FATHKRS
794
FATHERS
matter and natural law. In their ethical system,
however, the problem of determinism presented
gi-eater difficulties; for their favourite commandment,
of living according to nature, seemed to imply that
" men at some time are masters of their fates ", at least
as regards the shaping of their souls to that conformity
with Nature in which virtue was supposed to consist.
The Epicureans stoutly denied the existence of fate,
and the unaccountable "swerve" of the atoms, as
postulated by the founder of their sect, was intended
to preclude tjie law of necessity, not only in the case of
the human will, but even in the elementary move-
ments of primordial matter.
Fate in the Khran. — The idea of fate among or- thodox Mohammedans is founded on the doctrine of Goil's absolute decree, and of predestination both for good and for evil. The prophet encouraged liis fol- lowers to fight without fear, and even with despera- tion, by assuring them that no timidity or caution could save their lives in battle or avert their inevitable destiny. Disputes about this doctrine have given rise to various sects among the Mohammedans, some ex- plaining away and others denj-ing the absolute nature of the Divine Will. The Koran itself does not convey the impression that Mohammed's own views on the subject were either clear or consistent.
Buddhism. — Though Free Will is not entirely ig- nored in Buddhism (q. v.), it is, at any rate, practi- cally suppressed. According to this system, "Man acts", says St-Hilaire, "during the whole of his life under the weight, not precisely of fatality, but of an incalculable series of former existences " (The Buddha and his Religion, v, 126).
Matehialisii. — In the theory of those who provide a purely materialistic explanation of the imiverse, and maintain that the human will is just as much subject to unchanging and necessary laws as are all other phenomena, the universal sovereignty of fate is im- plied in the absolute reign of physical law.
Cathouc Teaching. — According to Catholic teach- ing, God, who is the Author of the universe, has made it subject to fixed and necessary laws, so that, where our knowledge of these laws is complete, we are able to predict physical events with certainty. Moreover, God's absolute decree is irrevocable, but, as He cannot will that which is evil, the abuse of free will is in no case predetermined by Him. The phj'sical accom- paniments of the free act of the will, as well as its con- sequences, are willed by God conditionally upon the positing of the act itself, and all alike are the object of His eternal foreknowledge. The nature of this fore- knowledge is a matter still in dispute between the op- posing schools of Banez and Molina. Hence, though God knows from all eternity everything that is going to happen. He does not will everything. Sin He does not will in any sense; He only permits it. Certain things He wills absolutely and others conditionally, and His general supervision, whereby these decrees are carried out, is called Divine Providence. As God is a free agent, the order of nature is not necessary in the sense that it could not have been otherwise than it is. It is only necessarj' in so far as it works according to definite uniform laws, and is predetermined by a de- cree which, though absolute, was nevertheless free.
Moreover, in the case of miracles, God interferes with the ordinary course of nature; and the supposi- tion that, at certain periods of the world's evolution, such, for instance, as when man first appeared on the earth, there have been other providential interposi- tions involving new departures in the worlil-process, pro\'ides for certain facts in the region of organic life an explanation not less scientific than the opposite assumptions of the materialists. St. Thomas distin- guishes fate from Providence, and calls it the order or disposition of secondary . causes according to which they act in obedience to the First Cause.
It follows from what has been said that, in the
Catholic view, the idea of fate — St. Thomas dislikes
the word — must lack the note of absolute necessity,
since God's decrees are free, while it preserves the
character of relative necessity inasmuch as such de-
crees, when once passed, cannot be gainsaid. More-
over, God knows what is going to happen because it is
going to happen, and not vice versa. Hence the fu-
turity of an event is a logical, but not a physical, conse-
quence of God's foreknowledge. See Free Will,
God, Miracles, Providence.
St. Thomas, C. G., Ill, xciii; Summa, Q. cxvi; RlCKABY, God and HU Creatures (London, 1905), III, 93; Bodder, Natural Theology (London, 1891); Seyffert. Dicl. of Class. Antiq.. s. V. Moirai (London, 1906); The Koran, tr. (London, 18921; St-Hilaihe. The Buddha and his Religion, tr. (Lon- don, 1S95).
James Kendax,.
Fathers, .\postolic. See Apostolic Fathers.
Fathers of Mercy, The, a congregation of mis- sionary priests first established at Lj'ons, France, in 1808, and later at Paris, in 1814, and finally approved by Pope Gregory XVI, IS February, 1834. The founder, Very Rev. Jean-Baptiste Rauzan, was born at Bordeaux, 5 December, 1757, and died in Paris, 5 September, 1847. After completing his ecclesiastical studies, he taught theology and sacred eloquence, and later was chosen Vicar-General of Bordeaux. Here he inaugurated a missionary movement to save the Faith to France. On the recommendation of Cardinal d'Aviau, Archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal Fesch, Archbishop of Lyons, who was especially interested in the project, invited Father Rauzan to Lyons, where, in 1808, he gathered around him a number of zealous and noted preachers. So effective was their preaching in the Diocese of Troyes. that they won the favour of Napoleon I, and received from the Government, unso- licited, subsidies to defray the expenses of their mis- sions. This favour, however, was short-lived, for, owingto Napoleon's quarrel withPiusVII, the society, which was called the Missionaries of France, was sup- pressed. In 1814, at the suggestion of Cardinal Fesch, Father Rauzan rallied his co-labourers, adding others, among whom were the young Vicar-General of Cham- bery, de Forbin-Janson, afterwards Bishop of Nancy, the Abbes Frayssinous, who founded St. Stanislaus's College and instructed the young missionaries in sacred eloquence, Legris Duval, the St. Vincent de Paul of his day, Le Vasseur, Bach, Caillau, Carboy, and others.
Starting with renewed zeal, the Missionaries of France not only evangelized the cities of Orleans, Poitiers, Tours, Rennes. Marseilles, Toulon, Paris, and many other places, but established the works of St. Genevieve and the Association of the Ladies of Provi- dence, who still exist in manj' parts of France, render- ing valuable serv'ices to the pastors. Father Rauzan founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Clotilde for the education of young ladies. He was befriended by the royal family, who not only assistetl him finan- cially, but gave him the celebrated Mount Valerian, at that time the centre of piety, and later one of the principal forts protecting the capital.
In 1830 during the second Revolution the Mission- aries of France were dispersed and exiled, and their house in Paris sacked. Father Rauzan went to Rome, where he received a paternal reception from Gregory XVI, who encouraged and authorized him to found a new society, to be known as the Fathers of Mercy. The Brief of approbation, which also contains the constitu- tions, was given 18 February, 1834, and on the 15th of March of the same year a second Brief, affiliating the new society to the Propaganda, and the former Missionaries of France accepted these constitutions on the Sth of December following. Among its members have been such influential and eloquent preachers as Mgr. Faillet, Bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Duquesnay, Archbishop of Cambrai, Mgr. Bernadon, Archbishop of Sens, who later became a cardinal. The Fathers of
