FORMOSUS, the successor of Stephen V. (or VI.), as pope, first appears in history when, as bishop of Porto, he was sent on an embassy to the Bulgarians. Having afterwards sided with the German faction against John VIII. he was excommunicated, and compelled to take an oath never to return to Rome, or again to assume his priestly functions. From, this oath he was, however, absolved by Martin II. , the successor of John VIII., and restored to his dignities; and on the death of Stephen V. in 891 he was chosen pope. The Italian faction had chosen Sergius, and the election of Formosus, which was in opposition to an old rule against the translation of bishops from one see to another, had to be confirmed by recourse to violence, but was rendered secure for a time by the success of the arms of Arnulf of Germany. After the withdrawal of Arnulf, Formosus was compelled to grant the imperial crown to Lambert, son of Guido of Italy, but this act did not pacify the Italian faction, and Formosus was only released from very hard straits by the arrival of Arnulf, who captured the city in the end of 895. In the following year Arnulf was crowned emperor by Formosus, but before the death of the latter in May, the excesses of Arnulf and his soldiers had begun to create a strong opposition to the German power amongst all parties in Italy. By Stephen VI. the body of Formosus was disinterred, and treated with contumely as that of a usurper of the papal throne; but Theodoras II. restored it to Christian burial, and at a council presided over by John IX. the pontificate of Fermosus was declared valid and all his acts confirmed.
FORRES. See Elgin, vol. viii. p. 130.
FORSKAL, Peter (1736–1763), a celebrated Oriental traveller and naturalist, was born in Sweden in 1736. He studied at Göttingen, where he published a dissertation entitled Dubia de Principiis Philosophiæ Recentioris, which gained him some reputation. Thence he returned to his native country; but in 1759 he alienated the good-will of the Government by the publication of a pamphlet entitled Pensées sur la Liberté Civile. His acquaintance with natural history, however, had gained him the friend ship of Linnæus, who recommended him to Frederick V. of Denmark. From that sovereign he obtained the title of professor at Copenhagen, and Frederick also appointed him to accompany Carsten Niebuhr in an expedition to investigate Arabia and Egypt. He died of the plague at Jerim in Arabia, July 11, 1763. His friend and companion Niebuhr was entrusted with the care of editing his MSS., and published in 1775 Descriptiones Animalium, Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium, quæ in itin. Orient. observavit Petrus Forskal. In the same year appeared also an account of the plants of Arabia Felix and of Lower Egypt, under the title of Ægyptiaco-Arabica, which is important as containing the first discussion of the relation of vegetation to climate.
FORST, originally Forsta or Forste, a town of Brandenburg, Prussia, circle of Sorau, is situated on the Neisse, 44 miles S.E. of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Its principal industries are tanning and the manufacture of woollen cloth; and it has also a considerable cattle trade. Near the town are the ruins of an old castle. Forst was founded in the 13th century, and was burned down by the Hussites in 1430. From 1667 it belonged to the dukes of Sachsen-Merseburg, from 1740 to the palatinate of Saxony, and from 1815 to Prussia. Population in 1875 (including Altforst, united to it in 1874), 14,148.
FORSTER, François (1790–1872), a French engraver, was born at Locle in Neufchâtel, 22d August 1790. In 1805 he was apprenticed to an engraver in Paris, and he also studied painting and engraving simultaneously in the École des Beaux Arts. His preference was ultimately fixed on the latter art, and on his obtaining in 1814 the first “grand prix de gravure,” the king of Prussia, who was then with the allies in Paris, bestowed on him a gold medal, and a pension of 1500 francs for two years. With the aid of this sum he pursued his studies in Rome, where his attention was devoted chiefly to the works of Raphael. In 1844 he succeeded Tardieu in the Academy. He died at Paris, 27th June 1872. Forster occupied the first position among the French engravers of his time, and was equally successful in historical pieces and in portraits.
Among his works may be mentioned—The Three Graces, and La Vierge de la legende, after Raphael; La Vierge au bas-relief, after Leonardo da Vinci; Francis I. and Charles V. , after Gros; St Cecilia, after Paul Delaroche; Albert Dürer and Henry IV., after Porbus; Wellington, after Gérard; and Queen Victoria, after Winterhalter.
FÖRSTER, Friedrich (1791—1868), a German historian, brother of Ernst Joachim Förster the painter, was born at Münchengrosserstädt on the Saale, September 24, 1791. After receiving his early education in the gymnasium at Altenburg, he studied theology at Jena, but subsequently devoted his attention for a time chiefly to archæology and the history of art. On the uprising of Prussia against France in 1813 he joined the army, where he soon attained the rank of captain. At the close of the war he was appointed professor at the school of engineering and artillery in Berlin, but on account of certain democratic writings he was dismissed from that office in 1817. He then became connected with various literary journals, and in 1830 undertook with his brother an art tour in Italy. Shortly after his return he received an appointment at the royal museum of Berlin, with the title of court councillor. Förster was the founder and secretary of the Wissenschaftlichen Kunstverein (scientific art union) of Berlin. He died at Berlin, 8th November 1868.
The following are his principal works:—Der Feldmarschall Blücher und seine Umgebungen, Leipsic, 1821; Friedrich’s d. Gr. Jugendjahre, Bildung, und Geist, Berlin, 1822; Albrecht von Wallenstein, Potsdam, 1834; Wallenstein’s Process, Leipsic, 1844; Geschichte Friedrich Wilhelms I., Königs von Preussen, 3 vols., Potsdam, 1834–35; and Die Höfe und Cabincte Europas im 18ten Jahrh., 3 vols., Potsdam, 1836–39. He also wrote a number of popular historical works, the principal of which are Neuere und neueste preuss. Geschichte, and Geschichte der Befreiungskriege, 1813, 1814, and 1815, both of which have reached several editions; and besides editing an edition of Hegel’s works, and adapting several of Shakespeare’s and other dramatists’ plays for the theatre, he is the author of a number of poems, which were collected and published at Berlin 1838, and of a historical drama, Gustav Adolf, 1832. The beginning of an autobiography of Förster was published at Berlin in 1873, under the title Kunst und Leben.
eminent German naturalist and writer on scientific subjects, was born at Nassenhuben, a small village near Dantzic, in November 1754. His father, Johann Reinhold Forster, a man of great scientific attainments but an intractable temper, was at that time pastor of the place; the family are said to have been of Scotch extraction. In 1765 the elder Forster was commissioned by the empress Catherine to inspect the Russian colonies in the province of Saratov, which gave his son an opportunity of acquiring the Russian language and the elements of a scientific education.
After a few years the father quarrelled with the Russian