FELIX. 515 FELIX OF VALOIS. Roman churches. The contemporary occupant of the See of Constantinople, Acacius, as well as the Imperial Court, were favorers of the Monophysite Party, who refused to accept the decision of tlie Council of Chalcedon. (Sec Monophysitbs.) By their influence the Patriarch of Alexandria was deposed and replaced by the Monophysite Peter Mongus. The deposed Patriarch having appealed to Rome, Felix sent two legates to Con- stantinople to require his restoration; and the legates having failed in their trust, and Acacius stall adhering to the heterodox party, Felix assem- bled a council at Rome, and excommunicated not only the offending legates, hut also Acacius, the sentence being pinned by a monk upon the back of the Patriarch's robe while he was actually offi- ciating in the church. Felix had previously re- jected the Henoticon, or decree of union, pub- lished by the Emperor Zeno in 482. The schism thus inaugurated (484) was not healed till the year 519. The only literary remains of this pon- tiff are the letters and other acts of this contro- versy. He is a saint in the Roman calendar, and his day is February 25th. — Felix IV. (Pope 526- 530). He was a native of Benevento. His pon- tificate presents no noteworthy event. He is also a saint in the Roman Calendar, and his day is January 30th. — Felix V. (Antipope from 1439 to 1449). He was Amadeus VIII.. Duke of Savoy. He was born in 1383, and succeeded his father, Amadeus VII., as Count of Savoy in 1391. In 1416 Savoy was erected into a duchy. As a ruler Amadeus was mild, just, and successful, and distinguished for his piety. In 1434 he re- signed the rule to his son, and retired to the hermitage of Ripaille, on the south bank of Lake Geneva. There he and some companions lived as hermits. He was nominated in the Council of Basel to succeed Eugenius IV. (q.v.) in 1439, and elected on the fifth ballot, although it was ob- jected to him that he had been married and had children, and that he was not an ecclesiastic, and had no knowledge of theology or other fitness for the position. His election was not well received, and he so conspicuously failed to get recognition as Pope from the princes of Europe that he volun- tarily resigned after a schismatical reign of ten years. He was then rewarded by being made Cardinal-Bishop of Basel. Lausanne. Constance, and Strassburg, and also Papal Vicar-General for all the States ruled by the House of Savoy. He died January 7, 1451. FELIX, Antonius. Roman Procurator of Judea in the time of the Apostle Paul. He was a younger brother of Pallas, the favorite of the Emperor Claudius, and, like his brother, evi- dently a freedman of Antonia, the mother of Claudius. Because of this fact, perhaps, he received the honor, unusual for freedmen, of mili- tary command, as well as civic office, and was thrice married into royal connections. He suc- ceeded Cumanus as Procurator of Judea in a.d. 52, and probably held the position till 58, al- though the latter date is disputed. His rule was marked by ceaseless disturbances and revolts, against which he acted with a severity that final- ly resulted in his recall to Rome. Most noted among the uprisings was that of the Zealots, bis oppression of whom gave rise, or at least new im- pulse, to the fanatical Sicarii. (See Zealot.) The disturbance which occasioned his removal from office was the riot between the Jewish and Syrian inhabitants of Csesarea, regarding the 'quality of their political privileges, in the quelling of which Felix being unsuccee ml. the con ideration oi the case was removed to Rome, and Felix i n called before a decision was given. (See I I pi b.) It. was to Felix that Claudius l.y-ias, for rea- -oii, nf safety, sent I'aul from Jerusalem after his arrest, in that city ( A.D. 56), and it ua be fore this procurator that the Apostle's lii-t hear ings were held. From these no decision was reached. Paul was remanded to prison, where he was kept, though under lenient, regulations, through the remaining two years of Felix's term of service, his trial never being completed. There, also, for the sake of pleasing the Jews, with whom his relations were at that time specially strained. Paul was left by the procura- tor on his return to Rome. (Acts xxiii. 23-xxiv. 27.) See Paul. FELIX, Don. The jealous lover of Violante, the 'secret-keeper,' in Mrs. Centlivre's comedy The Wonder. The role was a favorite one with Garrick. FELIX, Elise Rachel. See Rachel, Mlle. FELIX, fa'leks', Eugen ( 1836 — ) . An Austrian painter, horn in Vienna. He was a pupil them i t Waldmiiller, then of Cogniet in Paris, and estab lished his studio in Vienna. His works include "The First Friend," "Interior of a Studio," "Pan and the Bacchantes," and some excellent por- traits, notably those of Rubinstein and Duke Philip of Wilrttemberg. FE'LIX, Mabcus Minucitjs. A 1! an lawyer and Christian, author of Octavius, a dialogue in defense of Christianity, probably the oldest Chris- tian work extant in the Latin tongue. Nothing is known of the author. The date of the book is put about 100. It is in Migne, Patrologia Latina, iii., and in English translation in the Ante- Nicene Fathers, vol. iv. (Buffalo, 1889). FELIX, Saint, or, Felix the Martyr. A Christian missionary of the third century. He and Regula, his sister and fellow-sufferer in mar- tyrdom, are said to have been the first preachers of the Gospel at Zurich, Switzerland. They have been the subjects of numerous and often conflict- ing legends, according to which they were execut- ed by the Governor Decius at the order of the tyrant Maximian. Previous to the Reforma- tion they were venerated as the patrons of the city, on whose seal they continue to occupy a place. Their day is September 11th. Consult MUtheilangen der antiquarischen Oesellschaft
- i< Zurich, vols. i. and ii. (1841).
FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL. A well- known novel by George Eliot (1866). FELIX1ANS. A Spanish sect of the latter part of the eighth century, so called from Felix, Bishop of Urgel. See Adoptian Controversy. FE'LIXMAR'TE OF HYRCANIA, her-ka/- nl-a. An old Spanish romance, chiefly notable as being among the works with which Don Quixote fostered his idealism before setting forth upon his adventures. The title-character is a valiant knight who slays many giants. FELIX OF VALOIS. va'lwa' (1127-1212). A co-founder of the Trinitarians (q.v.). He gave his goods to be sold for the poor, and retired to a hermitage near Meaux. In 1198. accompanied by Saint Jean of -Uatha. he obtained from Pope Inno-
