FORREST, DAVID WILLIAM: United Free Church of Scotland; b. at Glasgow May 16, 1856. He studied at the University of Glasgow (M.A., 1878), the United Presbyterian College, Edinburgh (1877‑80), and the University of Leipsic (1880). He has been minister of Saffronhall Church, Hamilton (1882‑87), United Presbyterian Church, Moffat (1887‑94), Wellington Church, Glasgow (1894‑
* The Formula of Concord consists of two parts, the Epitome and the Solida repetitio et declaratio, each divided into twelve articles, as follows: i., of original sin; ii., of free will; iii., of justification by faith; iv., of good works; v., of the Law and the Gospel; vi., of the third use of the' Law; vii.. of the Lord's Supper; viii., of the person of Christ; ix., of Christ's descent into hell; x., of church usages and ceremonies called adiaphora; xi., of God's foreknowledge and election; xii.. of several heresies and sects. The second part repeats at greater length what is concisely stated in the Epitome with confirmatory quotations.
1899), United Free Church, Skelmorlie, Wemyss Bay (1899‑1903), and North Morningside United Free Church, Edinburgh (since 1903). He was Kerr Lecturer at Edinburgh in 1897 and a lecturer at Yale in 1901. He has written The Christ of History and of Experience (Kerr Lectures; Edinburgh, 1897) and The Authority of Christ (1906).
FORSANDER, NILS: Lutheran; b. at Gladsax, Sweden, Sept. 11, 1846. He emigrated to the United States in 1870 and completed his education at Ai1gustana College and Theological Seminary, Rock Island, 111. (B.A., 1872). He was ordained to the ministry in 1873 and was pastor at Sagetown, Ill., 1873‑75, Kingston, Ia., 1875‑80, and Bettresda, Ia., 1880‑89. Since 1889 he has been professor of theology at Augustana College and Theological Seminary. He was secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod 1886‑90, and in theology is a strict evangelical member of his denomination. He has been editor of the Augustana Theological Quarterly since 1900, and has written Augsburgiska bekdnnelsen med 1tirklaringar (Rock Island, Ill., 1899) and Var lutherska kyrkas stallning till andre kyrkosamfund (1906).
FORSTER, CHARLES: English clergyman and author; b. 1790; d. at Stisted (35 m. n.e. of London), Essex, Aug. 20, 1871. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and was perpetual curate of Ash, Kent, 1834‑38, rector of Stisted, near Braintree, Essex, 1838‑71, and also one of the six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral 1835‑71. He opposed Biblical criticism and aimed in a number of works, now sought as curiosities, to justify the strictest literal interpretation of Scripture. Among other things he published, Critical Essays on Genesis chap. xx. and on St. Matthew chap. ii. 17, 18, (Dublin, 1826); Mahometanism Unveiled (2 vols., London, 1829); The Life of John Jebb (2 vols., 1836); The Historical Geography of Arabia (1844); The One Primeval Language (3 parts, 1851‑54), and Sinai Photographed, or Contemporary Records of Israel in the Wilderness (1862).
FORSTER (FOERSTER, VORSTER, FORSTHEMIUS), JOHANN: 1. Lutheran theologian and Hebrew scholar; b. at Augsburg July 10, 1496 (or 1495); d. at Wittenberg Dec. 8, 1558. In 1515 he entered the University of Ingolstadt where he became the most studious and capable Hebrew scholar of Reuchlin; on account of a pestilence he removed in 1521 to Leipsic, and became a pupil of P. Mosellanus, through whose influence, probably, he received in 1522 a position as teacher of Hebrew at the Greek‑Latin school in Zwickau. In 1529 he resigned, and in 1530 became a student at the University of Wittenberg, where he remained as preacher about six years. He assisted Luther in the translation of the Bible, and became one of his most devoted pupils and friends. In 1535 he received a call to Augsburg, where he became involved in controversies with his Zwinglian colleagues. In 1539 he became professor of Hebrew at Tubingen, on the recommendation of Luther and Camerarius. The question whether the Reformation should proceed according to
345 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Forney
Fortunatus
Saxon or Swiss principles and doctrines was then a burning one, and Forster lost his position in this struggle because he did not side with the Zwinglians. In 1542 he became provost of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg, and thence extended his reformatory activity, first to Regensburg in 1542 and in the following year to the county of Henneberg. In unselfish devotion to the cause of the Reformation he sacrificed his position at Nuremberg, but as his plans of church discipline were not carried out, he went into voluntary retirement after three years. After some vain efforts of Melanchthon and his friends to find a position for him, Prince George of Anhalt called him as superintendent to the bishopric of Merseburg, and subsequently Duke Augustus provided him with a capitular prebend. After Cruciger's death in 1549, he was called to Wittenberg as professor of Hebrew and preacher at the Castle Church. In 15‑14 he took part in the convention of Naumburg on the side of Melanchthon. The last decade of his life may be designated as the Melanchthonian period, since be became more lenient in church discipline and expressed himself in a more conciliatory manner on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The principal work of his life is a great Hebrew‑Latin dictionary, Dietionarium hebraicum novum, non ex rabbinorum commentis nee ex nostratium doctorum stulta imitatione descriptum sed ex ipsis thesauris S. Bibliorum et eorundem accurata collatione depromptum (Basel, 1557; 2d ed., 1564).
2. Not to be confounded with the above is the younger Johann Forster; b. at Auerbach (15 m. S.W. of Zwickau), Saxony, Dec. 25, 1576; d. at Mansfeld (38 m. s. of Magdeburg) Nov. 17, 1613. He was preacher at Leipsic, 1593, rector in Schneeberg, 1601; chief preacher of Zeitz, professor of theology in Wittenberg 1609 and finally general superintendent at Mansfeld He was the author of various theological and devotional writings.
(W. GERMANNt.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Germann, Johann Forster, der Henneberger Re/ormator, Meiningen, 1894; FSrster, in ZHT, 1869, pp. 210 sqq.; L. Geiger, Das Studiumderhebrdiechen Sprache in Deutschland, pp. 97 sqq., 136, Breslau, 1870; KL, iv. 1625‑26.
FORSYTH, NATHANIEL: Missionary to India. See INDIA, II., § 2.
FORSYTH, PETER TAYLOR: English Congregationalist; b. at Aberdeen, Scotland, May 12, 1848. He studied at the University of Aberdeen (M.A., 1869), the University of Gottingen, and New College, London, and after being assistant to the professor of Latin at the University of Aberdeen was pastor at Shipley, Yorkshire (1876‑79), St. Thomas' Square, Hackney (1880‑85), Cheetham Hill, Manchester (1885‑89), Clarendon Park, Leicester (1889‑94), and Emmanuel Congregational Church, Cambridge (1894‑1901). Since 1901 he has been principal of Hackney Theological College, Hampstead, London, as well as a member of the 'theological faculty of London University. In 1905 he was elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In theology lie is Evangelical, positive, modern, and social. He
has written Pulpit Parables (sermons for children, in collaboration with J. A. Hamilton; Manchester, 1886); Religion in Recent Art (1889); The Charter of the Church (London, 1896); The Holy Father and the Living Christ (1897); Christian Perfection (1899); Rome, Reform, and Reaction (1899); and The Taste of Death and the Life of Grace (1901).
FORTUNATUS, VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIANUS: Bishop of Poitiers and Christian poet; b. near Treviso, in Upper Italy, c. 535; d. in Poitiers in the beginning of the seventh century. He studied grammar, rhetoric, and jurisprudence in Ravenna, left Italy about 564, went through Germany to Gaul, lived for some time at the court of Sigbert of Austrasia, then went to Tours, and later to Poitiers. Here he became acquainted with Radegunde, a Thuringian princess, the divorced wife of Lothair I., who with her adopted daughter, Agnes, lived in the convent of the Holy Cross. The intercourse with these two women induced the poet to desist from his migratory life and to become presbyter in Poitiers. Thenceforth he lived in close connection with all prominent personalities of the country, wrote poetical eulogies, and grew in authority and fame as a poet., especially after he had collected and published his poems, at the instigation of Gregory of Tours. Shortly before his death he became bishop in Poitiers.
The poetical productions of Fortunatus are very numerous, most of them written for special occasions. He may indeed be called a court poet. Hospitality which he had enjoyed, the celebration of a wedding, a funeral‑everything was put into easy verse. His poetic gifts were by no means slight; leis language is picturesque and full' of thought; his hexameters and pentameters surprise by the purity of their rhythm. But there is also not lacking a certain bombast and artificiality of expression, characteristic of the time, and still more faulty is the base flattery in his eulogies which reflects unfavorably upon his character. Since Fortunatus eulogized quite a number of eminent personages, his poems are valuable also for the historian. His descriptions of nature are excellent, as, for instance, his representation of a journey on the Moselle from Metz to Andernach, which he had undertaken in the suite of the king of Austrasia, likewise a poem on the castle of Bishop Nicetius of Treves. Still more valuable are three elegies composed under the inspiration of Radegunde; one represents the tragic fate of GaIsvintha, daughter of a West Gothic king; a second is intended to con‑
sole Amalafried, cousin of Radegunde, the last Thuringian heir; the last is to console Artachis, a relative of Amalafried, on the death of the latter. The greatest fame of Fortunatus, however, rests
upon his religious hymns, as Vexilla regis prodeunt (transl. by J. M. Neale, The royal banners forward go), and Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis (transl. by Neale Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle), hymns on the Passion; and Quem terra pontus cethera (transl. by Neale, The God whom earth
and sea and Sky), a hymn on Mary. Fortunatus also wrote a comprehensive epic poem on the life of St. Martin (De vita Martini), and some lives of saints in prose, Albinus, Marcellus, Germanus, and
Foscarari THE NEW SCHAFF=HERZOG 846
Foster
others. He was the last great poet of the period
before Charlemagne. (K. LEIMBACHt.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Opera, ed. M. A. Luchi, Rome, 1786
1787, and, ed. F. Leo and K. Krusch, in MGH, Auct. ant.,
iv. 1, 2, 1881‑85. Consult: F. Biihr, Geschichte der r6mi
achen Litteratur i»t karolingischen Zeitalter, pp. 145‑161,
Carlsruhe, 1840; F. Hamelin, De vita et operibus Venantii
. Fortunati, Rennes, 1873; D. Leroux, Le Poete S. V.
Fortunat, Poitiers, 1885; .Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1885),
87‑89, ii. 489, i (1893), 91, 92, 113; S. W. Duffield, Latin
Hymn‑11'riters, pp. 88‑96 et passim, New York, 1889;
A. Ebert. Geschichle der Literatur des Mittelalters, pp. 518
542, Leipsic, 1889; C. Nisard, Le PMe Fortunat, Paris,
1890; W. S. Teuffel, Geschickte der romischen Literatur,
pp. 1278‑83, Leipsic, 1890; M. Prou, La Gauls m6ro
vingienne, pp. 225‑235, Paris, 1897; Ceillier, Auteurs
sacrie, xi. 306, 315‑316, 384, 402‑414; Schaff, Christian
Church, iv. 422; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 383‑384; DCB,
ii. 552‑553.
FOSCARARI, EGIDIO: Italian Dominican, bishop
of Modena; b. at Bologna Jan. 27, 1512 ; d. at
Rome Dec. 23, 1564. After officiating as lector in
various monasteries, he became magister sacri
palatii at Rome in 1546. Four years later Julius
II. appointed him bishop of Modena, and in this
capacity he attended the sessions of the Council of
Trent in 1551. When the council was suspended,
he returned to his diocese, where he performed his
duties in an exemplary manner, but was suspected
of heresy by the Inquisition in 1558 and was im
prisoned by Paul IV., like his predecessor Gio
vanni de Morone (q.v.). Although his heterodoxy
could not be proved, he did not receive formal ab
solution until it was granted him by Pius IV. in
1560, whereupon he was permitted to return to his
see amid the rejoicings of the people. He was
present at the concluding sessions of the council,
and was a member of the committees which, after
the close of the council, prepared the Index libro
rum prohibilorum, and the Catechismus Romanus,
and revised the breviary and missal. .
K. BENRATH.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Qu6tif and J. Echard, Script. ordinia
Pradicatorum, ii. 184‑185, Paris, 1721; KL, iv. 1636‑37.
FOSS, CYRUS DAVID: Methodist Episcopal
bishop; b. at Kingston, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1834. He
studied at Wesleyan University (B.A., 1854), and
after being instructor and principal at Amenia
Seminary, Amenia, N. Y., 1854‑57, entered the.
ministry in the New York conference, being sta
tioned at Chester, N. Y., in 1857‑59. He was then
transferred to the New York East conference, and
was pastor of churches in Brooklyn (1859‑65) and
New York (1869‑75). From 1875 to 1880 he was
president of Wesleyan University, and in 1880
was elected bishop. He was fraternal delegate to
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, in 1878, and to the British Wes
leyan Conference in 1886, while he made an official
tour of the Methodist Episcopal missions in Europe
in 1886, of Mexico in 1893, and of India and Ma
laysia in 1897‑98.
FOSSARIAN (Lat. fossarius, fossor; Gk. kopien,
kopiates): The designation of the grave‑diggers of
the early Church. In primitive times the burial
of the poor was one of the services of love which
the wealthier Christians voluntarily undertook for
their needy brethren. Later the congregations had
special cemeteries, and burial was entrusted to professional grave‑diggers, which must have been the case in the third century and possibly even in the latter part of the second. The oldest document showing the existence of fossarians is the Gesta apud Zenophilum, which dates from 303 and is printed as an appendix to the editions of Optatus. In this work, as elsewhere, fossarians were reckoned among the clergy, but this was not invariably the case, as, for instance, in Rome. Fossarians are frequently represented in the paintings of the Roman catacombs, and it is clear from the inscriptions that they controlled the sale of graves. See CEMETERIES, II., 4, § 1. H. ACHELIs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. B. de Rossi, Roma sotterranea, iii. 533 sqq.. Rome, 1877, Eng. ed. by Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea, i., chap. vii., pp. 205‑216, London, 1879; J. A. Martigny, Dictionnaire des antiquit6s;'chrctiennes, p. 281, Paris, 1877; DCA, i. 684; KL,1638‑40 (valuable).
FOSTER, FRANK HUGH: Congregationalist; b. at Springfield, Mass., June 18, 1851. He studied at Harvard (B.A., 1873), Andover Theological Seminary (graduated in 1877), and the University of Leipsic (Ph.D., 1882). He was assistant professor of mathematics in the United States Naval Academy 1873‑74, and pastor of the Congregational church in North Reading, Mass., 1877‑79. After his return from Germany he was professor of philosophy in Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., 1882‑84, professor of church history in Oberlin Theological Seminary 1884‑92, and professor of systematic theology in Pacific Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Cal., 1892‑1902, as well as pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Oakland, Cal., 1896‑97, and acting professor of systematic theology in the San Francisco Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) 1901‑02; pastor of the college and village church at Olivet, Mich., 1904‑07; and since 1907 professor of history in Olivet College. He was moderator of the General Association of Congregational Churches in Northern California in 1895, and Stone Lecturer at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1900. In theology his article on the New Testament miracles (AJT, 1908) shows him to have passed from the Evangelical to the purely non‑supernatural or rationalistic standpoint. He was for several years editor of the Bibliothew Sacra, and has written Seminary Method of Study in the Historical Sciences (New York, 1888); Fundamental Ideas of the Roman Catholic Church (Philadelphia, 1899); Christian Life and Theology: The Contribution o f Christian Experience to the System of Evangelical Doctrine (New York, 1900); The Teaching of Jesus concerning his own Mission (1903); and A Genetic History of the New England Theology (Chicago. 1907); and has translated Hugo Grotius' Defence of the Satisfaction of Christ (Andover, 1889).
FOSTER, GEORGE BURMAN: Baptist; b. at Alderson, W. Va., Apr. 2, 1858. He was graduated at the University of West Virginia in 1883, Rochester Theological Seminary in 1887, and studied in Gbttingen and Berlin 1891‑92. After being pastor of the First Baptist Church, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 1887‑91, he was appointed profes‑
347 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Fosoaraxi
Foster
sor of philosophy at McMaster University, Toronto,
and, in 1895, professor of systematic theology
in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
In 1905 he was transferred to the professorship of
the philosophy of religion. He is the author of
The Finality of the Christian, Religion (Chicago,
1906).
FOSTER, JAMES: English dissenting minister;
b. at Exeter Sept. 16, 1697; d. in London Nov. 5,
1753. He was educated at the free school, and at
an academy, in Exeter, where he began preaching
in 1718. After holding several obscure and pre
carious charges he came to London in 1724 as the
colleague of Joseph Burroughs at the chapel in the
Barbican. In 1728 he became Sunday evening
lecturer at the Old Jewry and in 1744 pastor of
the independent church at Pinners' Hall He
took part in a number of theological controversies
and enjoyed a great reputation as a pulpit orator.
He is mentioned by Pope in the epilogue to the
Satires, and it was a proverbial saying that "those
who had not heard Farinelli sing and Foster preach
were not qualified to appear in genteel company."
Though Foster defended the historical evidences
of Christianity against the views of Tindal, he was
himself essentially a deist and rationalist. Besides
numerous sermons, included in a collected edition,
Sermons (4 vols., London, 1755), he published, An
Essay on Fundamentals (London, 1720), in which
he maintained that the doctrine of the Trinity is
not essential; The Usefulness, Truth, and Excel
lency of the Christian Revelation (1731), a reply to
Tindal; and Discourses on All the Princspal
Branches of Natural Religion and Social Virtue (2
vole., 1749‑52), which had 2,000 subscribers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Wilson, Dissenting Churches, ii. 270
285, 4 vols., London, 1808‑14; J. Ivimey, Hist. of the
English Baptists, iii. 215, 399‑404, ib. 1823; J. Sparks,
Collection of Essays, v. 171‑185, 6 vols., Boston, 1823‑26;
DNB, xx. 54‑55.
FOSTER, JOHN: English Baptist; b. at Wads
worth Lane, parish of Halifax (14 m. w.s.w. of
Leeds), Yorkshire, Sept. 17, 1770; d. at Stapleton
(a suburb of Bristol), Gloucestershire, Oct. 15,
1843. He was the eldest son of a farmer and
manufacturer. Up to his eighteenth year he was
occupied chiefly with factory work, but had en
joyed some educational advantages and had read
largely in Puritan theology. Serious and medita
tive, he cared little for society or sport and was en
tranced with the beauties of nature. When seven
teen years of age he experienced conversion and
was baptized into the fellowship of the Calvinistic
Baptist church at Hobden Bridge. Under the in
fluence of Dr. Fawcett, his pastor, he entered the
school of the latter (Brearly Hall) to study for the
ministry. Here he not only pursued with enthu
siasm and success the classical and literary courses
offered, but read extensively in theology and be
came master of an elegant literary style. After
three years of preparatory study he proceeded to
the Baptist college at Bristol, where in scholarship,
depth of thought, and literary skill he surpassed
all his fellow students, but proved remarkably
lacking in preaching power. With a most intense
desire to use his gifts and attainments for the edi‑
fication of saints and the conversion of sinners, his abstract and overelaborate way of sermonizing, his deficiency in popular touch, and a chronic throat trouble that made his voice ineffective, resulted at Newcastle, Dublin, Chichester, Battersea, and Downend, where he successively ministered, in the dwindling of the congregations and the closing of the chapels. While ultra‑Calvinistic in his predestinarianism, he early became almost Arian in his Chlystology. The latter made him unacceptable to the Particular Baptists, and the former to the General Baptists. For a time he gave instruction to certain African youths who had been brought to England to he educated for missionaries.
While still engaged in pastoral effort Foster published (1805) a volume of Essays, including his famous essay On Decision of Character, which attracted much attention. From 1808 he was a regular contributor to the Eclectic Review. His articles published in this periodical are said to have numbered 185. His essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance (1819), originally an address before a benevolent society, added greatly to his fame. He had an invincible aversion to the Established Church and to the special privileges of the British aristocracy; and the evils of the time in Britain and her colonies he was never weary of attributing to the unchristian and antisocial elements in Church and State. In arraigning the religious and social evils of the time he assumed a somewhat pessimistic tone, but exerted a wide‑spread influence in favor of reform. Among his other writings are An Introduction to Doddridge's `Rise and Progress' (Glasgow, 1825), and Lectures Delivered at Broadmead Chapel (1844‑47). Among the points on which he differed from his Baptist brethren was his denial of eternal punishment, which he was unable to reconcile with his conceptions of the benevolence and the righteousness of God.
ALBERT H. NEWMAN.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. E. Ryland, Life and Correspondence o/
John Foster, 2 vols., London, 1846; DNB, xx. 57‑59.
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