. Nevertheless, he was publicly degraded from his archbishopric, excommunicated, and finally condemned by a secular court to death by burning at the stake. Just before he died, on March 21, 1556, he repudiated all his recantations, and exposed to the flames the right hand that had signed them. Once again, several morgan references, but this one was a "captain". When I think of Capt. Morgan...I think of spiced rum!
Morgan, Daniel (1736-1802), general in the American Revolution, who defeated the British at the Battle of Cowpens. He was born near Junction in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, but moved to Virginia in 1753. Morgan served in the French and Indian War and later took part in several campaigns against the Native Americans. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was commissioned captain in the Continental Army, and he went with Benedict Arnold on the expedition (1775) against Québec, where he distinguished himself as commander after Arnold was wounded. Taken prisoner, he was exchanged in the fall of 1776 and commissioned a colonel. He fought in the battles of Saratoga in the fall of 1777.
Dissatisfied and in ill health, Morgan retired from the army in 1779 but reentered as brigadier general in 1780. On January 17, 1781, he won one of the most brilliant victories of the war, when he overcame a superior British force by his effective use of cavalry at Cowpens, South Carolina. After the war Morgan commanded troops in western Pennsylvania charged with suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion. He served as a Federalist representative in Congress from 1797 to 1799.
Nothing for Bradwardine
Hance's findings
Thomas Bradwardine - yet another math man!
De Moivre, Abraham (1667-1754), French-English mathematician, born in Vitry-le-François, Champagne. De Moivre, who was of Huguenot (French Protestant) descent, fled to England after the revocation of the religious freedom granted by the Edict of Nantes. De Moivre lived in England for the rest of his life, working as a tutor. At the age of 30, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. As one of the closest friends of mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, De Moivre worked for and on behalf of Newton, particularly in the dispute between Newton and German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the invention of infinitesimal calculus and probability. De Moivre's most important theorem appears in his Miscellanea Analytica (1730), in which he investigates infinite series and complex numbers. He has been rated as one of two great thinkers of the theory of probability in the 18th century; the other contributor to this theory was astronomer and mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace. Many of De Moivre's results were published in the various editions of his Doctrine of Chances (1718, 1738, and 1756). Other research by De Moivre was also published in the Transactions of the Royal Society.
Kitchner repeated...I can't figure out the "pasha" part though!
Pasha was formerly used as a title for military and civil officers, especially in Turkey and Northern Africa.
And just for good measure:
Blake, William (1757-1827), English poet, painter, and engraver, who created a unique form of illustrated verse; his poetry, inspired by mystical vision, is among the most original, lyric, and prophetic in the language. Blake, the son of a hosier, was born November 28, 1757, in London, where he lived most of his life. Largely self-taught, he was, however, widely read, and his poetry shows the influence of the German mystic Jakob Boehme, for example, and of Swedenborgianism (see Swedenborg, Emanuel). As a child, Blake wanted to become a painter. He was sent to drawing school and at the age of 14 was apprenticed to James Basire, an engraver. After his 7-year term was over, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy, but he rebelled against the aesthetic doctrines of its president, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Blake did, however, later establish friendships with such academicians as John Flaxman and Henry Fuseli, whose work may have influenced him. In 1784 he set up a printshop; although it failed after a few years, for the rest of his life Blake eked out a living as an engraver and illustrator. His wife helped him print the illuminated poetry for which he is remembered today. Blake began writing poetry at the age of 12, and his first printed work, Poetical Sketches (1783), is a collection of youthful verse. Amid its traditional, derivative elements are hints of his later innovative style and themes. As with all his poetry, this volume reached few contemporary readers. Blake's most popular poems have always been Songs of Innocence (1789). These lyrics-fresh, direct observations-are notable for their eloquence. In 1794, disillusioned with the possibility of human perfection, Blake issued Songs of Experience, employing the same lyric style and much of the same subject matter as in Songs of Innocence. Both series of poems take on deeper resonances when read in conjunction. Innocence and Experience, "the two contrary states of the human soul," are contrasted in such companion pieces as "The Lamb" and "The Tyger." Blake's subsequent poetry develops the implication that true innocence is impossible without experience, transformed by the creative force of the human imagination. As was to be Blake's custom, he illustrated the Songs with designs that demand an imaginative reading of the complicated dialogue between word and picture. His method of illuminated printing is not completely understood. The most likely explanation is that he wrote the words and drew the pictures for each poem on a copper plate, using some liquid impervious to acid, which when applied left text and illustration in relief. Ink or a color wash was then applied, and the printed picture was finished by hand in watercolors. Blake has been called a preromantic because he rejected neoclassical literary style and modes of thought. His graphic art too defied 18th-century conventions. Always stressing imagination over reason, he felt that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions. His rhythmically patterned linear style is also a repudiation of the painterly academic style. Blake's attenuated, fantastic figures go back, instead, to the medieval tomb statuary he copied as an apprentice and to Mannerist sources. The influence of Michelangelo is especially evident in the radical foreshortening and exaggerated muscular form in one of his best-known illustrations, popularly known as The Ancient of Days, the frontispiece to his poem Europe, a Prophecy (1794). Much of Blake's painting was on religious subjects: illustrations for the work of John Milton, his favorite poet (although he rejected Milton's Puritanism), for John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and for the Bible, including 21 illustrations to the Book of Job. Among his secular illustrations were those for an edition of Thomas Gray's poems and the 537 watercolors for Edward Young's Night Thoughts-only 43 of which were published. In his so-called Prophetic Books, a series of longer poems written from 1789 on, Blake created a complex personal mythology and invented his own symbolic characters to reflect his social concerns. A true original in thought and expression, he declared in one of these poems, "I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's." Blake was a nonconformist radical who numbered among his associates such English freethinkers as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. Poems such as The French Revolution (1791), America, a Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), and Europe, a Prophecy (1794) express his condemnation of 18th-century political and social tyranny. Theological tyranny is the subject of The Book of Urizen (1794), and the dreadful cycle set up by the mutual exploitation of the sexes is vividly described in "The Mental Traveller" (circa 1803). Among the Prophetic Books is a prose work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93), which develops Blake's idea that "without Contraries is no progression." It includes the "Proverbs of Hell," such as "The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction." In 1800 Blake moved to the seacoast town of Felpham, where he lived and worked until 1803 under the patronage of William Hayley. There he experienced profound spiritual insights that prepared him for his mature work, the great visionary epics written and etched between about 1804 and 1820. Milton (1804-08), Vala, or The Four Zoas (that is, aspects of the human soul, 1797; rewritten after 1800), and Jerusalem (1804-20) have neither traditional plot, characters, rhyme, nor meter; the rhetorical free-verse lines demand new modes of reading. They envision a new and higher kind of innocence, the human spirit triumphant over reason. Blake's writings also include An Island in the Moon (1784), a rollicking satire on events in his early life; a collection of letters; and a notebook containing sketches and some shorter poems dating between 1793 and 1818. It was called the Rossetti Manuscript, because it was acquired in 1847 by the English poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the first to recognize Blake's genius. Blake's final years, spent in great poverty, were cheered by the admiring friendship of a group of younger artists. He died in London, August 12, 1827, leaving uncompleted a cycle of drawings inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy.
Luther, Martin (1483-1546), German theologian and religious reformer, who initiated the Protestant Reformation, and whose vast influence, extending beyond religion to politics, economics, education, and language, has made him one of the crucial figures in modern European history.
Luther was born in Eisleben on November 10, 1483. He was descended from the peasantry, a fact that he often stressed. His father, Hans Luther, was a copper miner in the mining area of Mansfeld. Luther received a sound primary and secondary education at Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach. In 1501, at the age of 17, he enrolled at the University of Erfurt, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1502 and a master's degree in 1505. He then intended to study law, as his father wished. In the summer of 1505, however, he suddenly abandoned his studies, sold his books, and entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. The decision surprised his friends and appalled his father. Later in life, Luther explained it by recalling several brushes with death that had occurred at the time, making him aware of the fleeting character of life. In the monastery he observed the rules imposed on a novice but did not find the peace in God he had expected. Nevertheless, Luther made his profession as a monk in the fall of 1506, and his superiors selected him for the priesthood. Ordained in 1507, he approached his first celebration of the mass with awe.
After his ordination, Luther was asked to study theology in order to become a professor at one of the many new German universities staffed by monks. In 1508 he was assigned by Johann von Staupitz, vicar-general of the Augustinians and a friend and counselor, to the new University of Wittenberg (founded in 1502) to give introductory lectures in moral philosophy. He received his bachelor's degree in theology in 1509 and returned to Erfurt, where he taught and studied (1509-1511). In November 1510, on behalf of seven Augustinian monasteries, he made a visit to Rome, where he performed the religious duties customary for a pious visitor and was shocked by the worldliness of the Roman clergy. Soon after resuming his duties in Erfurt, he was reassigned to Wittenberg and asked to study for the degree of doctor of theology. In 1512 he received his doctorate and took over the chair of biblical theology, which he held until his death.
Although still uncertain of God's love and his own salvation, Luther was active as a preacher, teacher, and administrator. Sometime during his study of the New Testament in preparation for his lectures, he came to believe that Christians are saved not through their own efforts but by the gift of God's grace, which they accept in faith. Both the exact date and the location of this experience have been a matter of controversy among scholars, but the event was crucial in Luther's life, because it turned him decisively against some of the major tenets of the Catholic church.
THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION
Luther became a public and controversial figure when he published (October 31, 1517) his Ninety-Five Theses, Latin propositions opposing the manner in which indulgences (release from the temporal penalties for sin through the payment of money) were being sold in order to raise money for the building of Saint Peter's in Rome. Although it is generally believed that Luther nailed these theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, some scholars have questioned this story, which does not occur in any of his own writings. Regardless of the manner in which his propositions were made public, they caused great excitement and were immediately translated into German and widely distributed. Luther's spirited defense and further development of his position through public university debates in Wittenberg and other cities resulted in an investigation by the Roman Curia that led to the condemnation (June 15, 1520) of his teachings and his excommunication (January 1521). Summoned to appear before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in April 1521, he was asked before the assembled secular and ecclesiastical rulers to recant. He refused firmly, asserting that he would have to be convinced by Scripture and clear reason in order to do so and that going against conscience is not safe for anyone. (The statement "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise," traditionally attributed to him, is most likely legendary.) Condemned by the emperor, Luther was spirited away by his prince, the elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, and kept in hiding at Wartburg Castle. There he began his translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into German, a seminal contribution to the development of a standard German language. Disorders in Wittenberg caused by some of his more extreme followers forced his return to the city in March 1521, and he restored peace through a series of sermons.
THE PEASANTS' WAR
Luther continued his teaching and writing in Wittenberg but soon became involved in the controversies surrounding the Peasants' War (1524-1526) because the leaders of the peasants originally justified their demands with arguments somewhat illegitimately drawn from his writings. He considered their theological arguments false, although he supported many of their political demands. When the peasants turned violent, he angrily denounced them and supported the princes' effort to restore order. Although he later repudiated the harsh, vengeful policy adopted by the nobles, his attitude toward the war lost him many friends. In the midst of this controversy he married (1525) Katharina von Bora, a former nun. The marriage was happy, and his wife became an important supporter in his busy life. After having articulated his basic theology in his earlier writings (On Christian Liberty,1519; To the Christian Nobility,1520; The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,1520; On the Bondage of the Will,1525), he published his most popular book, the Small Catechism, in 1529. (A translation of Luther's writings is Luther's Works, 56 volumes, begun in 1955.) By commenting briefly in question and answer form on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, the Small Catechism explains the theology of the evangelical reformation in simple yet colorful language. Not allowed to attend the Diet of Augsburg because he had been banned and excommunicated, Luther had to leave the presentation of the reformers' position (formulated in the Augsburg Confession, 1530) to his friend and colleague Melanchthon. In 1534 Luther's translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew was published. Meanwhile, his influence spread across northern and eastern Europe. His advocacy of the independence of rulers from ecclesiastical supervision won him the support of many princes (and was later interpreted in ways contrary to his original intention). His fame made Wittenberg an intellectual center.
LAST YEARS
By 1537, Luther's health had begun to deteriorate, and he felt burdened by the resurgence of the papacy and by what he perceived as an attempt by Jews to take advantage of the confusion among Christians and reopen the question of Jesus' messiahship. Apprehensive about his own responsibility for this situation, he wrote a violent polemic against the Jews, as well as polemics against the papacy and the radical wing of the reformers, the Anabaptists. In the winter of 1546, Luther was asked to settle a controversy between two young counts who ruled the area of Mansfeld, where he had been born. Old and sick, he went there, resolved the conflict, and died on February 18, 1546, in Eisleben.
THEOLOGY
Luther was not a systematic theologian, but his work was subtle, complex, and immensely influential. It was inspired by his careful study of the New Testament, but it was also influenced in important respects by the great 4th-century theologian St. Augustine.
A Law and Gospel Luther maintained that God interacts with human beings in two ways-through the law and through the Gospel.
The law represents God's demands-as expressed, for example, in the Ten Commandments and the golden rule. All people, regardless of their religious convictions, have some degree of access to the law through their consciences and through the ethical traditions of their culture, although their understanding of it is always distorted by human sin. The law has two functions. It enables human beings to maintain some order in their world, their communities, and their own lives despite the profound alienation from God, the world, their neighbors, and ultimately themselves that is caused by original sin. In addition, the law makes human beings aware of their need for the forgiveness of sins and thus leads them to Christ.
God also interacts with human beings through the Gospel, the good news of God's gift of his Son for the salvation of the human race. This proclamation demands nothing but acceptance on the part of the individual. Indeed, Luther argued that theology had gone wrong precisely when it began to confuse law and Gospel (God's demand and God's gift) by claiming that human beings can in some way merit that which can only be the unconditional gift of God's grace.
B Sin Luther insisted that Christians, as long as they live in this world, are sinners and saints simultaneously. They are saints insofar as they trust in God's grace and not in their own achievements. Sin, however, is a permanent and pervasive feature in the church as well as in the world, and a saint is not a moral paragon but a sinner who accepts God's grace. Thus, for Luther, the most respected citizen and the habitual criminal are both in need of forgiveness by God.
C The Finite and Infinite Luther held that God makes himself known to human beings through earthly, finite forms rather than in his pure divinity. Thus, God revealed himself in Jesus Christ; he speaks his word to us in the human words of the New Testament writers; and his body and blood are received by believers (in Luther's formulation) "in, with, and under" the bread and wine in Holy Communion (see Eucharist). When human beings serve each other and the world in their various occupations (which Luther called vocations) as mothers and fathers, rulers and subjects, butchers and bakers, they are instruments of God, who works in the world through them. Luther thus broke down the traditional distinction between sacred and secular occupations.
D Theology of the Cross Luther asserted that Christian theology is the theology of the cross rather than a theology of glory. Human beings cannot apprehend God by means of philosophy or ethics; they must let God be God and see him only where he chooses to make himself known. Thus, Luther stressed that God reveals his wisdom through the foolishness of preaching, his power through suffering, and the secret of meaningful life through Christ's death on the cross.
See also Christianity; Lutheranism; Protestantism.
Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658), leader in the English Revolution (1640-1660) and the first commoner to rule England. Cromwell governed as Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658 under England's only written constitution, the Instrument of Government. During the English Civil War (1642-1648), Cromwell rose from obscurity on the basis of his devout Calvinism, natural military genius, and forceful personality. These characteristics helped him hold together the competing groups that had overthrown King Charles I in the first phase of the civil war. Cromwell conquered Ireland and Scotland, made England a feared military power in Europe, and expanded its overseas empire. He refused to rule without constitutional authority. His civilian government introduced electoral reform, moderate religious toleration, and the first truly British Parliament. The revolution that he guided did not survive him, and after a period of political chaos he was succeeded by the restoration of Charles II to the throne.
II EARLY LIFE
Cromwell was born at Huntingdon in central England, on April 25, 1599, in a minor branch of a once-prosperous family. He was educated in the local grammar school and spent a year at Calvinist-dominated Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge. His father's death interrupted his studies, and he returned home to care for his mother and to manage his meager inheritance. In 1620 Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of a prominent London merchant, and they lived a quiet life together, first in Huntingdon and then at Saint Ives in Cambridgeshire. Cromwell did not prosper in these years; while he could claim the rank of a gentleman in Huntingdon, he had to rent land in Saint Ives, and his income declined as his family grew. In 1636 he inherited from an uncle both lands and a minor office in the eastern cathedral town of Ely. Cromwell became an able estate manager and an efficient tax collector. His fortunes grew, and by 1640 he was one of Ely's wealthiest men.
It was during these years of struggle that Cromwell experienced a religious conversion in which he came to believe that he had been chosen for eternal salvation. This conversion decisively changed his life. Following his conversion, Cromwell strengthened ties with friends and relations who shared his religious outlook. He became part of a network of people discontented with the government of Charles I, who they believed was ruling in an arbitrary manner and was not doing enough to suppress Roman Catholics. For 11 years Charles had governed without calling Parliament, and when he was forced to do so in 1640 to raise money to put down a rebellion in Scotland, Cromwell and his friends sought selection to Parliament. When Parliament convened, they entered the House of Commons ready to challenge the king.
III CIVIL WAR LEADER
From the beginning of this Parliament, which became known as the Long Parliament, Cromwell was among a group of members known as the fiery spirits. He was prominent in debates and on committees, and was especially concerned about a Catholic conspiracy against the Protestant church. As relations between the king and Parliament worsened, Cromwell volunteered to raise forces in his home counties, despite his lack of military experience.
In 1642, as the First Civil War began, Cromwell took up arms against the king along with other members of Parliament. His first military action was at the indecisive Battle of Edgehill in October. In the following year he was made colonel of a cavalry regiment, which he led to successive victories. Cromwell quickly achieved a reputation as an effective military administrator, as well as a fierce fighter, and in 1644 he achieved the rank of lieutenant general of horse in the army of his kinsman, the Earl of Manchester. In July of that year, he made a decisive contribution to the victory of Parliament's forces at Marston Moor.
He eventually had a falling-out with Manchester, who Cromwell felt was relaxing his efforts against the king, and Cromwell returned to Parliament to argue for an intensive commitment to the war. Cromwell's appeals led to the creation of the New Model Army in 1645, which eliminated members of Parliament from army commands. Cromwell was the only member of Parliament who returned to the army. He did so as second in command, at the insistence of the army's new commander, Sir Thomas Fairfax. Cromwell became general of cavalry under Fairfax and played the principal role in defeating the king at the Battle of Naseby in 1645, which effectively ended the First Civil War, although fighting continued for another year before Charles escaped to Scotland. In January 1647, the Scots returned Charles to England.
Cromwell was now a hero among those who supported Parliament. He was also one of the few army leaders who supported the more radical religious groups demanding that the established Church of England be abolished and replaced with a far less orthodox church. After the war ended, many members of the House of Commons were more conservative than the army. These were mainly Presbyterians, who supported a more rigid church structure than Cromwell did. They were afraid of the army's power and wanted to disband it. They also sought to strip Cromwell of his command to prevent him from extending the fighting to Ireland, where Catholics were revolting against the English.
Cromwell was prepared to return to civilian life, but political agitation within the army gave him new prominence. Soldiers were worried about receiving their back pay, and they were angry because the Presbyterians in the House of Commons refused to honor them for their loyal service. Throughout the spring of 1647 Cromwell acted as mediator between elected representatives of the soldiers and the House of Commons, which was attempting to disband the irate army. When the struggle between the army and Parliament could not be resolved, Cromwell threw in his lot with the soldiers. His presence served to restore discipline and moderate the demands of the angry troops, and he was able to prevent a mutiny.
Cromwell was now the most prominent military commander in England. As such, he was involved in the intense debates regarding what form of government England should have and who should be allowed to vote. An important debate took place in the town of Putney in October 1647 and involved members of the army and the Levellers, a radical political group demanding franchise reform, religious toleration, and the overthrow of the monarchy. During the debates, Cromwell and his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, successfully faced down the Levellers.
In 1647 Charles, who had refused to agree to settlement demands made by Parliament and the army, escaped to the Isle of Wight and made an alliance with the Scots to invade England. This led to the start of the Second Civil War. Cromwell again united the army and put down an attack in Wales before defeating the Scots in the bloody Battle of Preston in August 1648.
IV RISE TO POWER
The Second Civil War had a powerful impact on Cromwell. His victories convinced him that he had been chosen by God as an instrument for great work. He changed his position regarding the king. Previously Cromwell had believed that the king should be restored to the throne with limited power, but he realized now the king could not be trusted. He also hardened his position against his opponents in the House of Commons, who wanted to treat leniently the Royalists who participated in the Second Civil War. Nevertheless, Cromwell did not take part in either the drafting of the Army Remonstrance in October 1648, which demanded Charles I be tried, or in Pride's Purge, which expelled from the Commons those who still wished to negotiate with the king. The remaining members were known as the Rump Parliament.
Cromwell remained in the north of England until the purge was completed. When he finally arrived back in London, he was committed to the king's trial and execution, as well as to the abolition of the House of Lords. He was an active member of the High Court of Justice set up for the king's trial and boldly signed the king's death warrant. For Cromwell, Charles's execution was a divine judgment against a tyrant. Following the king's execution, the Commonwealth of England was formed, ruled by a Council of State that included members of the Rump Parliament.
For the next two years Cromwell remained a soldier in service to the state. The new Commonwealth had powerful enemies, especially in Ireland and Scotland, where Charles II, son of Charles I, was proclaimed king. In 1649 Cromwell crushed a Leveller mutiny in the army by soldiers who did not want to fight in Ireland and who believed their interests were being sold out. He then reorganized his forces and went to Ireland, where Catholics still held power. He conducted a brutal campaign against Irish soldiers and civilians alike to shatter Catholic power.
The following year Cromwell was elevated to supreme military commander, and the army stormed into Scotland to prevent the Royalists from invading England. Cromwell won one of his greatest victories against overwhelming odds at Dunbar on September 3, 1650; exactly a year later he defeated the combined forces of the Scots and Charles II at Worcester. Cromwell was now regarded as the savior of the Commonwealth.
Upon his return to London, Cromwell quickly became entangled in political controversies. The army was again seeking reforms, including an extension of the franchise and new Parliamentary elections. The Rump Parliament had good intentions, but its members were divided over specific programs and unable to achieve the reforms the army was seeking. They refused to provide for new parliamentary elections, and by 1653 the army was again pressuring for the overthrow of Parliament. Cromwell had consistently opposed military rule, but he also opposed the continuation of the Rump. In April 1653 he brought a troop of soldiers into the House of Commons and forcibly evicted its members. This action seemed to place Cromwell at the head of a revolutionary government, but he at first refused to accept such a position. Instead, he was involved in nominating a Parliament to replace the Rump; its members were chosen from among army supporters and London's Puritan congregations. This Nominated Parliament, or Barebone's Parliament, as it was called, was no more able to achieve necessary legal, religious, or social reforms than the Rump.
V LORD PROTECTOR
Although Cromwell had summoned the Nominated Parliament into existence, he took no active role in its proceedings and was himself surprised in December 1653 when a parliamentary delegation arrived to place power in his hands. Cromwell again refused to establish a military government and supported a plan developed by General John Lambert for a written constitution, the Instrument of Government. Lambert had hoped a king would head the new government, but Cromwell refused to accept the crown and was instead named Lord Protector. He ruled as head of the military with a Council of State and a Parliament that met every three years and included members from England, Scotland, and Ireland. The protector's powers were broadly defined, especially in military and foreign affairs.
These broad powers offended the republicans who were elected to the first protectoral Parliament in 1654. The republicans were supporters of the original Rump Parliament and believed Parliament was the only constitutional authority. In their view, the Instrument of Government was not valid because it came from army leaders and not from representatives of the people. Furthermore, they thought the Lord Protector was too much like a dictator. They attacked Cromwell and the constitution, and Cromwell dissolved Parliament before it undermined the government.
Cromwell attempted to establish many of the reforms that Puritans had been demanding throughout the revolutionary decades. These included religious toleration and stricter morals (see Puritanism). He was willing to tolerate all but the most extreme religious sects, enforced the stricter moral code established during the Commonwealth, and even closed theaters. None of these Puritan policies enjoyed widespread support, and from the first, the Protectorate was a minority government. In 1655 renewed Royalist uprisings led Cromwell to appoint military governors, known as major generals, in 11 regions, but this experiment was so unpopular that it was discontinued after a year.
The main success Cromwell experienced as Lord Protector was military. A naval war with Spain in 1657 resulted in the capture of Jamaica in the West Indies and the seizure of the Spanish treasure fleet. Cromwell's government settled a trade war with the Dutch, making English merchant ships secure in colonial waters. Under Admiral Robert Blake, the English navy became a great international power, and Cromwell supported the building of new warships. His alliance with France resulted in the capture of Dunkirk, then a Spanish possession in northern France. Once again England had a foothold on the continent.
These triumphs softened criticism of the Protectorate, but the Parliament called in the fall of 1656 continued to attack the Instrument of Government. In the Humble Petition and Advice, members of Parliament presented Cromwell with a new constitution that included an upper house, like the former House of Lords, and again requested that he accept the crown. He agreed to create what was called the Other House and appointed army officers and officeholders to it, but again refused to be king. Nevertheless, his government took on the look of a royal court, and on his deathbed he nominated his eldest son, Richard Cromwell, to succeed him. Cromwell died on September 3, 1658, the anniversary of two of his great military triumphs.
VI ASSESSMENT
Rarely has one individual so characterized his age as Oliver Cromwell. A minor gentleman, he represented the rise of that class against the power of the great nobles and the king. A devout Puritan, he represented the religious passions of his generation and their contradictory desires for both stricter morality and greater liberty of conscience. A great military leader, he captured the imagination of the English people, who longed for an able ruler to recapture their country's glory and power. A member of Parliament as well as an army leader, he held these two vital elements together in the days leading to the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth, and then during the Protectorate. As a general he was universally successful, but as a politician he experienced more frustration than achievement. His government enjoyed little support, even from those who had fought against the king, and his efforts to establish stability after 15 years of civil war came to nothing. He refused to rule as a military dictator but struggled to rule as a constitutional officer. The revolution that he, more than anyone, had made possible could not survive his death, and in 1660 the monarchy was restored in England with Charles II taking the throne.
Gustav II Adolph, called Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), king of Sweden (1611-32), who, for his brilliant leadership of the Protestant forces in the Thirty Years' War, became known as the Lion of the North.
The son of King Charles IX, Gustav was born on December 9, 1594, in Stockholm. When he succeeded to the throne in 1611, Sweden was at war with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. Gustav concluded a peace with Denmark in 1613, but Sweden regained its southern provinces only after agreeing to pay heavy financial indemnities. He waged a successful war against Russia (1613-17), acquiring lands that completely cut off Russian access to the Baltic Sea. From 1621 to 1629, Gustav waged a war against his cousin, Zygmunt III, king of Poland, who maintained a claim to the Swedish throne. Poland was forced to cede lands and cities along the southern and eastern Baltic coasts in 1629, and Gustav's right to the Swedish throne was ensured. A religious interest in the Protestant cause and a belief that conquest of northern Germany by the Holy Roman Empire would be militarily and economically dangerous to Sweden impelled Gustav to enter the Thirty Years' War. After securing an alliance with France, he landed his army on the coast of Pomerania and succeeded in driving the imperial forces back from the Baltic. His victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 gave the Protestants the military advantage, and they went on to occupy Bavaria and Bohemia. Gustav turned his army north in 1632. At the Battle of Lützen in Saxony (Sachsen), he defeated the imperial forces, but was himself fatally wounded on November 6, 1632. Gustav was noted not only as a great general but as a capable administrator. With the help of his chancellor, Count Axel Oxenstierna, who managed internal affairs and diplomacy while the king was involved in military campaigns, Gustav developed a sound and centralized system of government and did much to develop the natural mineral resources of his country. He was succeeded by his daughter, Christina.
Calvin, John (1509-64), French theologian, church reformer, humanist, and pastor, whom Protestant denominations in the Reformed tradition regard as a major formulator of their beliefs.
LIFE
Calvin was born in Noyon, France, on July 10, 1509. He received formal instruction for the priesthood at the Collège de la Marche and the Collège de Montaigue, branches of the University of Paris. Encouraged by his father to study law instead of theology, Calvin also attended universities at Orléans and Bourges. Along with several friends he grew to appreciate the humanistic and reforming movements, and he undertook studies in the Greek Bible. In 1532 he published a commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, proving his skills as a humanist scholar. His association with Nicholas Cop, newly elected rector of the University of Paris, forced both to flee when Cop announced his support in 1535 of Martin Luther. Although he seldom spoke of it, Calvin underwent a personal religious experience about this time.
Calvin moved frequently during the next two years, avoiding church authorities while he studied, wrote, and formulated from the Bible and Christian tradition the primary tenets of his theology. In 1536 he published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a succinct and provocative work that thrust him into the forefront of Protestantism as a thinker and spokesman. During the same year, Calvin visited Geneva on his way to Strasbourg and was asked by Guillaume Farel to assist in the city's reformation movement. Calvin remained in Geneva with Farel until 1538, when the town voted against Farel and asked both men to leave. Calvin completed his interrupted journey to Strasbourg and participated in that community's religious life until September 1541. While in Strasbourg, Calvin married Idelette de Bure, a widow. The couple had one child, who died in infancy. At Strasbourg, Calvin also published his Commentary on Romans (1539), the first of his many commentaries on books of the Bible.
In 1541 Genevans prevailed upon Calvin to return and lead them again in reforming the church. He remained in that city for the rest of his life, except for brief journeys in the interest of church reform. His wife died in 1549, and he did not remarry. Although he received a house and stipend from the government, he did not hold office in the government, and he did not even become a citizen of Geneva until 1559. Until the defeat of the Perrin family in 1555, there was significant opposition to Calvin's leadership in the city.
Calvin drafted the new ordinances that the government modified and adopted as a constitution for Geneva governing both secular and sacred matters. Calvin also supported development of a municipal school system for all children, with the Geneva Academy as the center of instruction for the very best students. In 1559 the academy was begun, with Theodore Beza as rector of what soon became a full university.
While Calvin served Geneva, the city was almost constantly threatened by Catholic armies under Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, and other leaders. Indeed, the city was a walled fortress, receiving little benefit from surrounding farmlands and nearby allies. Thus, the threat of conquest contributed to Geneva's harsh quality of life and to its need for commerce. Dissenting Christians were frequently expelled, and one man was put to death as a heretic. A man of his time, Calvin approved the burning of Michael Servetus (although he recommended decapitation), when the Unitarian was captured in the city.
Calvin sought to improve the life of the city's citizens in many ways. He supported good hospitals, a proper sewage system, protective rails on upper stories to keep children from falling from tall buildings, special care for the poor and infirm, and the introduction of new industries. He encouraged the use of French in churches, and he personally contributed to its formation as a modern language by his vernacular writings.
Calvin's writings, however, have proven to be his most lasting contribution to the church. He wrote hymns and encouraged others to do so. The famous Genevan Psalter, composed mostly by his colleague Louis Bourgeois, became the basis for much Protestant hymnody. He wrote an influential catechism, hundreds of letters to fellow reformers, and commentaries on almost all books of the Bible. His sermons and manuscripts have been collected, and most are available in English.
Calvin's health was never robust; his illnesses included chronic asthma, indigestion, and catarrh. He became very frail with the onslaught of quartan fever in 1558. He died on May 27, 1564, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Geneva.
III CALVIN'S THEOLOGY
According to Calvin, the Bible specified the nature of theology and of any human institutions. Thus, his statements on doctrine began and ended in Scripture, although he frequently cited the church fathers and important medieval Catholic thinkers. He sought to minimize speculation on divine matters and instead to draw on the Word of God. He also urged the church to recover its original vitality and purity.
In Calvin's masterwork, Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he revised at least five times between 1536 and 1559, Calvin sought to articulate biblical theology in a sensible way, following the articles of the Apostles' Creed. The four books in the definitive edition (1559) focus on the articles "Father,""Son,""Holy Spirit," and "Church."
A On the Father
Knowledge of God is bound up with self-knowledge. In the world and in the human conscience, spiritual demands are manifest. God created the world and made it good. Since the fall, however, humanity, by its own powers, has been able to apprehend God only rarely and imperfectly. On their own, human beings can never achieve a true religious life based on the knowledge of God. In God's grace, however, conveyed through Jesus Christ as described in the Bible, the Creator resolved this destructive dilemma and enabled humanity to gain a clear view of revelation. Those people who learn the truth about human depravity-that even the best deeds are tainted and none is pure-can repent and depend on God the Father for salvation.
B On the Son
Human sin, inherited from Adam and Eve, produces in each person an "idol factory" (see Original Sin). All individuals deserve destruction, but Jesus Christ served as prophet, priest, and king to call the elect into eternal life with God. Christ summons the chosen into new life, interceding for them in his atonement, and he reigns at God's right hand. Calvin took pains to emphasize the continuity of his doctrines with Christian orthodoxy as expressed in the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. See Nicene Creed.
C On the Spirit God's Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, gives power to the writing and the reading of Scripture, to the devotional life of believers, and to Christian growth in Christ (sanctification). It also permits faith that God's resurrection of the dead will bring the saved into perfection in God's presence. Any assurance of election to grace is given by the Spirit, and even the condemnation of the damned according to God's justice works by the power of the Spirit. See Predestination.
D On the Church God's church and the sacraments are also given in God's grace for the edification of the elect and the good of the world. The church, one through all time, can be known by the preaching and hearing of God's Word and the proper administration of the sacraments. Although the true church is known only to God, the visible church is thoroughly related to it on earth. Officers and leaders in the church should be those individuals who try responsibly to follow in Christian discipleship, but their authority cannot depend on their righteousness. The offices should be only those designated in the New Testament. Sacraments (baptism and the Eucharist) should be celebrated as mysteries in which Christ is spiritually present.
Calvin stressed the sovereignty of God, the nature of election and predestination, the sins of pride and disobedience, the authority of Scripture, and the nature of the Christian life. Each of these teachings has been seized upon at some time by those following him as the central doctrine of Calvinism. Calvin sought, however, to expound biblical teaching on various issues of his day, in light of particular controversies within the church. His theology has been recognized as lying in the Pauline-Augustinian tradition; Calvin tried to steer what he perceived to be a middle course between an exclusive emphasis on divine providence and an exclusive emphasis on human responsibility.
Olof Petersson
Swedish tennis player (Hance: What the f*ck?)
http://www.tennis.se/person/14025.htm
Petri, Olaus (1493-1552), religious reformer, born in Örebro, Sweden. Petri attended the Carmelite monastery in Örebro and then went to the universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg in Germany. When he returned home in 1518 he was thoroughly acquainted with the new theology of religious reformer Martin Luther. In 1520 Petri was ordained deacon, and in 1523 he came into prominence when the newly elected Swedish king Gustav I Vasa was looking for able religious leaders to institute the changes brought about by the Reformation. In 1524 Petri was called to be secretary of the city council of Stockholm and deacon-preacher at the Ecclesia Stockholmensis, the cathedral church of Saint Nicholas in the modern diocese of Stockholm. In 1531 he relinquished his secretaryship and became chancellor to the king, a post that he held for two years. In 1540 Petri suddenly fell from the king's favor. The immediate cause was that the king discovered that Petri and a former chancellor knew of a plot to murder him but had failed to disclose it, since they had heard about it while under the seal of confession. Both men were condemned to death, but they were reprieved upon the payment of a heavy fine. Although this cast a shadow over the remaining years of his life, Petri quickly recovered royal favor and in two years was reappointed secretary to the Stockholm city council. Shortly afterwards he was made pastor of the Ecclesia Stockholmensis, having been ordained priest in 1539. The literary activity of Petri began with his first promotion in 1524, and between 1526 and 1531 he produced no fewer than 16 books in Swedish. This was even more remarkable because before then there had existed only eight books in the Swedish vernacular, none of which was of any outstanding merit. With his younger brother Laurentius, who became archbishop of Uppsala in 1531, Petri translated the Bible into Swedish in 1541 and also arranged a hymnbook. He is perhaps best known for his History of Sweden; for his judicial regulations that are still printed as an introduction to Sweden's code of laws; and for his two liturgical works, the Manual of 1529 and the Swedish Mass of 1531. The Manual of 1529, which was the first vernacular prayer book to appear in Europe, contains seven offices, including those of baptism, marriage, burial, and the visitation of the sick and prisoners under sentence of death.