easy circumstances, he pursued his inclination and taste for painting. He was a faithful imitator of Peter da Cortona, whose favourite disciple he was, and to whom he came so near in his ideas, his invention, and his manner of painting, that his cielings particularly are often mistaken for Cortona's. Generally, however, Mr. Fuseli says, Ferri has less grace of design, less ease in his actions and draperies, and less compass of mind; but he has more solidity and carefulness of finish than his master. Though he set great prices on his works, he was in continual employ. Pope Alexander VII. had a great esteem for him; and his three successors were no less favourable to him. The great duke sent for him to Florence, and assigned him a large pension to finish the works which Cortona had left imperfect. He entered so well into the spirit of them, and acquitted himself so worthily, that the whole work seems to be of the same hand. The great duke nominated him chief of the school of Florence, in which rank he continued for a long time. Ferri returned to Rome, where he appeared a great architect as well as a good painter. Several palaces and grand altars, as St. John of the Florentines, and that of the Chiesa Nuova, were raised from his designs. He diverted himself more with drawing than painting. He was much importuned for devices, figures for breviaries, and titles of books: several of which have been engraved by Spierre and Bloemart. The pope employed him in making cartoons for the Vatican; and few men have worked in more different ways. The cupola of St. Agnes, in the palace of Navona, was his last work. The chagrin he felt in seeing the angels of Bacici, a Genoese painter, which were directly under it, the force of whose colouring made his appear too weak, is said to have been the cause of his death. One day he told Lazaro Baldi, his companion, that his cupola appeared very different on the scaffold from what it did from below, and that the angels of Bacici gave him great pain; and, falling sick soon after, he died in 1689, at the age of fifty-five. FERRI (PAUL), in Latin FERRIUS, a most learned divine of Germany, was born of a considerable family at Metz, in 1591. He was sent to study divinity at Montaban, and made so uncommon a progress, that he was admitted a minister at Metz in 1610. Though he was 1 Argenville, vol. I.-Pilkington. but nineteen, he had then published a book of poems; the advertisement to which he finished in these words, "sat ludo nugisque datum." He had eminent talents for preaching his graceful presence, his venerable countenance, and fine delivery, adding great force to his eloquence, which was very powerful and moving, His enemies reported, falsely, that he was one of the ministers whom cardinal Richelieu had bribed to procure a coalition of the two religions; however, it is certain that he was grieved at the division of the protestants, and hoped that he could contribute somewhat to forward a re-union; and it is supposed that with this view he kept a correspondence with Dury (See DURY). His death happened in 1669, when above fourscore stones were found in his bladder, which had occasioned it. He had a very fine library, which he increased by several works of his own. In 1616 he published "Scholastici Orthodoxi Specimen," in which he shews, that the protestant doctrine of grace has been taught by the schoolmen. This treatise gained him the esteem of Du Plessis Mornay, who wrote him a letter upon it, in which he advised him about another work he was upon, entitled "Le dernier desespoir de la Tradition," &c. In 1630 he published at Leyden, "Vindicia pro Scholastico Orthodoxo," against Perinus, an eminent Jesuit, who had published in 1619 a book entitled "Thrasonica Pauli Ferrii Calvinista." In 1654 he published "General Catechisme de la Reformation," which was answered by Bossuet; and left behind him collections for a history of Metz, which are referred to by Calmet, as abounding in curious researches; and a vast number of sermons, of which about eleven hundred are on the epistle to the Hebrews. ' FERRIER (ARMAND, or ARNOLD DE), an eminent lawyer, called sometimes the Cato of France, was born at Toulouse in 1506. He was admitted a doctor of law at Padua; and from a professor in the university of Toulouse, was raised to be a counsellor in the parliament of the same city. It is remarkable of him, that though he was a protestant in his heart for a good part of his life, he did not profess himself to be so till a little before his death. He had indeed often discovered that he was no bigotted papist; and was so strongly suspected of heresy in 1559, that he 1 Bayle in Gen. Dict.-Moreri. would have been imprisoned if he had not made his escape. He harangued, in 1562, in the council of Trent, whither he was sent ambassador by the French king; and he expressed himself in so bold a manner in favour of the interests of France, that the Italian priests were highly offended at him. He went afterwards ambassador to Venice, where he continued several years; and took occasion to assist father Paul in collecting materials for his "History of the Council of Trent." On his return from Venice, Du Plessis Mornay, who knew his thoughts, pressed him so earnestly to declare the truth, that Ferrier openly professed himself a protestant, and the king of Navarre made him his chancellor. He was about seventy-six years old at the time of his renouncing popery; and he only lived to seventy-nine. He died in 1585. It has been said that he conspired with the chancellor de l'Hospital to break the knot which united the French king with the holy see; to assemble a national council, in which the king of France, after the example of the king of England, should be declared head of the Gallican church; and to usurp all the estates of the church of France. He was reckoned among the greatest men in Europe, and was the author of some literary works. 1 FERRIER (JEREMY), a protestant minister and professor of divinity at Nismes, of the seventeenth century, is, contrary to his namesake in the preceding article, memorable for becoming a papist, even after having maintained in public disputation, in 1602, that "Pope Clement the VIIIth was properly the Antichrist," yet he was the first who began to yield in the political assemblies of the reformed in France. Many circumstances in his behaviour had made him suspected as a pensioner of the court, as a false brother, and a traitor to the churches. He did not, however, openly change his religion till a popular tumult arose against him, in which his house was plundered, and himself so near being murdered, that, for the sake of escaping he was obliged to lie three days concealed in a tomb. After this he settled at Paris, where he endeavoured to make his fortune. He published in 1614, the year after his conversion, a book of controversy upon the subject of antichrist. The king employed him in several im portant affairs; and in 1626 he was commanded to attend 1 Bayle in Gen. Dict.-Moreri. his majesty to Britanny, where he was honoured with the title of state and privy counsellor. Cardinal de Richelieu had a particular esteem for him. He died of a hectic fever in 1626. His family was numerous; and he made all his children promise that they would live and die in the catholic faith. His only daughter married M. Tardieu, lieutenant-criminel of Paris, concerning which couple some curious anecdotes are recorded in Boileau's tenth satire, and in the notes of St. Marc. Ferrier was the reputed author of a famous political work, entitled "Catholique d'Etat," published in 1625, in answer to some libels which the king of Spain's partizans had written against France, upon allying herself with the protestant powers to the injury of the catholic religion.1 FERRIER (JOHN), a French Jesuit, and a native of Rouergue, and confessor to the king of France, was born in 16:4, and turned a Jesuit in 1632. He had taught philosophy four years, divinity twelve years, and ethics two years. He had been principal of the college of Toulouse, and had acquitted himself very well of that employment. The Jesuits probably looked upon him as a very able man, since they designed to make him the king's confessor, to which office he was promoted in 1670. He died in the convent of the Jesuits at Paris, October 29, 1674. He was one of the ablest antagonists of Jansenius's followers, and his thesis concerning probability, which he maintained at Toulouse the 8th and the 11th of June 1659, made a considerable noise. He wrote a Latin answer to father Baron's objections against the "Scientia media," entitled "Responsio ad Objectiones Vincentianas," Toulouse, 1668, 8vo. He intended also to publish a body of divinity, but only the first volume of it has been printed, which treats " Of the Unity of God according to St. Augustin and St. Thomas's principles." His other works are written in French, and relate for the most part to Jansenism. He wrote two letters against Arnauld, and he gave an account of all that passed in 1653, concerning the affair of Jansenism. According to the bibliographer of the Jesuits, he wrote a book concerning the immortality of the soul in 1660, and another on the beauty of Jesus Christ in 1657; but these were the production of John Ferrier, a Jesuit of Guienne. Bayle in Gen. Dict.-Moreri, Bayle in Gen. Dict. FERRIER (CLAUDE DE) a learned French civilian, was doctor of law in the university of Paris, in which city he was born 1639, and taught law at Paris, as fellow, till 1694, when he was appointed professor at Rheims, where he acquired great reputation, and died May 11, 1715, aged seven seven, leaving a great number of works, which became very popular, and the booksellers of Paris, for whom he wrote, were enriched, but he was not. His talents were considerable; but a certain arrogance of manner, and bigotry to his own opinions, prevented him from being distinguished in his profession. The principal of his works are, 1." Commentaires sur la Coutume de Paris," 2 vols. 12mo. 2. "Traité des Fiefs," 1680, 4to. 3. "Recueil des Commentateurs de la Coutume de Paris," 1714, 4 vols. fol. 4. "La Jurisprudence du Code," 1684, 2 vols. 4to. 5. "Du Digeste," 1688, 2 vols. 4to. 6. "Des Novelles," 1688, 2 vols. 4to. 7. "La Science des Notaires," 1771, 2 vols. 4to. 8. "Le Droit du Patronage," 1686, 4to. 9. "Institution Coutumiere," 3 vols. 12mo. 10. "Introduction a la Pratique," 1758, 2 vols. Izino. "Le Dict. de Droit," 1771, 2 vols. 4to, is by Claudius Joseph, his son, who was dean of the law faculty in the university of Paris. FERRON (ARNAULD DU), a French lawyer, was born in 1515, and was a counsellor of the parliament of Bourdeaux. He was an elegant writer in Latin, an imitator of the style of Terence, admired by Scaliger, and honoured by him with the name of Atticus. He continued the history of France in Latin (which Paulus Æmilius, a writer of Verona, had given from the reign of Pharamond to 1488) as far as the end of the reign of Francis I. This work was published at Paris, by Vascosan, in 1554, fol. and 1555, 8vo. It is copious, but not too long, and abounds with curious anecdotes and very exact details. He wrote also "Observations sur la Coutume de Bourdeaux," Lyons, 1565, fol. He had considerable employments. His death happened in 1563, when he was na more than forty-eight." FESCH (SEBASTIAN), an able antiquary, doctor and lawprofessor at Basil, and afterwards secretary of that city, was born July 6, 1647. His regular studies were philosophy and law, to which he joined a knowledge of Greek aud Roman antiquities, induced at first by a fine museum Moreri,-Niceron, vol, XI. 9 Moreri.-Dict, Hist |