FULCHER (or Foucher) OF CHARTRES (1058–c. 1130), French chronicler, was a priest who was present at the council of Clermont in 1095, and accompanied Robert II., duke of Normandy, on the first crusade in 1096. Having spent some time in Italy and taken part in the fighting on the way to the Holy Land, he became chaplain to Baldwin, who was chosen king of Jerusalem in 1100, and lived with Baldwin at Edessa and then at Jerusalem. He accompanied this king on several warlike expeditions, but won more lasting fame by writing his Historia Hierosolymitana or Gesta Francorum Jerusalem expugnantium, one of the most trustworthy sources for the history of the first crusade. In its final form it is divided into three books, and covers the period between the council of Clermont and 1127, and the author only gives details of events which he himself had witnessed. It was used by William of Tyre. Fulcher died after 1127, probably at Jerusalem. He has been confused with Foucher of Mongervillier (d. 1171), abbot of St-Père-en-Vallée at Chartres, and also with another person of the same name who distinguished himself at the siege of Antioch in 1098.
The Historia, but in an incomplete form, was first published by J. Bongars in the Gesta Dei per Francos (Hanover, 1611). The best edition is in tome iii. of the Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens occidentaux (Paris, 1866); and there is a French translation in tome xxiv. of Guizot’s Collection des mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France (Paris, 1823–1835).
See H. von Sybel, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges (Leipzig, 1881); and A. Molinier, Les Sources de l’histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1902).
FULDA, a town and episcopal see of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Hesse-Nassau, between the Rhön and the Vogel-Gebirge,
69 m. N.E. from Frankfort-on-Main on the railway
to Bebra. Although irregularly built the town is pleasantly
situated, and contains two fine squares, on one of which stands a
fine statue of St Boniface. The present cathedral was built
at the beginning of the 18th century on the model of St Peter’s
at Rome, but it has an ancient crypt, which contains the bones
of St Boniface and was restored in 1892. Opposite the cathedral
is the former monastery of St Michael, now the episcopal palace.
The Michaelskirche, attached to it, is a small round church built,
in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre, in 822 and restored in 1853.
Of other buildings may be mentioned the Library, with upwards
of 80,000 printed books and many valuable MSS., the stately
palace with its gardens and orangery, the former Benedictine
nunnery (founded 1625, and now used as a seminary), and the
Minorite friary (1238) now used as a furniture warehouse. Among
the secular buildings are the fine Schloss, the Bibliothek, the
town hall and the post office. There are several schools, a hospital
founded in the 13th century, and some new artillery barracks.
Many industries are carried on in Fulda. These include weaving
and dyeing, the manufacture of linen, plush and other textiles
and brewing. There are also railway works in the town. A
large trade is done in cattle and grain, many markets being held
here. Fine views are obtained from several hills in the neighbourhood,
among these being the Frauenberg, the Petersberg and
the Kalvarienberg.
Fulda owes its existence to its famous abbey. It became a town in 1208, and during the middle ages there were many struggles between the abbots and the townsfolk. During the Peasants’ War it was captured by the rebels and during the Seven Years’ War by the Hanoverians. It came finally into the possession of Prussia in 1866. From 1734 to 1804 Fulda was the seat of a university, and latterly many assemblies of German bishops have been held in the town.
The great Benedictine abbey of Fulda occupies the place in the ecclesiastical history of Germany which Monte Cassino holds in Italy, St Gall in South Germany, Corvey in Saxony, Tours in France and Iona in Scotland. Founded in 744 at the instigation of St Boniface by his pupil Sturm, who was the first abbot, it became the centre of a great missionary work. It was liberally endowed with land by the princes of the Carolingian house and others, and soon became one of the most famous and wealthy establishments of its kind. About 968 the pope declared that its abbot was primate of all the abbots in Germany and Gaul, and later he became a prince of the Empire. Fulda was specially famous for its school, which was the centre of the theological learning of the early middle ages. Among the teachers here were Alcuin, Hrabanus Maurus, who was abbot from 822 to 842, and Walafrid Strabo. Early in the 10th century the monastery was reformed by introducing monks from Scotland, who were responsible for restoring in its old strictness the Benedictine rule. Later the abbey lost some of its lands and also its high position, and some time before the Reformation the days of its glory were over. Johann von Henneberg, who was abbot from 1529 to 1541, showed some sympathy with the teaching of the reformers, but the Counter-Reformation made great progress here under Abbot Balthasar von Dernbach. Gustavus Adolphus gave the abbey as a principality to William, landgrave of Hesse, but William’s rule only lasted for ten years. In 1752 the abbot was raised to the rank of a bishop, and Fulda ranked as a prince-bishopric. This was secularized in 1802, and in quick succession it belonged to the prince of Orange, the king of France and the grand-duchy of Frankfort. In 1816 the greater part of the principality was ceded by Prussia to Hesse-Cassel, a smaller portion being united with Bavaria. Sharing the fate of Hesse-Cassel, this larger portion was annexed by Prussia in 1866. In 1829 a new bishopric was founded at Fulda.
For the town see A. Hartmann, Zeitgeschichte von Fulda (Fulda, 1895); J. Schneider, Führer durch die Stadt Fulda (Fulda, 1899); and Chronik von Fulda und dessen Umgebungen (1839). For the history of the abbey see Gegenbaur, Das Kloster Fulda im Karolinger Zeitalter (Fulda, 1871–1874); Arndt, Geschichte des Hochstifts Fulda (Fulda, 1860); and the Fuldaer Geschichtsblätter (1902 fol.).
FULGENTIUS, FABIUS PLANCIADES, Latin grammarian, a native of Africa, flourished in the first half of the 6th (or the last part of the 5th) century A.D. He is to be distinguished from Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe (468–533), to whom he was probably related, and also from the bishop’s pupil and biographer, Fulgentius Ferrandus. Four extant works are attributed to him. (1) Mythologiarum libri iii., dedicated to a certain Catus, a presbyter of Carthage, containing 75 myths briefly told, and then explained in the mystical and allegorical manner of the Stoics and Neoplatonists. For this purpose the author generally invokes the aid of etymologies which, borrowed from the philosophers, are highly absurd. As a Christian, Fulgentius sometimes (but less frequently than might have been expected) quotes the Bible by the side of the philosophers, to give a Christian colouring to the moral lesson. (2) Expositio Vergilianae continentiae (continentia＝contents), a sort of appendix to (1), dedicated to Catus. The poet himself appears to the author and explains the twelve books of the Aeneid as a picture of human life. The three words arma (＝virtus), vir (＝sapientia), primus (＝princeps) in the first line represent respectively substantia corporalis, sensualis, ornans. Book i. symbolizes the birth and early childhood of man (the shipwreck of Aeneas denotes the peril of birth), book vi. the plunge into the depths of wisdom. (3) Expositio sermonum antiquorum, explanations of 63 rare and obsolete words, supported by quotations (sometimes from authors and works that never existed). It is much inferior to the similar work of Nonius, with which it is often edited. (4) Liber absque litteris de aetatibus mundi et hominis. In the MS. heading of this work, the name of the author is given as Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius (Claudius is the name of the father, and Gordianus that of the grandfather of the bishop, to whom some attribute the work). The title Absque litteris indicates that one letter of the alphabet is wholly omitted in each successive book (A in bk. i., B in bk. ii.). Only 14 books are preserved. The matter is chiefly taken from sacred history. In addition to these, Fulgentius speaks of early poetical attempts after the manner of Anacreon, and of a work called Physiologus, dealing with medical questions, and including a discussion of the mystical signification of the numbers 7 and 9. Fulgentius is a representative of the so-called late African style, taking for his models Apuleius, Tertullian and Martianus Capella. His language is bombastic, affected and incorrect, while the lengthy and elaborate periods make it difficult to understand his meaning.
