Note (return) — Introductory material

André des Freux, better known by his Latin name, Frusius, was born at Chartres, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. He embraced the life of an ecclesiastic, and obtained the cure of Thiverval, which he held many years with great credit to himself. The high reputation of Ignatius Loyola, who was then at Rome, with authority from the Holy See to found the Society of the Jesuits, led Frusius to that city, where he was admitted a member of the new order in 1541, and shortly after became secretary to Loyola. He contributed to the establishment of the Society at Parma, Venice, and many towns of Italy and Sicily. He was the first Jesuit who taught the Greek language at Messina; he also gave public lectures on the Holy Scriptures in Rome. He was appointed Rector of the German College at Rome, shortly before his death, which occurred on the 25th of October, 1556, three months and six days after the death of Loyola. Frusius had studied, with equal success, theology, medicine, and law: he was a good mathematician, an excellent musician, and made Latin verses with such facility, that he composed them, on the instant, on all sorts of subjects. But these verses were neither so elegant nor so harmonious, as Alegambe asserts 1, since he adds, that it requires close attention to distinguish them from prose. Frusius translated, from Spanish into Latin, the Spiritual Exercises of Loyola. He was the author of the following works:—Two small pieces, in verse, De Verborum et Rerum Copia, and Summa Latinæ Syntaxeos: these were published in several different places; Theses Collectæ ex Interpretatione Geneseos; Assertiones Theologicæ, Rome, 1554; Poemata, Cologne, 1558—this collection often reprinted at Lyons, Antwerp and Tournon, contains 2552 epigrams against the heretics, amongst whom he places Erasmus;—a poem De Agno Dei; and, lastly, another poem, entitled Echo de Presenti Christianæ Religionis Calamitate, which has been sometimes cited as an example of a great difficultè vaincue. The edition of Tournon contains also a poem, De Simplicitate, of which Alegambe speaks with praise. To Frusius was also owing an edition of Martial's Epigrams, divested of their obscenities.