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married, he returned to England and went to Reading. There he was set in the stocks as a vagrant, but was released at the request of the schoolmaster of the town and went to London, where Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, issued a warrant for his arrest as a heretic. Frith sought concealment, but was seized at Milton Shore, Essex, as he was attempting to escape to Holland, and was committed to the Tower. His imprisonment was not rigid, however, and became still milder when Sir Thomas Audley became chancellor in 15$,3. Meanwhile Frith had formulated his views on the sacrament, holding the following four points: The doctrine of the sacrament is not an article of faith to be held under pain of damnation; the natural body of Christ had the same qualities as those of all men, except that it was free from sin, and it is therefore not ubiquitous; it is neither right nor necessary to take the word of Christ literally, for it should be construed according to the analogy of the Bible; the sacrament should be received according to the institution of Christ, and not according to the order in use. A tailor named William Holt obtained a statement of these views from Frith by pretending to be his friend, and gave a copy to More, who prepared a reply, of which the. prisoner managed to secure a written copy. He immediately wrote a refutation, but was attacked by one of the royal chaplains in-a sermon before the king. Henry VIII. ordered him to be examined, and he was accordingly tried, refusing a proffered opportunity to escape. He again appeared before the bishops of London, Winchester, and Chichester on June 20, 1533, but as he persisted in his denial of transubstantiation and purgatory, Bishop Stokesley of London condemned him to die at the stake as an obstinate heretic. Frith was therefore delivered to the secular arm and was confined in Newgate until he was taken to Smithfield for execution.

John Frith was a prolific writer, his chief works being Fruitful Gatherings o f Scripture (n.p., 1529 [?]; a translation of the Loci of Patrick Hamilton); A Pistle to the Christen Reader; the Revelation o f Anti Christ (Marburg, 1529; one of the first English attacks on Roman Catholicism); A Disputation of Purgatory (Marburg [?] 1531 [?]); A Letter unto faithful Followers of Christ's Gospel (n.p., 1532 [?]); A Mirror or Glass to Know thyself (1532 [?]); A Mirror or Looking Glass wherein you may behold the Sacrament of Baptism described (London, 1533); and The Articles wherefore John Frith he died (1548). Frith's complete works were edited, together with those of Tyndale and Barnes, by John Foxe at London in 1573. To him are also ascribed the Voz Piscis (3 parts, London, 1626-27), containing three brief treatises, including the Mirror or Glass to Know thyself, all said to have been found in a codfish in Cambridge market in 1626; An Admoni tion or Warning that the faithful Christians in Lon don dzc. may avoid God's Vengeance (Wittenberg, 1554) and the Testament of Master W. Tracie, Esquire (Antwerp, 1535), Tyndale being a collabora tor in the latter work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Life and 4Vartyrdom of John Frith, London, 1824; A. & Wood, Adenas Oxonieness, ed. P. Bliss,

i. 74, London, ISM; ADwnw Cantabrspienses, ed. C. H. THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 400

and T. Cooper, i. 47, ib. 1858; T. Fuller, Church His(. of Britain, ed. J. 8. Brewer, iii. 85, oxford, 1845; DNB, ax. 278-280.

FRITZSCHE, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH: Re formed theologian; b. in Nauendorf (10 m. n. of Halls) Aug.17,1776; d. at Zurich Oct.18,1850. He studied in the Latin school of the Halls orphan asylum and entered the University of Leipsic in 1792; in 1799 he became pastor in Steinbach and Lauterbach near Borna, and in 1809 preacher and superintendent at Dobrilugk. He took a warm interest in the public schools and wrote monographs and articles on the theological questions of the time from the supernaturalistic point of view. When he became too deaf to preach he was made honorary professor of theology at Halls in 1827, ordinary professor in 1830; and held the position till 1848. His writings were collected in two volumes of Opusculd academics (Leipsic, 1838, and Zurich, 1846). (O. F. FxITZSCa>,t.)

Bn;LIOaxArax: C. W. Spieker, Ana dens Leben don · · . C. F. Breaciva, Frankfort, 1845; Ava den Brie%n von C. F. Breacius an C. F. Fritzache, von O. F. Fntssahe in

7.%G, uv. 214-240.

FRITZSCHE, KARL FRIEDRICH AUGUST: German exegete, eon of Christian Friedrich Fritzsche (q.v.); b. at Steinbach, near Boma (15 m. s.s.e. of Leipaic), Dec. 16, 1801; d. at Giessen Dec. 6, 1846. He was educated from 1814 to 1820 at the Thomasschool in Leipsic and then studied theology at the same place. In 1825 he became professor on the philosophical faculty. In 1826 he went as professor of theology to Rostock, and in 1841 to Giessen. His theological views were rationalistic, and he concentrated his efforts chiefly upon the exegesis of the Bible, especially of the New Testament. Biblical exegesis in the second decade of the nineteenth century was at a low ebb. The prevailing conception of language was purely empirical; general laws were deduced from superficial investigations, and by confounding the meaning and sense of words the most different and contradictory interpretations were often justified; there was no trace of a penetration into the fundamental spirit of language. Exegesis had become the vehicle of dogmatics, and everything displeasing was simply explained away from the Bible. The reform of these conditions in the sphere o£ philology was started by the Rostock philologist Gottfried Hermann, and it was transferred to Biblical literature by Winer and Fritzsche. The strictly grammatical method of Bible study was first introduced by Winer in his Gtammatik des neutesttameratlichen Slorachidioms (Leipsic, 1822), and Fritzsche was one of the most industrious contributors to the later emendations and editions of this work. He paid special attention to the linguistic element in exegesis; textual criticism was one of his favorite occupations. His most important works are: De taonnullis posterior's Pauli ad Corinthios epistola; locis dissertationes dace (1823-24) and his commentaries on Matthew (1826), Mark (1830), and the Epistle to the Romans (3 parts, Halls, 1836-43). Some of his miscellaneous writings have been collected in Fritzschiorum oPuscula academics (Leipsic, 1838). Against the purely diplomatic method which Lach-