FERNANDEZ
44
FERNANDEZ
the city becamo the counts, and later princes, of
Fermo. In the contest between the Hohenstaiifcn
and tlie papacy, Fermo was several times bpsicHnl Miid
captured; in 1176 by Archbishop Christian of ^h^inz, in
1192 by Henry VI, in 1208 by Marcuald, Duke of
Ravenna, in 1241 by Frederick II, in 1245 by Manfred.
After this it was governed by different lords, who
ruled as more or less legitimate vassals of the Holy
See, e. g. the Monteverdi, Giovanni Viseonti, and
XII Centdhy
Francesco Sforza (banished 1446), Oliverotto Uffre-
ducci (murdered in 1503 by Ca-sar Borgia), who was
succeeded by his son Ludovico, killed at the battle of
Monte Giorgio in 1520, when Fermo became again di-
rectly subject to the Holy See. Boniface VIII (1294-
1303) established a university there. Fermo is the
birthplace of the celebrated poet, Annibale Caro.
Local legend attributes the first preaching of the Gospel at Fermo to Sts. ApoUinaris and Maro. The martyrdom of its bishop, St. Alexander, with seventy companions, is placed in the persecution of Decius (250), and the martyrdom of St. Philip under Aurelian (270-75). Among the noteworthy bishops are: Pas- sinus, the recipient of four letters from Gregory HI; Cardinal Domenico Capranica (1426); Sigismondo Zanettini (1584), under whom Fermo was made the seat of an archdiocese; Giambattista Rinuccini, nun- cio in Ireland; and Alessandro Borgia. The suffra- gans of Fermo are Macerata-Tolentino, Montalto, Ri- patransone, and San Severino. The archdiocese has (1908) a population of 185,000; 147 parishes; 36S secu- lar priests and 86 regular; 2 male and 5 female educa- tional institutions; 6 religious houses of men and 50 of women; and a Catholic weekly, the "Voce delle Marche". ,, „
Cappellktti. Le Chiasm d'llalia (Venice, 1844), II; Napolk- TANI, Fermo net Picmo (Rome, 1907); Catalan:, De Ecdesid Firmand ejusque episcopia (Fermo, 1783).
U. Benigni.
Femindez, Antonio, Jesuit missionary; b. at Lisbon, c. 1.569; d. at Goa, 12 November, 1642. About 1602 he w.as scTit to India, whence two years later he
went to Abyssinia, where he soon won favour with
King Melek Seghed. This monarch, converted to the
Faith in 1622. after the arrival of the Latin patriarch,
for whom he had petitioned the Holy See, publicly
acknowledged the primacy of the Roman See and
constituted Catholicism the State religion (1626).
For a time innumerable conversions were made, the
monarch in his zeal resorting even to compulsory
measures. The emperor's son, however, took sides
with the schismatics, headed a rebellion, seized his
father's throne, and reinstalled the former faith,
proscribing the Catholic religion under the penalty of
death. The missionaries, on their expulsion, found a
temporary protector in one of the petty princes of the
country, by whom, however, they were soon aban-
doned. Those who reached the port of Massowah
were held for a ransom. Father Ferniindez, then over
eighty years of age, was one of those detained as
hostage, but a younger companion persuaded the
pasha to substitute him, and Father Ferniindez was
allowed to return to India, where he ended his days.
On his missions for the king Father Fernandez had
traversed vast tracts of hitherto unexplored territory.
He translated various liturgical books into Ethiopian,
and was the author of ascetical and polemical works
against the heresies prevalent in Ethiopia.
MioNE, Dicl. des missions catholigues; Bremer in Buch- BEHGER, Kirchliches Handtex., s. v.
F. M. RUDGE.
Ferndndez, Juan, Jesuit lay brother and mission- ary; b. at Cordova; d. 12 June, 1567, in Japan. In a letter from Malacca, dated 20 June, 1549, St. Francis Xavier begs the prayers of the Goa brethren for those about to start on the Japanese mission, mentioning among them Juan Ferndndez, a lay brother. On their arrival in Japan Juan rendered active service in the work of evangelizing. In September, 1550, he accompanied St. Francis to Firando (Hirado), thence to Amanguchi (Yamaguchi), and on toMiako (Saikio), a difficult journey, from which they returned to Amanguchi, where he was left with Father Cosmo Torres in charge of the Christians, when Francis started for China. There is still in the records of the Jesuit college at Coimbra a lengthy document pro- fessed to be the translation of an account rendered St. Francis by Ferniindez of a controversy with the Japanese on such questions as the nature of God, creation, the nature and immortality of the soul. The success of Brother Ferndndez on this occasion in re- futing his Japanese adversaries resulted in the ill will of the bonzes, who stirred up a rebellion against the local prince, who had become a Christian. The missionaries were concealed by the wife of one of the nobles until they were able to resume their work of preaching. St. Francis says in one of his letters; "Joam Ferndndez, though a simple layman, is rnost useful on account of the fluency of his acquaint- ance w ith the Japanese language and of the aptness and clearness with which he translates whatever Father Cosmo suggests to him." His humility under insults impressed all, and on one occasion resulted in the con- version of a brilliant young Japanese doctor, who later became a Jesuit and one of the shining lights in the Japanese Church. Brother Ferndndez compiled the first Japanese grammar and lexicon.
Bhemer in BucHBERGER, A'ircWic/ics Hand/fT., s. v.; Cole- RinuE, The Life and Lcllers of SI. Francis Xavier (London, 1902), II. F. M. RuDGE.
Ferndndez de Palencia, Diego, Spanish conqueror and historian; b. at Palencia in the early part of the sixteenth century. He took up a military career, and went to Peru shortly after the concjucst (about 1545). In 1553 and 1554 he took part in the civil struggle among the Spaniards, figliting under the banner of AUmso de Alvarado, (;apt:iiii-(!('iicr.il of Los Charoos, against the rebel Francisco Hernandez de (iiron. In
