869 



FENTON, ELIJAH. 



FERDINAND II. 



have been restored to regal favour had not the celebrated romance of 

 ' Telernaque,' which he had written some years before, been published 

 against his will through the treachery of a servant. Several passages 

 in this work were suspected by Louis to be directed against himself; 

 it was suppressed in France, but rapidly circulated in Holland. 

 Hearing of the unfortunate impression which his book had made, 

 Fenelon resolved to remain quietly in his diocese. Cambray being 

 situated on the frontiers of France, he was visited by many illustrious 

 foreigners. Fenelon's acts of benevolence were munificent : in the 

 year 1709 he fed the French army at his own expense. It has been 

 already remarked that his political opinions were liberal; he had 

 always conceived it just that the people should have a share in the 

 government, and it was expected that the Duke of Burgundy would 

 have acted in accordance with his preceptor's views. But all hopes 

 of this sort were cut off by the sudden death of that prince. Fenelon 

 himself died Jan. 7, 1715. 



The works of Fenelon are very numerous ; consisting, besides the 

 romance of ' Telemaque,' of a variety of religious aud moral treatises. 

 ' Telemaque ' has been translated into every European language, aud 

 was until lately read at almost every European school. Had it been 

 written iu this age, it is very questionable whether its popularity 

 would have been so great; the spirit of the Greeks u much better 

 understood than it was formerly, and the classic reader, though he 

 may admire the language of ' Telemaque,' as well as the general accu- 

 racy of ti.e writer's information on matters of ancient history and 

 geography, will find it strange that the sentimental speeches, however 

 good in themselves, should flow from the mouth of Homeric heroes, 

 who of all beings were the least moralising, in the modern sense of 

 the word. The religious and moral essays of Fenelon are only calcu- 

 lated for persona in whose mental constitution warmth and suscepti- 

 bility are predominant, and who can suffer themselves to bo led on 

 by the fervour and eloquence of the author. To the cool aud more 

 intellectual inquirer after truth his works will appear diliuse and 

 tedious. So much use does he make of the imaginative faculties, that 

 he exhorts teachers to impress on the minds of children that the 

 Deity is sitting on a throne, with very bright eyes looking through 

 everything, and supporting the universe with his hands. Hence his 

 natural theology is chiefly the ejaculation of a pious man admiriug 

 the works of Nature. In politics Fenelon's opinions are far iu advance 

 of his age and country : in one of his treatises he declaims against 

 checking liberty of conscience, and boldly proclaims the injustice of 

 levying taxes without the sanction of a parliament. A handsome 

 quarto edition of his works was published at Paris in 1787. 



FENTON, ELIJAH, was born iu Staffordshire, in the year 1683. 

 Being designed for the church, he was admitted a pensioner of Jesus 

 College, Cambridge, in 1700. After taking a bachelor's degree, he was 

 forced to leave the University in consequence of being a non-juror. He 

 became secretary to the Earl of Orrery, and accompanied that noble- 

 man to Flanders. After his return to England, in 1705, he accepted 

 the situation of assistant at Mr. Bouwicke's school, at Headly in 

 Surrey, and subsequently became head-master of the free grammar- 

 school at Sevenoaks in Kent. Mr. St. John (afterwards Lord Boling- 

 broke) persuaded him to retire from this school, promising to do 

 great things for him, which promises were never fulfilled. Lord 

 Orrery again befriended him, and made him tutor to his son, Lord 

 BroghilL This office lasted for six or seven years, during which 

 Fenton became acquainted with Pope, and assisted him in the transla- 

 tion of the ' Odyssey.' The first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth 

 books are said to be the work of Fenton. In 1723 he produced, at the 

 theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a tragedy, called 'Mariamne,' which 

 waa go successful that he is reported to have gained lOOOi by its 

 representation, and to have employed great part of the money in paying 

 off the debts which St. John's conduct had caused him to incur. In 

 1727 he revised a new edition of Milton's works, and prefixed a life 

 of the author; and in 1729 ho published a fine edition of Waller. 

 Through the recommendation of Pope, he became tutor to the son of 

 Lady Trumbull ; and when that occupation was at an end, she made 

 him auditor of her accounts. He died iu 1730. 



All biographers bear testimony to Fen ton's character as an upright 

 and honourable man. His poetical works arc but few in number, and 

 consist of short pieces, chiefly paraphrases from the ancients. As they 

 have scarcely any merit but that of correct versification, they will 

 probably never be rescued from the neglect into which they now have 

 sunk. The tragedy of ' Markmne," like most of that time, ia totally 

 forgotten. 



FERDINAND I. of Austria, younger brother of Charles V., was 



born in 1503. He was elected king of the Romans during his brother's 



reign, and succeeded him as emperor in consequence of the abdication 



of Charles, which was sanctioned by the diet of the empire in 1558. 



Ferdinand had married, iu 1521, Anna, daughter of Ladislaus VI., 



king of Bohemia and Hungary, and sister of Louis, who having sue- 



'1 his father in the crown of those realms, was killed in the disas- 



trcim battle of Moh.icz, by the Turks, in 1526, aud left no issue. 



Miind, claiming a right to the succession in tlic name of his wife, 



the states of Bohemia acknowledged him, but iu Hungary a strong 



party declared for John of Zapoli, palatine of Transylvania. This was 



the beginning of a long and desolating war, interrupted by occasional 



truces, in which Solymau, sultan of the Turks, interfered on behalf of 



Bioa DIV. VOL. n. 



John, and after John's death, in 1540, on behalf of his son, Sigismund, 

 who continued to hold a part of Hungary till the death of Ferdinand. 

 In Bohemia the religious disputes between the Callixtines, who were a 

 remnant of the Hussites, and the Roman Catholics, occasioned consi- 

 derable uneasiness to Ferdinand, who found at last that it was his 

 policy to tolerate the former. At the same time however he effected 

 a thorough change in the institutions of that kingdom, by declaring 

 the crown of Bohemia hereditary in hia family, without the sanction of 

 the states. This gave rise to a confederacy which opposed Ferdinand 

 by force of arms, but was at length overpowered and dissolved. On 

 being proclaimed Emperor of Germany, after having signed certain 

 conditions with the electors, which defined the boundaries of the impe- 

 rial authority, and gave security to the Protestant religion, Ferdinand 

 notified hia election to Pope Paul IV., expressing a desire to be 

 crowned by his hands. Paul refused, under the plea that the abdica- 

 tion of Charles V. was effected without the consent of the papal see, 

 and required a fresh election to be made. Ferdinand, indignant at 

 these pretensions, ordered his ambassador to quit Rome. Paul, how- 

 ever, dying soon after, his successor, Pius IV., showed himself more 

 tractable in acknowledging Ferdinand as head of the empire. It was 

 then resolved by the electors, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant, 

 that in future no emperor should receive the crown from the hands of 

 the pope, and that, instead of the customary form in which the empe- 

 ror-elect professed his obedience to the head of the church, a mere 

 complimentary epistle should be substituted. Thus ended the last 

 remains of that temporal dependence of the German empire on the 

 see of Rome, which had been the subject of so many controversies 

 and wars. 



Ferdinand continued throughout his reign to hold the balance even 

 between the Protestants and Roman Catholics with regard to their 

 mutual toleration and outward harmony; he even endeavoured, 

 though unsuccessfully, to effect a union of the two communions, by 

 trying to persuade the Protestants to send deputies to, and acknow- 

 ledge the authority of the council assembled at Trent. This however 

 they refused to do, unless their theologians were acknowledged as 

 equal iu dignity to the Roman Catholic bishops, and unless the 

 council were transferred from Trent to some city of the empire. 

 Ferdinand, on the other side, in order to conciliate some at least of 

 the various dissenting sects in his own hereditary states, attempted to 

 obtain of the pope, among other concessions, the use of the cup at the 

 communion-table for the laity, and the liberty of marriage for the 

 priests. Pius IV., however, would not listen to the latter proposition, 

 and the negociations were still pending with regard to the former, 

 when the emperor died at Vienna, iu July 1564. He left three soua : 

 1, Maximilian, who succeeded him as emperor, archduke of Austria, 

 aud king of Bohemia and Hungary ; 2, Ferdinand, whom he made 

 count of Tyrol; 3, Charles, whom he appointed Duke of Styria, 

 Carinthia, and Caruiola. Upon the whole, the administration of Fer- 

 dinand was able and enlightened ; he maintained religious peace in 

 Germany, he effected some useful reforms, and he saw the closing of 

 the council of Trent. 



FERDINAND II. of Austria, aon of Charles, duke of Styria, and 

 "randson of Ferdinand I., succeeded his cousin Matthias iu 1619. 

 But the states of Bohemia, who were already in open revolt against 

 Matthias, both from political and religious grievances, refused to 

 acknowledge Ferdinand, and declared the throne vacant. Count 

 Thorn, who was at the head of the Bohemian insurgents, was joined 

 ay the dissidents of Moravia, Silesia, and Upper Austria, and Ferdinand 

 found himself besieged within the walls of Vienna by the insurgents, 

 who threatened to put to death his ministers, to confine Ferdinand 

 himself in a monastery, aud educate his children in the Protestant 

 faith. His friends however found means to raise tho siege, and 

 Ferdinand hastened to Germany to claim the imperial crown, having 

 been acknowledged Kiug of the Romans during the reign of his pre- 

 decessor. He carried his election by means of the Roman Catholic 

 electors, who formed the majority. But the Bohemian states elected 

 as their king Frederic, count Palatine, sou-in-law of James I. of 

 England, and Hungary joined in the revolt, supported by Bethleu 

 Gabor, Prince of Transylvania. This was the begiuning of the Thirty 

 Years' War, a war both religious and political, and one of the most 

 desolating in the history of modern Europe. In the midst of these 

 difficulties Ferdinand was ably supported by his general, Count de 

 Tilly, who re-conquered Bohemia and expelled Frederic. Hungary 

 was soon after obliged to submit, and Bethlen Gabor sued for 

 peace. Another confederacy was formed against Ferdinand by the 

 Protestant states of Saxony, supported by Christian IV. of Denmark, 

 who put himself at their head in 1025. Ferdinand opposed to 

 him Tilly and Waldsteiu, or Wallenstein, another commander of 

 extraordinary abilities. In two campaigns the confederates wero 

 defeated, Christian was driven into his hereditary states, and the 

 peace of Lubeck, 1029, put an end to the war. Ferdinand now 

 adopted measures of retaliation which drove the Protestants to 

 despair : he abolished the exercise of tho Protestant religion iu 

 Bohemia ; he exiled or put to death the leaders of that and other 

 dissident communions; he confiscated their property ; seven hundred 

 noble families were proscribed, aud the common people wero forced to 

 change their faith. Above 30,000 families, preferring their conseieuces 

 to their country, sought refuge in Protestant states. Ferdinand 



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