Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Government by five rulers.
- noun A body of five joint rulers.
- noun An association or federation of five governments, each ruled by a different leader.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A government vested in five persons.
- noun A group of five rulers, or of five influential persons.
- noun Any group of five.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A government in the hands of five persons; five joint rulers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Government by five persons. - noun A governing body consisting of five persons.
- noun A
federation of fivenations , each under its own government or ruler.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hence, the idea of a "pentarchy" - rule by five patriarchs - must be reconsidered without the biases of the intense nationalism we find in some quarters of modern Orthodoxy today.
orrologion 2009
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Orthodox have often 'frozen' the concept of primacy in an antiquarian defence of the 'pentarchy' as the structure of the church, thus allowing non-theological power struggles rooted in nationalism and ethnocentrism to flourish with damaging effect.
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Orthodox have often 'frozen' the concept of primacy in an antiquarian defence of the 'pentarchy' as the structure of the church, thus allowing non-theological power struggles rooted in nationalism and ethnocentrism to flourish with damaging effect.
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The silly pretext of difficulties by which my erasure, notwithstanding the reiterated solicitations of the victorious General, was so long delayed made me apprehensive of a renewal, under a weak and jealous pentarchy, of the horrible scenes of 1796.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
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The crisis of the 18th Fructidor, which retarded for three years the extinction of the pentarchy, presents one of the most remarkable events of its short existence.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
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The generality of the citizens had declared themselves against a pentarchy devoid of power, justice, and morality, and which had become the sport of faction and intrigue.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
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This peace -- the fruit of Marengo and Hohenlinden -- restored France to that honourable position which had been put in jeopardy by the feeble and incapable government of the pentarchy and the reverses of 1799.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
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The restored pentarchy was not destined to last very long.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913
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The Orthodox rejoiced; the new patriarchate was admitted everywhere as fifth, after Jerusalem, leaving the first place to Constantinople; they explained that now the sacred pentarchy, the (not really very) ancient order of five patriarchs, was restored; Moscow had arisen to atone for the fall of Rome.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913
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Orthodox theologians were delighted that the sacred pentarchy, the classical order of five patriarchs, was thus restored; they said that God had raised up
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913
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