Prev TOC Next
[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 291

 

B81 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Feasts and Festivals

over, 1891-98; L. Ducheene, Christian Worship, passim, London. 1904; J. G. Greenough, Christian Festivals, Manchester, 1908; DCA, i. 869-871 and especially ii. 20542059, where a list is given; KL, iv. 1391-1436; and literature under the articles on the several festivals, also under COMMON PRAYER, BOo% oF; CALENDAR, THE CHHIBTIAN.

FEATHERS' TAVERN ASSOCIATION: A society of English clergy and laymen formed in the later part of the eighteenth century to secure a revision of the English liturgy, named from the fact that the members held their meetings in the Feathers' Tavern in the Strand, London. An agitation for revision, started by John Jones with his anonymous Free and Candid Disquisitions (1749), had come to a head with the publication of Francis Blaekburne's The Confessional' (1766). As a corollary from Chillingworth's principle that the Bible is the religion of Protestants, Blackburne argued that Protestant ministers should not be required to subscribe to anything but the word of God. He would abolish subscription, not only to the liturgy and the thirty-nine articles, but to the creeds as well. This work was published anonymously; but in 1771 Blackburne spoke out openly. On July 17 of this year he and his friends held their first meeting at the Feathers' Tavern to consider the drawing of a petition to parliament. The gist of the petition agreed upon, which was an extreme statement of Protestant individualism, was, that the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed be stricken out, and that Protestants be allowed to interpret Scripture for themselves. This petition, opposed in a strong speech by Edmund Burke, was rejected by parliament by a vote of 217 to 71. The petition was signed by Deists, Asians, and Socinians; and of the 250 names it bore Blackburne's was the only one of much importance. Men like Bishop Edmund Law, Dr. Watson, and Dr. Paley, while in sympathy with the movement, declined to commit themselves. In 1773 and 1774 the subject was again brought up in parliament, but without any result. The Feathers' Tavern Association was short-lived and accomplished nothing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. A. Baxter, Church Hid. of England, p. 668, London, 1849; J. B. Marsden, His(. of Christian Churches and Sects, i. 314, ib. 1856; J. H. Overton and F. Melton, The English Church . . . 1714,-1800, pp. 209-211, 219, 252, ib , 1906.

FEATLEY, DANIEL: English controversialist and royalist; b. at Charlton (7 m. n.n.e. of Oxford), Oxfordshire, Mar. 15, 1582; d. at Chelsea, London, Apr. 17, 1645.. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A., 1601; M.A., 1605), and soon became a power for Protestantism. From 1610 to 1613 he was in Paris as chaplain to Sir Thomas Edmondes, the English ambassador. He was domestic chaplain to George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, and afterward chaplain of Charles I. In 1619 he became rector of Lambeth, and in 1627 of Acton. He was provost of Chelsea College in 1630. During the Civil War his property was plundered, and on two occasions he narrowly escaped assassination. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly and was the last of the Episcopal members to withdraw from that body. Soon afterward he was imprisoned, but was re-

leased a short time before his death. Among his voluminous works are, Aneilla pietatis, or the Handmaid to Private Devotion (2 pts., London, 1626), a favorite book with Charles I., and often reprinted, also in foreign languages; Mystica Clavis: a Key Opening Divers Difficult and Mysterious Texts of Holy Scripture (1636); Roma ruens, Rome's Ruin (1644), an anti-Catholic work written at the request of parliament while he was in prison; and The Dippers Dipt (1645), the result of a controversy with four Baptists at Southwark, Oct. 17, 1642.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The early account of Featley is by John Featley, Featlai paiingeneaia. with a succinct Hid. of his Life and Death (London), 1660. Consult: D. Neal, Hid. of the Puritans, iii. 47, 58, 78-79, 267-269, 4 vols., London, 1732-38, 5 vols., Bath, 1793-97; A. iL Wood, Atheno Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, iii. 156-169, 1254, London, 181320; DNB, xviii. 276-280 (where a full list of literature is given).

FEBRONIUS, JUSTINUS, FEBRONIANISX See HONTHEIM, JoHANN NICoLAUs.

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 flattering 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,

j and later touching every department of theology, although he gradually came to restrict himself to dogmatics and polemics. His principal works are: Historia eoloquii Emmendingensis (Rostock, 1694); Selectiorum ex universa lheologia controversiarum, recentiorum pr&ecipue, sylloge (1698); Philoealia sacra (1707); and the posthumous Lectiones theo logica (1722) and Compendiuni universm theologix (Zerbst, 1744). (B. SCHMIDT.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The " Life " of Fecht. by his son, was reproduced in Feehtii compendium, zerbst. 1740. Consult F. A. G. Tholuck, Lebeneaeupen der luthertachen Kirche

aus alien Stdnden. pp. 183 eqq., Berlin, 1859.

FEDERAL THEOLOGY. See COCCEIUS, JOHANNES, AND HIS SCHOOL.

FEINE, fai'ne, PAUL: Lutheran; b. at GoImsdorf (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 18S9. Then until