Definitions

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was a widespread slaughter of French Protestants (Huguenots) by Catholics beginning on 24 August 1572 and lasting over two months, resulting in the deaths of between 5,000 and 25,000 people. It began in...

Brunhilda of Austrasia (c. 543-613) was a Visigothic princess who married into the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks, becoming the queen consort of the eastern kingdom of Austrasia. Following the brutal death of her sister due to a plot by...

Catherine de' Medici (l. 1519-1589) was the queen of France, mother of three kings and two queens and, between 1559 and c. 1576, the most powerful woman in France and, possibly, all of Europe. She was the strength behind the French throne...

A harpy, also known as a harpyia (pl. harpyiai), is a part-bird, part-woman monster in Greek mythology. Known as the 'Hounds of Zeus,' they were the personification of storm winds and were under the command of Zeus, who would send them out...

Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566) was a Spanish Dominican friar and former conquistador who revealed the atrocities of the conquests of New Spain and Peru and who strove to protect the basic rights of indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire...

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) was a meeting of Catholic clerics convened by Pope Paul III (served 1534-1549) in response to the Protestant Reformation. In three separate sessions, the council reaffirmed the authority of the Catholic Church...

The encomienda was a system where Spanish adventurers and settlers were granted the legal right to extract forced labour from indigenous tribal chiefs in the Americas colonies of the Spanish Empire. In return, the Europeans were expected...

In the canon of the New Testament, the fourth gospel of John is uniquely different from the other three, known as the Synoptics ("seen together"). Mark, Matthew, and Luke have parallel ministries and methods of relating the story of Jesus...

Medusa is a figure from Greek mythology, the only mortal of the three Gorgons, along with her immortal sisters, Stheno and Euryale. The three Gorgons were born to the sea god of the dangers of the hidden deep, Phorcys, and the goddess of...

Jacques Necker (l. 1732-1804) was a Swiss banker and statesman who served as finance minister to King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792). He served in the king's ministry three separate times, tasked with navigating France through its dire...