Videos

This lecture is a brief introduction to the early history of the Pennsylvania Colony. The Pennsylvania Colony was founded in 1681 by William Penn, a Quaker convert who converted a debt owed to his family by the king into a charter for a proprietary...

The Norse people in their mythology divided their universe into nine realms with the world tree, Yggdrasil, in the centre. From Yggdrasil the nine realms of their cosmology either spread out from it or they stretched from the roots below...

SWERVE, MARTIN LUTHER! Mr. Richey explains the key elements of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, including the Council of Trent, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and Teresa of Avila. This lecture was designed specifically for students preparing...

When the Protestant Reformation broke out in Western Europe, the Catholic Church got the message, at least a little bit. Pope Paul III called a council to look into reforming some aspects of the Catholic Church and try to stem the tide of...

In this introduction to Ancient Scepticism, I look at Pyrrhonism through its four most important philosophers: Pyrrho of Elis, Timon, Aenesidemus, and Sextus Empiricus. First I look at some of the basic arguments and problems laid down by...

After the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church began to reform some of its abuses. The Catholic Reformation, though, was not only a reaction to Protestantism, but also a flowering of Roman Catholic practice. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits...

The Odyssey is the second epic poem, following the Iliad, attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, a poem both epic in length and in content with the Hero Odysseus facing numerous monsters, goddesses, and even a trip to the underworld...

Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, strategy, the crafts and weaving, and the defence of towns. She was a resourceful goddess, a favourite of her father Zeus, and often provided good counsel to other gods (including Zeus, the kings...

Julius Caesar was a Roman general, orator and eventually the dictator of Rome. He was a successful soldier and led his legions into victorious battles in Spain and Gaul, and conducted the first Roman incursion into the British Isles. As one-third...

The history of astronomy in the Ancient World can be traced back thousands of years, and well before the Ancient Greek philosophers famously worked on it. It is generally agreed that the discipline of astronomy began in the region of Mesopotamia...