rivals. He ordered the church building to be given to the bishop who was “recognized by the bishops of Italy and of the city of Rome” (Felix). See Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. vii. 30.
Felix II., antipope, was in 356 raised from the archdeaconate of Rome to the papal chair, when Liberius was banished by the emperor Constantius for refusing to subscribe the sentence of condemnation against Athanasius. His election was contrary to the wishes both of the clergy and of the people, and the consecration ceremony was performed by certain prelates belonging to the court. In 357 Constantius, at the urgent request of an influential deputation of Roman ladies, agreed to the release of Liberius on condition that he signed the semi-Arian creed. Constantius also issued an edict to the effect that the two bishops should rule conjointly, but Liberius, on his entrance into Rome in the following year, was received by all classes with so much enthusiasm that Felix found it necessary to retire at once from Rome. Regarding the remainder of his life little is known, and the accounts handed down are contradictory, but he appears to have spent the most of it in retirement at his estate near Porto. He died in 365.
Felix III., pope, was descended from one of the most influential families of Rome, and was a direct ancestor of Gregory the Great. He succeeded Simplicius in the papal chair on the 2nd of March 483. His first act was to repudiate the Henoticon, a deed of union, originating, it is supposed, with Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, and published by the emperor Zeno with the view of allaying the strife between the Monophysites and their opponents in the Eastern church. He also addressed a letter of remonstrance to Acacius; but the latter proved refractory, and sentence of deposition was passed against him. As Acacius, however, had the support of the emperor, a schism arose between the Eastern and Western churches, which lasted for 34 years. Felix died in 492.
Felix IV., pope, a native of Beneventum, was, on the death of John in 526, raised to the papal chair by the emperor Theodoric in opposition to the wishes of the clergy and people. His election was followed by serious riots. To prevent a recrudescence of these, Felix, on his death-bed, thought it advisable to nominate his own successor. His choice fell upon the archdeacon Boniface (pope as Boniface II.). But this proceeding was contrary to all tradition and roused very serious opposition. Out of two old buildings adapted by him to Christian worship, Felix made the church of SS. Cosimo and Damiano, near the Via Sacra. He died in September 530.
Felix V., the name taken by Amadeus (1383–1451), duke of Savoy, when he was elected pope in opposition to Eugenius IV. in 1439. Amadeus was born at Chambéry on the 4th of December 1383, and succeeded his father, Amadeus VII., as count of Savoy in 1391. Having added largely to his patrimonial possessions he became very powerful, and in 1416 the German king Sigismund erected Savoy into a duchy; after this elevation Amadeus added Piedmont to his dominions. Then suddenly, in 1434, the duke retired to a hermitage at Ripaille, near Thonon, resigning his duchy to his son Louis (d. 1465), although he seems to have taken some part in its subsequent administration. It is said, but some historians doubt the story, that, instead of leading a life of asceticism, he spent his revenues in furthering his own luxury and enjoyment. In 1439, when Pope Eugenius IV. was deposed by the council of Basel, Amadeus, although not in orders, was chosen as his successor, and was crowned in the following year as Felix V. In the stormy conflict between the rival popes which followed, the German king, Frederick IV., after some hesitation sided with Eugenius, and having steadily lost ground Felix renounced his claim to the pontificate in 1449 in favour of Nicholas V., who had been elected on the death of Eugenius. He induced Nicholas, however, to appoint him as apostolic vicar-general in Savoy, Piedmont and other parts of his own dominions, and to make him a cardinal. Amadeus died at Geneva on the 7th of January 1451.
FELIX, a missionary bishop from Burgundy, sent into East
Anglia by Honorius of Canterbury (630–631). Under King
Sigebert his mission was successful, and he became first bishop of
East Anglia, with a see at Dunwich, where he died and was
buried, 647–648. It is noteworthy that the Irish monk Furseus
preached in East Anglia at the same time, and Bede notices the
admiration of Felix for Aidan.
See Bede, Hist. Eccl. (Plummer), ii. 15, iii. 18, 20, 25; Saxon Chronicle (Earle and Plummer), s.a. 636.
FELIX, of Urgella (fl. 8th century), Spanish bishop, the friend of
Elipandus and the propagator of his views in the great Adoptian
Controversy (see Adoptianism).
FELIX, of Valois (1127–1212), one of the founders of the
monastic order of Trinitarians or Redemptionists, was born in
the district of Valois, France, on the 19th of April 1127. In early
manhood he became a hermit in the forest of Galeresse, where he
remained till his sixty-first year, when his disciple Jean de Matha
(1160–1213) suggested to him the idea of establishing an order of
monks who should devote their lives to the redemption of Christian
captives from the Saracens. They journeyed to Rome about
the end of 1197, obtained the sanction of the pope, and on their
return to France founded the monastery of Cerfroi in Picardy.
Felix remained to govern and propagate the order, while Jean
de Matha superintended the foreign journeys. A subordinate
establishment was also founded by Felix in Paris near a chapel
dedicated to St Mathurin, on which account his monks were also
called St Mathurins. He died at Cerfroi on the 4th of November
1212, and was canonized.
FELIX, ANTONIUS, Roman procurator of Judaea (A.D. 52–60),
in succession to Ventidius Cumanus. He was a freedman either
of the emperor Claudius—according to which theory Josephus
(Antiq. xx. 7) calls him Claudius Felix—or more probably of the
empress Antonia. On entering his province he induced Drusilla,
wife of Azizus of Homs (Emesa), to leave her husband and live
with him as his wife. His cruelty and licentiousness, coupled
with his accessibility to bribes, led to a great increase of crime in
Judaea. To put down the Zealots he favoured an even more
violent sect, the Sicarii (“Dagger-men”), by whose aid he
contrived the murder of the high-priest Jonathan. The period of
his rule was marked by internal feuds and disturbances, which he
put down with severity. The apostle Paul, after being apprehended
in Jerusalem, was sent to be judged before Felix at
Caesarea, and kept in custody for two years (Acts xxiv.). On
returning to Rome, Felix was accused of having taken advantage
of a dispute between the Jews and Syrians of Caesarea to slay and
plunder the inhabitants, but through the intercession of his
brother, the freedman Pallas, who had great influence with the
emperor Nero, he escaped unpunished.
See Tacitus, Annals, xx. 54, Hist. v. 9; Suetonius, Claudius, 28; E. Schürer, History of the Jewish People (1890–1891); article in Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible (A. Robertson); commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles; Sir W. M. Ramsay, St Paul the Traveller; Carl v. Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age (Eng. trans., 1894); art. Jews.
FÉLIX, LIA (1830– ), French actress, was the third
sister and the pupil of the great Rachel. She had hardly been
given any trial when, by chance, she was called on to create the
leading woman’s part in Lamartine’s Toussaint Louverture at
the Porte St Martin on the 6th of April 1850. The play did not
make a hit, but the young actress was favourably noticed, and
several important parts were immediately entrusted to her.
She soon came to be recognized as one of the best comediennes
in Paris. Rachel took Lia to America with her to play second
parts, and on returning to Paris she played at several of the
principal theatres, although her health compelled her to retire
for several years. When she reappeared at the Gaiété in the
title-rôle of Jules Barbier’s Jeanne d’Arc she had an enormous
success.
FELIXSTOWE, a seaside resort of Suffolk, England; fronting
both to the North Sea and to the estuary of the Orwell, where
there are piers. Pop. of urban district of Felixstowe and Walton
(1901), 5815. It is 85 m. N.E. by E. from London by a branch
line from Ipswich of the Great Eastern railway; and is in
the Woodbridge parliamentary division of the county. It
has good golf links, and is much frequented by visitors for its
bracing climate and sea-bathing. There is a small dock, and
phosphate of lime is extensively dug in the neighbourhood and
