and to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1835 he obtained a scholarship at University College; and in 1836 he gained the Newdigate prize for a poem on “The Knights of St John,” which elicited special praise from Keble. Among his college friends were Dean Stanley and Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of Selborne. In January 1837 he was elected fellow of University College. Meanwhile he had given up the Calvinistic views of his youth, and had become an enthusiastic follower of John Henry Newman. In 1841 a travelling tutorship took him to the continent; and on his return a book appeared called Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples (London, 1842), with a dedication to his friend the poet Wordsworth. He accepted the rectory of Elton in Huntingdonshire, but soon after went again to the continent, in order to study the methods of the Roman Catholic Church; and after a prolonged mental struggle he joined the Roman Catholic communion in November 1845. He founded a religious community at Birmingham, called Wilfridians, which was ultimately merged in the oratory of St Philip Neri, with John Henry Newman as Superior. In 1849 a branch of the oratory—subsequently independent—was established in London, first in King William Street, and afterwards at Brompton, over which Faber presided till his death on the 26th of September 1863. In spite of his weak health, an almost incredible amount of work was crowded into those years. He published a number of theological works, and edited the Oratorian Lives of the Saints. He was an eloquent preacher, and a man of great charm of character. It is mainly as a hymn-writer, however, that Faber is remembered. Among his best-known hymns are:—“The Greatness of God,” “The Will of God,” “The Eternal Father,” “The God of my Childhood,” “Jesus is God,” “The Pilgrims of the Night,” “The Land beyond the Sea,” “Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go,” “I was wandering and weary,” and “The Shadow of the Rock.” The hymns are largely used in Protestant collections. In addition to many pamphlets and translations, Faber published the following works: All for Jesus; The Precious Blood; Bethlehem; The Blessed Sacrament; The Creator and the Creature; Growth of Holiness; Spiritual Conferences; The Foot of the Cross (8 vols., London, 1853–1860).
See his Life and Letters, by Father J. E. Bowden (London, 1869), and A Brief Sketch of the Early Life of the late F. W. Faber, D.D., by his brother the Rev. F. A. Faber (London, 1869).
FABER, Fabri or Fabry (surnamed Stapulensis), JACOBUS [Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples] (c. 1455–c. 1536), a pioneer of the
Protestant movement in France, was born of humble parents at
Étaples, in Pas de Calais, Picardy, about 1455. He appears to
have been possessed of considerable means. He had already been
ordained priest when he entered the university of Paris for higher
education. Hermonymus of Sparta was his master in Greek.
He visited Italy before 1486, for he heard the lectures of Argyropulus,
who died in that year; he formed a friendship with
Paulus Aemilius of Verona. In 1492 he again travelled in Italy,
studying in Florence, Rome and Venice, making himself familiar
with the writings of Aristotle, though greatly influenced by the
Platonic philosophy. Returning to Paris, he became professor in
the college of Cardinal Lemoine. Among his famous pupils were
F. W. Vatable and Farel; his connexion with the latter drew him
to the Calvinistic side of the movement of reform. At this time he
began the publication, with critical apparatus, of Boëtius (De
Arithmetica), and Aristotle’s Physics (1492), Ethics (1497), Metaphysics
(1501) and Politics (1506). In 1507 he took up his
residence in the Benedictine Abbey of St Germain des Prés, near
Paris; this was due to his connexion with the family of Briçonnet
(one of whom was the superior), especially with William Briçonnet, cardinal bishop of St Malo (Meaux). He now began to
give himself to Biblical studies, the first-fruit of which was his
Quintuplex Psalterium: Gallicum, Romanum, Hebraicum, Vetus,
Conciliatum (1509); the Conciliatum was his own version. This
was followed by S. Pauli Epistolae xiv. ex vulgata editione, adjecta
intelligentia ex Graeco cum commentariis (1512), a work of great
independence and judgment. His De Maria Magdalena et
triduo Christi disceptatio (1517) provoked violent controversy
and was condemned by the Sorbonne (1521). He had left Paris
during the whole of 1520, and, removing to Meaux, was appointed
(May 1, 1523) vicar-general to Bishop Briçonnet, and published
his French version of the New Testament (1523). This (contemporary
with Luther’s German version) has been the basis of
all subsequent translations into French. From this, in the same
year, he extracted the versions of the Gospels and Epistles “à l’usage du diocèse de Meaux.” The prefaces and notes to both
these expressed the view that Holy Scripture is the only rule of
doctrine, and that justification is by faith alone. He incurred
much hostility, but was protected by Francis I. and the princess
Margaret. Francis being in captivity after the battle of Pavia
(February 25, 1525), Faber was condemned and his works suppressed
by commission of the parlement; these measures were
quashed on the return of Francis some months later. He issued
Le Psautier de David (1525), and was appointed royal librarian at
Blois (1526); his version of the Pentateuch appeared two years
later. His complete version of the Bible (1530), on the basis of
Jerome, took the same place as his version of the New Testament.
Margaret (now queen of Navarre) led him to take refuge (1531) at Nérac from persecution. He is said to have been visited (1533) by Calvin on his flight from France. He died in 1536 or 1537.
See C. H. Graf, Essai sur la vie et les écrits (1842); G. Bonet-Maury, in A. Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1898). (A. Go.*)
FABER (or Lefèvre), JOHANN (1478–1541), German theologian,
styled from the title of one of his works “Malleus
Haereticorum,” son of one Heigerlin, a smith (faber), was born
at Leutkirch, in Swabia, in 1478. His early life is obscure; the
tradition that he joined the Dominicans is untenable. He studied
theology and canon law at Tübingen and at Freiburg im Breisgau,
where he matriculated on the 26th of July 1509, and graduated
M.A. and doctor of canon law. He was soon appointed vicar
of Lindau and Leutkirch, and shortly afterwards canon of Basel.
In 1518 Hugo von Landenberg, bishop of Constance, made him
one of his vicars-general, and Pope Leo X. appointed him papal
protonotary. He was an advocate of reforms, in sympathy with
Erasmus, and corresponded (1519–1520) with Zwingli. While
he defended Luther against Eck, he was as little inclined to adopt
the position of Luther as of Carlstadt. His journey to Rome
in the autumn of 1521 had the result of estranging him from the
views of the Protestant leaders. He published Opus adversus
nova quaedam dogmata Lutheri (1522), and appeared as a disputant
against Zwingli at Zürich (1523). Then followed his Malleus in
haeresin Lutheranam (1524). Among his efforts to stem the tide
of Protestant innovation was the establishment of a training-house
for the maintenance and instruction of popular preachers,
drawn from the lower ranks, to compete with the orators of reform.
In 1526 he became court preacher to the emperor Ferdinand, and
in 1527 and 1528 was sent by him as envoy to Spain and England.
He approved the death by burning of Balthasar Hubmeier, the
Baptist, at Vienna on the 10th of March 1528. In 1531 he was
consecrated bishop of Vienna, and combined with this (till 1538)
the administration of the diocese of Neustadt. He died at Vienna
on the 21st of May 1541. His works were collected in three volumes, 1537, 1539 and 1541.
See C. E. Kettner, Diss. de J. Fabri Vita Scriptisque (1737); Wagenmann and Egli in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1898). (A. Go.*)
FABERT, ABRAHAM DE (1599–1660), marshal of France,
was the son of Abraham Fabert, seigneur de Moulins (d. 1638),
a famous printer who rendered great services, civil and military,
to Henry IV. At the age of fourteen he entered the Gardes
françaises, and in 1618 received a commission in the Piedmont
regiment, becoming major in 1627. He distinguished himself
repeatedly in the constant wars of the period, notably in La
Rochelle and at the siege of Exilles in 1630. His bravery and
engineering skill were again displayed in the sieges of Avesnes and
Maubeuge in 1637, and in 1642 Louis XIII. made him governor
of the recently-acquired fortress of Sedan. In 1651 he became
lieutenant-general, and in 1654 at the siege of Stenay he introduced
new methods of siegecraft which anticipated in a measure
the great improvements of Vauban. In 1658 Fabert was made
a marshal of France, being the first commoner to attain that rank.
He died at Sedan on the 17th of May 1660.