Euphemia at Verona, which city honoured his memory by a statue, erected at the public expence, in the principal square. Fracastoro is at present chiefly remembered in his poetical character; and it is generally allowed that he stands among the first of those elegant scholars of his country, who, in that century, obtained so much fame for Latin poetry. The principal, of his compositions is a didactic poem relative to his own profession, entitled "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus," an unfavourable subject, but less offensive to delicacy at that time than at present, on account of the prevalent notions of its mode of communication. He accordingly dedicated it, without scruple, to cardinal Bembo. He has with great art avoided, or touched slightly upon, the disgusting part of his topic; and has raised his work into poetry, by the introduction of many beautiful descriptions, and strokes of fancy. The diction of Virgil's Georgics is sometimes too closely copied, and the prosody is not always correct; but upon the whole it deserves a very high place among the poems of its class. Sannazaro is said to have preferred it to every contemporary perform ance, even his own laboured piece De Partu Virginis; and it has received the highest applause from other poets and critics. It was first published in or before 1521, and numerous editions and translations of it have been made. The author's other pocms are "Aleon," or upon hunting-dogs; an unfinished poem on the life of Joseph, the languid performance of his advanced years; and several very agreeable epistles and smaller pieces. A few compositions in Italian verse which he left, display equal talents for vernacular poetry, lle seems to have thought but slightly of his own poetical abilities, and to have bestowed little care in the preservation or correction of his pieces. His dialogue in Latin prose, entitled "Naugerius, sive de Poetica," contains the precepts of the poetic art, but given in a dry and uninteresting manner. Among his medical works may be reckoned the poem of "Syphilis," in which he supposes that, disease to have been inbred in Europe, and owing to a particular planetary conjunction, and treats of its cure by guaiacum and mercurial unction. He also wrote "De Sympathia & Antipathia," and " De Contagiosis Morbis:" in the last he has the merit of rejecting bleeding and purgatives in malignant fevers, and recommending the use of antiseptics. His own composition of Diascordium, called also Confectio Fracastorii, has continued a celebrated medicine to the present times. In his work entitled "Homocentrica

& de Causis Criticorum Dierum, &c." he attempts to explain the theory of critical days. Astronomy appears to have been one of his.. most favourite studies; and he attempted to illustrate its principles by the system of homocentric or concentric circles, which he derived from Giambattisto della Torre. He was also an attentive observer of the heavenly bodies, and appears to have made use of two lenses placed in a particular manner, previously to the invention of proper telescopes. The poetical: and philosophical works of Fracastoro, have, been many times published both separately and together. The best edition of the whole is, that of Padua, in 1739, two vols. 4to. ThuamiHist. Moreri. Tiraboschi. Baillet. Halleri Biòl. · Med.-A.

FRAGUIER, CLAUDE-FRANCIS, an estimable man of letters, was born of a good family at Paris in 1666. He received his education among the Jesuits, who happily cultivated his disposition for classical literature and poetry. He entered into their order in 1683, and being soon after sent to Caen, he contracted an intimacy with Huet and Segrais. A love of literary freedom caused him to quit his Jesuit's habit in 1694. He had hitherto been chiefly distinguished for his skill in the Latin language; but the society of Mad. la Fayette, and the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos, formed him to a polite style in his own. He fixed his residence in Paris, and was elected a member of the French Academy, and that of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres. The abbé Bignon engaged his assistance in the " Journal des Savans," for which he was well qualified, as besides his acquaintance with ancient erudition, he possessed several of the modern languages. Fraguier was a great admirer of Plato, whose philosophy he put into very elegant Latin verse, in a piece entitled "Schola Platonica." He meditated an entire new translation of Plato's works; but his labours were interrupted by a disorder from accidental cold, which fell upon the muscles of his neck, and caused him to pass many years in a state of suffering and infirmity, which he bore with much composure. He was at length carried off by a fit of apoplexy in 1728, at the age of sixty-two. The candour, integrity, and mildness of his character rendered him greatly esteemed by his contemporaries. He obtained great repu tation as a Latin poet; and a collection of his pieces, together with those of Huet, was pub lished by the abbé d'Olivet in 1729: they were republished in a collection of the Latin poems of members of the French Academy, made in 1738. He wrote, in Latin prose, three

lities which so long disturbed the peace of Europe. In order to gain Henry VIII. of England to his party, Francis procured that interview between them and their two courts, known by the name of the field of the cloth of gold; in which, after a display of unparalleled magnificence at a ruinous expence, no political purpose was effected. Charles, by his bribes and promises to Wolsey, easily destroyed all the impression which the frank and gallant manners of the French king had made upon the mind of Henry. Francis next over-ran the kingdom of Navarre, but soon lost it again. In the mean time the Milanese revolted from the French, and by the aid of the emperor and pope entirely expelled them. A principal cause of this misfortune was the want of sending the necessary supplies of money to Lautrec, the governor. The king's vain expences, and the avarice of his mother, were the causes of great disorders in the finances; and the superintendant, Baune lord of Semblançai (see his article), was most unjustly sacrificed to Louisa's rapacity. She was also the cause of that defection of the constable Bourbon (see his Life), which was the source of so many calamities. This prince, after defeating Bonnivet who was sent upon a new expedition into Italy, marched at the head of the Imperialists into France, and laid siege to Marseilles; but the place held out till it was relieved by the approach of Francis. Confident in his force, and urged by the rash Bonnivet, the king again crossed the Alps, and invested the city of Pavia. While he obstinately persisted in at tempting the reduction of this place, the emperor's generals assembled a powerful army, with which they attacked the French in their lines. At this battle, fought on February 24, 1525, Francis, after the greatest exertions of personal valour, was obliged to surrender himself prisoner. The flower of his troops, and many officers of high rank and merit, fell in the field; and such was the extent of the disaster, that he wrote this short billet to his mother, "Madam, all is lost but our honour!" The royal captive was treated with every mark of respect, but when he was conveyed to the castle of Madrid, such hard conditions were proposed to him for his release, that he vowed to die in prison rather than accede to them. The emperor for a time abstained from visiting him: but finding that the health of Francis became affected by his melancholy reflections, and likewise that the king of England and other powers were beginning to interest themselves in his favour, he paid him a visit, and concluded a treaty for his release. The terms were still

very hard, including a renunciation, on the part of Francis, of all his claims in Italy and Flanders, and the full cession of the duchy of Burgundy, besides other humiliating sacrifices; but Francis was chiefly solicitous to get out of the hands of his enemy at any rate, trusting to events to exonerate him from the most burthensome part of his engagements. It was agreed that the cession of Burgundy should not take place till after the king was set at liberty, which was, in reality, waving it altogether; although he solemnly promised to return to Madrid should this condition not be performed, and in the mean time left the dauphin and his second son as his hostages. But it appeared afterwards, that just before signing the treaty, he had secretly made a formal protest against its validity as being extorted by force. On the whole, the conduct of these mighty monarchs upon this occasion was discreditable to both. Charles, like an unfeeling corsair, resolved to make the most of the prize which fortune had thrown into his hands; while Francis scrupled no promises or engagements, under the determination not to be bound by them farther than he should be compelled by necessity. His liberation took place after a captivity of a year and twenty-two days. He was exchanged for his two sons in a boat in the midst of the stream which separates France and Spain, and instantly, upon touching his own shore, he mounted a Turkish horse, and waving his hand over his head, cried, "I am yet a king." He then rode full speed to St. John de Luz, and thence to Bayonne. His first measure, on resuming the reins of government, was to form a league with the pope, the Venetians, and the duke of Milan, against the emperor; and he without difficulty obtained from his holiness, Clement VII. an absolution from his oath to observe the treaty of Madrid. And when Charles sent embassadors to summon him to the performance of the conditions, Francis, for answer, introduced them to an assembly of the states of Burgundy, who, as was pre-concerted, explicitly declared that he had no right to alienate their country from his crown, and refused to be transferred to the emperor's dominion. It was easily perceived that this was no other than a solemn farce. Mutual reproaches in coarse terms took place, and a war ensued; the particular events of which it is not necessary here to relate: (see Charles V.). One of the principal military actions on the French part was the siege of Naples by Lautrec, which was rendered unsuccessful by the death of the general and great part of his army from the plague... The defection of

Doria completed the ruin of the French affairs in Italy. At length the peace of Cambray, in 1529, gave a temporary respite to the hostilities of the two rivals. By this, the children of Francis were restored to him in consideration of a ransom of two millions of crowns, and the emperor for the present desisted from his claims on Burgundy, but without renouncing his right. Francis effected his marriage, agreed upon at Madrid, with the emperor's sister, the dowager queen of Portugal. He troubled himself little about the interests of his allies, and lost credit in Europe in proportion as his rival gained it.

Some years of peace ensued, in which Francis displayed the character of a splendid and enlightened prince. The encouragement which he gave to literature in his kingdom is one of the most striking features of his reign, and has conferred the greatest honour on his memory. The names of Budé, Du Chatel, and the brothers Du Bellay, decorate the literary history of France at this period; and many foreign scholars experienced the munificence of the king, among whom was Erasmus, who was strongly invited to take up his residence at Paris. Francis had really that love for letters, of which Lewis XIV., the emulator of his glory as their patron, was destitute. He always kept men of learning about his person, to whom he gave the heads of subjects on which he desired information, and it was their business at leisure times, especially at his meals, to read to him what they had drawn up. This was a kind of royal road to knowledge, but it was the only one which his other occupations would suffer him to follow. At the instigation of these men he collected manuscripts, augmented the royal library, founded a printing-office, and instituted, the Royal college for the learned languages. He paid, however, a rational regard to the French tongue, in causing all public acts and law proceedings to be composed in it, instead of the barbarous Latin before in use. The fine arts accompanied the progress of letters. The palace of Fontainbleau and several other edifices are monuments of this reign. To Francis I. the French court principally owes that free intermixture of the fair sex which has since constituted its distinguishing lustre and amenity. At the same time it is acknowledged that to this circumstance have been owing a great licentiousness of manners in high life, and that female influence, which, through so many succeeding reigns, has fully avenged the sex in France of the unpoliteness of the Salic law. The king himself, by aboundless propensity to

VOL. IV.

gallantry, set an example as well of debauchery as of weakness; and his favourite mistress, the countess d'Estampes, enjoyed her power as publicly as any later possessor of that important post.

One of the most political of the domestic acts of this period was the annexation of the duchy of Britany to the crown of France, which, after some contest, took place in 1532, with a reservation of its principal privileges. The progress of the Reformation in Europe excited the attention of Francis, as it did of the other princes. His own sister, the queen of Navarre, was addicted to the new opinions, which were received also by many of his subjects. Notwithstanding his loose life, he had or affected a great zeal for orthodoxy, and he caused several heretics to be burned with circumstances of extraordinary cruelty. His claims to the Milanese were too near his heart to suffer him to abandon the thoughts of recovering it. To strengthen his interest in Italy, he had married Henry, then his second son, and duke of Orleans, to Catharine de Medicis, niece to pope Clement VII. which was thought a great degradation of the French crown. As a farther preparatory step, he entered into a war with the duke of Savoy, and reduced great part of his country. This brought on a new quarrel with the emperor, and Charles in person invaded France and laid siege to Mar seilles, but was obliged to quit his attempt with great loss. Francis, on his part, with an idle parade, caused Charles, as his vassal, to be summoned before the parliament of Paris, and condemned him for contumacy on his nonappearance: thus the animosity between the two rivals broke out with more asperity than ever. Francis, to strengthen his party, made an alliance with the Turks, a measure which excited the bitterest reproaches against him throughout Europe. The intervention of the pope, however, produced a truce of ten years between Charles and Francis; and the former soon after touching at Aigues Mortes, they held a conference together with the greatest demonstrations of mutual friendship and confidence. An incident took place in 1539 which strongly marked the characters of the two rivals. Charles, wishing to visit the Low-countries on account of a revolt of the people of Ghent, desired permission to pass through France, and put so much trust in the king's honour, that he refused any other security than his bare word.. He farther gave a verbal promise of conferring the investiture of the duchy of Milan upon the king's second son, the duke of Orleans. Francis,

DD

whose open and generous spirit was delighted with this mark of confidence, received Charles at Paris with the greatest magnificence, and gave him every facility in the prosecution of his designs. After Charles had availed himself of this liberal conduct, and was got to his own dominions, he meanly cavilled about his promise, and in the end refused the performance. The anger of Francis at being duped first fell upon his counsellors and ministers; and a fresh provocation not long after gave rise to the renewal of the war. He joined his fleet with that of Barbarossa the Turkish admiral, and proposed an alliance with the German Protestants, while he was persecuting their brethren at home. Charles on the other hand formed a league with Henry VIII. The battle of Cerizolles, gained in Italy by the French, was one of the principal events of this war, which however was followed by no important consequences: and peace was restored with the emperor by the treaty of Cressi in 1544, and with Henry in 1546. A secret disease, the fruit of his licentious amours, had now been long preying upon the constitution of Francis, which received a farther shock from the death of Henry VIII. whom he always, notwithstanding Occasional quarrels, seems to have regarded with affection. A hectic fever supervened, under which he sunk in March, 1547,in his fiftythird year, at a time when he had begun to attend more seriously to his affairs, and by economy had brought his finances into a good condition. He left two sons and four daughters by his first consort, Claude of France. By his second queen, Eleonora, he had no issue.

The personal qualities of Francis were such as threw a kind of lustre round his character, especially contrasted with the less generous nature of his great rival; yet the circumstance of that constant rivalry with a superior in power and fortune, was the source of many meannesses in his conduct which injured the reputation he might otherwise have acquired. His political capacity does not seem to have been of the higher kind, and his numerous foibles subjected him to the constant influence of mistresses and favourites. He oppressed his people by excessive imposts, and endangered his kingdom by ambitious projects. The title of great, therefore, which for a time was annexed to his name, could not stand the test of a sober estimate; and to that of good his claims were still inferior. The appellation of patron of letters has been more durable; and upon the whole it will be admitted that few sovereigns of his country have made a more distinguished figure in the pages of history. He is the founder of the

house of Valois, that being his title when he assumed the crown. Univers. Hist. Millot, Elemens. Robertson's Charles V. Moreri.-A.

An

FRANCIS II. king of France, eldest son of Henry II. by Catharine de Medicis, was born in 1544. He married, at the age of fifteen, Mary Stuart, the beautiful and unfortunate queen of Scotland. He came to the crown on the death of his father in 1559, and his short reign was merely that of the factions by which the nation was controlled. It was a period of violence and disorder, which laid the foundation for those civil contentions with which France was so long afterwards afflicted. The three parties at court were the princes of the blood, headed by the king of Navarre, and his brother the prince of Condé; the Guises; and the Montmorencis. The queen-mother found it her interest to join the Guises, who were the chiefs of the catholic party, and uncles to the queen-consort. Measures were soon adopted against the Protestants which excited them to self-defence. association was formed, the secret head of which was the prince of Condé; and a plot was laid, called the conspiracy of Amboise, the purpose of which was to get possession of the king's person, to banish or destroy the Guises, and to procure liberty of conscience. It was discovered and defeated, with the death of its acting leader, La Renaudie; and a dreadful execution was made of all who were concerned in it. Its natural consequence was to augment the power of the Guises, and render the Protestants still more obnoxious. In order to appease the disorders which were becoming general, an assembly of notables was first called, which was followed by an assembly of the states convoked at Orleans. The king of Navarre and prince of Condé who attended, were put under arrest; and the latter, who had escaped being implicated in the conspiracy of Amboise, was accused of forming a new plot, tried, and condemned to lose his head. While the execution of the sentence remained in suspense, the young king, who had always been of a weakly constitution, was seized with an imposthume in the ear, communicating with an abscess within the head, of which he died on December 5, 1560, before he had completed his eighteenth year. He had acted so entirely under the control of others, that scarcely any thing had appeared of his natural disposition; and the only eulogy that his courtiers could make of him was the title of "the king without vice." Moreria Univers. Hist. Millot, Elemens.-A.

FRANCIS, OF ASSISI, a saint in the Romish calendar, and founder of the celebrated order