FRAYSSINOUS, DENIS, COUNT OF: French Roman Catholic; b. at Curi6res (200 m. s.w. of Lyons), Department of Aveyron, May 9, 1765; d. at St. Geniez, also in Aveyron, Dec. 12, 1841. He was originally intended for the law, but his own inclinations led him into theology. After the sign ing of the concordat of 1801 (see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls, Vi. 1, § 1) he became the leader of a great agitation against the materialism and atheism of current philosophy. Although he was a zealous royalist, the government offered no opposition to him, even making him au inspector in the Paris Academy and giving him a canonry in Notre Dame. Finally in 1809 his discourses at the Church of St. Sulpice were prohibited; but they were resumed on the restoration of the Bour bons. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, Frayssinous fled to the mountains of Aveyron, where he lived till he was recalled by Louis XVIII. In quick succession he now became grand almoner, court preacher, titular bishop of Hermopolis, grand officer of the Legion of Honor, a count and a peer of France. As minister of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs he supported Charles X. in his plan to make Jesuitism dominant in legislation. Deprived of his offices by the July Revolution, he went into exile with Charles X. (1830), but re turned to France in 1838, living thenceforth in retirement. His principal works are, Les' Vrais Prineipes de liglise gallicane (Paris, 1818); and Defense de Christianisme (3 vols., 1825, new ed., 2 vols.,1889; Eng. transl., A Defence of Christianity, 2 vols., London, 1836).

(C. Pfender.)

Bibliography: F. Guizot, M6ditations sur d'Etat actuel de la religion chrétienne, pp. 66-70, Paris, 1866; Lichtenberger, ESR, vol. v.

FRECHT, freest, MARTIN: German Reformer; b. at Uhn 1494; d. at Tübingen Sept. 14, 1556. He was the son of a councilor and master of the shoemakers' gild. He matriculated at Heidel berg in 1513 for theology and philosophy, and was dean of the faculty of arts from 1523 to 1526, pro fessor of theology after 1529, and rector of the university and provisor domus Dionysianee in 1530-31. He ranked as one of the leading humanists and discovered in the monastery of Eberbach the Saxon chronicle of Widukind, which he published at Basel in 1532. He listened with enthusiasm to Luther's disputation at Heidelberg (April 26, 1518), and was a friend of Brenz, Isenmann, Loner, Butzer, Schnepf, Blaurer, Capito, and Œcolampa dius, while in 1524 he became acquainted with Melanchthon. In 1531 he was recalled to Ulm to teach the Bible to the clergy, monks and students, and became pastor of the church at Ulm in 1533. His sensitive nature and his lack of practical experience in church work hindered him greatly, but he labored faithfully to promote the interests of his struggling church by synods and visitations. The conflicts with the enthusiasts, Anabaptists, Sebastian Frank, and Caspar Schwenckfeld (qq.v.) who lived in Ulm, and together with the evident need of an understanding

between the Protestants of northern and southern Germany, impelled Frecht to join Butzer in approaching Luther. He was a colleague of Butzer in the conference with the South Germans at Constance (Dec. 15, 1534), and of Butzer and Blaurer in the disputation with Schwenckfeld at Tübingen (May 28, 1535), while he also attended the Wittenberg Concordia in 1536, the deliberations at Frankfort in 1539, the convention at Schmalkald in 1540 (where he secured the condemnation of Frank and Schwenckfeld), and the conferences at Worms in 1540, and Regensburg in 1541 and 1546. In 1543 he made peace between the ministers at Biberaeh, and three years later he was sent to Dillingen by the Schmalkald League to begin a reformistic propaganda in the diocese of Augsburg. The disastrous termination of the Schmalkald war, however, obliged him to return to Ulm, but the rejection of the Interim exasperated the emperor, and on Aug. 16, 1548, Frecht and other ministers of Ulm were imprisoned in the fortress of Kirchheim. He was released, though on hard terms, Mar. 3, 1549, and then went to Nuremberg, which he left for Blaubeuren, where he lived under the protection of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg. In 1551 Duke Christopher appointed him inspector of the theological seminary at Tübingen, where he lectured on Matthew and Genesis. In the following year he became professor of theology, and rector in 1555.

G. Bossert.

Bibliography: G. Berplllus, Epitaphia, pp. 67 sqq., Regensburg, 1707-10; L. M. Mechlin, Memoria theologorum Wirtembergeneium, i. 42, supplement, pp. 36 sqq., Ulm, 1709-10; A. Weyermann, Nachrichten von Gelehrten . . aus Ulm, Ulm, 1798; T. Keim, Reformation der Reiehatadt Ulm, Stuttgart, 1851; Keidel, in Württembergische Viertel¢ahrshefte, 1866, pp. 204-223; the letters of Freeht in Wgrttembergische Vierteliahrshefte, 1881, pp. 252-255, 1882, pp. 251-265; G. Bossert, Dae Interim in Württemberg, Halle, 1895; S. Fischer, Chronik von Ulm, ed. K. G. Vesenmeyer, Ulm, 1896; ADB, vii. 325-327.