title: Alex Cross (film)

text: Cross deduces Picasso's employer was Mercier himself. Having embezzled money from his clients, Mercier asked for Yau and Nunemarcher's help to fake his death and flee to Bali, then hired Picasso to eliminate them and a double pretending to be the real Mercier. After Cross frames Mercier for drug smuggling, Mercier is arrested in Indonesia, where he will be condemned to death by firing squad. Having avenged Maria's murder, Cross decides to accept the job offer from the FBI and moves to Washington with his family.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: A reboot film about Alex Cross character began development in 2010, with a screenplay by Kerry Williamson and James Patterson. David Twohy was attached as director, and was set to rewrite the screenplay. In August 2010, Idris Elba was cast as Cross.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: Towards the end of 2010, QED International purchased the rights, and initial screenplay by Williamson and Patterson. By January 2011, Tyler Perry had replaced Elba in the starring role, and Cohen was hired as director. The production company, QED, set Marc Moss, who worked on the previous Alex Cross films, to refine the screenplay for Perry and Cohen. With a production budget of $35 million, filming began on August 8, 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio and lasted until September 16, 2011. Filming locations in northeast Ohio served as a backdrop to Detroit, Michigan, where the character works for the Detroit Police Department. After Ohio, filming also took place in Detroit itself for two weeks. The production office remained in Cleveland throughout production inside an empty portion of the old American Greetings Company Factory.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: Summit Entertainment purchased domestic distribution rights in March 2011, and set the release date for October 26, 2012.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: The theatrical release poster featured the tagline, "Don't ever cross Alex Cross." "The Playlist" at indieWire was critical of the tagline, saying, "It'll be impressive if anything dumber appears on a movie poster this year."


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: The film opened in 2,539 theaters in North America, grossing $11,396,768 during its first weekend, with an average of $4,489 per theater, and ranking #5 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $25,888,412 domestically and $8,730,455 internationally, for a total of $34,618,867, on a $35 million production budget.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: "Alex Cross" was widely panned by critics and audiences. The film holds an 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox did their best, but they're trampled by Rob Cohen's frustrating direction and a tasteless, lazily written screenplay." At Metacritic, the film received a score of 30 out of 100, based on 34 reviews. Audiences, however, gave "Alex Cross" an "A" CinemaScore. The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Perry as Worst Actor.


title: Alex Cross (film)

text: Prior to the film's release, it was announced that "Double Cross" would be adapted into a film, with Perry reprising his role. However, the sequel was cancelled, following the critical and commercial failure of "Alex Cross".


title: Resort

text: A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term "resort" may be used for a hotel property that provides an array of amenities, typically including entertainment and recreational activities. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that are timeshares or owned fractionally or wholly owned condominium. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common.


title: Resort

text: In British English, "resort" means a town which people visit for holidays and days out which usually contains hotels at which such holidaymakers stay. Examples would include Blackpool and Brighton.


title: Resort

text: A destination resort is a resort that itself contains the necessary guest attraction capabilities so it does not need to be near a destination (town, historic site, theme park, or other) to attract its patrons. A commercial establishment at a resort destination such as a recreational area, a scenic or historic site, amusement park, a gaming facility, or other tourist attraction may compete with other businesses at a destination. Consequently, another quality of a destination resort is that it offers food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping within the facility so that guests have no need to leave the facility throughout their stay. Commonly, the facilities are of higher quality than would be expected if one were to stay at a hotel or eat in a town's restaurants. Some examples are Atlantis in the Bahamas; the Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida, United States; PortAventura World, near Barcelona on the Costa Daurada in Spain; Costa do Sauípe, Northeastern Brazil; Laguna Phuket, Thailand and Sun City, near Johannesburg, South Africa. Closely related to resorts are convention and large meeting sites. Generally, they occur in cities, where special meeting halls, together with ample accommodations and varied dining and entertainment, are provided.


title: Resort

text: An all-inclusive resort charges a fixed price that includes most or all items. At a minimum, most inclusive resorts include lodging, unlimited food, drink, sports activities, and entertainment for the fixed price. In recent years, the number of resorts in the United States offering "all-inclusive" amenities has decreased dramatically. In 1961, over half offered such plans, but in 2007, less than a tenth do so.


title: Resort

text: All-inclusive resorts are found in the Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica, Dominican Republic; in Egypt, and elsewhere. Notable examples are Club Med, Sandals Resorts, and Beaches Resorts.


title: Resort

text: An all-inclusive resort includes three meals daily, soft drinks, most alcoholic drinks, gratuities, and usually other services in the price. Many also offer sports and other activities included in the price as well. They are often located in warmer regions. The all-inclusive model originated in the Club Med resorts, which were founded by the Belgian Gérard Blitz.


title: Resort

text: Some all-inclusive resorts are designed for specific groups. For example, some resorts cater for adults only, and even more-specialized properties accept couples only. Other all-inclusive resorts are geared toward families, with facilities like craft centers, game rooms, and water parks to keep children of all ages entertained. All-inclusive resorts are also very popular locations for destination weddings.


title: Resort

text: A spa resort is a short-term residential/lodging facility with the primary purpose of providing individual services for spa goers to develop healthy habits. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or sources of mineral waters. Typically over a seven-day stay, such facilities provide a comprehensive program that includes spa services, physical fitness activities, healthy diet programs, and special interest programming.


title: Resort

text: Golf resorts are resorts that cater specifically to the sport of golf, and they include access to one or more golf courses and/or clubhouses. Golf resorts typically provide golf packages that provide visitors with all greens and cart fees, range balls, accommodations, and meals.


title: Resort

text: In North America, a ski resort is generally a destination resort in a ski area. The term is less likely to refer to a town or village.


title: Resort

text: A megaresort is a type of destination resort of an exceptionally-large size, such as those along the Las Vegas Strip. In Singapore, "integrated resort" is a euphemism for a casino-based destination resort.


title: Resort

text: A holiday village is a type of self-contained resort in Europe whose accommodation is generally in villas. A holiday camp, in the United Kingdom, refers to a resort whose accommodation is in chalets or static caravans.


title: Resort

text: There are more than 1500 timeshare resorts in the United States that are operated by major hospitality, timeshare-specific, or independent companies. They represent 198,000 residences and nearly 9 million owners, who pay an average $880 per year in maintenance fees. A reported 16% of the residences became vacation rentals.


title: Resort

text: Towns that are resorts or in which tourism or vacationing is a major part of the local activity are sometimes called resort towns. If by the sea, they are called seaside resorts. Inland resorts include ski resorts, mountain resorts and spa towns. Well-known resort towns include Punta Cana in Dominican Republic, Bandipur in Nepal, Bali in Indonesia, Sochi in Russia, Mount Lebanon Tourism in Lebanon, Barizo in Spain, Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, Druskininkai in Lithuania, Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, Cancún in Mexico, Newport, Rhode Island, and Key West, Florida, in the United States, Ischgl in Austria, St. Moritz in Switzerland and Blackpool in the United Kingdom.


title: Resort

text: A resort island is an island or an archipelago that contains resorts, hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and its amenities. Maldives is considered to have the best island resorts, which have become famous among the top celebrities and sportspersons around the world.


title: Resort

text: Seaside resorts are located on a coast. In the United Kingdom, many seaside towns have turned to other entertainment industries, and some of them have much nightlife. The cinemas and theatres often remain to become host to a number of pubs, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. Most of their entertainment facilities cater to local people, and the beaches still remain popular during the summer months.


title: Resort

text: In Europe and North America, ski resorts are towns and villages in ski areas, with support services for skiing such as hotels and chalets, equipment rental, ski schools and ski lifts to access the slopes.


title: Resort

text: Resorts for different purposes also exist. An example is Yulara, Northern Territory, which exists to serve Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in Australia.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French () (French: ), was a dialect of Old Norman French that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland during the Anglo-Norman period.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: When William the Conqueror led the Norman conquest of England in 1066, he, his nobles, and many of his followers from Normandy, but also those from northern and western France, spoke a range of langues d'oïl (northern varieties of Gallo-Romance). One of these was Old Norman, also known as "Old Northern French". Other followers spoke varieties of the Picard language or western registers of general Old French. This amalgam developed into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo-Norman French, which was commonly used for literary and eventually administrative purposes from the 12th until the 15th century. It is difficult to know much about what was actually spoken, as what is known about the dialect is restricted to what was written, but it is clear that Anglo-Norman was, to a large extent, the spoken language of the higher social strata in medieval England.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: It was spoken in the law courts, schools, and universities and, in due course, in at least some sections of the gentry and the growing bourgeoisie. Private and commercial correspondence was carried out in Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French from the 13th to the 15th century though its spelling forms were often displaced by continental spellings. Social classes other than the nobility became keen to learn French: manuscripts containing materials for instructing non-native speakers still exist, dating mostly from the late 14th century onwards.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Although Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French were eventually eclipsed by modern English, they had been used widely enough to influence English vocabulary permanently. Thus, many original Germanic words, cognates of which can still be found in Nordic, German, and Dutch, have been lost or, as more often occurs, exist alongside synonyms of Anglo-Norman French origin. Anglo-Norman had little lasting impact on English grammar, as opposed to vocabulary, although it is still evident in official and legal terms where the ordinary sequence of noun and adjective is reversed, as seen in phrases such as "Blood Royal, attorney general, heir apparent, court martial, envoy extraordinary" and "body politic."


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom still features in French the mottos of both the British Monarch, "Dieu et mon droit" ("God and my right"), and the Order of the Garter, "Honi soit qui mal y pense" ("Shamed be he who thinks evil of it").


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: "Dieu et mon droit" was first used by Richard I (who spoke Anglo-Norman but cannot be proven to have been able to speak English) in 1198 and adopted as the royal motto of England in the time of Henry VI. The motto appears below the shield of the Royal Coat of Arms.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Anglo-Norman was never the main administrative language of England: Latin was the major language of record in legal and other official documents for most of the medieval period. However, from the late 12th century to the early 15th century, Anglo-Norman French and Anglo-French were much used in law reports, charters, ordinances, official correspondence, and trade at all levels; they were the language of the King, his court and the upper class. There is evidence, too, that foreign words (Latin, Greek, Italian, Arabic, Spanish) often entered English via Anglo-Norman.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The language of later documents adopted some of the changes ongoing in continental French and lost many of its original dialectal characteristics, so "Anglo-French" remained (in at least some respects and at least at some social levels) part of the dialect continuum of modern French, often with distinctive spellings. Over time, the use of Anglo-French expanded into the fields of law, administration, commerce, and science, in all of which a rich documentary legacy survives, indicative of the vitality and importance of the language.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: By the late 15th century, however, what remained of insular French had become heavily anglicised: see Law French. It continued to be known as "Norman French" until the end of the 19th century even though, philologically, there was nothing Norman about it.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The languages and literature of the Channel Islands are sometimes referred to as Anglo-Norman, but that usage is derived from the French name for the islands: "les îles anglo-normandes". The variety of French spoken in the islands is Norman and not the Anglo-Norman of medieval England.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Much of the earliest recorded French is in fact Anglo-Norman French. In Northern France at that time, almost nothing was being recorded in the vernacular because Latin was the language of the Church and consequently of education and historiography, and was thus used for the purpose of records. Latin also remained in use in medieval England by the Church, the royal government and much local administration, as it had been before 1066, in parallel with Middle English. The early adoption of Anglo-Norman as a written and literary language probably owes something to this history of bilingualism in writing.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Around the same time, as a shift took place in France towards using French as a language of record in the mid-13th century, Anglo-Norman French also became a language of record in England though Latin retained its pre-eminence for matters of permanent record (as in written chronicles). From around this point onwards, considerable variation begins to be apparent in Anglo-French, which ranges from the very local (and most anglicized) to a level of language which approximates to and is sometimes indistinguishable from varieties of continental French. Thus, typically, local records are rather different from continental French, with diplomatic and international trade documents closest to the emerging continental norm. English remained the vernacular of the common people throughout this period. The resulting virtual trilinguism in spoken and written language was one of medieval Latin, French and Middle English.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: From the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) until the end of the 14th century, French was the language of the king and his court. During this period, marriages with French princesses reinforced the royal family's ties to French culture. Nevertheless, during the 13th century, intermarriages with English nobility became more frequent. French became progressively a second language among the upper classes. Moreover, with the Hundred Years' War and the growing spirit of English and French nationalism, the status of French diminished.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: French (specifically Old French) was the mother tongue of every English king from William the Conqueror (1066–1087) until Henry IV (1399–1413). Henry IV was the first to take the oath in (Middle) English, and his son, Henry V (1413–1422), was the first to write in English. By the end of the 15th century, French became the second language of a cultivated elite.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Until the end of the 13th century, Latin was the language of all official written documents. Nevertheless, some important documents had their official Norman translation, such as Magna Carta of 1215. The first official document written in Anglo-Norman was a statute promulgated by the king in 1275. Thus, from the 13th century, Anglo-Norman became used in official documents, such as those that were marked by the private seal of the king whereas the documents sealed by the Lord Chancellor were written in Latin until the end of the Middle Ages. English became the language of Parliament and of legislation in the 15th century, half a century after it had become the language of the king and most of the English nobility.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: During the 12th century, development of the administrative and judicial institutions took place. Because the king and the lawyers at the time normally used French, it also became the language of these institutions. From the 12th century until the 15th century, the courts used three languages: Latin for writing, French as the main oral language during trials, and English in less formal exchanges between the judge, the lawyer, the complainant or the witnesses. The judge gave his sentence orally in Norman, which was then written in Latin. Only in the lowest level of the manorial courts were trials entirely in English.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: During the 15th century, English became the main spoken language, but Latin and French continued to be exclusively used in official legal documents until the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, the French language used in England changed from the end of the 15th century into Law French. This variety of French was a technical language, with a specific vocabulary, where English words were used to describe everyday experience, and French grammatical rules and morphology gradually declined, with confusion of genders and the adding of "-s" to form all plurals. Law French was banished from the courts of the common law in 1731, almost three centuries after the king ceased speaking primarily French.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Anglo-Norman has survived in the political system in the use of certain Anglo-French set phrases in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, where they are written by hand on bills by the Clerk of the Parliaments or Clerk of the House of Commons to endorse them during their progress to becoming law, or spoken aloud by the Clerk of the Parliaments during a gathering of the Lords Commissioners, to indicate the granting of Royal Assent to legislation.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The exact spelling of these phrases has varied over the years; for example, "s'avisera" has been spelled as "s'uvisera" and "s'advisera", and "Reyne" as "Raine".


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Though the great mass of ordinary people spoke Middle English, French, because of its prestigious status, spread as a second language, encouraged by its long-standing use in the school system as a medium of instruction through which Latin was taught. In the courts, the members of the jury, who represented the population, had to know French in order to understand the plea of the lawyer. French was used by the merchant middle class as a language of business communication, especially when it traded with the continent, and several churches used French to communicate with lay people. A small but important number of documents survive associated with the Jews of medieval England, some featuring Anglo-French written in Hebrew script, typically in the form of glosses to the Hebrew scriptures.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: As a "langue d'oïl", Anglo-Norman developed collaterally to the central Gallo-Romance dialects which would eventually become Parisian French in terms of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Before the signature of the "Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts" in 1539 and long afterward in practice, French was not standardised as an official administrative language of the kingdom of France.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Middle English was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French. W. Rothwell has called Anglo-French 'the missing link' because many etymological dictionaries seem to ignore the contribution of that language in English and because Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French can explain the transmission of words from French into English and fill the void left by the absence of documentary records of English (in the main) between 1066 and c. 1380.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Modern French has changed dramatically compared to the Anglo-Norman period. For example, Anglo-Norman legal documents use the phrase "del Rey" ("of the king"). This is identical to modern Spanish but different from the modern French "du Roi".


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Anglo-Norman morphology and phonology can be deduced from its heritage in English. Mostly, it is done in comparison with continental Central French. English has many doublets as a result of this contrast:


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The palatalization of velar consonants before the front vowel produced different results in Norman to the central "langue d'oïl" dialects that developed into French. English therefore, for example, has "fashion" from Norman "féchoun" as opposed to Modern French "façon" (both developing from Latin "factio, factiōnem"). In contrast, the palatalization of velar consonants before that affected the development of French did not occur in Norman dialects north of the Joret line. English has therefore inherited words that retain a velar plosive where French has a fricative:


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Some loans were palatalized later in English, as in the case of "challenge" (< Old Norman , Middle English , later ; Old French ).


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: There were also vowel differences: Compare Anglo-Norman "profound" with Parisian French "profond", "soun" sound with "son", "round" with "rond". The former words were originally pronounced something like 'profoond', 'soon', 'roond' respectively (compare the similarly denasalised vowels of modern Norman), but later developed their modern pronunciation in English. The word "veil" retains the (as does modern Norman in "vaile" and "laîsi") that in French has been replaced by "voile", "loisir".


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Since many words established in Anglo-Norman from French via the intermediary of Norman were not subject to the processes of sound change that continued in parts of the continent, English sometimes preserves earlier pronunciations. For example, "ch" used to be in Medieval French, where Modern French has , but English has preserved the older sound (in words like "chamber, chain, chase" and "exchequer"). Similarly, "j" had an older sound, which it still has in English and some dialects of modern Norman, but it has developed into in Modern French.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The word "mushroom" preserves a hush sibilant not recorded in French "mousseron", as does "cushion" for "coussin". Conversely, the pronunciation of the word "sugar" resembles Norman "chucre" even if the spelling is closer to French "sucre". It is possible that the original sound was an apical sibilant, like the Basque "s", which is halfway between a hissing sibilant and a hushing sibilant.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The doublets "catch" and "chase" are both derived from Low Latin "*captiare". "Catch" demonstrates a Norman development while "chase" is the French equivalent imported with a different meaning.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Distinctions in meaning between Anglo-Norman and French have led to many "faux amis" (words having similar form but different meanings) in Modern English and Modern French.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Although it is a Romance language, Norman contains a significant amount of lexical material from Old Norse. Because of this, some of the words introduced to England as part of Anglo-Norman were of Germanic origin. Indeed, sometimes one can identify cognates such as "flock" (Germanic in English existing prior to the Conquest) and "floquet" (Germanic in Norman). The case of the word "mug" demonstrates that in instances, Anglo-Norman may have reinforced certain Scandinavian elements already present in English. "Mug" had been introduced into northern English dialects by Viking settlement. The same word had been established in Normandy by the Normans (Norsemen) and was then brought over after the Conquest and established firstly in southern English dialects. It is, therefore, argued that the word "mug" in English shows some of the complicated Germanic heritage of Anglo-Norman.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Many expressions used in English today have their origin in Anglo-Norman (such as the expression "before-hand", which derives from Anglo-Norman "avaunt-main"), as do many modern words with interesting etymologies. "Mortgage", for example, literally meant "death-wage" in Anglo-Norman. "Curfew" (fr. "couvre-feu") meant "cover-fire", referring to the time in the evening when all fires had to be covered to prevent the spread of fire within communities with timber buildings. The word "glamour" is derived from Anglo-Norman "grammeire", the same word which gives us modern "grammar"; "glamour" meant first "book learning" and then the most glamorous form of book learning, "magic" or "magic spell" in Medieval times.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The influence of Anglo-Norman was very asymmetric: very little influence from English was carried over into the continental possessions of the Anglo-Norman kings. Some administrative terms survived in some parts of mainland Normandy: (from "furrow", compare "furlong") in the Cotentin Peninsula and Bessin, and a general use of the word "acre" (instead of French "arpent") for land measurement in Normandy until metrication in the 19th century, but these words are probably linguistic traces of Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian settlements between the 4th and the 10th centuries in Normandy. Otherwise the direct influence of English in mainland Norman (such as "smogler" "to smuggle") is from direct contact with English in later centuries, rather than Anglo-Norman.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: When the Normans invaded England, Anglo-Saxon literature had reached a very high level of development. The important Benedictine monasteries both wrote chronicles and guarded other works in Old English. However, with the arrival of the Norman, Anglo-Saxon literature came to an end and literature written in Britain was in Latin or Anglo-Norman. The Plantagenet kings encouraged this Anglo-Norman literature. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the 14th century, some authors chose to write in English, such as Geoffrey Chaucer. The authors of that period were influenced by the works of contemporary French writers whose language was prestigious. Chaucer is considered to be the father of the English language and the creator of English as a literary language.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The major Norman-French influence on English can still be seen in today's vocabulary. An enormous number of Norman-French and other medieval French loanwords came into the language, and about three-quarters of them are still used today. Very often, the Norman or French word supplanted the Anglo-Saxon term, or both words would co-exist but with slightly different nuances: for example, "cow" (describing the animal) and "beef" (describing the meat). In other cases, the Norman or French word was adopted to signify a new reality, such as "judge", "castle", "warranty".


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: In general, the Norman and French borrowings concerned the fields of culture, aristocratic life, politics and religion, and war whereas the English words were used to describe everyday experience. When the Normans arrived in England, their copyists wrote English as they heard it, without realising the peculiarities of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon pronunciation and spelling and so the spelling changed. There appeared different regional Modern-English written dialects, the one that the king chose in the 15th century becoming the standard variety.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: In some remote areas, agricultural terms used by the rural workers may have been derived from Norman French. An example is the Cumbrian term "sturdy" for diseased sheep that walk in circles, derived from "étourdi" meaning dizzy.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: The Norman invasion of Ireland began in 1169, on the first of May in Bannow Bay, and led to Anglo-Norman control of much of the island. Norman-speaking administrators arrived to rule over the Angevin Empire's new territory. Several Norman words became Gaelic words, including household terms: (from Norman , "boy"); (, "cloak"); (, "hat"); (, "garden"); and terms relating to justice (Irish , (corporation), (court)).


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Place-names in Norman are few, but there is Buttevant (from the motto of the Barry family: , "Push to the Fore"), the village of Brittas (from the Norman , "boarding, planking") and the element "Pallas" (Irish , from Norman , "boundary fence": compare palisade, The Pale). Others exist with English or Irish roots, such as Castletownroche, which combines the English "Castletown" and the Norman , meaning rock.


title: Anglo-Norman language

text: Only a handful of Hiberno-Norman-French texts survive, most notably the "The Song of Dermot and the Earl" (early 13th century) and the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366).


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Pope Boniface VIII (; born Benedetto Caetani, c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303. The Caetani family was of baronial origin, with connections to the papacy. He succeeded Pope Celestine V, who had abdicated from the papal throne. Boniface spent his early career abroad in diplomatic roles.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Boniface VIII put forward some of the strongest claims of any pope to temporal as well as spiritual power. He involved himself often with foreign affairs, including in France, Sicily, Italy and the First War of Scottish Independence. These views, and his chronic intervention in "temporal" affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who placed the pope in the Eighth Circle of Hell in his "Divine Comedy", among the simoniacs.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Boniface systematized canon law by collecting it in a new volume, the "Liber Sextus" (1298), which continues to be important source material for canon lawyers. He established the first Catholic "jubilee" year to take place in Rome. Boniface had first entered into conflict with Philip IV of France in 1296 when the latter sought to reinforce the nascent nation state by imposing taxes on the clergy and barring them from administration of the law. Boniface excommunicated Philip and all others who prevented French clergy from traveling to the Holy See, after which the king sent his troops to attack the pope's residence in Anagni on 7 September 1303 and capture him. Boniface was held for three days and beaten badly.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: King Philip IV pressured Pope Clement V of the Avignon Papacy into staging a posthumous trial of Boniface. He was accused of heresy and sodomy, but no verdict against him was delivered.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Benedetto Caetani was born in Anagni, some southeast of Rome. He was a younger son of Roffredo Caetani (Podestà of Todi in 1274–1275), a member of a baronial family of the Papal States, the Caetani or "Gaetani dell'Aquila".


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Through his mother, Emilia Patrasso di Guarcino, a niece of Pope Alexander IV (Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni—who was himself a nephew of Pope Gregory IX), he was not far distant from the seat of ecclesiastical power and patronage. His father's younger brother, Atenolfo, was Podestà di Orvieto.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Benedetto took his first steps into religious life when he was sent to the monastery of the Friars Minor in Velletri, where he was put under the care of his maternal uncle Fra Leonardo Patrasso. He was granted a canonry at the cathedral in the family's stronghold of Anagni, with the permission of Pope Alexander IV. The earliest record of him is as a witness to an act of Bishop Pandulf of Anagni on 16 October 1250. In 1252, when his paternal uncle Pietro Caetani became Bishop of Todi, in Umbria, Benedetto followed him to Todi and began his legal studies there.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: His uncle Pietro granted him a canonry in the Cathedral of Todi in 1260. He also came into possession of the small nearby castello of Sismano, a place with twenty-one fires (hearths, families). In later years Father Vitalis, the Prior of S. Egidio de S. Gemino in Narni testified that he knew him and conversed with him in Todi and that Benedetto was in a school run by Rouchetus, a Doctor of Laws, from that city.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Benedetto never forgot his roots in Todi, later describing the city as "the dwelling place of his early youth", the city which "nourished him while still of tender years", and as a place where he "held lasting memories". Later in life he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Anagni, Todi, and his family.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: In 1264 Benedetto entered the Roman Curia, perhaps with the office of Advocatus. He served as secretary to Cardinal Simon de Brion, the future Pope Martin IV, on a mission to France. Cardinal Simon had been appointed by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon), between 25 and 27 April 1264, to engage in negotiations with Charles of Anjou, Comte de Provence, over the Crown of Naples and Sicily. On 1 May 1264 he was given permission to appoint two or three "tabelliones" (secretaries) for his mission, one of whom was Benedetto.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On 26 February 1265, only eleven days after his coronation, the new pope, Pope Clement IV wrote to Cardinal Simon, telling him to break off negotiations and travel immediately to Provence, where he would receive further instructions. On the same day, Clement wrote to Charles of Anjou, informing him that the pope had 35 conditions that Charles must agree to in accepting the crown; he also wrote to Henry III of England and his son Edmund that they had never been possessors of the Kingdom of Sicily. He also commended to the Cardinal the Sienese bankers who had been working for Urban IV to raise funds for Charles of Anjou, and that he should transfer to them some 7,000 pounds Tournois from the "decima" (ten percent tax) of France. On 20 March 1265, in order to expedite the business with Charles of Anjou, Cardinal Simon was authorized to provide benefices from cathedrals or otherwise within his province to five of his clerics. This may have been the occasion on which Benedetto Caetani acquired at least some of his French benefices. On 9 April 1265, on the petition of Cardinal Simon de Brion, the legation which had been assigned him by Pope Urban was declared "not" to have expired on the death of Urban IV. There would have been no point in making such a ruling if Cardinal Simon had already ceased to be Legate.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On 4 May 1265 Cardinal Ottobono Fieschi was appointed Apostolic Legate to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland by the new Pope Clement IV. In fact, he was sent as the successor of Cardinal Guy Folques, who had been elected Clement IV on 5 February 1265. On 29 August 1265 the Cardinal was received at the French Court by King Louis IX. There he learned that Simon de Montfort and his son Henry had been killed at the Battle of Evesham earlier that month. Cardinal Ottobono did not reach Boulogne until October 1265. He was accompanied by Benedetto Caetani. He was in England until July 1268, working to suppress the remnants of Simon de Montfort's barons who were still in arms against King Henry III of England. To finance their rebellion, the barons had imposed a 10% tax on church property, which the Pope wanted back because the tithe was uncanonical. This drawback was a major concern of Cardinal Ottobono and his entourage. While in England, Benedetto Caetani became rector of St. Lawrence's church in Towcester, Northamptonshire.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Upon Benedetto's return from England, there is an eight-year period in which nothing is known about his life. This period, however, included the long vacancy of the papal throne from 29 November 1268 to February 1272, when Pope Gregory X accepted the papal throne. It also includes the time span when Pope Gregory and his cardinals went to France in 1273 for the second Council of Lyon, as well as the Eighth Crusade, led by Louis IX, in 1270. The Pope and some of the cardinals began their return to Italy at the end of November 1275. Pope Gregory celebrated Christmas in Arezzo and died there on 10 January 1276. In 1276, however, Benedetto was sent to France to supervise the collection of a tithe, which is perhaps when he held the office of Advocatus in the Roman Curia, and then was appointed a papal Notary in the late 1270s. During this time, Benedetto accumulated seventeen benefices, which he was permitted to keep when he was promoted. Some of these are enumerated in a bull by Pope Martin IV, in which he bestowed the deaconry of S. Nicolas in Carcere on Cardinal Benedetto Caetani.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: At Orvieto, on 12 April 1281, Pope Martin IV created Benedetto Caetani cardinal deacon of Saint Nicholas in Carcere. In 1288 he was sent as Legate to Umbria to attempt to calm the strife between Guelphs and Ghibellines, which was taking the form of a war between the cities of Perugia and Foligno. In the winter of 1289, he was one of Pope Nicholas IV's advisors as he decided on a settlement of the disputes over the election or appointment of Portuguese bishops, in which King Denis played a major role. To give greater authority to the final mandate of the Pope, Cardinal Latino Orsini of Ostia, Cardinal Pietro Peregrosso of S. Marco, and Cardinal Benedetto of S. Nicola in Carcere appended their signatures and seals. Three years later, on 22 September 1291, Pope Nicholas IV (Girolamo Maschi d'Ascoli, O.Min.) promoted him to the Order of Cardinal Priests, with the title of SS. Silvester and Martin. Given the fact that there were only a dozen cardinals, Cardinal Benedetto was assigned the care ("commenda") of the deaconry of S. Agata, and his old deaconry of S. Nicola in Carcere. As cardinal, he served as papal legate in diplomatic negotiations to France, Naples, Sicily, and Aragon.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Pope Celestine V (who had been Brother Peter, the hermit of Mount Murrone near Sulmone) abdicated on 13 December 1294 at Naples, where, much to the discomfort of a number of cardinals, he had established the papal court under the patronage of Charles II of Naples. He had continued to live like a monk there, even turning a room in the papal apartment into the semblance of a monastic cell. A contemporary, Bartholomew of Lucca, who was present in Naples in December 1294 and witnessed many of the events of the abdication and election, said that Benedetto Caetani was only one of several cardinals who pressured Celestine to abdicate. However, it is also on record that Celestine V abdicated by his own design after consultation with experts, and that Benedetto merely showed that it was allowed by Church law. Either way, Celestine V vacated the throne and Benedetto Caetani was elected in his place as pope, taking the name Boniface VIII.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The 1294 papal conclave began on 23 December, ten days after Celestine's abdication. The regulations promulgated in the papal bull "Ubi periculum" by Pope Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 had not envisioned a papal abdication, but the cardinals waited the usual ten days from the papal abdication. This gave all twenty-two cardinals the chance to assemble at the Castel Nuovo in Naples, the site of the abdication. Hugh Aycelin presided over the papal conclave as the senior cardinal bishop. Benedetto Caetani was elected by ballot and accession on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1294, taking the name Boniface VIII. On the first (secret) ballot, he had a majority of the votes, and at the "accessio" a sufficient number joined his majority to form the required two-thirds. He was consecrated bishop of Rome in Rome by Cardinal Hugh Aycelin on 23 January 1295. He immediately returned the Papal Curia to Rome, where he was crowned at the Vatican Basilica on Sunday, 23 January 1295. One of his first acts as pontiff was to grant his predecessor residence in the Castle of Fumone in Ferentino, where he died the next year at the age of 81, attended by two monks of his order. Boniface VIII is occasionally discussed in academic literature as possibly implicated in the demise of his predecessor. In 1300, Boniface VIII formalized the custom of the Roman Jubilee, which afterwards became a source of both profit and scandal to the church. Boniface VIII founded Sapienza University of Rome in 1303.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: In the field of canon law Boniface VIII had considerable influence. Earlier collections of canon law had been codified in the "Decretales Gregorii IX", published under the authority of Pope Gregory IX in 1234, but in the succeeding sixty years, numerous legal decisions were made by one pope after another. By Boniface's time a new and expanded edition was needed. In 1298 Boniface ordered published as a sixth part (or Book) these various papal decisions, including some 88 of his own legal decisions, as well as a collection of legal principles known as the "Regulæ Juris". His contribution came to be known as the "Liber Sextus". This material is still of importance to canon lawyers or canonists today, to interpret and analyze the canons and other forms of ecclesiastical law properly. The ""Regulae Iuris"" appear at the end of the "Liber Sextus (in VI°)", and now published as part of the five "Decretales" in the "Corpus Juris Canonici". They appear as simple aphorisms, such as "Regula VI: Nemo potest ad impossibile obligari." ('No one can be obligated for something impossible.') Other systems of law also have their own "Regulæ Juris", whether by the same name or something serving a similar function.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Boniface VIII put forward some of the strongest claims of any pope to temporal as well as spiritual power. He involved himself often with foreign affairs. In his Papal bull of 1302, "Unam sanctam", Boniface VIII stated that since the Church is one, since the Church is necessary for salvation, and since Christ appointed Peter to lead it, it is "absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff". These views, and his chronic intervention in "temporal" affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote his treatise "De Monarchia" to dispute Boniface's claims of papal supremacy.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: In 1297, Cardinal Jacopo Colonna disinherited his brothers Ottone, Matteo, and Landolfo of their lands. The latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who ordered Jacopo to return the land and furthermore to hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns to the Papacy. Jacopo refused. Jacopo Colonna and his nephew, Pietro Colonna, had also seriously compromised themselves by maintaining highly questionable relations with the political enemies of the pope, James II of Aragon and Frederick III of Sicily. In May, Boniface removed them from the College of Cardinals and excommunicated them and their followers.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The Colonna family (aside from the three brothers allied with the Pope) declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V. The dispute led to open warfare, and in September Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army to put down the revolt of Landolfo's relatives. By the end of 1298 Landolfo had captured Colonna, Palestrina and other towns and razed them to the ground after they had surrendered peacefully under Boniface's assurances that they would have been spared. Dante says it was got by treachery by "long promises and short performances" as Guido of Montefeltro counselled, but this account by the implacable Ghibelline has long since been discredited. Palestrina was razed to the ground, the plough driven through and salt strewn over its ruins. A new city — the Città Papale — later replaced it. Only the city's cathedral was spared.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: To deal with the problem of the cardinals left to him by his predecessors, Boniface created new cardinals on five occasions during his reign. In the first creation, in 1295, only one cardinal was appointed, the Pope's nephew Benedetto Caetano. This was no surprise. Nor was the second creation, on 17 December 1295. Two more relatives were appointed, Francesco Caetano, the son of Boniface VIII's brother Peter; and Jacopo (Giacomo) Tomassi Caetani, OFM, a son of the Pope's sister, was made Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente. Giacomo Caetani Stefaneschi, a grand-nephew of Pope Nicholas III, was also appointed, along with Francesco Napoleone Orsini, a nephew of Pope Nicholas III. Three years later, on 4 December 1298, four new cardinals were named: Gonzalo Gudiel (Gundisalvus Rodericus Innojosa), Archbishop of Toledo, was appointed Bishop of Albano; Teodorico Ranieri, Archbishop-elect of Pisa and papal Chamberlain, became Cardinal Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme; Niccolò Boccasini, OP, of Treviso, Master General of the Dominicans, became Cardinal Priest of Santa Sabina; and Riccardo Petroni of Siena, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, was named a Cardinal Deacon. A pattern begins to emerge, though one sees the pattern only in terms of negatives: of the ten new cardinals, only two are monks, and neither of them Benedictine (Celestine V had been excessively partial to Benedictines); and there are no Frenchmen (Celestine had named seven Frenchmen, under the influence of Charles II of Naples). Pope Boniface was distinctly changing the complexion of the membership of the Sacred College. Without the Colonnas, the influence of the King of France was greatly diminished.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On 2 March 1300, during the Great Jubilee, Boniface VIII created three more cardinals. The first was Leonardo Patrasso, Archbishop of Capua, who was Boniface VIII's uncle; he replaced the archbishop of Toledo, who had died in 1299, as Cardinal Bishop of Albano. The second was Gentile Partino, OFM, Doctor of Theology and Lector of Theology in the Roman Curia, who was made Cardinal Priest of S. Martin in montibus. The third was Luca Fieschi, of the Counts of Lavagna, of Genoa, named Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata (the deaconry which had once belonged to Jacopo Colonna). A relative, a Franciscan; all three Italians.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: In his last Consistory for the promotion of Cardinals, on 15 December 1302, Boniface VIII named two more cardinals: Pedro Rodríguez, bishop of Burgos, Spain, became Suburbicarian Bishop of Sabina; and Giovanni Minio da Morrovalle (or da Muro), OFM, Minister General of the Franciscans, was appointed Suburbicarian Bishop of Porto. A Franciscan, a Spaniard, no Benedictines, no French. In fact, there were only two French in the Sacred College at Boniface's death, only five regular clergy (only one Benedictine).


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: When Frederick III of Sicily attained his throne after the death of his father Peter III of Aragon, Boniface tried to dissuade him from accepting the throne of Sicily. When Frederick persisted, Boniface excommunicated him in 1296, and placed the island under interdict. Neither the king nor the people were moved. The conflict continued until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, which saw Pedro's son Frederick III recognized as king of Sicily while Charles II was recognized as the king of Naples. To prepare for a Crusade, Boniface ordered Venice and Genoa to sign a truce; they fought each other for three more years, and turned down his offer to mediate peace.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Boniface also placed the city of Florence under an interdict and invited the ambitious Charles, Count of Valois to enter Italy in 1300 to end the feud of the Black and White Guelphs, the poet Dante Alighieri being in the party of the Whites. Boniface's political ambitions directly affected Dante when the pope invited Count Charles to intervene in the affairs of Florence. Charles's intervention allowed the Black Guelphs to overthrow the ruling White Guelphs, whose leaders, including the poet Dante, allegedly in Rome at the time to argue Florence's case before Boniface, were sentenced to exile. Dante settled his score with Boniface in the first canticle of the "Divine Comedy", the "Inferno", by damning the pope, placing him within the circles of Fraud, in the bolgia of the simoniacs. In the Inferno, Pope Nicholas III, mistaking the Poet for Boniface, is surprised to see the latter, supposing him to be ahead of his time.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The conflict between Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France (1268–1314) came at a time of expanding nation states and the desire for the consolidation of power by the increasingly powerful monarchs. The increase in monarchical power and its conflicts with the Church of Rome were only exacerbated by the rise to power of Philip IV in 1285. In France, the process of centralizing royal power and developing a genuine national state began with the Capetian kings. During his reign, Philip surrounded himself with the best civil lawyers and decidedly expelled the clergy from all participation in the administration of the law. With the clergy beginning to be taxed in France and England to finance their ongoing wars against each other, Boniface took a hard stand against it. He saw the taxation as an assault on traditional clerical rights and ordered the bull "Clericis laicos" in February 1296, forbidding lay taxation of the clergy without prior papal approval. In the bull, Boniface states "they exact and demand from the same the half, tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of their revenues or goods; and in many ways they try to bring them into slavery, and subject them to their authority. And also whatsoever emperors, kings, or princes, dukes, earls or barons...presume to take possession of things anywhere deposited in holy buildings...should incur sentence of excommunication." It was during the issuing of "Clericis laicos" that hostilities between Boniface and Philip began. Philip retaliated against the bull by denying the exportation of money from France to Rome, funds that the Church required to operate. Boniface had no choice but to contest Philip's demands, asking Philip rhetorically: "What would happen to you—God forbid!—if you gravely offended the Apostolic See, and caused an alliance between Her and your enemies?."


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Philip was convinced that the wealth of the Catholic Church in France should be used in part to support the state. He wanted to make war against the English. He countered the papal bull by decreeing laws prohibiting the export of gold, silver, precious stones, or food from France to the Papal States. These measures had the effect of blocking a main source of papal revenue. Philip also banished from France the papal agents who were raising funds for a new crusade in the Middle East. In the bull "Ineffabilis amor" of September 1296, Boniface retreated. He sanctioned voluntary contributions from the clergy for the necessary defense of the state and gave the king the right to determine that necessity. Philip rescinded his ordinances regarding the exports and even accepted Boniface as arbitrator in a dispute between himself and King Edward I of England. Boniface decided most of those issues in Philip's favor. On 3 April 1297, seven French archbishops and forty bishops, provided with an apostolic authorisation, agreed to concede to the King the fifth part of their ecclesiastical revenues under the form of two tithes, the first of which to be paid by Pentecost, the second at the end of September. This subsidy could be collected just in case the war with England should go on, with Church authority and not by means of the secular arm.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Boniface proclaimed 1300 a "jubilee" year, the first of many such jubilees to take place in Rome. He may have wanted to gather money from pilgrims to Rome as a substitute for the missing money from France, or it may be that he was seeking moral and political support against the hostile behavior of the French king and his henchmen. The event was a success; Rome had never received such crowds before. It is said that on one particular day some 30,000 people were counted. Giovanni Villani estimated that some 200,000 pilgrims came to Rome. Boniface and his aides managed the affair well, food was plentiful, and it was sold at moderate prices. It was an advantage to the pope that the great sums of money he collected could be used according to Boniface's own judgment.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: After King Edward I of England invaded Scotland and forced the abdication of the Scottish King John Balliol, the deposed king was released into the custody of Pope Boniface on condition that he remain at a papal residence. The hard-pressed Scottish Parliament, then in the early stages of what came to be known as First Scottish War of Independence, condemned Edward I's invasion and occupation of Scotland and appealed to the Pope to assert a feudal overlordship over the country. The Pope assented, condemning Edward's invasions and occupation of Scotland in the papal bull "Scimus, Fili" (Latin for "We know, my son") of 27 June 1299. The bull ordered Edward to desist his attacks and start negotiations with the Scots. However, Edward ignored the bull; in 1301, a letter was composed in which the English rejected its authority, but it was never sent.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The feud between Boniface and Philip IV reached its peak in the early 14th century, when Philip began to launch a strong anti-papal campaign against Boniface. A quarrel arose between Philip's aides and a papal legate, Bernard Saisset. The legate was arrested on a charge of inciting an insurrection, was tried and convicted by the royal court, and committed to the custody of the archbishop of Narbonne, Giles Aycelin – one of his key ministers and allies, in 1301. In the bull "Ausculta Fili" ("Listen, [My] Son", December 1301) Boniface VIII appealed to Philip IV to listen modestly to the Vicar of Christ as the spiritual monarch over all earthly kings. He protested against the trial of churchmen before Philip's royal courts and the continued use of church funds for state purposes and he announced he would summon the bishops and abbots of France to take measures "for the preservation of the liberties of the Church". When the bull was presented to Philip IV, Robert II, Count of Artois, reportedly snatched it from the hands of Boniface's emissary and flung it into the fire.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: In February 1302 the bull "Ausculta Fili" was officially burned at Paris before Philip IV and a great multitude. Nonetheless, on 4 March 1302, Pope Boniface sent cardinal Jean Lemoine as his legate to reassert papal control over the French clergy. To forestall the ecclesiastical council proposed by Boniface, Philip summoned the three estates of his realm to meet at Paris in April. At this first French Estates-General in history, all three classes – nobles, clergy, and commons – wrote separately to Rome in defense of the king and his temporal power. Some forty-five French prelates, despite Philip's prohibition, and the confiscation of their property, attended the council at Rome in October 1302.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Following that council, on 18 November 1302, Boniface issued the bull "Unam sanctam" ("One holy [catholic and apostolic Church]"). It declared that both spiritual and temporal power were under the pope's jurisdiction, and that kings were subordinate to the power of the Roman pontiff. The Pope also appointed Cardinal Jean le Moine as Apostolic Legate to King Philip, to attempt to find some resolution of the impasse that had developed; he was granted the specific power of absolving King Philip from excommunication.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On Maundy Thursday, 4 April 1303, the Pope again excommunicated all persons who were impeding French clerics from coming to the Holy See, "etiam si imperiali aut regali fulgeant dignitati." This included King Philip IV, though not by name. In response, Guillaume de Nogaret, Philip's chief minister, denounced Boniface as a heretical criminal to the French clergy. On 15 August 1303, the Pope suspended the right of all persons in the Kingdom of France to name anyone as Regent or Doctor, including the King. And in another document of the same day, he reserved to the Holy See the provision of all present and future vacancies in cathedral churches and monasteries, until King Philip should come to the Papal Court and make explanations of his behavior.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On 7 September 1303, an army led by King Philip's minister Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna attacked Boniface at his Palace in Anagni next to the Cathedral. The Pope responded with a bull dated 8 September 1303, in which Philip and Nogaret were excommunicated. The French Chancellor and the Colonnas demanded the Pope's abdication; Boniface VIII responded that he would "sooner die". In response, Colonna allegedly slapped Boniface, a "slap" historically remembered as the "schiaffo di Anagni" ("Anagni slap").


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: According to a modern interpreter, the 73-year-old Boniface was probably beaten and nearly executed, but was released from captivity after three days. He died a month later. The famous Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote:


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: And when Sciarra and the others, his enemies, came to him, they mocked at him with vile words and arrested him and his household which had remained with him. Among others, William of Nogaret, who had conducted the negotiations for the king of France, scorned him and threatened him, saying that he would take him bound to Lyons on the Rhone, and there in a general council would cause him to be deposed and condemned... no man dared to touch [Boniface], nor were they pleased to lay hands on him, but they left him robed under light arrest and were minded to rob the treasure of the Pope and the Church. In this pain, shame and torment, the great Pope Boniface abode prisoner among his enemies for three days... the People of Anagni beholding their error and issuing from their blind ingratitude, suddenly rose in arms... and drove out Sciarra della Colonna and his followers, with loss to them of prisoners and slain, and freed the Pope and his household. Pope Boniface... departed immediately from Anagni with his court and came to Rome and St. Peter's to hold a council... but... the grief which had hardened in the heart of Pope Boniface, by reason of the injury which he had received, produced in him, once he had come to Rome, a strange malady so that he gnawed at himself as if he were mad, and in this state he passed from this life on the twelfth day of October in the year of Christ 1303, and in the Church of St. Peter near the entrance of the doors, in a rich chapel which was built in his lifetime, he was honorably buried.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: He died of a violent fever on 11 October, in full possession of his senses and in the presence of eight cardinals and the chief members of the papal household, after receiving the sacraments and making the usual profession of faith.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The body of Boniface VIII was buried in 1303 in a special chapel that also housed the remains of Pope Boniface IV (A.D. 608–615), which had been moved by Boniface VIII from a tomb outside the Vatican Basilica in the portico.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The body was accidentally exhumed in 1605, and the results of the excavation recorded by Giacomo Grimaldi (1568–1623), Apostolic Notary and Archivist of the Vatican Basilica, and others. The body lay within three coffins, the outermost of wood, the middle of lead, and the innermost of pine. The corporal remains were described as being "unusually tall" measuring seven palms when examined by doctors. The body was found quite intact, especially the shapely hands, thus disproving another spiteful calumny, that he had died in a frenzy, gnawing his hands, beating his brains out against the wall. The body wore ecclesiastical vestments common for Boniface's lifetime: long stockings covered legs and thighs, and it was garbed also with the maniple, cassock, and pontifical habit made of black silk, as well as stole, chasuble, rings, and bejeweled gloves.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: After this exhumation and examination, Boniface's body was moved to the Chapel of Pope Gregory and Andrew. His body now lies in the crypt (grotte) of St. Peter's in a large marble sarcophagus, inscribed BONIFACIVS PAPA VIII.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: After the papacy had been removed to Avignon in 1309, Pope Clement V, under extreme pressure from King Philip IV, consented to a posthumous trial. He said, "[I]t was permissible for any persons who wanted to proceed against the memory of Boniface VIII to proceed." He gave a mandate to the Bishop of Paris, Guillaume de Baufet d'Aurillac, and to Guillaume Pierre Godin, OP, that the complainants should choose prosecutors and determine a day on which the Inquiry would begin in the presence of the Pope ("coram nobis Avinione"). The Pope signed his mandate at his current place of residence, the Priory of Grauselle near Malusan (Malausène) in the diocese of Vasio (Vaison), on 18 October 1309. Both the King of Aragon and the King of Castile immediately sent ambassadors to Pope Clement, complaining that scandal was being poured into the ears of the Faithful, when they heard that a Roman pontiff was being charged with a crime of heresy. They had a point, in that the persecution implied that a pope was not infallible in matters of faith and morals. Complaints also came from Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: On 27 April 1310, in what was certainly a peace gesture toward the French, Clement V pardoned Guillaume Nogaret for his offenses committed at Anagni against Boniface VIII and the Church, for which he had been excommunicated, with the condition that Nogaret personally go to the Holy Land in the next wave of soldiers and serve there in the military. By the end of Spring 1310, Clement was feeling the embarrassment and the pressure over the material being produced by Boniface's accusers. His patience was wearing thin. He issued a mandate on 28 June 1310, in which he complained about the quality of the testimony and the corruption of the various accusers and witnesses. Then he ordered the Quaesitores that future examinations should proceed under threat of excommunication for perjury. A process (judicial investigation) against the memory of Boniface was held by an ecclesiastical consistory at Priory Groseau, near Malaucène, which held preliminary examinations in August and September 1310. and collected testimonies that alleged many heretical opinions of Boniface VIII. This included the offence of sodomy, although there is no substantive evidence for this, and it is likely that this was the standard accusation Philip made against enemies. The same charge was brought against the Templars.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: Before the actual trial could be held, Clement persuaded Philip to leave the question of Boniface's guilt to the Council of Vienne, which met in 1311. On 27 April 1311, in a public Consistory, with King Philip's agents present, the Pope formally excused the King for everything that he had said against the memory of Pope Boniface, on the grounds that he was speaking with good intentions. This statement was written down and published as a bull, and the bull contained the statement that the matter would be referred by the Pope to the forthcoming Council. The Pope then announced that he was reserving the whole matter to his own judgment.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The XV Ecumenical Council, the Council of Vienne, opened on 1 November 1311, with more than 300 bishops in attendance. When the Council met (so it is said), three cardinals appeared before it and testified to the orthodoxy and morality of the dead pope. Two knights, as challengers, threw down their gauntlets to maintain his innocence by trial by combat. No one accepted the challenge, and the Council declared the matter closed. Clement's order disbanding the Order of the Knights Templar was signed at the Council of Vienne on 2 May 1312.


title: Pope Boniface VIII

text: The pope is said to have been short-tempered, kicking an envoy in the face on one occasion, and on another, throwing ashes in the eyes of an archbishop who was kneeling to receive them as a blessing atop his head.


title: Michael Trevino

text: Michael Anthony Trevino (born January 25, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Tyler Lockwood on The CW's "The Vampire Diaries"; and as Kyle Valenti in Roswell, New Mexico.


title: Michael Trevino

text: Trevino was born in Los Angeles. He was raised in Montebello, California, and later moved to Valencia. His mother was originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, and his father was born in Fresno, California, to Mexican immigrants.


title: Michael Trevino

text: Trevino played the role of Jackson Meade, similar to Meade Milk, in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Cow Belles". He has also appeared as a guest star on "Cold Case", "Without a Trace", "Bones", "The Mentalist " as Bradon Fulton in season 1 episode 19 and "Commander in Chief". Trevino also had a small role on the TV series "Charmed" in the eighth season episode, "Malice in Wonderland", as Alastair. He also had a recurring role on "The Riches" on FX, playing high school student Brent, in a four-episode story arc in season 1, and appeared in the third episode of season 2.


title: Michael Trevino

text: He played the role of Jaime Vega on the short-lived 2007 television series "Cane". In 2008, Trevino was cast for a three-episode arc on The CW's "90210", playing Ozzie, a student at West Beverly Hills High School and love interest for Naomi.


title: Michael Trevino

text: Beginning in 2009, Trevino starred as Tyler Lockwood in the series "The Vampire Diaries" on The CW. Trevino appeared as the same character in a recurring role on the "Vampire Diaries" spin-off series "The Originals" in 2013, the first major character to transition from one show to another. In April 2015, it was announced that Trevino would be leaving "The Vampire Diaries" after the end of the sixth season, like his co-star Nina Dobrev.


title: Margot Bingham

text: Margot Bingham is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is best known for her role as jazz singer Daughter Maitland in the HBO period drama series, "Boardwalk Empire". In 2015, Bingham began starring as one of lead characters in the ABC drama series, "The Family". In 2021, she starred in the eleventh and final season of "The Walking Dead".


title: Margot Bingham

text: Bingham was born in August 1988 and raised in the Green Tree suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Craig Bingham, a former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, and Lynne Bingham. She graduated in 2006 from the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and attended Point Park University for two years before relocating to New York City. She began appearing on stage there in 2010, and had a role in the 2011 revival of "Rent". During that same time, she co-starred in the web series "In Between Men", and performed in BAM Cafe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.


title: Margot Bingham

text: In 2013, Bingham was cast in the recurring role of the 1920s jazz singer Daughter Maitland in the HBO period drama series, "Boardwalk Empire", for which she received positive reviews from critics. In 2014, she had the recurring role in the short-lived El Rey Network series, "Matador". In 2015, Bingham was cast as one of the female lead characters opposite Joan Allen in the ABC drama series, "The Family" created by Jenna Bans.


title: Margot Bingham

text: Bingham is of Jamaican descent on her father's side, and of German-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent on her mother's side. Bingham is Jewish, and had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Soldier is a 1998 American science fiction action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, written by David Webb Peoples, and starring Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and Gary Busey. The film tells the story of a highly skilled and emotionally distant soldier who is left for dead, befriends a group of refugees, then faces his former superiors who are determined to eliminate them.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: The film was released worldwide on October 23, 1998. Upon its release, "Soldier" received generally negative reviews, although many praised the action sequences and Russell's performance. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $14 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: In 1996, as part of a new military training program, a group of orphaned infants are selected at birth and raised as highly disciplined soldiers with no understanding of anything but military routine. They are trained to be ruthless professionals, and anyone considered physically or mentally unworthy is executed. The survivors are turned into ultimate fighting machines, but have no understanding of the outside world.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: In 2036, Sgt. Todd 3465 is a hardened veteran and one of the original 1996 infants, but his unit is about to be replaced by a superior one, with the original unit likely to be deactivated. Colonel Mekum, leader of the original project, introduces a new group of genetically engineered soldiers, designed with superior physical attributes and a complete lack of emotion, except complete aggression.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Captain Church, the commander of Todd's unit, insists on testing the new soldiers' abilities against his own. One new soldier, Caine 607, easily defeats three of the original soldiers, but Todd gouges out Caine's eye before falling from a great height; the body of a dead soldier cushions his fall, and he is knocked unconscious. Mekum orders their bodies disposed of like garbage, declaring them obsolete, while the remaining older soldiers are demoted to menial support roles.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Dumped on Arcadia 234, a waste disposal planet, Todd limps toward a colony whose residents crash-landed there years earlier; as they were believed dead, no rescue missions have been attempted. Todd is sheltered by Mace and his wife Sandra. Though they try to make him welcome, Todd has difficulty adapting to the community due to his extreme conditioning and their conflict-free lives. While Todd develops a silent rapport with their mute son, Nathan, who had been traumatized by a snakebite as an infant, he soon begins to experience flashbacks from his time as a soldier and mistakes one of the colonists for an enemy, nearly killing him. To make matters worse, in a later conflict with a coiled snake, Todd forces Nathan to face it down and strike back to protect himself. His parents disapprove of the lesson, unsure of how to deal with Todd.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Fearful, the colonists expel Todd from the community. Experiencing strong emotion for the first time, Todd appears confused when he is overcome by loss and cries for the first time. A short time later, Mace and Sandra are almost bitten by a snake while they sleep, but they are saved by Nathan, who uses Todd's technique. Now understanding the value of Todd's lesson, they seek him to reintegrate him into the community, but the others resist.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: The new genetically engineered soldiers arrive on the garbage planet, and, since the world is listed as uninhabited, Colonel Mekum decides to use the colonists' community as the target in a training exercise. The soldiers spot Mace and kill him just after he finds Todd. Though out-manned and outgunned, Todd's years of battle experience and superior knowledge of the planet allow him to return to the colony and kill the advance squad. Nervous that an unknown enemy force may be confronting them, Colonel Mekum orders the soldiers to withdraw and return with heavy artillery. Using guerrilla tactics, Todd outmaneuvers and defeats all of the remaining soldiers, including Caine 607, whom he defeats in vicious hand-to-hand combat.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Panicking, Mekum orders the transport ship's crew, composed of Todd's old squad, to set up and activate a portable doomsday device powerful enough to destroy the planet. He orders the ship to lift off, leaving the squad behind. When Captain Church objects, Mekum shoots him in cold blood. Before they can take off as planned, Todd appears, and his old comrades silently side with him over the army that has discarded them, and take over the ship. They leave Mekum and his aides on the planet and evacuate the remaining colonists. In an attempt to disarm the device, Mekum accidentally sets it off, killing him and his aides. Todd pilots the ship from Arcadia just ahead of the shockwave and sets course for the Trinity Moons, the colonists' original destination. He picks up Nathan and points to their new destination, while looking out upon the galaxy.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Kurt Russell spoke only 104 words in the entire movie despite being in 85% of the scenes. During the first week of shooting he broke his left ankle, then the top of his right foot four days later, so the entire production needed to be rescheduled. The filmmakers first shot scenes involving Russell lying down, followed by scenes of Russell sitting, Russell standing but not moving, and so on.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: DVD was released in Region 1 in the United States on March 2, 1999, and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on August 2, 1999, it was distributed by Warner Home Video. It was released as a double-sided disc, which included the widescreen version on one side, with full-screen on the other. Included on the disc was a film commentary. "Soldier" was released on Blu-ray for the first time in the U.S. on July 26, 2011.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 13% approval rating based on 52 reviews and an average rating of 3.78/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A boring genre film and a waste of a good set." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: Bruce Westbrook of the "Houston Chronicle" commented that "the action is handled fairly well, but it's routine, and there's no satisfaction in seeing Todd waste men who are no more bloodthirsty than he is." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" criticized the film's overuse of genre clichés, saying "any cliché you can dream up for a futuristic action movie, any familiar big-budget epic you can think to rip off, "Soldier" has gotten there first." Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" described the film as "a big, clanging, brutal actioner in which we search the murk in vain for the sparks of humanity the moviemakers keep promising us." Lisa Alspector of the "Chicago Reader" found the film to be enjoyable, calling Russell's performance "persuasive" and saying "this appealing formulaic action adventure displays a lot of conviction in its not-too-flashy action scenes and a little levity in the gradual socialization of Russell's character." Similarly, Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5 and called it "a potent comic-book-style action-adventure."


title: Soldier (1998 American film)

text: "Soldier" was written by David Peoples, who co-wrote the script for the 1982 film "Blade Runner". He considers "Soldier" to be a "spin-off sidequel"-spiritual successor to "Blade Runner", seeing both films as existing in a shared fictional universe. The film obliquely refers to various elements of stories written by Philip K. Dick (who wrote the 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", on which "Blade Runner" is based), or film adaptations thereof. A Spinner from "Blade Runner" can be seen in the wreckage on the junk planet in the film and Kurt Russell’s character is shown to have fought in the battles referenced in Roy Batty’s (Rutger Hauer) dying monologue: the Shoulder of Orion and Tannhäuser Gate.


title: Dark Avengers

text: Dark Avengers is a 2009–2013 American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It is part of a series of titles that features various iterations of the superhero team "the Avengers", with this version of the team - unbeknownst to the public in its stories - having several members who are actually supervillains and anti-heroes disguised as the established superheroes.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The series debuted with issue #1, dated January 2009, as part of a multi-series story arc entitled "Dark Reign." In the premiere, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato (working from a continuity begun in a previous, company-wide story arc, "Secret Invasion," involving an infiltration of Earth by the shape-shifting alien Skrulls and that race's eventual defeat) chronicled the aftermath of the U.S. government's disbanding of the federally sanctioned superhero team, the Avengers. Bendis described the thinking behind the team: "These are bad-ass, hardcore get-it-done types. They'll close the door and take care of business and he's dressing them up to make them something that the people want. This is in contrast to the changes Norman Osborn is shown making to the Thunderbolts, where, according to writer Andy Diggle, he turns that team into "something much more covert and much more lethal: his own personal hit squad".


title: Dark Avengers

text: The "Thunderbolts" comic book was renamed "Dark Avengers" beginning with issue #175, but the creative team remained unchanged. Dark Avengers ended with issue #190.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The government assigned the team's redevelopment to Norman Osborn (the reformed supervillain now calling himself the Iron Patriot) whom the government had previously assigned to head the superhero team the Thunderbolts and who had become a public hero for his role in repelling the Skrull threat. Osborn, also given leadership of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., reforms that agency into H.A.M.M.E.R. and creates a new Avengers team under its aegis.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The initial line-up consists of former Thunderbolts members and new recruits, including the Sentry, Ares, Noh-Varr (now Captain Marvel) as well as disguised super-villains Moonstone (portraying Ms. Marvel), Venom (Mac Gargan portraying Spider-Man after being given a formula that resets the symbiote to the size it was when it possessed Spider-Man), Bullseye (portraying Hawkeye) and Wolverine's disgruntled son Daken taking on the Wolverine mantle. Osborn also takes on the identity of Iron Patriot, wearing a red, white, and blue-themed Iron Man armor. The team goes to Latveria to rescue Doctor Doom from Morgan Le Fay. Upon returning from Latveria, Osborn deals with the aftermath of Ronin's appearance on live TV reminding the public of Osborn's murderous past and that he should not be trusted. Due to this action, Osborn is forced to "get rid of" this problem.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The Dark Avengers arrive in San Francisco to set up martial law and to quell the anti-mutant riots. In doing so, Norman sets up his own team of X-Men consisting of Cloak and Dagger, Mimic, Emma Frost, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Daken, Weapon Omega and Mystique (posing as Professor X) much to the chagrin of his Avengers. After Emma Frost, Namor, and Cloak and Dagger betray the team, Norman swears vengeance on the X-Men.


title: Dark Avengers

text: A series of disappearances throughout Colorado causes Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers (except for Venom) to visit the small town of Dinosaur, Colorado. Everyone except Norman is teleported away, while Osborn finds himself in front of a throne with Molecule Man seated on it, flanked by the Beyonder, Mephisto, Zarathos, and the Enchantress. However, it is revealed that these others were merely Molecule Man's creations. Molecule Man tortures Norman mentally and physically and seemingly kills his Avengers. Osborn's assistant Victoria Hand successfully stalls Molecule Man with a false surrender until the Void is able to reform and kill Molecule Man. It is revealed that the Sentry and the Void have the same powers as Molecule Man. The Sentry regains control of himself and agrees to begin therapy with Moonstone, while Victoria Hand demands Norman to undergo therapy as well after being tortured. Inside his office, Loki is manipulating Norman into having a Green Goblin relapse.


title: Dark Avengers

text: After declaring war on the Asgardians, Norman Osborn has the Dark Avengers and those in prepare for the Siege of Asgard. Norman considers The Sentry, specifically his dark side, known as The Void, his secret weapon.


title: Dark Avengers

text: In flashback, it is told how Robert Reynolds received his vast powers from experimental drugs, using his might as the Sentry to live the life of a superhero, while his darker emotions manifested as the Void. Osborn has manipulated Reynolds into allowing the Void to take over, to do Osborn's murderous bidding. Osborn has somehow recreated the addictive serum that gave Reynolds his powers, making him dependent on Osborn and his approval. Meanwhile, Reynolds's wife Lindy has been a virtual prisoner in the Sentry's Watchtower, has even attempted to kill him, and begs Reynolds to either kill her or let her go. Reynolds's warring personalities, however, have stalemated. The Sentry even attempts suicide, flying into the heart of the sun, but such is his invulnerability that it doesn't work. He tires of struggling against the Void. Norman orders Bullseye to kill Lindy, blaming her for Sentry's uncertainty and weakness. When an emergency evacuation occurs, Bullseye takes Lindy on a helicopter, antagonizes her cruelly, then strangles her to death and dumps her body into the ocean. When Sentry arrives looking for Lindy, Bullseye claims that she committed suicide, out of fear of Reynolds, by jumping out of the helicopter in the countryside. Sentry leaves to look for her body. From this point on, it could be said that the murderous Void was in full control of Reynolds and his unprecedented power.


title: Dark Avengers

text: Following the events of Siege, Norman Osborn is incarcerated in The Raft penitentiary. Moonstone, Bullseye and Venom are captured by the heroes, while Daken manages to escape capture by military personnel. After being interrogated by Captain Rogers, Victoria Hand is informed that she has been reassigned. Moonstone joins Luke Cage's incarnation of the Thunderbolts. Noh-Varr is recruited into the Avengers team to help them build a time machine to save the future. Victoria Hand is assigned by Steve Rogers to be the liaison for Luke Cage's team of Avengers, dubbed the New Avengers, because he feels that she can provide an important insight to the team. Bullseye escapes custody and is killed by his longtime nemesis Daredevil when he attacks his fortress of Shadowland during the storyline of the same name. Daken eludes capture at the conclusion of the Siege of Asgard and is confronted by Franken-Castle (whom he had killed during the Dark Reign). Mac Gargan's symbiote is removed and he is taken into custody. Alistair Smythe breaks Gargan out of prison who is transformed back into the Scorpion.


title: Dark Avengers

text: A new Dark Avengers team is formed by Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. The roster includes Skaar, Gorgon, Ai Apaec, Dr. June Covington, Superia, and Trickshot. The team is backed up by HYDRA and A.I.M. Norman Osborn also has A.I.M. rebuild Ragnarok so that he can join the Dark Avengers. Although Osborn claims to be certain that his new team is superior to their "templates," he appears unaware that Madame Hydra and Gorgon are already planning to kill him once he proves himself to be too dangerous as leader, intending to use his team to sow discord by serving as a voice of the "disenfranchised" unsatisfied with the status quo. The subsequent fight against the New Avengers proves to be relatively evenly matched. Although Osborn demonstrates a surprising new level of strength allowing him to throw Luke Cage a considerable distance and his Scarlet Witch injures Doctor Strange, the others are able to hold their own far more easily. When they attempt to teleport away, the New Avengers end up facing Ragnarok. Spider-Man and Iron Fist are able to defeat Ragnarok, but the Dark Avengers' actions have still damaged the New Avengers' reputations by tricking them into provoking a fight with a team who just helped the civilians, Osborn's other forces attacking the main team to charge them with various war crimes, ordering the President to declare Osborn the new head of world security and put the Avengers on trial.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The Dark Avengers capture Captain America during their successful attack on both Avengers teams with the intention of executing him for his 'crimes'. Gorgon and Superia are already planning to betray the team, while Victoria Hand, apparently Norman's double agent inside the team, reveals to the New Avengers her real allegiance to Captain America and Skaar turns on his teammates after they confirm their intentions to assault Captain America, exclaiming the famous rallying cry, "Avengers Assemble!" as he does so. Skaar reveals that he is a double agent for Captain America, allowing the New Avengers to defeat the rest of the team. Norman Osborn is shown to have developed the abilities of the Super-Adaptoid, enabling him to copy the abilities of the other Avengers. The Avengers find a way to overload this power, which puts Norman Osborn into a coma. After Osborn is defeated, the rest of the Dark Avengers are detained. It is suggested in a conversation with Captain America that they be considered for the Thunderbolts Program.


title: Dark Avengers

text: As of #175, "Thunderbolts" is renamed "Dark Avengers" with writer Jeff Parker and the art team of Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey remaining on the title. When the Thunderbolts are missing in the time stream, the Dark Avengers were recruited as a replacement team. In order to keep the Dark Avengers in line, they were implanted with nanites and placed under the leadership of Luke Cage.


title: Dark Avengers

text: The Dark Avengers team are thrown into the alternate world of Earth-13584 with John Walker (U.S. Agent) where they are captured by that reality's version of Iron Man. It turns out that A.I.M. is behind the reality manipulation. Due to the Dark Avengers' arrival, the solar system is starting to disappear. The Dark Avengers enter the A.I.M. base and accelerate the sliver's destruction. The Dark Avengers arrive back in their world. Skaar hops away, but the rest of the team ponders what to do as most of them are still criminals. June Covington bewitches U.S. Agent into believing they could still work as a team and steps on a still miniaturized Ai Apaec.


title: Dark Avengers

text: In the Ultimate Marvel reality, an alternate version of the Dark Avengers appears under the name the Dark Ultimates. The group consists of a female Kang the Conqueror and Reed Richards as well as the former Ultimates Hulk and Quicksilver. The team is formed with the goal of forcibly saving the world by any means necessary. They first appear while attacking the Triskelion in order to steal the Infinity Gems.


title: Freakazoid!

text: Freakazoid! is an American superhero comedy animated television series created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini and developed by Tom Ruegger for the Kids' WB programming block of The WB. The series chronicles the adventures of the title character, Freakazoid, a crazy teenage superhero who battles with a bizarre array of supervillains. The show also features mini-episodes of adventures of other bizarre superheroes. The show was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the third animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation during the animation renaissance of the 1990s.


title: Freakazoid!

text: Bruce Timm, best known as a major principal of the DC Animated Universe, originally intended it to be a straightforward superhero action-adventure cartoon with comic overtones, but executive producer Steven Spielberg asked series producer and writer Tom Ruegger and the "Animaniacs" team to turn "Freakazoid!" into a flat-out comedy. The show is similar to fellow Ruegger-led programs such as "Animaniacs", and the humor is unique in its inclusions of slapstick, fourth wall firings, parody, surreal humor and pop cultural references.


title: Freakazoid!

text: The series was one of the first to debut on the new Kids' WB Saturday morning block of The WB, on September 9, 1995. The series lasted for two seasons, finishing with 24 episodes, the final one broadcast on June 1, 1997. Although the series originally struggled in the ratings, reruns on Cartoon Network and a fan following elevated it to become a cult hit. Warner Bros. considered renewing the series for a third season, but deemed it to be too expensive. The show also ranked #53 on IGN's Top 100 Animated Series list.


title: Freakazoid!

text: The show's title character is the superhero alter ego of geeky 16-year-old (later changed to 17-year-old) Dexter Douglas who attends Harry Connick High School. His name is an allusion to the alliterative names that superheroes commonly have. Dexter gained his abilities from a computer bug activated by a "secret key sequence" that was accidentally activated by his cat Mr. Chubbikins (a reference to the Pentium FDIV bug). The sequence of keys is """@[=g3,8d]\&fbb=-q]/hk%fg""" (the quotes are included) which also activated when Dexter hit the delete button on his computer. Freakazoid has enhanced strength and endurance, extraordinary speed and agility, as well as access to all the knowledge on the Internet. These make him a powerful and fearsome force for upholding freedom and righteousness, unless he gets distracted by something like a bear riding a motorcycle. He has a base called the Freakalair, a parody of the Batcave, built by his mute butler Ingmar. The Freakalair contains a "Hall of Nifty Things to Know" and even a mad scientist lab. His greatest weakness, as he once explained to Guitierrez, is graphite bars charged with negative ions. He also expresses a great aversion to "poo gas".


title: Freakazoid!

text: Peripheral powers come and go: Freakazoid once developed telekinesis triggered by anger that was never mentioned again after the episode, and once crossed the globe to yell at a Tibetan monk for raking too loudly, but apologizes to him later in the same plot. He also has the ability to assume the form of electricity and cover long distances instantaneously, although he just as often simply sticks his arms forward and runs while making swooshing sounds with his mouth, pretending to fly.


title: Freakazoid!

text: Dexter can change into and out of Freakazoid at will with the words "Freak out!" and "Freak in!". When not in Freakazoid mode, Dexter looks and acts completely normal, and his family is unaware that anything has happened to him. Freakazoid spends this time in an area of Dexter's brain called the Freakazone, where he reflects, has profound thoughts, and watches "Rat Patrol" reruns.


title: Freakazoid!

text: While the show's setting is set around Washington, D.C., the locale often varies with the show's humor, taking Freakazoid to locations around the world as needed.


title: Freakazoid!

text: "Freakazoid!" also features several mini-segments, primarily in the first season. Each of these have their own theme songs and title cards, and rarely "cross over" into the continuity of the main show. These segments include:


title: Freakazoid!

text: The voice actors of the show "Freakazoid!" included various actors from other television series and films. Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Jeff Bennett, and Frank Welker, who all provided voices in the series "Animaniacs", were on "Freakazoid!". Actors Ed Asner, Ricardo Montalbán, Larry Cedar, Jonathan Harris, and Stephen Furst also provided voices for the series. Also, writers John P. McCann and Paul Rugg (who played Freakazoid) added voices themselves.


title: Freakazoid!

text: Casting for the show had been difficult for the "Freakazoid!" staff, as no lead character had been found even after extensive auditions. Eventually, when writer Paul Rugg was brought to demonstrate the voice in a recording session, he ended up filling the role, as he said: "I went in there and did it. Then they played it for Steven Spielberg and he said 'Yep! Fine, sure, great,' and then I panicked ... and I had to do it." Rugg played the role of Freakazoid through the entire series run.


title: Freakazoid!

text: The animation was outsourced to Animal-ya, Studio Junio, and Tama Production in Japan, Seoul Movie, Dong Yang Animation, and Koko Enterprises Ltd. in South Korea.


title: Freakazoid!

text: The music for "Freakazoid!" was written by Richard Stone, Steve Bernstein, Julie Bernstein, Gordon Goodwin, and Tim Kelly. Stone won a Daytime Emmy with lyricist (and senior producer) Tom Ruegger for the main title song in 1996. Julie Bernstein was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song in 1998 for the song "Invisibo" from the episode "Freak-a-Panel".


title: Freakazoid!

text: Cartoonist Mike Allred has criticized the show and its lead character as plagiarism of his comic book "Madman", asserting that the title characters share several personality traits, and wear similar costumes featuring a chest emblem including an exclamation mark. During the short run of the show, Allred remained relatively silent on the subject, but in 2003, he responded to a question about the show on the message board of his official website:


title: Freakazoid!

text: The humor in "Freakazoid!" relied heavily on slapstick, parody and pop culture references. Due to the series being metafiction, much of the series was self-aware humor (i.e. breaking the fourth wall); for instance, after the first appearance of the Freakmobile, the show goes immediately into an impromptu commercial for a toy version, and later in the episode, Freakazoid addresses an audience, congratulating the staff on how hard they have worked to make the show toyetic. A running gag involves a repeated credit for "Weena Mercator as the Hopping Woman", though no such character appears in any episode. The show also incorporated humor aimed at the WB Network, such as questioning the meaning of the initials "WB".


title: Freakazoid!

text: "Freakazoid!" made frequent use of stock footage, including a peaceful scene of a field of flowers ("Relax-O-Vision"), numerous people screaming and traditionally dressed Bavarians dancing and slapping each other ("Candle Jack"), and a man being shot in the belly with a cannonball and a man wrestling a bear ("The Chip").


title: Freakazoid!

text: Cameo appearances were also a major element of the show's humor. At various times, "Freakazoid!" hosted appearances by characters from other Warner Bros. shows such as "Pinky and the Brain", "Animaniacs" and even an insinuation appearance of Batman from Bruce Timm's . Portrayals of many celebrities (including producer Steven Spielberg) and guest appearances by such figures as Jack Valenti, Leonard Maltin and Mark Hamill as themselves were also commonplace. Norm Abram had an entire episode, "Normadeus", built around him. One original character, a bizarre-looking man named Emmitt Nervend, plays no role whatsoever other than enabling a "Where's Waldo"-esque hunt for his constant cameos (complete with the number of his appearances announced in the closing credits).