Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/834

 FAGNANO

752

FAITH

tice of the Roman Congregations, especially that of the Congregation of the Council, of which the author quotes numerous decisions. Benedict XIV gave this work the highest praise, and its authority is still con- tinually appealed to in the Roman Congregations. It is divided, like the Decretals of Gregory IX, into five books. The first edition was published at Rome, in 16G1, under the title of "Jus canonicum seu commen- taria absolutissima in quinque libros Decretalium". It has been reprinted several times. Fagnani is re- proached with excessive rigour in his commentary on the chapter of the Decretals "Ne innitaris" (Book I, De constitutionibus), in which he combats the doctrine of probabilism. St. Alphonsus calls him "magnus rigoristarum princeps", the great prince of the rigor- ists (Homo apostolicus, Tract. I, no. 63; Theologia Moralis, IV, no. 669).

ScHULTE. Geschichte der Quellen w. Literatur des canonischen Rechts (Stuttgart, 1875-80), III. 485; VOM Scheber in Kirchen- lez., IV, 1204 sq.

A. Van Hove.

Fagnano, Giulio Carlo de' Toschi di, mathema- tician, b. at Sinigaglia, Italy, 26 September, 1682; d. there IS May, 1766. He made his higher studies at the Collegio Clement ino in Rome and there won great distinction, e.xcept in the one subject which has made him famous; in fact his aversion to mathematics was extreme, and it was only after his college course that he took up the study of this branch, but then he did so with such earnestness and ability that, w'ithout the help of any teacher, he mastered it from its foimda- tions. Most of his important researches were published in the current numbers of the "Giornale de' Letterati d'ltalia". He is best known on account of his investi- gations on the length and division of ares of certain curves, especially the lemniscate; this seems also to have been in his own estimation his most important work, since he had the figure of the lemniscate with the inscription: "Multifariam divisa atque dimensa Deo veritatis gloria", engraved on the title-page of his "Produzioni Matematiche", which he published in two volumes (Pesaro, 1750), and dedicated to Bene- dict XIV. The same figure and the words " Deo veri- tatis gloria" also appear on his tomb, a testimony to the earnest devotion to science and the deeply prac- tical piety which characterized his entire life; his attachment to the sovereign pontiff was warm and sincere, and of his twelve children one became arch- deacon of the cathedral of Sinigaglia and another a Benedictine nun. As a writer he is praised by his con- temporaries for his great mildness in controversy, as well as for his clearness and accuracy of thought and diction.

CoLGERA, Memorie concernenti el Marchese Giulio Carlo de' Toschi di Fagnano, republished from the Vatican Codex in the BuUettino Boncompagni (Rome. Jan.. 1S70), III. ^\ith an im- portant note in which are cleared up the discrepancies as to the dates of his birth and death found in different accounts of his life; Cantor. Vorlesunqen iiber Geschichte der Malhematik (Leipzig, 1898). Ill, 465-472.

Edward C. Phillips.

Faillon, Etienne-Michel, historian, b. at Taras- con, France, 3 Jan., 1800: d. at Paris, 25 Oct., 1870. He studied at Avignon and .4ix (Provence), joined the Sulpicians (1821), and was ordained priest in 1824. While director of "La Solitude", he wrote several ascetic and biographical works and collected materials for future publications. In 1848, during an official visitation in Montreal, he conceived the plan of his "Histoire de la Colonic frangaise au Canada". Of the twelve intended volumes of this work, destined to em- brace the entire French domination (1534-1759), only three were published, the narrative closing with the year 1675. Two subsequent voyages to Canada en- abled him to write several important biographies, those of Sister Marguerite Bourgeoys, of Jeanne Mance (with the history of the Hotel-Dieu, Villemarie), of

Mother d'Youville, and of Jeanne Le Ber. His chief works relating to Old France are his life of Monsieur Olier and "Monuments inedits sur I'apostolat de Sainte Marie-Madeleine en Provence". He has been repeatedly criticized for his partiality towards his society and towards Montreal. Most historians censure his appreciation of Bishop Laval and of the Jesuits. On the other hand, he is credited for giving prominence to persons and events of Villemarie, less elaborately treated by the Jesuit "Relations" and later histories.

Bertrand. Histoire littcraire de la Compagnie-de Saint-Sul- pice (Paris. 1900); Rochemonteix. Les Jcsuites et la Nouvelle- France (Paris. 1896); Morga.v, BMiolheca Canadensis (Ottawa, 1867); J. M. Lemoine in Trans, of Roy. Sac. of Canada (1882).

Lionel Lindsay.

Faith (njlDN. TriffTis, fides). — I. The Meaning of THE Word. — In the Old Testament, nJIDN means essen- tially steadfastness, cf. E.xod., xvii, 12, where it is used to describe the strengthening of Moses' hands; hence it comes to mean faithfulness, whether of God towards man (Deut., xxxii, 4) or of man towards God (Ps. cxviii, 30). As signifying man's attitude towards God, it means trustfulness or fiducia. It would, however, be illogical to conclude that the word cannot, and does not. mean "belief" or "faith" in the Old Testament, for it is clear that we cannot put trust in a person's promises without previously assentmg to or believing m that person's claim to such confidence. Hence, even if it could be proved that the word njIDN does not in itself contain the notion of belief, it must neces- sarily presuppose it. But that the word does itself contain the notion of belief is clear from the use of the radical jax. which in the causative conjugation, or Hiph'il, means "to believe", e. g. Gen., xv, 6, and Deut., i, 32, in which latter passage the two meanings — viz. of believing and of trusting — are combined. That the noun itself often means "faith" or "belief", is clear from Hab., ii, 4, where the context demands it. The witness of the Septuagint is decisive; they render the verb by Tnareiu, and the noun by ttIittis; and here again the two factors, faith and trust, are con- noted by the same term. But that even in classical Greek wicrTeva was used to signify "believe", is clear from Euripides (Helene, 710). X6701! d'ifiotci viaTevaov rdde, and that wUrris could mean "belief" Ls shown by the same dramatist's deCif d'oiiKdn vUtis dpayc (Medea, 414; cf. Hipp., 1007). In the New Testa- ment the meanings "to believe" and "belief", for iTicTTei/u and ttIixtis, come to the fore; in Christ's speech, ttIctis frequently means "trust", but also "belief" (cf. Matt., viii, 10). In Acts it is used ob- jectively of the tenets of the Christians, but is often to be rendered "belief" (cf. xvii, 31; xx, 21; xxvi, IS). In Romans, xiv, 23, it has the meaning of " con- science" — "all that is not of faith is sin" — but the ,\postle repeatedly uses it in the sense of " belief" (cf. Rom., iv. and Gal., iii). How necessary it is to point this out will be evident to all who are familiar with mod- ern theological literature; thus, w-hen a writer in the "Hibbert Journal", Oct., 1907, says, "From one end of the Scripture to the other, faith is trust and only trust", it is hard to see how he would explain I Cor., xiii, 13, and Heb., xi, 1. The truth is that many theo- logical writers of the present day are given to very loose thinking, and in nothing is this so evident as in their treatment of faith. In the article just referred to we read: "Trust in God is faith, faith is belief, be- lief may mean creed, but creed is not equivalent to trust in God." A similar vagueness was especially noticeable in the " Do we believe?" controversy; one correspondent says: "We imbelievers, if we have lost faith, cling more closely to hope and — the greatest of the.se — charity" ("Do we believe?", p. 180, ed. W. L. Courtney, 1905). Non-Catholic writers have repudi- ated all idea of faith as an intellectual as.sent, and con- sequently they fail to realize that faith must necessap-