FRA 
frankly into tliofe new defigns, which were contrived at 
court. Clarendon. 
FRANK'NESS, /. [from frank.'] Plainnefs of fpeech ; 
opennefs; ingenuoufnefs. Liberality; boiinteoufnefs. 
Freedom from referve.—The ableft men that ever were, 
have had all an opennefs and franknefs of dealing, and a 
name of certainty and veracity. Bac..n. 
FRANKS, Francs, or Franques, a name which 
the Turks, Arabs, Greeks, &c.'give to all the people 
of the wettern parts of Europe. The appellation is com¬ 
monly fuppofed to have had its rife in Alia, at the time 
of the croilades; when the French made the moft con- 
fiderable figure among the croilfees : from which time 
the Turks, Saracens, Greeks, Abyfiinians, &c. uledit as 
a common term for all the Chriftians of Europe; and 
called tiurope itfelf Frankijlan. The Arabs and Maho¬ 
metans, fays M. d’Herbelot, apply the term Franks not 
only to the French (to whom the name originally belong¬ 
ed), but alfo to the Latins and Europeans in general. See 
the article Egypt, vol. vi. p. 321. 
But F. Goar, in his notes on Condiniis, cap. 5. n. 43. 
furniflies another origin of the appellation Franks, of 
greater antiquity than the former. He obferves, that the 
Greeks at fiift,confined the name to x.ht Franci, i.e. the 
Germati nations, who had fettled themfelves in France or 
Gaul ; but afterwards they gave the fame name to the 
Apulians and Calabrians, after they had been conquered 
by the Normans ; and at length the name was farther ex¬ 
tended to all the Latins. In this fenfe the word is ufed 
by feveral Greek writers; as Comnenus, &c. who, to 
diftingiiifh the French, call them the toejlern Franks. Du 
Cange adds, that about the time of Charlemagne, they 
diftinguifhed eaflern France, wefiern France, Latin or 
Roman France, and German France, which was the an¬ 
cient France, now called Franconia. 
.From the middle of the third century, under the reign 
of Gordian, the Franks began to aft an important part in 
the hifiory of the calamities of Europe, and in that of the 
decline of the empire. Their language, their laws, their 
religion, their manners, and their iifages, prove them to 
liave been of German origin. Great obfeurity prevails in 
regard to their firff abodes, becaufe, like all uncivilized 
nations, they led a wandering life: but they are fuppofed 
formerly to have dwelt between the Elbe and the Wefer, 
and to have advanced towards the banks of the Lower 
Rhine previoufly to the time wben the barbarians began 
to inundate Gaul. They confifted of various tribes, whofe 
names difappeared to make room for that of Franks, the 
origin of which is unknown. Under Valentinian, they 
eftdblilhed themfelves in Belgium, and on the left bank 
of the Rhine. Hifiory mentions the names of feveral of 
their kings, or chiefs, who preceded Clovis. See the ar¬ 
ticle France, vol. vii. p. 648. 
FRANK'STADT, a town of Moravia, in the circle of 
Prerau : four miles fouth of Freyberg. 
FR ANKS'TOWN, a lownfiiip of the American States, 
in Huntingdon county, Pennfylvania, filuated on the 
Frankfiown branch of Juniafta river : twenty miles weft 
of Huntingdon. 
FRANK'WALD, or Puskowitz, a town of Silefia, 
in the principality of Oels: four miles north-weft of Fef- 
tenberg. 
FRAN'LEU, a town of France, in the department of 
the Somme, and chief place of a canton, in the diftri^t of 
Abbeville : two leagues and a half weft of Abbeville. 
FRANQjJEMO'NT, a town of Swiflerland, in the 
bifhopric of Bale, on the Doubs, often beficgedand taken 
in the Swifs wars : twenty-three miles weft of Soleure, 
and fixteen north of Neufchatel. 
FR ANQUEVIL'LE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Lower Seine, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftrift of Rouen : two leagues fouth-eaft of Rouen. 
FRAN'TIC, adj. [corrupted homphrenetic, phrenetievs, 
Lat. Gr.] Mad; deprived of underftanding by 
violent madnefsj outrageoufly and turbulently mad: 
FRA io 
Far off, he wonders what makes them fo glad ; 
Of Bacchus’ merry fruit they did invent. 
Or CyheVs frantic rites have made them mad. Spenfer. 
Tranfported by violence of pallion j outrageous; turbu¬ 
lent : 
To fuch height their frantic pafiion grows. 
That what both love, both hazard to deftroy. Drydcn. 
Simply mad : 
The lover, frantic. 
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brovv of Egypt. Shakefpeare. 
FRAN'TICLY, adv. Madly; diftraftcdly; oiitrage- 
oufly.—Fie, fie, how franticly 1 fquare my talk. Shakf. 
FRAN'TICNESS, y. Madnefs; fury of pafiion, dif- 
tradtion. 
FRANTZ'DORF, a town of Silefia, in the principa¬ 
lity of Neifie ; four miles north of Neifie. 
FRANT'ZIUS (Wolfgang), a learned German Lu¬ 
theran divine, born at Plawen in Saxony, in 1564. He re¬ 
ceived the earlier part of his education at Frankfort on 
the Oder, whence he went to the univerfity of Wittem- 
berg. In 1598 he was appointed profefior of hifiory in 
that univerfity, and was adnutted to the degree of dodlor 
of divinity. Three years afterwards he was appointed 
fuperintendant of the ecclefiafiical difirift of Kemfperg, 
which ftation he filled until the year 1605, when he was 
appointed theological profelForat Wittemberg. He died of 
a (iroke of apoplexy in 1628, when lixty-four years of age. 
Befides feveral fmaller controverfial pieces, orations, &c, 
he w’as the author of i. Hifioria Animalium Sacra, 1671, 
i2mo. which w'as afterwards continued by J;ohn Cypria— 
mis, a Polifit divine. 2. Schola Sacrificiorum Patriarchalium 
Sacra, hoc ejl AJfertio Satisfadlionis a Domine nojlro J. C. pro 
Peccatis, &c. ^.to. 3. TraElatus Theclogicus de Interpretatione 
Sacrarum Scripturarum maximc legitima, duabus conjians Regu/is, 
a Luthcro ad Papatvs DefruElionem in Verfione Bihliorum Ger- 
manica uftatis, E 3 c. e^to. 4. Difpuiationes quindecin per intc~ 
grum Deuteronomium, qua vicem Commentarii fupplere pojjiint, 
4-10. 5. Schola Sacrifcialisyjeu PralcEliones in Leviticum, 4to. 
6. Commentarius in Leviticum, in quo Leges Mofaica ceremonialcs 
E 3 rituales folide explicantur, 4I0. 6. Augujiana ConfeJJionis Ar., 
ticuli priores decern, Dijputatioriibus XII. breviter explicati, ESc. 
FRANZ'BURG, a town of Germany; in the circle of 
Upper Saxony and Swedifii Pomerania, founded in 1587, 
on the place whereTtood a rich abbey. Duke Bogillas 
XIII. wifiied to make it a town only for arts and manu- 
faftures; and one hundred noblemen engaged to build it. 
They chofe the rnagifirates, to the number of feven, among 
themfelves, but it has not flourilhed : fourteen miles 
fouth-fouth-weft of Stralfund,and t wenty-feveneaft-north- 
eart of Roftock. Lat. 64. 9. N. Ion. 30. 36. E. Ferro. 
FRASCA'TI. See Frescati. 
FR A'SERSBURGH, a fea-port town of Scotland, fitu- 
ated on the north-eaft of the county of Aberdeen, founded 
in the beginning of the feventeenth century, by fir Alexan¬ 
der Frazer, with a tolerable harbour: thirty-two miles 
north of Aberdeen, and fixteen eaft of Banff. Lat. 57. 37.N. 
Ion. I. 16. E. Edinburgh. 
FR AS'LA, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Stiria: 
ten miles weft of Cilly. 
FRAS'SEN (Claude), a learned French monk of the 
francifean order, born at Peronne in Picardy, in 1620, 
At fixteen years of age he entered into a convent belonging 
to the order in his native town, and was afterwards fent 
to purfue his ftudies in the great francifean convent at 
Paris. . He took his degrees regularly at the Sorbonne, 
and was admitted to that of doftor in divinity in 1662. 
So highly was he refpefted for his wifdom and integrity, 
that he was often confulted by Louis XIV. the parlia¬ 
ment of Paris, the higher orders of the clergy and of the 
nobility, on bufinefs of peculiar importance and delicacy. 
He died in 1711, in the ninety-firft year of his age. He 
was the author of A Syftem of Philofophy, in 2 vols. 4to, 
He alfo wrote, 2. Scotus AcademicuSffeu DoElgris JubtilisTheo. 
logica 
