805 



FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPEIUS. 



FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM. 



906 



care. During the revolution, the young abb<5 was like the rest of 

 his brethren, driven from one place of concealment to another, until 

 he at length sought refuse in the army of General J!ontesquieu, at 

 that time quartered in Savoy. He suffered great priui lions during 

 the Reign of Terror, but the sudden elevation of his nej hew, General 

 Bonaparte, after the 13th Vendemiaire (October 1795), in a moment 

 changed his fortune. Bonaparte having been appointed to take the 

 command of the army in Italy, prevailed upou the Abbe Feech to 

 withdraw from the church, and become one of the Commissioners, or 

 factors, attached to it. He continued in this office, and performed 

 all its functions, so different from those he had been used to, until 

 the 18th Brumaire 1799. Bonaparte now felt that his uncle's services 

 might be more effective in his first calling, he therefore induced him 

 to resume the ecclesiastical habit after the concordat of 1S01, and in 

 April 1802 had him appointed archbishop of Lyon. The following 

 year Archbishop Fesch was sent as ambassador to the holy see, taking 

 with him as his secretary the young Viscount de Chateaubriand. 

 The assiduous court paid to the pontiff by the archbishop during his 

 sojourn at Rome, completely won the heart of the kind-hearted old 

 man, who bestowed upon him the cardinal's hat, and consented to 

 go with him to Paris to crown Napoleon. This had been the real 

 object of his mission. 



After the coronation of Napoleon I., at which he officiated, Cardinal 

 Fesch became grand aumonier in 1805, received the grand cordon of 

 the Legion of Honour, and was made a member of the senate. In 

 1809 Napoleon I. offered him the primacy, and actually announced 

 his nomination, as Archbishop of Paris ; but Cardinal Fescb, angry 

 at the harsh treatment which the pope had received at his nephew's 

 hands, rejected the offer. On the 28th November 1810, he openly 

 rebuked the all-powerful monarch before the council of Paris, of which 

 he was president, and bitterly complained of his aggression on the 

 independence of the church. For this act of insubordination the 

 cardinal was exiled from court, and ordered to return to his diocese 

 at Lyon, where he continued in disgrace until the first abdication, in 

 1814. During the next few months the cardinal resided at Rome, but 

 he hastened to Paris after the escape of Bonaparte from Elba. The 

 battle of Waterloo compelled him a second time .to take refuge in 

 the pontifical court, where he spent the remainder of his life. He 

 died on the 13th of May 1839, at tho age of seventy-six. He was a 

 patron of the fine arts, and had becoiuo possessed of a remarkably 

 fine collection of ancient and modern pictures. 



FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPE'IUS, a celebrated Latin grammarian, 

 whose age is not clearly ascertained, though there seems reason to 

 believe that he lived in the third century of our era. He compiled 

 an epitome of the voluminous work ' De Verborum Significatione ' of 

 Marcus Verrius Flaccus, a grammarian of the Augustan age, men- 

 tioned by Suetonius. The work of Verrius is lost, and that of Festus 

 being afterwards abridged in the ninth century by Paulus Diaconus, 

 who spoiled it, the text of the epitome became lost also for several 

 centuries, until a mutilated copy, found in Dalmatia, came into the 

 hands of Aldo Manuzio, who published it, together with the abridg- 

 ment by Paulus Diaconus. Other fragments were found in the 

 Farneeian Library, and Antonius Augustinus, Joseph Scaliger, and 

 Fulvius Ursiuus published improved editions of Festus' ' De Verborum 

 Significatione.' Lastly, A. Dacier published a new edition, 4to, Paris, 

 1681, adding to it the notes of Scaliger, Augustinus, and Ursiuus. 

 Dacier's edition was reprinted at Amsterdam in 1699. In 1832 Linde- 

 manu in the second volume of his ' Corpus Qrammaticorum Latinorum,' 

 has made a complete separation of the texts of Fcstus and Paulus, and 

 carefully revised each, as well as added a body of valuable notes ; but 

 the most useful and complete edition is that of K. 0. Miiller, -Ho, 

 Lips., 1839. Festus, in a passage of his work under the head 

 ' Profanum,' refers to another vocabulary which he had written 

 explanatory of ancient Latin words which had become obsolete, 

 ' Priscorum Verborum Libri cum Exempli*,' which words he left out 

 in his epitome of Marcus Verrius. This work, ' Priscorum Verborum,' 

 is lost. Festus gives not only tbe meaning, but also in most 

 instances the etymology, of words, with reference to Verrius, Cato, 

 and others of his predecessors ; and his book, though incomplete, is 

 justly classed by Scaliger amongst the most useful for understanding 

 the language of ancient Rome. 



FETI, DOME'NICO, called II Mantuano, was born at Rome in 

 1589. He was the scholar of Uigoli, but was appointed his court 

 painter by Ferdinand" Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, whither he removed 

 from Rome ; whence his name of Hantuano. Feti executed several 

 works at Mantua, of which his oil pictures were the best ; many have 

 been engraved : bis masterpiece is the ' Feeding of the Five Thou- 

 sand,' in the Academy of Mantua. He died at Venice in 1624, aged 

 only thirty-five. (Baglione, Vile d<? Pittori, Jec.; Lanzi, Storia 

 Pittorica, <tc.) 



FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM, the most celebrated 

 German writer on criminal law, was born at Frankfurt-on-the-Mayn, 

 May 14tb, 1775. After having studied at Jena, he gave lectures 

 there on law in 1798, and became successively professor at the uni- 

 versities of Oieeen, Jena, Kiel, and Landahuth. While he was a 

 lecturer at Jena ho published his ' Anti-Hobbes, or, on tho Limits of 

 Civil Power, and on the compulsory Right of Subjects against their 

 Sovereigns' (' Anti-Hobbcs oder iiber die grenzeu der burgerlichen 



woo. DIY. VOL. II. 



gewalt und das zwangrecht der unterthanen gegeu ihren oberherreu ') ; 

 and a number of essays inserted in the 'Magazine of Criminal Juris- 

 prudence.' But the work which established his fame was his ' Review 

 of the fundamental Principles and Ideas of Penal Law,' which appeared 

 shortly afterwards. His ' Critique of the project of a Penal Law for 

 Bavaria,' published in 1804, is another remarkable work. These 

 purely theoretical essays exercised a very considerable influence on 

 the criminal legislation of Germany, and were soou followed by 

 practical effects. Almost immediately on the publication of the last- 

 mentioned work, and while he was professor at Laudshuth, the 

 Bavarian government entrusted him with drawing up a project of a 

 criminal code for the kingdom, which, after having been submitted to 

 a commission, was adopted, with very few modifications. The prin- 

 ciples previously promulgated by Feuerbach were all incorporated in 

 this project, which is characterised by logical connection, strict defini- 

 tions, complete development of the principle of penal law, correct 

 generalisation and specification of crimes and- misdemeanours, and 

 precise determination of penalties. Its consequences were immense, 

 for previously to its publication criminal jurisprudence in Germany 

 was in a deplorable state. Its excellence both in substance and form 

 was such, that it was adopted as the basis of similar attempts at a 

 reform of criminal law by other portions of Germany and Switzerland. 

 Saxony, Wurteinberg, Hanover, Oldenburg, and* Weimar, and the 

 cantons Zurich, St. Gall, Basel and the Grisons, modified their codes 

 in accordance with it. In 1803 Feuerbach was created privy coun- 

 cillor, and received a commission to adapt the Code Napoleon to the 

 wants of Bavaria; the result of his labour however was not adopted. 



That criminal law has become a science, and that this science has 

 had a great influence on legislation all over the continent, is to be 

 mainly attributed to this gifted man. Criminal law which had been 

 harsh and bloody became humane : liberty of action was substituted 

 for previous restraint, and the conditions were pointed out under 

 which the state ought to interfere by penalties with the rights of the 

 citizens. The former arbitrary power of the judges was circum- 

 scribed; deep-rooted and vague notions gave way to the inflexible 

 but necessary bounds of law. If, on the one hand, it must be 

 admitted that Feuerbach, by his philosophical inquiries and liberal 

 conceptions, powerfully influenced the elements and principles of 

 modern criminal law, it is to be regretted, on the other baud, that by 

 his subsequent publication, ' Considerations on the Jury,' he has pro- 

 mulgated singular opinions on the spirit and efficacy of that institu- 

 tion. The leading idea of this work consists in the proposition that 

 the verdict of the jury is insufficient to establish the legal evidence of 

 crime. After having been assailed by a number of eminent writers, 

 and in particular by Grolman, L'euerbach modified his opinions on the 

 jury in 1821, during a visit to France, Belgium, and tho Rhenish 

 provinces, on a mission from the Bavarian government to investigate 

 the legal institutions of those countries. On his return he published 

 the result of his inquiries in his ' Reflections on the judicial Organisa- 

 tion and Proceedings in France,' a work remarkable for the sagacity with 

 which he lays open the deficiencies and inconveniences of all the French 

 civil and penal legislation. A very able part of that work is the com- 

 parison of the French and English juries, which is entirely in favour 

 of the latter, as, according to Feuerbach's opinion, the principles of 

 that institution aro completely perverted in France by the rules laid 

 down during the empire for the composition of the jury. Like 

 Berenger, Dupin, and other French writers who have exposed the 

 faults of the existing mode of criminal proceedings in France, Feuer- 

 bach has stigmatised the French jurymen by calling them the twelve 

 commissioners of 'government. Notwithstanding he had altered his 

 opinion on the jury generally, and although by his remarks on the 

 English jury in particular, he seems to have made amends for his 

 former animosity against it, he still retained some prejudices against 

 that institution, on account of its being fraught with too many demo- 

 cratic principles. This tendency of Feuerbach's opinion had a very 

 unfavourable influence on the Bavarian government when the intro- 

 duction of that institution came undtr consideration, and ultimately 

 it was the cause of the jury not being granted to the country. 



In 1817 Feuerbach was made second president of the court of 

 appeal at Bamberg, and in 1821 he was nominated first president of 

 appeal at Anspach ; to those functions his sphere of action was latterly 

 entirely confined, with the exception of opinions given in important 

 civil and criminal cases. Oue of those was the notorious affair of 

 Kaspar Hauser, which produced so much sensation all through 

 Europe. With his wonted and acknowledged perspicuity ha has 

 investigated this revolting case, and has recorded the results of his 

 inquiry in his last work, ' Kaspar Hauser, an instance of a psycho- 

 logical crime.' The two following passages of that book seem to 

 implicate a reigning family of the south of Germany. Those passages 

 are : 1. "There are spheres of human society which are inaccessible 

 to the arm of justice." 2. Those spheres are defined as "golden 

 castles, the entrance of which is guarded by giants who do not allow 

 a ray of light to penetrate." A rumour obtained circulation that his 

 sudden death at Fraukfurt, in May 1833, was not unconnected with 

 that mysterious affair, the veil of which appears to have been lifted 

 by him. His connection with the Bavarian government became iu 

 latter years very disagreeable in consequence of bis decided opposition 

 to its illiberal policy. 



SN 



