FONSECA: The name of three noted Roman Catholics.

1. Pedro da Fonseca, Portuguese Jesuit; b. at Cor tizada, Portugal, 1528; d. at Coimbra (110m. n.n.e. of Lisbon) Nov. 4,1599. On M%r.17,1548 he entered the Society of Jesus as a novice, and three years later attended the University of.Evora, where he soon became professor and,won the title of the "Portuguese Aristotle." After obtaining his doctor's degree in 1580, he gained rapid promotion, being appointed successively assistant to the general of the order, provincial visitor, and head of the house of the professed. Philip II. of Portugal appointed him on a committee for the reform of Portugal and Gregory XIII. entrusted him with affairs of the utmost importance while Lisbon owes to him, among other things, the establishment of the Irish College and the convent of St. Martha. The chief works of Da Fonseca are his Institutiones dialecticte (Lis-

338

bon, 1564) and his Commentarii in libros metaphysi corum Aristotelis Stagiritce (4 vols., Rome, 1577-89). He originated the theory of the " mediate knowl edge of God," or the knowledge of the potential or what might have occurred either by itself or under certain conditions, but did not-a theory later developed by his fellow Jesuit, Luis Molina (q.v.). 2. Antonio da Fonseca Soares: Portuguese Fran ciscan, poet and devotional author; b. at Vidigueira, (13 m. n.e. of Beja) June 25,1631; d. Oct. 29,1682, as rector of the theological seminary of Torres Vedras (25 m. n.w. of Lisbon). 3. Josh Maria da Fonseca: Portuguese Francis can historian; b. at Evora (75 m. s.e. of Lisbon) Dec. 3, 1690, founded the library of the monastery of Ara Caeli, continued L. Wadding's Annales Mino rum from 1731 to 1740 and died as bishop of Porto in 1752. ~

(O. Zöckler.)

FONT. See Baptistery.

FONTANUS, JOHANNES: Reformed preacher; b. at Zoller, in 'the duchy of Jülich, 1545; d. 1615. He studied theology at Heidelberg, especially under Zacharias Ureinus, who Latinized his name Piits, into Fontanus. In his twenty-third year he fin ished his studies and became teacher and preacher in the seminary of Neuhausen near Worms, but after the death of Elector Frederick III. was ex pelled by Ludwig VI., who was a Lutheran. Count John the Older of Nassau-Catzellelabogen re ceived him into his country, with other preachers exiled from the Palatinate, and made him preacher in Keppel in the principality of Siegen. But Fontanus remained here only a short time. When in the beginning of 1578 the estates of the province of Geldern and of the county of Ziitphenelected Count John as their viceregent, he took Fontanus along; and under the count's protection the latter organized a Reformed congregation in Arnhem and became its pastor. It grew rapidly under his able direction; and the influence of Fontanus extended over the Church of the whole province, and even beyond its borders. At the first general synod of the whole Reformed Church in the three principali ties of Jülich, Cleves, and Berg, held at Duisberg in 1610, with Dr. Abraham Scultetua, court preacher of Elector Frederick V. of the Palatinate, he ad vised on the organization of the congregations. When, in consequence of the Arminian movement, the secular authorities tried to interfere with the inner affairs of the Calvinistic Church, Fontanlta stood with great energy for the autonomy of the Church. He was also influential in bringing about a meeting of the strictly Reformed pastors in 1615 at Amsterdam to pass resolutions against the ad herents of Arminius, whom the government pro tected. He established a high school at Haderwyk and was its curator for fourteen years.

(F. W. Cuno.)

Bibliography: ; J. W . Staats fivers, J. Fontanua, Arnhem's Berate Predikant, Arnhem, 1882; A. J. van der As, Bio praphiaeh T--VoordenGoek, vi. 159 sqq., Haarlem, 1859; G. G. van Prinsterer, Archives ou Correapondance dnFdite de to Maiaon d'Oraage Nassau, lat ser., vols. vu., viii., 14 voh., Utrecht, 1835-62.