Migratory flows (16th–19th century)

Glossaire

A-B
Abjure

Whereas recanting refers to the confession of error and formal abandon of one's faith, be it under order from an ecclesiastical authority, abjuration stipulates a renunciation under oath. The Catholic encyclopaedia further indicates that the “term is restricted to the renunciation of heresy [... upon] reconciliation with the Church”. What might be seen by one party, negatively, as recanting the other would see, in a positive light, as conversion.

Act of Supremacy

A piece of legislation that declared the English sovereign to be the head of the Anglican church. Passed a first time in 1534, it was revoked by Mary I, a catholic who reigned from 1553 to 1558, then reinstated by Elisabeth I.

Al-Ala

Arabo-Andalusian music derived from Moorish Spain and integrating diverse influences from the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

Aleppian Order

Splinter from the First Maronite Order founded in 1695, it ceceded and became known as Alepian in regards to the geographic origin of the majority of the vocations. It is currently known as the Mariamite Maronite Order (OMM). Its general curia is based at Notre –Dame de Louaize in the Kesrouan.

Almohads

The Almohads (Al-Muwahhidun) are a Moroccan dynasty of Berber origin. Founded around 1147, on the basis of a religious doctrine developed by Al Mahdì Ibn Toumert, this dynasty rose to dominate the Greater Maghreb and part of the Iberian peninsula between 1147 and 1269.

Almohads

The Almohads (Al-Muwahhidun) are a Moroccan dynasty of Berber origin. Founded around 1147, on the basis of a religious doctrine developed by Al Mahdì Ibn Toumert, this dynasty rose to dominate the Greater Maghreb and part of the Iberian peninsula between 1147 and 1269. It has four main instances : the Council of Heads of States, the Council of Ministers, the standing committees and the General Secretariat.

The Almohads succeeded the Almoravids as rulers of the Muslim West.

Almoravid

Berber Muslim dynasty with its base in Southern Morocco. Between 1055 and 1147, the Almoravids reigned on Today's Morocco, part of Western Africa, part of Algeria and part of Spain.

Alpujarras Revolt

The Alpujarras revolt is an uprising of the Morisco population of the Kingdom of Granada which took place in Spain during the reign of Philip II, between 1568 and 1571 (c.f. chap Ia3)

Andalusian

Term used in the Maghreb to denote the immigrants from the Iberian peninsula (“Al-Andalus”). They were also referred to as the Nasara (“Nazarene”, that is Christian) to indicate in a dualistic context that they were not true Muslims.

C
Calvinism

Christian doctrine named after Jean Calvin. Rooted in the Paulinian and Augustinian texts, it emphasises the absolute sovereignty of the Godhead and justification by faith. Calvinism spread swiftly from its Geneva base towards the United Provinces and the Kingdom of France where it formed the Huguenot movement ; it crossed the Pyrenees, there to be fought by the Spanish monarchs who, in accordance with Catholic magisterial teaching, saw in it a “heresy”.

Camisards

The name given to the Protestants from the Cévennes (the hilly northern edge of the Languedoc) who tried to rise against Louis XIV's troops at the very beginning of the 18th century.

Christian (Lasallian) Brothers

Members of a Catholic religious order founded by St Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719). Members of this order are committed to teaching, giving particular attention to the most disadvantaged population whose schools are funded by those schools attended by more wealthy pupils.

Churches of the Refuge

Communities of Protestant refugees abroad who worship in French. There were churches of the refuge in Switzerland, Germany, the Low Countries, England. Several churches like the French Church (now in Soho Square but for 300 years in Threadneedle Street as mentioned by Pepys) are today heirs to the post 1685 Churches of the Refuge.

Cité nationale de l'histoire et de la mémoire de l'immigration

A place where to make available the knowledge accumulated on the history of immigration, in a way that would enable the citizens who do not read history books to own their content and to arrive at their own judgment on the subject in full knowledge of the facts. (Gérard Noiriel co-founder)

Colloque

French reformed churches are decentralised. They are structured from the bottom up whereby parishes meet at local level in assemblies called colloques thence in regional and national assemblies called synods (cf. the organisation of the Presbyterian churches).

Common law

English law arose from ancient Germanic (Angle, Saxon) laws and customs. It was formalised under Henry II along Roman law categories, it evolves from court decisions and precedent and is also known as case law.

Commonwealth

The name given to the government set up by Oliver Cromwell after the defeat and execution of Charles I in 1649. This regime all at once republican, authoritarian and Puritan disappeared in 1659 after Cromwell's death in 1658, his son Richard's resignation and the restoration of Charles II.

Copt

Term originating from the Arabic Qubt, itself drawn from the Greek Aiguptos, it refers to members of the Coptic Church, who speak the Coptic language, derived from ancient Egyptian. The Coptic Church adheres to Cyril of Alexandria's formula “One Nature of God the Logos Incarnate”. Because of this doctrine it was called monophysite notably following the Council of Chalcedon in 451. In the 18th century it would spawn a Catholic Coptic church that abandoned the monophysite doctrine but upheld its traditional liturgy, and, in the 19th century, a protestant one. The Copts consider themselves the descent of the ancient Egyptians.

D
Dhimmi

Dhimmi is the name broadly covering the group referred to as “the people of the book” in the Quran – that is essentially, but not exclusively – the Jews and the Christians. Those non-Muslims have a distinct status within societies governed by Muslim rulers the laws of which are partly founded in Islam. The dhimmis are acknowledged as lower status but protected minorities, whose rights and duties are not the same as the Muslims'. They are taxed twice over : per capita (jizya) and on land (kharaj).

Divan

Board of directors or executive council.

Dominion

Status replacing that of colony in the British Empire, best described at an Imperial Conference of 1926 as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown.”. It was granted to Canada, Australia, New Zeeland and Newfoundland in 1907, to South-Africa in 1910 and to Ireland in 1922.

Druze

Followers of a shia doctrine derived from Ismailism; it appeared under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, in Egypt at the beginning of the 11th century, promoted by al-Darazi.

The doctrine is taught only to a chosen few, the “knowledgeable initiate” and worship takes place in prayer houses that are not mosques. In the Ottoman era, the Lebanon Druze were lead by the Ma'ans, a Druze family, then by a Sunni family, the Shehab. However in the 18th century some members of these families converted to Catholicism. The rivalries between Druze and Maronites, the Ottoman domination, the rise of a European style national sentiment and the economic plight gave rise to massacres the most important of which, in 1860 affected mostly the Christians.

E
Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes refers to the 1598 edict by King Henry IV of France that secured rights for the Huguenot (Protestant) population. The aim of the edict was to restore civil unity in a predominantly Roman Catholic France after years of religious strife. The Edict of Nantes granted the Protestants freedom of religious conscience, which did not imply general freedom of worship. It allowed them to live everywhere in France but they were not permitted to worship except in strictly determined places (Protestant worship was for instance forbidden in Paris and wherever the king was travelling).

Henry's law brought internal but restive peace to the kingdom where resentment between Catholics and Protestants simmered. http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/editsdepacification/.

Edict of Toleration

The Edict of Toleration signed at Versailles in 1787 allowed the Protestants living in France their civil rights.

Emir or amir (commander/prince)

In tribal systems this title is given to the group's leader who has the power to rule. In the region of the Ottoman Empire that corresponds to present-day Lebanon, the term denotes the very top of the political hierarchy : the emir ensured law and order, ran the administration, managed finances and, as his vassal, paid the sultan an annual tribute raised on the population without discrimination of creed or clan.

Enclosure

In 16th, 17th century England, well-off landowners, mostly belonging to the gentry, enclosed what had been open fields and common land to keep sheep herds. This trend impoverished farm tenants who had hitherto enjoyed common rights on such land, e.g. grazing rights.

F-G
Fatwa

Legal opinion based on Sharia law principles. It is, as a rule, rendered in answer to a question relating to Muslim law or praxis. It is a kind of Islamic case law.

Franciscans

Members of the Catholic religious order founded by St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).Their presence in the Middle East goes back to Francis's presence at the 1219-1220 crusade. They first ministered to the Franks of the Latin Kingdom, then to the pilgrims and traders in the Échelles du Levant (French trading centres across the Ottoman Empire that were granted special trading privileges by the Sultan), then to Eastern Christians for whom they acted in the capacity of Papal legates. Their earliest establishments are : Jerusalem 1229-1244, Damietta (1249-1250), Acre, Alexandria and Cairo (1320), Beirut (around 1320).

Gaelic

The Irish language is one of three Gaelic (or Goidelic) tongues with Scottish Gaelic and the Manx language. It belongs to a branch of Celtic languages, distinct from the Brythonic group in which Welsh, Cornish and Breton are to be found.

Gerrymandering

Coined after the name of an early US practitioner, the term describes the manipulation of districts' geographic boundaries to political advantage.

H
Habeas corpus

Principle arising from the habeas corpus act voted by Parliament in 1679 according to which any person under arrest must be presented before a judge within 3 days. It is designed to curb arbitrary measures since the judge may have the person released.

Holy Emperor

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was created in 962 by Otto I. It lasted until 1806. It bound together the German states and the Kingdom of Bohemia under the authority of an elected emperor who, since the Electors remained Catholic in their majority, was always a Catholic.

Hornacheros

The Hornacheros were the Muslims hailing from the Iberian province of BadaJoz. Once in Morocco, they would be the moving force behind the Sea-borne jihad, notably through the provision of weaponry.

Huguenots

The name French Calvinist Protestants came to be known by in the 16th and 17 centuries.

Hurling and Gaelic Football

Hurling is an outdoor team game played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar, a hard solid sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball, resembling an American baseball. Gaelic football is played mainly in Ireland with fifteen players it admits of goals (3 pts) kicked in the bottom netted half of a goal otherwise resembling a rugby goal, or over the crossbar (1pt) ; it shares aspects of football and rugby. Together with hurling, it is one of the two most popular spectator sports in the Republic of Ireland and both are played around the world in the Irish Diaspora.

I
Ibn al balad

Son of the country.

Indienne

Cloth with designs painted on it.

Indulgences

To Catholics, they are a partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins the believer has committed and which are already forgiven. An indulgence shortens the time spent in Purgatory.

Inquisition

Institution set up by Pope Innocent III in the 13th century in order to fight “heresy”. First used against the Cathars or Albigensians, it became in the 15th and 16th century the instrument the Spanish church used, with the assent of the monarchs, to fight “heterodoxy” in all its forms, notably targeting the “new Christians”. We had here an institution that made it possible to transcend the mere union of the crowns (Castile and Aragon) to give Spain the Identity its two sovereigns wished for it. In a wider sense: an arbitrary and biased administration of justice.

J-K
Jesuits

Religious order which has the particularity to make a special vow of obedience to the pope. They are a noted presence in the fields of education, scientific and spiritual research and mission.

Kasbah

In North-African countries a Kasbah or Qassabah is a citadel or chieftain's palace, for instance the Kasbah of the Udayas in Rabat (Morocco). By extension the word also refers to the heart of North-African cities, whether fortified or otherwise. In this second sense, the word is almost synonymous with medina.

Kaymakamate

The regime brought in 1842 as a result of the confessional confrontations between Druze and Maronites. Two regions were established, each run by its Kaymakam (vice-governor), a Maronite for one, a Druze for the other. An Austrian proposal, it was accepted by the Ottoman Empire, France and Great Britain. Russia had also agreed to it in the hope of advancing the creation of a third region for Orthodox Christians. The regime collapsed after the 1860 massacres.

Khedive

Ottoman title with a Persian origin often translated by viceroy in English. By claiming it, Ismail Pasha makes it the symbol of a promotion to a higher rank than that held by other vassals of the Ottoman Sultan, as well as a confirmation of Egypt's autonomy. The title will disappear in 1914 to be replaced first by “Sultan”, then “King of Egypt”.

L
Lambeg drum

A very large and extremely loud bass drum beaten with curved Malacca canes. It would traditionally be accompanied by fifes. Nowadays, these instruments are not so frequently used in parades.

League of Arab States

Organisation founded on 22 March 1945 with 7 members (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Transjordan). In 1993, the league counts 22 states. It has four main instances : the Council of Heads of States, the Council of Ministers, the standing committees and the General Secretariat.

Liturgy

A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship. Anglican liturgy banned the use of Latin and the worship of the holy Virgin and the saints but upheld the use of liturgical objects (e.g. candles) and vestments. Communion was to be given under both kinds (bread and wine).

M
Magdalens

Unmarried mothers sent to religious establishment for reform, where they were humiliated and exploited. See Peter Mullan's film The Magdalen Sisters (2002).

Mamluks

Originally the Mamluks were slaves bought in the Caucasus to serve the Abbasid and Ayyubid caliphs. They formed a military cast and governed Egypt from 1250 to 1517 and Syria from 1260 to 1516. Their sultans founded successive dynasties of Bahrite then Burjite rulers that presided over economic prosperity and cultural flowering in spite of chronic instability. They set up a highly hierarchical society with a tight system of charges and honours. They saw off the Franks and the Mongols but fell to the Ottomans in 1516. The military cast however endured until 1805 ; Napoleon defeated their army at the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798 and Muhammad Ali suppressed them in 1805.

Marching Season

In Northern Ireland, parades are an important part of the culture. Although the majority of parades are held ostensibly by Orange men (Protestant, loyalist groups), nationalist, republican and non-political groups also march. Some marches, territorial and sectarian, have been the cause of serious unrest. However in recent years the vast majority of parades have occurred peacefully. A Parades Commission has been set up to settle disputes about controversial parades.

Marinid

A Muslim Berber Dynasty whose seat was at Fez, the Marinids succeeded the Almohads in 1269 and reigned over today's Morocco until the 15th century.

Maronite

Eastern Christians attached to the tradition of Maron considered as the founding saint and leader of a acetic community settled around Apamea in the Orontes valley (in current-day Syria). At the beginning of the 5th century, followers lived there and kept up his memory and teaching. In the first half of the 8th century, their descendants took the initiative of electing as their own patriarch to the see of Antioch, the monk John Maroun, the founder of the Maronite church. This was opposed by Byzantine Christians (Chalcedonians) and Syriac Christians (Monophysites). To escape persecutions, the Maronites sought elsewhere a refuge, notably in the mountain valleys of Northern Lebanon. In the 12th century, this church stated its communion with the Roman Catholic church and its Patriarch took part in the Lateran Council of 1215.

Maronite Patriarchate

Founded in the 7th century in the aftermath of the Bizantyne-Sassanid war, the Maronite patriarchate is heir to the cultural and legal legacy of the Antioch Patriarchate. Accordingly the high figure chosen to lead that church bears the title of “Patriarch of Antioch and All the East”. The patriarchal see is in Bkerke in the Kesrouan but its incumbent has authority over the Maronites worldwide.

Marranos

Term used from the 15th century on to describe Jews from the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) converted,nolens volens, to Catholicism, nolens volens and who continued secretly to practice Judaism. Also Jews who had adopted the Christian faith.

Mashriqi

From the East. The Mashriq/Mashrek is the Eastern part of the Arab world (as opposed to the Maghreb which is it Western part). A Mashriki is therefore truly from the Middle East, coming from anywhere in the region between the Mediterranean Sea and Iran.

Masonic lodges

Free-Masonry had a formal foothold in Beirut and the region from 1861. Several lodges were created, one of which, “Le Liban” was affiliated to the Grand Orient de France. This growth of Free-Masonry, and its promotion of values founded in Philosophical liberalism was fought by the Catholic religious congregations, notably the Jesuits and – to some extent – by the Ulama and other Muslim jurists.

Matzo

Azyme or unleavened bread cooked by the Jews during the festival of Pessah or Passover (Christian Eastertide) commemorating the action of their ancestors at the time when, according to biblical tradition they departed from Egypt.

Melkite

Eastern Orthodox Christians who, in 1724, have broken rank with the Orhtodox church and, in the wake of their Patriarch Cyril VI, joined the Roman Catholic Church. The Ottoman refused to acknowledge this specific community while Eastern Orthodox saw them as dissenters they must fight off.

This situation explains the necessity the Melkites found themselves in to find if not places of safety, at least environments where they would be free from pressure.

Millet

Turkish modelled on the Arabic milla, meaning religion, community, nation. In our context it refers to the faith communities.

Moonlighters

Murderous armed groups conducting violent night operations against landlords during the 1880s land wars.

Moriscos

From the Spanish word for a small moor : Muslims who converted to Catholicism nolens volens after the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile) abrogated the agreements that allowed them to uphold their faith and customs on Spanish soil.

Mosaic Law

The Mosaic Law is, according to Biblical tradition the totality of the precepts imparted by Moses to the “Jewish people” and recorded in the Torah.

Mudéjares

Derived from the Arabic word Mudajjan (domesticated), this name was given to Muslims from Spain who had become the subjects of Christian realms after the 11th century. Mudéjares made up Muslim clusters in the Iberian Christian world before they were forced to convert or leave. The Mudéjares spoke Castilian and wrote the romance language in Arabic script hence the term Aljamiado (foreigner's language)

Mutasarrifiyya

“Governorship”. The 1860 massacres drove the Powers (France Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Russia) and the Ottoman Empire to devise a special administrative regulation establishing the autonomy of Mount Lebanon. This organic statute comprised of 16 articles was signed on 9 June 1861. The governor (Mutasarrif), a Christian but not a Lebanese was to be supported by a central administrative council made up with 12 members giving equal representation to the six main communities: Maronite, Druze, Greek-Catholic, Greek-Orthodox, Sunni and Shia.

N-O
Old Christians

A term used to refer to Christians who, according to contemporaries, never confessed the Jewish or Muslim faith, as opposed to the Cristianos nuevos (New Christians) referring to Jews or Muslims converted to Catholicism, on varied grounds, including fear.

Old Christians

Christians of the Iberian Peninsula whose ancestry predates the Muslim conquest.

Orthodox

Eastern Christians faithful to the Creed as formulated at the council of Chalcedon and acknowledging the authority of the Byzantine emperor hence the epithet “Melkite” (Imperial) that would be applied to them when they distanced themselves from the Monophysists. Their church counted three self-governing (autocephalous) patriarchates (Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem) acknowledging the honorary primacy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Byzantine rite is conducted in Arabic and in Greek.

P
Papal Legate

Catholic dignitary missioned to a place there to represent the pope.

Papism

Disparaging term the Protestants use to refer to Catholicism, thus referenced as the pope's following.

Parlementarians

The faction fighting the civil war to uphold the rights of Parliament against the royalists.

Partition

After the Government of Ireland Act (1920), the island of Ireland was divided into two distinct territories : Ulster or Northern Ireland (one of the four component parts of the United Kingdom) and an independent state: the Irish Free Sate, latterly the Republic of Ireland or Eire.

Pasha

Honorary title added after the name of those high ranking Ottoman dignitaries to whom it was granted. This title was not hereditary and became the apanage of provincial governors and central government's viziers

Passade

Financial support enabling the refugees to meet their immediate needs and to move on.

Patriarchate

An authority embracing several ecclesial subdivisions (dioceses) run by bishops who are considered the successors of the apostles and of Jesus. This structure took shape in the Roman Empire between the 4th and the 6th century, driven by religious, cultural and political factors, with sharp tensions arising around the see of Rome. During the reign of Emperor Justinian (482-565), the patriarchal sees were given the following order of precedence : Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem. New patriarchates would be instituted in the centuries to come.

Peace lines

A series of separation barriers in Northern Ireland that separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. They have been built at urban interface areas in Belfast, Derry, Portadown and elsewhere. Their object is to minimize inter-communal violence. They vary in length (from a few hundred metres to 5 km) and height (up to 7 metres in places).

Planters

The Protestant colonists settled in Ireland.

Predestination

Christian doctrine upheld in some Protestant quarters, according to which God has elected some people to lead them to salvation and abandoned the others to damnation without taking their own action into account.

Presbytero-synodal

Calvinist churches are governed by elders (presbyters) meeting in sessions through to regional and national synods.

Privy Council

The Privy Council of England, was a powerful institution. The body originally concerned itself with advising the Sovereign on legislation, administration and justice. Though different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from this court (e.g. courts of law for dispensing justice and Parliament as the supreme legislature of the kingdom), the Council retained major powers, so that laws made by the Sovereign on the advice of the Council, rather than on the advice of Parliament, were accepted as valid.

Protestant Ascendency

The Protestant Ascendency (or, in Ireland the Ascendency) refers to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by Protestant elites, all members of the Established Church (the Church of Ireland and Church of England), during the 17th through 19th centuries – and, in a portion of the island, into the 20th century. The object was to exclude primarily the Roman Catholic majority of the Irish population guilty of serial rebellions. However, members of the Presbyterians and other Protestant denominations, along with non-Christians, were also excluded politically and socially.

psalms

The 150 psalms from the Bible were given French versified translation and musical settings and were frequently sung in Reformed churches

Purgatory

In Catholic theology, it is thought of as both a time and place where the faithful not deserving of hell go through a process of purification after their death. The general understanding of Purgatory was refined between 1170-80 and the end of the 18th century ; in the 16th century, it was laid open to question.

Purim Edom

Purim is a festival through which the Jews commemorate their ancestors' delivery from lethal threat when they formed a tiny minority of the Persian Empire under Ahasuerus (cf. Book of Esther, III, 7). Purim Edom goes back to the year 1541 during which Charles V fleet appeared before Algiers in order to sack it as it had just done in Tunis. The project was scuppered by a violent storm that destroyed part of the imperial fleet.

Q-R
Reichunabhängig

The city depended directly from the Emperor and thus enjoyed a great deal of autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire.

Representatives elected

3 in number in 1653, they went up to 30 in 1654, 56 and 59.

Resident

A resident is a sort of ambassador

S
Sacraments

Perceptible signs that Christians call upon to represent by means of symbols, using gestures and words, a spiritual truth that cannot be expressed in other ways.

Shawam

A collective word to refer to the Syro Lebanese folk who settled in Egypt under Ottoman rule. They had inhabitted Bilad al-Sham, the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a portion of Southern Turkey.

Sheikh (sheik, sheikh)

In this context, a tribe leader, it was broadly used to mark a rank inferior to that emir.

Shia

The branch of Islam arising from the hardening of the movement known as the “party of Ali” (In Arabic Shīatu ‘Alī), a Caliph considered as an imam by his follower. After Ali's son Husayn, considered the third imam and his partisans were slaughtered by Yazid, son of the governor of Syria, the split between Shia and other Muslims grew deeper. The divergence was politico-religious as the issues bear both on leadership of the Muslim community and the interpretation of the Quran. The Shia have split into several branches according to their adhesion to five (Zaidi), seven (Ismaili) or twelve (twelvers) imams. The Shia in contemporary Lebanon are Twelvers.

Stateholder

Originally a military leader, not unlike a LOrd Lieutenant, the Stateholder had become, by the 17th century the head of the executive in the United Provinces.

Sunni

Muslims “of the tradition” (the Sunna). The majority Muslim group, the Sunni have – baring exception – held the religious and political key positions since the foundation of the Omeyad dynasty upon the death of Caliph Ali (661). Until the 9th century, there was a great deal of open debate; thereafter a major normalisation operation was undertaken (language, grammar, theological outlook, literary corpus..) in this framework four schools (Hanifi, Malaki, Shafi'i, Hanbali) stand out in particular for the weigh they give to “consensus”, reasoning by analogy, as against the literal approach to the Quran.

Synod

In Calvinist churches, regional and national synods are assemblies where pastors and representatives from the lower consultative echelons sit.

T
Taqiyya

Arabic term associated to the prudence and caution principle. It is justified by clerics and lawyers in order to enable a Muslim to practice his religion in secret, in order to remain loyal to his faith when under duress.

Test Act

The Test Act was a set of penal laws withholding some civic and civil rights from Catholics and Dissenters. Two were voted under the Restoration, favouring the Anglicans who alone could assume political or administrative responsibilities. The 1661 Corporation Act excludes from municipal office any man refusing to communicate according to the rites of the Church of England and swear that he would not oppose the king. The 1673 Test Act imposes upon all civil or military office holders to communicate according to the rites of the Church of England, to read a declaration rejecting transubstantiation, to swear allegiance to the Church of England and to acknowledge the Act of Supremacy.

The Church in the Desert

The Church in the Desert : in reference to Biblical texts that frequently introduce the meeting with God in the desert, the persecuted Protestant Church readily perceived itself a Church in the Desert. At the heart of the Cevennes a Musée du Désert keeps up the memory of the persecution.

The Custody of the Holy Land (Custodia Terrae Sanctae)

A sub-province of the Franciscan order based in Jerusalem, it covers convents and a range of institutions. The Holy sites, in this context, refer to the region's Christian shrines, notably the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The structures date from Constantine's reign, but worship at the caves and pilgrimage goes back to the Apostolic age. Their history is marked by two paradoxes : they have frequently depended on a non-Christian jurisdiction and their management has brought out the rivalry that divides the diverse Christian communities in the region.

The Protestant Ascendancy

The Protestant Ascendancy (or, in Ireland the Ascendancy) refers to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by Protestant elites, all members of the Established Church (the Church of Ireland and Church of England), during the 17th through 19th centuries – and, in a portion of the island, into the 20th century. The object was to exclude primarily the Roman Catholic majority of the Irish population guilty of serial rebellions. However, members of the Presbyterians and other Protestant denominations, along with non-Christians, were also excluded politically and socially.

The Supreme Council of the Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition or Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition is a church jurisdiction set up in Spain in 1478, before the end of the Reconquista, at the request of the Catholic Monarchs.

The Thirty-nine Articles

The Thirty-nine Articles are a statement of the position of the Church of England as adopted in 1563 by the Convocation, and the adherence to which was made a legal requirement by the English Parliament in 1571.

U-Z
Ulama

Scholars and keepers of the Muslim faith and of the sciences it relies on, legal scholars arbiters of Sharia law. In traditional Muslim societies they make up the Intelligentsia.

Wafd

Political party the name of which means “delegation”. Liberal and national, Wafd ideology can be summarised in the saying “Religion for God and the fatherland for all”. Its flag is a crescent with a cross against a green background. It owes its name to the delegation formed in 1918 to negotiate Egypt's independence. The first objective of the party, officially recognised in 1923, was an immediate stop to the (still extent) British protectorate.

Whig

The noun given to the members of parliament who stood for the rights of Parliament against the Crown. Their opponents were the Tories who hold for Royal prerogative.

Worship of relics

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) encouraged the worship of relics advocating pilgrimages to sanctuaries housing the bodies of saints or relics from the life of Christ or the Holy Virgin (e.g. Loreto)

Zellige

Terra cotta tiles covered with enamel in the form of chips set in plaster. Its colourful, geometrically patterned mosaics are a notable feature of Moroccan architecture. This their Moroccan name alludes to the local lead ore used in their glaze.

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