OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Becke, Edmund

​BECKE, EDMUND (fl. 1550), theological writer, was ordained deacon by Bishop Ridley in 1551 (Strype's Memorials, ii. pt. i. 313). In 1549 he supervised an edition of the Bible, 'truly and purely translated into English and nowe lately with greate industry and diligence recognized.' The volume was printed by John Day and William Seres, and was preceded by a long dedicatory address to 'the most puisant and mighty prince ​Edwarde the Sixt,' signed by his 'most humble and obedient subiect Edmund Becke.' An autograph copy of the address is among the Ashmolean MSS. at Oxford. Becke there speaks of the book as 'the frutes of myne industry,' but it appears to be merely a re- print of T. Matthew's (i.e. John Rogers') 'Bible,' published in 1537, with trifling variations in the text and notes. It contains Tindal's preface to the New Testament. Becke's chief original contribution consists of 'a perfect supputation of the yeares and tyme from Adam unto Christ, proued by the Scriptures after the colleccyon of dyuers Authours.' In 1551 Becke published two more Bibles, one printed by John Day, 'faythfully set forth according to y$^e$ coppy of Thomas Matthewes translacion [really Taverner's Bible of 1539] wherevnto are added certaine learned prologes and annotacions for the better understanding of many hard places threwout the whole Byble.' The dedicatory address and the various prologues which occur in Becke's earlier edition of the Bible are again inserted. The other Bible followed the Matthew revision, and was printed by N. Hyll. Becke's other works included: 1. 'Two Dyalogues wrytten in Latin by the famous clerke D. Erasmus of Roterodame, one called Polyphemus or the Gospeller, the other dysposing of thynges and names; translated into Englyshe by Edmond Becke. And prynted at Canterbury in Saynt Paules paryshe by John Mychell.' 2. 'A Brefe Confutacion of this most detestable and Anabaptistrial opinion that Christ dyd not take hys flesh of the blessed Vyrgyn Mary nor any corporal substance of her body. For the maintenaunce whereof Jhone Bucher, otherwise called Jhon of Kent, most obstinately suffered and was burned in Smythfyelde, the ii. day of May Anno Domini M.D.L.' (London, John Day, 1550, 4to.) The first tract is described by Becke as 'the fyrste frutes of this my symple translacyon,' and as undertaken at the request of 'a nere cosyn of myne' for 'such as are not lerned in the Latin tongue.' It is undated; its publication at Canterbury suggests some ecclesiastical connection between Becke and that town. The second tract is a popular rhyming pamphlet, written to point the moral of the martyrdom of the anabaptist Joan Bocher [q.v.], which is fully described by Stow. The tract has been reprinted by Mr. J. P. Collier in the second volume of his 'Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature ' (1864).
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beck, Cave

​BECK, CAVE (1623–1706?), writer on pasigraphy, son of John Beck, baker, of the parish of St. John, Clerkenwell, was born in London in 1623. He was educated in a private school kept in London by Mr. Brathwayte, and on 13 June 1638 was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, He took the degree of B.A. in 1641, and subsequently that of M.A., being incorporated in the latter at Oxford, 17 Oct. 1643. In 1655 he was master of the free grammar school at Ipswich; in 1657, however, Robert Woodside was retained as master, during the pleasure of the corporation, in the room of Beck, who perhaps resigned that situation on being instituted to St. Helen's, or Monksoham, of which he was also rector. In 1662 he licensed to the perpetual curacy of St. Margaret's, Ipswich, and in the same year he was presented by the king, by lapse, to the rectory of St. Helen's, Ipswich, with St. Clement's annexed. We have been unable to ascertain the precise date of the death of this ingenious scholar. He was certainly alive in 1697, and William Ray, who was instituted to Monksoham in 1706, was probably his immediate successor.
He wrote an extremely curious and interesting work entitled 'The Universal Character, by which all Nations in the World may understand one another's Conceptions, Reading out of one Common Writing their own Mother Tongues. An Invention of General Use, the Practise whereof may be Attained in two Hours' space. Observing the Grammatical Directions. Which Character is so contrived, that it may be Spoken as well as Written,' Lond. 1657, 8vo. The work was also published the same year in the French language. It is dedicated to Nathanael and Francis Bacon, esquires, 'patronis suis colendissimis.' The characters chosen by Beck are the ten Arabic numerals, which he proposes to pronounce aun, too, tray, for or for, fai, sic, sen, at, nin, o. The combinations of these characters, intended to express all the radical words in any language, are to be arranged in numerical order, from unity to 10,000, which number he thinks sufficient to express all words in general use; and to each number is to be annexed the word in any language, as for example English, of which it is a symbol, thus forming a numerical vocabulary. The same words are also to be arranged in another vocabulary in the alphabetical order of the language they belong to; thus each ​serves for a key to the other. There is also a list of about two hundred characters to denote parts of compound words, and the grammatical modifications of words are expressed by letters of the alphabet. The words are in most instances extended to an unmanageable length and the difficulty of discovering the meaning of the numerical group which stands for the radical word is increased by the still greater difficulty of disconnecting the radical from the modifying appendage, and of analysing the component parts of the latter. As a frontispiece to the book there is an engraving by Faithorne, and the figure of the European is supposed, with great probability, to be the portrait of the author.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francia, François Louis Thomas

​FRANCIA, FRANÇOIS LOUIS THOMAS (1772–1839), water-colour painter, was born at Calais 21 Dec. 1772, and was brought early in life to London by his father, a refugee. He was for some time employed as an assistant of a drawing-master named Barrow, who was the master of John Varley [q. v.]
He commenced to exhibit at the Royal ​Academy in 1795, and contributed from that year to 1821 (inclusive) eighty-five works in all to its exhibitions. He was one of the sketching society formed by Thomas Girtin [q. v.] about 1799, and there is a moonlight composition in the South Kensington Museum dated in that year. He was a member of the (now Royal) Society of Painters in Water-Colours, and for some time its secretary, but he resigned his membership, and became in 1816 an unsuccessful candidate for the associateship of the Royal Academy. The next year he retired to Calais, where he resided till his death on 6 Feb. 1839. Here he gave instruction to R. P. Bonington [q. v.], whose coast scenes bear much resemblance to the later works of Francia. Francia's earlier drawings are broad and simple in execution, rich, but sombre in colour, like those of Girtin; but his later work, while still retaining its breadth and harmony, is brighter and lighter in tone, and more subtle in handling. Though he painted landscape of different kinds, his favourite subjects were shore scenes, which he executed with great truth and beauty of aerial effect. He was an excellent draughtsman of boats and shipping, and some of his drawings were engraved to illustrate a book of sketches of shipping by E. W. Cooke [q. v.] He was one of the earliest and most accomplished of English water-colourists, and his works are distinguished by their fine colour and poetical feeling. There are several of his drawings at the South Kensington Museum, and a few at the British Museum. In 1810 he published ‘Studies of Landscapes by T. Gainsborough, J. Hoppner, R.A., T. Girtin, &c., imitated from the originals by L. F.’
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francis, Alban

​FRANCIS, ALBAN (d. 1715), Benedictine monk, a native of Middlesex, became a professed monk on 9 May 1670, in the abbey of St. Adrian and St. Denis at Lansperg or Lambspring in the kingdom of Hanover (Weldon, Chronicle, App. p. 24). He assumed in religion the name of Placid. He was sent to the mission in Cambridgeshire. On 7 Feb. 1686–7 James II addressed a mandatory letter under his signet manual to Dr. John Peachell, master of Magdalene College, and vice-chancellor of Cambridge, commanding him to admit Francis to the degree as master of arts ‘without administering unto him any oath or oaths whatsoever, or tendering any subscription to be made by him.’ This letter was laid before a congregation of the university on 21 Feb., and the senate advised that the king should be petitioned to revoke his mandate. The esquire-bedels and the registrars were sent to inform Francis that the senate were ready to admit him to the degree provided that he would swear as the law appointed, but he refused to do so, insisting upon the royal dispensation. On the same afternoon the heads met in the consistory, and agreed to send a letter to the Duke of Albemarle and another to the Earl of Sunderland, secretary of state, through whose hands the mandate had passed. A second letter from the king dated 24 Feb. was read in the senate on 11 March. The senate, confirmed by the approval of several eminent lawyers, persisted in its refusal to comply with the royal letters. Consequently the vice-chancellor and the senate (by its deputies) were cited to appear before the ecclesiastical commissioners at Whitehall. The lord chancellor (Jeffreys) pronounced the decision of the commissioners on 7 May 1687. Peachell was deprived of the office of vice-chancellor and was suspended, ab officio et beneficio, of his mastership during his majesty's pleasure. At a subsequent sitting (12 May) the lord chancellor reprimanded the deputies of the senate. Another vice-chancellor was elected, Dr. Balderston, master of Emmanuel College, but Francis never got his degree.
At the revolution Francis withdrew to Lambspring, whence he removed in 1699 to the English Benedictine college of St. Gregory at Douay. He was again sent to the ​mission in the south province of England, where he died on 27 July 1715 (Snow, Necrology, p. 87).
[Howell's State Trials, xi. 1319–37; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 614; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 424, 489; Macaulay's Hist. of England; Addit. MSS. 5869, f. 71, 32095, f. 238; Corrie's Notices of the Interference of the Crown with the Affairs of the English Universities, p. 62; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time (1838), p. 443; Echard's Hist. of England; Pepys's Memoirs, v. 117.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francis, Anne

​FRANCIS, ANNE (1738–1800), authoress, daughter of the Rev. Daniel Gittins, rector of South Stoke, near Arundel, Sussex, was educated by her father in the classics and Hebrew, and became a competent scholar. She married the Rev. Robert Bransby Francis, rector of Edgefield, near Holt, Norfolk. She died on 7 Nov. 1800. She published:
* ‘A Poetical Translation of the Song of Solomon from the original Hebrew, with a preliminary Discourse and Notes, historical and explanatory,’ 1781, 4to.
* ‘The Obsequies of Demetrius Poliorcetes: a Poem,’ 1785, 4to.
* ‘A Poetical Epistle from Charlotte to Werther,’ 1788, 4to.
* ‘Miscellaneous Poems,’ 1790, 12mo.
[Dallaway's Western Sussex, ii. 193.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Framyngham, William

​FRAMYNGHAM, WILLIAM (1512–1537), author, was born in February 1512 at Norwich, and educated at the grammar school, where he was contemporary with Dr. John Caius. From Norwich he went to Cambridge, and was at first at Pembroke Hall and afterwards at Queen's College, 'in aula Pembrokiana per adolescentiam educatus, per juventutem in Collegium reginale ascitus.' He proceeded B.A. 1530, M.A. 1533, and was scholar of Queen's College from 1530 till his death, and bursar for three years from 1534. He died 25 Sept. 1537. He left all his books to his friend and schoolfellow Dr. John Caius, who tells us that along with Framyngham he wrote 'Scholia' and notes upon them, but could never recover them from those in whose care he left them when he went to Italy. Long afterwards, in 1570, Edmund, bishop of Rochester, professed to know of them, but Caius apparently did not follow up the clue. Dr. Caius describes his friend as 'homo tenacissimæ memoriæ, fœcundi ingenii, infinitæ lectionis, indefatigati laboris atque diligentiæ,' and gives the following list of his works: 1. 'De Continentia lib. ii.' (prose). 2. 'De Consolatione ad Æmilianum cæcum lib. i.' (verse; suggested by the author's blindness, brought on by immoderate study). 3. 'D. Laurentii Martyrium' (verse). 4. 'Εκπύ-ρωσις, sive Incendium Sodomorum' (verse). 5. 'Idololatria' (verse). 6. 'Άρέτη, sive in laudem virtutis' (verse). 7. 'Epigrammatum lib. ii.'
[J. Caius de libris propriis, 1570, p. 2; N. Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, ii. 186; Tanner's Bibliotheca, p. 297 ; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 63, 531.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/France, Abraham

​FRANCE, ABRAHAM (fl. 1587–1633), poet. [See Fraunce.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francis, Enoch

​FRANCIS, ENOCH (1688–1740), Welsh baptist, was born in 1688 at Pantyllaethdy, on the banks of the Tivy, and began to preach in 1707. He was settled first at Capel Iago, Llanbyther, but removed in 1730 to Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire. He became one of the most popular and successful ministers of his denomination. He was moderator of the baptist association at Hengoed, Glamorganshire, in 1730, ‘but the meeting,’ says Thomas, ‘was uncomfortable. There were very warm debates upon general redemption and other articles connected with it. Mr. E. Francis had work enough to moderate some tempers.’ The disturbing element at Hengoed was Charles Winter. Francis's publications were: 1. ‘The Work and Reward of the Faithful Minister of the Gospel,’ 1729. 2. ‘A Word in Season,’ 1733. He was also the author of some of the association letters; that of 1734 is specially mentioned. He died 4 Feb. 1739–40. Mary, his wife, died 23 Aug. 1739, aged 49, and the inscription on the tomb tells us ‘Enoch walked with God;’ ‘Mary has chosen the better part.’ The historian of the baptists concludes his memoir with an elegy by Jenkin Thomas, Drewen.
[Thomas's Hist. Baptist Association; Thomas's Hanes y Bedyddwyr; Rees's Hist. of Nonconformity in Wales.]
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francatelli, Charles Elmé

​FRANCATELLI, CHARLES ELMÉ (1805–1876), cook, born in London in 1805, was of Italian extraction, and was educated in France. He studied the culinary art under Carême, and advanced it to unprecedented perfection in this country. He became successively chef de cuisine to the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Dudley, Lord Kinnaird, &c. Afterwards he managed the well-known Crockford's, or the St. James's Club, whence he removed to the royal household, becoming maitre d'hôtel and chief cook in ordinary to the queen. He next farmed the once flourishing Coventry House Club, and for seven years was chef de cuisine to the Reform Club. He afterwards managed the St. James's Hotel, Berkeley Street, Piccadilly, and finally the Freemasons' Tavern, which post he held until within a short period of his death.
Francatelli was very successful as an author. In 1845 he published the 'Modern Cook,' which ran through twelve editions. This was succeeded in 1861 by 'The Cook's Guide and Butler's Assistant.' The same year he issued his 'Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes,' and in 1862 the 'Royal English and Foreign Confectionery Book.' In the latter work he discussed the art of confectionery in all its branches as practised in England and in all the leading European countries. While able to dress the costliest banquets, Francatelli was likewise a culinary economist. On one occasion he characteristically remarked that he could feed every day a thousand families on the food that was wasted in London. His cookery book for the working classes contained information of practical value to the poor. Francatelli died at Eastbourne on 10 Aug. 1876.
[Men of the Time, 8th edit.; Ann. Reg. 1876; Illustr. Lond. News, 19 Aug. 1876.]
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Francillon, James

​FRANCILLON, JAMES (1802–1866), legal writer, sixth son of Francis Francillon of Harwich, Essex, descended from a Huguenot family settled in this country since 1685, was born 21 Nov. 1802, educated at the king's school, Rochester, ‘served his articles’ and was admitted an attorney, thereafter entered a student at Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar by that society in 1833. He went the Oxford circuit, enjoyed a fair practice, but was chiefly employed in chamber work. In 1847, when the modern county courts were constituted, he was appointed judge for the Gloucestershire district. He was also a magistrate for Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and deputy-chairman of the Gloucestershire quarter sessions. Francillon, who was married and had issue, died at Lausanne of cholera 3 Sept. 1866. He wrote ‘Lectures, Elementary and Familiar, on English Law,’ first and second series, 1860–1. This work, written in a popular style, had some reputation.
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Salvianus, priest of Marseilles

Salvianus (3), priest of Marseilles, a writer whose works illustrate most vividly the state of Gaul in 5th cent. The one external authority for his Life is Gennadius, de Scriptt. Eccles. c. 67, who gives a list of his writings. In 429 St. Hilary of Arles, in a sermon on St. Honoratus, describes him as "the most blessed man Salvianus the presbyter." His own expressions (de Gub. Dei, vi. 72) indicate that he was born in Gaul, probably at Trèves, the manners and customs of which place he knew intimately and reproves sharply. He, or at least some of his relations, resided at Cologne, occupying a respectable position in that city. When a young man he married Palladia, daughter of Hypatius, and had one daughter Auspiciola, after whose birth Salvianus and his wife adopted the monastic life. This greatly incensed Hypatius, who retired to a distant region, refusing any communication with them for 7 years. Ep. iv. is a very earnest appeal by Salvianus, his wife, and daughter, for a renewal of the love and friendship of Hypatius, with what success we are not told. Salvianus was in extreme old age when Gennadius wrote, and was held in the highest honour, being expressly termed "Episcoporum Magister," and regarded as the very type of a monk and a scholar. His writings are important from a social, political, and ecclesiastical point of view. In the de Gub. Dei he gives a lively picture of the social changes in the empire due to the iniquitous fiscal system in vogue. Thus lib. v. cc. 4–9 shew clearly the cause of brigandage, the origin of the serf system, and the evils of vast estates. In iv. 14 he refers to the crowds of Syrian merchants in all the cities of Gaul, a fact which the discovery of Syrian, Assyrian, and other Oriental inscriptions in France has amply confirmed (cf. Le Blant's Ins. chrét. de la Gaule, diss. Nos. 225, 557, and 613). He helps us to understand the interruption of intercourse between Roman and British Christianity in 5th and 6th cents. The empire was gradually surrounded by a ring fence of hostile states, all barbarous, and several of them heretical, which served as a retreat from the power, and a barrier to the religion, of Rome. For a cent. and a half the new kingdoms of the Franks and Burgundians afforded ample employment for Rome's missionary zeal without troubling with the regions beyond. The treatise against avarice is a laudation of the ascetic life and of almsgiving; he even in bk. i. seriously discusses whether a man should leave any property at all to his sons. Ceillier (x. 359) devotes a lengthened notice to Salvianus, with a full analysis of his writings.
The latest ed. of his works is that in the Corp. Eccl. Scriptorum of the Vienna Academy, t. viii. (Vindob. 1883), ed. by Fr. Pauly.
[G.T.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Salvina

Salvina (Silvina), daughter of the Moorish chief Gildo, count of Africa. The Christian virtues which, according to Jerome and Chrysostom, distinguished the ladies of Gildo's family, were in strong contrast with brutal and savage vices which rendered his name detestable. While still a girl, Salvina was transferred by Theodosius to his own court, as a pledge of the loyalty of her father and of the province of Africa which he governed. She was brought up with the young members of the imperial family, and married c. 390 Nebridius, the son of the empress's sister, who had been educated with his cousins, the future emperors, Arcadius and Honorius. Nebridius, dying soon after, left her with a son, Nebridius, and a daughter (Hieron. Ep. ix.). She devoted herself to God's service, and, as her husband had done, protected the Oriental churches and ecclesiastics at the court of Arcadius. Her fame having spread to Palestine, Jerome, though a stranger, wrote her a letter—the arrogant tone of which might well have offended, if the coarseness had not shocked her. The young widow and her children then formed one household with her mother, Gildo's widow (he had died a.d. 398), and her paternal aunt at Constantinople (Hieron. Ep. 9; de Serv. Virg.; Ep. 11 ad Geront. ad fin.). Salvina's ardent piety speedily attached her to Chrysostom. She became one of his deaconesses, equalling Olympias and Pentadia in devotion to him. She remained with him to the last, and, together with the above-named and Procula, took a final farewell of him in the baptistery of the cathedral the night of his final expulsion (Pallad. p. 90).
[E.V.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Salvius, bishop of Alby

Salvius (5) (Sauve), St., bp. of Alby, an intimate friend of Gregory of Tours, who gives the story of his early life from his own lips. He had been an advocate, and had led an active and worldly life though unstained by the passions of youth. After his conversion he entered a monastery to embrace a new life of poverty, austerity, and worship. In time the monks made him abbat, but craving for still higher sanctity, he withdrew to a solitary cell, where, after a fever, he fell into a sort of trance, and was laid out for dead. While unconscious he was conducted by two angels to heaven, and shewn the glory of it, but not permitted to remain, as work still awaited him on earth. The account of this Dantesque vision, which Gregory calls God to witness he heard from the bishop's own lips, is interesting (Hist. Franc. vii. 1). The authenticity of this chapter has, however, been questioned (see Boll. Acta SS. Sept. iii. 575, 576). As bishop Salvius indignantly scouted the heretical and somewhat crude views on the Trinity which king Chilperic wished to force upon the church (ib. v. 45). He was at the council of Braine in 580, and while bidding farewell to Gregory there, he pointed to the king's palace and asked him if he saw aught above it. Gregory could see nothing but the upper story just built at Chilperic's command. Then Salvius, drawing a deep sigh, said: "Video ego evaginatum irae divinae gladium super domum hanc dependentem," and after 20 days the two sons of the king were no more (v. 51). When Mummolus carried off some of the flock of Salvius as prisoners, he followed and ransomed them at his own cost; and when Alby was almost depopulated by a plague that ravaged S. France, he refused to desert the city (vii. 1). He died c. 584, being succeeded by Desideratus (vii. 22).
[S.A.B.]