Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/293

 F L A F L A 281 120 of them passed over into England, but they were finally obliged to retire without making a single convert. Pope Clement VI. fulminated a bull against the order 20th October 1349 ; and the officers of the Inquisition during the papacy of Gregory XL persecuted them with such vigour that the sect at last disappeared altogether. An attempt made in Thuringia in 1414 by Conrad Schmidt to revive the order under the name of Cryptoflagellants was suppressed by the trial and execution of that leader and the more prominent among his followers. In the 16th century a milder form of the practice was prevalent in France, especially in the southern parts of the kingdom ; and in various places flagellating companies were formed, who, however, used the discipline chiefly in private, and only occasionally took part in public flagellating processions. Henry III. of France established a whipping brotherhood in Paris, and himself took part in the processions, but find ing that his conduct so far from conferring on him any political benefit awakened only ridicule, he allowed his zeal for self-mortification to abate. The fraternities were suppressed in France by Henry IV., but until recent times the practice of self-flagellation continued to manifest itself intermittently in the south of France, and also in Italy and Spain ; and so late as 1820 a procession of flagellants took place at Lisbon. See Muratori, Antiquitates Italiccc Mcdii JEvi ; Boileau, His- toria Flagellantium, translated into English under the name History of the Flagellants, or the Advantages of Discipline ; Helyot, Histoire dcs ordrcs monastiques ; Gerson, Contra, scclum Jlagcllantium ; Cooper, Flagellation and tfic Flagellants ; Schneegans, Die Geissler, namentlich die Gcissdfahrt nach Strassburg, 1349, Leipsic, 1840; and especially Forstemann, Die christl. Geisslcrycscllscha/tcn, Halle, 1828, and the article by Dr Zaclier in Ersch and Grubcr s JSiicyclopadie. FLAGEOLET. See FLUTE. FLAHAUT DE LA BILLARDERIE, AUGUSTE CHARLES JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870), a French general and diplomatist, was born in Paris on the 21st of April 1785. His father, a field marshal in the royal army, succeeded Buffon as intendant of the royal gardens, and was guillotined at Arras in 1793. His mother, an ingenious and elegant novel-writer, known as Madame de Souza, from the name of her second husband, the Portu guese author J. M. de Souza-Botelho, emigrated with him to England, and, after he had spent some time in Germany for the sake of his education, brought him back to Paris in 1798. The following year, young Flahaut, being only fifteen years of age, enlisted in a troop of volunteer cavalry, who were to accompany General Bonaparte, then first consul, to Italy. He had a brilliant career, being suc cessively aide-de-camp to Murat, Berthier, and Napoleon. In 1813 he w r as first gazetted general of brigade, and then general of division, and, although already a count by birth, received a second time this title from the great soldier of fortune who sought by his simple fiat to create a new empire to be propped up by a new nobility. He was a peer of France during the Hundred Days, and supported with all his influence the project of making Marie-Louise regent, and of thus securing the imperial throne for the young king of Rome under tho title of Napoleon II. On the second return of the Bourbons he left France, and lived in exile from 1815 to 1830. In England, his usual place of retreat, ho married (28th July 1817) the daughter of Admiral Keith, who became an Irish peeress as Baroness Keith in 1823, and succeeded to the Scottish barony of Nairn in 1838. By her he had no sons, but several daughters, the eldest of whom married the fourth marquis of Lansdowne. After the revolution of July 1830 he returned to France, was restored to his former rank in the army, and was made a peer by the Government of Louis- Philippe. He soon became a favourite with the duke of Orleans, the king s eldest son, who gave him a situation of trust in his household. He also received at the same time the dignity of the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, of which he had been a commander since 1814. His services as a diplomatist were made use of more than once : he was ambassador at Berlin in 1831, and at Vienna from 1842 until the revolution of 1848. When Louis Bonaparte became Napoleon III., Flahaut de la Billarderie, whoso mother had brought up the duke of Morny, did not con sider his fidelity as any longer pledged to the Orleans family, and was appointed senator (31st December 1852). Nor was this the only imperial favour he could boast of. From I860 until 18G2 he was ambassador to London, and, on the 28th of January 1864 he was promoted to the high dignity of grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour. After that time Flahaut did not play any considerable part in the management of public business. He died on the 1st of September 1870. FLAMBARD, RANULPH (RALPH), (d. 1128), bishop of Durham, and justiciar under William Rufus, was a Norman of low birth, who came to England in the train of William the Conqueror in 1066. He took holy orders, obtained several church preferments, and was appointed chaplain to the bishop of London, and made prebendary of St Paul s. He demanded the deanery also, and this being refused him, he left the bishop s service. He afterwards passed into the service of the king, William II., who made him his chaplain. Ambitious, greedy, and unscrupulous, ho flattered and ministered to the vices of his master, and thereby raised himself to the highest places in church an. .I state. To fill the royal coffers he suggested various arbitrary and oppressive measures, by which he earned tho hatred of the people, and at the same time the eulogy of the king, that he was the only man who, to please a master, dared to brave the vengeance of mankind. Flam- bard appears to have been the first to apply the feudal theory to the estates of the church. He suggested that they should be considered as fiefs or benefices held of the king, and that as such at every vacancy they devolved to the crown till the vacancy was supplied. The lesson was quickly learnt, and the immediate consequence was that benefices were kept vacant during the king s pleasure, and refilled only on payment of a large sum of money. It was not till after the death of Lanfranc that the king gave him self up unreservedly to the influence of Flambard. Tho justiciar obtained for himself the custody of the vacant abbeys of Winchester and Chertsey, the bishopric of Lin coln, and the archbishopric of Canterbury. His extortion and oppressions drew upon him the curses of the clergy as well as of the people, and in 1099 an attempt was made to murder him at sea. But a storm arose and his murderers quarrelled, and Flarnbard was allowed to land again. Ho then reappeared at court and was rewarded with the see of Durham. But he was at last &quot;hoist with his own petard&quot;; for at his consecration he had to make the king a present of 1000. On the death of William II., in the following year, the bishop, to satisfy the outcries of the people, was sent to the Tower, &quot;the first man,&quot; says Mr Freeman, &quot; recorded to have dwelled as a prisoner in the Conqueror s fortress.&quot; He fared sumptuously in his confinement, treated his keepers, and at length, in Februaiy 1101, managed to escape from the Tower, and fled to Normandy. There ho joined Duke Robert, instigated him to the invasion i f England, and returned to England with him. He was ultimately restored to his see, and appears to have occupied himself thenceforward with its duties, and in various architectural works the completion of his cathedral, the building of Norham Castle, and the fortification of Durham. He endowed the college of Christchurch and founded the priory of Mottisford. Flambard died September 5, 1 128. T&quot;V /: IX. 36