Born ‘Michelangelo Merisi’ in 1571, the Italian artist is best known by the name of the township where he grew up, “Caravaggio.” After a lackluster apprenticeship in Milan, Caravaggio ventured to Rome, and by the age of twenty he was causing scandal, not only because of his volatile character and temper, but also because of his controversial painting methods.

Walking into a Christian church, one of the cues that helps to tell you whether you are in a Roman Catholic church or Protestant church is the presence of either the crucifix (Catholic) or the cross (Protestant). The crucifix, displaying the crucified Jesus, often hangs above the altar, while the bare cross more often than not sits on the altar table or on a shelf behind it.

In 1279, a Dominican monk known as Frère Laurent produced—whether by original composition or careful compilation—the Somme le roi, a handbook of moral instruction prepared for King Philip III of France.

Alexander Louis Leloir (1843-84), Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1865 Genesis 32 22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, an