FELIX
32
FELIX
Amadeus had been in close relations with the schis-
matic Council of Basle; and was elected pope, 30
October, 1439, by the electoral college of that council,
including one cardinal (d'AlIemand of Aries), eleven
bishops, seven abbots, five theologians, anil nine
canonists. After long negotiations with a deputation
from the council, Amadeus acquiesced in the election,
5 Feb., 1440, completely renouncing at the same time
all further participation in the government of his
duchy. Ambition and a certain fantastic turn of char-
acter induced him to take this step. He took the
name of Feli.K V, and was solemnly consecrated and
crowned by the Cardinal d'AUemand, 24 July, 1440.
Eugene IV had already excommunicated him, 23
March, at the Council of Florence. Until 1442, the
famous jEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, later Pius II, was
the anti-pope's secretary. This renewal of the schism
ruined any surviving prestige of the Basle assembly,
just closed at Constance. Subsequently, Amadeus
took up Jiis residence in Savoy and Switzerland ; his
efforts to surround himself with a curia met with little
success; many of those whom he named cardinals de-
clined the dignity. He found general recognition only
in Savoy and Switzerlantl, but his claims were also
recognized by the Dukes of Austria, Tyrol, and
Bayern-Munchen, the Count-Palatine of Simraern,
the Teutonic Order, some orders in Germany and
some universities, hitherto adherents of Basle. He
was soon embroiled in a quarrel with the Council
of Basle concerning his rights and the distribution of
revenues. The rightful pope, Eugene IV, and his suc-
cessor Nicolas V (1447), who were universally recog-
nized from the first in Spain and Poland, found tlieir
claims even more widely admitted in France and Ger-
many. In 1442, Felix left Basle; and on 16 May,
1443, occurred the last session of the Basle assembly.
Felix, who had for the sake of its revenue assumed the
administration of the Diocese of Geneva, clung for six
years more to his usurped dignity, but finally sub-
mitted (1449) to Nicolas V, received the title of
Cardinal of St. Sabina, and was appointed permanent
Apostolic vicar-general for all the states of the House
of Savoy and for several dioceses (Ba.sle, Strasburg,
Chur, etc.). Thus ended the last papal schism.
iENEAS Sylvius. Commentarii de geslis Concilii Basileensis in Opera Omnia (Basle, 1551): Fea, Pius II, Pontifex maximus (Rome, 1823): Gabotto, Lo Stato Sabaudo da Amedeo VIII ad Emmanude Filiberlo I (Turin, 1892); Monod, Amedeus Pacifi- cus seu de Eugenii IV et Aviedei Sabaudiw ducis, in sua obedi~ entia Feticis papa V nuncupati, controversiis commentarius (Turin, 1624): Lecoy de la Marche, Amedee VIII et son sejour h Ripaille in Revue des quest. Histor., 1866, 1, 192-203; Bruchet, Notice sur te buUaire de Felix V, conserve aux archives de Turin in Mem. et docum. publics par la Societe savoisienne, 1898, XII, XXX-XXXIII; InEM, Le Chateau de Ripaille (Paris, 1907); Pastor, GescAtcftiederPflpsie, 4th ed., 1,317 sqq.; Baumgarten, Die beiden ersten Kardinalskonsistorien des Gegenpapstes Felix V in Rum. Quartalschrift fiir chrisll. Altert. u. fiir Kirchengesch., 1908, GeschiclUe, 153 sqq.
J. P. KiRSCH.
F6Iix, Celestin-Joseph, French Jesuit, b. at Neuville-sur-l'Escaut (Nord), 28 June, 1810; d. at Lille, 7 July, 1891. He began his studies under the Brothers of Christian Doctrine, going later to the preparatory seminary at Cambrai, where he com- pleted his secondary studies. In 1833 he was named professor of rhetoric, received minor orders and the diaconate, and in 1837 entered the Society of Jesus. He began his noviceship at Tronchiennes in Belgium, continued it at Saint-Acheul, and ended it at Bruge- lettes, where he studied philosophy and the sciences. Having completed his theological studies at Louvain, he wa-s ordained in 1842 and returned to Brugelettes to teach rhetoric and philosophy. His earliest Lenten discourses, preached at Ath, and especially one on true patriotism, soon won him a brilliant reputation for eloquence.
Called to Amiens in IS.TO, he introduced the teach- ing of rhetoric at the College de la Providence and preached during Advent and Lent at the cathedral.
His oratorical qualities becoming more and more
evident, he was called to Paris. He first preached
at St. Thomas d'Aquin in 1851, and in 1852 preached
Lenten sermons at Saint - Germain - des - Pr6s, and
those of Advent at Saint-Sulpice. It was then that
Mgr. Sibour named him to succeed the Dominican,
Father Lacordaire, and the Jesuit, Father de Ravi-
gnan in the pulpit of Notre-Dame (1853 to 1870).
He became one of its most brilliant orators. The
conferences of the first three years have not been
published in full. In 1856 Pere F^lix began the sub-
ject which he made the master-work of his life:
"Progres par le Christianisme". This formed the
matter of a series of Lenten conferences which are pre-
served for us in fifteen volumes, and which have lost
none of their reality. True progress in all its forms,
whether of the individual or of tlie family, in science,
art, morals, or government, is herein treated with
great doctrinal exactness and breadth of view. The
practical conclusions of these conferences Pere F(51ix
summed up every year in his preaching of the Easter
retreat, which had been inaugurated by Pere de
Ravignan. This was the side of his ministry which
lay nearest his heart. While he was in Paris, and
especially during his stay at Nancy (1867-1883),
and at Lille (1883-1891), the illustrious Jesuit spoke
in nearly all the great cathedrals of France and
Belgium. In 1881 he even went to Copenhagen
to conduct the Advent exercises, and there he held
a celebrated conference on authority. PY'lix founded
the Society of St. Michael for the distribution of good
books, and employed the leisure moments of his last
years in the composition of several works and in the
revision of his "Retraites a Notre-Dame", which he
published in six volumes.
The eloquence of Pere F(51ix was characterized by clearness, vigorous logic, unction, and pathos, even in his reasoning. He lacked imagination and the en- thusiasm of Lacordaire, but he was more skilled in dialectic and surer in doctrine. His diction was richer than that of de Ravignan, and while he was less di- dactic than MonsabrS he was more original. A list of his works is given by Sommervogel.
Jenner, Le R. P. Felix, with the catalogue of Sommervogel as appendix (Paris, 1892), 260; Cornut, Le R. P. Fflix in the Etudes (1891), Aug.; Pontmartin, Le R. P. Felix (Paris, 1861).
Louis Lalande.
FeUx and Adauctus, Saints, martyrs at Rome, 303, under Diocletian and Maximian. The Acts, first published in Ado's Martyrology, relate as follows: Felix, a Roman priest, and brother of another priest, also named Felix, being ordered to offer sacrifice to the gods, was brought by tlie prefect Dracus to the tem- ples of Serapis, Slercury, and Diana. But at the prayer of the saint the idols fell shattered to the ground. He was then led to execution. On the way an unknown person joined him, professed himself a ('hristian, and also received the crown of martyrdom. The Christians gave him the name Adauctus (added). These Acts are considered a legendary embellishment of a mis- understood inscription by Pope Damasus. A Dracus cannot be fouml among the prefects of Rome; the other Felix of the legentl i.s St. Felix of Nola; and Felix of Monte Pincio is the same Felix honoured on the Garden Hill. The brother is imaginary (Anal. Boll., XVI, 19-29). Their veneration, however, is very old; they are commemorated in the Sacramentary of Greg- ory the Great and in the ancient martyrologies. Their church in Rome, built over their graves, in the ceme- tery of Comniodilla, on the Via Ostiensis, near the basilica of St. Paul, and restored by Leo III, was dis- covered about three huntlred years ago and again un- earthed in 1905 (Civilt;\Catt.,'l905, IT, (108). Leo IV, about S.W, is said to have given their relics to Irmen- gard, wife of Lothair 1; .she placed (hem in the abbey of canonesses at Eschau in Alsace. They were brought
