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Witch Wood
''Witch Wood'' is a 1927 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan that critics have called his masterpiece. The book is set in the Scottish Borders during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and combines the author's interests in landscape, 17th century Calvinism, and the fate of Scotland. A significant portion of the dialogue is in Scots. Plot In a prologue to the novel, the narrator muses on the rural parish of Woodilee in the Scottish Borders. Looking at its now-ruined parish kirk, he recalls a legend about its last minister, who disappeared without trace 300 years ago. Locals believe that he was spirited away by the fairies or, as some maintain, by the devil. The story opens in 1644 with the coming of David Sempill, newly-ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, to Woodilee, a parish passionate in its support of the Covenant. Sempill is less committed to strict doctrinal practices than many of the Covenanters, and he finds himself attracted to the creed of Mark Kerr, a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Lloyd
Alan Richard Lloyd (22 February 1927 – 12 April 2018) was an English writer. He is most famous for his Kine Saga fantasy books for teenagers. He also wrote adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably on the history of the British monarchy. His adult work is published under the name ''Alan Lloyd'' whilst children's work is published under ''A.R. Lloyd'' Career Lloyd was born in London, and studied drawing and painting at the Kingston School of Art before being called up to the army in 1945. He started his writing career at the ''Jersey Evening Post'' and worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a full-time writer in 1962. His first book, published by Longmans in 1964 was ''The Drums of Kumasi'' a non fiction account of the Ashanti Wars. This was followed in 1966 by ''The Year of the Conqueror'' (published as ''The Making of the King 1066'' in the USA), a study of the events and people leading up to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Further non-fiction w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witch-cult Hypothesis
The witch-cult hypothesis is a discredited theory that states the witch trials of the Early Modern period were an attempt to suppress a pre-Christian, pagan religion that had survived the Christianisation of Europe. According to its proponents, the witch cult revolved around worshiping a Horned God of fertility, the underworld, the hunt and the hunted, whose Christian persecutors identified with the Devil, and whose followers participated in nocturnal rites at the witches' Sabbath. The theory was pioneered by two German scholars, Karl Ernst Jarcke and Franz Josef Mone, in the early nineteenth century, and was adopted by French historian Jules Michelet, American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and American folklorist Charles Leland later that century. The hypothesis received its most prominent exposition when it was adopted by a British Egyptologist, Margaret Murray, who presented her version of it in ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' (1921), before further expounding it in books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an English historian who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 books and has appeared on British television and radio. He held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is a Commissioner of English Heritage. Born in Ootacamund, India, his family returned to England, and he attended a school in Ilford and became particularly interested in archaeology. He volunteered in a number of excavations until 1976 and visited the country's chambered tombs. He studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then Magdalen College, Oxford, before he lectured in history at the University of Bristol from 1981. Specialising in Early Modern Britain, he wrote three books on the subject: ''The Royalist War Effort'' (1981), ''The Restoration'' (1985) and ''Charles the Second'' (1990). In the 1990s, he wrote books a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montrose (book)
''Montrose'' (''Montrose: a history'' in the US) is a 1928 biography of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose by the Scottish author John Buchan. Background From his undergraduate days at Oxford, Buchan had always had a fascination with Montrose, and came to feel that earlier historians had not done him justice. In 1913, Buchan’s publishers T Nelson released his first attempt at a biography, ''The Marquis of Montrose,'' which was dedicated to his brother Willie who had died a year earlier. The earlier book did not receive universal acclaim, and his old antagonist D. Hay Fleming took the opportunity to attack the author for giving insufficient credit to Argyll. Buchan’s enthusiasm for his subject had laid him open to the charge of romancing, and Buchan later admitted that many of the judgements that he had made in the work were “exaggerated and hasty”. Over the next fifteen years he collected material for a more historically-expansive work, adding to previous scholar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey in 1128 in which it is termed ''Inverlet'' (Inverleith). After centuries of control by Edinburgh, Leith was made a separate burgh in 1833 only to be merged into Edinburgh in 1920. Leith is located on the southern coast of the Firth of Forth and lies within the City of Edinburgh Council area; since 2007 it has formed one of 17 multi-member wards of the city. History As the major port serving Edinburgh, Leith has seen many significant events in Scottish history. First settlement The earliest evidence of settlement in Leith comes from several archaeological digs undertaken in The Shore area in the late 20th century. Amongst the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose of the institutional act is to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular, those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments. It is practiced by all of the ancient churches (such as the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches) as well as by other Christian denominations, but it is also used more generally to refer to similar types of institutional religious exclusionary practices and shunning among other religious groups. The Amish have also been known to excommunicate members that were either seen or known for breaking rules, or questioning the church, a practice known as shun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Presbyterian Polity
Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or ''consistory'', though other terms, such as ''church board'', may apply.For example, the Church of the Nazarene, which subscribes to a body of religious doctrines that are quite distinct from those of most properly named Presbyterian denominations (and which instead descends historically from the Wesleyan Holiness Movement), employs a blend of congregationalist, episcopal, and presbyterian polities; its local churches are governed by an elected body known as the church board or simply "board members"; the term elder in the Nazarene Church has a different use entirely, referring to an ordained minister of that denomination. Groups of local churches are governed by a higher assembly of elders known as the presbytery or classis; presbyter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heresy In Christianity
Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Church (congregation), Christian churches. In Western Christianity, heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to be anathema by any of the ecumenical councils recognized by the Catholic Church. In the Eastern Christianity, East, the term "heresy" is eclectic and can refer to anything at variance with Holy Tradition, Church tradition. Since the East–West Schism, Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, various Christian churches have also used the concept to include individuals and groups deemed to be heretical by those churches. The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs, since heresy is always defined in relation to orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has been in the process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pricking
During the height of the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, common belief held that a witch could be discovered through the process of pricking their skin with needles, pins and bodkins – daggerlike instruments for drawing ribbons through hems or punching holes in cloth. This practice derived from the belief that all witches and sorcerers bore a witch's mark that would not feel pain or bleed when pricked. The mark alone was not enough to convict a person, but did add to the evidence. Pricking was common practice throughout Europe. Professional witch finders earned a good living from unmasking witches, travelling from town to town to perform their services. Hollow wooden handles and retractable points have been saved from these finders, which would give the appearance of an accused witch's flesh being penetrated to the hilt without mark, blood, or pain. Other specially designed needles have been found with a sharp end and a blunt end. Through sleight of hand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a territorial designation by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. They are usually styled 'name'' 'surname''of 'lairdship'' However, since "laird" is a courtesy title, it has no formal status in law. Historically, the term bonnet laird was applied to rural, petty landowners, as they wore a bonnet like the non-landowning classes. Bonnet lairds filled a position in society below lairds and above husbandmen (farmers), similar to the yeomen of England. An Internet fad is the selling of tiny souvenir plots of Scottish land and a claim of a "laird" title to go along with it, but the Lord Lyon has decreed these meaningless for several reasons. Etymology ''Laird'' (earlier ''lard'') is the now-standard Scots pronunciation (and spelling, which is ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plague (disease)
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. Symptoms include fever, weakness and headache. Usually this begins one to seven days after exposure. There are three forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms. Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain; bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, making them swell; and septicemic plague infects the blood and can cause tissues to turn black and die. The bubonic and septicemic forms are generally spread by flea bites or handling an infected animal, whereas pneumonic plague is generally spread between people through the air via infectious droplets. Diagnosis is typically by finding the bacterium in fluid from a lymph node, blood or sputum. Those at high risk may be vaccinated. Those exposed to a case of pneumonic plague may be treated with preventive medication. If infected, treatment is with antibiotic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
