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FAB 
FAB 
T-T 1 HE fixth letterof the Englifli alphabet, and acon- 
, fonant, generally reckoned by authors among the 
femi-vowels, and according to tliat opinion diftinguiflied 
in the enumeration of the alphabet by a name beginning 
with a vowel, which yet has fo far the nature of a mure, 
that it iseafily pronounced before a liquid in the fame fyl- 
lable. It has in Knglifh an invariable found, formed by 
compreffion of the whole lips, and a forcible breath. It’s 
kindred letter is V, which, in the Iflandic alphabet, isonly 
diftinguiflied from it by a point in the body of the letter. 
Whenever it is the lad letter of a word, it is always dou¬ 
bled ; as, faff, fiiff, muff, puff, &c. The letter F is bor¬ 
rowed from the digamma of the ZElians, as is evident from 
the infcription on the pedeftal of the Colofl'us at Delos; 
and was undoubtedly formed from the old Hebrew van : 
and though this letter is not found in the modern Greek 
alphabet, yet it was in the ancient one, from whence the 
Latins received it and tranfmitted it to us. The Romans 
for lome time tiled an inverted j.;, indead of V confonant, 
which had no peculiar figure in their alphabet. Thus, in 
infcriptions we meet with TERMINAjIT, Dlql, &c. 
Lipfius and others fay, that it was the emperor Claudius 
who introduced the life of the inverted digamma, or j : 
but it did not long fubfid after his death ; for (Quintilian 
obferves, that it was not ufed in his time. 
F, or fa, in mufic, is the fourth note in rifing in this 
order of the gamut, ut, re, mi, fa. It likevvife denotes one 
oi the Greek keys in mufic, dedined for the bafs. 
F, in phydcal prefcriptions dands for Fiat, or “ Let it 
be done.” Thus f. s. a. fignifies fiat J'ecundum artem. 
F was alfo a numeral letter, fignifying 40 ; according to 
the verfe, 
Sexta quaterdencs gerit qua difat ab alpha. 
And when a daih was added at top, thus F, it (ignified 
forty thoufand. In the civil law, two f’s joined together 
tints,dignify the pande&s. 
F, in criminal law, was a digma put upon felons with 
a hot iron, on their being admitted to the benefit of clergy, 
by dat. 4 Hen. VII. c. 13. 
FAA'BORG, a lea-port town of Denmark, on the 
fouth coad of the ifland of Fttnen, (ituated in a flat but 
fertile country, the harbour is not good ; the principal 
trade is in provilions : fevetneen miles fouth of Oldenfee. 
Lat. 55. 12. N. Ion. 10. 16. E. Greenwich. 
FA'BA, [quafi faga, from 1 payee, Gr. to eat, it being 
originally the food of man, or from nVis, phula , Arab.] 
The bean. See the article Vicia. 
FABA'CEOUS, adj. [ fabaceus, Lat.] Having the 
nature of a bean. 
FA'BA DUL'CIS, f. in botany. See Cassia. 
FABA'GO,y. in botany. See Zygophyi.lum. 
FA'BA MARl'NA.yi in botany. See Mimosa. 
PAB'ARIS, now Farfa, a river of Italy in the terri¬ 
tories of the Sabines, called alfo Farfarus. Virgil. 
FA'BER (John), a German catholic divine in the 
fixteenth century, born at Haiibron, on the Necker, in 
1500. He became a member of the dominican order at 
Wimpfen ; was created a doctor in theology at Cologne ; 
and afterwards redded at Augfburg, where he acquired 
high reputation by his pulpit lervices, and various theo¬ 
logical publications, particularly fome polemical treatifes 
again!! the Protedants. Of the time of his death we have 
no certain information. His works were : 1. Libellusquod 
Fidrs cffe fofitfine Charitate, 1548, 4to. 2. Enchiridion Bibli- 
orum, 1549, 4to. 3. FruElus quibus dignofcunlur Harctici, 
e teemed curious and intereding by the Catholics, on ac¬ 
count of the dories which it details concerning Luther. 
4. Tefimonium Scriptur# & patrurn. B. Petrum Apqfl. Ramie 
Juffe , 1553, 4to. 5. A Treatife on the Mafs, and on the 
real Prefence in the Fuchand, 15 55,410. f>. A German 
llludration of the Prophecy of Joel, 1557. 7. A Col- 
ledfion of Chridian Prayers, compiled from the works of 
St. Augudin. 
FA'BER (John), a German catholic divine, furnamed 
after the title of one of his mod celebrated controverfial 
writings. Malleus Ilxrcticorum, or the Mallet of Heretics. 
He was born at Leutkirchen in Suabia, towards the end 
of the fifteenth century. After diftirjguifhing himfelf in 
academic dudies, he was admitted to the degree of dodtor 
in theology, and took an active part in the difputes of the 
Catholics with the Lutherans. The abilities which he 
difplayed, and his ardent zeal for the catholic faith, in¬ 
duced the bifhop of Condance to appoint him his official in 
1518, and in the following year his vicar-general. In the 
latter charadler lie attended an affembly appointed by the 
fenate to be held at Zurich in 1523, to enquire into the 
truth of the opinions which were then propagating by 
Zuingle and his fellow-reformers in that canton. The 
refult of the meeting was an edidt ifl’ued by the fenate, fa¬ 
vourable to the opinions of the reformers, againd which 
Faber entered his unavailing proted. Ferdinand, king of 
the Romans, and afterwards emperor, fent him as his 
envoy to the court of Henry VIII. king of England. In 
1531, the learning and labours which he had difplayed 
were rewarded by his advancement to the bilhopric of 
Vienna. After prefiding over the fee for more than ten 
years, Faber died in 1542. He was the author of nume¬ 
rous works, hidorical, controverfial, and practical, which 
were collected together and publifhed at Cologne, in three 
volumes, folio. His Malleus Hareticorum procured the au¬ 
thor no little reputation at Rome, where it was received 
with great applaufe, and underwent different impreffions; 
and his account of his deputation with the Zuinglians at 
Baden, was tranllated from the original German into La¬ 
tin by Thomas Murner, and publifhed at Lucern, in 1528, 
under the title Cauja Helvetica, Orthodox# Fidei. 
FA'BER (Bafil), a learned German in the fixteenth 
century, born at Sorau,in Lower Lufatia, in 1520. About 
the year 1550, he was appointed reiforof the feminary at 
Nordhaufen ; afterwards of that at Tenndadt; then of 
the feminary at (Quidlinburg ; and ladly of the Augulti- 
nian college at Erfurt. He died in 1576. He publiftied 
a German trandation of Luther’s Latin Remarks on the 
Book of Genelis, and alfo of The Chronicle of Krantzius. 
He was likevvife the author of a work enritled Collectanea 
de novfhnis ( 3 Statu AnimarumSeperatarv.nl, chiefly compiled 
from the writings of Luther. But his fame with pode- 
rity principally reds on his Thefaurus Eruditionis Scholafic#, 
a work of great labour and learning, publidied in 1571. 
After the author’s death, that work received at different 
times conuderable additions from the labours of other 
learned men, and appeared in its mod complete form at 
the Hague, in 1735, two volumes folio. 
FA'BIAN (Robert), an Englith hidorian, born in 
London in the fifteenth century. He was brought up to 
commerce, in which he became fufficiently eminent to be 
chofen tlieriff of the city in 1493. He ranks among the 
few men of learning who, in thole early days, graced the 
magidracy of the" Englifli metropolis. His particular 
dudy was hidory, and he employed himfelf in compiling 
a chronicle, entitled A Concordance of Stories, in (even 
parts, of which the fird fix bring the hidory of England 
from the fabulous Trojan Brutus to William the Con¬ 
queror ; the fevenvh carries on the Englifli and parallel 
French hidories down to the reign of Henry VII. He is 
copious in the affairs of London, and records many parti¬ 
culars not to be met with elfewhere ; whence John Stow 
calls his work “ a painful labour, to the great honour of 
the city and the whole realm.” According to Mr. War- 
ton. 
