Iconoclasts (Gr. eikon, "an image," and k/azo, "I break"), was the name used to designate those in the Church from the eighth century downwards, who have been opposed to the use of sacred images (i. e. of statues, pictures, and other sensible representations of sacred objects), or at least to the paying of religious honor or reverence to such representations. The iconoclast movement had its commencement in the Eastern Church.

Anti-semites,the modern opponents of the Jews in Russia, Roumania, Hungary and Germany. In these countries the Jews are found in great numbers, and their constantly increasing wealth and influence excite popular jealousy and alarm. Brutal outrages were inflicted upon the Jews in Russia and Hungary in 1881-4, and anti-semitic leagues were formed in 1881 to restrict the liberty of Jews in Germany and other countries.

Abdication is the resignation of any office, political or otherwise. It implies the surrender of powers previously conferred or inherited, and is generally the result of a desire on the part of the person abdicating for retirement from public to private life. The use of the word is confined to the surrender of dignities and emoluments of importance, and is thus distinguished from the term "resignation" as applied to the petty offices of life.

Tribunes of the people were first appointed at Rome on the succession of the plebs to Mons Sacer (494 b. c). The number, at first two, was ultimately increased to ten. Their peculiar function was to look after the interests of the plebs as opposed to those of the patricians. In the course of time the tribunes of the people became the most important officers in the state.

The carte blanche was a "blank paper" authenticated with an authoritative signature, and intrusted to some one to be filled up as he may think best. Thus in 1649 Charles II. tried to save his father's life by sending from the Hague to the Parliament a signed carte blanche to be filled up with any terms which they would accept as the price of his safety.

The "cap of liberty" worn in the Roman states by manumitted slaves, was made of red cloth. Those who wore it were called "pileati," i.e. wearers of the "pileus." In revolutionary emeutes at Rome the pileus was sometimes hoisted on a spear. After the murder of Caesar, Brutus and his rebels adopted the red cap as a token of their republican sentiments.

The national badge of France since 1789 has been the tricolor. It consists of the Bourbon white cockade, and the blue and red cockade of the city of Paris combined. It was Lafayette who devised this symbolical union of king and people, and when he presented it to the nation, "Gentlemen," said he, "I bring you a cockade that shall make the tour of the world."

The famous retreat of the ten thousand occurred b. c. 401-399. It was conducted by Xenophon, the historian, who had joined the expedition of Cyrus. In the battle of Cunaxa Cyrus lost his life, and the Greeks were left without a leader. Xenophon volunteered to lead them back to Greece and has left a historical narrative of this famous retreat, called "Xenophon's Anabasis."

All youthful readers know about the buccaneers, a name given to the celebrated associations of piratical adventurers, who, from the commencement of the second quarter of the sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, maintained themselves in the Caribbean seas, at first by systematic reprisals on the Spaniards, latterly by less justifiable and indiscriminate piracy.

The Montagnards were a party in the first French Revolution under the leadership of Robespierre. They occupied in the Convention the most elevated seats called La Montague, in opposition to the Plaine, or the lowest seats occupied by the moderate party called the Girondins. The Mountain party overthrew the Girondists on May 31, 1793, but was in turn overthrown "le 9 Thermidor, An II ," when Robespierre met with his downfall (1794). Both the Mountain and the Plain were left of the speaker.

Thugs is the name for a religious fraternity in India, which, professedly in honor of the goddess Kali, the wife of Siva, was addicted to the committal of murders, and lived upon the plunder obtained from its victims. Banding together in gangs, they assumed the appearance of ordinary traders, and insinuating themselves into the confidence of unsuspecting fellow-travelers, killed them by strangling. They were bound together by bloody oaths, and carried on systematic assassination on a large scale.

Blood-money was the money paid by press-gangs to anyone who informed them of a man who had deserted from the naval service, or who was instrumental in giving up a deserter to the press-gang. The deserter ought to have been a sailor, but in a "hot-press" landsmen were often kidnapped. "Blood-money" now means money paid to a person for informing against a felon.

The flag of the prophet, or "Sanjak-Sheriff," is the sacred banner of the Mahommedans. Originally the white turban of the Koreish, captured by Mahommed. Subsequently a green flag was substituted, being the curtain which hung before the door of Ayesha, one of the prophet's wives. It is preserved most carefully in a chapel of the seraglio, and watched over by several emirs.

The Hanseatic League was a trades-union to protect merchandise from pirates and the pillage of nobles. It began with the three towns of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck, but ultimately contained eighty-five trading towns. The league was divided into four colleges, viz. Liibeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzig. Of these Liibeck was the chief, and presided in all the conferences.

The Calvinists of the Cevennes, after the Revocation Edict, took up arms under their leaders Cavalier and Roland, and defeated the French troops sent against them by Louis XIV. again and again. At last the Duke of Berwick extirpated them and desolated the whole province of the Cevennes in 1705. They were called Camisards from the camise or smock which they wore.