RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Faustus of Eiez Feasts and Festivals
Lauden, in Lower Languedoc, and accompanied Francois de la Baume, bishop of Halicarnassus, on a tour of visitation to Cochin-China, as his secretary and confessor. The bishop arrived at Macao in 1738 and was detained and made a captive there, at the instigation of Portuguese Jesuits who resented an investigation of their intrigues against the French missionaries. In Mar., 1739, the bishop was able to continue his journey and after two months landed in Cochin-China. He admonished the missionaries to forget their quarrels and restore harmony. Complaints were brought against the Portuguese Jesuits who had excommunicated many on the pretense of Jansenism, and when the bishop opposed the Jesuits, he was accused of Jansenism himself and of disturbing the public peace. Letters from Rome, addressed to him, were intercepted and never reached him. As he saw that peace was impossible, he divided the provinces between the Jesuits, the French missionaries, and the Franciscans; but sorrow and ill treatment (or poison) caused his death in 1741. Favre took his place, and not being able to prevail against the Jesuits, went to Rome to give an account of his visitation. Thence he returned to his native country where he published in 1746 his Lettres edifiantes et curieuses sur la visite apostolique de M. de la Baume a la Cochinchine en I'annee 171fi, giving a report of Jesuit misdemeanors and intrigues. The book was condemned by the bishop of Lausanne and publicly burned at Freiburg, and the Jesuits bought up every copy they could. (J. Pfotenhatjer.)
Bibliography : M. Miilbauer, Katholische Missionen in Ostindien, pp. 171 sqq., 262 sqq., Freiburg, 1852; G. Warneck, Protestantische Beleuchtung der romischen Angriffe auf die evangelische Heidenmission, pp. 388 sqq., Gutersloh, 1884-85.
FAWCETT, JOHN: English Baptist; b. at Lidget Green, near Bradford (10 m. w. of Leeds), Yorkshire, Jan. 6, 1740; d. at Brearley Hall, near Wainsgate (14 m. s.w. of Leeds), July 25, 1817 Converted under George Whitefield's preaching at sixteen, he joined the Baptist Church at Bradford in 1759, and in 1764 entered the Baptist ministry. He settled in the parish of Halifax and remained there till the end of his life, preaching first at Wainsgate, then at Hebden Bridge, where a new church was built for him in 1777. In 1772 he declined a call to London as the successor of Dr. John Gill (q.v.), and in 1793 the presidency of the Baptist Academy at Bristol. In addition to his work as a pastor and author, he conducted an academy at Brearley Hall, and also, for a short time, an institution for the training of Baptist ministers. Of his Hymns (Leeds, 1782), numbering 166, the best known are, " How precious is the Book divine," " Thus far my God hath led me on," and " Blest be the tie that binds." He also published a number of works on practical religion, including, Advice to Youth (Leeds, 1786); andAn Essayon Anger (1787); also The Royal Devotional Family Bible (2 vols., London, 1811).
Bibliography: J. Fawcett, The Life, Ministry, and Writings of . John Fawcett, London, 1818 (by his son); DNB, xviii. 257-258; S. W. Duffie d, English Hymns, pp 73-74, New York, 1886; Julian, Hymnology, p. 373.
FEAST OF THE ASS. See Ass, Feast of the.
FEAST OF FOOLS. See Fools, Feast of. FEASTS AND FESTIVALS.
I. Hebrew.
Terms and Underlying Principles (§1). Provisions of the Priest Code (§ 2). Comparison of Other Codes (§ 3). Order of Development of the Codes (§ 4). Changes in Character of Festivals (§ 5). II. Christian.
Sunday and Sabbath (§ 1).
Annual Feasts (§ 2).
The Protestant Churches (§ 3).
1. Hebrew: To express the idea of religious festival , the Hebrew has two words, mo'edh and hagh (Ar. hajj). Mo'edh denotes a set time for coming together, and can be employed for any festival (Ezek. xlv. 17) except Sabbaths and new moons (II Chron. viii. 13; cf. Isa. i. 14). Hagh means particularly a festal dance, comes to mean festival
in general, and is then applied to the i. Terms three great feasts at which pilgrimage and was made to the great sanctuary, and Underlying particularly to the feast of booths Principles, (tabernacles) in autumn. No single principle determines the character of feasts in the Old Testament. The feast of new moon and perhaps the Sabbath are lunar, and upon the sabbath reckoning in larger cycles depend the Sabbatical and jubilee years. The feasts of unleavened bread, of weeks and of tabernacles are determined by the season, at least on their agrarian side. The Passover is a historical-religious commemoration, into connection with which the feasts of unleavened bread and of booths are brought, and in post-Biblical times Pentecost was brought into this circle. The same is true of Purim and the feast of dedication. The day of atonement is purely religious with no fast ties to any special date. The festivals can be considered also in their relations to the family, to sanctuaries, to communities or to the central sanctuary.
For a historical review of the festal system the priestly document furnishes the basis, since it is the most developed. The classical passages are Lev. xxiii.; for the Passover Ex. xii. 3-20, 43-50; for the Sabbatical and jubilee years Lev. xxv.; the institution of the offerings is in Num. xxviii.-xxix. The result of these enactments is as follows : Through the twofold daily offering each day becomes a religious festival and to this daily offering the special offerings of particular occasions are additions (Num. xxviii. 3 sqq.). The Sabbath (q.v.) is a day consecrated to God with absolute rest, convocation at the sanctuary, and special offerings (Num. xxviii. 9). The Passover is a house festival celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month in commemoration of the immunity of the Israelites in the final Egyptian plague; the paschal lamb is eaten with unleavened
2. Provi- bread and its blood is sprinkled on sions of the the door-posts. The feast of un- Priest Code, leavened bread begins on the fifteenth
day of the first month and continues seven days; during the whole period special offerings are made, and the first and last days are rest days with special convocations. Ex. xii. 17 brings it into connection with the Exodus, Lev.
Feasts and Festivals