FRANKFORT, SYNOD OF, 794: A gathering convened by Charlemagne at Frankfort, attended, according to later writers, by 300 bishops from Germany, Gaul, England, Spain, and Italy, and two delegates of the pope. Fifty-six canons are ascribed to it, the most important being the first, condemning Felix and Elipandus, the leaders of the Adoptionists; and the second, condemning the decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea (787) concerning image-worship, which had.been accepted by Pope Adrian I. See Adoptionism; Caroline Books; Images and Image-worship, II.

Bibliography: Hefele, Conoiliengeschichte, iii. 678-693; Mansx, Concilia, vol. xiii.

FRANKINCENSE: An aromatic substance made of the resin secured from the bark of different trees, particularly Boswedlia serrata. The Hebrew term is lebhonah, and the Arabic cognate is luban; the term frankincense means "free (-burning) incense." The gum is a product of South Arabia and was known to commerce as early at least as the seventeenth century B.C.; it was never cultivated in Palestine, and the word. for the so-called dark frankincense from Lebanon is usually translated by the word "myrrh." The trade in frankincense was important; there was a deity whose significance was due to his function as a protector of the industry and the growth of the material; it is believed that the name Ethiopia comes from the word meaning "collector of frankincense." The gathering of the raw material was associated with peculiar customs, the product being regarded as the blood of a tree the soul of which was a divinity. The beat kind was that known as masculine frankincense (Pliny, Hist. mat., xii. 32). The substance became an article of luxury; wine was spiced with it, it figured in the presents to kings (cf. Matt. ii. 11), and it was burned at their burial (II Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5). It was indispensable at heathen worship (II Kings xxiii. 5; Isa. lxv. 3; Jer. xliv. 17 sqq.). For its employment among the Hebrews see Incense.

(R. Zehnpfund.)

Bibliography: G. E. Post, Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai, Beirut, 1896; atade, in ZATW, iii (1883), 143 sqq., 168 sqq.; F. Hommel, Altisraelitische Ueberlieferungen, pp. 279 sqq., Munich, 1897; idem, Aufsatze and Abhandlungen, vol. ii. passim, ib. 1900; idem, Die Insel der Seligen, pp. 12, 18, ib. 1901; DB, 1 65, 469; EB, 1 1563-64; JE, v. 494-495.