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RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

with him, and intended to raise him to the see of Oxford. On hearing Field preach for the first time, the king had exclaimed, " This is a field for God to dwell in." Thomas Fuller called him" that learned divine whose memory amelleth like a f'seld which the Lord hath blessed." Field's fame now rests upon his work entitled, Of the Church, Five Books (2 vole., London, 1606-10; 2d. ed., Oxford, 1628; modern ed., 4 vole., Cambridge, 1847,52), which has taken its place with Hooker's Polity as one of the grandest monuments of polemical divinity in the English language.

BIBwoaBAPHY: N. Field, Some Short Memorials concerning the Life . . . of R. Field, published by J. Le Neve, London, 1716-17; A. h Wood, Atheno Oxonienees, ed. P. Bliss, ii. 181-186, 4 vole., London, 1813-20; DNB, xviii. 411-412.

FIELD SERVICE (Germ. Felddiakoniie): Service rendered to combatants on the field of war, prompted by the spirit of love and in its origin of the nature of Christian ministration, but influenced also by the spirit of secular humanitarianism. See WAR.

FIFTH MONARCHY MEN: Millenarian enthusiasts of the Commonwealth period in England who believed and taught that Christ was setting up " a fifth monarchy in the world," laid claim to the gift of prophecy, and wished to destroy all anti-Christian " forms " (e.g., an Established Church). Early leaders were Vavasor Powell (d. 1670), a nonconformist minister, who with all his eccentricities seems to have been a man of ability and` worth, and Christopher Feake (not heard of after 1660), an irregular preacher. They were bitterly opposed to Cromwell, whom Feake called " the most dissembling and perjured villain in the world." Both were imprisoned by Cromwell, but were leniently treated and they were violent only in word. In Apr., 1657, one Thomas Venner, a cooper, headed a plot for a rising of Fifth Monarchy men in London. It was discovered and Venner was kept in prison till 1659. On Jan. 6, 1661, he set out with a considerable following to overthrow the government. They marched the streets with the cry " Long live King Jesus," until they were dispersed by the guards. Three days later the remnant of them was captured. Venner was hanged and quartered on Jan. 19.

BwLIoaBAPBm D. Neal, Limes of As Puritans, ii. 176-22o of Harper'e ed., New York, n.d.; E. Rogers, Some Accoun9of the" Life andopinions" of aPifthMonanhyMan, from the Writings of John Ropers, London, 1867; J.* stoughton, Religion in England, ii. 57-89, ib. 1881; DNB, xviii. 271-272 (Life of Feake), xlvi. 249-252 (Life of Powell), Iviii. 212 (Life of Venner).

FIJI or VITI ISLANDS: A group of two hundred and fifty islands in the Southern Pacific, comprising an area of nearly 8,000 square miles. The two largest islands are Vanua Levu ("Great Land "), which is one hundred miles long and has an area of 2,600 aqugre miles, and Viti Levu ("Great Viti or Fiji"), which is ninety by fifty miles and 4,250 square miles in extent. Some eighty of the islands are inhabited. They are of coral and volcanic formation, and have a pleasant climate. The islands were discovered by Tasman in 1643, and were visited by Bligh in

VideUm F1J1

1789, and by Wilson in 1797. The Fijians combine characteristics of the Melanesian and Polynesian types. Physically they are an ath-

Descrip- letic, well-formed race, and mentally tion and they are far above the Papuans. The History. population was divided up into tribes, and ruled by kings, until 1874, when the islands were annexed to Great Britain. The more powerful chiefs voluntarily proposed the cession, and signed articles to that effect in Oct., 1874. When Sir Arthur Gordon, the first English governor, arrived in 1875 a pestilence had carried off one-third of the population, and the islands were in a state of great poverty. Under English rule the yearly revenues have increased from 916,000 in 1875 to 2138,167 in 1903, a code of laws has been adopted, and courts have been established for the administration of justice. The census of 1901 gave the population as 120,124, of whom 2,459 were Europeans, 94,397 Fijians, 17; 105 Indians, etc. The steady extinction of the native element is shown by the number of births and deaths in 1903, 3,244 and 5,725 respectively. The chief productions are yams, sugar-cane, tea, maize, copra, and bananas.

The native feligion included a belief in a future state and two classes of gods. Witchcraft was widely practised and taboo was in full force.

Polygamy prevailed and female inftative fanticide was practised. The wife

Religion. or wives were strangled at the death of the husband. Life was cheap, the kings sacrificing men at the launching of a new canoe, the inception of a campaign, or the erec tion of a house. The islands were the headquar ters of cannibalism although there were some natives whom the missionaries found averse to eating human flesh. The victims of war and shipwrecked sailors were commonly eaten, and human flesh was pronounced more palatable than pork. A chief registered the number of bodies he ate by atones and one of the missionaries counted 872 of these stones. The first missionaries were Messrs. Cross and Cargill, who went to Fiji in 1835 from the Friendly Islands. In 1839 they were reinforced by Messrs. Lythe and Hunt, and by Mr. Williams and others in 1840. The work was carried on amidst dis couragements and pdrile during the first years, but was rewarded with extensive revivals, and the gradual conversion of nearly the whole population. Thokombau, the leading chief, after Missions, resisting the missionaries for a number of years, was baptized in Jan., 1857, giving up all his wives but one. The language was reduced to writing; and the Bible, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a Fijian-English dictionary (by Rev. David Hazlewood), and other books, have been printed in the native language. Cannibal ism has been given up except among a few remote tribes and polygamy no longer prevails. Churches are well attended. Many natives have proved faithful preachers and catechists. The Sabbath is observed and family-worship is held in many families. The dark side of the picture is furnished by the constant decrease in the native population,