FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning), power or capacity of mind or body for particular kinds of activity, feeling, &c. In the early history of psychology the term was applied to various mental processes considered as causes or conditions of the mind—a treatment of “class concepts of mental phenomena as if they were real forces producing these phenomena” (G.F. Stout, Analytic Psychology, vol. i. p. 17). In medieval Latin facultas was used to translate δύναμις in the Aristotelian application of the word to a branch of learning or knowledge, and thus it is particularly applied to the various departments of knowledge as taught in a university and to the body of teachers of the particular art or science taught. The principal “faculties” in the medieval universities were theology, canon and civil law, medicine and arts (see [Universities]). A further extension of this use is to the body of members of any particular profession.
In law, “faculty” is a dispensation or licence to do that which is not permitted by the common law. The word in this sense is used only in ecclesiastical law. A faculty may be granted to be ordained deacon under twenty-three years of age; to hold two livings at once (usually called a licence or dispensation, but granted under the seal of the office of faculties; see [Benefice]); to be married at any place or time (usually called a special licence; see [Marriage]; [Licence]); to act as a notary public (q.v.). Any alteration in a church, such as an addition or diminution in the fabric or the utensils or ornaments of the church, cannot strictly be made without the legal sanction of the ordinary, which can only be expressed by the issue of a faculty. So a faculty would be required for a vault, for the removal of a body, for the purpose of erecting monuments, for alterations in a parsonage house, for brick graves, for the apportionment of a seat, &c. Cathedrals, however, are exempt from the necessity for a faculty before making alterations in the fabric, utensils or ornaments.
The court of faculties is the court of the archbishop for granting faculties. It is a court in which there is no litigation or holding of pleas. Its chief officer is called the master of faculties, and he is one and the same with the judge of the court of arches. Attached to the court of faculties are a registrar and deputy registrars, a chief clerk and record-keeper, and a seal keeper. In Scotland the society of advocates of the court of session, and local bodies of legal practitioners, are described as faculties.
FAED, THOMAS (1826-1900), British painter, born in Kirkcudbrightshire, was the brother of John Faed, R.S.A., and received his art education in the school of design, Edinburgh. He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1849, came to London three years later, was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1861, and academician in 1864, and retired in 1893. He had much success as a painter of domestic genre, and had considerable executive capacity. Three of his pictures, “The Silken Gown,” “Faults on Both Sides,” and “The Highland Mother,” are in the National Gallery of British Art.
See William D. McKay, The Scottish School of Painting (1906).
FAENZA (anc. Faventia), a city and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Ravenna, from which it is 31 m. S.W. by rail, 110 ft. above sea-level. It is 31 m. S.E. of Bologna by rail, on the line from Bologna to Rimini, and it is the junction of a line to Florence through the Apennines. Pop. (1901) 21,809 (town), 39,757 (commune). The town is surrounded by walls which date from 1456. The cathedral of S. Costanzo stands in the spacious Piazza Vittorio Emanuele in the centre of the town. It was begun in 1474 by Giuliano da Maiano; the façade is, however, incomplete. In the interior is the beautiful early Renaissance tomb of S. Savinus with reliefs showing scenes from his life, of fine and fresh execution, by Benedetto da Maiano; and later tombs by P. Bariloto, a local sculptor. Opposite the cathedral is a fountain with bronze ornamentation of 1583-1621. The clock tower alongside the cathedral belongs to the 17th century. Beyond it is the Palazzo Comunale, formerly the residence of the Manfredi, but entirely reconstructed. The other churches of the town have been mostly restored, but S. Michele (and the Palazzo Manfredi opposite it) are fine early Renaissance buildings in brickwork. The municipal art gallery contains an altar-piece by Girolamo da Treviso (who also painted a fresco in the Chiesa della Commenda), a wooden St Jerome by Donatello, and a bust of the young St John by Antonio Rossellino (?), and some fine specimens of majolica, a variety of which, faience, takes its name from the town. It was largely manufactured in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the industry has been revived in modern times with success.
The ancient Faventia, on the Via Aemilia, was obviously from its name founded by the Romans and had the citizenship before the Social War. It was the scene of the defeat of C. Papirius Carbo and C. Norbanus by Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius in 82 B.C. In the census of Vespasian a woman of Faventia is said to have given her age as 135. Pliny speaks of the whiteness of its linen, and the productiveness of its vines is mentioned. It is noticeable that some of the fields in the territory of the ancient Faventia still preserve the exact size of the ancient Roman centuria of 200 iugeri (E. Bormann in Corp. Inscr. Lat. xi., Berlin, 1888, p. 121). When the exarchate was established, the town became part of it, and in 748 it was taken by Liutprand. Desiderius gave it to the church with the duchy of Ferrara. In the 11th century it began to increase in importance. In the wars of the 12th and 13th centuries it at first took the imperial side, but in 1240 it stood a long siege from Frederick II. and was only taken after eight months. After further struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Manfredi made themselves masters of the place early in the 14th century, and remained in power until 1501, when the town was taken by Caesar Borgia and the last legitimate members of the house of the Manfredi were drowned in the Tiber; and, after falling for a few years into the hands of the Venetians, it became a part of the states of the church in 1509.
(T. As.)