would probably have been successful, had not the pride and resentment of Felix led him to insist on the erasure of the name of Acacius from the sacred diptychs, as an indispensable preliminary. The same unbending and inexorable temper proved an obstacle to the desired union during the patriarchate of Euphemius, the successor of Fravita, as we have already seen in the life of that prelate. Upon the death of the emperor Zeno, in 491, Felix wrote to Anastasius, his successor, congratulating him on his accession to the throne, and intimating an expectation that, under his authority, the interests of the true faith would be respected and promoted. Of this letter the emperor took no notice; and Felix died before he was apprised of the reception which it met with, about the latter end of the year last mentioned, or the beginning of the following. He was an enterprising, ambitious, and arrogant man, who was more assiduously devoted to the extension of the papal power, and the exaltation of the dignity of his see, than the true welfare and peace of the church. Fifteen letters under his name, of which Dupin distinguishes such as are probably genuine from the supposititious, may be met with in the fourth volume of the Collectio Conciliorum. Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. I. sub sac. Nest. Dupin. Moreri. Platina de Vit. Pont. Bower. Mosh. Mosh. Hist. Eccl. Sæc. V.-M.

FELIX IV., pope, was a native of Beneventum, and raised to the papal chair on the death of pope John, in the year 526. For his elevation he was indebted, not to the choice of the people and clergy of Rome, but to the appointment of king Theodoric, who, when the senate and people were distracted by factions supporting different rival candidates, thought proper to interpose his authority, and fix upon a person of a most exemplary life, and every way worthy of the pontifical dignity, but whom all parties had overlooked. Notwithstanding his acknowledged merits, however, he was at first opposed by the whole people, on account of the uncanonical manner of his appointment, until the king entered into an agreement with them, that, provided they received Felix for their lawful bishop, they should for the future be allowed to choose whom they pleased, subject to the king's confirmation of the decree of election. This interference has occasioned Baronius to pour the most bitter invectives on the memory of Theodoric, and the most passionate lamentations over the state of slavery to which the church was thereby reduced. The Roman senate, people, and clergy, having acquiesced

in the agreement proposed by the king, Felix was ordained to his office, and presided over the Roman see for little more than four years. We find no account of any memorable actions performed by him, which are deserving of our notice. He died in the year 530. In the fourth volume of the Collectio Conciliorum, are three letters attributed to him; of which the first and second have been satisfactorily proved to be supposititious by fathers Labbé and Papebroch. Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. I. sub sac. Eutych. Dupin. Moreri. Bower.-M.

FELIX V., pope, see AMADEUS VIII. and the corresponding particulars under the article EUGENIUS IV.

ers.

FELIX, bishop of Urgella in Catalonia, in the eighth century. He was the friend of Elipand archbishop of Toledo, and concurred with him in propagating the opinion that Jesus Christ, considered as a man, was the son of God, not by nature, but by adoption. In our notice of the last-mentioned prelate, we were unavoidably led to introduce the greater part of the information which we have to communicate respecting Felix; to which we refer our readWe have only to add to it, that though Elipand, by remaining in Spain, was safe, under the protection of the Saracens, from the power of the councils which condemned him, yet Felix, by travelling into France and Germany, exposed himself to the effects of their resentment. Having repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, in consequence of an invitation from the emperor Charlemagne, under a promise that he should have full liberty to propose to the council assembled there his reasons in defence of his sentiments, and that all the proceedings in discussing them should be conducted without the least constraint; means were made use of to persuade, or rather to intimidate him, to sign a recantation of his opinion, and to profess his assent to the commonly received doctrine of the catholic church. By this act he exposed himself to the attack of his friend, as we formerly stated. His enemies, however, were not satisfied with having forced him to make this concession, but procured his deposition from his episcopal functions, and obtained the order of the emperor for his banishment to Lyons. In that city he spent the remainder of his days, and died about the year 815, in the firm belief of the doctrine for which he was a sufferer; affording an example, that coercion in religious matters can produce no other effect, than to make men hypocrites or martyrs. Dupin. Moreri. Mosk. Hist. Eccl. Sac. VIII.-M.

FELL, JOHN, a learned and eminent English prelate in the seventeenth century, was the son of Dr. Samuel Fell, dean of Christ-church, Oxford, and born at Longworth in Berkshire, in the year 1625. After receiving a preparatory education in the free-school at Thame in Oxfordshire, he was admitted a student at Christchurch college, in 1636, when he was only eleven years of age. In 1640 he was admitted to the degree of B.A. and to that of M.A. in 1643; about which time he bore arms for king Charles I. within the garrison of Oxford, and obtained the rank of ensign. In 1648, being then in orders, he was ejected from his student's place by the parliamentarian visitors; from which time till the restoration of king Charles II. he lived in studious retirement at Oxford, joining with many other royalists in privately using the liturgy and rites of the church of England, at Merton-college. After the Restoration he was made prebendary of Chichester, and canon, and then dean of Christ-church in 1660, at which time he had been created doctor in divinity, and appointed one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary. As head of his college he assiduously applied himself to the restoration of its discipline, according to the statutes, and to the promotion of learning and religion among its members. Several mornings in the week he regularly visited the chambers of the noblemen and gentlemen commoners, and personally examined the progress which they had made in their studies. By his own liberal benefactions, or by what he was the means of procuring from others, many of the convenient and magnificent buildings of Christ-church were either completed out of the imperfect state in which he found them, or entirely raised from their foundations. In the years 1666, 1667, 1668, and part of 1669, he filled the office of vice-chancellor of the university, when he discovered the same attention to the reformation of abuses, the maintenance of discipline, and the observance of the regular exercises in the public schools, as he had before shewn in his own college. By frequently attending the disputations in the schools, the examinations for degrees, and the public lectures of the professors, he secured the performance of them in the ablest and most creditable manner. In the year 1675-6 he was promoted to the bishopric of Oxford, with leave to hold his deanery in commendam, that his college and the university might still enjoy the benefit of his services. To the former he continued through life a liberal benefactor, purchasing for it with his own

VOL. IV.

money the best rectories belonging to it, besides leaving to it at his death an estate for the support of ten or more exhibitioners. And the university will always commemorate him as entitled to hold a distinguished rank among those benefactors, who not only by their munificence, but personal exertions, shewed themselves warmly interested for its honour and improvement. As one powerful means of promoting literature, he paid great attention to the improvement of the university press, and superintended numerous editions of ancient and modern writers. From the time of his becoming dean of Christ-church to his death, he annually published a book, generally a classical author, with a preface, notes, and corrections, which he presented as a new year's gift to the students of his house. But his generous actions were not confined to his college and the university. The poor and distressed partook largely of his beneficence, which frequently left little remaining out of his revenues to be applied to his own use. When Dr. Fell had filled the see of Oxford little more than ten years, his health sunk under his exertions, and the anxiety which he felt on account of the changes attempted to be brought about in religion by king James II., so that he died in 1686, leaving behind him, says Wood, "the general character of a learned and pious divine, and of an excellent Grecian, Latinist, and philologist, of a great assertor of the church of England, of another founder of his own college, and of a patron of the whole university." Bishop Burnet pronounces him to have been a person "of great strictness in the course of his life, and of much devotion: indeed in all respects a most exemplary man, a little too much heated in our disputes with the dissenters. But as he was the first of our clergy that apprehended the design of bringing in popery, so he was one of the most zealous against it. He had much zeal for reforming abuses; and managed it, perhaps, with too much heat, and in too peremptory a way." Against the excellent Dr. Tillotson he had indulged to an unfriendly disposition; most probably on account of the ardour with which the latter endeavoured to promote an union among Protestants, by a plan for the comprehension of such of the dissenters as could be brought into the communion of the church, and a toleration of the rest. When the Royal Society was instituted, Dr. Fell was among the alarmists of the Aristotelian school, and encouraged the noted Stubbe to write several pieces against its members, charging them with intentions to bring contempt upon ancient

H

and solid learning, to undermine the universities, and even to destroy the established religion, and introduce popery. He was the author or editor of numerous works, among which were "The Life of the most learned, reverend, and pious Dr. Henry Hammond, &c." 1660, 8vo.; "Alcinoi in Platonicam Philosophiam Introductio," 1667, 8vo.; "In Laudem Musices, Carmen Sapphicum," which was set to music, and probably designed for some of the public exercises in the university; "Historia & Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis, &c." in two volumes folio, translated from the English of Anthony Wood, partly by himself, and partly by two persons whom he employed for that purpose, but with omissions and alterations, for which Wood requested that the public would not consider him to be accountable; "The Vanity of Scoffing, in a Letter to a Gentleman," 1674, 4to.; an edition of the New Testament, which gave birth to Mill's, and was entitled, " Tns xains dianuns anala, Novi Testamenti Libri omnes-accesserunt Parallela Scripturæ Loca, necnon variantes Lectiones, ex plus 100 MSS. Codicibus & antiquis Versionibus collectæ," 1675, 8vo.; "St. Clement's two Epistles to the Corinthians, in Greek and Latin, with Notes," 1677, 12mo.; "Account of Dr. Richard Allestry's Life," being the preface to his Sermons; "Of the Unity of the Church," translated from the original of St. Cyprian, 1681, quarto; "Sancti Cæcilii Cypriani Opera, recognita & illustrata per Johannem, Episcopum Oxoniensem," 1682, folio; and several sermons, prefaces, &c.; for farther particulars of which we must refer to our authorities. Biog. Britan. Wood's Athen. Ox. vol. II. Burnet's Hist. of his own Time, vol. I. folio.-M.

FELL, JOHN, a learned and respectable English nonconformist divine, was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, in the year 1732. From his father, who was a schoolmaster, he most probably received such instruction as qualified him for the station of an humble tradesman, which was his original destination, and for which he served an apprenticeship of some years in his native town. Removing afterwards to London, with the design of improving himself in his business, the master who gave him employment soon perceived that he possessed those solid abilities, that avidity of knowledge, and that taste for literature, which marked him out as deserving a more respectable situation than that to which he had been educated. Upon consulting his inclination, and finding that his highest ambition was to become

a christian minister, his master, in conjunction with some other gentlemen, placed him, when he was about nineteen or twenty years of age, at the academy at Mile-end, adjoining to the metropolis, which was a seminary for ministers belonging to the class of dissenters commonly styled Independents. In that institution he applied himself with such incessant and indefatigable diligence to his various studies, that by his progress he soon excited the wonder and applause of his tutors, and in a few years acquired a stock of information which is but seldom attained by young persons possessed of the best advantages of early education, in the course of their academical pursuits. By his diligence and improvement he particularly recommended himself to the notice of the resident tutor, Dr. Walker, who was a good classical scholar and well conversant in general knowledge, and who delighted in discovering and fostering genius. Mr. Fell soon became his favourite pupil and his constant companion, with whom alone he would spend an hour or two every day, to assist him in his studies, and to read with him the best Greek and Roman writers. Upon his quitting the academy, as he had no immediate prospect of a settlement with any congregation, by the advice of Dr. Walker he became assistant to a friend of his, who was the master of a seminary at Norwich, where he remained for a considerable time. Afterwards he removed to Beccles, where he preached for some time to a small but attentive and affectionate congregation, without entering into the pastoral connection with them. During his residence at Beccles, Dr. King, a London dissenting minister, falling accidentally into company with him at a friend's house, immediately had recourse to his supposed talent at wit and criticism, and addressed Mr. Fell in the following manner: "Well, young man, I hear you are a critic; pray, sir, how do you define a critic?" Mr. Fell directly replied, "Doctor, I never did define a critic, but if I were to attempt it, I think I should say, he is one who labours to make easy things difficult." It is unnecessary to say at whose expence the laugh which followed this repartee was obtained. In the year 1770 Mr. Fell accepted the pastoral charge of the independent congregation at Thaxted in Essex, where he resided for many years, active and exemplary in the discharge of his professional duties, and rendering himself, by his commendable deportment, his benevolence, his unaffected and affable manners, and his instructive conversation, the object of universal respect and esteem, not only among

the dissenters, but the members and clergy of the established church. Mr. Fell had established a respectable boarding-school at Thaxted: but, notwithstanding the time that he was necessarily obliged to devote to the instruction of his pupils, and to his preparation for two pulpit services every Sunday, he found leisure to employ himself in the production of several literary publications, which reflect credit on his learning and ingenuity, and entitle him to a respectable rank among the polemical writers of his day. In our life of Mr. Farmer we have already noticed the pieces which he published in controversy with that gentleman, and shall enumerate the others at the end of this article. After Mr. Fell had resided several years at Thaxted, he received a pressing invitation to become resident and classical tutor of the independent academy, which had been removed from Mile-end to Homerton, in the neighbourhood of London. This invitation he complied with, to the great regret of his flock and connections at Thaxted; but to the great satisfaction of the friends of the institution, who flattered themselves that under his able instructions the improvement of the pupils would reflect increasing credit on the seminary. Their hopes, however, were unhappily frustrated, in consequence of some serious differences between the new tutor and the students, who respectively preferred various charges and accusations against each other before the trustees of the academy. During nearly two years repeated public and private meetings were held to investigate the business, in which Mr. Fell does not appear to have been treated with liberality or justice. In the issue it was determined by a majority of the trustees that he should be deprived of his situation, against the strong protest of a respectable minority, who pronounced the sentence violent and unjust, and shewed their conviction of his merits, and regard for his character, by devising plans for his future honourable maintenance, while the public should be enabled to profit from his talents in his ministerial capacity. With this design they requested him to deliver monthly a course of twelve lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, for the support of which upwards of two hundred pounds were speedily contributed; and one of his active friends also soon procured sufficient subscriptions to purchase for him an annuity of one hundred pounds. Four of the lectures were delivered by Mr. Fell in the first four months of the year 1797, to crowded and attentive audiences; but he did not live to finish his un

dertaking. His mind was so much affected by the severe treatment shewn to him, so much agitated by extreme anxiety respecting the engagement into which he had entered, and so overpowered by the kindness of those who were attached to him, that his constitution sunk under his feelings; and, after languishing nearly four months under a complicated disorder, which baffled the skill of his physicians, he died on the 6th of September, 1797, about the 65th year of his age. He was a man of strong natural talents, which he cultivated by assiduous study; and, possessing great acuteness of perception, and a memory astonishingly retentive, acquired a large fund of various knowledge. His acquaintance with oriental, biblical, and classical learning, was very considerable, as well as with metaphysics and philology. As a preacher he was remarkable for the correctness of his public discourses, and the animated manner in which they were delivered. His religious tenets were such as are commonly called orthodox; but he was no bigot, and considered charity or candour to be an indispensable requisite in a Christian. To the interests of civil and religious liberty he was ardently and unalterably attached. His manners were frank, easy, and unaffected, and his conversation with his friends cheerful, interesting, and instructive. Besides his treatises in controversy with Mr. Farmer, and the four Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, which after his death were published in an octavo volume, together with eight discourses intended to complete the plan by Dr. Hunter, Mr. Fell was the author of "An Essay on the Love of one's Country," 8vo.; " Genuine Protestantism, or the unalienable Rights of Conscience defended, &c. in three Letters to the Rev. Mr. Pickard," 1773, 8vo.; " A fourth Letter to Mr. Pickard on genuine Protestantism, being a full Reply to the Rev. Mr. Toulmin's Defence of the Dissenters' new Mode of Subscription," 1774, 8vo.; "The Justice and Utility of penal Laws for the Direction of Conscience examined, in a Letter to Mr. Burke," 1774, 8vo.; "Remarks on the Appendix of the Editor of Rowley's Poems, printed at the End of Observations on the Poems attributed to Rowley, by Rayner Heckford, Esq." 1783, 8vo.; "An Essay towards an English Grammar, with a Dissertation on the natural and peculiar Use of certain hypothetical Verbs in the English Language," 1784, 12mo. &c. Annual Necrology for 1797-8. Gent. Mag. for October, 1797.-M.

FELLE, WILLIAM, a French dominican. monk, was a native of Dieppe, but took the

vows at Metz, about the year 1660. After finishing his academical studies, he travelled into Africa, Asia, and over a considerable part of Europe, and became chaplain to John III. king of Poland. He had at that time been admitted to the degree of doctor in divinity, but at what university is uncertain. Among various works of which he was the author, were a treatise against quietism, in Italian, published at Genoa in 1702, entitled "La Ruina del Quietismo, e del l'Amor Puro;" "Lapis TheoLapis Theologorum," in Latin and German, designed to refute the arguments advanced by Protestants against the worship of the Virgin Mary; and "Brevissimum Fidei Propugnaculum," which was printed for the second time at Venice in 1684. He died at Rome in 1710. Moreri.-M. FELTON, THOMAS BERNARD, a French Jesuit, was born at Avignon in 1672, and died in 1759. He had a talent for Latin poetry, and his pieces, entitled "Faba Arabica, Carmen," and "Magnes, Carmen," both printed in 1696, and afterwards reprinted in Father Oudin's "Poemata Didascalica," are not unknown in the learned world. He was also the author of "A Paraphrase upon the Psalms," 1731, 12mo.; "The Treatise by St. Francis de Sales, abridged and modernised," in three volumes, 12mo. ; and "Funeral Orations" for the duke of Burgundy, and Lewis XIV. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Suppl. à la France Littéraire.-M.

FENELON, FRANCIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTTE, archbishop of Cambray, one of the most excellent and distinguished persons of his time, was born of an ancient family at the castle of Fenelon in Quercy, in 1651. After a domestic education to his twelfth year, he was sent to pursue his studies at the university of Cahor, which he finished at Paris under the eye of his uncle, the marquis of Fenelon, lieutenantgeneral, a man of exemplary merit, who treated him as his son. The young Fenelon made a rapid progress; and being destined to the ecclesiastical profession, became a preacher as early as his nineteenth year. The great applause he received was thought by his uncle a dangerous snare to so young a man; whence he placed his nephew under the conduct of the abbé Tronçon, superior of St. Sulpice, in order to pass some years in silence and retirement. At the age of twenty-four Fenelon entered into holy orders, and began to exercise the most laborious offices of his ministry in the parish of St. Sulpice. Three years afterwards, the archbishop of Paris, Harlai, made him superior of a society named the New-catholics; and from the talents of pleasing and instructing, which he displayed in this

situation, he was nominated by the king chief of a mission into Saintonge and Aunis for the conversion of heretics. This post he would not accept, but upon the condition that no other arms should be employed in the work than those of argument and charity; and this spirit of mildness and moderation ever continued to characterise him when at the height of his ecclesiastical promotion. His success was correspondent to the purity of his means. Returning to Paris, he resumed his functions there, frequently preaching, and cultivating the friendship of persons attached to religion, whom he charmed by the graces of his elocution, and the persuasive gentleness of his manner. He had before this time formed a connection with the celebrated mystic, Mad. de Guyon, the warmth and tenderness of whose devotional sentiments were peculiarly calculated to make an impression upon a feeling soul. He accustomed himself to that sublime and affectionate, but obscure and indefinite language, in which she treated divine topics; and he imbibed from her that principle of making devotion an affair of the heart rather than of the understanding, which ever after adhered to him. He became advantageously known to the public as a writer, by a work "Sur le Ministère des Pasteurs," and a treatise "De l'Education des Filles," both printed in 1688. At this period, the governor of the royal children was the duke de BeauVilliers, a nobleman of high character for virtue and piety, and greatly respected by the king, who left to him the disposal of all offices about the young princes. Fenelon obtained an introduction to him, and impressed him with such an idea of his talents and character, that the duke appointed him, in 1689, preceptor to the duke of Burgundy, heir-apparent, and to his. younger brothers. This important charge was fulfilled by Fenelon with the utmost fidelity. and diligence, and the success of his labours was such as to promise the highest advantage to the kingdom. By his excellent lessons of religion and morality he so softened the harsh. and haughty character of the duke of Burgundy, as to make him a model of all that could be wished in the expected sovereign of a vast empire. His services were rewarded in 1695 with. the splendid preferment of the archbishopric of Cambray, which includes a dukedom. He ac cepted it only upon the condition of being al lowed to devote nine months in the year to his see, and three alone to the princes; and at the same time he resigned a valuable abbacy. Though he performed the duties of a prelate in the most exemplary manner,

a storm rose