quired great reputation in that branch of study at the university, he was appointed to the of Sce, which he afterwards discharged for forty yours, having resigned it only a few days before his death. Nearly about the same time he was made dean of the higher schools, and soon after regent of the young nobility, both which places he retained during the remainder of his ife. Being well acquainted with the fathers of the church, the history of the different councils, and the literature of ecclesiastical law, in general, he was often consulted in regard to lawsuits, and obliged to conduct the business of the monastery, as he was appointed also Notarius Apostolicus in Curia Romana. Besides these labours, the academic orations he had to deliver on certain public occasions, and an extensive epistolary correspondence which he was under the necessity of carrying on, he wrote a commentary on the "Jus Canonicum" of Arnold Corvinus, for the use of his pupils; and added to it an "Epitome prænotionum Canoricorum," together with animadversions, in which he in particular opposed Bohmern; but th's work was never printed. At the request of his friends he permitted the publication of another work on the divine origin of the church, ented “Reipublicæ sacræ origines divinæ, .. helfe Christi exterior junctura, impenon to herchia, ex primigenia ejus institueerota & demonstrata." As the high reputation he had acquired brought a great many students to Kremsmunster, he did not confine 1.

ef to the public hours of teaching; but regand has lectures privately, and was always mucy to anlar his hearers, and to give them every explanation in his power. But however e term and respect he acquired by this otonous diligence, it was by his attachment arotomy that he rendered himself most ss and best known in foreign counits ule, the abbot Alexander, a bad to the sciences in general, but particuway to the mathematics, though not deeply la d'esattor, resolved, in the year 1747, gent in his monastery for yelinatig mathematical de better carrying this ifted up an apart Backstury in struments, and marspanget mess of every kind. This comad bin stíl farther: he dan Gavretory, that he ement to the talents sayyed to devote the lower pathematics. One mela da det ma viw was, to af

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ford an opportunity to workmen of different talents and capacities to improve themselves in their respective arts. As the abbot Alexander himself had no knowledge of astronomy or ar chitecture, he sent for Anselm Desing, a learned Benedictine of Emsdorf, and afterwards abbot of that establishment, who drew the plan of a complete observatory to be constructed at the end of a garden detached from all the other edifices. This work was begun in 1748, and finished in 1758. Fortunately there was among the workmen a carpenter named John Illinger, born in a village belonging to the abbey, a man of great mechanical genius, though he could neither read nor write, but who, under the direction of Fixlmillner, improved himself so much as to be able to construct very elegant and accurate astronomical instruments, such as large mural quadrants, with which he made very exact observations. During the ten years in which the observatory was building, Fixlmillner lived entirely recluse, and devoted himself to astronomy. When it was finished, Dobler, a Benedictine, who possessed an extensive knowledge of the mathematics, and who, during his residence in France, had lived in the closest intimacy with Lacaille and Reaumur, was appointed the first astronomer; but the abbot Berthold Vogel, who succeeded the abbot Alexander, having discovered FixImillner's great mathematical knowledge, and his dexterity in making observations, by seeing him observe an eclipse of the sun, soon after offered him the astronomical department, and the direction of the observatory. Filmillner, who had never exercised himself in practical astronomy, was well aware of the difficulties he should have to encounter in this employment, which he was about to add to his other occupations; but respect for his superior, a desire of being useful to his monastery and to mankind, and a love of science, prevailed over every other consideration. He therefore accepted the place, and in the year 1762 was appointed astronomer, retaining at the same time his office as professor of ecclesiastical law. Though now in the meridian of life, he applied with great diligence to those branches of study necessary to fit him for the duties of his new office. He had not yet obtained a thorough knowledge of the literature of practical astronomy, and of the books proper to be consulted on that subject. The first that fell into his hands was the "Exposition du Calcul Astronomique," by Lalande: with this alone, without any oral assistance, he began to make observations; and this work, together with Vlacq's logarithmic tables, were his only

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Helps till he at last obtained Lalande's large treatise on astronomy. In the mean time he bestowed great pains in furnishing the observátory. His first astronomical work was entitled. "Meridianus speculæ Astronomice Cremifanensis," 1765. Fixlmillner now obtained a considerable rank among the astronomical writers. In the year 1776 he published his "Decennium Astronomicum," which contains observations made at Kremsmunster from 1765 to 1775, and many curious particulars of great importance both to the theory and the practice of astronomy. His third work," Acta Astronomica Cremifanensia," one of his last labours, which was not printed till after his death, tended still farther to confirm his cele brity as an astronomer. Besides these, works, he sent many valuable contributions to the authors of various periodical publications, some of which may be found in the Journal des Savans, Bernoulli's Lettres sur differens Sujets, Bode's Astronomical Almanack, Hell's Ephemerides of Vienna, and the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. But the service which Fixlmillner rendered to astronomy will better appear from the following account of Baron von Zach of Gotha, an excellent judge of every thing that relates to the department of astronomy:"Fixlmillner's service to astronomy in a practical view consists chiefly," says he, in his having made and collected, at the desire of Lalande, a great many observations of Mercury, which at that time were very scarce and difficult; and thereby enabled the French astronomer to construct his tables of that planet. This service Lalande publicly acknowledged, and such of these observations as he could employ he inserted in the supplemental volume to his astronomy, in his Fphemerides des Mouvemens Celestes, vol. viii., 1785-1792, and in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences. He was also one of the first astronomers who calculated the orbit of the new planet Uranus; and he constructed tables of it, which may be found in the Berlin almanack for 1789. He was the first who proved the truth of professor Bode's conjecture, that the thirty-fourth star of Taurus, observed by Fianistead in 1690, was the new planet; and by applying Flamstead's observations to calculation, he produced a theory which fully agreed with the phenomena of it. His tables corresponded to the end of the year 1786 with the observations made; but the continued observations, and, in particular, the application of the general theory of perturbation rendered other tables necessary. Fixlmillner's useful labour in regard to the sun's

parallax, which he calculated with great assi duity from observations of the transit of Venus in 1769, made in almost every part of the world, deserves also to be particularly mentioned. One evident proof of his indefatigable diligence was, that he calculated all his own observations; compared them with the best tables, the faults of which he detected, and pointed out how they might be improved. Many astronomers observe a great deal, and calculate little; the case with this industrious astronomer was different. All eclipses of the sun, all occultations of the planets by the moon, which, on account of the great labour they require, are seldom calculated, Fixlmiliner calculated himself on the spot, and, in order to avoid errors, always double; all oppositions of the planets, which are of so much importance in astronomy, as they are of the same value as if they were made in the centre of the sun, and consequently in the centre of the solar system, he observed and calculated with the same care and attention. He turned his thoughts likewise, more than any other astronomer, to observations of the solar spots, so much neglected: he not only observed them in the years 1767, 1776, 1777, 1778, and. 1782, but he employed them with great advantage to deduce from them important results in regard to the sun's rotation on his axis: he determined, at the same time, the place of the nodes of the solar equator, and its inclination. Amidst this uncommon activity, never interrupted by external circumstances, he displayed his ingenuity and inventive talents by the simple and easy methods of managing the longest and most tedious calculations. This is proved by several excellent propositions in his works, in regard to the accurate calculation of the moon's phases, and the inclination of her horns; of the earth's shadow during lunar eclipses, of the heliocentric. elongation of the solar spots, and by his acute observations on the aberration of light, and on the celebrated Keplerian problem of converting the mean into the true anomaly, &c. He had also a very uncommon genius for mechanics, and invented many practical helps to observation, such as a new micrometer, and a machine for grinding concentric circles on glasses with great accuracy. It must not here be omitted to mention that this able astronomer lived in the country, at a distance from any large city, from all literary assistance, and from the society of those versed in astronomy, that is, from every thing that could encourage and excite his zeal; and yet, till the last moment of his life, he was a singular instance of indefatigable exertion and

attachment to his favourite science. But few men were so little subject to the powerful influence of the passions. Fixlmillner was simple, uniform, and constant, like the laws of nature which he studied; and his character displayed that mildness and integrity which never fail to inspire love and esteem. The celebrity he had acquired did not render him vain; what was said or written in his praise he sought rather to conceal than to propagate. He lived in great harmony with his monastic brethren; and it was a day of general joy to the whole establishment, when in 1788 he celebrated the anniversary of the fiftieth year of his residence in it. This period, however, he did not long survive his health had suffered by so close apso close application, and obstinate obstructions, followed by a diarrhoea, put an end to his existence on the 27th of August, 1791, in the seventy-first year of his age. Schlichtegroll's Necrology.-J.

FIZES, ANTONY, an eminent French physician, was born at Montpellier in 1690. He became a celebrated professor of medicine in the university of that city, where he was regarded as an Hippocrates, and where he died in 1765. He was a man of simple manners, and of various knowledge. In the theory of diseases he followed the chemical notions of a prevailing acid or alkali. He wrote several works, of which the principal are: "Opera Medica," 4to. 1742: "Leçons de Chymie de l'Université de Montpellier," 12mo. 1750: "Tracta tus de Febribus," 12mo. 1749; also translated into French, 1757: "Tractatus de Physiologia," 12mo. 1750: and several dissertations on medical subjects. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Halleri Bibl. Med. Pract.-A.

FLACCOURT, F. DE, director-general of the French East-India company, commanded, in 1648, an expedition to the island of Madagascar, where he continued several years, till, in consequence of quarrels with the natives, it became necessary to abandon the settlement. His residence, however, enabled him to draw up a particular history of the country; which he printed at Paris, in one volume quarto, with figures designed by himself, and dedicated to the superintendant Foucquet. This work, entitled "The History of the Isle of Madagascar," is in good esteem. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

FLACCUS, C VALERIUS, a Roman poet, is supposed, from his appellation of Setinus, to have been a native of Setia, a city of Campania, An epigram of Martial, however, in which he is called "Antenorci spes & alumne laris," proves him at least to have been a resident in

Padua. He flourished in the reign of Vespasian, and died at an early age in the time of Domitian; for Quintilian, who wrote in that reign, speaks of him as lately dead. From Martial's epigram (L. I. Ep 77.)it would appear that he was in no affluent condition, for he advises him as a friend to quit the muses for the more gainful pursuits of the Roman forum. These are all the biographical notices we possess of this author. His work, which is come down to our times, is entitled to our times, is entitled "Argonauticon," left unfinished in eight books. It is an imitation of the Greek poem of Apollonius Rhodius on the same subject; and may rank among the most refpectable of the Latin epics after Virgil, whose manner and style it copies, though with much inferior powers. The poem of Flaccus has been very differently estimated by different critics. In reality, it is the work of one made a poet rather by study and imitation than by genius, and cut off before he had attained all the excellence of which he was capable. It contains sublime and splendid passages, and is free from the bombast and extravagance of most of the second race of Latin poets; but it is in general deficient in poetical spirit, and has no merit of plan and contrivance. The best edition is that of Burmann, 1724, quarto. Leid. Vossii Poet. Lat. Lil. Gyrald. Tiraboschi.-A.

FLACIUS, or FRANCOWITZ, MATTHIAS, a learned divine of the confession of Augsburg, was born at Albona in Istria, in the year 1520. As his native country formed a part of the ancient Illyricum, he afterwards was distinguished by the surname of ILLYRICUS, and is chiefly known in the learned world by the name of FLACIUS ILLYRICUS. His father, who was a man of literature, perceiving that he possessed an excellent capacity, and an avidity for learning, undertook himself the care of his early education. Flacius, however, had the misfortune to lose his father when he was very young, and to fall for some time into the hands of negligent tutors, under whom he was in danger of forgetting what he had formerly learned. But by his own diligence and application, and the occasional assistance which he received from a learned Italian, he made a considerable progress in an acquaintance with classical literature, and the belles-lettres. Afterwards he was sent to Venice, where he studied classical learning under the famous Baptista Egnatius. When he was seventeen years of age he felt a strong in clination to become a student in theology; and not being able to bear the expences of an Italian university education, he came to a determina

tion to enter a monastery, as the only means within his reach of gratifying the desire of his heart. But upon communicating his intention to a provincial of the Franciscans, who was a relation of his mother, and secretly inclined to the protestant religion, he dissuaded him from shutting himself up in a convent, and advised him rather to go to Germany, where he might avail himself of the instructions of learned divines with more facility than in Italy. With this advice he complied, and in the year 1539 went to Basil, where he studied some months, and embraced the opinions of the reformers. From Basil he proceeded to Tubingen, where he received the instructions of the celebrated Joachim Camerarius, and other learned men. After studying there until some time in the year 1541, he went to Wittemberg, where he became a disciple of Luther and Melancthon. His means of subsistence until this time appear to have arisen, in a great measure, from what he gained by privately teaching the Greek and Hebrew languages. The abilities which he discovered, and his proficiency in his studies, so far recommended him to Melancthon, that he gave him many substantial proofs of his regard and liberality. After he had taken his degree of M.A. he became a married man; and in the year 1544 was for his learning and merits appointed by the elector, John Frederic, to a public professorship in the university. When, during the war between the confederate Protestants and the emperor Charles V., the scholars were dispersed from the Saxon seminaries, Flacius went to Brunswick, where he obtained a high reputation by his lectures; and upon the termination of hostilities, in the year 1547, he returned to Wittemberg, to resume his former situation in that university. In the year 1548 a controversy took place among the followers of Luther, in which Flacius sustained a leading part, and displayed a degree of bitterness, bigotry, and intolerance, that reflected great disgrace on his character. It originated in the debates among the Saxon divines concerning the expediency of submitting to the famous edict of Charles V. called the Interim. Melancthon and several other divines concurred in opinion, that in matters of an indifferent nature, compliance was due to the imperial edicts. But in the class of matters of an indifferent nature, this great man and his associates placed many things which had appeared of the highest importance to Luther; among which were the doctrine of justification by faith alone; the necessity of good works to salvation; the number of the sacraments; extreme unction; and other

VOL. IV.

tenets relative to church discipline, and rites and ceremonies. On the other hand, the de fenders of the primitive doctrines of Luther anism, with Flacius at their head, attacked with incredible bitterness and fury these accommodating divines, and accused them of apostacy from the true religion. We must refer to the ecclesiastical historians of the times for the particulars of this controversy, which for many years produced violent dissensions in the lutheran church, and materially impeded the progress of the Reformation. Flacius, that he might be at full liberty to publish his sentiments on the various topics discussed, as well as to continue the attacks upon Popery which were prohibited by the Interim, retired from Wittemberg to Magdeburg, where, among other works, he was the principal author and director of the celebrated "Centuria Magdeburgenses." During the dissensions above mentioned, a new university was founded at Jena, by the dukes of Saxe Weimar, in which Flacius, on account of his great zeal for the genuine doctrines of Luther, was appointed professor of divinity in the year 1557. In that situation, by the intemperate measures which he recommended to the noble founders, he had nearly produced a formal schism among the divines of the lutheran church. For, in the year 1559, he persuaded the dukes of Saxe Weimar to order a refutation of the errors imputed to the followers of Melancthon to be drawn up with care, to be promulgated by authority, and te be placed among the other religious edicts and articles of faith that were in force in their dominions. By the interference, however, of the other lutheran princes of Germany, this measure was prevented from being carried into execution. But he succeeded by his intrigues in drawing down persecution on the head of his colleague in the university, Victorinus Strigelius, who was the friend of Melancthon. That divine had maintained, in his public lectures, that the human will, when under the influence of the divine grace leading it to repentance, was not totally inactive, but bore a certain part in the salutary work of its conversion. This doctrine Flacius opposed with the utmost violence, maintaining with Luther the absolute servitude of the human will, and the total inability of man to do any good action, or to bear any part in his own conversion. He also accused Strigelius of heresy, the same in essence with that of the Semi-pelagians, and was the occasion of his being thrown into prison, where he was treated for some time with great rigour and severity. The issue of his controversy with Strigelius,

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however, proved highly detrimental to his own reputation and influence. For while he was assaulting him with an inconsiderate ardour, he exaggerated so excessively the sentiments which he looked upon as orthodox, that he maintained that original sin was not an accident, but the very substance of human nature. To this strange and monstrous opinion he adhered to his dying hour, and rather chose to submit to any sacrifices than to renounce it. By the greater part of the lutheran church it was condemned, as bearing no small affinity to Manicheism. The odium which he excited by embracing this opinion, and the intemperance which he discovered towards those who differed from him, rendered it necessary for him to relinquish his professorship at Jena, after he had filled it about five years, when he withdrew to Ratisbon, where he continued to publish many books. In the year 1567 he was invited, with some other lutheran ministers, into Brabant, to model some churches in that country on the principles of the Augsbourg confession; but they were soon afterwards dispersed by the persecution under the duke of Alva, when he removed to Strasburg, and afterwards to Frankfort on the Maine. The number of his admirers and adherents had by this time greatly declined in Germany, on account of the extravagance of his opinions, and his factious intolerant spirit, so that he died, not much lamented, at the place last mentioned, in 1575, when he had nearly completed the fifty-fifth year of his age. "He was a man," says Bayle," that had excellent talents, a vast wit, a great deal of learning, and a mighty zeal against popery; but his turbulent, factious, and quarrelsome temper, spoiled all his good qualities, and occasioned a thousand disorders in the protestant church." He was the author of numerous works, of which the most important are, "Clavis Sacræ Scripturæ, seu de Sermone Sacrarum Literarum, &c." in two vols. folio, 1567;"Centuriæ Ecclesiastice Historiæ Magdeburgenses, &c." in three vols. folio, which Mosheim pronounces to be an immortal work, entitling Flacius, for the share which he Irad in writing it, to be considered as the parent of ecclesiastical history; "Catalogus Testium Veritatis, qui ante nostram ætatem Pontifici Romano, ejusque Erroribus reclamarunt," 1562, folio; and "De Translatione Imperii Romani ad Germanos, de Electione Episcoporum quod eque ad Plebem pertineat," 1566, 8vo. He was also the author of a multitude of controversial treatises, for the titles of which we must refer the curious reader to Moreri, or, to a more complete catalogue of them in the twenty-fourth

volume of father Niceron's Memoires, &c.; and he was the editor of an ancient Missal, which, from the scarcity of the copies is highly prized by collectors. It is entitled "Missa Latina, quæ olim ante Romanam, circa annum Domini sexagintesimum in usu fuit, bona fide ex vetusto authenticoque Codice descripta, &c." 1557, 8vo. Melchior. Adam. Vit. Germ. Theol. Bayle. Moreri. Mosh. Hist. Eccl. Sec. XVI. Dict. Bibl. Hist. Crit.-M.

FLAMAEL, BERTHOLET, a Flemish painter of eminence, was born at Liege in 1614. His father, who was a painter on glass, finding in his son a happy disposition for the arts both of music and design, cultivated both in his education; but his genius at length decided for the last. After studying under two different masters in his native city, he visited Italy in his twenty-fourth year, and elevated his ideas by a survey of the master-pieces in that country. He improved himself so much from the diligent imitation of what he saw there, that his reputation caused him to be employed by the grandduke of Tuscany in painting one of the galleries in his palace. Thence he went to France, where he was patronised by the chancellor Seguier, and engaged in some public works. He returned in 1647 to his native city, which he decorated with some excellent performances. He also painted for the king of France a grand allegorical piece upon canvas, for the ceiling of the great audience-chamber at the Tuilleries. For this work he was amply rewarded, and liberal offers were made him to settle in France, which attachment to his country caused him to decline. He was unmarried, and had even received the clerical tonsure upon presentation to a canonry. He acquired considerable wealth, a large part of which he employed in building a house on the banks of the Meuse, remarkable for its structure and ornaments. But his enjoyment of it was entirely destroyed by a melancholy which seized him, and which rendered his art and every thing else distasteful to him. He sunk under its effects in 1675, at the age of sixty-one, and was interred in the church of the Dominicans at Liege, whom he made his heirs. This master was an excellent colourist, a correct designer, and possessed a noble taste for historical composition. His style was that of the Roman school. He had a great knowledge. of antiquities, and was a faithful observer of all the proprieties of the costume. His pictures are usually enriched with porticoes, colonades, &c. for he was a skilful architect; and some churches were built after his designs. His principal works are in the religious edifices at