Ferrara, Council of {Concilium Ferrariense), falsely styled oecumenical. Eugene VI having pub- lished a bull Sept. IS, 1437, for the transfer of the Coun- cil of Basle (q. v.) to Ferrara, a few bishops and abbots assembled Jan. 8, 1-138, viz. cardinal Julian, who pre- sided, five archbishops, eighteen bishops, ten abbots, find some generals of the monastic orders ; of these bishops only four had left the Council of Basle, which continued its sitting, justly regarding the pope's bull as illegal, and passing sentence of suspension on him Jan. 24, 1438. Charles VII, indeed, forbade any of his subjects to attend at Feirara. On Jan. 10 the first sit- ting was held, in which the translation of the council from Basle was pronounced to be canonical, and there- fore the oecumenical Council of Ferrara lawfully as- sembled. Pope Eugene presided in tlie second ses- sion, INIarch 15, at the head of seventy-two bishops, and promulgated a decree against the fathers at Basle. The Greek emperor, John Manuel Palcologus, and the patriarch of Constantinople, Joseph II, arrived Feb. 9 at Venice, and were received with great pomp, to- gether with Mark, archbishop of Ephesus ; twenty-one other prelates (among whom was Isidore, a Russian bishop, and Bessarion of Nictea), and other ecclesias- tics, amounting in all to seven hundred persons. Be- fore holding the first session with the Greeks, a scheme was drawn up of the different questions to be debated : 1. The procession of the Holy Spirit; 2. the addition "fliogue'^ to the creed; 3. purgatory, and the inter- mediate state ; 4. the use of unleavened bread in the holy Eucharist ; 5. the authority of the Roman see and the primacy of the pope. These questions were deljated in thirteen sessions, up to the sixteenth, Jan. 10, 1439, when it was proposed to transfer the council from Ferrara to Florence, and, this being agreed to, publication was made of the change. — Labbe, Concil. xiii, 1-222, 825-lOSl; Landon, Manual of Councils, p. 242; Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent, xv, pt. ii, ch. ii, § 13; Mansi, t. xxix, xxxi; Ffoulkes, r/»'w^e?i- d^yms Divisions, Lond. 1867, pt. ii, ch. vii. See Flor- ence, Council of.
Ferrara (Renata), Duchesse de, celebrated for her virtues and for her attachment to the Reformation, the daughter of Louis XII and Anne of Bretagne, was born at Blois Oct. 25, 1510. In 1527 she was married to Hercule d'Este, duke of Ferrara and Jlodena. She is said to have been very learned, excelling in mathe*
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matics, especially in astronomy. Her husband died in 1559, and the next year she left Italy on account of her religion, and returned to France, where she was permitted to profess the Protestant faith. She resided at Montargis, and there gave protection to as many as were persecuted till she was forced to desist. Dur- ing the civil war in P'rance she fed and maintained in her castle a great number of Protestants who had fled to her for refuge. She interceded strongly for the prince of Conde when he was imprisoned at Orleans in tlie tims of the young king Francis, but was after- wards displeased with him, because neither she nor her ministers approved of the Protestants taking up arms. Siie died at Montargis June 12, 1575, in full profession of the Reformed faith, though the Jesuit Le Laboureux seeks to show that she abjured lier religion. — Bayle, Dictionary^ ed. Des Maizeaux (Lond. 1736), iii, 30.
Ferrari, Francisco Behnardino, an Italian ar- chffiologist, was born at Milan in 157G. Entering the Congregation of St. Ambrose, he studied philosophy and divinity, as well as the Latin and Greek langua- ges, and was admitted doctor. Bon'omao, archbishop of ^lilan, appointed him to travel into various parts of Europe to purchase the best books and MSS. to form a library at Milan. Ferrari passed over part of Italy and Spain, and collected a great number of books, Avliich laid the foundation of the famous Ambrosian Library. About 1638 he was appointed director of the College of the Nobles, lately erected at Padua, which office he discharged two years, and then, on ac- count of indisposition, returned to Milan. He died at ]\Iilan Feb. 3, 1669. Among his writings are, De An- (iquo Eccles. Epislolarum CciiTe llbri tres (Jlilan, 1613): - — De Rilu Sacraruin Ecdesice CathoUcm condonum Uhri ires (Milan, 1620 ; Utrecht, 1692, cum pr.Bfatione Jo- annis Georgii GraBvii) : — De Veterum acdamationibus et plausu lihri sejriem (]\Iilan, 1627; also in vol. vi of Gnevius's Thesaur. Antiq. Rom.'). His writings are full of learning; he is very judicious in his conjectures, and exact in his quotations. — Du Pin, Bihl. des Au- teurs Ecdes. xvii, 109 (Amst. 1711).
Ferraris, Lucins, an Italian divine, author of a large encyclopedic work, entitled Promta bibliotheca canonica, juridica, moralls, tkeologica, necnon ascetica, polemica, mbridstica, historica (edit, noviss. Venetae, 1782, 10 vols. 4to). A new edition, revised and en- larged, was published by Migns (Paris, 1866, 8 vols, royal 8vo).
Fen-er, Bonifacio, brother of St. Vincent Ferrer, and prior of the Cartliusian monaster}' of Portaceli, in Valencia. He translated tlie wliole Scriptures into the Valencian or Catalonian dialect. This transla- tion, which was printed at Valencia in 1478, although it was the work of a Roman Catholic author, and liad undergone the examination and correction of the in- quisitor James Borrell, had scarcely made its appear- ance wlien it was suppressed by the Inquisition, and consigned to the flames. He died in tlie year 1417. — M'Crie, R'f.irination in Spain, ch. v.