flowers terminal, most of them having under the calj'X leafy involucres which often half surround the flower. The" fruit is composed of live or six capsules, which are compressed, oWont,', pointed, sometimes said to be hornlike, united below, and divided into several cells, and enclosing numerous angular, scabrous, black-col- ored seeds. From the nature of the capsules, it is ev- ident that, when thej' are ripe, the seeds might easily' be shaken out by moderate blows of a stick, as is re- lated to have been the case with the ketsach of the text. See Threshing.
Besides the N. sativa, there is another species, the iV. arvensis, which may be included under the term ketsach ; but the seeds of this last-named plant are less aromatic than the other. The}' are annual plants be- longing to the natural order Jianuncidacece, and sub- order lldleborecE. The nigdla forms a singular excep- tion among the fixmih' to which it belongs, inasmuch as they are terrible poisons, while the nigella produces seeds that are not only wholesome and aromatic, but are in great reputation for their medicinal qualities. See Aromatics.
2. In Ezek. iv, 9, "fitches" are mentioned among the materials of the bread the prophet was bidden to » make, but there it represents the Heb. word STi^SS, kusse'meth. This word is incorrecth' translated in A. V. "rye" (q. v.) in Exod. ix, 32, and Isa. xxviii, 25; but in the latter place, as in Ezek. iv, 9, we have the marginal reading "spelt," which is the true rendering of the word. The root of rrSS is CG3, to shear, and the species of corn to which it gives a name is the Ti-itkum spelta of LinnsBus — in Greek L,ta ; in Latin far and ador. " Spelt has a four-leaved blunted calix, small blossoms, witli little awns, and a smooth, slender ear (as it were shorn), the grains of which sit so firmly in the husks that they must be freed from them by pe- culiar devices ; it grows about as high as barley, and is extensively cultivated in the southern countries of Europe, in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, in more than one species. The Sept. translate it by IWvim, in Plin}' arinca, which corresponds with the French Tiguet ; and Herodotus (ii, 3G) observes that it was used by the Egyptians for baking bread" (Kalisch on Exod. ix, 32). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v. See Cereals.
Five-mile Act, or Oxford Act, an act of the British Parliament, passed in 1GC5, which imposed an oath on all nonconformists, binding them at no time to endeavor any alteration of the government in either Church or State ; and ordering that nonconforming min- isters should neither live in, nor come within ^re miles (except in crossing the road) of any borough, city, or corporate town, or within five miles of anj' parish, town, or place in which they had been, since the Act of Oblivion, parson, vicar, or lecturer, under a penalt}' of fort}' pounds, or six months' imprisonment, and be- ing rendered incapable of teaching any school, or tak- ing any boarders to be taught or instructed.- — Baxter, Church Histori) of England, ii, C32 ; Neal, History of the Puritans (Harpers' ed.), ii, 255.
Five Points, tlie five doctrines controverted be- tween the Calvinists and Arminians, viz. predestina- tion, extent of the atonement, grace, free-will, and final perseverance. Tlic qidnquarticular controversy in Eng- land was a dispute which arose at Cambridge in 1594 respecting the above points. In 1G26 two fruitless conferences were held on these points; and in 1G30 bishop Davenant preached at court on these disputed matters, and thereby gave great offence to Charles I. The next year the controversy was revived at Oxford
somewhat notable consular lioman of the same name (see Smith's Diet, of Class. Biogr. s. v.), was consul with Octavianus in A.D. 51 (Tacitus, Ann. i, 54; Sue- ton. Vit. 3). While proconsul of Asia Minor, he pro- mulgated the emperor's decrees to the provincial mag- istrates in favor of the Jews (Joseph. Ant. xvi, G, 3-6) ; and when prseses of Syria he befriended Herod Agrij)- pa till influenced by Aristobulus (ib. xviii, 6, 2-3).
Flacians, a name given to those who adhered, in the controversies among the German reformers, to Matthias Flacius (q. v.).
Flacius {Flach), Matthias, also called Illyri- cus from his native country, an eminent Lutheran re- former, was born at Albona, in Illyria, about 1520. At sixteen he proposed entering a convent, but Baldo Lu- petino, the provincial of the Franciscans, who had im- bibed Protestant tendencies, advised him to study the- ology in the universities of Germany. Accordingly he went to Basle in 1539, to Tubingen in 1540, and in 1541 to Wittenberg, where he gave private lessons in Greek and Hebrew. In his travels he became ac- quainted with Grynaius, Leonard Fuchs, Eber, and finally with Luther himself, whose zealous disciple he soon became. He was after a while appointed pro- fessor of O.-T. literature at "VA'ittenberg, but, driven away by the issue of the Smalcaldic War in 1547, he went to Brunswick. Kecalled by prince Maurice, he came back, but, having opposed Melancthon's Ltipsic Interim [see Adiaphora and Interim], he went to Hamburg, and thence to Magdeburg, whence he pub- lished several writings against the Interim, though in other points, especially in the Osiandrian controversy, he sided with Melancthon. He was also for several years engaged iu theological controversies with Major, Strigel, Schwenkfeld, etc. See Synergistic Contro- versy. About the same time he projected the Mag- deburg Centuries [see Centuries], of which great work he was the life and soul. In 1557 he was made profess- or of the newly-organized University of Jena, which became the stronghold of strict Lutheranism, and where he was chiefly instrumental in the drawing up of the Sdehsisehe Confutationsschrift, to enforce Lutheran views. It, however, proved injurious both to the uni- versit}' and to himself, as it led the duke to estalilish a censorship, to which Flacius and his colleagues were un- willing to submit, and were dismissed in 15G1. He had made himself especially odious by the rash statement (in his discussion with Strigel at Weimar, 1500) that original sin is the very sulistance of man in his fallen state. He was accused, therefore, of Maniclia;ism. Af- ter spending five years in Eegensburg, he accepted a call to Antwerp, and from thence to Frankfort and Strasburg. Obliged to leave the latter city on account of his opinions, he returned to Frankfort, where he died in the hospital in 1575.