Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/211

 a grant from the king of the island of Andresey and all the buildings upon it. Another grant which he received for attending Geoffrey, son of Aubrey de Vere, was the parish church of Kensington along with certain lands there. When, after the see of Canterbury had remained vacant for five years, Henry held a council at Windsor on 26 April 1114 in order to fix on a successor to Anselm, he was anxious to procure the election of Faricius, in whom he placed entire confidence, and the monks of Christ Church, who were summoned to the council, were highly pleased at the prospect. The suffragan bishops, however, opposed the scheme, for they were afraid that Faricius as an Italian and a strict churchman would involve the church in fresh disputes. This feeling was not expressed openly, but the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury alleged that it would be unseemly that a physician who attended women should be made archbishop. The king gave up the point, and Ralph, bishop of Rochester, was elected. The historian of Abingdon seems to have been mistaken in asserting that Faricius was elected to the archbishopric. Faricius died at Abingdon on 23 Feb. 1115 (Chron. de Abingdon, ii. 290), or, more correctly, 1117 (ib. p. 158; A.-S. Chron.) On the 2nd of that month, it is said, he fell sick after eating some food prepared by one of the brethren, and at once declared that he should die. He wrote a ‘Life of St. Aldhelm,’ which is criticised by William of Malmesbury in his ‘Life’ of the saint. His work is without doubt the anonymous ‘Life’ in the contemporary Cotton MS. Faustina, B. iv., which is printed in the Bollandists' ‘Acta SS.’ May vi. 84, and by Dr. Giles in his edition of Aldhelm's works. He is also said to have written letters and a work proving that infants dying without baptism cannot be saved. His anniversary was kept with much solemnity at Abingdon, and in one place in the ‘De Obedientiariis Abbendoniæ’ he is styled saint.

[Chron. de Abingdon, ii. passim (Rolls Ser.); William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, pp. 126, 192, 330–2; Eadmer's Historia Novorum, lib. v. col. 489; Leland's Itinerary, ed. 1711, ii. 13.]  FARINDON, ANTHONY (1598–1658), royalist divine, was born at Sonning, Berkshire. The parish register records the baptism on 24 Dec. 1598 of ‘Antony Farndon, son of Thomas Farndon.’ The name is also spelled Faringdon, Farringdon, Farington, and Farrington. He was admitted a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, on 9 June 1612. He graduated B.A. on 26 June 1616, was admitted a fellow in 1617, and graduated M.A. on 28 March 1620. Later in the same year he joined with fifty-two other masters of arts, including Sheldon and Heylyn, in a petition to Prideaux, the vice-chancellor, asking that they should not be compelled ‘to sit like boys, bareheaded, in the convocation house.’ The petition was granted on 20 Dec. On 17 Dec. 1629 he graduated B.D. Ireton, who was admitted as a gentleman-commoner of Trinity College in 1626, was put under discipline by Farindon for some act of insubordination, and the tutor is said to have remarked that Ireton ‘would prove either the best or the worst instrument that ever this kingdome bred’.

In 1634 Farindon was presented by John Bancroft, D.D. [q. v.], bishop of Oxford, to the vicarage of Bray, Berkshire, worth 120l. a year; and in 1639, through the interest of Laud, he obtained in addition the post of divinity lecturer in the Chapel Royal at Windsor. Here he acquired the friendship of John Hales of Eton.

Of both these preferments he was dispossessed during the civil war. It is said that Ireton, immediately after the second battle of Newbury (27 Oct. 1644), quartered himself on Farindon, and plundered his vicarage out of revenge for the college grievance. Farindon appears to have been superseded by one Brice, afterwards of Henley, Oxfordshire, and Brice, in 1649, by Hezekiah Woodward, an independent in favour with Cromwell. What became of Farindon between 1644 and 1647 does not appear. He seems to have left his wife and children in the parish of Bray; the legal fifths, which were to go to their maintenance, were withheld by Woodward, and the family were ‘ready to starve.’ Hales, though himself in straits, and obliged to sell part of his library, assisted them with considerable sums. In 1647, through the influence of Sir John Robinson, a kinsman of Laud, Farindon was chosen minister of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street. Branston says that ‘in a short time the congregation so increased that it was very difficult to get a place.’ The Milk Street church was known as ‘the scholars' church,’ and Farindon had Hammond and Sanderson among his auditors. He complied with the existing restrictions by not using the Book of Common Prayer, but this did not save him from the effect of the harsh measures which pursued the sequestered clergy. He is said to have been turned out of his London charge in 1651 or 1652, but this is inconsistent with the date (12 Dec. 1654) of his funeral sermon for Sir George Whitmore. It may be gathered from Walker's statements that he held his position till the