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 FRAYSSINOUS

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FREDEGAKIUS

in 1821. They were soon translated into Ekiglish and French. His collected works have been published by Lommel (Munich, 18SS), and translated in part and edited by Ames (New York and London, 1898).

Sketch 'of Dr. Jos. Fraunhofcr in Pop. Scifnce Monthly, VI, 739; Memoir in Jr. Fr. Institute. VIII, 96; Merz, Das Lebcn und Wirken (Landshut, 1865); Bauernfeind, Geddchtnissrede auf F. (Munich, 1SS7).

WlLLI.\M Fox.

Frayssinous, Denis de, 1765-18-11, Bishop of Hermopolis in partibus infideliuiH, is celebrated chiefly for his conferences at Notre-Danie de Paris. He was one of the first orators and apostles who ac- complished so much towards the restoration of the Faith in France after the Revolution. He was born at Curieres in Rouergue, France, and died at St-Geniez in the department of AvejTon. His earliest sermons were delivered at Paris, first in the church of the Car- melites, and later at Saint-.Sulpice, where he continued them for se\'en years. He was compelled to interrupt his preaching at the order of Napoleon in 1809, liut resumed in 1S14, and continued, with the brief inter- ruption of the Hundred Days, until 1822. Despite his severity towards the preacher. Napoleon esteemed the Abb6 Frayssinous and had made liim a councillor of the university, of which he later became grand master. He was elected to membership in the French Academy, and in 1817 pronounced there a panegyric of St. Louis which is still famous. In 1817 he was named almoner to the court of Louis XVIII, and later consecrated Bishop of Hermopolis. He had been raised to the French peerage when, in 1824, he pronounced the funeral oration of Louis XVIII. It was at this time that the .Society of Jesus, winch had been re-established by Pius VII, wished to return to France. A number of former Jesuits, reunited under the name of Fathers of the Faith, addressed them- selves, in 1824, to Mgr de Frayssinous, the minister of public worship, and obtained his protection of their project.

His i^olitical career came to an end with the revolu- tion of 1830. After acting as tutor to the Due de Bordeaux until 1838, he went to live at St-Geniez in Provence, where he died three years later. His con- ferences had been published some years before, and form, under the title "Defense du Christ ianisme" (4 vols.), the chief work by which he is known. He pub- lished also, in 1818, his slightly Galilean work " Les vrais principes sur les liberies de I'EgUse gallicane". His conferences lack the vibrating warmth and the brilliancy of style which marked those of Lacordaire and his successors in the pulpit of Notre-Dame. But Mgr de Frayssinous possesses the distinction of hav- ing inaugurated a great movement of restoration and of having made the word of God acceptable to both the indifferent and the incredulous, owing to the clear- ness with which he explained dogmatic truths, his judgment in the choice of his proofs and his loyalty in discussion. He was the first in the nineteenth century to sow, in this manner, the apostolic seed, and he as- sured an abundant harvest to those who followed him.

Henriox. Vie de ^f. Frat/xsinous (P.iris. 1843); Sept confe- rences et diiconrs de M. D. Frayssinous (Paris, 1843), preface; RiCARD, L'Abbi Cambalot.

Louis Lalande.

Frechette, Louis-Honore, b. at Notre-Dame de Levis, P. Q., Canada, 16 November, 1839; d. 30 May, 1908. He attended the schools of his native town, and completed hisstudies at the Seminaryof Nicolet, after which he chose the profession of law, and in 1864 was admitted to the Bar at Quebec. As clients did not come as quickly as he desired he decided to go to Chicago, where for seven years he worked as a jour- nalist, and became corresponding .secretary of the land department of the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1871 Frechette returned to Canada, and in 1874 was elected a deputy in the House of Commons by the Liberal

party. Defeated in the general elections of 1878 and 1882, he abandoned public life and returned to jour- nalism, the products of his pen appearing in the "Journal de Quebec", the "Journal de Levis", the "Patrie" of Montreal, the "Opinion Publique", "The Forum", "Harper's Monthly", and "The Arena". Meanwhile his poetry won him fame abroad and admira- tion at home. The list of his poetical works is some- what lengthy. The following are given in their chrono- logical order: "Mes Loisirs", 1863; "La Voix d'un Exile", 1866 — first part published at Chicago. An- other complete edition appeared at Montreal in 1874. "Pele-Mele; Fantaisies et souvenirs poetiques", 1877; "Les Fleurs Boreales, and Les Oiseaux de Neige, Poesies Canadiennes", a work crowned by the French Academy, 1879; "La Legende d'un Peuple — Poesies Canadiennes", 1887-1890; "Les Feuilles Volantes", 1891. Frechette wrote also much in prose, notably: " Felix Poutre " (an historical drama), 1871 ; " Lettres a Basile a propos des Causeries du Dimauche", 1872; "Le retour de I'Exile" (a drama in five acts and eight tableaux), 1880; "Le drapeau fantome" (historical episode), 1884; " Episode de 1' insurrection Canadienne de 1837", 1885; "Originaux et Detraques", 1892; "Lettres a I'abbe Baillarge sur I'&lucation", 1893; "Christmas in French Canada" (in English), 1900. He translated into French, Howell's " Chance Acquaint- ance" and George W. Cable's "Old Creole Days". Frechette became a member of the Royal Society of Canada at its fomnlation in 1882 ; he was named Com- panion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1897, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen A'ictoria. The University of Laval, McGill Lniversity, and Queen's University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Letters. From 1889 Frechette occupied the position of clerk of the Coimcil in the legislature of Quebec. In 1876 he married Emma Beaudry, second daughter of J.-B. Beaudry, a banker of Mont- real, by whom he had two children. He has been called the " Lamartine of Canada". He certainly ele- vated the poetry of Canada, and his work will rank with that of Cr^mazie. N. E. Dionne.

Fredegarius, the name used since the sixteenth century (for what reason is not known) to designate the supposed author of an anonjonous historical com- pilation (Chronicon Fredegarii) of the seventh cen- tury, in which is related the history of the Franks from the earliest times until 658. The name appeared for the first time in the "Antiquites gauloises" (Paris, 1599) of Claude Fauchet, who states that it is used "through ignorance of the real author". Mod- ern research has resulted in the discovery that the work is really made up of three texts each of which belongs to a different author. The first author is a Burgundian whose work is an epitome of six books of the "Eccle.siastical History of the Franks", by Gregory of Tours, from the earliest times to the death of Chilperic I in 584. He also i\Tote the " Liber generationis" and made extracts from Idatius and St. Jerome which form, in the critical edition of Krusch, the first and .second books of the "Chronicon". In- cluding the epitome, or the third book, he has there- fore written the largest portion of the work. This portion, it must be said, is also the least important, for it contains no original matter, and confines itself to the use of previous sources, and not without bhmders and inaccuracies. It is true that the part of the fourth book which goes to 613 (Krusch). or even to 616 (Schniirer). has been attributed to the same author. The latter remarks that the writer was in touch with Warnacharius the "mayor of the palace" and believes that he may be identified with Agrestius, a monk of Luxeuil. The second author, also a Bur- gundian, belonged to the south of France and had apparently spent some time at Paris. He wrote an original work extending to the year 642 and containing