Ancient Fgyptian Feriy-boat for Funerals.
kinils, buoyed up by inflated bladders, calabashes, wicker-work, and even earthen or metallic vessels, have been used from the earliest ages on the Nile (Isa. xviii, 2) and Tigris, for transporting passengers or goods; and modern travellers frequently allude to similar modes of conveyance at the present day among tha Arabs. See Float. Similar scenes are depicted upon the Assyrian monuments (Layard's Nineveh, i, 27G). See Boat.
Ancient Assyrian Monarcli preparing to cross a River,
FeriTS, Johannes (originally Wild), a Franciscan monk and cathedral preacher at Mentz, lived in tlie loth century. He published a large number of ser- mons and Bildical conmientaries. Of the latter sev- eral were put on the Roman Index. Ferus clings to the literal meaning of the Scriptures, and avoids al- legorical interpretations. He recommends the read- ing of the Scriptures, and refutes the objection that tlie Scrijitures are obscure. He complains of the prev- alence of a Pharisaic spirit in the Koman Catholic Church, since there was in it a great deal of outward ceremonial, l)ut little truth. lie preaclied that repent- ance does not consist in outward works, such as fast- ing, in-aying, and giving alms, but that it begins, on the one hanil, with the announcement of the divine law, the consciousness of one"s sinfulness, and the fear of the judgment of God, and, on the other hand, with the announcement of the grace of God, and with con- fidence in the divine promise. Ferus thought that popes, emperors, councils, and tlio diets could do noth-
ing so long as the Church was full of errors and her
doctrines corrupt. He died in 1554. — Herzog, Real- i Newski, but was afterwards accused of atheism, and
Church, and was archdeacon and provost of the chap- ter of Ajaccio when the revolution broke out. The Bonaparte family being exiled from Corsica in 1793 for their opposition to Paoli and his British allies, Fesch followed them to Toulon, where his circumstan- ces compelled him to enter the commissariat of the army. In 1795 he was appointed to the commissariat of the Army of Ital}', just placed under the command of his nephew. Napoleon Bonaparte. Afler the 18th Brumaire he resumed his ecclesiastical functions, and was actively engaged in the negotiations concerning the Concordat of July 15, 1801. Napoleon made him archbishop of Lyons, and Fesch took possession of that see Aug. 15, 1802. Six months later he was created cardinal of St. Laurent in Lucina. In 180-4 he was appointed ambassador to Home, and was accompanied in this mission by Chateaubriand, who thus began his diplomatic career. He subsequentlj' decided Pius VII to come to Paris to crown the emperor. Napoleon ap- pointed him high almoner, commander of the Legion of Honor, and senator. Fesch paid great attention to the interests of his diocese, and established a high the- ological school. During the difficulties between Na- poleon and the pope he showed much consideration for the latter, declining in 1809 the archbishopric of Paris, which was offered him by the emperor, and even re- jecting the petitions of the chapter that he would at least administer the diocese. In 1811 Napoleon called a council to settle his difficulties with Pius VII, and appointed Fesch its president, in which capacity he seems not to have acted according to the views of the emperor, for he was sent back to his diocese. A letter of his addressed to the pope, then at Fontainebleau, _ caused him to be deprived of his stipend. He intro- duced into France the or- der of the "Brethren of the Christian Schools," found- ed at Lyons a college of home missiors, and was instrumental in procuring the recall of the Jesuits. When Napoleon I was sent to Elba, Fesch withdrew to Rome, where he was well received by Pius VII. Dur- ing the "hundred days"' he returned to France and into hisarchbishopric. Afterthe battle of Waterloo he re- turned to Rome, declining, however, to resign his office as archbishop of Lyons. He died INIay 13, 1839. See Biof). du Clerge contemporain ; L'Ami de In Rdigimi; L'Abbe Lyonnet, le Cardinal Fesch, frar/juents bior/ra- phigites (Lyon, 1841, 2 vols. 8vo) ; La Verili stir le car- dimd Fesch (Lyon, 1842, 8vo) ; 'Y\i\ers,nis1.du Consulat et de V Empire, t. xiii ; Hoefer, Xouik Biog. Genirale, xvii, 572.
Fessler, Ignaz Aurelius, a Hungarian histori- an, Avas born at Czorendorf, Lower Hungary, in July, 175G. He became a Capuchin in 1773, and in 1784 or 1780 was appointed professor of Oriental languages and hcrnieneutics in the University of Lemberg. He afterwards joined the freemasons, and withdrew from the Capuchins. In 1787 the representation of a trag- edy of his, entitled Sidney, which was denounced as impious, obliged him to retire to Silesia; here he be- came tutor to prince Carolath's sons. In 1791 Fess- ler became a Protestant. After remaining a long time in Berlin he went to Russia, and became professor of Oriental languages in the Academy of St. Alexander
£nci/kop. xvi, 141. (A. J. S.)
lost his situation.. After being for a while a member
Fesch, Joseph, a Frencb- cardinal, was born in of the Legislative Assembly, he went in 1817 to Sa-
Ajaccio, Corsica, Jan. R, 1703. His father's second repta, the head-(iHarters of the Moravians in Russia,
wife was the mother of Laetitia Bonajiarte. He stud- In 1820 he became superintendent of the evangelical