Word Finder - dignitaries

definition

An important or influential person, or one of high rank or position.

Many of the highest dignitaries of state did not know their alphabet.

A presidential suite was reserved for US presidents and visiting dignitaries.

The discovery of this conspiracy placed these two high dignitaries in prison (April 1469).

The clergy, now Roman officials, vested in the robes of the civil dignitaries, took their seats in the apse of the basilica where the magistrates were wont to sit, in front of them the holy table, facing the congregation.

Its ancient bans or military governors were, next to the princes, the chief dignitaries of Walachia, and the district is still styled the banat of Craiova.

The upper chamber (Standesherren) is composed of adult princes of the blood, heads of noble families from the rank of count (Graf) upwards, representatives of territories (Standesherrschaften), which possessed votes in the old German imperial diet or in the local diet; it has also members (not more than 6) nominated by the king, 8 members of knightly rank, 6 ecclesiastical dignitaries, a representative of the university of Tubingen, and of the technical high school of Stuttgart, 2 representatives of commerce and industry, 2 of agriculture, and i of handicrafts.

The remainder comes principally from church lands; only the highest dignitaries being paid by the state.

Margaret revolted at the clauses which insisted that each country should retain exclusive possession of its own laws and customs, and be administered by its own dignitaries, as tending in her opinion to prevent the complete amalgamation of Scandinavia.

A fresh council was now held which re-enacted the decrees of 787, and on the 29th of February 842 the new patriarch, the empress, clergy and court dignitaries assisted in the church of St Sophia at a solemn restoration of images which lasted until the advent of the Turks.

Perforce thou must consult before everything the general interest of Christendom, and must consider it an obligation of thine office to respect the opinions of the highest dignitaries of the court of Rome."

At the outset there was little to distinguish the biretum from the pileus or pileolus (skull-cap), a non-liturgical cap worn by dignitaries of the Church under the mitre and even under the biretta.

Of late years the old square cap of soft padded cloth or velvet has been revived in the Anglican Church by some dignitaries.

At the hotel he was greeted by the Mayor and other local dignitaries and a special deputation sent by the Queen.

The temporal dignitaries declared the evidence to be insufficient and suggested that Alexius should be examined by torture.

It follows of necessity that there are some matters which may be called "mixed," and which are the legitimate concern of the two powers, such as church property, places of worship, the appointment and the emoluments of ecclesiastical dignitaries, the temporal rights and privileges of the secular and regular clergy, the regulation of public worship, and the like.

The pope on his side grants the temporal sovereign certain rights, such as that of making or controlling the appointment of dignitaries; engages to proceed in harmony with the government in the creation of dioceses or parishes; and regularizes the situation produced by the usurpation of church property &c. The great advantage of concordats - indeed their principal utility - consists in transforming necessarily unequal unilateral claims into contractual obligations analogous to those which result from an international convention.

Certain towns and districts all over Russia were separated from the rest of the realm, and their revenues were assigned to the maintenance of the tsar's new court and household, which was to consist of 1000 carefully selected boyars and lower dignitaries, with their families and suites, in the midst of whom Ivan henceforth lived exclusively.

In his palace were numerous equerries, chamberlains and other court dignitaries, and when he went out he was attended by a guard of young nobles dressed in gaudy costumes and armed with silver halberds.'

Anne accepted the condition and became empress, but when she discovered that the attempt to limit her powers in favour of a small conservative oligarchy was extremely unpopular among all classes, she submitted the question to an assembly of Boo ecclesiastical and lay dignitaries, and at their request the unlimited autocratic rule was re-established.

The constitution of the 3rd of May had scarce been signed when Felix Potocki, Severin Rzewuski and Xavier Branicki, three of the chief dignitaries of Poland, hastened to St Petersburg, and there entered into a secret convention with the empress, whereby she undertook to restore the old constitution by force of arms, but at the same time promised to respect the territorial integrity of the Republic. On the 14th of May 1792 the conspirators formed a confederation, consisting, in the first instance, of only ten other persons, at the little town of Targowica in the Ukraine, protesting against the constitution of the 3rd of May as tyrannous and revolutionary, and at the same time the new Russian minister at Warsaw presented a formal declaration of war to the king and the diet.

These, though more recent, have taken precedence of the former, the work of which they have, moreover, greatly relieved; they are indeed composed of the highest dignitaries of the church, the cardinals (q.v.), and are, as it were, subdivisions of the consistory, a council in which the whole of the Sacred College takes part.

At the diet of 1590 Zamoyski successfully thwarted all the efforts of the Austrian party; whereupon the king, taking advantage of sudden vacancies among the chief offices of state, brought into power the Radziwills and other great Lithuanian dignitaries, thereby for a time considerably curtailing the authority of the chancellor.

Unfortunately the names are all otherwise unknown; but we learn from the inscriptions that they are for the most part those of local magistrates and municipal dignitaries of Pompeii.

The official seals of the doges of Venice and of Genoa and of other dignitaries of those states were also of lead.

Mitres are the distinctive headdress of bishops; but the right to wear them, as in the case of the other episcopal insignia, is granted by the popes to other dignitaries - such as abbots or the heads and sometimes all the members of the chapters of cathedral or collegiate churches.

Besides the celebrated school of the Palace, where Alcuin had among his hearers the members of the imperial family and the dignitaries of the empire as well as talented youths of humbler origin, we hear of the episcopal schools of Lyons, Orleans and St Denis, the cloister schools of St Martin of Tours, of Fulda, Corbie, Fontenelle and many others, besides the older monasteries of St Gall and Reichenau.

Cardinal Richelieu himself, preceded by lesser dignitaries, condescended to visit Amyraut privately, to persuade him to kneel; but Amyraut held resolutely to his point and carried it.

Martin's tracts are characterized by violent and personal invective against the Anglican dignitaries, by the assumption that the writer had numerous and powerful adherents and was able to enforce his demands for reform, and by a plain and homely style combined with pungent wit.

The clergy, now Roman officials, vested in the robes of the civil dignitaries (see Vestments), took their seats in the apse of the basilica where the magistrates were wont to sit, in front of them the holy table, facing the congregation.

Bolkonski was invited everywhere, and had to spend the whole morning calling on the principal Austrian dignitaries.

Because of the eclectic atmosphere and extraordinary memorabilia collection, the cafes draw crowds from all over the world including dignitaries, celebrities and tourists.

The crèche features not only the family of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus, but also the Three Wise Men, shepherds, and other French figures, such as local dignitaries or characters.

Not only was it unveiled at the world's fair, but it has also hosted dignitaries, been featured in numerous films, and is the iconic symbol of Paris itself.

This question was solemnly submitted to a grand council of prelates, senators, ministers and other dignitaries on the 13th of June 1718.

And reciprocally, whatever may be the absolute rights of the ecclesiastical society over the appointment of its dignitaries, the administration of its property, and the government of its adherents, the exercise of these rights is limited and restricted by the stable engagements and concessions of the concordatory pact, which bind the head of the church with regard to the nations.

At the very moment when Matthias was about to profit by the disappearance of his most capable rival, another dangerous rebellion, headed by the primate and the chief dignitaries of the state, with the object of placing Casimir, son of Casimir IV., on the throne, paralysed Matthias's foreign policy during the critical years 1470-1471.

In 1075 he caused the investiture of ecclesiastica dignitaries by secular potentates of any degree to be condemned These two reforms, striking at the most cherished privileges ant most deeply-rooted self-indulgences of the aristocratic caste ii Europe, inflamed the bitterest hostility.

His share in the divorce of Anne of Cleves was less prominent than that of Gardiner, though he did preside over the Convocation in which nearly all the dignitaries of the church signified their approval of that measure.

Even when the visit to the Horde did not end so tragically, it involved a great deal of anxiety and expense, for the Mongol dignitaries had to be conciliated very liberally, and it was commonly believed that the judges were more influenced by the amount of the bribes than by the force of the arguments.

In the eastern and western portions of this city are situated the residences of the highest dignitaries of the empire; while beyond its confines on the south stand the offices of the six of f icial boards which direct the affairs of the eighteen provinces.

They are appointed, promoted, transferred or removed by order of the council of justice, a body composed of the five highest judicial dignitaries, sitting at Canea.

It was not till the 12th century that the mitre came to be regarded as specifically episcopal, and meanwhile the custom had grown up of granting it honoris causa to other dignitaries besides bishops.

This measure obliged all the great dignitaries, and the principal towns also, according to their means, to maintain a banderium of five hundred horsemen, or a proportional part thereof, and hold it ready, at the first summons, thus supplying the crown with a standing army 76,875 strong.

He had to be content with armistices, reconciliations and matrimonial contracts, because the great dignitaries of the state, men like the palatine Laszlo Garai, Count Ulrich of Cilli, and the voivode of Transylvania, Mihaly Ujlaky, thwarted in every way the novas homo whom they hated and envied.

The visible signs of this contemptuous point of view were (1) the suspension of the august dignity of palatine, which, after the death of Tamas Nadasdy, " the great palatine," in 1562, was left vacant for many years; (2) the abolition or attenuation of all the ancient Hungarian court dignitaries; (3) the degradation of the capital, Pressburg, into a mere provincial town; and (4) the more and more openly expressed determination to govern Hungary from Vienna by means of foreigners, principally German or Czech.

Finally, on the 26th of October 1740, a so-called "positive declaration" signed by 194 dignitaries, in the name of the Russian nation, conferred the regency on Biren.

These clerics became the confessors in royal and noble houses, and were generally chosen from among bishops and other high dignitaries.

The latter were about to bury him without delay or ceremony, but the gastald or chief magistrate of the city interfered and appointed a public funeral; rumours of his wondrous travels and of posthumous miracles were diffused, and excitement spread like wildfire over Friuli and Carniola; the ceremony had to be deferred more than once, and at last took place in presence of the patriarch of Aquileia and all the local dignitaries.

In the summer of 1651 Christina was, with difficulty, persuaded to reconsider her resolution to abdicate, but three years later the nation had become convinced that her abdication was highly desirable, and the solemn act took place on the 6th of July 1654 at the castle of Upsala, in the presence of the estates and the great dignitaries of the realm.

Certain homilies, accordingly, composed by dignitaries of the lower house, were in the following year produced by the prolocutor; and after some delay a volume was published in 1547 entitled Certain sermons or homilies appointed by the King's Majesty to be declared and read by all parsons, vicars, or curates every Sunday in their churches where they have cure.