The Encyclopedia of World Religions

74 S cardinals

T. S. Eliot, and Becket, a play by Jean Anouilh. Before the Reformation, many pilgrims traveled to Canterbury to visit Becket’s shrine. The English writer Geoffrey Chaucer used that PILGRIMAGE in his famous Canterbury Tales (late 1300s). The book recounts many raucous and lively stories that pil grims allegedly told on their way to Canterbury. cardinals The chief administrative officers of the Roman Catholic Church. They can be dis tinguished by their red clothing. Cardinals are appointed by the pope ( see PAPACY , THE ). In turn they elect new popes. At one time the number of cardinals was capped at 70, but today they number more than 100. Originally the cardinals were the bishops, priests, and deacons in the church at Rome and its immediate surroundings. These titles are pre served in the three ranks in the College of Cardi nals: cardinal bishops, priests, and deacons. But today cardinals generally administer the Roman see itself, that is, the Catholic Church in Rome, act as bishops in major churches around the world, and serve as ambassadors of the pope. cargo cults Groups believing that the gods will send wonderful cargoes to their followers, often native peoples in colonialized lands. Throughout parts of the world under colonial rulers, especially in the area of Indonesia and the South Pacific, reli gious movements have arisen based on the promise of a prophet that rich cargoes were on their way to the impoverished natives. Although comparable movements can be found as far back as prehistoric times, and some cargo cults are still active today, most flourished during the height of European colo nialism, approximately from 1850 to 1950. They have much in common with millenarianism, or belief in the imminent and sudden oncoming of a world that was like paradise, and with movements like the 1890s G HOST D ANCE of Native Americans by which oppressed indigenous peoples whose cul ture was being destroyed by white settlers sought to recover it through magical means.

A 15th-century manuscript page of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Image Select/Art Resource, N.Y.)

of the archbishops of Canterbury stretches from Augustine to the present day without a break. During the R EFORMATION King Henry VIII declared the English church to be independent from the popes in Rome. Since that time (1534) the archbishop of Canterbury has been recognized as the most important leader of the Anglican Church ( see A NGLICANISM ). Canterbury is famous for its cathedral. It is also famous as the place where in 1170 St. Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury at the time, was killed. In the 20th century this event was the subject of Murder in the Cathedral, a play by