Religion

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno’, the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ‘Divine Comedy’, depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents. Engraving by Gustave Dore, 1885. (Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A brief history of the afterlife

"The Knights Templare were able to flight across all terrains. They were the equivalent of the SAS, the Navy SEALS or the French Foreign Legion," says Dan Jones. (Alamy)

The rise and fall of the Knights Templar

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Katherine Parr (also Catherine), the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII, c1543. Engraving after a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. Katherine was no middle-aged frump but a clever, devout and passionate wife, says Derek Wilson. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Katherine Parr: the truth about the wife who ‘survived’

Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe

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The Shah Jahan Mosque was saved from developers and renovated from 1913 by Kashmiri lawyer Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who also founded the Woking Muslim Mission. (Photo by Alamy)

Muslim worship in Britain

Sunset over the causeway to St Michael's Mount, Marazion, Cornwall, England (Getty Images)

9 places associated with the Prayer Book Rebellion

Islam’s struggle with modernity podcast

Islam’s struggle with modernity

Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene, in a painting by Paolo Veronese (1528-88). In the Beaux-Arts Museum, Grenoble, France. Mary Magdalene is presented in the New Testament gospels as a mourner at the Crucifixion of Christ and witness to his resurrection, but the Mary most familiar to us today is a former prostitute. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

General ancient history

Mary Magdalene: why do people want to believe she was a sinner and prostitute?

An engraving showing the story of the Three Living and the Three Dead

Inside the medieval mind

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Podcast Website large Jessie Childs

Catholics in Elizabethan England

The expulsion of Jews from France in 1182. Found in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Jews of medieval England

The last Russian royal family, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and their five children, were shot and bayonetted to death by their Bolshevik guards in the early hours of 17 July 1918. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

The legacy of the Romanovs: how is the last Russian royal family remembered in Russia?

Mary, Queen of Scots craved the throne occupied by her cousin Elizabeth I (pictured). Theirs was a relationship defined by plots, massacres, assassinations and ultimately, the executioner's sword. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Deadly Rivals: Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

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Miniature of a monk and his mistress in the stocks as a form of penitents. Taken from a book painted for Augustinian canons. Dated 12th Century (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Monks behaving badly