FEBRONIUS, JUSTINUS, FEBRONIANISM. See
HONTHEIM, JOHANN NlCOLAUS.
FECHT, feHt, JOHANNES: German Lutheran, an opponent of Pietism; b. at Sulzberg, in the Breisgau, Dec. 25, 1636; d. at Rostock May 5, 1716. He studied at Durlach and Strasburg, and in 1661 began a wandering student life of five years, visiting a number of German universities and residing for a considerable time at Wittenberg and Giessen. In 1666 he was recalled to Sulzberg, and in 1669 was appointed court chaplain and professor of theology. He was then superintendent in Durlach until the capture of the city by the French in 1689, when he fled to Calw, and met there the duke of Mecklenburg, who invited him to Rostock. He removed to that city in 1690 and remained there as superintendent and professor until his death, enjoying the utmost esteem and refusing nattering calls to other universities. He was a genuine representative of the conservative theology of the seventeenth century, and, despite his later reputation as an impassioned polemist, was at heart a man of peace in the eyes of his contemporaries. His opposition to Pietism was sincere, nor did he fail to respect its good qualities. He was a prolific writer, beginning with philosophy and classics, and later touching every department of theology, although he gradually came to restrict himself to dogmatics and polemics. His principal works are: Historia coloquii Emmendingensis (Rostock, 1694); Selectiorum ex universa theologia controversiarum, recentiorum prcecipue, sylloge (1698); Philocalia sacra (1707); and the posthumous Lectiones theologicce (1722) and Compendium universes theologian (Zerbst, 1744). (K. Schmidt.)
Bibliography: The " Life " of Fecht, by his son, was reproduced in Fechtii compendium, Zerbst, 1740. Consult F. A. G. Tholuck, Lebenszeugen der lutherischen Kirche aus alien Standen, pp. 183 sqq., Berlin, 1859.
FEDERAL THEOLOGY. See Cocceius, Johannes, and his School.
FEINE, fai'ne, PAUL: Lutheran; b. at Golmsdorf (5 m. n.e. of Jena) Sept. 9, 1859. He studied in Jena and Berlin and, after teaching in a gymnasium in the former city (1884-86), was private tutor in a noble family until 1889. Then until
Felgenhauer Felix and Festus
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
1S93 he taught in a gymnasium at Gottingen, and in 1S93 became privat-docent in the university of the same city. In 1894 he was appointed professor of New Testament exegesis in the Evangelical theological faculty at Vienna and in 1907 accepted a call to Breslau. He has written Eine vorkanonische U eberlieferung des Lukas im Evangelium und Apostelgeschichte (Gotha, 1891); Der Jakobusbrief (Eisenach, 1893); Das gesetzesfreie Evangelium des Paulus (Leipsic, 1898); Jesus Christus und Paulus (1902); Die Emeuerung des paulinischen Christentums durch Luther (1903); Der Romerbrief (Gottingen, 1903); Das Christentum Jesu und das Christentum der Apostel in ihrer Abgrenzung gegen die Religionsgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1904); and Paulus als Theologe (Berlin, 1906).
FELGENHAUER, fel'gen-hau"er, PAUL: Theosophist and pantheistic mystic; b. at Putschwitz (district of Podersam, 45 m. w.n.w. of Prague), Bohemia, Nov. 16, 1593, old style; d. not before 1660. His father was a Lutheran minister of Putschwitz. He studied theology at Wittenberg and became deacon there in the Schlosskirche. Being obliged to leave Wittenberg soon afterward, he returned to Bohemia and circulated his remarkable views in writings, affirming in his Chronologie (1620) that the world was created 4,234 years before the birth of Christ, and that the end was immediately at hand. Persecutions of the Protestants compelled him to leave Bohemia. He was at Amsterdam in 1623, then is found in the vicinity of Bremen, again in Holland, and lastly at Hamburg as late as 1660. His manifold chiliastic and mystical tracts, wherein he described the existing Church as an obdurate Babel, were eagerly read by people of the lower classes. Theologians more than once attacked his doctrines, particularly Georg Rost, court preacher of Giistrow, and the clergy of Hamburg, Bremen, Liibeck, and Liineburg. He was imprisoned for a time by the authorities of Celle and Hanover. It is not known when or where he died. A partial list of his numerous writings is in Adelung, pp. 400 sqq. Carl Berthead.
Bibliography: C. H. Starke, Lubeca lutherano-evangelica, Hamburg, 1724; G. Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, ii. 373 sqq., Schaffhausen, 1741; [J. C. Adelung,] Geschichte der menschlichen Narrheit, iv. 388-407, Leipsic 1787; ADB, viii. 278-279.
FELICISSIMUS. See Cyprian, § 2.
FELIX: The name of four popes and one antipope, who is sometimes counted as a fifth pope.
Felix I.: Pope 269-274. He succeeded Dionysius, becoming pope on Jan. 5, 269. The only positive fact known of his pontificate is the statement of Eusebius (Hist. eccl., VII., xxx. 19; cf. 23) that in the controversy in Antioch instigated by Paul of Samosata (see Monarchianism, III.) the Emperor Aurelian decided that the church building should be given to " those to whom the bishops of Italy and of the city of Rome should adjudge it." From this it is probable that Felix exchanged litterw communicationis with Domnus of Antioch, and that he expressed his opposition to Paul of Samosata at greater length in a letter to Maximus of Alexandria. The latter document was tampered
with in an Apollinarian sense at the end of the fourth century, and in this shape was considered by the Council of Ephesus (431). According to the Depositio episcoporum (354) Felix died a natural death, and was buried in the catacomb of St Calixtus, Dec. 30, 274. (H. Bohmer.)
Bibliography: Catalogus Liberianus, ed. X. Mommsen in MGH, Auct. ant., ix (1891), 75; Liber pontificalia, ed Duchesne, i. 158, Paris, 1886; idem, ed. T. Mommsen in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 37; Jaffe\ Regesta, i. 23; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche bis Leo I pp. 365-369, Bonn, 1881; DCB, ii. 479-480.
Felix II.: Pope 355-358. When Liberius (q.v.) was banished at the end of 355 by the Emperor Constantius, whose policy he had opposed, the Roman clergy took an oath not to recognize another bishop as long as Liberius lived; but the oath was soon forgotten, and the Archdeacon Felix was persuaded to become bishop. He was consecrated by three Arian bishops, including Acacius of Caesarea, in the imperial palace, and, though not an Arian himself, he supported the policy of external union favored by Constantius and held communion with the Arians. The majority of the Roman clergy were won over by imperial favors to support Felix, but the people remained true to Liberius and refused allegiance to the former. Constantius on coming to Rome, Apr. 28, 357, found so much discord that he expressed his willingness to restore Liberius, after he had agreed to sign the third Sirmian formula of the summer of 358 and to rule jointly with Felix. But on the approach of Liberius to the city, Felix was driven out, and, after unsuccessful attempts to regain his position, died at Porto Nov. 20, 365. From the sixth century on a curiously inaccurate legend grew up about his name which made him a venerated saint and martyr. The oldest evidences for this are the Liber -pontificalis, the Acta Felicis, and the Acta Eusebii. Dollinger thinks this the result of a confusion with an African bishop and martyr of the same name, whose remains were translated to the same spot on the Via Aurelia where later the church named after Pope Felix was erected. (H. Bohmer.)
Bibliography; Sources are: Faustinus and Marcellinus, Libellus precum ad imperatores, in MPL, xiii. 81; Athanasius, Arian History, chap. 75, in NPNF 2 ser., iv. 298; Socrates, Hist, eccl., ii. 37, in NPNF, 2 ser., ii. 61-65; Sozomen, Hist, eccl., iv. 11 sqq., in NPNF, 2 ser., ii. 306 sqq.; Theodoret, Hist, eccl., ii. 13, in NPNF, 2 per., iii. 77-79; Jerome, Be vir. ill., chap, xcviii.; Liber pontificate, ed. Duchesne, i. 211, Paris, 1886; idem, ed. T. Mommsen, in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 80-81. Consult: J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche bis Leo I., pp. 471 sqq., Bonn, 1881; DCB, ii. 480-4S2; Bower, Popes, i. 37; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 104- 105. On the Felix fable consult the Acta Felicis. ed. E. Baluze, Miscellanea, i. 33 sqq., Paris, 1761; J. J- I. Dollinger, Die Papstfabeln des Mittelalters, pp. 126-145, Munich, 1863, Eng. transl., Fables, pp. 183-209, New York, 1872.
Felix III. : Pope 483-492. He was the son of a Roman presbyter of the same name, and was probably attached as a deacon to the Church of St. Paul when, in the beginning of Mar., 4S3, with the assent of Odoacer, he was chosen pope. Apparently he had been married before this and had several children, from one of whom Gregory the Great was descended. His principal importance