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FONTENELLE. morts (1683), imitating Lucian and suggesting Landor, were once very popular, and aided in spreading the scientific and rationalistic spirit. He died in Paris, January 9, 1757. He had an acute mind, a dry, epigrammatic style, a calm judgment, a didactic temper, a kindly character. The best edition of his works is in 3 vols. (Paris, 1818). Consult Faguet, Dix huitieme Steele (Paris, 1894), and the brief but acute criticism in Lanson, Histoire de la littcrature frangaise (5th cd., Paris, 1898).

FONTENOY, foxt'nwa' (older form Fon- tenet, from Lat. fontanus, pertaining to springs, from fons, fountain). A village of Belgium, in the Province of Hainaut, five miles southwest of Tournai. Here, on ^lay 11, 1745, the French, 55,000 strong, under Marshal 8axe, defeated an equal number of English, Hanoverians, and Dutch under the Duke of Cumberland. The fight was obstinate to the last, and was decided only by a smashing charge of the Household Troops and the famous Irish Brigade. The Allies lost 10,000 men, the French 7000. Coming at the same time as the threatened Stuart invasion, the defeat was a great blow to England.

FONTEVRAULT, foN'te-vro' (Fons Ebraldi — the well of Saint Evrault). A town in the De- partment of Maine-et-Loire, France, on the Vienne, eight miles southeast of Saumur (Map: France. G 4 ). Population, in 1 90 1, 2352. It is cel- ebrated for the remains of the famous abbey found- ed in 1099 by Robert d'Arbrissel, a Breton monk. It consisted of five churches, a monastery, a nun- nery, a magdaleneum, and a hospital. One church remains, a splendid example of twelfth-century architecture, of which only a part is now devoted to divine service. It contained the tombs of sev- eral members of the royal Plantagenet family of England, and still possesses the effigies of Henry II. and his Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, of Rich- ard CoBur de Lion, and of Isabella of Angouleme, wife of King John. The twelfth-century kitchen, the sixteenth-century chapter-house, the refec- tory, and the cloisters are of great archaeological interest. In 1804 the buildings were inclosed by walls, and converted into a huge penitentiary and industrial ])rison for eleven neighboring de- partments, with accommodation for 2000 pris- oners. Napoleon III., in 1807, occasioned a na- tional outburst of indignation by offering the Plantagenet statues to (^ueen Victoria, a vandal act that was frustrated by the refusal of the prison director to deliver them to the English agent. Consult ICdouard, Font evrault et sea mcnumenis (2 vols., Paris, 1875).

FONTEVRAULT, Order of. A monastic Or- der following the Bemulictine rule, founded by Rol)ert d'Arbrissel. He was born in 1047, and took his doctor's degree in Paris. As Vicar-Gen- alusly to the extirpation of clerical concu- binage and simony. Later he took up the life of a liermit in the forest of Cnion. between Anjou and Brittany. The fame of his sanctity attracted disciples.- whom in 1004 he formed into a com- munity imder the rule of Saint Augustine at La Roe. lie received sp(>cial permission from Pope l>ban II. to preach the Crusade: but in 1090 he founded a community at Fontevrault (q.v. ) for |)ersons of both sexes who preferred a life of penance at home. As several houses developed, of which those for women were especially dedi- VoL. VII.-36

cated to the Blessed Virgin, Robert placed those for men also under the jurisdiction of the Abbess of Fontevrault as superior of the whole Order, representing the heavenly patroness. The first abbess was Hersende, a kinswoman of the Duke of Brittany. They were pledged to ob- serve the Benedictine rule in its full rigor, not eating flesh even in sickness. Paschal II. con- firmed the Order in 1106 and 1113. The founder died in 1117, after establishing numerous clois- ters ; more than sixty arose after his death on the same model, principally in France, though a few extended to England and Spain. The Order ultimately declined, in spite of the efforts at re- form of three of its abbesses, Mary of Brittany (1477), Ren6e of Bourbon (1507), and An- toinette of Orleans (1571-1618), and finally be- came extinct.

FONTOIILL ABBEY. See Beckford.

FONTPERTIUS, fON'par'tyij', Adalbebt Frout de ( 1825— ). A French writer, born at Rennes. He entered the marine artillery, but left it for the civil service, and was chief prefect of the Division of Eure-et-Loir, from 1853 to 1865. His writings include a number of essays for scien- tific and economic magazines, and two books on social subjects, besides Etudes de littcrature ctrangcre (1859), Les Frangais en Am^rique^ and works upon Canada, the L'nited States (1873), and the English in India.

FONVIELLE, fSN'vyel', Louis Eugene, Knight of (1655-1711). A French pirate, born at Thouars (in the present Department of Deux- S^vres). He turned buccaneer in 1677, and as a chief, in command of his own vessel, cruised among the West Indies, attacking and plundering the Spaniards. He was a lieutenant in the French Navy from 1679 to 1681, when he was elected principal chief of the buccaneers, whom he continued to hold in readiness to aid the French at Santo Domingo. When the French expedition against Cartagena was organized by Baron de Pointis in 1697 he commanded 600 buc- caneers in the force placed at the disposal of the expedition by Ducasse, the Governor of Santo Domingo. In 1702 he helped Ducasse to defeat a superior English fleet under Admiral John Ben- bow. He accompanied the unsuccessful French expedition against Rio de Janeiro in 1710, and after his surrender was treaeheTously murdered by the Spaniards.

FONVIELLE, Wilfrid de (1828-). A French aeronaut, meteorologist, and author. He was born at Paris, and in his early life was a teacher of mathematics. Since 1858 he has been distinguished as an aeronaut. He made numerous balloon ascents with Tissandier for meteorological i)urposes, and in Xovemln'r. 1870, during the siege of Paris, he escaped from the city in a balloon, and proceeding to London gave a series of lectures on the benefits of a republican form of government. His principal scientific works are: T/hotnmc fossil (18^5) ; Les merveillcs du niondc invisible (1866) : FJclairs et tonnrrrcs (1867), translated into English under the title of Thunder and Li(]htnin<j : I/nstronomie moderne (1868) : Histoire dr In Innr (1886) ; and }fort de faim (1886). .\n account of the bal- loon ascents made by Fonvielle. Glaisher, and others appeared in French in 1870, and an Eng- lish translation was published in 1871 under the title of Travels in the Air. In addition to the