Chapter XIII: Part 13

Now that the smoke of these controversies has passed away, it is possible to form a clearer judgment upon the merits of the patristic writings. They are no longer used as an armoury from which opposite sides may draw effective weapons, offensive or defensive; nor on the other hand are they cast aside as the rubbish of an ignorant and superstitious age. All patristic students now recognize the great inequality of these authors, and admit that they are not free from the faults of their times; it is not denied that much of their exegesis is untenable, or that their logic is often feeble and their rhetoric offensive to modern taste. But against these disadvantages may be set the unique services which the fathers still render to Christian scholars. Their works comprise the whole literature of our faith during the decisive centuries which followed the apostolic age. They are important witnesses to the text of the New Testament, to the history of the canon, and to the history of interpretation. It is to their pages that we owe nearly all that we know of the life of ancient Christianity. We see in them the thought of the ancient Church taking shape in the minds of her bishops and doctors; and in many cases they express the results of the great doctrinal controversies of their age in language which leaves little to be desired.[11]

AUTHORITIES.--The earliest writer on patristics was Jerome, whose book
_De viris illustribus_ gives a brief account of one hundred and
thirty-five Church writers, beginning with St Peter and ending with
himself. Jerome's work was continued successively by Gennadius of
Marseilles, Isidore of Seville, and Ildefonsus of Toledo; the
last-named writer brings the list down to the middle of the 7th
century. Since the revival of learning books on the fathers have been
numerous; among the more recent and most accessible of these we may
mention Smith and Wace's _Dictionary of Christian Biography_,
Hauck-Herzog's _Realencyklopadie_, Bardenhewer's _Patrologie_ and
_Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litteratur_, Harnack's _Geschichte der
altchristlichen Litteratur bei Eusebius_ and Ehrard's _Die
altchristliche Litteratur und ihre Erforschung_. A record of patristic
collections and editions down to 1839 may be found in Dowling's
_Notitia Scriptorum SS. Patrum_. The contents of the volumes of
Migne's patrologies are given in the _Catalogue general des livres de
l'abbe Migne_, and a useful list in alphabetical order of the writers
in the Greek _Patrologia_ has been compiled by Dr J.B. Pearson
(Cambridge, 1882). Migne's texts are not always satisfactory, but
since the completion of his great undertaking two important
collections have been begun on critical lines--the Vienna edition of
the Latin Church writers,[12] and the Berlin edition of the Greek
writers of the ante-Nicene period.[13]

For English readers there are three series of translations from the
fathers, which cover much of the ground; the Oxford _Library of the
Fathers_, the _Ante Nicene Christian Library_ and the _Select Library
of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers_. Satisfactory lexicons of patristic
Greek and Latin are still a desideratum: but assistance may be
obtained in the study of the Greek fathers from Suicer's _Thesaurus_,
the _Lexicon of Byzantine Greek_ by E.A. Sophocles, and the _Lexicon
Graecum suppletorium et dialecticum_ of Van Herwerden; whilst the new
great _Latin Lexicon_, published by the Berlin Academy, is calculated
to meet the needs of students of Latin patristic literature. For a
fuller list of books useful to the reader of the Greek and Latin
fathers see H.B. Swete's _Patristic Study_ (2nd ed., 1902).
(H. B. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Buxtorf, s.v. _Abh_, and cf. the title of the tract _Pirke
Aboth_ (ed. Taylor, p. 3).

[2] _Polyc. Mart_. 8.

[3] _Studia biblica_, iv. p. 273.

[4] In his book _De viris illustribus_.

[5] The term _patres apostolici_ is due to the patristic scholars of
the 17th century: see Lightfoot, _St Clement of Rome_, i. p. 3.
"Sub-apostolic" is perhaps a more accurate designation.

[6] The _editio princeps_ of Niceta's works was published by Dr A.E.
Burn in 1905.

[7] The Greek patrology contains, however, besides the text, a Latin
translation, and in both patrologies there is much editorial matter.

[8] Sess. iv.

[9] E.G. Mohler, _Symbolism_ (E. tr.) S 42.

[10] See J.J. Blunt, _Right Use of the Fathers_, p. 15 ff.

[11] See Stanton, _Place of Authority in Religion_, p. 165 f.

[12] _Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum_.

[13] _Griechischen christlichen Schriftstellern der ersten drei
Jahrhunderte_.

FATHOM (a word common, in various forms, to Scandinavian and Teutonic languages; cf. Danish _favn_, Dutch _vaam_ and Ger. _Faden_, and meaning "the arms extended"; the ultimate origin is a root _pet_, seen in the Gr. [Greek: petannunai], to spread), a measure of length, being the distance from the tip of one middle finger to the tip of the other, when the arms are stretched out to their widest extent. This length has been standardized to a measure of 6 ft., and as such is used mainly in soundings as a unit for measuring the depth of the sea. "Fathom" is also used in the measurement of timber, when it is equivalent to 6 ft. sq.; similarly, in mining, a fathom is a portion of ground running the whole thickness of the vein of ore, and is 6 ft. in breadth and thickness. The verb "to fathom," i.e. to sound or measure with a fathom-line, is used figuratively, meaning to go into a subject deeply, to penetrate, or to explore thoroughly.

FATIMITES, or FATIMIDES, the name of a dynasty called after Fatima, daughter of the prophet Mahomet, from whom and her husband the caliph Ali, son of Abu Talib, they claimed descent. The dynasty is also called 'Obaidi (Ubaidi) after 'Obaidallah, the first sovereign, and 'Alawi, a title which it shares with other dynasties claiming the same ancestry. For a list of sovereigns see EGYPT, section _History_ (Mahommedan period); three, however, must be prefixed who reigned in north-western Africa before the annexation of Egypt: al-Mahdi 'Obaidallah 297 (909); al-Qa'im Mahommed 322 (934); al-Mansur Isma'il 334 (945).

The dynasty owed its rise to the attachment to the family of the prophet which was widespread in the Moslem world, and the belief that the sovereignty was the right of one of its members. Owing, however, to the absence of the principle of primogeniture there was difference of opinion as to the person whose claim should be enforced, and a number of sects arose maintaining the rights of different branches of the family. The Fatimites were supported by those who regarded the sovereignty as vested in Isma'il, son of Ja'far al-Sadiq, great-great-grandson of Ali, through his second son Hosain (Husain). Of this Isma'il the first Fatimite caliph was supposed to be the great-grandson. The line of ancestors between him and Isma'il is, however, variously given, even his father's name being quite uncertain, and in some of the pedigrees even Isma'il does not figure. Apparently when the family first became of political importance their Alid descent was not disputed at Bagdad, and the poet al-Sharif al-Radi (d. A.H. 406: A.D. 1015), in whose family the office of Naqib (registrar of the Alids) was hereditary, appears to have acknowledged it (_Diwan_, ed. Beirut, p. 972). When their success became a menace to the caliphs of Bagdad, genealogists were employed to demonstrate the falsity of the claim, and a considerable literature, both official and unofficial, rose in consequence. The founder of the dynasty was made out to be a scion of a family of heretics from whom the terrible Carmathian sect had originated: later on (perhaps owing to the role played by Jacob, son of Killis, in bringing the Fatimites to Egypt), the founder was made out to have been a Jew, either as having been adopted by the heretic supposed to be his father, or as having been made to personate the real 'Obaidallah, who had been killed in captivity. While the stories that make him of either Jewish or Carmathian origin may be neglected, as the product of malice, the uncertainty of the genealogies offered by their partisans renders any positive solution of the problem impossible. What seems to be clear is that secretly within the Abbasid empire propaganda was carried on in favour of one or other Alid aspirant, and the danger which any such aspirant incurred by coming forward openly led to his whereabouts being concealed except from a very few adherents. What is known then is that towards the end of the 3rd Islamic century the leader of the sect of Isma'i-lites (Assassins, q.v.) who afterwards mounted a throne, lived at Salamia, near Emesa (Homs), having agents spread over Arabia, Persia and Syria, and frequently receiving visits from pious adherents, who had been on pilgrimage to the grave of Hosain (Husain). Such visitors received directions and orders such as are usual in secret societies. One of these agents, Abu Abdallah al-Hosain called al-Shi'i, said to have filled the office of censor (_muhtasib_) at Basra, received orders to carry on a mission in Arabia, and at Mecca is said to have made the acquaintance of some members of the Berber tribe Kutama, south of the bay of Bougie. These persons persuaded him to travel home with them in the character of teacher of the Koran, but according to some authorities the ground had already been prepared there for a political mission. He arrived in the Kutama country in June 893, and appears very soon to have been made chief, thereby exciting the suspicion of the Aghlabite ruler of Kairawan, Ibrahim b. Ahmad, which, however, was soon allayed. His success provoked a civil war among the Berbers, but he was protected by a chief named Hasan b. Harun, and displayed sufficient military ability to win respect. Nine years after his arrival he made use of the unrest following on the death of the Aghlabite Ibrahim to attack the town of Mila, which he took by treachery, and turned into his capital; the son and successor of Ibrahim, Abu'l-'Abbas 'Abdallah, sent his son al-Ahwal to deal with the new power, and he defeated al-Shi'i in some battles, but in 903 al-Ahwal was recalled by his brother Ziyadatallah, who had usurped the throne, and put to death.

At some time after his first successes al-Shi'i sent a messenger (apparently his brother) to the head of his sect at Salamia, bidding him come to the Kutama country, and place himself at the head of affairs, since al-Shi'i's followers had been taught to pay homage to a Mahdi who would at some time be shown them. It is said that 'Obaidallah, who now held this post, was known to the court at Bagdad, and that on the news of his departure orders were sent to the governor of Egypt to arrest him; but by skilful simulation 'Obaidallah succeeded in escaping this danger, and with his escort reached Tripoli safely. Instructions had by this time reached the Aghlabite Ziyadatallah to be on the watch for the Mahdi, who was finally arrested at Sijilmasa (Tafilalt) in the year A.H. 292 (A.D. 905); his companion, al-Shi'i's brother, had been arrested at an earlier point, and the Mahdi's journey to the south-west must have been to elude pursuit.

The invitation to the Mahdi turned out to have been premature; for Ziyadatallah had sent a powerful army to oppose al-Shi'i, which, making Constantine its headquarters, had driven al-Shi'i into the mountains: after six months al-Shi'i secured an opportunity for attacking it, and won a complete victory. Early in 906 another army was sent to deal with al-Shi'i, and an earnest appeal came from the caliph Muqtafi (Moktafi), addressed to all the Moslems of Africa, to aid Ziyadatallah against the usurper. The operations of the Aghlabite prince were unproductive of any decided result, and by September 906 al-Shi'i had got possession of the important fortress Tubna and some others. Further forces were immediately sent to the front by Ziyadatallah, but these were defeated by al-Shi'i and his officers, to whom other towns capitulated, till Ziyadatallah found it prudent to retire from Al-Urbus or Laribus, which had been his headquarters, and entrench himself in Raqqada, one of the two capitals of his kingdom, Kairawan being the other. Ziyadatallah is charged by the chroniclers with dissoluteness and levity, and even cowardice: after his retreat the fortresses and towns in what now constitute the department of Constantine and in Tunisia fell fast into al-Shi'i's hands, and he was soon able to threaten Raqqada itself.

By March 909 Raqqada had become untenable, and Ziyadatallah resolved to flee from his kingdom; taking with him his chief possessions, he made for Egypt, and thence to 'Irak: his final fate is uncertain. The cities Raqqada and Kairawan were immediately occupied by Al-Shi'i, who proceeded to send governors to the other places of importance in what had been the Aghlabite kingdom, and to strike new coins, which, however, bore no sovereign's name. Orders were given that the Shi'ite peculiarities should be introduced into public worship.

In May 909 al-Shi'i led a tremendous army westwards to the kingdom of Tahert, where he put an end to the Rustamite dynasty, and appointed a governor of his own: he thence proceeded to Sijilmasa where 'Obaidallah lay imprisoned, with the intention of releasing him and placing him on the throne. After a brief attempt at resistance, the governor fled, and al-Shi'i entered the city, released 'Obaidallah and presented him to the army as the long-promised Imam. The day is given as the 26th of August 909. 'Obaidallah had been in prison more than three years. Whether his identity with the Mahdi for whom al-Shi'i had been fighting was known to the governor of Sijilmasa is uncertain. If it was, the governor and his master the Aghlabite sovereign might have been expected to make use of their knowledge and outwit al-Shi'i by putting his Mahdi to death. Opponents of the Fatimites assert that this was actually done, and that the Mahdi presented to the army was not the real 'Obaidallah, but (as usual) a Jewish captive, who had been suborned to play the role.

The chief command was now assumed by 'Obaidallah, who took the title "al-Mahdi, Commander of the Faithful," thereby claiming the headship of the whole Moslem world: Raqqada was at the first made the seat of the court, and the Shi'ite doctrines were enforced on the inhabitants, not without encountering some opposition. Revolts which arose in different parts of the Aghlabite kingdom were, however, speedily quelled.

The course followed by 'Obaidallah in governing independently of al-Shi'i soon led to dissatisfaction on the part of the latter, who, urged on it is said by his brother, decided to dethrone their Mahdi, and on the occasion of an expedition to Tenes, which al-Shi'i- commanded, organized a conspiracy with that end. The conspiracy was betrayed to 'Obaidallah, who took steps to defeat it, and on the last day of July 911 contrived to assassinate both al-Shi'i and his brother. Thus the procedure which had characterized the accession of the 'Abbasid dynasty was repeated. It has been conjectured that these assassinations lost the Fatimites the support of the organization that continued to exist in the East, whence the Carmathians figure as an independent and even hostile community, though they appear to have been amenable to the influence of the African caliph.

'Obaidallah had now to face the dissatisfaction of the tribes whose allegiance al-Shi'i had won, especially the Kutama, Zenata and Lawata: the uprising of the first assumed formidable proportions, and they even elected a Mahdi of their own, one Kadu b. Mu'arik al-Mawati, who promulgated a new revelation for their guidance. They were finally defeated by 'Obaidallah's son Abu'l-Qasim Mahommed, who took Constantine, and succeeded in capturing the new Mahdi, whom he brought to Raqqada. Other opponents were got rid of by 'Obaidallah by ruthless executions. By the middle of the year 913 by his own and his son's efforts he had brought his kingdom into order. After the style of most founders of dynasties he then selected a site for a new capital, to be called after his title Mahdia (q.v.), on a peninsula called Hamma (Cape Africa) S.S.E. of Kairawan. Eight years were spent in fortifying this place, which in 921 was made the capital of the empire.

After defeating internal enemies 'Obaidallah turned his attention to the remaining 'Abbasid possessions in Africa, and his general Habasah b. Yusuf in the year 913 advanced along the northern coast, taking various places, including the important town of Barca, his progress, it is said, being marked by great cruelty. He then advanced towards Egypt, and towards the end of July 914, being reinforced by Abu'l-Qasim, afterwards al-Qa'im, entered Alexandria. The danger led to measures of unusual energy being taken by the Bagdad caliph Moqtadir, an army being sent to Egypt under Mu'nis, and a special post being organized between that country and Bagdad to convey messages uninterruptedly. The Fatimite forces were defeated, partly owing to the insubordination of the general Habasah, in the winter of 914, and returned to Barca and Kairawan with great loss.

A second expedition was undertaken against Egypt in the year 919, and on the 10th of July Alexandria was entered by Abu'l-Qasim, who then advanced southward, seizing the Fayum and Ushmunain (Eshmunain). He was presently reinforced by a fleet, which, however, was defeated at Rosetta in March of the year 920 by a fleet despatched from Tarsus by the 'Abbasid caliph Moqtadir, most of the vessels being burned. Through the energetic measures of the caliph, who sent repeated reinforcements to Fostat, Abu'l-Qasim was compelled in the spring of 921 to evacuate the places which he had seized, and return to the west with the remains of his army, which had suffered much from plague as well as defeat on the field. On his return he found that the court had migrated from Raqqada to the new capital Mahdia (q.v.). Meanwhile other expeditions had been despatched by 'Obaidallah towards the west, and Nekor (Nakur) and Fez had been forced to acknowledge his sovereignty.

The remaining years of 'Obaidallah's reign were largely spent in dealing with uprisings in various parts of his dominions, the success of which at times reduced the territory in which he was recognized to a small area.

'Obaidallah died on the 4th of March 933, and was succeeded by Abu'l-Qasim, who took the title al-Qa'im biamr allah. He immediately after his accession occupied himself with the reconquest of Fez and Nekor, which had revolted during the last years of the former caliph. He also despatched a fleet under Ya'qub b. Ishaq, which ravaged the coast of France, took Genoa, and plundered the coast of Calabria before returning to Africa. A third attempt made by him to take Egypt resulted in a disastrous defeat at Dhat al-Human, after which the remains of the expedition retreated in disorder to Barca.

The later years of the reign of Qa'im were troubled by the uprising of Abu Yazid Makhlad al-Zenati, a leader who during the former reign had acquired a following among the tribes inhabiting the Jebel Aures, including adherents of the 'Ibadi sect. After having fled for a time to Mecca, this person returned in 937 to Tauzar (Touzer), the original seat of his operations, and was imprisoned by Qa'im's order. His sons, aided by the powerful tribe Zenata, succeeded in forcing the prison, and releasing their father, who continued to organize a conspiracy on a vast scale, and by the end of 943 was strong enough to take the field against the Fatimite sovereign, whom he drove out of Kairawan. Abu Yazid proclaimed himself a champion of Sunni doctrine against the Shi'is, and ordered the legal system of Malik to be restored in place of that introduced by the Fatimites. Apparently the doctrines of the latter has as yet won little popularity, and Abu Yazid won an enormous following, except among the Kutama, who remained faithful to Qa'im. On the last day of October 944, an engagement was fought between Kairawan and Mahdia at a place called al-Akhawan, which resulted in the rout of Qa'im's forces, and the caliph's being shortly after shut up in his capital, the suburbs of which he defended by a trench. Abu Yazid's forces were ill-suited to maintain a protracted siege, and since, owing to the former caliph's forethought, the capital was in a condition to hold out for a long time, many of them deserted and the besiegers gained no permanent advantage. After the siege had lasted some ten months Abu Yazid was compelled to raise it (September 945); the struggle, however, did not end with that event, and for a time the caliph and Abu Yazid continued to fight with varying fortune, while anarchy prevailed over most of the caliph's dominions. On the 13th of January 946, Abu Yazid shut up Qa'im's forces in Susa which he began to besiege, and attempted to take by storm.

On the 18th of May 945, while Abu Yazid was besieging Susa, the caliph al-Qa'im died at Mahdia, and was succeeded by his son Isma'il, who took the title Mansur. He almost immediately relieved Susa by sending a fleet, which joining with the garrison inflicted a severe defeat on Abu Yazid, who had to evacuate Kairawan also; but though the cities were mainly in the hands of Fatimite prefects, Abu Yazid was able to maintain the field for more than two years longer, while his followers were steadily decreasing in numbers, and he was repeatedly driven into fastnesses of the Sahara. In August 947 his last stronghold was taken, and he died of wounds received in defending it. His sons carried on some desultory warfare against Mansur after their father's death. A town called Man[s.]ura or Sabra was built adjoining Kairawan to celebrate the decisive victory over Abu Yazid, which, however, did not long preserve its name. The exhausted condition of north-west Africa due to the protracted civil war required some years of peace for recuperation, and further exploits are not recorded for Mansur, who died on the 19th of March 952.

His son, Abu Tamim Ma'add, was twenty-two years of age at the time, and succeeded his father with the title Mo'izz lidin allah. His authority was acknowledged over the greater part of the region now constituting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Sicily, and he appears to have had serious thoughts of endeavouring to annex Spain. At an early period in his reign he made Jauhar, who had been secretary under the former caliph, commander of the forces, and the services rendered by this person to the dynasty made him count as its second founder after al-Shi'i. In the years 958 and 959 he was sent westwards to reduce Fez and other places where the authority of the Fatimite caliph had been repudiated, and after a successful expedition advanced as far as the Atlantic. As early as 966 the plan of attempting a fresh invasion of Egypt was conceived, and preparations made for its execution; but it was delayed, it is said at the request of the caliph's mother, who wished to make a pilgrimage to Mecca first; and her honourable treatment by Kafur when she passed through Egypt induced the caliph to postpone the invasion till that sovereign's death.

In August 972 Mo'izz resolved to follow Jauhar's pressing invitation to enter his new capital Cairo. With his arrival there the centre of the Fatimite power was transferred from Mahdia and Kairawan to Egypt, and their original dominion became a province called al-Maghrib, which immediately fell into the hands of a hereditary dynasty, the Zeirids, acknowledging Fatimite suzerainty. The first sovereign was Bulukkin, also called Abu'l-Futuh Yusuf, appointed by Mo'izz as his viceroy on the occasion of his departure for Egypt: separate prefects were appointed for Sicily and Tripoli; and at the first the minister of finance was to be an official independent of the governor of the Maghrib. On the death of Bulukkin in 984 he was succeeded by a son who took the royal title al-Mansur, under whose rule an attempt was made by the Kutama, instigated by the caliph, to shake off the yoke of the Zeirids, who originated from the Sanhaja tribe. This attempt was defeated by the energy of Mansur in 988; and the sovereignty of the Fatimites in the Maghrib became more and more confined to recognition in public prayer and on coins, and the payment of tribute and the giving of presents to the viziers at Cairo. The fourth ruler of the Zeirid dynasty, called Mo'izz, endeavoured to substitute 'Abbasid suzerainty for Fatimite: his land was invaded by Arab colonies sent by the Fatimite caliph, with whom in 1051 Mo'izz fought a decisive engagement, after which the dominion of the Zeirids was restricted to the territory adjoining Mahdia; a number of smaller kingdoms rising up around them. The Zeirids were finally overthrown by Roger II. of Sicily in 1148.

After the death of al-Adid, the last Fatimite caliph in Egypt, some attempts were made to place on the throne a member of the family, and at one time there seemed a chance of the Assassins, who formed a branch of the Fatimite sect, assisting in this project. In 1174 a conspiracy for the restoration of the dynasty was organized by 'Umarah of Yemen, a court poet, with the aid of eight officials of the government: it was discovered and those who were implicated were executed. Two persons claiming Fatimite descent took the royal titles al-Mo'tasim billah and al-Hamid lillah in the years 1175 and 1176 respectively; and as late as 1192 we hear of pretenders in Egypt. Some members of the family are traceable till near the end of the 7th century of Islam.

The doctrines of the Fatimites as a sect, apart from their claim to the sovereignty in Islam, are little known, and we are not justified in identifying them with those of the Assassins, the Carmathians or the Druses, though all these sects are connected with them in origin. A famous account is given by Maqrizi of a system of education by which the neophyte had doubts gently instilled into his mind till he was prepared to have the allegorical meaning of the Koran set before him, and to substitute some form of natural for revealed religion. In most accounts of the early days of the community it is stated that the permission of wine-drinking and licentiousness, and the community of wives and property formed part of its tenets. There is little in the recorded practice of the Fatimite state to confirm or justify these assertions; and they appear to have differed from orthodox Moslems rather in small details of ritual and law than in deep matters of doctrine.

AUTHORITIES.--F. Wustenfeld, _Geschichte der Fatimiden Chalifen_
(Gottingen, 1881); E. Mercier, _Histoire de l'Afrique Septentrionale_
(Paris, 1888); M.J. de Goeje, _Memoire sur les Carmathes de Bahrain et
les Fatimides_ (2nd ed., Leiden, 1886); P. Casanova, "Memoire sur les
derniers Fatimides," _Mem. Miss. archeologique au Caire_, vol. vi.;
for the lives of 'Obaidallah and Abu Yazi-d, Cherbonneau in the
_Journal Asiatique_, ser. iv. vol. 20, and ser. v. vol. 5. See also
EGYPT: _History_, sect. Mahommedan. (D. S. M.*)

FAUBOURG, the French name for a portion of a town which lies outside the walls, hence properly a suburb. The name survives in certain parts of Paris, such as the Faubourg St Antoine, and the Faubourg St Germain, &c., which have long since ceased to be suburbs and have become portions of the town itself. The origin of the word is doubtful. The earlier spelling _faux-bourg_, and the occurrence in medieval Latin of _falsus-burgus_ (see Ducange, _Glossarium_, s.v. "Falsus-Burgus"), was taken as showing its obvious origin and meaning, the sham or quasi-borough. The generally accepted derivation is from _fors_, outside (Lat. _foris_, outside the gates), and _bourg_. It is suggested that the word is the French adaptation of the Ger. _Pfahlburger_, the burghers of the pale, i.e. outside the walls but within the pale.

FAUCES (a Latin plural word for "throat"; the singular _faux_ is rarely found), in anatomy, the hinder part of the mouth, which leads into the pharynx; also an architectural term given by Vitruvius to narrow passages on either side of the tablinum, through which access could be obtained from the atrium to the peristylar court in the rear.

FAUCHER, LEONARD JOSEPH [LEON] (1803-1854), French politician and economist, was born at Limoges on the 8th of September 1803. When he was nine years old the family removed to Toulouse, where the boy was sent to school. His parents were separated in 1816, and Leon Faucher, who resisted his father's attempts to put him to a trade, helped to support himself and his mother during the rest of his school career by designing embroidery and needlework. As a private tutor in Paris he continued his studies in the direction of archaeology and history, but with the revolution of 1830 he was drawn into active political journalism on the Liberal side. He was on the staff of the _Temps_ from 1830 to 1833, when he became editor of the _Constitutionnel_ for a short time. A Sunday journal of his own, _Le Bien public_, proved a disastrous financial failure; and his political independence having caused his retirement from the _Constitutionnel_, he joined in 1834 the _Courrier francais_, of which he was editor from 1839 until 1842, when the paper changed hands. Faucher belonged in policy to the dynastic Left, and consistently preached moderation to the more ardent Liberals. On resigning his connexion with the _Courrier francais_ he gave his attention chiefly to economic questions. He advocated a customs union between the Latin countries to counter-balance the German Zollverein, and in view of the impracticability of such a measure narrowed his proposal in 1842 to a customs union between France and Belgium. In 1843 he visited England to study the English social system, publishing the results of his investigations in a famous series of _Etudes sur l'Angleterre_ (2 vols., 1845), published originally in the _Revue des deux mondes_. He helped to organize the Bordeaux association for free-trade propaganda, and it was as an advocate of free trade that he was elected in 1847 to the chamber of deputies for Reims. After the revolution of 1848 he entered the Constituent Assembly for the department of Marne, where he opposed many Republican measures--the limitation of the hours of labour, the creation of the national relief works in Paris, the abolition of the death penalty and others. Under the presidency of Louis Napoleon he became minister of public works, and then minister of the interior, but his action in seeking to influence the coming elections by a circular letter addressed to the prefects was censured by the Constituent Assembly, and he was compelled to resign office on the 14th of May 1849. In 1851 he was again minister of the interior until Napoleon declared his intention of resorting to universal suffrage. After the _coup d'etat_ of December he refused a seat in the consultative commission instituted by Napoleon. He had been elected a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science in 1849, and his retirement from politics permitted a return to his writings on economics. He had been to Italy in search of health in 1854, and was returning to Paris on business when he was seized by typhoid at Marseilles, where he died on the 14th of December 1854.

His miscellaneous writings were collected (2 vols., 1856) as _Melanges
d'economie politique et de finance_, and his speeches in the
legislature are printed in vol. ii. of _Leon Faucher, biographie et
correspondance_ (2 vols., 2nd ed., Paris, 1875).

FAUCHET, CLAUDE (1530-1601), French historian and antiquary, was born at Paris on the 3rd of July 1530. Of his early life few particulars are known. He applied himself to the study of the early French chroniclers, and proposed to publish extracts which would throw light on the first periods of the monarchy. During the civil wars he lost a large part of his books and manuscripts in a riot, and was compelled to leave Paris. He then settled at Marseilles. Attaching himself afterwards to Cardinal de Tournon, he accompanied him in 1554 to Italy, whence he was several times sent on embassies to the king, with reports on the siege of Siena. His services at length procured him the post of president of the chambre des monnaies, and thus enabled him to resume his literary studies. Having become embarrassed with debt, he found it necessary, at the age of seventy, to sell his office; but the king, amused with an epigram, gave him a pension, with the title of historiographer of France. Fauchet has the reputation of an impartial and scrupulously accurate writer; and in his works are to be found important facts not easily accessible elsewhere. He was, however, entirely uncritical, and his style is singularly inelegant. His principal works (1579, 1599) treat of Gaulish and French antiquities, of the dignities and magistrates of France, of the origin of the French language and poetry, of the liberties of the Gallican church, &c. A collected edition was published in 1610. Fauchet took part in a translation of the _Annals_ of Tacitus (1582). He died at Paris about the close of 1601.

FAUCHET, CLAUDE (1744-1793), French revolutionary bishop, was born at Dornes (Nievre) on the 22nd of September 1744. He was a curate of the church of St Roch, Paris, when he was engaged as tutor to the children of the marquis of Choiseul, brother of Louis XV.'s minister, an appointment which proved to be the first step to fortune. He was successively grand vicar to the archbishop of Bourges, preacher to the king, and abbot of Montfort-Lacarre. The "philosophic" tone of his sermons caused his dismissal from court in 1788 before he became a popular speaker in the Parisian sections. He was one of the leaders of the attack on the Bastille, and on the 5th of August 1789 he delivered an eloquent discourse by way of funeral sermon for the citizens slain on the 14th of July, taking as his text the words of St Paul, "Ye have been called to liberty." He blessed the tricolour flag for the National Guard, and in September was elected to the Commune, from which he retired in October 1790. During the next winter he organized within the Palais Royal the "Social Club of the Society of the Friends of Truth," presiding over crowded meetings under the self-assumed title of _procureur general de la verite_. Nevertheless, events were marching faster than his opinions, and the last occasion on which he carried his public with him was in a sermon preached at Notre Dame on the 14th of February 1791. In May he became constitutional bishop of Calvados, and was presently returned by the department to the Legislative Assembly, and afterwards to the Convention. At the king's trial he voted for the appeal to the people and for the penalty of imprisonment. He protested against the execution of Louis XVI. in the _Journal des amis_ (January 26, 1793), and next month was denounced to the Convention for prohibiting married priests from the exercise of the priesthood in his diocese. He remained secretary to the Convention until the accusation of the Girondists in May 1793. In July he was imprisoned on the charge of supporting the federalist movement at Caen, and of complicity with Charlotte Corday, whom he had taken to see a sitting of the Convention on her arrival in Paris. Of the second of these charges he was certainly innocent. With the Girondist deputies he was brought before the revolutionary tribunal on the 30th of October, and was guillotined on the following day.

See _Memoires ... ou Lettres de Claude Fauchet_ (5th ed., 1793);
_Notes sur Claude Fauchet_ (Caen, 1842).

FAUCIT, HELENA SAVILLE (1817-1898), English actress, the daughter of John Saville Faucit, an actor, was born in London. Her first London appearance was made on the 5th of January 1836 at Covent Garden as Julia in _The Hunchback_. Her success in this was so definitely confirmed by her subsequent acting of Juliet, Lady Teazle, Beatrice, Imogen and Hermione, that within eighteen months she was engaged by Macready as leading lady at Covent Garden. There, besides appearing in several Shakespearian characters, she created the heroine's part in Lytton's _Duchess de la Valliere_ (1836), _Lady of Lyons_ (1838), _Richelieu_ (1839), _The Sea Captain_ (1839), _Money_ (1840), and Browning's _Strafford_ (1837). After a visit to Paris and a short season at the Haymarket, she joined the Drury Lane company under Macready early in 1842. There she played Lady Macbeth, Constance in _King John_, Desdemona and Imogen, and took part in the first production of Westland Marston's _Patrician's Daughter_ (1842) and Browning's _Blot on the Scutcheon_ (1843). Among her successful tours was included a visit to Paris in 1844-1845, where she acted with Macready in several Shakespearian plays. In 1851 she was married to Mr (afterwards Sir) Theodore Martin, but still acted occasionally for charity. One of her last appearances was as Beatrice, on the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon on the 23rd of April 1879. In 1881 there appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ the first of her _Letters on some of Shakespeare's Heroines_, which were published in book form as _On Some of Shakespeare's Female Characters_ (1885). Lady Martin died at her home near Llangollen in Wales on the 31st of October 1898. There is a tablet to her in the Shakespeare Memorial with a portrait figure, and the marble pulpit in the Shakespeare church--with her portrait as Saint Helena--was given in her memory by her husband.

See Sir Theodore Martin's _Helena Faucit_ (1900).

FAUJAS DE SAINT-FOND, BARTHELEMY (1741-1819), French geologist and traveller, was born at Montelimart on the 17th of May 1741. He was educated at the Jesuits' College at Lyons; afterwards he went to Grenoble, applied himself to the study of law, and was admitted advocate to the parliament. He rose to be president of the seneschal's court (1765), a post which he honourably filled, but the duties of which became irksome, as he had early developed a love of nature and his favourite relaxation was found in visits to the Alps. There he began to study the forms, structure, composition and superposition of rocks. In 1775 he discovered in the Velay a rich deposit of pozzuolana, which in due course was worked by the government. In 1776 he put himself in communication with Buffon, who was not slow to perceive the value of his labours. Invited by Buffon to Paris, he quitted the law, and was appointed by Louis XVI. assistant naturalist to the museum, to which office was added some years later (1785, 1788) that of royal commissioner for mines. One of the most important of his works was the _Recherches sur les volcans eteints du Vivarais et du Velay_, which appeared in 1778. In this work, rich in facts and observations, he developed his theory of the origin of volcanoes. In his capacity of commissioner for mines Faujas travelled in almost all the countries of Europe, everywhere devoting attention to the nature and constituents of the rocks. It was he who first recognized the volcanic nature of the basaltic columns of the cave of Fingal (Staffa), although the island was visited in 1772 by Sir Joseph Banks, who remarked that the stone "is a coarse kind of _Basaltes_, very much resembling the Giants' Causeway in Ireland" (Pennant's _Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides_). Faujas's _Voyage en Angleterre, en Ecosse et aux Iles Hebrides_ (1797) is full of interest--containing anecdotes of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr John Whitehurst, and an amusing account of "The Dinner of an Academic Club" (the Royal Society), and has been translated into English (2 vols., 1799). Having been nominated in 1793 professor at the Jardin des Plantes, he held this post till he was nearly eighty years of age, retiring in 1818 to his estate of Saint-Fond in Dauphine. Faujas took a warm interest in the balloon experiments of the brothers Montgolfier, and published a very complete _Description des experiences de la machine aerostatique de MM. Montgolfier_, &c. (1783, 1784). He contributed many scientific memoirs to the _Annales_ and the _Memoires_ of the museum of natural history. Among his separate works, in addition to those already named are--_Histoire naturelle de la province de Dauphine_ (1781, 1782); _Mineralogie des volcans_ (1784); and _Essai de geologie_ (1803-1809). Faujas died on the 18th of July 1819.

FAULT (Mid. Eng. _faute_, through the French, from the popular Latin use of _fallere_, to fail; the original _l_ of the Latin being replaced in English in the 15th century), a failing, mistake or defect.

In geology, the term is given to a plane of dislocation in a portion of the earth's crust; synonyms used in mining are "trouble," "throw" and "heave"; the German equivalent is _Verwerfung_, and the French _faille_. Faults on a small scale are sometimes sharply-defined planes,[1] as if the rocks had been sliced through and fitted together again after being shifted (fig. 1). In such cases, however, the harder portions of the dislocated rocks will usually be found "slickensided." More frequently some disturbance has occurred on one or both sides of the fault. Sometimes in a series of strata the beds on the side which has been pushed up are bent down against the fault, while those on the opposite side are bent up (fig. 2). Most commonly the rocks on both sides are considerably broken, jumbled and crumpled, so that the line of fracture is marked by a belt or wall-like mass of fragmentary rock, _fault-rock_, which may be several yards in breadth. Faults are to be distinguished from joints and fissures by the fact that there must have been a movement of the rock on one side of the fault-plane relatively to that on the other side. The trace of a fault-plane at the surface of the earth is a line (or belt of fault-rock), which in geological mapping is often spoken of as a "fault-line" or "line of fault." Fig. 3 represents the plan of a simple fault; quite frequently, however, the main fault subdivides at the extremities into a number of minor faults (fig. 4), or the main fault may be accompanied by lateral subordinate faults (fig. 5), some varieties of which have been termed _flaws_ or _Blatts_.

"Fault-planes" are sometimes perpendicular to the horizon, but more usually they are inclined at a greater or lesser angle. The angle made by the fault-plane with the vertical is the _hade_ of the fault (if the angle of inclination were measured from the horizon, as in determining the "dip" of strata, this would be expressed as the "dip of the fault"). In figs. 1 and 2 the faults are hading towards the right of the reader. The amount of dislocation as measured along a fault-plane is the _displacement_ of the fault (for an illustration of these terms see fig. 18, where they are applied to a thrust fault); the vertical displacement is the _throw_ (Fr. _rejet_); the horizontal displacement, which even with vertical movement must arise in all cases where the faults are not perpendicular to the horizon and the strata are not horizontal, is known as the _heave_. In fig. 6 the displacement is equal to the throw in the fault A; in the fault B the displacement is more than twice as great as in A, while the throw is the same in both; the fault A has no heave, in B it is considerable. The rock on that side of a fault which has dropped relatively to the rock on the other is said to be upon the downthrow side of the fault; conversely, the relatively uplifted portion is the upthrow side. The two fault faces are known as the "hanging-wall" and the "foot-wall."

The relationship that exists between the hade and the direction of throw has led to the classification of faults into "normal faults," which hade under the downthrow side, or in other words, those in which the hanging-wall has dropped; and "reversed faults," which hade beneath the upthrow side, that is to say, the foot-wall exhibits a relative sinking. Normal faults are exemplified in figs. 1, 2, and 6; in the latter the masses A and B are on the downthrow sides, C is upthrown. Fig. 7 represents a small reversed fault. Normal faults are so called because they are more generally prevalent than the other type; they are sometimes designated "drop" or "gravity" faults, but these are misleading expressions and should be discountenanced. Normal faults are regarded as the result of stretching of the crust, hence they have been called "tension" faults as distinguished from reversed faults, which are assumed to be due to pressure. It is needful, however, to exercise great caution in accepting this view except in a restricted and localized sense, for there are many instances in which the two forms are intimately associated (see fig. 8), and a whole complex system of faults may be the result of horizontal (tangential) pressure alone or even of direct vertical uplift. It is often tacitly assumed that most normal and reversed faults are due to simple vertical movements of the fractured crust-blocks; but this is by no means the case. What is actually observed in examining a fault is the _apparent_ direction of motion; but the present position of the dislocated masses is the result of _real_ motion or series of motions, which have taken place along the fault-plane at various angles from horizontal to vertical; frequently it can be shown that these movements have been extremely complicated. The striations and "slickensides" on the faces of a fault indicate only the direction of the last movement.

A broad monoclinal fold is sometimes observed to pass into a fault of gradually increasing throw; such a fault is occasionally regarded as pivoted at one end. Again, a faulted mass may be on the downthrow side towards one end, and on the upthrow side towards the other, the movement having taken place about an axis approximately normal to the fault-plane, the "pivot" in this case being near the centre. From an example of this kind it is evident that the same fault may at the same time be both "normal" and "reversed" (see fig. 8). When the principal movement along a highly inclined fault-plane has been approximately horizontal, the fault has been variously styled a _lateral-shift_, _transcurrent fault_, _transverse thrust_ or a _heave fault_. The horizontal component in faulting movements is more common than is often supposed.

A single normal fault of large throw is sometimes replaced by a series of close parallel faults, each throwing a small amount in the same direction; if these subordinate faults occur within a narrow width of ground they are known as _distribution faults_; if they are more widely separated they are called _step faults_ (fig. 9). Occasionally two normal faults hade towards one another and intersect, and the rock mass between them has been let down; this is described as a _trough fault_ (fig. 10). A fault running parallel to the strike of bedded rocks is a _strike fault_; one which runs along the direction of the dip is a _dip fault_; a so-called _diagonal fault_ takes a direction intermediate between these two directions. Although the effects of these types of fault upon the outcrops of strata differ, there are no intrinsic differences between the faults themselves.

The effect of normal faults upon the outcrop may be thus briefly summarized:--a strike fault that hades with the direction of the dip may cause beds to be cut out at the surface on the upthrow side; if it hades against the dip direction it may repeat some of the beds on the upthrow side (figs. 11 and 12). With dip faults the crop is carried forward (down the dip) on the upthrow side. The perpendicular distance between the crop of the bed (dike or vein) on opposite sides of the fault is the "offset." The offset decreases with increasing angle of dip and increases with increase in the throw of the fault (fig. 13). Faults which run obliquely across the direction of dip, if they hade with the dip of the strata, will produce offset with "gap" between the outcrops; if they hade in the opposite direction to the dip, offset with "overlap" is caused: in the latter case the crop moves forward (down dip) on the denuded upthrow side, in the former it moves backward. The effect of a strike fault of diminishing throw is seen in fig. 14. Faults crossing folded strata cause the outcrops to approach on the upthrow side of a syncline and tend to separate the outcrops of an anticline (figs. 15, 16, 17).

In the majority of cases the upthrown side of a fault has been so reduced by denudation as to leave no sharp upstanding ridge; but examples are known where the upthrown side still exists as a prominent cliff-like face of rock, a "fault-scarp"; familiar instances occur in the Basin ranges of Utah, Nevada, &c., and many smaller examples have been observed in the areas affected by recent earthquakes in Japan, San Francisco and other places. But although there may be no sharp cliff, the effect of faulting upon topographic forms is abundantly evident wherever a harder series of strata has been brought in juxtaposition to softer rocks. By certain French writers, the upstanding side of a faulted piece of ground is said to have a _regard_, thus the faults of the Jura Mountains have a "_regard francais_," and in the same region it has been observed that in curved faults the convexity is directed the same way as the _regard_. Occasionally one or more parallel faults have let down an intervening strip of rock, thereby forming "fault valleys" or _Graben_ (_Grabensenken_); the Great Rift Valley is a striking example. On the other hand, a large area of rock is sometimes lifted up, or surrounded by a system of faults, which have let down the encircling ground; such a fault-block is known also as a _horst_; a considerable area of Greenland stands up in this manner.

Faults have often an important influence upon water-supply by bringing impervious beds up against pervious ones or vice versa, thus forming underground dams or reservoirs, or allowing water to flow away that would otherwise be conserved. Springs often rise along the outcrop of a fault. In coal and metal mining it is evident from what has already been said that faults must act sometimes beneficially, sometimes the reverse. It is a common occurrence for fault-fissures and fault-rock to appear as valuable mineral lodes through the infilling or impregnation of the spaces and broken ground with mineral ores.

In certain regions which have been subjected to very great crustal disturbance a type of fault is found which possesses a very low hade--sometimes only a few degrees from the horizontal--and, like a reversed fault, hades beneath the upthrown mass; these are termed _thrusts, overthrusts_, or _overthrust faults_ (Fr. _recouvrements, failles de chevauchement, charriages_; Ger. _Uberschiebungen, Ubersprunge, Wechsel, Fallenverwerfungen_). Thrusts should not be confused with reversed faults, which have a strong hade. Thrusts play a very important part in the N.W. highlands of Scotland, the Scandinavian highlands, the western Alps, the Appalachians, the Belgian coal region, &c. By the action of thrusts enormous masses of rock have been pushed almost horizontally over underlying rocks, in some cases for several miles. One of the largest of the Scandinavian thrust masses is 1120 m. long, 80 m. broad, and 5000 ft. thick. In Scotland three grades of thrusts are recognized, maximum, major, and minor thrusts; the last have very generally been truncated by those of greater magnitude. Some of these great thrusts have received distinguishing names, e.g. the Moine thrust (fig. 19) and the Ben More thrust; similarly in the coal basin of Mons and Valenciennes we find the _faille de Boussu_ and the _Grande faille du midi_. Overturned folds are frequently seen passing into thrusts. Bayley Willis has classified thrusts as (1) Shear thrusts, (2) Break thrusts, (3) Stretch thrusts, and (4) Erosion thrusts.

Dr J.E. Marr ("Notes on the Geology of the English Lake District," _Proc. Geol. Assoc._, 1900) has described a type of fault which may be regarded as the converse of a thrust fault. If we consider a series of rock masses A, B, C--of which A is the oldest and undermost--undergoing thrusting, say from south to north, should the mass C be prevented from moving forward as rapidly as B, a low-hading fault may form between C and B and the mass C may lag behind; similarly the mass B may lag behind A. Such faults Dr Marr calls "lag faults." A mass of rock suffering thrusting or lagging may yield unequally in its several parts, and those portions tending to travel more rapidly than the adjoining masses in the same sheet may be cut off by fractures. Thus the faster-moving blocks will be separated from the slower ones by faults approximately normal to the plane of movement: these are described as "tear faults."

Faults may occur in rocks of all ages; small local dislocations are observable even in glacial deposits, alluvium and loess. A region of faulting may continue to be so through more than one geological period. Little is known of the mechanism of faulting or of the causes that produce it; the majority of the text-book explanations will not bear scrutiny, and there is room for extended observation and research. The sudden yielding of the strata along a plane of faulting is a familiar cause of earthquakes.