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 306 FONTEVRAULT FOOCHOW main body. With bayonets fixed they plunged down a ravine which separated them from the French line, and, while artillery mowed down their ranks from right and left, marched stead- ily forward with rapidly diminishing numbers but unflinching courage. They gained the hill in a solid mass, cut down everything before them, and had nearly won the day by inter- cepting the French retreat to the Scheldt, when Saxe, having in vain urged the king to fly, collected his force for a last effort. Four pieces of cannon were brought to bear upon the British front, while the household troops, the reserve, and foremost of all the brigade of Irish exiles, charged on either flank. Exhausted and unsupported, the English fell back. Their cavalry came to the rescue, and they reached the allied position with unbroken ranks, having twice cut through more than five times their number. The allies retreated to Ath, leaving about 8,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, while the French acknowledged an almost equal loss. The young duke de Gramont was one of those who fell. The speedy fall of Tour- nay and the conquest of Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and Dendermonde were the fruits of Marshal Saxe's victory. FONTEVRAULT (Lat. Fans ElraUi), Order of, a monastic order in the Roman Catholic church, founded about the year 1100 by Robert of Arbrissel. The abbey of La Roe, in the forest of Craon, was an establishment of regular can- ons, which also owed its origin to Robert of Arbrissel. It had ceased for some time to be governed by him when he withdrew with three other renowned preachers to the desert vale of Fontevrault, on the Vienne, near its junction with the Loire. There, beside the burial place of the Plantagenets, he laid the foundation of four distinct establishments : Grand Moutier for nuns, St. Lazare for lepers, St. Magdalen for penitent women, and a mon- astery for men. To the inmates, called for a long time "the poor of Christ," he gave the rule of St. Benedict, somewhat modified. This foundation, as well as the modified rule, was approved in 1106 by the council of Poitiers, and the bishop of that city obtained from Pope Pascal II. the confirmation of the new order on March 26 of the same year. The most re- markable feature in its constitution was that the whole order was governed by a woman, the founder himself vowing obedience with all his followers to Herlande de Champagne, the first abbess general. Robert then devoted him- self exclusively to the extension of the order, which soon spread over the continent of Eu- rope and had several houses in England. It numbered 3,000 monks and nuns at the death of the founder in 1117. The severe discipline maintained at Fontevrault had obtained for the order many privileges from the popes. The most rigorous of its observances were abolished by Eugenius III. In 1459 dissensions arose in the order about some contemplated reforms ; and the monks, casting aside the rule of St. Benedict, adopted that of St. Augustine, and called themselves canons regular. The 26th abbess general, Mary of Brittany, in 1475 drew up a new constitution combining the statutes of the founder with what was most appropriate in the rules of St. Benedict and St. Augustine ; and it was approved by Sixtus IV. After much opposition, this constitution was adopted by the order in 1507, the recu- sants forming an independent congregation. The monks, having endeavored in 1520 to sub- mit the authority of the abbess to the control of a council, were condemned by the local authorities, and the sentence was ratified in 1523 by Clement VII. A new effort to shake off this female yoke was made under the pon- tificate of Urban VIII., who favored such a reform. But an ordinance of Louis XIII., en- joining the strict observance of the bull of Sixtus IV., put an end to all hopes of change. The order was suppressed during the French revolution, and has not been revived. The title of abbess of Fontevrault was always con- ferred on a lady of royal blood. The mem- bers were mainly recruited from the upper classes ; and to the nuns were intrusted the ed- ucation of the royal princesses, filles de France. At its most flourishing period the order of Fontevrault was divided into four provinces : that of France, composing 5 priories ; that of Aquitaine, 14 ; that of Auvergne, 13 ; and that of Brittany, 13. Within the central es- tablishment at Fontevrault were five churches, the vast courts and buildings forming a little city in themselves. Four of the churches and several of the outbuildings were destroyed in the French revolution. The remaining church edifice, one of the largest in France, and what remains of the monasteries, are now used as a central prison for 2,000 men and boys, from 11 neighboring departments. Napoleon III. in 1867 offered to Queen Victoria the statues of Henry II., Richard I., Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Isabel of Angouleme, which adorn their tombs in the adjoining mausoleum; but the director of the establishment refused to give them up to the English agent, and all France protested against the spoliation. FOMIELLE, Wilfrid de, a French author, born in Paris in 1828. He taught mathematics and devoted himself to the popularization of scientific subjects, to journalism, and to aero- nautics. His principal works are : ISHomme fossile (1865), Les merveilles du monde invisible (1866), ficlairs et tonnerres (1867), and UAz- tronomie moderne (1868), some of which have been translated into English. He published in 1870 a narrative of his aeronautic voyages, which is included in Glaisher's " Travels in the Air" (London, 1871). FOOCHOW, Fuhehan, Foochoo, or Foochow-foo (called also by the inhabitants HOK-CHEST, " Hap- py Region"), a city of China, capital of the province of Fokien, and one of the ports open to foreign trade, in lat. 26 5' N., Ion. 119 20' E., 150 m. N. N. E. of Amoy, 420 m. N. E. of