captured francs-tireurs as irresponsible non-combatants found with arms in their hands and usually exacted the death penalty. In July 1870, at the outbreak of the war, the societies were brought under the control of the minister of war and organized for field service, but it was not until the 4th of November—by which time the levée en masse was in force—that they were placed under the orders of the generals in the field. After that they were sometimes organized in large bodies and incorporated in the mass of the armies, but more usually they continued to work in small bands, blowing up culverts on the invaders’ lines of communication, cutting off small reconnoitring parties, surprising small posts, &c. It is now acknowledged, even by the Germans, that though the francs-tireurs did relatively little active mischief, they paralysed large detachments of the enemy, contested every step of his advance (as in the Loire campaign), and prevented him from gaining information, and that their soldierly qualities improved with experience. Their most celebrated feats were the blowing up of the Moselle railway bridge at Fontenoy on the 22nd of January 1871 (see Les Chasseurs des Vosges by Lieut.-Colonel St Étienne, Toul, 1906), and the heroic defence of Châteaudun by Lipowski’s Paris corps and the francs-tireurs of Cannes and Nantes (October 18, 1870). It cannot be denied that the original members of the rifle clubs were joined by many bad characters, but the patriotism of the majority was unquestionable, for little mercy was shown by the Germans to those francs-tireurs who fell into their hands. The severity of the German reprisals is itself the best testimony to the fear and anxiety inspired by the presence of active bands of francs-tireurs on the flanks and in rear of the invaders.
FRANEKER, a town in the province of Friesland, Holland, 5 m. E. of Harlingen on the railway and canal to Leeuwarden. Pop. (1900) 7187. It was at one time a favourite residence of the Frisian nobility, many of whom had their castles here, and it possessed a celebrated university, founded by the Frisian estates in 1585. This was suppressed by Napoleon I. in 1811, and the endowments were diverted four years later to the support of an athenaeum, and afterwards of a gymnasium, with which a physiological cabinet and a botanical garden are connected. Franeker also possesses a town hall (1591), which contains a planetarium, made by one Eise Eisinga in 1774–1881. The fine observatory was founded about 1780. The church of St Martin (1420) contains several fine tombs of the 15th-17th centuries. The industries of the town include silk-weaving, woollen-spinning, shipbuilding and pottery-making. It is also a considerable market for agricultural produce.
FRANK, JAKOB (1726–1791), a Jewish theologian, who founded in Poland, in the middle of the 18th century, a sect which emanated from Judaism but ended by merging with Christianity. The sect was the outcome of the Messianic mysticism of Sabbetai Zebi. It was an antinomian movement in which the authority of the Jewish law was held to be superseded by personal freedom. The Jewish authorities, alarmed at the moral laxity which resulted from the emotional rites of the Frankists, did their utmost to suppress the sect. But the latter, posing as an anti-Talmudic protest in behalf of a spiritual religion, won a certain amount of public sympathy. There was, however, no deep sincerity in the tenets of the Frankists, for though in 1759 they were baptized en masse, amid much pomp, the Church soon became convinced that Frank was not a genuine convert. He was imprisoned on a charge of heresy, but on his release in 1763 the empress Maria Theresa patronized him, regarding him as a propagandist of Christianity among the Jews. He thenceforth lived in state as baron of Offenbach, and on his death (1791) his daughter Eva succeeded him as head of the sect. The Frankists gradually merged in the general Christian body, the movement leaving no permanent trace in the synagogue. (I. A.)
FRANK-ALMOIGN (libera eleemosyna, free alms), in the English
law of real property, a species of spiritual tenure, whereby a
religious corporation, aggregate or sole, holds lands of the donor
to them and their successors for ever. It was a tenure dating
from Saxon times, held not on the ordinary feudal conditions,
but discharged of all services except the trinoda necessitas.
But “they which hold in frank-almoign are bound of right before
God to make orisons, prayers, masses and other divine services
for the souls of their grantor or feoffor, and for the souls of their
heirs which are dead, and for the prosperity and good life and
good health of their heirs which are alive. And therefore they
shall do no fealty to their lord, because that this divine service
is better for them before God than any doing of fealty” (Litt.
s. 135). It was the tenure by which the greater number of the
monasteries and religious houses held their lands; it was expressly
exempted from the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24 (1660), by which
the other ancient tenures were abolished, and it is the tenure by
which the parochial clergy and many ecclesiastical and eleemosynary
foundations hold their lands at the present day. As a form
of donation, however, it came to an end by the passing of the
statute Quia Emptores, for by that statute no new tenure of
frank-almoign could be created, except by the crown.
See Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, where the history of frank-almoign is given at length.
FRANKEL, ZECHARIAS (1801–1875), Jewish theologian, one of the founders of the Breslau school of “historical Judaism.” This school attempts to harmonize critical treatment of the documents of religion with fidelity to traditional beliefs and observances. For a time at least, the compromise succeeded in staying the disintegrating effects of the liberal movement in Judaism. Frankel was the author of several valuable works, among them Septuagint Studies, an Introduction to the Mishnah (1859), and a similar work on the Palestinian Talmud (1870). He also edited the Monatsschrift, devoted to Jewish learning on modern lines. But his chief claim to fame rests on his headship of the Breslau Seminary. This was founded in 1854 for the training of rabbis who should combine their rabbinic studies with secular courses at the university. The whole character of the rabbinate has been modified under the influence of this, the first seminary of the kind. (I. A.)
FRANKENBERG, a manufacturing town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Zschopau, 7 m. N.E. of Chemnitz, on the railway Niederwiesa-Rosswein. Pop. (1905) 13,303. The principal buildings are the large Evangelical parish church, restored in 1874–1875, and the town-hall. Its industries include extensive woollen, cotton and silk weaving, dyeing, the manufacture of brushes, furniture and cigars, iron-founding and machine building. It is well provided with schools, including one of weaving.
FRANKENHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, on an artificial arm of the Wipper, a tributary of the Saale, 36 m. N.N.E. of Gotha. Pop. (1905) 6534. It consists of an old and a new town, the latter mostly rebuilt since a destructive fire in 1833, and has an old château of the princes of Schwarzburg, three Protestant churches, a seminary for teachers, a hospital and a modern town-hall. Its industries include the manufacture of sugar, cigars and buttons, and there are brine springs, with baths, in the vicinity. At Frankenhausen a battle was fought on the 15th of May 1525, in which the insurgent peasants under Thomas Münzer were defeated by the allied princes of Saxony and Hesse.
FRANKENSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, on the Pausebach, 35 m. S. by W. of Breslau. Pop. (1905) 7890. It is still surrounded by its medieval walls, has two Evangelical and three Roman Catholic churches, among the latter the parish church with a curious overhanging tower, and a monastery. The industries include the manufacture of artificial manures, bricks, beer and straw hats. There are also mills for grinding the magnesite found in the neighbourhood.
FRANKENTHAL, a town of Germany, in the Bavarian Palatinate, on the Isenach, connected with the Rhine by a canal 3 m. in length, 6 m. N.W. from Mannheim, and on the railways Neunkirchen-Worms and Frankenthal-Grosskarlbach. Pop. (1905) 18,191. It has two Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a fine medieval town-hall, two interesting old gates, remains of its former environing walls, several public monuments, including one to the veterans of the Napoleonic wars, and a museum. Its industries include the manufacture
