Fothergill, Samuel, an eminent and highly re- spected Quaker preaclier, travelled and preached in many parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and North America, and died in 1773. He wrote Remarls on an Address to the People called Quakers, etc. (17G1, 8vo) : —Reply to E. Owen on Water Baptism (17(53, 8vo):— Letters (1816). — Allibone, Dictionai'y of Authors, s. v. ; Rose, vii, 423. (J.W. M.)
Foucher, Paul, a learned French abbot, was born at Tours in 1704, and died at Paris in 1778. He stud- ied theology at the Sorbonne, but showed more fond- ness for the ancient languages. His chief work, Traite historique de la Religion des Pei-ses, inserted in the INIe- moirs of the Acadeni}- of Inscriptions (tom. xxv, xxvii, xxiXj xxxi, xxxix ; German translation by Kleuker,
Riga, 1781-3, 2 vols. 4to), combats the opinion of Hyde that the Persians had preserved natural religion and the worship of tlie true God. A supplement, after the appearance of Du Perron's Zend Avesta, retracts many of his previous opinions. His next most important woric, Recherches sur I'Origine et la Nature de la Relig- ion des Grecs, also inserted in the Memoirs of the Acad- emj', considers the gods of the Greek and Roman pan theon as only deified men, and claims a historical ba* sis for their myths. — Hoofer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. xviii, 284,285. (J.W. M.)
Fouclier de Chartres. See Fulcherius.
Foulis, Henry, was born about 1G38, and died in 1685. He pursued his studies at Oxford, was ordained for the ministry, but devoted himself to history. We have from him, History of the wicked Plots and Con- spiracies of our pretended Saints, etc. (Lond. 1662, and Oxford, 1674, fol.) : — History of the Romish Treasons and Usurpations, etc. (Oxford, 1671, fol.) ; and, accord- ing to ^Vatt, Cabala, or the History of the Conventicle Uncased (1664, 4to) : — Sermons, etc. — Allibone, Diet, of Authors, s. v. ; Wood, Athen. Oxon. (J.W. M.)
Foulques de Neuilly. See Fulco.
Foundling Hospitals are institutions for the reception and care of children, especially illegitimate ones, abandoned by their parents. They owe their origin, it is said, to the desire of preventing infanti- cide and tlie exposure of children. Among the an- cient Greeks and Romans, infanticide and abortion not only prevailed to a fearful extent, but were tolerated, nay, in certain cases, even sanctioned l)y the laws and by the opinions of philosophers (see Plato, De Repuh. V, 460, C. ; Aristotle, PoUt. vii, 16; Livy, Hist, xxvii, 37 ; Cicero, De Leg. iii, 8, et al.). The exposure of children was a still more prevalent custom, commend- ing itself, we may suppose, to the natural feelings of the parents as less cruel than infanticide, since it prom- ised a chance, at least, of saving life. The foundling became the slave of the individual or community at whose expense it was cared for and educated. To fa- cilitate the finding of exposed infants, places of public resort were chosen for the exposure, such as market- places, temples, road-crossings, wells, etc. In Athens the cynosarges, and in Rome the columna lacturia, were usually selected for this purpose. Frequently tokens {crepundici), as rings or other costly ornaments, or, in the case of poor parents, trinkets of small value, Avere deposited with the child, for the purpose of inducing some one to receive it, or as a means of identifying the child, should its parents afterwards wish to recover it. Gibbon, treating of the limitations of paternal author- it}' in his chapter on Roman jurisprudence (Jlist. iv, 344, N. Y. 1852), says: "The exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of antiquit}' ; it was sometimes prescrilicd, often permitted, almost al- ways practised with impunity hy nations who never entertained the Roman ideas of paternal power ; and the dramatic poets, who appeal to the human heart, represent with indifference a popular custom which was palliated by the motives of economy and compas- sion." As some relief to the dark shading of this pic- ture, and j'et a proof of its correctness, we maj' in- stance the praise which Strabo (lib. xvii) bestows on the Egyptians, and yElian ( Varice Ilistonce, ii, 7) on the Boeotian Thebes, because their laws and customs forbade the killing or exposure of children ; as also the statement of Tacitus {De Mor. Germ. 19), that the Germans rcclconed infanticide a crime. It is said, however, that they exposed children before the intro- duction of Christianit}'' among them.
Though the laws of Moses contained no express pro- visions on this subject, the Jews rightlj' interpreted their spirit as forbidding this unnatural conduct (see Tacitus, Hist, v, 5; Josephus, Contra Apion, ii, 24; Philo Judteus, De Legib. Special, ad prajcept. G et 7).
FOUNDLING HOSPITALS 630 FOUNDLING HOSPITALS
The teacliings of Christianit}-, by causing infanti- cide and cliild-cxposure to lie regarded as sins, gradu- ally wrought a change in the laws and customs in re- gard to them, tiiough the first Christian emperors did not venture to forbid exposure as a crime. Constan- tiue, Jiowever, termed it a sort of murder, and, prompt- ed pei'haps by the humane Lactantius, sought in liis decrees, A.D. 315, 3"22, 331, to prevent the murder, sale, giving in jiawn or exposure of children, by making provision out of the public treasury for those whose ])arcnts were too poor to support them (Codex Thcodos. lib. xi, tit. 27), and by depriving parents of the hope of recovering exposed children, or making good the expenses incurred hy those who had received and maintained them (Codex Theodos. lib. v, tit. 7, De Ex- jwsitis, 1. i, p. 487, ed. Eitter). The cruel custom was, however, not entirely prohibited until the latter half of the 4th century, when, under Valentinian and his colleagues, such murders were brought "within the letter and spirit of the Cornelian law" (Codex Justin. HI), iv, tit. 52). A further advance of opinion in the right direction was indicated by a special law of Jus- tinian, A.D. 529, wliich forbade the enslavement of foundlings (Codex Justin, lib. viii, tit. De Infant. Ex- jms. 1. iii).