Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/252

242 F I S F I S a good metalled road. The garrison now consists of one regiment of British infantry, one of native infantry, one battery of field and one of garrison artillery. The arsenal to which Firozpur owes its political importance is situated one mile distant from cantonment. It is by far the largest in the province, and well stored with all munitions of war. The population of Firozpur cantonments and military lines amounted in 1868 to 15,837. FISCHART (1546-1590), JOHANNES, the great German satirist of the 16th century, was born probably at Strasburg (according to some accounts at Mainz), in 1546, and was educated at Worms, in the house of Kaspar Scheid, whom he mentions in the preface to his Eulen&piegel as his " cousin and preceptor." After taking the degree of Doctor der Rechte at Basel in 1570, he left Germany for a time, and is said to have travelled in Italy, the Netherlands, France, and England. Having returned to Strasburg, he lived there from 1576 to about 1580 with his brother-in- law the printer, Bernhard Jobin, who became the publisher of most of Fischart s works. In 1581 Fischart became Advocat am Reichskammergericht at Spire, and in 1583 Hohenfelsischer Amtmann at Forbach, near Saarbriick. Here he died in the winter of 1589-90, at the age of forty- three. Fischart wrote under various feigned names, such as Mentzer, Menzer, Reznem, Huldrich Elloposkleros, Jesuwalt-Pickhart, Winhold Alkofribas Wustblutus, and Huldrich Mansehr von Treubach; and it is partly owing to this fact that there is doubt whether some of the works attributed to him are really his. More than 50 satirical works, however, both in prose and verse, remain authentic, among which are Der Nachtrabe, or Die Nebelkrdh (1570), a satire against one Jacob Rabe, who had become a convert to the Catholic Church; Von St Dominici des Prediger- monchs u. St Francisci Barfiissers artlichem Leben (1571), a poem with the expressive motto "Sie haben Nasen vnd riechens nit," written to defend the Protestants against certain wicked accusations, one of which was that Luther held communion with the devil ; Eulenspeigel Reimensiveis (1572); Allerp-raktik Grossnmtter (1572), after Rabelais s Prognostication Pantagrueline ; Flbhatz Weibertratz (1574) ; Affenteuerliche und imgeheiierlicheGeschichtschrift vom Leben, Rhaten und Thaten, u. s. w., von Gargantoa u. Pantagruel, also after Rabelais (1575, and again under a modified title 1577) ; Neue kunstliche Figuren Biblischer Historien (1576) ; Anmahnung zur christlichen Kinderzucht (1576) ; Das gliick- ha/t Schiff von Zurich (1576, repub. 1828 and 1849), a poem commemorating the adventure of a company of Zurich arquebusiers, who sailed from their native town to Stras burg in one day, and brought, as a proof of this feat, a kettleful of " Hirsebrei," which had been cooked in Zurich, still warm into Strasburg ; Podagrammisch Trostbiichlein (1577); Das philosophise^ Ehzuchtbiichlein (1578); the celebrated Bienenkorb des heiligen rbmischen Immen- schwarms, &c., a modification of the Dutch Bynencorf der roomischer kerke, by Philipp Marnix of St Aldegonde, published in 1579 and again in 1847; Der heilig Brotkorb, (1580), after Calvin s Traite des Reliques; Das vierhdrnige Jesuiterhutlein, a rhymed satire against the Jesuits (1580); Catalogus Catalogorum perpetno durahilis (1589). To Fischart also have been attributed some " Psalmen und geistliche Lieder " which appeared in a Strasburg hymn book of 1576. Fischart had studied not only the ancient literatures, but also those of Italy, France, the Netherlands, and England. He was a lawyer, a theologian, a satirist, in religion a staunch Protestant, in politics a republican. Above all, he is reputed a master of language, and was in defatigable with his pen. His satire was levelled merci lessly at all perversities in the public and private life of his time, at astrological superstition, scholastic pedantry, ancestral pride, but especially at the papal dignity and the lives of the priesthood and the Jesuits. He indulged in the wildest witticisms, the most abandoned caricature ; but all this he did with a serious purpose. Thirty years after Fischart s death his writings, once so popular, were almost entirely forgotten. Recalled to the public attention by Bodmer and Lessing, it is only quite recently that his works have come to be a subject of investigation, and his position in German literature to be fully understood. There is a collection of Fischart s works in the royal library at Berlin. FISHER, JOHN, bishop of Rochester, was born at Beverley in Yorkshire, but the year of his birth is uncertain, some placing it in 1459, others in 1461, and others in 1465. He was educated in the collegiate church of Beverley, and in 1484 he removed to Michael House in Cambridge, of which college he was elected master in the year 1495. Having applied himself to the study of divinity, he took orders ; and becoming eminent as a divine, attracted the notice of Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., who appointed him her chaplain and confessor. In 1501 he took the degree of doctor in divinity, and the same year was elected chancellor of the university. In the year following the first appointment of the newly-established Margaret professorship in divinity was conferred upon him ; and in 1504 he was consecrated bishop of Rochester. Fisher has been erroneously credited with the composition of the Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, in which Henry VIII. attacked the heretic Luther, and for which the pope conferred upon his Majesty the title of " Defender of the Faith." Sir Thomas More and Fisher, however, published their respective rejoinders to the Reformer s reply to the king. Hitherto he had retained the friendship and esteem of the king; but from 1527 till his death he was acknowledged as, next to Sir Thomas More, the most influential man of the anti-royal or papal party in England. He published a pamphlet against the divorce of Catherine of Aragon, which was widely disseminated on the Continent, and also secretly circulated in England. In 1533 the parliament found him guilty of misprision of treason, for concealing certain prophetic speeches of Eliza beth Barton, a fanatical impostor known as the Holy Maid of Kent, relative to the king s death, and condemned him, with five others, to suffer loss of goods and imprisonment during his majesty s pleasure. He was subsequently released upon payment of a fine of 300. Fisher excused his silence on the ground that the nun had told him that she had communicated her prophecies to Henry in person, but he nevertheless refused to express regret for having been unwittingly connected with treasonable designs. As to the great question of the day, Fisher offered to swear to the succession in the line of Anne Boleyn s issue, but he refused to acknowledge either the validity of her marriage or the king s supremacy. For this refusal he was attainted by the parliament of 1534, and committed to the Tower. At this juncture Pope Paul III. sent him a cardinal s hat. This kindness, however, only hastened the bishop s ruin. He was beheaded at Tower Hill on the 22d of June 1535. It is impossible to withhold from Fisher, notwithstanding his inflexible enmity to the Reformation, the character of a learned, pious, and honest man. His works attest his learning; his inflexible zeal for his faith, and the readiness with which he died for his creed, plainly prove his honesty as well as his piety. His execution was a sad tragedy, defensible only on the plea of political necessity. For the latest apology for Bishop Fisher, see the Rev. R. W. Watson s History of the English Church, vol. i., 1877. Fisher was the author of a considerable number of controversial tracts, most of which were collected and printed in one volume folio, published at Wurtzburg in 1595. A Life of Fisher, by Kev. John Lewis, A.M., was published in 1855, in two volumes.