Lotus Sutra Text central to the Japanese Tendai (Chinese Tiantai) and Nichiren sects of Mahayana Buddhism. It represents the Buddha as divine and eternal, having attained perfect enlightenment eons ago. All beings are invited to become fully enlightened Buddhas through the grace of innumerable bodhisattvas. Composed largely in verse, the sutra contains many charms and mantras. First translated into Chinese in the 3rd cen¬ tury ad, it was extremely popular in China and Japan, where the simple act of chanting it was thought to bring salvation.
Lou Gehrig disease See amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
loudspeaker or speaker In sound reproduction, device for convert¬ ing electrical energy into acoustical (sound) signal energy that is radiated into a room or open air (see acoustics). The part of the speaker that con¬ verts electrical into mechanical energy is frequently called the motor, or voice coil. The motor vibrates a diaphragm that vibrates the air in imme¬ diate contact with it, producing a sound wave corresponding to the pat¬ tern of the original speech, music, or other acoustic signal. See illustration opposite.
Louganis Uii-'ga-nosV Greg(ory Efthimios) (b. Jan. 29, 1960, San Diego, Calif., U.S.) U.S. diver, considered the greatest diver in history. He was trained early in dancing, tumbling, and acrobatics. During his diving career, he won an unprecedented 47 national and 13 world cham¬ pionships, including two Olympic gold medals (1984) and one silver (1976). In 1982 he became the first diver ever to earn a perfect score of 10, and the following year he received 99 points in springboard compe¬ tition. He was known for his graceful, effortless style. In 1995 he revealed that he had AIDS.
Lough Erne See Lough Erne Lough Neagh See Lough Neagh
Louis Vlii-e\ I known as Louis the Pious (b. April 16, 778, Chasse- neuil, near Poitiers, Aquitaine—d. June 20, 840, Petersau, an island in the Rhine River near Ingelheim) Frankish emperor (814^-0). The son of Charlemagne, he was crowned coemperor with his father in 813 and became emperor in 814 on his father’s death. As emperor, Louis imple¬ mented important religious and cultural reforms and formalized Carolin- gian relations with the pope. He also introduced a plan of succession that sought to preserve the integrity of the empire while respecting the Ger¬ manic tradition of dividing the realm among all heirs. The birth of the future Charles II (Charles the Bald) to his second wife, Judith, and alter¬ ation of the plan of succession provided Louis’s older sons and a number of bishops with an excuse for rebellion. Twice deposed by his sons, he recovered the throne each time (830, 834), but at his death his surviving sons indulged in a bloody civil war that left the Carolingian empire in disarray.
Louis I or Ludwig Vliit-vik\ I (b. Aug. 25, 1786, Strasbourg, France—d. Feb. 29, 1868, Nice) King of Bavaria (1825—48). The son of Maximilian I, Louis won early acclaim as a liberal and a German nationalist, but after his accession he feuded with the Diet and came to distrust all democratic institutions. By 1837 the reactionary Bavarian government had begun to
Components of a loudspeaker. Electrical signals sent through the coil cause it to act as an electromagnet, which is alternately repelled by or attracted to the permanent magnet. This movement causes the cone diaphragm to vibrate, creating sound waves.
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erode the liberal constitution of 1818 that Louis had worked to establish. An outstanding patron of the arts, he collected the art works that fill Munich’s museums and transformed Munich into the artistic centre of Germany. His planning created the city’s present layout and classic style. He caused scandal by his affair with Lola Montez, and at the outbreak of the Revolutions of 1848 he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian II.
Louis II or Ludwig II also known as Mad King Ludwig (b. Aug. 25, 1845, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich—d. June 13, 1886, Stamberger See, Bavaria) King of Bavaria (1864-86). The son of Maximilian II of Bavaria, he supported Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). He brought his territories into the newly founded German Empire in 1871 but concerned himself only intermittently with affairs of state, preferring a life of increasingly morbid seclusion. A lifelong patron of the composer Richard Wagner, he developed a mania for extravagant building projects; the most fantastic, Neuschwanstein, was a fairy-tale castle decorated with scenes from Wagner’s operas. He drowned himself three days after he was formally declared insane.
Louis IV or Ludwig IV known as Louis the Bavarian (b. 1283, Munich, Ger.—d. Oct. 11, 1347, Munich) German king (1314-47) and uncrowned Holy Roman emperor (1328^-7). As the Luxembourg candi¬ date for emperor, he was opposed by the Habsburg candidate Frederick III of Austria. Both men were elected and crowned king in 1314, and Louis’s forces defeated Frederick’s army in 1322. A conflict with Pope John XXII over the appointment of the imperial vicar in Italy led to his excommunication (1324). To placate his opponents, Louis agreed to rule jointly with Frederick, an arrangement that continued until Frederick’s death (1330). He accepted the imperial crown from the Roman people instead of from the pope (1328) and backed the appointment of an anti¬ pope. In 1346 Pope Clement VI secured the election of a rival king, Charles of Moravia, and Louis died of a heart attack before finishing his prepa¬ rations for war.
Louis VI known as Louis the Fat (b. 1081—d. Aug. 1, 1137) King of France (1108-37). He was effective ruler of France well before the death of his father, Philip I, in 1108, and he spent much time in subduing the unruly French barons. He fought Henry I of England (1104-13, 1116-20) and prevented a threatened invasion by Emperor Henry V (1124). He died
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a month after arranging his son’s marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, where¬ upon his son succeeded him as Louis VII.
Louis VII known as Louis the Younger (b. c. 1120—d. Sept. 18, 1180, Paris) King of France (1137-80). One of the Capetian kings, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1137, thus temporarily extending his king¬ dom to the Pyrenees. Doubtful of her fidelity, he had the marriage annulled in 1152 and, after the death of his second wife, married Alix of Cham¬ pagne, who bore him his son and heir, Philip II Augustus. Eleanor married the future Henry II of England, who took control of Aquitaine and carried on a long rivalry with Louis (1152-74) marked by recurrent warfare and constant intrigue. Louis was joined by Conrad III in leading the Second Crusade (1147-49), which failed in all its objectives.
Louis IX or St. Louis (b. April 25, 1214, Poissy, France—d. Aug. 25, 1279, near Tunis, Tun.; canonized Aug. 11, 1297; feast day August 25) King of France (1226-70). He inherited the throne at age 12. His mother served as regent until 1234, helping to subdue rebellious barons and Albi- gensian heretics (see Cathari). Louis led a Crusade (1248-50) in hopes of regaining Jerusalem and Damascus, but his troops were badly defeated by the Egyptians. On his return he reorganized the royal administrative sys¬ tem and standardized coinage. He built the extraordinary Sainte-Chapelle to house a religious relic believed to be Jesus’ crown of thorns. Louis made peace with the English in the Treaty of Paris (1259), allowing Henry III to keep Aquitaine and neighboring lands but obliging him to declare himself Louis’s vassal. He died of plague during a Crusade. The most popular of the Capetian kings, his reputation for justness and piety led the French to venerate him as a saint even before his canonization in 1297.