310 



FRANKLIN FRATERNITIES. 



nations (November, 1782), lie requested to be re- 

 called, after fifty years spent in the service of his 

 country, but could not obtain permission to return 

 till 1785. During this interval, he negotiated two 

 treaties, one with Sweden, and one with Prussia. 

 The general enthusiasm with which he was received 

 in France is well known. Ills venerable age, his 

 simplicity of manners, his scientific reputation, the 

 ease, gayety, and richness of his conversation, all 

 contributed to render him an object of admiration to 

 courtiers, fashionable ladies, and savants. He regu- 

 larly attended the meetings of the academy of scien- 

 ces, and was appointed one of the committee which 

 expose J Mesmer's imposture of animal magnetism. 

 At a meeting of the academy, he met Voltaire, then 

 in Paris, on his triumplial visit. The patriarch of 

 letters and the patriarch of liberty met before a 

 crowded hall, and embraced. On his return to his 

 native country, before he was permitted to retire to 

 the bosom of his family, he filled the office of presi- 

 dent of Pennsylvania, and served as a delegate in the 

 federal convention, in 1787, and approved the con- 

 stitution then formed. He died April 17, 1790, with 

 his faculties and affections unimpaired. A complete 

 edition of his works was published in London, 1806, 

 in 3 vols. 8vo. His memoirs, with his posthumous 

 writings, were published by his grandson, W. T. 

 Franklin, in 1819, 3 vols. 4to; later edition, 8vo. 



FRANKLIN ; a post town of Missouri, capital of 

 Howard county, on the north bank of the Missouri, 

 200 miles above St Louis. This town was laid out 

 in 1816, and, in 1821, contained about 500 buildings. 

 It lias a healthy situation, in a district very fertile and 

 rapidly settling. 



FRANKLINITE. This mineral is found crystal- 

 lized in the form of the regular octahedron (its pri- 

 mary form), though more generally its crystals are 

 highly modified by various replacements, so as to lie- 

 come nearly globular in their shape. Its common 

 mode of occurrence is in granular masses. It is 

 black, brittle, and slightly magnetic. Specific gra- 

 vity, 4 - 87. It consists of iron, 66; oxide of zinc, 

 17; and oxide of manganese, 16. It occurs very 

 abundantly in New Jersey, accompanying the red 

 oxide of zinc, and is often imbedded in limestone, 

 associated with garnet, spinelle, &c. 



FRANKS ; a German tribe, which became known 

 in 238 A. D., when they lived between the Weser 

 and the Lower Rhine. As early as in the fourth 

 century, they made invasions into Gaul, and, in the 

 beginning of the fifth century, they first entered Bel- 

 gic Gaul. (See France.) The extensive district 

 which the Franks, at a later period, wrested from 

 the Allemanni, on the Rhine, constituted the Francia 

 Rhenana. The country, since called Franconia 

 ( Frankenland) , did not then belong to the Franks, 

 but formed part of Thuringia, from which it was 

 probably separated in the time of Charlemagne. In 

 the ninth century, we find a duchy of Franconia in 

 German history, which, at a later period, belonged 

 to the Hohenstaufen family. 



FRANZENSBRUNN ; the name of some mineral 

 springs near Eger, in Bohemia, rising from a turf 

 moor. As early as 1584, they seem to have been 

 visited, and to have enjoyed much reputation in 

 the seventeenth century, after which they sunk in 

 repute. 



FRASCATI ; one of the most charming spots of 

 Italy, on the site of the ancient Tusculum, eleven 

 miles S. E. from Rome. Tusculum, according to 

 tradition, was built by Teligonus, son of Ulysses. 

 Cato the censor was born here. Frascati is much 

 resorted to by the Romans, in the summer season 

 tempo di villeggiatura, as the Italians call it. Situ- 

 ated on the declivity of a hill, it affords the most en- 



chanting views of the Campagna di Rima, of the 

 Alma cittd herself, and of the sea in the distance. 

 Among the villas, the Villa Aldobrandini, called also 

 Belvedere, from its beautiful views, is remarkable; it 

 now belongs to the Borghese family. Fountains, 

 ruins, bass-reliefs, fresco paintings of Domenichino, 

 are to be found in this villa. Frascati is the see of 

 a bishop, and contains a seminary, endowed by the 

 late cardinal York, once bishop of the place. Popu- 

 lation, 4200. In the environs, and on the summit of 

 the hill, the ruins of Tusculum are still visible, near 

 which are the ruins of Cicero's villa, those of a small 

 amphitheatre, baths, &c. 



FRASERA CAROLINIENSIS, or AMERICAN 

 COLOMBO, inhabits the basin of the Ohio ami 

 Mississippi, extending as far westward as the sources 

 of the Arkansas, and is also found among the Alle- 

 ghany mountains. It is allied to the gentian, and 

 possesses similar sensible properties. The stem is 

 herbaceous, erect, from three to six feet high ; the 

 leaves oval, oblong, opposite, and verticillate ; the 

 flowers greenish yellow ; the corolla is much larger 

 than the calyx, and both are divided into four seg- 

 ments; there are four stamens and one style. It 

 is biennial, and grows in marshy places. The root, 

 which is very bitter, has been extensively employed, 

 in the western country, in place of the genuine co- 

 lombo, to which, however, it is inferior. 



FRAT. See Euphrates. 



FRATERNITIES ; religious societies for pious 

 practices and benevolent objects. They were often 

 formed during the middle ages, from a desire of 

 imitating the holy orders. From the twelfth to the 

 fifteenth century, nothing was considered more meri- 

 torious than to form and belong to such orders. The 

 laity, who did not wish to pronounce the monastic 

 vows, entered into associations, in order to gain 

 some of the advantages of the religious, even in their 

 worldly life. These societies were at first formed 

 without any ecclesiastical interference, and, on this 

 account, many of them, which did not obtain or did 

 not seek the acknowledgment of the church, had the 

 appearance of separatists, which subjected them to 

 the charge of heresy ; as, for example, the Beguines 

 and Beghards, the Brothers and Sisters of the Free 

 Spirit, the Apostolic Brethren, the Flagellants, and 

 Brothers of the Cross. (See the article Franciscans, 

 whose third order presented similar appearances.) 

 The church tolerated them for a longer or shorter 

 time, but finally persecuted and suppressed them as 

 heretics. The pious fraternities, which were formed 

 under the direction of the church, or were acknow- 

 ledged by it, were either required by their rules to 

 afford assistance to travellers, to the unfortunate, the 

 distressed, the sick, and the deserted, on account of 

 the inefficiency of the police, and the want of institu- 

 tions for the poor, or to perform certain acts of peni- 

 tence and devotion. 



Of this description were the Fratres Pontifices, 

 who flourished, in the south of France, from tli 

 thirteenth to the fifteenth century. They built 

 bridges and hospitals, maintained ferries, kept the 

 roads in repair, provided for the security of the high- 

 ways, and, by alms and gifts, amassed great wealth, 

 which fell into the hands of the Knights of St John, 

 when they were suppressed by Pius II. 



Similar to these were the Knights and Companions 

 of the Santa Hermandad in Spain ; the Familiars and 

 Cross Bearers in the service of the Spanish inquisi- 

 tion ; the Calender Brothers in Germany, &c. The 

 professed object of the Alexians was to visit the sick 

 and imprisoned ; to collect alms for distribution ; to 

 console criminals, and accompany them to the place 

 of execution; to bury the dead, and to cause masses 

 to be said for those who had been executed, or for 



