Hop. iv, 315 ; Wetzer und Welte, Kirch.-Lex. iv, 879. (A. J. S.)
Faculty, in England, is a special jjrivilege or dis- pensation granted by favor and indulgence to enable a person to do that which he is not permitted to do without it. There is a court of the Faculties, the chief officer of which is master of the Faculties, under the archbishop of Canterburj'. It has power, by 25 Henry VIII, 21, to grant dispensations to marry, to hold two or more incompatible benefices, and the like ; and in it are registered the certificates of peers to their chap- lains to qualify them for pluralities and non-residence. The act gives authority to grant such dispensations "for any such matters, not being repugnant to the holy Scriptures and the laws of God, whereof before such dispensations, etc., had been accustomed to be had at the sec of Rome. Up to the time of passing this act, the pope, notwithstanding the statutes which had been passed restraining his authority, continued to exercise his power, and to draw a considerable rev- enue for indulgences, etc. The sittings of the court have always been held at Doctors' Commons" (q. v.). — Encyclopmdia Jletrojmlitana, s. v.
Faculty. See Univeesity,
Facundus, bishop of Hermiane, in Africa. He took part in the conference held at Constantinople in 547 by pope Vigilius (q. v.),to discuss the tria capiiuJa [see Chapters, the Three], and sustained the side of Theodore and Theodoret against the emperor's view. Vigilius demanded that he (with other opposing bish- ops) should sign the condemnation of Ibas, Theodore, and Theodoret. He refused absolutelj', and lore with firmness the persecution and banishment which follow- ed. He is su])posed to have died about A. D. 553. His treatise Pro dcfensione trium Cnpitulorum, lib. xii, will be found in Sirmond, O/jera Varia, ii, 297 (Venet. 1728, 5 vols, fol.) ; in Bib. Max. Pair, x ; in D'Achery, SjjU cilegium, iii, 307, of the first edition, and in iii, 106, edit, of 1723 ; and in Migne, Patrolof/iu Laiina, Ixvii, 527 sq. His Contra Moci^inum Liba>; condemning Mocia- nus and Vigilius for their course with regard to the " Three Chapters," is also given in Migne (Ixvii, 853).
Neander saj's that the writings of Facundus "are characterized by qualities seldom to be met with in that age — a freedom of spirit imshackled by human fear, and a candid, thorough criticism, superior in many respects to the prejudices of the times. Nobly did he protest against the uncalled-for dogmatism which had ever been the source of so much mischief to the Greek Church, these useless disputes having in fact pro- ceeded from no other cause. 'While,' he said, ' in all other arts and occupations, no one presumed to pass judgment on what he had never learned; in matters of theology, on the contrary, they who learned the least were the most arrogant and peremptory in their judgments. Wl;en the civil power overstepped its province, it migj.t indeed plunge numbers in ruin by misleading them to denj' the truth with their lips, but still it could never effect its object, for it could not in- stil into the minds of men other convictions than they had : its power reached only to what was outward, not to the soul.' He spoke with scorn of those bishops who accused themselves in pleading, in excuse of their behavior, the constraint under which they were ])laccd ; for it was not even the force of torture, but only the fear of the emperor's displeasure, which had brought them to 3'ield (Cont. Mocianum, f. 595). 'As if,' said he, ' we had been ordained bishops for no other pur- pose than to be enriched by the presents of princes, and to sit with them among the high authorities of the state. But if, amidst the many cares of tlie state, through the deceitful arts of the wicked, of which there is never any lack; anything has been admitted by them which tended to injure the Church or to disturb its peace, as if it were not our duty to set before them the trutli for their own benefit, and, if it be neccssarj',
FADUS
449
FAJR
to resist them with the authority of religion, and pa- tiently endure their displeasure if we must incur it. If G(id should now raise up an Ambrose,' said he, 'there would not foil to be a Theodosius" " (Church Jliston/, Torrcy's, ii, 544). There is a remarkable pas- sai^e ill the Defensio showing that Facundus did not hold the IJomanist doctrine as to the corporeal pres- ence in the Eucharist: "Potest sacramentum adop- tionis adoptio nuncupari, sicut sacramentum corporis et sanguinis ejus, quod est in pane et poculo consecra- to, corpus ejus et sanguinem dicimus : non quod pro- jirie corpus ejus sit panis, et poculum sanguis : sed quod in se mysterium corporis ejus et sanguinis conti- neant" ("The sacrament of adoption may be called adoption itself, as we term the sacrament of his body and blood, which is in the bread and the consecrated cup, his body and blood ; not that the bread is properly his bodi/ and the cup his bloody but because they contain within them the mystsiy of his body and blood" (ix, 5, Mignc, Ixvii, 702). — Neander, Ch. History, ii, 544 ; Ne- ander, History of Dogmas (Ryland), i, 278 ; Cave, Uist. Liter, i, 520; Ceillier, Auteurs Sacres (Paris, 1862), xi, 285 sq. ; Waterland, Worls (Oxford), iv, 599, note.