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Irish Free State

The Irish Free State (6 December 1922 – 29 December 1937), also known by its Irish name Saorstát Éireann, was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the Irish Republic – the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – and British Crown forces.

The Free State was established as a dominion of the British Empire. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland, which was made up of the remaining six counties, exercised its right under the Treaty to opt out of the new state. The Free State government consisted of the Governor-General – the representative of the king – and the Executive Council (cabinet), which replaced both the revolutionary Dáil Government and the Provisional Government set up under the Treaty. W. T. Cosgrave, who had led both of these administrations since August 1922, became the first President of the Executive Council (prime minister). The Oireachtas or legislature consisted of Dáil Éireann (the lower house) and Seanad Éireann (the upper house), also known as the Senate. Members of the Dáil were required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State and to declare fidelity to the king. The oath was a key issue for opponents of the Treaty, who refused to take it and therefore did not take their seats. Pro-Treaty members, who formed Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923, held an effective majority in the Dáil from 1922 to 1927 and thereafter ruled as a minority government until 1932.

In 1931, with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, the Parliament of the United Kingdom relinquished nearly all of its remaining authority to legislate for the Free State and the other dominions. This had the effect of granting the Free State internationally recognised independence.

In the first months of the Free State, the Irish Civil War was waged between the newly established National Army and the Anti-Treaty IRA, which refused to recognise the state. The Civil War ended in victory for the government forces, with its opponents dumping their arms in May 1923. The Anti-Treaty political party, Sinn Féin, refused to take its seats in the Dáil, leaving the relatively small Labour Party as the only opposition party. In 1926, when Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera failed to have this policy reversed, he resigned from Sinn Féin and led most of its membership into a new party, Fianna Fáil, which entered the Dáil following the 1927 general election. It formed the government after the 1932 general election, when it became the largest party.

De Valera abolished the oath of allegiance and embarked on an economic war with the UK. In 1937, he drafted a new constitution, which was adopted by a plebiscite in July of that year. The Free State came to an end with the coming into force of the new constitution on 29 December 1937, when the state took the name "Ireland".

Background
The Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath caused a profound shift in public opinion towards the republican cause in Ireland. In the December 1918 General Election, the republican Sinn Féin party won a large majority of the Irish seats in the British parliament: 73 of the 105 constituencies returned Sinn Féin members (25 uncontested). The elected Sinn Féin MPs, rather than take their seats at Westminster, set up their own assembly, known as Dáil Éireann (Assembly of Ireland). It affirmed the formation of an Irish Republic and passed a Declaration of Independence. The subsequent War of Independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British security forces, continued until July 1921 when a truce came into force. By this time the Parliament of Northern Ireland had opened, established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, presenting the republican movement with a fait accompli and guaranteeing the British presence in Ireland. In October negotiations opened in London between members of the British government and members of the Dáil, culminating in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921.

The Treaty allowed for the creation of a separate state to be known as the Irish Free State, with dominion status, within the then British Empire—a status equivalent to Canada. The Parliament of Northern Ireland could, by presenting an address to the king, opt not to be included in the Free State, in which case a Boundary Commission would be established to determine where the boundary between them should lie. Members of the parliament of the Free State would be required to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State and to declare that they would be "faithful" to the king (a modification of the oath taken in other dominions).

The Dáil ratified the Treaty on 7 January 1922, causing a split in the republican movement. A Provisional Government was formed, with Michael Collins as chairman.

The Irish Free State was established on 6 December 1922, and the Provisional Government became the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, headed by W. T. Cosgrave as President of the Executive Council. The following day, the Commons and the Senate of Northern Ireland passed resolutions "for the express purpose of opting out of the Free State".

Governmental and constitutional structures
The Treaty established that the new state would be a constitutional monarchy, with the Governor-General of the Irish Free State as representative of the Crown. The Constitution of the Irish Free State made more detailed provision for the state's system of government, with a three-tier parliament, called the Oireachtas, made up of the king and two houses, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate).

Executive authority was vested in the king, with the Governor-General as his representative. He appointed a cabinet called the Executive Council to "aid and advise" him. The Executive Council was presided over by a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council. In practice, most of the real power was exercised by the Executive Council, as the Governor-General was almost always bound to act on the advice of the Executive Council.

Representative of the Crown
The office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State replaced the previous Lord Lieutenant, who had headed English and British administrations in Ireland since the Middle Ages. Governors-General were appointed by the king initially on the advice of the British Government, but with the consent of the Irish Government. From 1927, the Irish Government alone had the power to advise the king whom to appoint.

Oath of Allegiance
As with all dominions, provision was made for an Oath of Allegiance. Within dominions, such oaths were taken by parliamentarians personally towards the monarch. The Irish Oath of Allegiance was fundamentally different. It had two elements; the first, an oath to the Free State, as by law established, the second part a promise of fidelity, to His Majesty, King George V, his heirs and successors. That second fidelity element, however, was qualified in two ways. It was to the King in Ireland, not specifically to the King of the United Kingdom. Secondly, it was to the king explicitly in his role as part of the Treaty settlement, not in terms of pre-1922 British rule. The Oath itself came from a combination of three sources, and was largely the work of Michael Collins in the Treaty negotiations. It came in part from a draft oath suggested prior to the negotiations by President de Valera. Other sections were taken by Collins directly from the Oath of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), of which he was the secret head. In its structure, it was also partially based on the form and structure used for 'Dominion status'.

Although 'a new departure', and notably indirect in its reference to the monarchy, it was criticised by nationalists and republicans for making any reference to the Crown, the claim being that it was a direct oath to the Crown, a fact arguably incorrect by an examination of its wording, but in 1922 Ireland and beyond, many argued that the fact remained that as a dominion the King (and therefore the British) was still Head of State and that was the practical reality that influenced public debate on the issue. The Free State was not a republic. The Oath became a key issue in the resulting Irish Civil War that divided the pro and anti-treaty sides in 1922–23.

Irish Civil War
The compromises contained in the agreement caused the civil war in the 26 counties in June 1922 – April 1923, in which the pro-Treaty Provisional Government defeated the anti-Treaty Republican forces. The latter were led, nominally, by Éamon de Valera, who had resigned as President of the Republic on the treaty's ratification. His resignation outraged some of his own supporters, notably Seán T. O'Kelly, the main Sinn Féin organiser. On resigning, he then sought re-election but was defeated two days later on a vote of 60–58. The pro-Treaty Arthur Griffith followed as President of the Irish Republic. Michael Collins was chosen at a meeting of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland (a body set up under the Government of Ireland Act 1920) to become Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State in accordance with the Treaty. The general election in June gave overwhelming support for the pro-Treaty parties. W. T. Cosgrave's Crown-appointed Provisional Government effectively subsumed Griffith's republican administration with the death of both Collins and Griffith in August 1922.

Governance
The following were the principal parties of government of the Free State between 1922 and 1937:
 * Cumann na nGaedheal under W. T. Cosgrave (1922–32)
 * Fianna Fáil under Éamon de Valera (1932–37)

Constitutional evolution
Michael Collins described the Treaty as "the freedom to achieve freedom". In practice, the Treaty offered most of the symbols and powers of independence. These included a functioning, if disputed, parliamentary democracy with its own executive, judiciary and written constitution which could be changed by the Oireachtas. Although an Irish republic had not been on offer, the Treaty still afforded Ireland more internal independence than it had possessed in over 400 years, and far more autonomy than had ever been hoped for by those who had advocated for Home Rule.

However, a number of conditions existed:

 * The king remained king in Ireland;
 * Britain retained the so-called strategic Treaty Ports on Ireland's south and north-west coasts which were to remain occupied by the Royal Navy;
 * Prior to the passage of the Statute of Westminster, the UK government continued to have a role in Irish governance. Officially the representative of the king, the Governor-General also received instructions from the British Government on his use of the Royal Assent, namely a Bill passed by the Dáil and Seanad could be Granted Assent (signed into law), Withheld (not signed, pending later approval) or Denied (vetoed). The letters patent to the first Governor-General, Tim Healy, explicitly named Bills that were to be rejected if passed by the Dáil and Seanad, such as any attempt to abolish the Oath. In the event, no such Bills were ever introduced, so the issue was moot.

 * As with the other dominions, the Free State had a status of association with the UK rather than being completely legally independent from it. However, the meaning of 'Dominion status' changed radically during the 1920s, starting with the Chanak crisis in 1922 and quickly followed by the directly negotiated Halibut Treaty of 1923. The 1926 Imperial Conference declared the equality [including the UK] of all member states of the Commonwealth. The Conference also led to a reform of the king's title, given effect by the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927, which changed the king's royal title so that it took account of the fact that there was no longer a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The king adopted the following style by which he would be known in all of his empire: By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India. That was the king's title in Ireland just as elsewhere in his empire.
 * In the conduct of external relations, the Free State tried to push the boundaries of its status as a Dominion. It 'accepted' credentials from international ambassadors to Ireland, something no other dominion up to then had done. It registered the treaty with the League of Nations as an international document, over the objections of the United Kingdom, which saw it as a mere internal document between a dominion and the United Kingdom. Entitlement of citizenship of the Free State was defined in the Irish Free State Constitution, but the status of that citizenship was contentious. One of the first projects of the Free State was the design and production of the Great Seal of Saorstát Éireann which was carried out on behalf of the Government by Hugh Kennedy.

The Statute of Westminster of 1931, embodying a decision of an Imperial Conference, enabled each dominion to enact new legislation or to change any extant legislation, without resorting to any role for the British Parliament that may have enacted the original legislation in the past. It also removed Westminster's authority to legislate for the Dominions, except with the express request and consent of the relevant Dominion's parliament. This change had the effect of making the dominions, including the Free State, de jure independent nations—thus fulfilling Collins' vision of having "the freedom to achieve freedom".

The Free State symbolically marked these changes in two mould-breaking moves soon after winning internationally recognised independence:
 * It sought, and got, the king's acceptance to have an Irish minister, to the complete exclusion of British ministers, formally advise the king in the exercise of his powers and functions as king in the Irish Free State. This gave the President of the Executive Council the right to directly advise the king in his capacity as His Majesty's Irish Prime Minister. Two examples of this are the signing of a treaty between the Irish Free State and the Portuguese Republic in 1931, and the act recognising the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 separately from the recognition by the British Parliament.
 * The unprecedented replacement of the use of the Great Seal of the Realm and its replacement by the Great Seal of Saorstát Éireann, which the king awarded to the Irish Free State in 1931. (The Irish Seal consisted of a picture of King George V enthroned on one side, with the Irish state harp and the words Saorstát Éireann on the reverse. It is now on display in the Irish National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin.)

When Éamon de Valera became President of the Executive Council (prime minister) in 1932 he described Cosgrave's ministers' achievements simply. Having read the files, he told his son, Vivion, "they were magnificent, son".

The Statute of Westminster allowed de Valera, on becoming President of the Executive Council (February 1932), to go even further. With no ensuing restrictions on his policies, he abolished the Oath of Allegiance (which Cosgrave intended to do had he won the 1932 general election), the Seanad, university representation in the Dáil, and appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

One major policy error occurred in 1936 when he attempted to use the abdication of King Edward VIII to abolish the crown and governor-general in the Free State with the "Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act". He was advised by senior law officers and other constitutional experts that, as the crown and governor-generalship existed separately from the constitution in a vast number of acts, charters, orders-in-council, and letters patent, they both still existed. A second bill, the "Executive Powers (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937" was quickly introduced to repeal the necessary elements. De Valera retroactively dated the second act back to December 1936.

Currency
The new state continued to use the Pound sterling from its inception; there is no reference in the Treaty or in either of the enabling Acts to currency. Nonetheless, and within a few years, the Dáil passed the Coinage Act, 1926 (which provided for a Saorstát [Free State] coinage) and the Currency Act, 1927 (which provided inter alia for banknotes of the Saorstát pound). The new Saorstát pound was defined by the 1927 Act to have exactly the same weight and fineness of gold as was the sovereign at the time, making the new currency pegged at 1:1 with sterling. The State circulated its new national coinage in 1928, marked Saorstát Éireann and a national series of banknotes. British coinage remained acceptable in the Free State at an equal rate. In 1937, when the Free State was superseded by Ireland (Éire), the pound became known as the "Irish pound" and the coins were marked Éire.

Foreign policy
According to Gerard Keown, by 1932 much had been achieved in the quest for an independent foreign policy. "The Irish Free State was an established element in the European system and a member of the League of Nations. It had blazed a trail in asserting the rights of the dominions to their own foreign policy, in the process establishing full diplomatic relations with the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Holy See. It was concluding its own political and commercial treaties and using the apparatus of international relations to pursue its interests. It had received the accolade of election to a non-permanent seat on the council of the League of Nations and asserted its full equality with Britain and the other dominions within the Commonwealth."

By contrast, the military was drastically reduced in size and scope, with its budget cut by 82% from 1924 to 1929. The active duty forces were reduced from 28,000 men to 7,000. Cooperation with London was minimal.

Birth rate
According to one report, in 1924, shortly after the Free State's establishment, the new dominion had the "lowest birth-rate in the world". The report noted that amongst countries for which statistics were available (Ceylon, Chile, Japan, Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Australia, the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Finland, and the Irish Free State), Ceylon had the highest birth rate at 40.8 per 1,000 while the Irish Free State had a birth rate of just 18.6 per 1,000.

Cultural outlook
Irish society during this period was extremely Roman Catholic, with Roman Catholic thinkers promoting anti-capitalist, anti-communist, anti-Protestant, anti-Masonic, and antisemitic views in Irish society. Through the works of priests such as Edward Cahill, Richard Devane, and Denis Fahey, Irish society saw capitalism, individualism, communism, private banking, the promotion of alcohol, contraceptives, divorce, and abortion as the pursuits of the old 'Protestant-elite' and Jews, with their efforts combined through the Freemasons. Denis Fahey described Ireland as "the third most Masonic country in the world" and saw this alleged order as contrary to the creation of an independent Irish State.

1937 Constitution
In 1937 the Fianna Fáil government presented a draft of an entirely new Constitution to Dáil Éireann. An amended version of the draft document was subsequently approved by the Dáil. A plebiscite was held on 1 July 1937, which was the same day as the 1937 general election, when a relatively narrow majority approved it. The new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) repealed the 1922 Constitution, and came into effect on 29 December 1937.

The state was named Ireland (Éire in the Irish language), and a new office of President of Ireland was instituted in place of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The new constitution claimed jurisdiction over all of Ireland while recognising that legislation would not apply in Northern Ireland (see Articles 2 and 3). Articles 2 and 3 were reworded in 1998 to remove jurisdictional claim over the entire island and to recognise that "a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island".

With regard to religion, a section of Article 44 included the following:

"The State recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens. The State also recognises the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, as well as the Jewish Congregations and the other religious denominations existing in Ireland at the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution." Following a referendum, this section was removed in 1973. After the setting up of the Free State in 1923, unionism in the south largely came to an end.

The 1937 Constitution saw a notable ideological slant to the changes of the framework of the State in such a way as to create one that appeared to be distinctly Irish. This was done so by implementing corporatist policies (based on the concepts of the Roman Catholic Church, as Catholicism was perceived to be deeply imbedded with the perception of Irish identity). A clear example of this is the model of the reconstituted Seanad Éireann (the Senate), which operates based on a system of vocational panels, along with a list of appointed nominating industry bodies, a corporatist concept (seen in Pope Pius XI's 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo anno). Furthermore, Ireland's main political parties; Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour, all had an inherently corporatist outlook. The government was the subject of intense lobbying by leading Church figures throughout the 1930s in calling for reform of the State's framework. Much of this was reflected in the new 1937 Constitution.

title: Irish Free State


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304

Year 304 (CCCIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, less frequently, year 1057 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 304 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Caesar Galerius, perhaps accompanied by Emperor Diocletian, wins his fourth and final victory over the Carpi. Many of the surviving Carpi and Bastarnae are resettled in the Roman Empire, where they are split up. The Bastarnae are not attested after this time, and the Carpi are attested only once more in the 310s.
 * Diocletian, while inspecting the Danube border, becomes seriously ill.
 * Caesar Constantius I besieges a Germanic raiding force on an island in the Rhine and forces their surrender.

Asia

 * Sixteen Kingdoms: The Xiongnu establishes the Han-Zhao state under Liu Yuan, often seen as the start of the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians.
 * Cheng-Han earns its independence from Jin dynasty.
 * Biryu becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.

Religion

 * October 25 – Pope Marcellinus dies at Rome after an 8-year reign. The papal throne will remain vacant until 308.

Deaths

 * October 25 – Pope Marcellinus
 * December 25 – Saint Anastasia (martyred)
 * Date unknown
 * Saint Afra (martyred by fire)
 * Saint Agape, Chionia, and Irene (martyred)
 * Saint Agnes (martyred)
 * Saint Alban (possibly 309)
 * Bunseo of Baekje, king of Baekje (Korea)
 * Saint Florian (martyred)
 * Saint Gorgonius of Nicomedia (martyred)
 * Saint Juliana of Nicomedia (martyred)
 * Saint Lucy of Syracuse (martyred)
 * Saint Margaret (martyred)
 * Saint Pancras (martyred)
 * Saint Philomena (martyred)
 * Sima Ai, Chinese prince of the Jin dynasty (b. 277)
 * Saints Theodora and Didymus (martyred)
 * Saint Vincent of Saragossa (martyred)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 304


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Endospore

An endospore is a dormant, tough, and non-reproductive structure produced by some bacteria in the phylum Bacillota. The name "endospore" is suggestive of a spore or seed-like form (endo means 'within'), but it is not a true spore (i.e., not an offspring). It is a stripped-down, dormant form to which the bacterium can reduce itself. Endospore formation is usually triggered by a lack of nutrients, and usually occurs in gram-positive bacteria. In endospore formation, the bacterium divides within its cell wall, and one side then engulfs the other. Endospores enable bacteria to lie dormant for extended periods, even centuries. There are many reports of spores remaining viable over 10,000 years, and revival of spores millions of years old has been claimed. There is one report of viable spores of Bacillus marismortui in salt crystals approximately 25 million years old. When the environment becomes more favorable, the endospore can reactivate itself into a vegetative state. Most types of bacteria cannot change to the endospore form. Examples of bacterial species that can form endospores include Bacillus cereus, Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Clostridium botulinum, and Clostridium tetani. Endospore formation is not found among Archaea.

The endospore consists of the bacterium's DNA, ribosomes and large amounts of dipicolinic acid. Dipicolinic acid is a spore-specific chemical that appears to help in the ability for endospores to maintain dormancy. This chemical accounts for up to 10% of the spore's dry weight.

Endospores can survive without nutrients. They are resistant to ultraviolet radiation, desiccation, high temperature, extreme freezing and chemical disinfectants. Thermo-resistant endospores were first hypothesized by Ferdinand Cohn after studying Bacillus subtilis growth on cheese after boiling the cheese. His notion of spores being the reproductive mechanism for the growth was a large blow to the previous suggestions of spontaneous generation. Astrophysicist Steinn Sigurdsson said "There are viable bacterial spores that have been found that are 40 million years old on Earth—and we know they're very hardened to radiation." Common antibacterial agents that work by destroying vegetative cell walls do not affect endospores. Endospores are commonly found in soil and water, where they may survive for long periods of time. A variety of different microorganisms form "spores" or "cysts", but the endospores of low G+C gram-positive bacteria are by far the most resistant to harsh conditions.

Some classes of bacteria can turn into exospores, also known as microbial cysts, instead of endospores. Exospores and endospores are two kinds of "hibernating" or dormant stages seen in some classes of microorganisms.

Life cycle of bacteria
The bacterial life cycle does not necessarily include sporulation. Sporulation is usually triggered by adverse environmental conditions, so as to help the survival of the bacterium. Endospores exhibit no signs of life and can thus be described as cryptobiotic. Endospores retain viability indefinitely and they can germinate into vegetative cells under the appropriate conditions. Endospores have survived thousands of years until environmental stimuli trigger germination. They have been characterized as the most durable cells produced in nature.

Structure
Bacteria produce a single endospore internally. The spore is sometimes surrounded by a thin covering known as the exosporium, which overlies the spore coat. The spore coat, which acts like a sieve that excludes large toxic molecules like lysozyme, is resistant to many toxic molecules and may also contain enzymes that are involved in germination. In Bacillus subtilus endospores, the spore coat is estimated to contain more than 70 coat proteins, which are organized into an inner and an outer coat layer. The X-ray diffraction pattern of purified B. subtilis endospores indicates the presence of a component with a regular periodic structure, which Kadota and Iijima speculated might be formed from a keratin-like protein. However, after further studies this group concluded that the structure of the spore coat protein was different from keratin. When the B. subtilis genome was sequenced, no ortholog of human keratin was detected. The cortex lies beneath the spore coat and consists of peptidoglycan. The core wall lies beneath the cortex and surrounds the protoplast or core of the endospore. The core contains the spore chromosomal DNA which is encased in chromatin-like proteins known as SASPs (small acid-soluble spore proteins), that protect the spore DNA from UV radiation and heat. The core also contains normal cell structures, such as ribosomes and other enzymes, but is not metabolically active.

Up to 20% of the dry weight of the endospore consists of calcium dipicolinate within the core, which is thought to stabilize the DNA. Dipicolinic acid could be responsible for the heat resistance of the spore, and calcium may aid in resistance to heat and oxidizing agents. However, mutants resistant to heat but lacking dipicolinic acid have been isolated, suggesting other mechanisms contributing to heat resistance are also at work. Small acid-soluble proteins (SASPs) are found in endospores. These proteins tightly bind and condense the DNA, and are in part responsible for resistance to UV light and DNA-damaging chemicals.

Visualising endospores under light microscopy can be difficult due to the impermeability of the endospore wall to dyes and stains. While the rest of a bacterial cell may stain, the endospore is left colourless. To combat this, a special stain technique called a Moeller stain is used. That allows the endospore to show up as red, while the rest of the cell stains blue. Another staining technique for endospores is the Schaeffer-Fulton stain, which stains endospores green and bacterial bodies red. The arrangement of spore layers is as follows:
 * Exosporium
 * Spore coat
 * Spore cortex
 * Core wall

Location
The position of the endospore differs among bacterial species and is useful in identification. The main types within the cell are terminal, subterminal, and centrally placed endospores. Terminal endospores are seen at the poles of cells, whereas central endospores are more or less in the middle. Subterminal endospores are those between these two extremes, usually seen far enough towards the poles but close enough to the center so as not to be considered either terminal or central. Lateral endospores are seen occasionally.

Examples of bacteria having terminal endospores include Clostridium tetani, the pathogen that causes the disease tetanus. Bacteria having a centrally placed endospore include Bacillus cereus. Sometimes the endospore can be so large the cell can be distended around the endospore. This is typical of Clostridium tetani.

Formation and destruction

Under conditions of starvation, especially the lack of carbon and nitrogen sources, a single endospore forms within some of the bacteria through a process called sporulation.

When a bacterium detects environmental conditions are becoming unfavourable it may start the process of endosporulation, which takes about eight hours. The DNA is replicated and a membrane wall known as a spore septum begins to form between it and the rest of the cell. The plasma membrane of the cell surrounds this wall and pinches off to leave a double membrane around the DNA, and the developing structure is now known as a forespore. Calcium dipicolinate, the calcium salt of dipicolinic acid, is incorporated into the forespore during this time. The dipicolinic acid helps stabilize the proteins and DNA in the endospore. Next the peptidoglycan cortex forms between the two layers and the bacterium adds a spore coat to the outside of the forespore. In the final stages of endospore formation the newly forming endospore is dehydrated and allowed to mature before being released from the mother cell. The cortex is what makes the endospore so resistant to temperature. The cortex contains an inner membrane known as the core. The inner membrane that surrounds this core leads to the endospore's resistance against UV light and harsh chemicals that would normally destroy microbes. Sporulation is now complete, and the mature endospore will be released when the surrounding vegetative cell is degraded.

Endospores are resistant to most agents that would normally kill the vegetative cells they formed from. Unlike persister cells, endospores are the result of a morphological differentiation process triggered by nutrient limitation (starvation) in the environment; endosporulation is initiated by quorum sensing within the "starving" population. Most disinfectants such as household cleaning products, alcohols, quaternary ammonium compounds and detergents have little effect on endospores. However, sterilant alkylating agents such as ethylene oxide (ETO), and 10% bleach are effective against endospores. To kill most anthrax spores, standard household bleach (with 10% sodium hypochlorite) must be in contact with the spores for at least several minutes; a very small proportion of spores can survive longer than 10 minutes in such a solution. Higher concentrations of bleach are not more effective, and can cause some types of bacteria to aggregate and thus survive.

While significantly resistant to heat and radiation, endospores can be destroyed by burning or by autoclaving at a temperature exceeding the boiling point of water, 100 °C. Endospores are able to survive at 100 °C for hours, although the larger the number of hours the fewer that will survive. An indirect way to destroy them is to place them in an environment that reactivates them to their vegetative state. They will germinate within a day or two with the right environmental conditions, and then the vegetative cells, not as hardy as endospores, can be straightforwardly destroyed. This indirect method is called Tyndallization. It was the usual method for a while in the late 19th century before the introduction of inexpensive autoclaves. Prolonged exposure to ionising radiation, such as x-rays and gamma rays, will also kill most endospores.

The endospores of certain types of (typically non-pathogenic) bacteria, such as Geobacillus stearothermophilus, are used as probes to verify that an autoclaved item has been rendered truly sterile: a small capsule containing the spores is put into the autoclave with the items; after the cycle the content of the capsule is cultured to check if anything will grow from it. If nothing will grow, then the spores were destroyed and the sterilization was successful.

In hospitals, endospores on delicate invasive instruments such as endoscopes are killed by low-temperature, and non-corrosive, ethylene oxide sterilizers. Ethylene oxide is the only low-temperature sterilant to stop outbreaks on these instruments. In contrast, "high level disinfection" does not kill endospores but is used for instruments such as a colonoscope that do not enter sterile bodily cavities. This latter method uses only warm water, enzymes, and detergents.

Bacterial endospores are resistant to antibiotics, most disinfectants, and physical agents such as radiation, boiling, and drying. The impermeability of the spore coat is thought to be responsible for the endospore's resistance to chemicals. The heat resistance of endospores is due to a variety of factors:
 * Calcium dipicolinate, abundant within the endospore, may stabilize and protect the endospore's DNA.
 * Small acid-soluble proteins (SASPs) saturate the endospore's DNA and protect it from heat, drying, chemicals, and radiation. They also function as a carbon and energy source for the development of a vegetative bacterium during germination.
 * The cortex may osmotically remove water from the interior of the endospore and the dehydration that results is thought to be very important in the endospore's resistance to heat and radiation.
 * Finally, DNA repair enzymes contained within the endospore are able to repair damaged DNA during germination.

Reactivation
Reactivation of the endospore occurs when conditions are more favourable and involves activation, germination, and outgrowth. Even if an endospore is located in plentiful nutrients, it may fail to germinate unless activation has taken place. This may be triggered by heating the endospore. Germination involves the dormant endospore starting metabolic activity and thus breaking hibernation. It is commonly characterised by rupture or absorption of the spore coat, swelling of the endospore, an increase in metabolic activity, and loss of resistance to environmental stress.

Outgrowth follows germination and involves the core of the endospore manufacturing new chemical components and exiting the old spore coat to develop into a fully functional vegetative bacterial cell, which can divide to produce more cells.

Endospores possess five times more sulfur than vegetative cells. This excess sulfur is concentrated in spore coats as an amino acid, cysteine. It is believed that the macromolecule accountable for maintaining the dormant state has a protein coat rich in cystine, stabilized by S-S linkages. A reduction in these linkages has the potential to change the tertiary structure, causing the protein to unfold. This conformational change in the protein is thought to be responsible for exposing active enzymatic sites necessary for endospore germination.

Endospores can stay dormant for a very long time. For instance, endospores were found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. When placed in appropriate medium, under appropriate conditions, they were able to be reactivated. In 1995, Raul Cano of California Polytechnic State University found bacterial spores in the gut of a fossilized bee trapped in amber from a tree in the Dominican Republic. The bee fossilized in amber was dated to being about 25 million years old. The spores germinated when the amber was cracked open and the material from the gut of the bee was extracted and placed in nutrient medium. After the spores were analyzed by microscopy, it was determined that the cells were very similar to Lysinibacillus sphaericus which is found in bees in the Dominican Republic today.

Importance
As a simplified model for cellular differentiation, the molecular details of endospore formation have been extensively studied, specifically in the model organism Bacillus subtilis. These studies have contributed much to our understanding of the regulation of gene expression, transcription factors, and the sigma factor subunits of RNA polymerase.

Endospores of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis were used in the 2001 anthrax attacks. The powder found in contaminated postal letters consisted of anthrax endospores. This intentional distribution led to 22 known cases of anthrax (11 inhalation and 11 cutaneous). The case fatality rate among those patients with inhalation anthrax was 45% (5/11). The six other individuals with inhalation anthrax and all the individuals with cutaneous anthrax recovered. Had it not been for antibiotic therapy, many more might have been stricken.

According to WHO veterinary documents, B. anthracis sporulates when it sees oxygen instead of the carbon dioxide present in mammal blood; this signals to the bacteria that it has reached the end of the animal, and an inactive dispersable morphology is useful.

Sporulation requires the presence of free oxygen. In the natural situation, this means the vegetative cycles occur within the low oxygen environment of the infected host and, within the host, the organism is exclusively in the vegetative form. Once outside the host, sporulation commences upon exposure to the air and the spore forms are essentially the exclusive phase in the environment.

Biotechnology
Bacillus subtilis spores are useful for the expression of recombinant proteins and in particular for the surface display of peptides and proteins as a tool for fundamental and applied research in the fields of microbiology, biotechnology and vaccination.

Endospore-forming bacteria
Examples of endospore-forming bacteria include the genera:

 * Acetonema
 * Actinomyces
 * Alkalibacillus
 * Ammoniphilus
 * Amphibacillus
 * Anaerobacter
 * Anaerospora
 * Aneurinibacillus
 * Anoxybacillus
 * Bacillus
 * Brevibacillus
 * Caldanaerobacter
 * Caloramator
 * Caminicella
 * Cerasibacillus
 * Clostridium
 * Clostridiisalibacter
 * Cohnella
 * Coxiella (i.e. Coxiella burnetii)
 * Dendrosporobacter
 * Desulfotomaculum
 * Desulfosporomusa
 * Desulfosporosinus
 * Desulfovirgula
 * Desulfunispora
 * Desulfurispora
 * Filifactor
 * Filobacillus
 * Gelria
 * Geobacillus
 * Geosporobacter
 * Gracilibacillus
 * Halobacillus
 * Halonatronum
 * Heliobacterium
 * Heliophilum
 * Laceyella
 * Lentibacillus
 * Lysinibacillus
 * Mahella
 * Metabacterium
 * Moorella
 * Natroniella
 * Oceanobacillus
 * Orenia
 * Ornithinibacillus
 * Oxalophagus
 * Oxobacter
 * Paenibacillus
 * Paraliobacillus
 * Pelospora
 * Pelotomaculum
 * Piscibacillus
 * Planifilum
 * Pontibacillus
 * Propionispora
 * Salinibacillus
 * Salsuginibacillus
 * Seinonella
 * Shimazuella
 * Sporacetigenium
 * Sporoanaerobacter
 * Sporobacter
 * Sporobacterium
 * Sporohalobacter
 * Sporolactobacillus
 * Sporomusa
 * Sporosarcina
 * Sporotalea
 * Sporotomaculum
 * Syntrophomonas
 * Syntrophospora
 * Tenuibacillus
 * Tepidibacter
 * Terribacillus
 * Thalassobacillus
 * Thermoacetogenium
 * Thermoactinomyces
 * Thermoalkalibacillus
 * Thermoanaerobacter
 * Thermoanaeromonas
 * Thermobacillus
 * Thermoflavimicrobium
 * Thermovenabulum
 * Tuberibacillus
 * Virgibacillus
 * Vulcanobacillus

title: Endospore


text:
Theodore the Studite

Theodore the Studite (Θεόδωρος ὁ Στουδίτης; 759–826), also known as Theodorus Studita and Saint Theodore of Stoudios/Studium, was a Byzantine Greek monk and abbot of the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople. He played a major role in the revivals both of Byzantine monasticism and of classical literary genres in Byzantium. He is known as a zealous opponent of iconoclasm, one of several conflicts that set him at odds with both emperor and patriarch. Throughout his life he maintained letter correspondences with many important political and cultural figures of the Byzantine empire; this included many women, such as the composer and nun Kassia, who was much influenced by his teachings.

Family and childhood
Theodore was born in Constantinople in 759. He was the oldest son of Photeinos, an important financial official in the palace bureaucracy, and Theoktiste, herself the offspring of a distinguished Constantinopolitan family. The brother of Theoktiste, Theodore's uncle Platon, was an important official in the imperial financial administration. The family therefore controlled a significant portion, if not all, of the imperial financial administration during the reign of Constantine V (r. 741–775). Theodore had two younger brothers (Joseph, later Archbishop of Thessalonica, and Euthymios) and one sister, whose name we do not know.

It has often been assumed that Theodore's family belonged to the iconodule party during the first period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. There is however no evidence to support this, and their high position in the imperial bureaucracy of the time renders any openly iconodule position highly unlikely. Furthermore, when Platon left his office and entered the priesthood in 759, he was ordained by an abbot who, if he was not actively iconoclastic himself, at the very least offered no resistance to the iconoclastic policies of Constantine V. The family as a whole was most likely indifferent to the question of icons during this period.

According to the later hagiographical literature, Theodore received an education befitting his family's station and from the age of seven was instructed by a private tutor, eventually concentrating in particular on theology. It is however not clear that these opportunities were available to even the most well-placed Byzantine families of the eighth century, and it is possible that Theodore was at least partially an autodidact.

Early monastic career
Following the death of Emperor Leo IV (r. 775–780) in 780, Theodore's uncle Platon, who had lived as a monk in the Symbola Monastery in Bithynia since 759, visited Constantinople, and persuaded the entire family of his sister, Theoktiste, to likewise take monastic vows. Theodore, together with his father and brothers, sailed back to Bithynia with Platon in 781, where they set about transforming the family estate into a religious establishment, which became known as the Sakkudion Monastery. Platon became abbot of the new foundation, and Theodore was his "right hand." The two sought to order the monastery according to the writings of Basil of Caesarea.

During the period of the regency of Eirene, Abbot Platon emerged as a supporter of the Patriarch Tarasios, and was a member of Tarasios's iconodule party at the Second Council of Nicaea, where the veneration of icons was declared orthodox. Shortly thereafter Tarasios himself ordained Theodore as a priest. In 794, Theodore became abbot of the Sakkudion Monastery, while Platon withdrew from the daily operation of the monastery and dedicated himself to silence.

Conflict with Constantine VI
Also in 794, Emperor Constantine VI (r. 776–797) decided to separate from his first wife, Maria of Amnia, and to marry Maria's kubikularia (Lady-in-waiting), Theodote, a cousin of Theodore the Studite. Although the Patriarch may initially have resisted this development, as a divorce without proof of adultery on the part of the wife could be construed as illegal, he ultimately gave way. The marriage of Constantine and Theodote was celebrated in 795, although not by the patriarch, as was normal, but by a certain Joseph, a priest of Hagia Sophia.

A somewhat obscure chain of events followed (the so-called "Moechian controversy," from the Greek moichos, "adulterer"), in which Theodore initiated a protest against the marriage from the Sakkudion Monastery, and appears to have demanded the excommunication, not only of the priest Joseph, but also of all who had received communion from him, which, as Joseph was a priest of the imperial church, included implicitly the emperor and his court. This demand had no official weight, however, and Constantine appears to have attempted to make peace with Theodore and Platon (who, on account of his marriage, were now his relatives), inviting them to visit him during a sojourn at the imperial baths of Prusa in Bithynia. In the event neither appeared.

As a result, imperial troops were sent to the Sakkudion Monastery, and the community was dispersed. Theodore was flogged, and, together with ten other monks, banished to Thessaloniki, while Platon was imprisoned in Constantinople. The monks arrived in Thessaloniki in March 797, but did not remain for long; in August of the same year Constantine VI was blinded and overthrown, and his mother Irene, the new empress, lifted the exile.

Abbot of the Studites
Following the accession of Irene, the priest Joseph was stripped of his office, and Theodoros was received in the imperial palace. The monks then returned to the Sakkudion Monastery, but were forced back to the capital in either 797 or 798 on account of an Arab raid on Bithynia. At this time, Irene offered Theodore the leadership of the ancient Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople, which he accepted. Theodore then set about building various workshops within the monastery to guarantee autarky, constructing a library and a scriptorium, and restoring and decorating the church. He also composed a series of poems on the duties of the various members of the community, which were likely inscribed and displayed within the monastery. He furthermore composed a rule for the governance of the monastery, and made the Studios community the center of an extensive congregation of dependent monasteries, including the Sakkudion. He maintained contact with these other monasteries above all through his prodigious literary output (letters as well as catechisms), which reached a quantitative peak at this time, and developed a system of messengers that was so elaborate as to resemble a private postal service.

To this period may also date the so-called iconodule epigrams, iambic acrostics composed by Theodore that replaced the "iconoclastic epigrams" which were previously exhibited on the Chalke gate of the Great Palace. It has been suggested that these were commissioned by Irene, as another sign of her good favor toward Theodore, although a commission under Michael I Rangabe (r. 811–813) is also possible; in any case, they were removed in 815 by Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820) and replaced by new "iconoclastic" verses.

In 806, the Patriarch Tarasios died, and Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811) set about seeking his replacement. It appears likely that Platon at this time put forth Theodore's name, but Nikephoros, a layman who held the rank of asekretis in the imperial bureaucracy, was chosen instead. The selection of Nikephoros gave rise to an immediate protest on the part of the Studites, and in particular Theodore and Platon, who objected to the elevation of a layman to the patriarchal throne. Theodore and Platon were jailed for 24 days before the Emperor Nikephoros allowed them to return to their congregations.

Conflict with Nikephoros
Emperor Nikephoros soon requested that his new patriarch rehabilitate the priest Joseph, who had officiated at the wedding of Constantine and Theodote, possibly because Joseph had aided in the peaceful resolution of the revolt of Bardanes Tourkos. In 806, the Patriarch Nikephoros convened a synod to address the case, at which Theodore was present. The Synod decided to readmit Joseph to the priesthood, a decision to which Theodore did not at the time object.

Therefore, relations between the Studite Abbot and the Patriarch appear to have been initially untroubled, an impression which is reinforced by the choice (806/807) of Theodore's brother, Joseph, as Archbishop of Thessaloniki. However, soon after this ordination, perhaps in 808, Theodore began to express his unwillingness to associate with the rehabilitated priest Joseph, or for that matter with anyone else who knowingly associated with him, as he held the rehabilitation to be uncanonical. As in the first dispute over the priest Joseph, the extension of this refusal beyond Joseph to those who associated with him included implicitly the patriarch and the emperor himself.

Early in 808, Theodoros offered in a series of letters to explain his position to the emperor, and furthermore to perform the customary proskynesis at his feet, which offer Nikephoros declined, instead setting off for the summer military campaign. In the winter of the same year, Theodore's brother Joseph visited him in Constantinople, but refused to attend the Christmas mass in Hagia Sophia, at which the emperor, the patriarch, and the priest Joseph would have been present. As a result, he was stripped of his archbishopric. At around the same time a small military division was dispatched to the Stoudios Monastery to arrest Theodore, Joseph, and Platon. A synod was then held in January of 809, at which Theodore and his followers were anathematized as schismatic. Theodore, Joseph, and Platon were thereafter banished to the Princes' Islands: Theodore to Chalke, Joseph to Prote, and Platon to Oxeia.

Theodore maintained an extensive literary activity in exile, writing numerous letters to correspondents including his brother, various Studite monks, influential family members, and even Pope Leo III. He also continued to compose catechisms for the Studite congregation, as well as a number of poems.

Rehabilitation under Michael I
In 811, the new emperor Michael I Rangabe called the Studites back from exile. The priest Joseph was once more defrocked, and Theodore was, at least superficially, reconciled with the Patriarch Nikephoros.

There are, however, indications that a certain rivalry between the Studite Abbot and the Patriarch persisted. In 812, Michael I resolved to persecute certain heretics in Phrygia and Lycaonia, namely the Paulicians and the "Athinganoi" (sometimes identified with the Roma). Theodore and Nikephoros were called before the emperor to debate the legality of punishing heresy by death, Theodore arguing against and Nikephoros for. Theodore is said to have won the day.

The second affair concerned a peace treaty proposed by Krum of Bulgaria (r. 803–814), also in 812, according to which the Byzantine and Bulgarian states should exchange refugees. It is likely that Krum sought the return of certain Bulgarians who had betrayed him to the Byzantines. In this instance Theodore argued against the exchange, as it would require that Christians be cast to barbarians, while Nikephoros urged the emperor to accept the treaty. Once more Theodore's opinion prevailed, although this time with serious consequences; Krum attacked and took Mesembria in November the same year. Michael led a military campaign against the Bulgarians in 813, which ended in defeat, and as a result he abdicated in July and Leo V was crowned emperor.

On 4 April 814 Theodore's uncle Platon died in the Stoudios Monastery after a long illness. Theodore composed a long funeral oration, the Laudatio Platonis, which remains one of the most important sources for the history of the family.

Second Iconoclasm
At the very beginning of his reign, the emperor Leo V faced a new Bulgarian offensive that reached the walls of Constantinople and ravaged large sections of Thrace. This came to an end with the death of Krum on April 13, 814, and the internal power struggles that followed. However, as the previous 30 years since the approval of icon-veneration at the Synod of 787 had represented for the Byzantines a string of military catastrophes, Leo resolved to reach back to the policies of the more successful Isaurian dynasty. He renamed his son Constantine, thus drawing a parallel to Leo III (r. 717–741) and Constantine V, and beginning in 814 began to discuss with various clerics and senators the possibility of reviving the iconoclastic policy of the Isaurians. This movement met with strong opposition from the Patriarch Nikephoros, who himself gathered a group of bishops and abbots about him and swore them to uphold the veneration of images. The dispute came to a head in a debate between the two parties before the emperor in the Great Palace in early 815, at which Theodore and his brother Joseph were present and took the side of the iconodules. Theodore told the emperor: "Know that though an angel came from heaven itself to pervert us we would not obey him. Far less would we obey you."

Leo held fast by his plan to revive iconoclasm, and in March 815 the Patrarch Nikephoros was stripped of his office and exiled to Bithynia. At this point Theodore remained in Constantinople, and assumed a leading role in the iconodule opposition. On March 25, Palm Sunday, he commanded his monks to process through the monastery's vineyard, holding up icons so that they could be seen over the walls by the neighbors. This provocation elicited only a rebuke from the emperor.

A new patriarch, Theodotos, was selected, and in April a synod was convened in Hagia Sophia, at which iconoclasm was re-introduced as dogma. Theodore composed a series of letters in which he called on "all, near and far," to revolt against the decision of the synod. Not long thereafter he was exiled by imperial command to a Metopa, a fortress on the eastern shore of Lake Apollonia in Bithynia. Shortly thereafter Leo had Theodore's poems removed from the Chalke Gate and replaced by a new set of "iconoclastic" epigrams.

While Theodore was in exile, the leadership of the Studite congregation was assumed by the Abbot Leontios, who for a time adopted the iconoclast position and won over many individual monks to his party. He was, however, eventually won back to the iconodule party. The Studite situation mirrored a general trend, with a number of bishops and abbots at first willing to reach a compromise with the iconoclasts, but then in the years between 816 and 819 renouncing the iconoclast position, a movement that was perhaps motivated by the martyrdom of the Studite monk Thaddaios. It was during this upswell in icondule sentiment that Theodore began to compose his own polemic against the iconoclasts, the Refutatio, concentrating in particular on refuting the arguments and criticizing the literary merits of the new iconoclastic epigrams on the Chalke.

Theodore exercised a wide influence during the first year of his exile, primarily through a massive letter-writing campaign. Accordingly, he was transferred in 816 to Boneta, a fortress in the more remote Anatolic theme, whence he nevertheless remained abreast of developments in the capital and maintained a regular correspondence. This continued activity led to an imperial order that Theodore be whipped, which his captors however refused to carry out. In 817, Theodore wrote two letters to Pope Paschal I, which were co-signed by several fellow iconodule abbots, in the first requesting that he summon an anti-iconoclastic Synod; letters to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem, among other "foreign" clerics, followed. As a result, the emperor ordered at least once more that Theodore be flogged, and the command was this time carried out, with the result that Theodore became quite ill. After his recovery Theodore was moved to Smyrna. Early in 821, however, Leo V fell victim to a grisly murder at the altar of the Church of St. Stephen in the imperial palace; Theodore was released from exile shortly thereafter.

Final years
Following his release, Theodore made his way back to Constantinople, travelling through north-western Anatolia and meeting with numerous monks and abbots on the way. At the time he appears to have believed that the new emperor, Michael II (r. 820–829), would adopt a pro-icons policy, and he expressed this hope in two letters to Michael. An imperial audience was arranged for a group of iconodule clerics, including Theodore, at which however Michael expressed his intention to "leave the church as he had found it." The abbots were to be allowed to venerate images if they so wished, as long as they remained outside of Constantinople. Theodore returned to Anatolia, in what seems to have been a sort of self-imposed exile.

Theodore's activities in his final years are somewhat difficult to trace. He continued to write numerous letters supporting the use of icons, and appears to have remained an important leader of the opposition to imperial iconoclasm. He was present at a meeting of "more than a hundred" iconodule clerics in 823 or 824, which ended in an argument between the Studites and the host, one Ioannikos, which may have represented a power struggle within the movement. Theodore also spoke against the second marriage of Michael II to the nun Euphrosyne, a daughter of Constantine VI, although in a very moderate fashion, and with none of the passion or effect of the Moechian controversy.

Theodore's years of exile, regular fasting, and exceptional exertions had taken their toll, and in 826 he became quite ill. In this year, he dictated his Testament, a form of spiritual guidance for the future abbots of the Stoudios monastery, to his disciple Naukratios. He died on 11 November that year, while celebrating mass, apparently in the monastery of Hagios Tryphon on Cape Akritas in Bithynia. Eighteen years later, his remains, along with those of his brother Joseph, were brought back to the Stoudios Monastery, where they were interred beside the grave of their uncle Platon.

Legacy
Theodore's revival of the Stoudios monastery had a major effect on the later history of Byzantine monasticism. His disciple, Naukratios, recovered control of the monastery after the end of iconoclasm in 842, and throughout the remainder of the ninth century the Studite abbots continued Theodore's tradition of opposition to patriarchal and imperial authority. Elements of Theodore's Testament were incorporated verbatim in the typika of certain early Athonite monasteries. The most important elements of his reform were its emphases on cenobitic (communal) life, manual labor, and a carefully defined administrative hierarchy.

Theodore also built the Stoudios monastery into a major scholarly center, in particular through its library and scriptorium, which certainly surpassed all other contemporary Byzantine ecclesiastical institutions in this regard. Theodore himself was a pivotal figure in the revival of classical literary forms, in particular iambic verse, in Byzantium, and his criticisms of the iconoclastic epigrams drew a connection between literary skill and orthodox faith. After his death the Stoudios monastery continued to be a vital center for Byzantine hymnography and hagiography, as well as for the copying of manuscripts.

Following the "triumph of Orthodoxy" (i.e. the reintroduction of icons) in 843, Theodore became one of the great heroes of the iconodule opposition. There was no formal process of canonization in Byzantium, but Theodore was soon recognized as a saint. In the Latin West, Theodore’s recognition of papal primacy on the basis of his letters to Pope Paschal I was part of what caused him to be formally canonized by the Catholic Church. His feast day is 11 November in the East and 12 November in the West.

Works
Theodore was an immensely prolific author; among his most important works are:
 * His letters, which convey many personal details, as well as illuminating a number of his historical engagements. Ed. with summaries in German by Georgios Fatouros, Theodori Studitae Epistulae (=CFHB 31) (Berlin, 1992) [two volumes]. ISBN 3-11-008808-8.
 * His poems, which represent an important stage in the revival of classical verse in Byzantium. Ed. with German translation by Paul Speck, Theodoros Studites: Jamben auf verschiedene Gegenstände (=Supplementa Byzantina 1) (Berlin, 1968).
 * Catecheses, two collections of addresses to his monks on various subjects connected with the spiritual life. The first collection (the "magna") ed. A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, Theodori Studitae Magna Catachesis (St. Petersburg, 1904); the second (the "parva") ed. E. Auvray, S.P.N. et Confessoris Theodori Studitis Praepositi Parva Catachesis (Paris, 1891), French translation by Anne-Marie Mohr, Petites catéchèses (=Les Pères dans la foi 52) (Paris, 1993).
 * The funeral oration on his mother. Ed. and tr. St. Efthymiadis and J. M. Featherstone, "Establishing a holy lineage: Theodore the Stoudite's funerary catechism for his mother (Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca 2422)," in M. Grünbart, ed., Theatron: rhetorische Kultur in Spätantike und Mittelalter (=Millennium-Studien 13) (Berlin, 2007), pp. 13–51. ISBN 3-11-019476-7.
 * The funeral oration on his uncle Plato (Theodori Studitae Oratio funebris in Platonem ejus patrem spiritualem, PG 99, pp. 803–850).
 * Various polemical discourses connected with the question of image-worship, in particular Theodori praepositi Studitarum Antirrhetici adversus Iconomachos, PG 99, 327B-436A and Theodori Studitae Refutatio et subversio impiorum poematum Ioannis, Ignatii, Sergii, et Stephani, recentium christomachorum Cf. the selection translated by Catharine Roth, On the holy icons (Crestwood, 1981). ISBN 0-913836-76-1
 * His Testament, dictated to his disciple Naukratios at the end of his life: PG 99, 1813–24. English translation by Timothy Miller, in J. Thomas and A. C. Hero, eds., Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents (=Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35) (Washington, 2000), I.67–83. ISBN 0-88402-232-3; Available online.
 * A sermon on the Apostle Bartholomew, ed. with Italian translation by Giorgio di Maria in V. Giustolisi, ed., Tre laudationes bizantine in onore di San Bartolomeo apostolo (Palermo, 2004).

Commentary on Theodore
As also mentioned by Kirby Page in Jesus or Christianity, Charles Loring Brace tells us in Gesta Christi that it was not until the 9th century that the first recorded stand against slavery itself was taken by Theodore:

No direct word against slavery, however, came forth from the great Teacher [Jesus Christ]. It was not until the ninth century after, that one of his humble followers, Saint Theodore of Studium (Constantinople), ventured to put forth the command "Thou shalt possess no slave, neither for domestic service nor for the labor of the fields, for man is made in the image of God."

Studies

 * (Online text)
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557
 * (Online text)
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557
 * (Online text)
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557
 * (Online text)
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557
 * (Online text)
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557
 * Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022, ISBN 978-8816417557

title: Theodore the Studite


text:
Çaro

Çaro (Zaro) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

It is located in the former province of Lower Navarre.

title: Çaro


text:
Fractal transform

The fractal transform is a technique invented by Michael Barnsley et al. to perform lossy image compression. This first practical fractal compression system for digital images resembles a vector quantization system using the image itself as the codebook.

Fractal transform compression
Start with a digital image A1. Downsample it by a factor of 2 to produce image A2. Now, for each block B1 of 4x4 pixels in A1, find the corresponding block B2 in A2 most similar to B1, and then find the grayscale or RGB offset and gain from A2 to B2. For each destination block, output the positions of the source blocks and the color offsets and gains.

Fractal transform decompression
Starting with an empty destination image A1, repeat the following algorithm several times: Downsample A1 down by a factor of 2 to produce image A2. Then copy blocks from A2 to A1 as directed by the compressed data, multiplying by the respective gains and adding the respective color offsets.

This algorithm is guaranteed to converge to an image, and it should appear similar to the original image. In fact, a slight modification of the decompressor to run at block sizes larger than 4x4 pixels produces a method of stretching images without causing the blockiness or blurriness of traditional linear resampling algorithms.

Patents
The basic patents covering Fractal Image Compression, U.S. Patents 4,941,193, 5,065,447, 5,384,867, 5,416,856, and 5,430,812 appear to be expired.

title: Fractal transform


text:
Talk:List of infectious diseases

Reason
Reason why botulism was removed: Botulism is almost always not an infection. It is caused by a toxin that poisons the body - no live C. botulinum bacteria required. There are relatively rare cases of young infants becoming infected due to their fragile and naive immune systems. This is commonly called "Floppy baby syndrome" or "infant botulism". However, I am not sure what current pediatricians call the ailment, so I have not listed it yet. See here for more info. --maveric149

Reason why food poisoning was removed: Most cases of food poisoning are in fact true poisonings (hence the name) that are caused by bacteria produced toxins. The only major exception is Salmonellosis, which is a true infection and is already listed (pray you never get this one, it is nasty). --maveric149

I notice that Typhus redirects to Typhoid fever. Are they in fact the same disease? If so, please move Typhus to the bacterial section, since Typhoid fever is bacterial in origin. Also, the thought occurs to me that perhaps we should have a section on diseases/maladies caused by microbial agents, with no infection necessary (perhaps call the secion "toxiflora" or somesuch?). That way, we could list botulism, food poisoning, mycotoxins, etc... Just an idea... Pgdudda

Typhoid fever and Typhus are completely different diseases. Typhoid fever is caused by various strains of Salmonella: Typhus is caused by various Rickettsiae and can be further divided into epidemic (louse-borne) typhus, endemic typhus (flea-borne or murine) and scrub typhus (chigger-borne). I'm about to attempt unredirection... Someone else 12:14 Sep 5, 2002 (PDT)

MRSA is methicillin-resistant 'Staphylococcus aureus', a bacterium, not a disease. I've changed it to MRSA infection, since it can cause so many different infections. Someone else 14:16 Sep 5, 2002 (PDT)

What about Monkeypox? Where should that go? I'm not sure where to put it. --DanielCD 21:17, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

These lists are incomplete and not really that helpful. Looks like people have noticed this before. Also removed explodicitis from the viral section. Dionisio23 01:53, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

All of them?
So is that all the human infectious diseases? The list seems quite small. Thanks. Randomblue (talk) 18:06, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

This comment was a day over a decade ago and still hasn't been answered. I'm sure it isn't as far as undiscovered diseases go, and many of the diseases are actually families of diseases, but going to their pages tends to deal with them. Otherwise, I'be been trying for some while (months, on and off) to come across even quite obscure known infectious diseases that aren't listed, with no luck. The CDC's list on their website is in fact smaller. So far I am surprised too. Harsimaja (talk) 22:21, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

Remodeling
I am planning on doing quite a bit of work on this. First, I will get rid of the page's organization by causative agent because it may just as well have been organized by portal of entry or mode of transmission. Next, I will use a table format. Then, we can build it up from there. Let me know if you have any qualms or suggestions. Thank you. LittleT889 (talk) 00:49, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

-I have finished remodeling the list. It's far from complete, but it is a significant improvement to the previous list. Please continue to add on. LittleT889 (talk) 03:29, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

It's great work indeed and many thanks from all us readers. However, perhaps the list should be separated in some sort of subcategories, because it is far too long and not many people search a disease by name actually. What do you have against categorisation by causative agent? If you believe it doesn't convey an important information, use any categorising method you see fit. But one is certainly needed and I think that causative agent is a nice one.

I hope that you still read the discussion for this page!

--79.103.252.33 (talk) 19:54, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

HIV Final Rule
Anyone have any ideas about putting this into a footnote in the HIV entry? That's where I originally put it, but an editor removed it, commenting that the information is "AIDS denialist nonsense; this doesn't mean HIV is not an infectious disease."

If I thought HIV wasn't infectious I would have removed the entry itself based on the new ruling. As it is, I think the CDC ruling is informative in its own right and appropriate for the article. It seems almost like censorship to remove it. Comments? BruceSwanson (talk) 00:14, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Your edits to portray Peter Duesberg as anything but an AIDS denialist is probably responsible for burning through any good faith you may have otherwise received. HIV is still an infectious disease, that it's no longer a reason to bar immigration isn't appropriate for a list-style article.  Though your comment is accurate (HIV is no longer a "communicable diseases of public health significance"), it is irrelevant for this page as it is still seen as infectious (and that wording, if not read carefully, can appear as a statement that it is no longer infectious).  It is appropriate for the HIV in the US article, but again not here.  I support its removal, and believe that once User:Keepcalmandcarryon reviews it a bit better, s/he will support its inclusion on the HIV in the US page.  I would also suggest you not add it indiscriminately to any page.  That is a bit of information of only local interest, and is essentially irrelevant for most pages that aren't related to the US specifically.  WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules: simple/complex 10:42, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

I suppose in mentioning Peter Duesberg you have the article Inventing the AIDS Virus, which I started and expanded, in mind. May I remind you that that article was accepted through the usual procedure of posting a notice on the appropriate Wikipedia page. It was then accepted and posted.

As for the information being unacceptable for a list-format article, the list-format is exactly why I put the information in the form of a footnote. Any other form would be unacceptable, and in fact I reverted someone's attempt to make it a kind of news bulletin (see history). And the information could be highly useful for someone with HIV who is contemplating immigrating to the U.S. The footnote is not of course visually distracting. It's just there. It does seem as if you are actively trying to keep the dissemination of the new ruling as limited as possible in the guise of a concern for public health. BruceSwanson (talk) 16:50, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Also your advocacy for Duesberg's hypothesis being taken seriously, which is nonsense since he has been seen as promoting pseudoscience on the topic for decades now. A footnote is to be used to insert citations to verify the text, not insert commentary.  Wikipedia is not a how-to manual, if someone has HIV and wants to emigrate, they should contact the relevant immigration authority.  I'm applying the policies and guidelines in a way that is appropriate, across all pages I edit.  WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules: simple/complex 19:13, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

You wrote: ''Also your advocacy for Duesberg's hypothesis be taken seriously. . . ''. To what are you actually referring? Please be specific.

You also wrote: A footnote is to be used to insert citations to verify the text, not insert commentary. That's exactly right. If you'll take a look at my footnote, you see that its language is taken directly from the identified source, in this case a CDC website. I'll say again that it does seem as if you are actively trying to keep the dissemination of the new ruling as limited as possible in the guise of a concern for public health. BruceSwanson (talk) 18:09, 1 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Comments that indicate you think Duesberg's hypothesis on the causes of AIDS has merit. It doesn't.  It's bullshit nonsense repeatedly debunked but promoted by AIDS denialists who wish to piggy back his formerly stellar reputation to make it appear as if there were scientific merit to their beliefs.  Which there isn't.  Edits like this, this, this, this, this and this show a propensity towards reducing and eliminating criticisms of Duesberg's incorrect and dishonest statements about AIDS, in opposition to wikipedia's policy on neutral point of view.  Understand "neutral" doesn't mean faux-neutral, news source "tell both sides" neutral.  It means actually neutral.  Is there a controversy in the scientific community about HIV/AIDS?  No, there is not.  There is a manufactroversy, in which a group of motivated, ignorant amateurs attempt to present the idea that there is doubt about HIV (akin to creationists who try to create controversy over evolution, and anti-vaccinationists attempt to create controversy over vaccines, when none exists among the actual experts).  Neutral means we treat the scientific majority seriously, and if we discuss the nonsense fake alternative at all, we do so by demonstrating how false, erroneous, and utterly baseless they are.
 * This is a list type article. It is meant to list diseases, not comment on them.  The fact that the CDC removed it a disease of public health significance is irrelevant to this page (particularly since the issue is that it is not of public health significance, not that it is no longer significant - a fact that makes it irrelevant to many pages actually, but also a fact that if not properly worded can give it the impression that it's not an infectious disease, which it is).  I'm formatting the page in keeping with the policies and guidelines, with due weight to the appropriate opinion and the scholarly majority.  Before casting aspersions, familiarize yourself with the policies and guidelines.  I'm pretty much done here - there is no consensus for your change, they are not in keeping with the policies and guidelines, they're inappropriate per WP:LIST, and there's no point discussing further.  WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules: simple/complex 20:29, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Vaccines
Hi,

I've added a category for vaccines, in which I have categorized them into 3 categories: "No" vaccine, vaccine "Under research" and licensed vaccine exists ("Yes"). However I still hesitate on whether COVID-19 vaccines should be classified as approved or under research. I am open for discussion.

!Nsadqa (talk) 08:55, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

Zeaspora
Is there any reliable source that says zeaspora infects humans? The article on zeaspora is a text and says it infects rotifers. Looking online all I see is a suspect book called ‘Reversing Zeaspora’ that claims to consult the ‘teachings of many natural healers’ for vegan diet-based medicine, and a throwaway, oddly written and possibly machine generated paragraph that claims it infects humans, dogs and ravens (?). Nothing mainstream.

If it only infects rotifers, it doesn’t belong here. Harsimaja (talk) 20:18, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of infectious diseases