Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/63

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39

FENN


39


FERDINAND


index volume. The various works are grouped un- der five headings: (1) Theological and controversial works (^'ols. I-XVI), of which the principal are: "Traite de I'existence et des attributs de Dieu"; let- ters on various nietapliysical and religious subjects; "Traite du ministere des pasteurs"; "De Surami Pontificis auctoritate"; "Refutation du systeme du P. Malebranche sur la nature et la grace"; " Lettre a I'Eveque d'Arras sur la lecture de I'Ecriture Sainte en langue vulgaire"; works on Quietism and Jansenism. (2) Works on moral and spiritual subjects (\'ols. XVII and XVIII): "Traite de I'education des fillcs"; ser- mons and works on piety. (3) Twenty-four pastoral charges (Vol. XVIII). (4) Literary works (Vols. XIX- XXII): "Dialogues des Morts"; "T^l^maque"; "Dia- logues sur I'eloquence". (5) Political writings (Vol. XXII) : " Examen de conscience sur les devoirs de la Royaut^ " ; various memoirs on the War of the Spanish Succession; " Plans du Gouveruement concertes avec le Due de Chevreuse ". The correspondence includes letters to friends at court, as Beauvilliers, Chevreuse, and the Duke of Burgundy; letters of direction, and letters on Quietism. To these must be added the " Explication des maximes des Saints sur la vie int^- rieure" (Paris, 1697).

De Rams.vy, Histoire de la vie el des ouvrages de Fenelon (Lon- don, 1723): DE B.\ussET, Histoire de Fcnelan (Paris, 1808); Tabaraud, Supplement aux histoires de Bossuet et de Fenelon (Paris. 1823); de Broglie, Fenelon h Camhrai (Pari.s, 1884); Janet. Fenelon (Paris. 1892); Croitsle, Finelon et Bossuet (2 vols., Paris, 1894); DRnON, Fenelon archenque de Camhrai (Paris, 190.5): Cagnac, Fenelon directeur de eonscience (Paris, 1903); Brunetiere in La Grande Eneyclopcdie, s. v.; Idem. Etudes critiques sur Vhistoire de la littC-rature fran^aise (Paris, 1893); DouEfj. V intolirance de Fenelon (2d ed., Paris, 1875); Verlaqije. Lettres inrditex de Fenelon (Paris, 1874); Idem. fVnrf„n .\lL-<si,„uunre i Marseilles. IS.S-li; Ci F.RRIER. il/o-

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Fenn, J.\me.s, Veneu.\ble. See H.wdock, George.

Fenn, Joh.v, b. at Montacute near Wells in Somer- setshire; d. 27 Dec., 1015. He was the clde.st brother of Ven. James Fenn, the martjT, and Robert Fenn, the confessor. After being a cliorister at Wells Cathedral, he went to Winchester Sciiool in 1547, and in 1550 to New College, O.xford, of which he was elected fellow in 1552. Next year he became head master of the Bury St. Edmunds' grammar-school, but was deprived of this office and also of his fellowship for refusing to take the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth. He there- upon went to Rome where after four years' study he was ordained priest about 1566. Having for a time been chaplain to .Sir William Stanley's regiment in Flanders he settled at Louvain, where he lived for forty years. A great and valuable work to which he contributed was the publication, in 1583, by Father John Gibbons, S.J., of the various accounts of the per- secution, under the title " Concertatio Ecclesia? Cath- olics in Anglia", which was the groundwork of the in- valuable larger collection published by Bridgewater under the same name in 1588. He also collected from old English sources some spiritual treatises for the Brigettine nuns of Syon. In 1609, when the English Augustinian Canonesses founded St. Monica's Priory at Louvain, he became their first chaplain until in 1611 when his sight failed. Even then he continued to live in the priory and the nuns tended him till his death. Besides his " Vit;e quorundam Martyrum in .Anglia", included in the " Concertatio ' ', he translated into Latin Blessed John Fisher's "Treatise on the penitential Psalms" (1597) and two of his sermons; he also pub- lished English versions of the Catechism of the Council of Trent, Osorio's reply to Haddon's attack on his letter to Queen Elizabeth (1568), Guerra's "Treatise of Tribulation", an Italian life of St. Catherine of Sienna (1609; 1867). and Loarte's "Instructions How to Meditate the Misteries of the Rosarie".


Pits, De lllustribus Anglia: Sertptoribus (Paris, 1623); DoDD, Churck History (Brussels. 1737-42), 1, 510; Wood. ed. Bmsa. .4(Aena! Oxonienses. II; GiLLOw, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.; Cooper in Diet. j\'at. Biuij., a. v.; Hamilton, Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses of St. Monica's, Louvain (London, 1904).

EDW^N Burton. Fenwick, Benedict. See Boston, Diocese of. Fenwick, Edward. See Cincinn.4.ti, Diocese of.

Ferber, Nicoi,.\rs, Friar Minor and controversial- ist, b. at Ilerborn, Germany, in 14S5; d. at Toulouse, 15 April, 1534. lie was matle provincial of the Fran- ciscan province of Cologne and was honoured by Clem- ent VII with the office of vicar-general of that branch of the order known as the Cismontane Observance, in which capacity he visited the various pro\'inces of the order in England, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. At the instance of the bishops of Denmark, he was called to Copenhagen to champion the Catholic cause against Danish Lutheranism, and there he composed, in 1530, the "Confutatio Lutheranismi Danici ", first edited by L. Schmitt, S.J., and publi-shed at Quaracchi (1902), which earned for him the sobriquet of StagefjT (fire- brand) . Ferber's principal work is entitled : " Locorum communium ad versus hujus temporis hoereses En- chiridion", pubUshed at Cologne in 152S, with addi- tions in 1529. Besides this he wrote "Assertiones CCCXXV ad versus Fr. Lamberti paradoxa impia " etc. (Cologne, 1526, and Paris, 1534); and " Enarrationes latinae Evangeliorum quadragesimalium ", preached in German and published in Latin (Antwerp, 1533).

Schmitt, Der Kolner Theolog Nicolaus Stagefyr und der Franziskaner Nienlaus Herborn (Freiburg, 1896); Hurter, Nomenrlator (Innsbruelc. 1006), II. 1255-56; Sb.vr.al.ea, Sup- plementum ail seriptores Ordinis Minorum, 556.

Stephen M. DoNov.v^f.

Ferdinand, Blessed, Prince of Portugal, b. in Portugal, 29 September, 1402; d. at Fez, in Morocco, 5 June, 1443. He w,as one of five sons, his mother be- ing Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan- caster, and his father King John I, known in liistory for his victories over the Moors and in particular for his conquest of Ceuta, a powerful Moorisli stronghold, and his establishment of an episcopal see within its walls. In early life Ferdinand suffered much from sickness, but bodily weakness did not hinder his growth in spirit, and even in his boyhood and youth he gave evidence of remarkable qualities of soul and intellect. With great strength of character and a keen sense of justice and order he combined an innocence, gentleness, and charity which excited the wonder of the royal court. He had a special predilection for prayer and for the ceremonies and devotions of the Church. After his fourteenth year he recited daily the canonical hours, rising at midnight for Matins. Always severe with himself, he was abstemious in his diet and fasted on Saturdays and on the eves of the feasts of the Church. He cared for the spiritual as well as the corporal necessities of his tloniestics, while his solicitude for the poor and oppres.sed was unbounded. His generosity towarils the monasteries was impelled by his desire to share in their prayers and good works. He had him- self enrolled for the same reason in all the pious con- gregations of the kingdom.

Upon the death of his father in 1433, his brother Edward (Duarte) ascended the throne, while he him- self received but a small inheritance. It was then that he was induced to accept the grand-mastership of Aviz, in order that he might be better able to help the poor. As he was not a cleric, his brother, the king, ob- tained for him the necessary papal dispensation. The fame of his charity went abroad, and Pope Eugene IV, through the papal legate, offered him the cardinal's hat. This he refused, not vrishing, as he declared, to burden his conscience.

Though living a life of great .sanctity in the midst of the court, Ferdinand was not a mere recluse. He was