Paul, being apprehended in Jerusalem, was sent b}' a letter from Claudius L3'sias to Felix at Cffisarea, where he was at first confined in Herod's judgment- hall till his accusers came. They arrived. TertuUus appeared as their spokesman, and had the audacity, in order to conciliate the good-will of Felix, to express gratitude on the part of the Jews, ' ' seeing that bj' thee we enjoy great quietness, and tliat very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence" (Acts xxiii, xxiv). Paul pleaded his cause in a wor- thy speech; and Felix, consigning the apostle to the custody of a centurion, ordered that he should have such liberty as the circumstances admitted, with per- mission that his acquaintance might see him and min- ister to his wants. This imprisonment the apostle sufTired for a short period (not two j'ears, as ordinari- ly supposed, that expression having reference to Fe- lix's whole term of sole office), being left bound when Felix gave place to Festus (q. v.), as that unjust judge "was willing," not to do what was right, but "to show the Jews a pleasure" (Walch, De Felice proctira- fore, Jena, 1747; also in his Dissertt. in Act. iii, 29; Smith's Dictionary of Class. Biog. s. v.). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V.
TeHx, Martyr, and his companion Regula, were, according to tradition, the first Christian missionaries in the city of Zurich, which, before the Reformation, venerated them as patrons, and still has their names in the town seals. They are said to have been exe- cuted by order of the emperor Maximian. Nothing certain is known about their history. — Herzog, Real- EncyMop. iv, 351. (A. J. S.)
Felix OF NoLA was a native and presb3'ter of Nola. After his property had been confiscated during the persecution of Decius, he supported himself by cul- tivating a garden and some rented land. According to a legend, he concealed himself during the persecu- tion in the fissures of an old building, and a spider saved him from the search of the messengers b}' draw- ing her web over him. His sufferings and alleged miracles were celebrated by Paulinus, bishop of Nola, and many pilgrims visited his grave. — Herzog, Real- Encyldop. iv, 355. (A. J. S.)
Felix THE Manich.ean was a contemporary of Au- gustine. He was an elder or elect of the Blanichajans, and had gone to Hippo to gain converts for his sect. Augustine had a discussion with him in the church of Hippo in the presence of the congregation whicli lasted two daj's. The proceedings were taken down by no- taries, and are still extant (vol. viii of the Benedictine edition of Augustine's works : De acfis cum Felice Ma- nichwo, lil)ri ii). On the day before the disputation, Felix declared his readiness to be burned with his books if anj'thing wrong could be found in them; but during the disputation he is reported to have been
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timid, weak, evasive, and it was thought that he wish- tid to flee. Before the disputation began, his books were taken from him, and placed inider the public seal. Felix undertook to prove that Mani was the Paraclete who had been promised by Christ, and he used as an argument the information given by Mani on the construction of the world, on which nothing could be found iu Paul and the writings of the other aimstles. Augustine replied that the Paraclete had the mission to teach the truths of religion, but not to expound matliematics. The result of the disputation was that Felix declared himself refuted, and publicly renounced and cursed Mani. The protocol of the dis- putation was signed by both Augustine and Felix. Posidius, in the Life of Augustine ^ also states that Fe- lix, after the third meeting, acknowledged his error, and accepted tlic faith of the Church. — Herzog, Ueul- Eiicykl. iv, 350. (A. J. S.)
Felix {Pratensis), an eminent Jewish scholar of the IGth century', was born in Prato, Tuscany. He was the son of a rabbi, who taught him the Oriental lan- guages, lie travelled in Italy after the death of his father, and, becoming convinced of the truth of Chris- tianity, was baptized, and shortly after entered the or- der of St. Augustine. The date of his profession of Christianity is uncertain, but it probabh' took place be- fore 150G. He translated the Psalms into Latin, ded- icating the work to Leo X, and received authority from the pope to translate the other books of the Old Testa- ment. He revised the text of the two first Hebrew editions of the Bible published by Bomberg, carefullj' correcting the proofs himself. He died in 1557. His works are, 1. Psallerium ex kebrcfo ad verbuni fere tra- latum adjectis notationibus (Venice, 1515, 4to) : this version has been inserted in the Psalterium Sextuplex (Lyons, 1530, 8^■o) : — 2. Biblia sacra hebrcea, cum idra- que masord et targum, item cttm Commentariis rabbino- rum ; cunl et studio Felicia Pratensis, cum prafatione latina Leoni X nuncupatd (Venice, 1518, 4 vols. fol.). There are said to be versions of Job and other books of the Biijle hy Felix, but they have never been pub- lished.— Biographie Universelle, xiv, 273. (J. H. W.)
Felix, bishop of Urgel (Urgelis), in Spain, Otli cen- turv'. Of his earlj- life little is known. He became bishop of Urgel in 791. Elipandus of Toledo, who had been his pupil, consulted him as to the doctrine of the person of Christ, with regard to which he seems to have alreadj"^ embraced the so-called Adoption doc- trine. See Elipandus. " The answer of Felix was that Christ, with respect to his divine nature, was tru- h^ and properly the Son of God, begotten of the Father, and hence he was the true God, together with the Fa- ther and the Hoh' Spirit, in the imity of the Godhead. But that, with respect to his humanity, Christ was the Son of God by adoption, born of the Virgin by the will of the Father, and thus he was nominally God. Hence, according to the opponents of the Fclicians, it followed that there was a twofold Sonship in Christ, and that he must consist of two persons. The opin- ion of Felix was considered by the orthodox as noth- ing more than a development of the Nestorian heresy. The doctrine of Felix was adopted by Elipandus, who, being the primate of Spain, propagated it through the different provinces of Spain, while Felix himself con- tributed to spread it throughout Narbonne and other parts of Gaul" (Carwithen, Church History, p. 179). It appears to bo clear that Felix had read some of the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia (q. v.), in which a similar doctrine is taught. Felix seems, moreover, to have engaged in controversy with the Mohammedans, and, according to Alcuin, he wrote a Dialogue against them ; and it is not unlikely that he was led to the Adoptian view by his desire to render the, doctrine of the Incarnation less offensive to the Mohammedans. Alcuin (q. v.) entered into controversy with Felix, and we learn from him a large part of what is known