Firouzabad, a town near Shiraz, and after studying some time in the latter city, under a celebrated doctor called Al Beidahovi, went to Bassora, where he attended the lectures of another famous doctor called Al Gioudi. From Bassora he repaired to Bagdat, at that time the imperial city and residence of the caliphs, where he placed himself under the instructions of the learned Abou Thib al Thabari. Having ably profited by the lessons of those celebrated masters, he professed himself a disciple of the sect of Schafei, and was invited by the illustrious Nezam Molk, grand-vizier of Malec Schah, to undertake the direction of the since famous college which had just been erected at his expence. At first he declined that honourable station; but was afterwards prevailed upon to accept of it, and discharged its duties with eminent reputation until his death, which took place in the year of the Hegira 476, or 1083 of the christian æra, when he was in the eighty-second year of his age. His disciples went into general mourning for his death, and the college over which he had presided was ordered to be shut up for a whole year, in testimony of the public sorrow for the loss of so great a man. He was the author of a work which is highly esteemed by the Mahometans, entitled, "Al Tanbih," or, " General Information," in which he treats of the principal rites and observances of the mussulman law. Abulfadl Ahmed has written a commentary upon it, entitled, "Scharh al Tanbih." D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient.-M.

FIROUZABADI, MAGDEDDIN ABOU THALER MOHAMMED BEN JACOB, who, like the preceding, is sometimes surnamed SHIRAZI, a learned Oriental lexicographer, was also a native of Firouzabad, where he was born in the year of the Hegira 729, or 1328 according to the christian computation. He was highly esteemed for his erudition by the greatest kings and princes of his time, particularly by Ben Abbas, prince of Yemen, the mighty Tamerlane, and Bajazet, first emperor of the Turks, who at different times made him many valuable presents. He was the author of a celebrated and excellent dictionary of the Arabic language, entitled "Camus," or, "The Ocean;" of which many learned moderns have greatly availed themselves, particularly Bochart, in composing his "Hierozoicon." The author drew up his work, at first, in no less than sixty volumes; but alarmed at its magnitude, by omitting the immense number of authorities and quotations which he had amassed, he reduced it within the compass

of two volumes. For an account of the lexicographers who have made additions to it, &c. we must refer to D'Herbelot. Magdeddin was also the author of a work entitled "Ahassan al Lathaif," which is a collection of pleasantries and witty sayings; and of another work entitled "Assaad bel Assâad âla deregiat al egtehad," or, "The Means of being Happy as far as it is possible to be so." He died in the 817th year of the Hegira, or 1414th of the christian era. D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient. Moreri.-M.

FISEN, BARTHOLOMEW, a Jesuit, was born in the city of Liege, in the year 1591. He was successively rector of the colleges belonging to his order at Hesdin, Dinant, Lisle, and other places, and died in the last-mentioned city, in the year 1649. He was intimately conversant in ecclesiastical antiquities, and published some works abounding in learned and curious researches. Among others, he was the author of "De Prima Origine Festi Corporis Christi, &c." 1628, octavo; "Paradoxum Christianum, Neminem lædi nisi a Seipso," 1640, octavo; "Historia Ecclesiæ Leodiensis," 1696, folio; "Vita Sancti Trudonis, Hasbaniæ Apostoli ;" "Flores Ecclesiæ Leodensis, &c." 1647, folio; Moreri.-M.

FISHER, JOHN, a learned and worthy English catholic prelate in the sixteenth century, who fell a martyr to his zeal for popery, was born at Beverly in Yorkshire, in the year 1459. His father dying when he was very young, he was placed by his mother under the instructions of a priest of the collegiate church in his native town, from whom he received that knowledge of grammar-learning which qualified him for the university. In the year 1414 he was entered at Michael-house, now incorporated into Trinity-college, in the university of Cambridge, where he took his degrees in arts in the years 1488 and 1491. After being elected a fellow of his house, he was appointed one of the proctors of the university in the year 1495. In the same year he was chosen master of Michael-house, and entered into holy orders. As a divine, he soon acquired distinguished reputation; and, on account of his learning and eminent worth, he was in a short time made vice-chancellor of the university. That office he held for two years, when the fame of his great learning, piety, and virtue, having reached the ears of Margaret countess of Richmond, the king's mother, she chose him for her chaplain and confessor. His conduct and behaviour in that situation so entirely. gained him the approbation, confidence, and esteem of the pious countess, that she commit

ted herself and family to his government and direction. By his advice she was induced to establish divinity professorships at Oxford and Cambridge, and to found Christ's and St. John's colleges in the latter university. In the year 1501 Fisher was admitted to the degree of doctor in divinity, after having gone through his public exercises for that purpose with great applause. In the following year he was appointed, by charter, the lady Margaret's first divinity professor in Cambridge; and in the year 1504 was unexpectedly raised to the see of Rochester, chiefly in consequence of the favourable idea which the king had been led to entertain of his character, from the frequent recommendation and honourable mention made of him by Dr. Fox, bishop of Winchester. Afterwards he was offered to be translated to more valuable bishoprics, particularly those of Lincoln and Ely; but he declined the exchange upon the most disinterested and noble principles. For he used to call his church his wife, and would sometimes say, in the latter part of his life, that he would not change his little old wife, to whom he had been so long wedded, for a wealthier. "Though others," said he, "have larger revenues, I have fewer souls under my care; so that when I shall have to give an account of both, which must be very soon, I would not desire my condition to have been better than it is." In the same year in which Dr. Fisher was advanced to the episcopal dignity, he was chosen chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and retained that high office for many years, during which he was a zealous promoter of discipline and good morals among the students, and a liberal encourager of literature and learned men. At the time when the last-mentioned honour was conferred upon him, he was at Cambridge, superintending the building and foundation of Christ's college; and, as he was not provided with a convenient lodging, he was in the year 1505 elected to the vacant presidentship of Queen's college, which he thankfully accepted, and kept for about three years. In the year 1506 he had completed the foundation of Christ's-college, and was appointed in the statutes visitor for life, after the death of the magnificent foundress. His attention was in the next place paid to the establishment of St. John's-college, but the countess of Richmond dying before that institution was in a state of forwardness, the care of completing it devolved on her executors, of whom the bishop was the most active, and indeed the principal agent. In 1512 he was appointed to attend the council of Lateran,

at Rome; but though he made preparations for his journey, circumstances took place, with which we are not made acquainted, that prevented him from undertaking it. St. John'scollege being finished in 1516, he went to Cambridge, and opened it with due solemnity, and was also commissioned to draw up a body of statutes for it. Afterwards he proved a considerable benefactor to that seminary. While bishop Fisher retained his headship of Queen's-college, he invited Erasmus to Cambridge, and was the means of the appointment of that illustrious character to lady Margaret's professorship of divinity, and afterwards to the Greek professor's chair. Through his persua sion and entreaty, likewise, Dr. Richard Croke came and settled at Cambridge, where he was the first Greek professor after Erasmus. When Luther commenced his manly opposition to the corruptions and errors of popery, bishop Fisher was one of the first who in this country entered the lists against him. He not only endeavoured to prevent the propagation of lutheranism in his own diocese, and in the university of Cambridge, but also preached and wrote with great zeal and earnestness against the daring reformer. By some he has been thought to have had a principal hand in composing the treatise which Henry VIII. published in his own name, in defence of the Seven Sacraments, against Luther, which procured for that monarch the title of "Defender of the Faith." There is no evidence, however, for that opinion, but conjecture; which may, probably, have originated in the active part that our prelate took to vindicate king Henry's book against the answer of Luther, by publishing " A Defence of the King of England's assertion of the Catholic Faith against Mr. Luther's Book of the Captivity of Babylon," his "Defence of the Holy Order of Priesthood against Martin Luther," and some other pieces in the same controversy. Bishop Fisher was so zealous against lutheranism, that he had formed a design of going to Rome, to concert measures with the pope for opposing its progress, and made the necessary preparations for his journey; but he was diverted from his design, by cardinal Wolsey's convocation of a synod of the whole clergy of England, for the same purpose. In that synod, notwithstanding his bigotted attachment to the papal see, with great integrity and plainness he delivered his sentiments on the necessity of reformation in the manners of the clergy, and was not sparing in his indirect reflections on the unbecoming pride and stateliness which

cardinal Wolsey affected: Bishop Fisher continued in great favour with Henry VIII. until the business of his divorce began to be agitated, in the year 1527. On that occasion, the king, who entertained high reverence for his integrity and learning, applied to him for his opinion on the subject of his marriage with Catherine, his brother's widow. Without suffering his mind to be influenced by any other motives than a regard to what he deemed to be the cause of truth and virtue, he honestly answered," that there was no reason at all to question the validity of the marriage, since it was good and lawful from the beginning." This opinion no considerations could ever afterwards make him renounce, and his adherence to it proved the first step towards his loss of the king's favour, and his subsequent ruin. When in the year 1529 the affair of the divorce came to be tried before the two legates, Campeggi and Wolsey, bishop Fisher was one of the queen's council, and exerted himself with great zeal on her behalf, presenting the legates at the same time with a book which he had written in defence of the marriage. When in the same year several bills were brought into parliament for the correction of clerical abuses, particularly on the subjects of exactions for the probates of wills, pluralities of benefices, and non-residence, he strenuously opposed them, as authorising unwarrantable and dangerous interferences of the laity in ecclesiastical concerns, and represented it to be their sole purpose to bring the clergy into contempt with the laity, that they might seize their patrimony. He also warmly resisted a motion which was made for suppressing the smaller monasteries, and granting them to the king. A speech which he deliver ed on this occasion, was received with great applause by the staunch adherents to the papal church, and with equal disapprobation by those who were advocates for reformation. The duke of Norfolk, addressing himself to him, said, "My lord of Rochester, many of these words might have been well spared; but I wis that it is often seen that the greatest clerks are not always the wisest men." But to this the bishop smartly replied, "My lord, I do not remember any fools in my time that ever proved great clerks." Some expressions which he used highly exasperated the House of Commons against him, who deputed their speaker, accompanied by thirty members, to complain to the king of the injurious reflections on the representatives of the people which his language implied. Upon this the king sent for the bishop, and after receiving from him an ex

planation that the offensive expressions were not used by him with any reference to the House of Commons, dismissed him with the advice, "to use his words more temperately.' In the year 1530 he was twice in very imminent danger of his life. His first escape was from poison, which a wretch, who was acquainted with his cook, found means one day privately to throw into the gruel intended for his dinner. The bishop's abstinence on that day, however, preserved him from the effects of the mixture, which proved fatal to two persons of his household, and essentially injured the health of several others who had eaten of it. His other narrow escape was from a cannon-ball, which, being shot from the other side of the Thames, pierced through his house in Lambethmarsh, and came very near his study, where he used to spend the greatest part of his time. Whether the latter circumstance was the effect of accident, or design, does not seem ever to have been ascertained; but the bishop, considering it in the latter view, thought it prudent to remove from that situation, and retired for a time to Rochester. When, in the year 1531, the question about giving king Henry VIII. the tile of Supreme Head of the Church of England was debated in convocation, bishop Fisher opposed it with all his might, and in such a manner as to render himself very obnoxious to the court. Not long afterwards the bishop still farther exposed himself to the resentment of the king, by his weakness and credulity in being seduced to give some credit to the enthusiastic visions and impostures of Elizabeth Barton, the pretended holy maid of Kent. The intention of those who carried on the impostures of which she was the instrument, was to alienate the affections of the people from king Henry, and to excite insurrections against his government. It is but justice to bishop Fisher, however, to acknowledge, that there is no evidence of his being at all privy to their criminal designs. His attention was drawn to her in consequence of her espousing the cause of queen Catherine, to whose interests he was warmly attached, and of the representations that were made to him of her sanctity, and of the visions which she saw, and her revelation of things to come, which marked her out as an inspired prophetess. And he appears to have considered her as an instrument raised up by Heaven, by the display of whose supernatural powers the doctrines and authority of the church of Rome would prove triumphant over the principles of lutheranism, which were then rapidly spreading in England.

Under

these impressions, the bishop, together with some others, had frequent meetings with her; and they were weak enough to believe what she said, and to conceal her prophecy concerning the king, that if he should proceed with his divorce, and marry another wife, he would not be king of England seven months afterwards. When the government found that affairs began to wear a serious aspect, they ordered the pretended holy maid and her accomplices to be seized, and examined in the starchamber, when they confessed all the particulars of the imposture. Immediately after this discovery, Cromwell, who was then secretary of state, sent the bishop's brother to him, with a severe reproof for the countenance which he had given to the pretended prophetess; but at the same time advising him to write to the king, acknowledging his offence, and entreating forgiveness, which he knew the king would grant, in consideration of his great age and infirmities. In a correspondence which took place between him and the secretary, the bishop endeavoured to justify himself, by declaring, that the sole design of his intercourse with the maid of Kent was to try whether her revelations were true; but though informed that his plea was unsatisfactory, and that if brought to trial he would certainly be found guilty, no persuasions could induce him to make submission, and to have recourse to the king's clemency. In the year 1534 a bill of attainder passed against Elizabeth Barton and her accomplices; and bishop Fisher, as he still refused to make submission, was adjudged guilty of misprision of treason, and condemned to forfeit his goods and chattles to the king, and to be imprisoned during his majesty's pleasure. According to Dr. Hall, who wrote his Life under the name of Bailey, he was released upon paying three hundred pounds for his majesty's use; but bishop Burnet says, that he does not find that the king proceeded against him upon this act. In the same session of parliament an act was made, which annulled the king's marriage with Catherine of Arragon, as contrary to the law of God; confirmed his marriage with Anne Boleyn; entailed the crown upon her issue; and enjoined all persons whatsoever to maintain the same, under the penalty attached to misprision of treason. In pursuance of it, on the day of the prorogation of the parliament, an oath of allegiance to the king and his heirs, according to the limitation of that statute, and virtually approving of its contents, was taken by both houses; but bishop Fisher, instead of joining them, retired to his house at Rochester. A

VOL. IV.

few days afterwards, he was summoned by the archbishop of Canterbury, and other commissioners, who were authorised under the great seal to tender the oath, to attend them at Lambeth, and on his appearance was presented with the same. After having at his own request been indulged with some days for consideration, and in vain endeavouring to obtain such alterations in it as might satisfy his conscience, he finally determined absolutely to refuse the oath. The consequence was his immediate commitment to the Tower, where no endeavours were spared in order to bring him to compliance. With this design the lord Chancellor Audley, and others of the privycouncil, secretary Cromwell, and some of the bishops, waited upon him, and after much solicitation from them he at length declared, that he was willing" to swear to the succession, and never dispute more about the marriage; and he promised allegiance to the king; but his conscience could not be convinced that the marriage was against the law of God." Archbishop Cranmer earnestly advised that his offer should be accepted; but the king would not admit of it, and was determined that the oath should be taken precisely in the prescribed form. As bishop Fisher continued resolute in his refusal, he was attainted in the parliament which met in the latter end of the year 1534, and his bishopric declared void, from the commencement of the following year. To the indelible disgrace of the government, the infirm old prelate was treated with unkindness and harshness in his state of confinement, and was scarcely allowed common necessaries. In these circumstances he would, probably, have been permitted to drag on the short remainder of his natural life, had not pope Paul III. by unseasonably conferring on him, in the year 1535, the honour of Cardinal, by the title of cardinal-priest of St. Vitalis, precipitated his ruin. When the king heard of this circumstance, he issued the strictest orders that no person should be permitted to bring the hat into his dominions; and also sent Cromwell to the bishop, to examine him about that business. After some conversation had passed' between them, Cromwell put the question, "My lord of Rochester, what would you say, if the pope should send you a cardinal's hat: would you accept of it?" To which the bishop replied, "Sir, I know myself to be so far unworthy of any such dignity, that I think of nothing less; but if any such thing should happen, assure yourself I should improve that favour to the best advantage that I could, in

assisting the holy catholic church of Christ; and in that respect I would receive it upon my knees." When Cromwell reported this answer to the king, Henry exclaimed, in a great passion, "Yea! is he yet so lusty? Well, let the pope send him a hat when he will; mother of God! he shall wear it on his shoulders then; for I will leave him never a head to set it on." From this time his destruction was determined upon; but as nothing had hitherto been proved against him, sufficient to affect his life, the most ungenerous, treacherous, and infamous arts were made use of, to obtain a shadow of legal evidence for his conviction. For this purpose the solicitor-general, Rich, went to him, and pretended to be secretly sent by the king, who, for the satisfaction of his own conscience wished to know his full opinion on the subject of the supremacy, as that of a person on whose integrity and disinterestedness he placed the most entire reliance. That the bishop might completely fall into the snare laid for him, the base and hypocritical wretch told him, that the king had empowered him to declare, on his honour and royal word, that no advantage whatever should be taken of any thing that he might communicate to this confidential messenger. Thus called upon, the bishop considered it to be his duty to be open and explicit, and declared, "As to the business of supremacy, I must needs tell his majesty, as I have often told him heretofore, and would so tell him were I to die this present hour, that it is utterly unlawful; and therefore I would not wish his majesty to take any such power or title upon him, as he loves his own soul, and the good of his posterity." After Rich had drawn this declaration from the bishop, it was most wickedly determined to make use of his evidence to prove the prelate guilty of high-treason.. A special commission was accordingly issued for his trial at the King's-. bench-bar, at Westminster, where he was found guilty by the jury chiefly upon the evidence of the solicitor-general respecting the private conversation he had with him in the Tower. It is not possible to speak in terms sufficiently. severe, of the mean and nefarious conduct of the king, his crown officer, and the pusillanimous jury, in this abominable transaction.. After sentence of death had been pronounced on the bishop, he was conveyed back to the Tower, where he spent the few days that intervened before his execution, in the fervent duties of devotion, maintaining the utmost fortitude and chearfulness in the prospect of his approaching death. On the 22d of June, 1535, the lieu

tenant of the Tower acquainted him at five: o'clock in the morning, that it was the king's. pleasure that he should suffer that day. This. news he received without any emotion, and. having slept soundly afterwards for two hours, got up, and with calmness and cheerfulness. prepared for his last moments. As he was too weak and feeble to walk, he was carried in a. chair to Tower-hill, where, after spending a. short time in devotion, he was beheaded, when. in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Bishop Fisher was a man of great learning, and strict. integrity; and, according to Erasmus, of in-credible sweetness of temper, and greatness of. soul. He was one of the most zealous promoters of literature, and favourers of learned. men in his time, as is sufficiently manifest from: the particulars which we have enumerated. In his religion he was a steady and bigotted adherent to the church of Rome, and prone to. the superstitions and austerities which that. church encourages. He was, however, conscientiously attached to his principles, and, by determining to incur every hazard sooner than. basely sacrifice them, has rendered his memory far more estimable than those of his brother. prelates, who readily complied with all the changes of Henry VIII., and the oaths which he required, in direct contradiction to their. private opinions. In his manner of living he was regular and temperate; remarkably com-. passionate to those who were in any calamity or distress; and exceedingly liberal and charitable to the poor. Besides the pieces to which we have already adverted, he was the author of. "A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms;" numerous "Sermons ;" practical and. devotional tracts; and various controversial. pieces, the subjects and titles of which are. particularised in the authorities at the end of this article.. Most of them were collected! together, and printed in one volume folio, atWurtzburgh, in 1595. Biog. Britan. Brit. Biography. Bailey's (Hall's) Life of Fisher.-M.

FISHER, JOHN, see PISCATOR..

FITZHERBERT, ANTHONY, a learned English lawyer and judge, was the younger son. of Kalph Fitzherbert, esq. of Norbury, in the county of Derby. He studied at the university of Oxford, and afterwards entered at one of the inns of court, where he pursued the study of the law. with great diligence and success. In 1511 he attained the degree of serjeant at law, and received the honour of knighthood. from Henry VIII. That king, in 1523, appointed him one of the justices of the court of Common-pleas, in which office he passed the