The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (361 page)

 
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Bel and the Dragon
.

Two stories which appear together in the
Apocrypha
, and at the end of
Daniel
in
Roman Catholic
Bibles. They are directed against idolatry.

 
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(Heb., ‘worthlessness’). A description of people acting in a worthless manner and, in post-biblical literature, the name of the Prince of Evil.

 
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(1542–1621).
Italian
Jesuit
cardinal
and controversialist. He was born in Montepulciano, Tuscany, and entered the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1560. He was ordained priest in 1570 in Louvain—where he was the first Jesuit to hold a chair—but shortly afterwards returned to the Roman College, now the Gregorian University, to teach controversial theology to priests destined for England and Germany. His lectures provided the basis for his famous work,
De Controversiis
or
Controversies
, published at Ingolstadt between 1586 and 1593. He was made a cardinal in 1599, and briefly (1602–5) served as
archbishop
of Capua. In 1616 he was obliged to censure Galileo, although he had considerable sympathy for his views. In later life Bellarmine produced a number of popular devotional works. He was declared a
Doctor of the Church
in 1931.

 
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(1822–1900).
Italian
rabbi
and philosopher. Serving as rabbi in Leghorn, he produced numerous books and articles which attempted to reconcile traditional Judaism, including
Kabbalah
, with the secular philosophy of his day.

 
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Benares
:

see
K
I
.

 
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