title: Early thermal weapons

text: In 1326, the earliest known European picture of a gun appeared in a treatise entitled "Of the Majesty, Wisdom and Prudence of Kings". On February 11 of that same year, the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain "canones de mettallo" and ammunition for the town's defense. A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on Cividale del Friuli, using gunpowder weapons of some sort. Cannon were first used by the Muslims at Alicante in 1331, or Algeciras in 1343. The French raiding party that sacked and burned Southampton in 1338 brought with them a ribaudequin and 48 bolts (but only 3 pounds of gunpowder).


title: Early thermal weapons

text: However, early cannon were not very effective, the main benefits being psychological, frightening men and horses. Short barrelled, large-calibre "bombards" were used up until the late 15th century in Europe, during which period they grew increasingly larger. In the mid-15th century, mortars also appeared. Various smaller weapons also existed, including the "serpentine", "ribaudequin" and "cropaudin". The powder was of poor quality and was used in small quantities – to prevent explosion of the barrel – so the effective range of these cannon was rarely more than 200–250m.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: The barrels of the cannon were forged or cast, and each gun generally differed in calibre and length. Early powder resembled a paste, and tended to burn slowly. Its composition varied in different geographical areas, the powder of Europe being quite different to that used in the Islamic world. The projectiles used were generally stone balls for bombards and mortars. Forged iron balls were used in smaller-calibre cannon, and coated with lead to make them smooth. From the 15th century, cast iron balls were used, which caused great destruction. As they were denser than stone, even small balls could be destructive. Thus, cannon became smaller in calibre, and longer barrels increased the range.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: The use of incendiary devices had decreased by the 14th century, perhaps due to the economic realities of war where it became increasingly important that captured castles and towns were undamaged. Moreover, fewer wooden engines and structures were employed in the battlefield after the late 13th century, perhaps because of the prior success of the incendiary weapons at destroying them.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: While the incidence of use dropped, towards the latter end of the Middle Ages the incendiary devices became more sophisticated, and the principle of wielding fire with sword remained present throughout the Early Modern and Modern periods; improving technology merely allowed the process to become more efficient.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Fire itself remained a part of warfare. In his reminisces of the Peninsular War (1807–1814), a British soldier recorded that the French soldiers would "regularly burn to the ground every place they pass through. In following them we find each town and village a heap of smoking ruins." During World War I, Leuven, in Belgium was "looted and burned in medieval fashion", when German soldiers set fire to much of the town, destroying the library and other cultural buildings, and causing outrage around the world. Yet the tactic was not dispensed with. In World War II, firebombing with incendiary bombs was carried out by the Germans against Britain during the Blitz, and by the Allies against Germany and Japan. After one heavy raid on Tokyo in March 1945, the resulting conflagration destroyed a quarter of the predominantly wooden buildings. Much as the Ancient Greeks before them, it was a strategy of devastation. Fire has continued to be used as a destructive measure in warfare. During the 1991–1992 Gulf War, Iraq set fire to three-quarters of Kuwait's oil wells.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Fire remained an extremely successful weapon. During naval warfare of the Napoleonic Wars, "the one thing most likely to destroy a ship was fire".


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Sometimes the fires were merely a side effect of weapon technology. Early firearms proved incendiary in their use and could start fires. During the Peninsular War, both Talavera and Salamanca battlefields were wracked by tremendous grassfires, first started by the guns. At the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805, the French ship of the line "Achille" caught fire when musket-flashes from her own men's guns set fire to the tar and grease on the sail rigging; the ship eventually exploded.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Smoke screens have continued to be used by attackers and defenders as a means of sowing confusion and hiding movements. During naval battles in the 18–19th centuries, shots were sometimes fired early so a defensive screen was erected before the ships converged, to spoil the aim of the enemy.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: The major development of weapons in the early modern and modern periods occurred with firearms, which became progressively more efficient. Gunpowder settled into its standard ratio in the 17th century, and general ballistic technology improved. Initially, iron round shot replaced the earlier stone balls for cannon then, latterly, different types of shot were invented.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: A carcass was a hollow projectile usually formed either by an iron cage of ribs joining two small rings or a cast iron ball with holes. A carcass was so named because the iron cage was thought to resemble the ribs of a body. A carcass was filled with a highly flammable mixture. Carcasses were used for the first time by the French under Louis XIV in 1672.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: For short range use against personnel, canister and the smaller naval grapeshot were popular during the 19th century; it comprised smaller iron or lead pellets contained within a case or bag, which scattered on explosion. In 1784, Lt Henry Shrapnel invented a spherical case-shot, which was later named after him. The case was a hollow iron sphere which was filled with musket balls and was detonated by a gunpowder charge. Shot fired from cannon could be so hot that it scorched or set fire to materials that it brushed.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: The incendiary liquids of the ancient and medieval periods were also developed, and have their modern equivalents. World War I saw the development of the flamethrower, a modern version of the Byzantine siphons, which used gas under pressure to squirt a mixture of inflammable oil and petrol, ignited by a burning taper. Similarly, the carcass projectile found new use in the Livens Projector, a primitive mortar that could throw a large canister of inflammable liquid (it was soon used for poison gas instead).


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Technology improved throughout the 20th century, and the latter half saw the development and use of napalm, an incendiary liquid formed in part from naphtha, which was the main ingredient of the Arabic "naft".


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Flames continued to be used for defensive light until artificial lights were developed. At the Siege of Badajoz in 1812, the French defenders flung down burning "carcasses" of straw so that the attacking British might be seen. Like the sieges of old, the British were met by incendiary weapons, but now these took the form of explosive grenades, mines and powder barrels as well as the enemy's guns.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Specific weapons from the ancient and medieval periods continued to develop, and many have modern equivalents. Rocket technology, originally trialled by the Mongols, Indians and the Chinese, amongst others, was improved by the 19th century; one example was the incendiary Congreve rocket, which had a tail, a fuse, and a powder charge (saltpetre, sulfur and carbon) inside a hollow shell. Grenades continued to develop, although still retaining some aspects of their medieval equivalents. The grenades carried on board British Royal Navy ships in the late 18th century and early 19th century were constructed from hollow cast iron, filled with gunpowder; the fuse was a hollow wooden tube filled with combustible material. During World War I, grenades were still occasionally launched by ballistae.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: The use of some weapons continued with little change. The Koreans used fire arrows against the Japanese at the Battle of Hansan Island in 1592. At Trafalgar, in 1805, the British ship "Tonnant" shot wads covered in sulfur, which set fire to the "Algésiras". Fireships were used in later periods. In 1588, the English sent fireships loaded with gunpowder, pitch and tar amongst the anchored Spanish Armada; the Spanish fleet broke formation, setting them up for the later battle. The last battle under sail was the Battle of Navarino (1827), part of the Greek War of Independence, during which fireships were utilised by the Turks.


title: Early thermal weapons

text: Chemical warfare had been experimented with during the early period with sulfur, quicklime (calcium oxide), and others, and developments continued. World War I saw many gases used, including the extremely effective sulfur mustard (mustard gas).


title: Systole

text: Systole ( ) is the part of the cardiac cycle during which some chambers of the heart contract after refilling with blood. The term originates, via New Latin, from Ancient Greek ("sustolē"), from ("sustéllein" 'to contract'; from "sun" 'together' + "stéllein" 'to send'), and is similar to the use of the English term "to squeeze".


title: Systole

text: The mammalian heart has four chambers: the left atrium above the left ventricle (lighter pink, see graphic), which two are connected through the mitral (or bicuspid) valve; and the right atrium above the right ventricle (lighter blue), connected through the tricuspid valve. The atria are the receiving blood chambers for the circulation of blood and the ventricles are the discharging chambers.


title: Systole

text: In late ventricular diastole, the atrial chambers contract and send blood to the larger, lower ventricle chambers. This flow fills the ventricles with blood, and the resulting pressure closes the valves to the atria. The ventricles now perform isovolumetric contraction, which is contraction while all valves are closed. This contraction ends the first stage of systole. The second stage proceeds immediately, pumping oxygenated blood from the left ventricle through the aortic valve and aorta to all body systems, and simultaneously pumping oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle through the pulmonic valve and pulmonary artery to the lungs. Thus, the pairs of chambers (upper atria and lower ventricles) contract in alternating sequence to each other. First, atrial contraction feeds blood into the ventricles, then ventricular contraction pumps blood out of the heart to the body systems, including the lungs for resupply of oxygen.


title: Systole

text: Cardiac systole is the contraction of the cardiac muscle in response to an electrochemical stimulus to the heart's cells (cardiomyocytes).


title: Systole

text: Cardiac output is the volume of blood pumped by the ventricles in one minute. The ejection fraction is the volume of blood pumped divided by the total volume of blood in the left ventricle.


title: Systole

text: Atrial systole occurs late in ventricular diastole and represents the contraction of myocardium of the left and right atria. The sharp decrease in ventricular pressure that occurs during ventricular diastole allows the atrioventricular valves (or mitral and tricuspid valves) to open and causes the contents of the atria to empty into the ventricles. The atrioventricular valves remain open while the aortic and pulmonary valves remain closed because the pressure gradient between the atrium and ventricle is preserved during late ventricular diastole. Atrial contraction confers a minor-fraction addition to ventricular filling, but becomes significant in left ventricular hypertrophy, or thickening of the heart wall, as the ventricle does not fully relax during its diastole. Loss of normal electrical conduction in the heart—as seen during atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and complete heart block—may eliminate atrial systole completely.


title: Systole

text: Contraction of the atria follows depolarization, represented by the P wave of the ECG. As both atrial chambers contract—from the superior region of the atria toward the atrioventricular septum—pressure rises within the atria and blood is pumped into the ventricles through the open atrioventricular valves. At the start of atrial systole, during ventricular diastole, the ventricles are normally filled to about 70–80 percent of capacity by inflow from the atria. Atrial contraction also referred to as the "atrial kick," contributes the remaining 20–30 percent of ventricular filling. Atrial systole lasts approximately 100 ms and ends prior to ventricular systole, as the atrial muscle returns to diastole.


title: Systole

text: The two ventricles are isolated electrically and histologically (tissue-wise) from the two atrial chambers by electrically impermeable collagen layers of connective tissue known as the cardiac skeleton. The cardiac skeleton is made of dense connective tissue which gives structure to the heart by forming the atrioventricular septum—which separates the atria from the ventricles—and the fibrous rings which serve as bases for the four heart valves. Collagen extensions from the valve rings seal and limit electrical activity of the atria from influencing electrical pathways that cross the ventricles. These electrical pathways contain the sinoatrial node, the atrioventricular node, and the Purkinje fibers. (Exceptions such as accessory pathways may occur in this firewall between atrial and ventricular electrical influence but are rare.)


title: Systole

text: Cardiac rate control via pharmacology is common today; for example, the therapeutic use of digoxin, beta adrenoceptor antagonists, or calcium channel blockers are important historical interventions in this condition. Notably, individuals prone to hypercoagulability (abnormality of blood coagulation) are at decided risk of blood clotting, a very serious pathology requiring therapy for life with an anticoagulant if it cannot be corrected.


title: Systole

text: The atrial chambers each contains one valve: the tricuspid valve in the right atrium opens into the right ventricle, and the mitral (or bicuspid) valve in the left atrium opens into the left ventricle. Both valves are pressed open during the late stages of ventricular diastole; see Wiggers diagram at the P/QRS phase (at right margin). Then the contractions of atrial systole cause the right ventricle to fill with oxygen-depleted blood through the tricuspid valve. When the right atrium is emptied—or prematurely closed—right atrial systole ends, and this stage signals the end of "ventricular diastole" and the beginning of "ventricular systole" (see Wiggers diagram). The time variable for the right systolic cycle is measured from (tricuspid) valve-open to valve-closed.


title: Systole

text: The contractions of atrial systole fill the left ventricle with oxygen-enriched blood through the mitral valve; when the left atrium is emptied or closed, left atrial systole is ended and ventricular systole is about to begin. The time variable for the left systolic cycle is measured from (mitral) valve-open to valve-closed.


title: Systole

text: Atrial fibrillation represents a common electrical malady in the heart that appears during the time interval of atrial systole (see figure at right margin). Theory suggests that an ectopic focus, usually situated within the pulmonary trunks, competes with the sinoatrial node for electrical control of the atrial chambers and thereby diminishes the performance of the atrial myocardium, or atrial heart muscle. The ordered, sinoatrial control of atrial electrical activity is disrupted, causing the loss of coordinated generation of pressure in the two atrial chambers. Atrial fibrillation represents an electrically-disordered but well perfused atrial mass working (in an uncoordinated fashion) with a (comparatively) electrically-healthy ventricular systole.


title: Systole

text: The compromised load caused by atrial fibrillation detracts from the overall performance of the heart, but the ventricles continue to work as an effective pump. Given this pathology, the ejection fraction may deteriorate by ten to thirty percent. Uncorrected atrial fibrillation can lead to heart rates approaching 200 beats per minute (bpm). If this rate can be slowed to a normal range, say about 80 bpm, the resultant longer fill-time within the cardiac cycle restores or improves the pumping capability of the heart. The labored breathing, for example, of individuals with uncontrolled atrial fibrillation, can often be returned to normal by (electrical or medical) cardioversion.


title: Systole

text: A Wiggers diagram of ventricular systole graphically depicts the sequence of contractions by the myocardium of the two ventricles. Ventricular systole induces self-contraction such that pressure in both left and right ventricles rises to a level above that in the two atrial chambers, thereby closing the tricuspid and mitral valves—which are prevented from inverting by the chordae tendineae and the papillary muscles. Now ventricular pressure continues to rise in isovolumetric, or fixed-volume, contraction phase until maximal pressure (dP/dt = 0) occurs, causing the pulmonary and aortic valves to open in ejection phase. In ejection phase, blood flows from the two ventricles down its pressure gradient—that is, 'down' from higher pressure to lower pressure—into (and through) the aorta and the pulmonary trunk respectively. Notably, cardiac muscle perfusion through the heart's coronary vessels doesn't happen during ventricular systole; rather, it occurs during ventricular diastole.


title: Systole

text: The pulmonary (or pulmonic) valve in the right ventricle opens into the pulmonary trunk, also known as the pulmonary artery, which divides twice to connect to each of the left and right lungs. In the left ventricle, the aortic valve opens into the aorta which divides and re-divides into the several branch arteries that connect to all body organs and systems except the lungs.


title: Systole

text: By its contractions, right ventricular (RV) systole pulses oxygen-depleted blood through the pulmonary valve through the pulmonary arteries to the lungs, providing pulmonary circulation; simultaneously, left ventricular (LV) systole pumps blood through the aortic valve, the aorta, and all the arteries to provide systemic circulation of oxygenated blood to all body systems. The left ventricular systole enables blood pressure to be routinely measured in the larger arteries of the left ventricle of the heart.


title: Systole

text: LV systole is volumetrically defined as the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Similarly, RV systole is defined as the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF). Higher than normal RVEF is indicative of pulmonary hypertension. The time variables of the ventricular systoles are: right ventricle, pulmonary valve-open to valve-closed; left ventricle, aortic valve-open to valve-closed.


title: Systole

text: The sinoatrial node (S-A Node) is the heart's natural pacemaker, issuing electrical signaling that travels through the heart muscle, causing it to contract repeatedly in cycle. It is situated at the top of the right atrium adjacent to the junction with the superior vena cava. The S-A Node is a pale yellow structure. For humans, it is approximately 25 mm long, 3–4 mm wide and 2 mm thick. It contains two types of cells: (a) the small, round P "cells" which have very few "organelles and myofibrils," and (b")" the slender elongated "transitional cells", which are intermediate in appearance between the P and the ordinary myocardial cells. Intact, the SA node provides continual electrical discharge known as sinus rhythm through the atrial mass, the signals of which then coalesce at the atrioventricular node, there to be organized to provide a rhythmic electrical pulse into and across the ventricles through sodium-, potassium- or calcium-gated ion channels.


title: Systole

text: The continual rhythmic discharge generates a wavelike movement of electrical ripples that stimulate the smooth muscles of the myocardium and cause rhythmic contractions to progress from top to bottom of the heart. As the pulse moves out of the (upper) atria into the (lower) ventricles, it is distributed throughout a muscular network to cause systolic contraction of both ventricular chambers simultaneously. The actual pace of the cycle—just how fast or slowly the heart beats—is cued by messages from the brain, reflecting the brain's responses to conditions of the body, such as pain, emotional stress, level of activity, and to ambient conditions including external temperature, time of day, etc.


title: Systole

text: Electrical systole opens voltage-gated sodium, potassium and calcium channels in cells of myocardium tissue. Subsequently, a rise in intracellular calcium triggers the interaction of actin and myosin in the presence of ATP which generates mechanical force in the cells in the form of muscular contraction, or mechanical systole. The contractions generate intra-ventricular pressure, which is increased until it exceeds the external, residual pressures in the adjacent trunks of both the pulmonary artery and the aorta; this stage, in turn, causes the pulmonary and aortic valves to open. Blood is then ejected from the two ventricles, pulsing into both the pulmonic and aortic circulation systems.


title: Systole

text: Mechanical systole causes the pulse, which itself is readily palpated (felt) or seen at several points on the body, enabling universally adopted methods—by touch or by eye—for observing systolic blood pressure.


title: Systole

text: The mechanical forces of systole cause rotation of the muscle mass around the long and short axes, a process that can be observed as a "wringing" of the ventricles.


title: Systole

text: Systole of the heart is initiated by electrically excitable cells situated in the sinoatrial node. These cells are activated spontaneously by depolarization of the electrical potential across their cell membranes, which causes voltage-gated calcium channels on the cell membrane to open and allow calcium ions to pass through into the sarcoplasm (cytoplasm) of cardiac muscle cells. Calcium ions bind to molecular receptors on the sarcoplasmic reticulum (see graphic), which causes a flux (flow) of calcium ions into the sarcoplasm.


title: Systole

text: Calcium ions bind to troponin C, causing a conformational (i.e., structural) change in the troponin-tropomyosin protein complex, causing the myosin head (binding) sites on F-actin filamentous proteins to be exposed, which causes muscle contraction to occur.


title: Systole

text: The cardiac action potential spreads distally (or outwardly) to the small branches of the Purkinje tree via the flux of cations through gap junctions that connect the sarcoplasms of adjacent myocytes.


title: Systole

text: The electrical activity of ventricular systole is coordinated by the atrioventricular node, which is a discrete collection of cells that receives electrical stimulation from the left and right atria and can provide an intrinsic (albeit slower) heart pacemaker activity. The cardiac action potential is propagated down electrical pathways through the bundle of His to the Purkinje fibres; this electrical flux causes coordinated depolarisation and excitation-contraction coupling from the apex of the heart up to the roots of the great vessels.


title: Systole

text: When blood pressure is stated for medical purposes, it is usually written with the systolic and diastolic pressures separated by a slash, for example, 120/80 mmHg. This clinical notation is not a mathematical figure for a fraction or ratio, nor a display of a numerator over a denominator. Rather, it is a medical notation showing the two clinically significant pressures involved (systole followed by diastole). It is often shown followed by a third number, the value of the heart rate (in beats per minute), which typically is measured jointly with blood pressure readings.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Moonlight Mile is a 2002 American romantic drama film written and directed by Brad Silberling. This film was loosely inspired by writer/director Brad Silberling's own experience. He was dating actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the time she was killed by an obsessed fan in 1989.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: The film takes its name from the Rolling Stones song of the same name. The film's original title was "Baby's in Black", and then later changed to "Goodbye Hello", and then the current title. The film is set in 1973 and music from that era is heavily featured, including that of the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Elton John.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Following the murder of Diana Floss in a restaurant in Cape Ann, Massachusetts in 1972, her fiancé Joe Nast elects to stay with her parents. Her father, Ben, is a realtor whose business partner has recently left. Ben and Joe go into business as Floss & Son, as this was their plan before Diana's death. Joe goes to the post office to retrieve all the invitations that had been sent out for his and Diana's wedding, and with the help of Bertie Knox he retrieves seventy-four of seventy-five. She finds the last invitation and takes it to his house later that night. He drops her off at a local bar, and returns home, despite her inviting him in for a drink. Joe and Ben attend a local property fair, and Ben pitches the idea of redeveloping a block in the town to developer Mike Mulcahey. Mulcahey agrees, but they need to get all the tenants to agree.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Diana's friends come around to look through her possessions, much to the consternation of her mother, Jojo. They then take Joe out for a drink at the same bar Bertie went to the previous night. Joe puts "Moonlight Mile" on the jukebox and Bertie dances with him. Joe convinces Ben to let him talk to the bar's owner to convince them to sell. Feeling trapped at the Floss home, he meets Bertie and tells her about Diana. He confesses to her that he had split up with Diana three days before she was killed. Bertie tells Joe about her boyfriend, the owner of the bar, who is lost in Vietnam.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: One night Joe sneaks out the window to go see Bertie again. They sleep together, and he leaves the next morning, slipping back into Diana's house through the window. Jojo is sitting in the room, drinking, knowing that he was out seeing another woman, and saddened by the idea that she had always known he would have never ended up with her daughter. She does not want Joe to leave, as they have formed a bond.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Joe goes to dinner at the Mulcahey's, where Mike's wife presumes aloud that Joe was not still tied up with thoughts of his fiancee's murder. Joe states that this is not the case, upsetting the mood at the dinner table. Mike calls Ben and ends their deal.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Bertie confronts Joe about what happened between them, and they have an argument in which he tells her no one believes her boyfriend is coming home and that she deserved better anyway. She leaves, upset.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: The family attends the trial of Diana's murderer. However, the murderer's wife elicits sympathy from the jury, and the prosecutor, Mona Camp, asks Joe to testify and help the jury gain sympathy for Diana. While on the witness stand, Joe confesses that he and Diana had broken up prior to her death, and had not told her parents. Ben and Jojo are happy with the confession and gain closure. Joe symbolically writes 75 letters expressing his newfound clarity about what course his life ought to take and his love for Bertie, and places them in mailboxes around town, hoping that one will get to her.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: Ben closes the shop, Jojo resumes her writing career, Bertie sells the bar, and she and Joe leave town.


title: Moonlight Mile (film)

text: "Moonlight Mile" received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, gave the film a 63% approval rating out of 149 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Though the story feels rather contrived, "Moonlight Mile" is redeemed by the good performances of its cast."


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: Cirit is a laser-guided 70 mm missile system under production by Turkish arms industry manufacturer ROKETSAN. It is one of the projects launched by Turkey to equip the Turkish Army's T-129 Atak, AH-1P Cobra and AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters with low-cost precision strike capabilities. It has been selected by Eurocopter for execution of a test and integration program to equip the Eurocopter EC635. The weapon's name comes from a traditional Turkish horseback game, Cirit (pronounced "Jirit"), where two teams of riders fight a mock battle using wooden javelins which are called cirit.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: Cirit is a 70 mm (2.75 in) guided missile system fitted with a semi-active laser homing seeker. The seeker and guidance section is attached to a purpose-built warhead with a Class 5 Insensitive Munition (IM). The multipurpose warhead has a combined armour-piercing ammunition with enhanced behind armor anti-personnel and incendiary effects. The engine is of reduced smoke design, with IM properties. It is connected to the rear section by a roll bearing that enables it to rotate in flight. There are four small stabilising surfaces at the very rear of the missile in front of the exhaust nozzle that ensures stable flight. Roketsan has developed a new launch pod and a new canister in which Cirit is delivered as an all-up round. The Cirit has a maximum effective guided range of 8 km with a high probability of hit on a 3×3 m target at this range.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: Roketsan had opted not to follow the lead of other similar 70 mm (2.75 in) guided rocket programmes and has developed the Cirit as an all-up round and not as an add-on guidance kit for existing unguided rockets. This has seen the company work on several new components for the rocket including its semi-active laser seeker, actuation and control systems, bearings, computer hardware and software.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: Multipurpose high performance warhead, motor and specific container were designed and developed by TUBITAK-SAGE.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: The Cirit is designed for use with existing 70 mm rocket launchers such as the LAU-61, LAU-68, LAU-130, LAU-131, M260 and M261. Roketsan is also developing a new series of digital launchers, with seven and 19 tubes, to take advantage of the Cirit's MIL-STD-1760 databus capabilities.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: 12 January 2010, Roketsan's Cirit is the first 2.75" laser guided rocket to engage moving targets. Cirit successfully engaged a moving target travelling at 60 km/h while the platform (AH-1W Super Cobra) it was fired from was moving at 220 km/h (120 knots).


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: 12 May 2011, Roketsan signed an agreement with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for the integration of its Cirit Smart Launcher System on the T-129 attack helicopter.


title: Roketsan Cirit

text: 2018: Serialized production of the shortened (970mm) unpowered MAM-C micro munition based on the Cirit.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Church of England traces its history back to 597. That year, a group of missionaries sent by the pope and led by Augustine of Canterbury began the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Throughout the Middle Ages, the English Church was a part of the Catholic Church led by the pope in Rome. Over the years, the church won many legal privileges and amassed vast wealth and property. This was often a point of contention between Kings of England and the church.


title: History of the Church of England

text: During the English Reformation, which began under Henry VIII, papal authority was abolished in England and the king became Supreme Head of the Church of England. Henry dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their assets. The church was briefly reunited with Rome during the reign of Mary I but separated once again under Elizabeth I. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement established the Church of England as a conservative Protestant church. During this time, the "Book of Common Prayer" was authorised as the church's official liturgy and the Thirty-nine Articles as a doctrinal statement. These continue to be important expressions of Anglicanism.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Settlement failed to end religious disputes. While most of the population gradually conformed to the established church, a minority of recusants remained loyal Roman Catholics. Within the Church of England, Puritans pressed to remove what they considered papist abuses from the church's liturgy and to replace bishops with a presbyterian system in which all ministers were equal. After Elizabeth's death, the Puritans were challenged by a high church, Arminian party that gained power during the reign of Charles I. The English Civil War and overthrow of the monarchy allowed the Puritans to pursue their reform agenda and the dismantling of the Elizabethan Settlement. After the Restoration in 1660, Puritans were forced out of the Church of England. Anglicans started defining their church as a "via media" or middle way between the religious extremes of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; Arminianism and Calvinism; and high church and low church.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In the 1700s and 1800s, revival movements contributed to the rise of Evangelical Anglicanism. In the 19th century, the Oxford Movement gave rise to Anglo-Catholicism, a movement that emphasises the Church of England's Catholic heritage. As the British Empire grew, Anglican churches were established in other parts of the world. These churches consider the Church of England to be a mother church, and it maintains a leading role in the Anglican Communion.


title: History of the Church of England

text: There is evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain as early as the 3rd century. The inhabitants of the island developed a distinctive Christian tradition known as Celtic Christianity. The Roman Empire ceased to govern Britain after 409. Thereafter, the Romano-British were conquered by Germanic peoples known collectively as Anglo-Saxons. The new inhabitants practiced Anglo-Saxon paganism, and the Celtic Church was confined to Cornwall and Wales.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In the 580s, Æthelberht, king of Kent, married the Frankish princess Bertha. Bertha was allowed to remain a Christian and was accompanied by clergy, including a Frankish bishop named Liudhard. Her husband gave her St Martin's Church, a Romano-British church outside of Canterbury, to worship in. Probably influenced by his wife, Æthelberht asked Pope Gregory I to send missionaries, and in 596 the Pope dispatched Augustine, together with a party of priests and monks. This Gregorian Mission arrived in 597. At Christmas, a mass baptism saw around 10,000 people convert to Christianity. Æthelberht was baptised in 601.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Over the next few years, the organisation of the English Church was laid out by Pope Gregory and Augustine. While ultimately under papal authority, the church was to be divided into two ecclesiastical provinces, each led by a metropolitan or archbishop. The northern province was to be based at York and the southern province was to be based at London. Augustine, as archbishop of the southern province, was to have final authority over the entire English Church. Augustine and his successors never moved to London, remaining at Canterbury instead. This division between the Province of Canterbury led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Province of York led by the Archbishop of York remains into the 21st century. Controversially, Pope Gregory gave Augustine authority over the indigenous Celtic British bishops. In response, the British bishops refused to cooperate with the Roman missionaries. The Celtic and Roman churches disagreed on several issues. The most important was the date of Easter. There were other differences over baptismal customs and the style of tonsure worn by monks.In 625, the Italian monk Paulinus left Kent with the Princess Æthelburh of Kent, who married King Edwin of Northumbria. Edwin was baptised in 627, and Paulinus became the first Bishop of York. Paulinus fled after Edwin was defeated and killed in battle in 633. The new king, Oswald of Northumbria, promoted the Celtic Christian tradition as practiced at Iona, a center of Celtic monasticism. Saint Aidan established a monastery at Lindisfarne. Under King Oswiu of Northumbria, tensions between followers of the Roman and Celtic traditions continued. To settle matters, Osiwu summoned the Synod of Whitby in 664. Both sides made arguments, but the king decided that Northumbria would follow the Roman tradition. His decision was decided on the basis of authority: the successors of Saint Peter outweighed the successors of Saint Columba.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 668, Theodore of Tarsus became Archbishop of Canterbury. He contributed to the organisation of Christianity in England, reforming many aspects of the church's administration. At the Synod of Hertford in 672, canons were adopted to promote greater uniformity, among these that the English bishops should hold an annual council at Clovesho. A major reorganisation of the English church occurred the late 700s. King Offa of Mercia wanted his own kingdom to have an archbishop since the Archbishop of Canterbury was also a great Kentish magnate. In 787, a council of the English church attended by two papal legates elevated the Diocese of Lichfield into an archbishopric. There were now three provinces in England: York, Lichfield and Canterbury. However, this arrangement was abandoned in 803, and Lichfield was reabsorbed into the Province of Canterbury.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Initially, the diocese was the only administrative unit in the Anglo-Saxon church. The bishop served the diocese from a cathedral town with the help of a group of priests known as the bishop's "familia". These priests would baptise, teach and visit the remoter parts of the diocese. "Familiae" were placed in other important settlements, and these were called minsters. England suffered from Viking raids beginning in the late 8th century. Monasteries and minster-churches were favorite targets since much of England's portable wealth was held there in the form of golden crosses, altar plate, and jewels decorating relics and illuminated Bibles. Eventually, the raids turned into wars of conquest and the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and parts of Mercia were conquered (see Danelaw).


title: History of the Church of England

text: Alfred the Great of Wessex and his successors led the Anglo-Saxon resistance and reconquest, culminating in the formation of a single Kingdom of England. Kings were able to "govern the church largely unimpeded". Bishops were chosen by the king and tended to be recruited from among royal chaplains or monasteries. The bishop-elect was then presented at a synod where clerical approval was obtained and consecration followed. The appointment of an archbishop was more complicated and required approval from the pope. The Archbishop of Canterbury had to travel to Rome to receive the pallium, his symbol of office. These visits to Rome and the payments that accompanied them (such as Peter's Pence) was a point of contention.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In the late 10th century, the Benedictine Reform movement helped to restore monasticism in England after the Viking attacks of the 9th century. The most prominent reformers were Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury (959–988), Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester (963–984), and Archbishop Oswald of York (971–992). The reform movement was supported by King Edgar (). One result of the reforms was the creation of monastic cathedrals at Canterbury, Worcester, Winchester, and Sherborne. These were staffed by cloistered monks, while other cathedrals were staffed by secular clergy called canons. By 1066, there were over 45 monasteries in England, and monks were chosen as bishops more often than in other parts of western Europe.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Most villages would have had a church by 1042, as the parish system developed as an outgrowth of manorialism. The parish church was a private church built and endowed by the lord of the manor, who retained the right to nominate the parish priest. The priest supported himself by farming his glebe and was also entitled to other support from parishioners. The most important was the tithe, the right to collect one-tenth of all produce from land or animals. Originally, the tithe was a voluntary gift, but the church successfully made it a compulsory tax by the 10th century.


title: History of the Church of England

text: By 1000, there were eighteen dioceses in England: Canterbury, Rochester, London, Winchester, Dorchester, Ramsbury, Sherborne, Selsey, Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, Crediton, Cornwall, Elmham, Lindsey, Wells, York and Durham. To assist bishops in supervising the parishes and monasteries within their dioceses, the office of archdeacon was created. Once a year, the bishop would summon parish priests to the cathedral for a synod. According to the Domesday Book, the church owned between 25% and 33% of all land in England in 1066.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England claiming he was the rightful heir to Edward the Confessor. He appealed to Pope Alexander II who gave his blessing and ordered English clergy to submit to William's authority. At the time of the Norman Conquest, there were only 15 diocesan bishops in England, increased to 17 in the 12th century with the creation of the sees of Ely and Carlisle. This is far fewer than the numbers in France and Italy. A further four medieval dioceses in Wales came within the Province of Canterbury.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Norman Conquest led to the replacement of the old Anglo-Saxon elite by a new ruling class of Anglo-Normans in both the secular nobility as well as the episcopate. In 1070, three papal legates arrived to oversee the reform of the English church. At a council held at Winchester, Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, his brother Bishop Æthelmær of Elmham, and the married Bishop Leofwin of Lichfield were deprived of office. At a later council at Windsor, Bishop Æthelric of Selsey was also deprived of his office. Another bishop, Æthelwine of Durham, lost his see when he was declared an outlaw and imprisoned by the king. By the end of the year, there were only two Anglo-Saxon bishops left: Siward of Rochester and Saint Wulfstan of Worcester. Thereafter, William was able to fill the English sees with reformists such as Lanfranc of Bec for Canterbury and Thomas of Bayeux for York. He continued the English custom of recruiting bishops from the royal household and chapel.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 1072, William and his archbishop, Lanfranc, sought to complete the programme of reform begun by Archbishop Dunstan. Durham and Rochester cathedrals were refounded as Benedictine monasteries, the secular cathedral of Wells was moved to monastic Bath, while the secular cathedral of Lichfield was moved to Chester, and then to monastic Coventry. Norman bishops were seeking to establish an endowment income entirely separate from that of their cathedral body, and this was inherently more difficult in a monastic cathedral, where the bishop was also titular abbot. Hence, following Lanfranc's death in 1090, a number of bishops took advantage of the vacancy to obtain secular constitutions for their cathedrals – Lincoln, Sarum, Chichester, Exeter and Hereford; while the major urban cathedrals of London and York always remained secular. Furthermore, when the bishops' seats were transferred back from Coventry to Lichfield, and from Bath to Wells, these sees reverted to being secular. Bishops of monastic cathedrals, tended to find themselves embroiled in long-running legal disputes with their respective monastic bodies; and increasingly tended to reside elsewhere. The bishops of Ely and Winchester lived in London as did the Archbishop of Canterbury. The bishops of Worcester generally lived in York, while the bishops of Carlisle lived at Melbourne in Derbyshire. Monastic governance of cathedrals continued in England, Scotland and Wales throughout the medieval period; whereas elsewhere in western Europe it was found only at Monreale in Sicily and Downpatrick in Ireland.


title: History of the Church of England

text: As in other parts of medieval Europe, tension existed between the local monarch and the Pope about civil judicial authority over clerics, taxes and the wealth of the Church, and appointments of bishops, notably during the reigns of Henry II and John (see Investiture Controversy).


title: History of the Church of England

text: An important aspect in the practice of medieval Christianity was the veneration of saints, and the associated pilgrimages to places where the relics of a particular saint were interred and the saint's tradition honoured. The possession of the relics of a popular saint was a source of funds to the individual church as the faithful made donations and benefactions in the hope that they might receive spiritual aid, a blessing or a healing from the presence of the physical remains of the holy person. Among those churches to benefit in particular were: St. Alban's Abbey, which contained the relics of England's first Christian martyr; Ripon, with the shrine of its founder St. Wilfrid; Durham, which was built to house the body of Saints Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and Aidan; Ely, with the shrine of St. Etheldreda; Westminster Abbey, with the shrine of its founder St. Edward the Confessor; and Chichester, which held the honoured remains of St. Richard. All these saints brought pilgrims to their churches, but among them the most renowned was Thomas Becket, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, who was assassinated by henchmen of King Henry II in 1170. As a place of pilgrimage Canterbury was, in the 13th century, second only to Santiago de Compostela.


title: History of the Church of England

text: John Wycliffe (about 1320 – 31 December 1384) was an English theologian and an early dissident against the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He founded the Lollard movement, which opposed a number of practices of the church. He was also against papal encroachments on secular power. Wycliffe was associated with statements indicating that the Church of Rome is not the head of all churches, nor did St Peter have any more powers given to him than other disciples. These statements were related to his call for a reformation of its wealth, corruption and abuses. Wycliffe, an Oxford scholar, went so far as to state that "The Gospel by itself is a rule sufficient to rule the life of every Christian person on the earth, without any other rule." The Lollard movement continued with his pronouncements from pulpits even under the persecution that followed with Henry IV up to and including the early years of the reign of Henry VIII.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Catholicism taught that the contrite person could cooperate with God towards their salvation by performing good works (see synergism). God's grace was given through the seven sacraments—baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, anointing of the sick, penance and the Eucharist. The Eucharist was celebrated during the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship. In this service, a priest consecrated bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ through transubstantiation. The church taught that, in the name of the congregation, the priest offered to God the same sacrifice of Christ on the cross that provided atonement for the sins of humanity. The Mass was also an offering of prayer by which the living could help souls in purgatory. While penance removed the guilt attached to sin, Catholicism taught that a penalty still remained. It was believed that most people would end their lives with these penalties unsatisfied and would have to spend time in purgatory. Time in purgatory could be lessened through indulgences and prayers for the dead, which were made possible by the communion of saints.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In the late Middle Ages, Catholicism was an essential part of English life and culture. The 9,000 parishes covering all of England were overseen by a hierarchy of deaneries, archdeaconries, dioceses led by bishops, and ultimately the pope who presided over the Catholic Church from Rome.


title: History of the Church of England

text: This connection to Rome was severed during the reign of Henry VIII. Desperate for a male heir, the king sought papal consent to annul his marriage to Catharine of Aragon, freeing him to marry Anne Boleyn. When the pope refused his request, Henry launched a campaign to strip the papacy of any authority in England. Under intense pressure, the Convocation of Canterbury renounced its authority to make canon law without royal approval in the 1532 Submission of the Clergy. In 1533, Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals, barring legal cases from being appealed outside England. This allowed the Archbishop of Canterbury to annul the marriage without reference to Rome. In November 1534, the Act of Supremacy formally abolished papal authority in England and declared Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England. The majority of English clergy were intimidated or bribed into acquiescing with the separation.


title: History of the Church of England

text: People supported the separation for different reasons. Important clergy, such as Bishop Stephen Gardiner, believed their loyalty belonged to the English king rather than a foreign pope. Christian humanists argued that papal supremacy was a recent historical development and was therefore not essential to the church's identity. The gentry and nobility wanted to diminish the power of the clergy. The king ordered the dissolution of the monasteries, confiscating the enormous wealth of these church institutions. Henry then granted or sold much of the land to laymen, ensuring these men would support the break with Rome out of financial interest.


title: History of the Church of England

text: But the most important constituency backing royal supremacy were followers of a new movement—Protestantism. The Protestant Reformation was initiated by a German monk named Martin Luther. The main plank of Luther's theology was justification by faith alone rather than by good works. In this view, God's unmerited favour is the only way for humans to be justified—it cannot be achieved or earned by righteous living. In other words, justification is a gift from God received through faith. If Luther was correct, then the Mass, the sacraments, charitable acts, prayers to saints, prayers for the dead, pilgrimage, and the veneration of relics do not mediate divine favor. To believe they can would be superstition at best and idolatry at worst. Not only did purgatory lack any biblical basis according to Protestants, but the clergy were accused of using fear of purgatory to make money from prayers and masses. Catholics countered that justification by faith alone was a "licence to sin".


title: History of the Church of England

text: Protestantism had made inroads in England from 1520 onwards, but Protestants had been a persecuted minority considered heretics by both church and state. By 1534, they were Henry's greatest allies. He even chose the Protestant Thomas Cranmer to be Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 1536, the king first exercised his power to pronounce doctrine. That year, the Ten Articles became the first doctrinal statement of the Church of England. It kept most of the traditional Catholic doctrines and practices (purgatory, veneration of saints, and the real presence), but it also contained Lutheran teachings (justification by faith and three instead of seven sacraments). Under Thomas Cromwell, the King's vicegerent in spirituals, relics and images of saints were declared to be superstition. Between 1536 and 1538, iconoclasm was condoned by the government. By 1539, a traditionalist counterreaction began. Parliament passed the Six Articles, which reinforced the medieval heresy laws and silenced opposition to traditional doctrines such as transubstantiation.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Edward VI (reigned 1547–1553), Henry's son, became king at the age of nine. Under the guidance of Protestant councilors, including Cranmer, the Church of England was transformed into a fully Protestant church. A "Book of Homilies" was published, from which all clergy were to preach from on Sundays. The homilies condemned relics, images, rosary beads, holy water, palms, and other "papistical superstitions". It also taught justification by faith alone. Government sanctioned iconoclasm led to the destruction of images and relics. Stained glass, shrines, statues, and roods were defaced or destroyed. Church walls were whitewashed and covered with biblical texts condemning idolatry. The Chantries Act 1547 abolished the chantries and confiscated their assets. A chantry was an endowment that paid priests to say mass for the dead for the purpose of aiding souls in purgatory.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The most significant reform in Edward's reign was the adoption of an English liturgy to replace the old Latin rites. The doctrine of justification by faith is implicit throughout the 1549 "Book of Common Prayer", but the Catholic doctrines of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass are rejected. Nevertheless, many reformers complained that the prayer book was too traditional. The 1552 "Book of Common Prayer" was explicitly Protestant, going so far as to deny the real presence. John Hooper refused to be consecrated a bishop while wearing the required vestments (a black chimere over a white rochet) igniting the first vestments controversy, which was essentially a conflict over whether the Church could require people to observe ceremonies that were neither necessary for salvation nor prohibited by scripture.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In June 1553, the Church promulgated a Protestant doctrinal statement, the Forty-Two Articles. It affirmed predestination and denied the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. However, three weeks later Edward was dead.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Following the death of Edward, his half-sister the Roman Catholic Mary I (reigned 1553–1558) came to the throne. She reversed the religious policies of her father and brother and re-established unity with Rome. The Marian Persecutions of Protestants and dissenters took place at this time. The queen's image after the persecutions turned into that of an almost legendary tyrant called Bloody Mary. This perception was mainly due to the widespread publication of "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" after her death. Nigel Heard summarises the persecution thus: "It is now estimated that the 274 religious executions carried out during the last three years of Mary's reign exceeded the number recorded in any Catholic country on the continent in the same period."


title: History of the Church of England

text: When Queen Mary died childless in November 1558, her half-sister became Queen Elizabeth I. The first task was to settle England's religious conflicts. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement established how the Church of England would worship and how it was to be governed. In essence, the Church was returned to where it stood in 1553 before Edward's death. The Act of Supremacy made the monarch the Church's supreme governor. The Act of Uniformity restored a slightly altered 1552 "Book of Common Prayer".


title: History of the Church of England

text: Clergy faced fines and imprisonment for refusing to use the liturgy. As Roman Catholics, all the bishops except one refused to swear the Oath of Supremacy and were deprived of office. Recusants were Roman Catholics who refused to attend Church of England services as required by law. Recusancy was punishable by fines of £20 a month (fifty times an artisan's wage). "Church papists" were Roman Catholics who outwardly conformed to the established church while maintaining their Catholic faith in secret.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Thirty-nine Articles were produced by the Convocation of 1563 as a revision of the Forty-two Articles issued before Edward's death. The Queen vetoed Article 29, which stated that even though wicked and unworthy communicants consumed the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, they were not "partakers of Christ". This was a point of disagreement between Calvinists and Lutherans, and Article 29 affirmed the Calvinist view. In 1563, however, Elizabeth was concerned that such a theological slight would hurt diplomatic ties with Lutheran nations. She may also have been personally sympathetic to the Lutheran view. Nevertheless, this article was later restored, and the Thirty-Nine Articles were given parliamentary approval in 1571.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The settlement ensured the Church of England was definitively Protestant, but it was unclear what kind of Protestantism was being adopted. It did not help matters that royal injunctions issued in 1559 sometimes contradicted the prayer book. The injunctions specified traditional communion wafers should be used for Holy Communion even though the prayer book said to use regular bread. There was also confusion over the location and positioning of the communion tables. According to the injunctions when not being used for communion, the tables were to be moved where the stone altars once stood.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The prayer book's eucharistic theology was vague. The words of administration neither affirmed nor denied the real presence. Perhaps, a spiritual presence was implied, since Article 28 of the Thirty-nine Articles taught that the body of Christ was eaten "only after an heavenly and spiritual manner". Nevertheless, there was enough ambiguity to allow later theologians to articulate various versions of Anglican eucharistic theology.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Gradually, England was transformed into a Protestant country as the prayer book shaped Elizabethan religious life. By the end of Elizabeth's reign, most people were Protestants, and Roman Catholicism was "the faith of a small sect", largely confined to gentry households. A Calvinist consensus prevailed among leading churchmen during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Most Calvinists were willing to conform to the terms of the religious settlement. Others wanted further reforms to make the Church of England more like the Continental Reformed churches. These nonconformist Calvinists became known as Puritans. Some Puritans refused to bow at the name of Jesus, to make the sign of the cross in baptism, use wedding rings or organ music in church. They especially resented the requirement that clergy wear the white surplice and clerical cap. Puritan clergymen preferred to wear black academic attire (see Vestments controversy). Many Puritans believed the Church of England should follow the example of Reformed churches in other parts of Europe and adopt presbyterian polity, under which government by bishops would be replaced with government by elders. Conformists, such as John Bridges and John Whitgift, agreed with Puritans, like Thomas Cartwright, on the doctrines of predestination and election, but they resented Puritans for obsessing over minor ceremonies. In any event, all attempts to enact further reforms through Parliament were blocked by the Queen. There were anti-Calvinists, such as Benjamin Carier and Humphrey Leech. However, criticism of Calvinism was suppressed.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 1603, the King of Scotland inherited the English crown as James I. The Church of Scotland was even more strongly Reformed, having a presbyterian polity and John Knox's liturgy, the "Book of Common Order". James was himself a moderate Calvinist, and the Puritans hoped the King would move the English Church in the Scottish direction. James, however, did the opposite, forcing the Scottish Church to accept bishops and the Five Articles of Perth, all attempts to make it as similar as possible to the English Church.


title: History of the Church of England

text: At the start of his reign, Puritans presented the Millenary Petition to the King. This petition for church reform was referred to the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, which agreed to produce a new version of the "Book of Common Prayer" that incorporated a few changes requested by the Puritans. The most important outcome of the Conference, however, was the decision to produce a new translation of the Bible, the 1611 King James Version. While a disappointment for Puritans, the provisions were aimed at satisfying moderate Puritans and isolating them from their more radical counterparts.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Church of England's dominant theology was still Calvinism, but a group of theologians associated with Bishop Lancelot Andrewes disagreed with many aspects of the Reformed tradition, especially its teaching on predestination. Like the Puritans, Andrewes engaged in his own brand of nonconformity. In his private chapel, he added ceremonies and formulas not authorised in the prayer book, such as burning incense. James I tried to balance the Puritan forces within his church with followers of Andrewes, promoting many of them at the end of his reign. This group was led by Richard Neile of Durham and became known as the Durham House group. They looked to the Church Fathers rather than the Reformers and preferred using the more traditional 1549 prayer book. Due to their belief in free will, this new faction is known as the Arminian party, but their high church orientation was more controversial.


title: History of the Church of England

text: For the next century, through the reigns of James I and Charles I, and culminating in the English Civil War and the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, there were significant swings back and forth between two factions: the Puritans (and other radicals) who sought more far-reaching reform, and the more conservative churchmen who aimed to keep closer to traditional beliefs and practices. The failure of political and ecclesiastical authorities to submit to Puritan demands for more extensive reform was one of the causes of open warfare. By continental standards the level of violence over religion was not high, but the casualties included a king, Charles I and an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. For about a decade (1647–1660), Christmas was another casualty as Parliament abolished all feasts and festivals of the Church to rid England of outward signs of "Popishness". Under the Protectorate of the Commonwealth of England from 1649 to 1660, Anglicanism was disestablished, presbyterian ecclesiology was introduced as an adjunct to the Episcopal system, the Articles were replaced with a non-Presbyterian version of the Westminster Confession (1647), and the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Public Worship.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Despite this, about one quarter of English clergy refused to conform. In the midst of the apparent triumph of Calvinism, the 17th century brought forth a Golden Age of Anglicanism. The Caroline Divines, such as Andrewes, Laud, Herbert Thorndike, Jeremy Taylor, John Cosin, Thomas Ken and others rejected Roman claims and refused to adopt the ways and beliefs of the Continental Protestants. The historic episcopate was preserved. Truth was to be found in Scripture and the bishops and archbishops, which were to be bound to the traditions of the first four centuries of the Church's history. The role of reason in theology was affirmed.


title: History of the Church of England

text: With the Restoration of Charles II, Anglicanism too was restored in a form not far removed from the Elizabethan version. One difference was that the ideal of encompassing all the people of England in one religious organisation, taken for granted by the Tudors, had to be abandoned. The 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer became the unifying text of the ruptured and repaired Church after the disaster that was the civil war.


title: History of the Church of England

text: When the new king Charles II reached the throne in 1660, he actively appointed his supporters who had resisted Cromwell to vacancies. He translated the leading supporters to the most prestigious and rewarding sees. He also considered the need to reestablish episcopal authority and to reincorporate "moderate dissenters" in order to effect Protestant reconciliation. In some cases turnover was heavy—he made four appointments to the diocese of Worcester in four years 1660–63, moving the first three up to better positions.


title: History of the Church of England

text: James II was overthrown by William of Orange in 1688, and the new king moved quickly to ease religious tensions. Many of his supporters had been Nonconformist non-Anglicans. With the Act of Toleration enacted on 24 May 1689, Nonconformists had freedom of worship. That is, those Protestants who dissented from the Church of England such as Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers were allowed their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. These privileges expressly did not apply to Catholics and Unitarians, and it continued the existing social and political disabilities for dissenters, including exclusion from political office. The religious settlement of 1689 shaped policy down to the 1830s. The Church of England was not only dominant in religious affairs, but it blocked outsiders from responsible positions in national and local government, business, professions and academe. In practice, the doctrine of the divine right of kings persisted Old animosities had diminished, and a new spirit of toleration was abroad. Restrictions on Nonconformists were mostly either ignored or slowly lifted. The Protestants, including the Quakers, who worked to overthrow King James II were rewarded. The Toleration Act of 1689 allowed nonconformists who have their own chapels, teachers, and preachers, censorship was relaxed. The religious landscape of England assumed its present form, with an Anglican established church occupying the middle ground, and Roman Catholics and those Puritans who dissented from the establishment, too strong to be suppressed altogether, having to continue their existence outside the national church rather than controlling it.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The history of Anglicanism since the 17th century has been one of greater geographical and cultural expansion and diversity, accompanied by a concomitant diversity of liturgical and theological profession and practice.


title: History of the Church of England

text: At the same time as the English reformation, the Church of Ireland was separated from Rome and adopted articles of faith similar to England's Thirty-Nine Articles. However, unlike England, the Anglican church there was never able to capture the loyalty of the majority of the population (who still adhered to Roman Catholicism). As early as 1582, the Scottish Episcopal Church was inaugurated when James VI of Scotland sought to reintroduce bishops when the Church of Scotland became fully presbyterian (see Scottish reformation). The Scottish Episcopal Church enabled the creation of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America after the American Revolution, by consecrating in Aberdeen the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury, who had been refused consecration by bishops in England, due to his inability to take the oath of allegiance to the English crown prescribed in the Order for the Consecration of Bishops. The polity and ecclesiology of the Scottish and American churches, as well as their daughter churches, thus tends to be distinct from those spawned by the English church—reflected, for example, in their looser conception of provincial government, and their leadership by a presiding bishop or primus rather than by a metropolitan or archbishop. The names of the Scottish and American churches inspire the customary term "Episcopalian" for an Anglican; the term being used in these and other parts of the world.


title: History of the Church of England

text: At the time of the English Reformation the four (now six) Welsh dioceses were all part of the Province of Canterbury and remained so until 1920 when the Church in Wales was created as a province of the Anglican Communion. The intense interest in the Christian faith which characterised the Welsh in the 18th and 19th centuries was not present in the sixteenth and most Welsh people went along with the church's reformation more because the English government was strong enough to impose its wishes in Wales rather than out of any real conviction.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Anglicanism spread outside of the British Isles by means of emigration as well as missionary effort. The 1609 wreck of the flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, resulted in the settlement of Bermuda by that Company. This was made official in 1612, when the town of St George's, now the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World, was established. It is the location of St Peter's Church, the oldest-surviving Anglican church outside the British Isles (Britain and Ireland), and the oldest surviving non-Roman Catholic church in the New World, also established in 1612. It remained part of the Church of England until 1978, when the Anglican Church of Bermuda separated. The Church of England was the state religion in Bermuda and a system of parishes was set up for the religious and political subdivision of the colony (they survive, today, as both civil and religious parishes). Bermuda, like Virginia, tended to the Royalist side during the Civil War. The conflict in Bermuda resulted in the expulsion of Independent Puritans from the island (the Eleutheran Adventurers, who settled Eleuthera, in the Bahamas). The church in Bermuda, before the Civil War, had a somewhat Presbyterian flavour, but mainstream Anglicanism was asserted afterwards (although Bermuda is also home to the oldest Presbyterian church outside the British Isles). Bermudians were required by law in the 17th century to attend Church of England services, and proscriptions similar to those in England existed on other denominations.


title: History of the Church of England

text: English missionary organisations such as USPG—then known as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) were established in the 17th and 18th centuries to bring Anglican Christianity to the British colonies. By the 19th century, such missions were extended to other areas of the world. The liturgical and theological orientations of these missionary organisations were diverse. The SPG, for example, was in the 19th century influenced by the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, while the CMS was influenced by the Evangelicalism of the earlier Evangelical Revival. As a result, the piety, liturgy, and polity of the indigenous churches they established came to reflect these diverse orientations.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Church of Ireland, an Anglican establishment, was disestablished in Ireland in 1869. The Church in Wales would later be disestablished in 1919, but in England the Church never lost its established role. However Methodists, Catholics and other denominations were relieved of many of their disabilities through the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, Catholic emancipation, and parliamentary reform. The Church responded by greatly enlarging its role of activities, and turning to voluntary contributions for funding.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Plymouth Brethren seceded from the established church in the 1820s. The church in this period was affected by the Evangelical revival and the growth of industrial towns in the Industrial Revolution. There was an expansion of the various Nonconformist churches, notably Methodism. From the 1830s the Oxford Movement became influential and occasioned the revival of Anglo-Catholicism. From 1801 the Church of England and the Church of Ireland were unified and this situation lasted until the disestablishment of the Irish church in 1871 (by the Irish Church Act, 1869).


title: History of the Church of England

text: The growth of the twin "revivals" in 19th century Anglicanism—Evangelical and Catholic—was hugely influential. The Evangelical Revival informed important social movements such as the abolition of slavery, child welfare legislation, prohibition of alcohol, the development of public health and public education. It led to the creation of the Church Army, an evangelical and social welfare association and informed piety and liturgy, most notably in the development of Methodism.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The Catholic Revival had a more penetrating impact by transforming the liturgy of the Anglican Church, repositioning the Eucharist as the central act of worship in place of the daily offices, and reintroducing the use of vestments, ceremonial, and acts of piety (such as Eucharistic adoration) that had long been prohibited in the English church and (to a certain extent) in its daughter churches. It influenced Anglican theology, through such Oxford Movement figures as John Henry Newman, Edward Pusey, as well as the Christian socialism of Charles Gore and Frederick Maurice. Much work was done to introduce a more medieval style of church furnishing in many churches. Neo-Gothic in many different forms became the norm rather than the earlier Neo-Classical forms. Both revivals led to considerable missionary efforts in parts of the British Empire.


title: History of the Church of England

text: During the 19th century, the Church expanded greatly at home and abroad. The funding came largely from voluntary contributions. In England and Wales it doubled the number of active clergyman, and built or enlarged several thousand churches. Around mid-century it was consecrating seven new or rebuilt churches every month. It proudly took primary responsibility for a rapid expansion of elementary education, with parish-based schools, and diocesan-based colleges to train the necessary teachers. In the 1870s, the national government assume part of the funding; in 1880 the Church was educating 73% of all students. In addition there was a vigorous home mission, with many clergy, scripture readers, visitors, deaconesses and Anglican sisters in the rapidly growing cities. Overseas the Church kept up with the expanding Empire. It sponsored extensive missionary work, supporting 90 new bishoprics and thousands of missionaries across the globe.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In addition to local endowments and pew rentals, Church financing came from a few government grants, and especially from voluntary contributions. The result was that some old rural parishes were well funded, and most of the rapidly growing urban parishes were underfunded.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Throughout the 19th century patronage continued to play a central role in Church affairs. Tory Prime Ministers appointed most of the bishops before 1830, selecting men who had served the party, or had been college tutors of sponsoring politicians, or were near relations of noblemen. In 1815, 11 bishops came from noble families; 10 had been the tutors of a senior official. Theological achievement or personal piety were not critical factors in their selection. Indeed, the Church was often called the "praying section of the Tory party." Not since Newcastle, over a century before, did a prime minister pay as much attention to church vacancies as William Ewart Gladstone. He annoyed Queen Victoria by making appointments she did not like. He worked to match the skills of candidates to the needs of specific church offices. He supported his party by favouring Liberals who would support his political positions. His counterpart, Disraeli, favoured Conservative bishops to a small extent, but took care to distribute bishoprics so as to balance various church factions. He occasionally sacrificed party advantage to choose a more qualified candidate. On most issues Disraeli and Queen Victoria were close, but they frequently clashed over church nominations because of her aversion to high churchmen.


title: History of the Church of England

text: The current form of military chaplain dates from the era of the First World War. A chaplain provides spiritual and pastoral support for service personnel, including the conduct of religious services at sea or in the field. The Army Chaplains Department was granted the prefix "Royal" in recognition of the chaplains' wartime service. The Chaplain General of the British Army was Bishop John Taylor Smith who held the post from 1901 to 1925.


title: History of the Church of England

text: While the Church of England was historically identified with the upper classes, and with the rural gentry, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881–1944) was both a prolific theologian and a social activist, preaching Christian socialism and taking an active role in the Labour Party until 1921. He advocated a broad and inclusive membership in the Church of England as a means of continuing and expanding the church's position as the established church. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942, and the same year he published "Christianity and Social Order." The best-seller attempted to marry faith and socialism—by "socialism" he meant a deep concern for the poor. The book helped solidify Anglican support for the emerging welfare state. Temple was troubled by the high degree of animosity inside, and between the leading religious groups in Britain. He promoted ecumenicism, working to establish better relationships with the Nonconformists, Jews and Catholics, managing in the process to overcome his anti-Catholic bias.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Parliament passed the Enabling Act in 1919 to enable the new Church Assembly, with three houses for bishops, clergy, and laity, to propose legislation for the Church, subject to formal approval of Parliament. A crisis suddenly emerged in 1927 over the Church's proposal to revise the classic "Book of Common Prayer," which had been in daily use since 1662. The goal was to better incorporate moderate Anglo-Catholicism into the life of the Church. The bishops sought a more tolerant, comprehensive established Church. After internal debate the Church's new Assembly gave its approval. Evangelicals inside the Church, and Nonconformists outside, were outraged because they understood England's religious national identity to be emphatically Protestant and anti-Catholic. They denounced the revisions as a concession to ritualism and tolerance of Roman Catholicism. They mobilized support in parliament, which twice rejected the revisions after intensely heated debates. The Anglican hierarchy compromised in 1929, while strictly prohibiting extreme and Anglo-Catholic practices.


title: History of the Church of England

text: During the Second World War the head of chaplaincy in the British Army was an Anglican chaplain-general, the Very Revd Charles Symons (with the military rank of major-general), who was formally under the control of the Permanent Under-Secretary of State. An assistant chaplain-general was a chaplain 1st class (full colonel), and a senior chaplain was a chaplain 2nd class (lieutenant colonel). At home the Church saw its role as the moral conscience of the state. It gave enthusiastic support for the war against Nazi Germany. George Bell, Bishop of Chichester and a few clergymen spoke out that the aerial bombing of German cities was immoral. They were grudgingly tolerated. Bishop Bell was chastised by fellow clergy members and passed over for promotion. The Archbishop of York replied, "it is a lesser evil to bomb the war-loving Germans than to sacrifice the lives of our fellow countrymen..., or to delay the delivery of many now held in slavery".


title: History of the Church of England

text: A movement towards unification with the Methodist Church in the 1960s failed to pass through all the required stages on the Anglican side, being rejected by the General Synod in 1972. This was initiated by the Methodists and welcomed on the part of the Anglicans but full agreement on all points could not be reached.


title: History of the Church of England

text: Standards of morality in Britain changed dramatically after the world wars, in the direction of more personal freedom, especially in sexual matters. The Church tried to hold the line, and was especially concerned to stop the rapid trend toward divorce. It reaffirmed in 1935 that, "in no circumstances can Christian men or women re-marry during the lifetime of a wife or a husband." When king Edward VIII wanted to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a newly divorced woman, in 1936, the archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang led the opposition, insisting that Edward must go. Lang was later lampooned in Punch for a lack of "Christian charity".


title: History of the Church of England

text: Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin also objected vigorously to the marriage, noting that "although it is true that standards are lower since the war it only leads people to expect a higher standard from their King." Baldwin refused to consider Churchill's concept of a morganatic marriage where Wallis would not become Queen consort and any children they might have would not inherit the throne. After the governments of the Dominions also refused to support the plan, Edward abdicated in order to marry the woman.


title: History of the Church of England

text: When Princess Margaret wanted in 1952 to marry Peter Townsend, a commoner who had been divorced, the Church did not directly intervene but the government warned she had to renounce her claim to the throne and could not be married in church. Randolph Churchill later expressed concern about rumours about a specific conversation between the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, and the Princess while she was still planning to marry Townsend. In Churchill's view, "the rumour that Fisher had intervened to prevent the Princess from marrying Townsend has done incalculable harm to the Church of England", according to research completed by historian Ann Sumner Holmes. Margaret's official statement, however, specified that the decision had been made "entirely alone", although she was mindful of the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Holmes summarizes the situation as, "The image that endured was that of a beautiful young princess kept from the man she loved by an inflexible Church. It was an image and a story that evoked much criticism both of Archbishop Fisher and of the Church' policies regarding remarriage after divorce."


title: History of the Church of England

text: However, when Margaret actually did divorce (Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon), in 1978, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, did not attack her, and instead offered support.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, a divorcée, in a civil ceremony. Afterwards, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave the couple a formal service of blessing. In fact, the arrangements for the wedding and service were strongly supported by the Archbishop "consistent with the Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage" because the bride and groom had recited a "strongly-worded" act of penitence, a confessional prayer written by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury to King Henry VIII. That was interpreted as a confession by the couple of past sins, albeit without specific reference and going "some way towards acknowledging concerns" over their past misdemeanours.


title: History of the Church of England

text: On 12 March 1994 the Church of England ordained its first female priests. On 11 July 2005 a vote was passed by the Church of England's General Synod in York to allow women's ordination as bishops. Both of these events were subject to opposition from some within the church who found difficulties in accepting them. Adjustments had to be made in the diocesan structure to accommodate those parishes unwilling to accept the ministry of women priests. (See women's ordination)


title: History of the Church of England

text: The first black archbishop of the Church of England, John Sentamu, formerly of Uganda, was enthroned on 30 November 2005 as Archbishop of York.


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 2006 the Church of England at its General Synod made a public apology for the institutional role it played as a historic owner of slave plantations in Barbados and Barbuda. The Reverend Simon Bessant recounted the history of the church on the island of Barbados, West Indies, where through a charitable bequest received in 1710 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, thousands of sugar plantation slaves had been appallingly treated and branded using red-hot irons as the property of the "society".


title: History of the Church of England

text: In 2010, for the first time in the history of the Church of England, more women than men were ordained as priests (290 women and 273 men).


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: Double Platinum is the first greatest hits album by the American hard rock band Kiss, released in 1978.


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: Many of the songs on "Double Platinum" were remixed and differed from their original versions: in the case of "Strutter," it was re-recorded with a slight disco beat and dubbed "Strutter '78." Other songs ("Hard Luck Woman," "Detroit Rock City") had sections completely removed, while the beginning of "Black Diamond" was repeated at the end, fading out at the start of the first verse and giving the song a "wrap around" feel. A detailed walkthrough of the remixes can be found at the Axeology website.


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: The Japanese single release of "Strutter '78" includes a different version to that on the album: faster and shorter, with an altered guitar solo, plus a more prominent hi-hat (cymbal) sound throughout.


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: The original vinyl release, in a gatefold sleeve, had an embossed, silver-foiled sleeve, with the band members in bas-relief inside. The album was packaged with a printed "Platinum Award" thanking the Kiss Army for making the band a "Double Platinum Success". Later reissues would retain the gatefold sleeve but replaced the logo with a printed, red-type version and the band members were now represented inside by photos rather than the "base" illustrations. When the album was remastered for CD in the US in 1997, it mimicked the original vinyl.


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: The album was certified Platinum on May 16, 1978, by the RIAA. In Canada, it was certified Gold on June 1, 1978, after shipping 50,000 copies. The album is one of the band's best catalog sellers, with 522,000 copies sold from 1991 to March 2012 only. It has been speculated that US sales have reached double platinum level (with at least 478,000 sold between 1978 and 1991), however it has not been re-certified since 1978.


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes: "If 'Strutter' was represented by the original version, instead of a pointless 1978 remake—which was recorded only to entice collectors into buying an album of music they already owned—"Double Platinum" would have been a definitive collection, but as it stands, it's simply a very, very good overview."


title: Double Platinum (Kiss album)

text: "Rolling Stone" writes "Kiss's greatest-hits collections have all been conspicuously incomplete as if it hates the idea of anyone buying just one Kiss album, but "Double Platinum" is the most solid, though not as much fun as "Alive!""


title: Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

text: Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya () (Devanagari: ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय) is one of the most popular Hindu mantras, and according to the Bhagavata tradition, the most important mantra in Vaishnavism. It is called the Dvadasakshari Mantra, or simply Dvadasakshari, meaning the "twelve-syllable" mantra, dedicated to Vishnu and Krishna both. It has two traditions—Tantric and Puranic. In the Tantric tradition, the rishi of the mantra is Prajapati; in the Puranic tradition, the rishi is Narada. Both refer to it as the supreme Vishnu mantra.


title: Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

text: Bhagavatism, one of the traditions that was assimilated with what would become Vaishnavism, revered the Vrishni heroes, primary among them being Vāsudeva (Krishna). It may be concluded that the mantra was first associated with the reverence of Vāsudeva as the supreme deity before he was syncretised with Vishnu, after which it became an invocation of both deities.


title: Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

text: "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevaya" means "prostration to Vasudeva", who is variously understood as Krishna an incarnation of Vishnu." According to the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna himself asked his devotees to completely surrender to him:


title: Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

text: Similarly, this is referred to as the ultimate mantra in the Shrimad Bhagavatam. This twelve syllable mantra is known as a mukti (liberation) mantra, and a spiritual formula for attaining freedom. The mantra can also be found in the "Vishnu Purana".


title: Baidya

text: Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste ("jāti") of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three upper castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.


title: Baidya

text: The terms "Baidya" means a physician in the Bengali and Sanskrit languages. Bengal is the only place where they formed a caste or rather, a "jati".


title: Baidya

text: The origins of Baidyas remain surrounded by a wide variety of overlapping and sometimes contradictory myths, and are heavily contested. Aside from Upapuraṇas and two genealogies(Kulajis), premodern Bengali literature does not discuss details of the caste's origins; no literature from outside the region discuss them either. The semi-legendary Ambastha connection of Baidyas who mostly held to be of a Kshatriya origin in Hindu scriptures is tenuous.


title: Baidya

text: It is plausible the Baidyas had some link with Vaidyas of S. India; inscriptions of the Senas mentions migrations from Karnat and other places. The Talamanchi plates of Vikramaditya I (c. 660 CE) were drafted by one Vajravarman, described as an illustrious Vaidya. Three South Indian inscriptions of the Pandyas (c. late 8th century) note the Vaidya-"kula" (trans. "Vaidya clan" /"Vaidya family") to be Brahmins, famed for expertise in music and Sastras; one of them served in the dual roles of War-General and Prime Minister.


title: Baidya

text: The Upapuranas played a significant role in the history of Bengal: they propagated and established Brahminic ideals in the hitherto-impure fringes of Aryavarta and accommodated elements of the vernacular culture to gain acceptance among masses. In the process, they became evidence of sociocultural negotiations that transpired in late-medieval Bengal.


title: Baidya

text: Bṛhaddharma Puraṇa (Brh. P.; c. 13th century) was the earliest document to chronicle a hierarchy of castes in Bengal and it became the standard text for popular negotiations of caste status. It mentioned the Baidyas as a occupational caste, equivalent to the Ambasthas, deriving from a famous mythical episode where Brahmins had them ordained to be the highest of Shudras and conferred a monopoly to practice Ayurveda. In contrast, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Bv. P.) —notable for a very late Bengali recension (c. 14/15th c.)— treats the Baidyas as separate to Ambasthas but notes both to be "Satsudras".


title: Baidya

text: According to Ryosuke Furui, the Varṇasaṃkara myth and the subsequent ordaining of "Saṃkaras" in Brh. P. reflected and reinforced the existing social hierarchy of ancient Bengal — that is, even in pre-Brahminized Bengal, the Baidyas had an eminent position and practiced medicine — while allowing the Brahmin authors to conform an alien society to orthodoxic standards, and establish themselves at the top. Ramaprasad Chanda had supported such a reading as early as 1916. Annapurna Chattopadhyaya largely agrees and cites differences in list of mixed castes produced in Brahminical literature of different areas; he notes the sharp increase in tabulated castes at Bv. P. as correlational to increasing social complexity. Nripendra Kumar Dutt held these Upapuranas as tools for Brahmin law-makers to deprive Vaidyas of its mixed-caste privileges such as a sacred thread.


title: Baidya

text: Kulajis — a form of literature endemic to Bengal — were essentially genealogical registers but actually, texts in flux, reflecting contemporary society; they primarily served to establish social hierarchy "vis à vis" others. Out of the two extant pre-modern Baidya genealogies, "Chandraprabha" (CP; c. late 17th century) constructs a descent from the semi-legendary Ambasthas whereas the slightly older "Sadvaidyakulapnjika" (SV) did not. Further, both of them hold Adi Sura and Ballāla Sena to be among their ancestor; this is agreed upon by some Brahmin "kulanjis" but rejected by Kayastha ones.


title: Baidya

text: Sedentary agrarian societies had formed in western regions of Bengal by c. 1000 BCE.. The growth of states were roughly simultaneous with the rise of the Guptas and by then, cultural contacts with N. India was gradually flourishing. Written records predating the Guptas do not survive.


title: Baidya

text: Copper Plate Inscriptions from the Gupta Era point to a complex society with different professional classes having little socioeconomic homogeneity. Many of these classes had their own hierarchies corresponding to differential geospatial levels or economic conditions but there exists no evidence of inter-class hierarchy; rather, there were frequent collaborations at the local levels in bureaucratic affairs. It does not appear that "varna" played any role in the society — the "Brahmins" were the only group to be referred to by their caste-identity and were revered but still classed as one among the peasant landholder class.


title: Baidya

text: One Gunaighar Inscription, dated to Vainyagupta (507 C.E.), demarcated agricultural tracts that were to be collectively owned by Baidyas. In tune with the understanding of Bengal under the Guptas, the reference was, in all likelihood, to the profession of physicians who probably drew people from various "varnas" including Brahmins.


title: Baidya

text: With the rise of sovereign kingships centered around Vanga, Radha, and Pundravardhana, the relatively well-off sections among the landholder class gained eminence and got split into several sub-classes depending on economic power. Inscriptions referred to people from these classes "alongside" the villages they owned and above other professional classes — thus, economic affluence, rather than "varna", appears to have been the operating norm in these societies. North-eastern Bengal which saw aggressive encroachment upon tribal tracts via royal settlement of Brahmins witnessed a less egalitarian society; yet, notwithstanding rulers claiming to a Brahmin pedigree etc, the social groups in inscriptions did not have anything to do with "varna".


title: Baidya

text: With increasing urbanization in Pala territories, stratification became engrained into the social structure and Brahmins —probably with state patronage— ascended to the top, overshadowing the landed magnates. Pala grants frequently enlist a detailed social hierarchy from the "Brahmins" to the "Chandalas," encompassing many professional classes. In contrast, largely-agrarian societies in the east, ruled by the Chandras, exhibited no such radical developments though rudimentary notions of ranks were under development. The Paschimbhag copperplate inscription of Sri Chandra allotted the Baidyas with the largest share of land "per se" —even exceeding the Brahmins— pointing to the yet-insignificant roles played by varna.


title: Baidya

text: Beginning the 11th century, kinship based organization was increasingly evident across all classes — sects of Brahmins claimed greater authority deriving from the illustriousness of their ancestors and networked among themselves, literate classes entered into practicing endogamy etc. Inscriptions increasingly point to the hereditary nature of a range of professions from merchants to engravers to scribes. In the words of Furui, proto-"jatis" were forming across these spans which would be legitimized into a Brahminic social order by the Upapuranas etc. The Bhatera Copper Plates mention the "aksapaṭalika" of King Isandeva (c. 1050) to be of Baidya "lineage", on whose advice a parcel of land was granted to the family of a dead prince. Kumkum Chatterjee feels that the Baidyas had probably crystallized into a "jati" long before the Sultanate rule, sometime around these times.


title: Baidya

text: In Sultanate, Mughal, and Nawabi Bengal, Baidyas often branched out into fields other than medicine and composed a significant percentage of the elites. They were reputed for their proficiency in Sanskrit, which they needed to read treatises of medicine. By the end of sixteenth century, Baidyas were occupying a position of preeminence in the Bengali social hierarchy alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas; marriages between Baidyas and Kayasthas were commonplace.