his opera
"Lohengrin."

LOIRE, the largest river in France, 630 m., rises in the Cevennes,
flows northwards to Orleans and westward to the Bay of Biscay, through a
very fertile valley which it often inundates. It is navigable for 550 m.,
but its lower waters are obstructed by islands and shoals; it is
connected by canals with the Seine, Saone, and Brest Harbour.

LOKI, in the Norse mythology, a primitive spirit of evil who mingles
with the Norse gods, distinguished for his cunning and ensnaring ways,
whose devices are only evil in appearance, and are overruled for good.

LOLLARDS, originally a religious community established at Antwerp in
1300, devoted to the care of the sick and burial of the dead, and as
persecuted by the Church, regarded as heretics. Their name became a
synonym for heretic, and was hence applied to the followers of Wycliffe
in England and certain sectaries in Ayrshire.

LOMBARD, PETER, a famous schoolman, born in Lombardy in the 12th
century, of poor parents; was a disciple of Abelard; taught theology at,
and became Bishop of, Paris; was styled the Master of Sentences, as
author of a compilation of sentences from Augustine and other Church
Fathers on points of Christian doctrine, and long used as a manual in
scholastic disputations.

LOMBARDS, a German people, settled at the beginning of our era about
the lower Elbe. In the 5th century we find them in Moravia, and a century
later established, a powerful people, between the Adriatic and the
Danube. They invaded Italy in 568, and in three years had mastered the
North, but abandoning their Arian faith they gradually became
Italianised, and after the overthrow of their dynasty by Charlemagne in
774 they became merged in the Italians. From the 13th century Italian
merchants, known as Lombards, from Lucca, Florence, Venice, and Genoa,
traded under much odium, largely in England as wool-dealers and bankers,
whence the name Lombard Street.

LOMBARDY (3,982), an inland territory of Northern Italy between the
Alps and the Po, Piedmont, and Venetia. In the N. are Alpine mountains
and valleys rich in pasturage; in the S. a very fertile, well irrigated
plain, which produces cereals, rice, and sub-tropical plants. The culture
of the silkworm is extensive; there are textile and hardware
manufactures. The chief towns are Milan, Pavia, and Corno. Austrian in
1713, Napoleon made it part of the kingdom of Italy in 1805; it was
restored to Austria in