The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (806 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Fourteen stages of Jain progress
(Jain)
:
Fox, George
(1624–91).
Founder of the Society of
Friends
(also known as
Quakers
). Despite poor health he travelled widely throughout England, Ireland, the West Indies, N. America (where
Penn
found him ‘civil beyond all forms of breeding’), and Holland. His famous
Journal
was published three years after his death (ed. J. L. Nickalls, 1952; R. M. Jones, 1976).
Foxe, John
(1516–87).
Author of ‘Foxe's book of
martyrs
’. Foxe wrote the book,
Acts and Monuments of matters happening in the Church
, while in exile in Europe during the reign of Queen Mary. Its chief purpose was to draw attention to the sufferings and endurance of the Protestant martyrs of Mary's reign.
Fraction
.
The breaking of the bread which, in all liturgies of the
eucharist
, precedes
communion
. It recalls Jesus' action at the
Last Supper
(Matthew 26. 26) and reflects 1 Corinthians 10. 16b f.
Francis, St, of Assisi
(1181/2–1226).
Christian ascetic and founder of the Franciscan order. Son of a wealthy textile merchant, Francesco Bernardone had dreams of chivalric heroism and a bent toward frivolity until, in his early twenties, he underwent a conversion. He began to devote himself to care of lepers, whom he had formerly found repellent, and soon renounced his patrimony in the public square, returning even his clothes to his father. Embracing poverty, which he spoke of as his bride, he acquired his food by begging, and applied himself to repairing ruined churches. In 1208 or 1209, after hearing at mass Jesus' commission to the disciples (Matthew 10. 7–19), he set out to preach. Companions soon followed, forming with him a band that became the Franciscan Order. He drew up a simple Rule based on Gospel commands and sayings (the
Regula Primitiva
). In 1212, Clare followed him in establishing a group of women, the Second Order of St Francis, commonly known as
Poor Clares
. In 1217, provinces were established, and in 1219 he went to Egypt, at the time of a
crusade
, appearing before the Sultan to argue the case for Christ. In 1221, he established ‘a third order’, i.e. Tertiaries, for those living in the world, but aspiring to his ideals. He reasserted his ideals in his Rule of 1221 (
Regula Prima
), but was obliged to compromise in the definitive Rule (
Regula Bullata
) of 1223. Thereafter, increasingly ill, he withdrew somewhat from the affairs of the Order and spent periods in contemplative solitude, receiving the
stigmata
in 1224. He dictated his
Testament
shortly before he died. He was canonized in 1228.
The appeal of Francis remains vast, sustained by a large body of hagiographical works, among which the Italian
Little Flowers of St Francis
(
c.
1375), a partial translation of a Latin work of
c.
1325 by Ugolino of Monte Giorgio, is especially popular, although unreliable for historical detail.

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