FRAYSSINOUS, DENIS ANTOINE LUC, COMTE DE French prelate and statesman, was born of humble parentage at Curieres on May 9, 1765. He owes his reputation mainly to the lectures on dogmatic theology delivered in the church of Saint Sulpice, Paris, from 1803 to 1809. As court preacher and almoner to Louis XVIII., he later exercised great public activity and influence. In connection with the controversy raised by the signing of the reactionary concordat of 1817, he published in 1818 his Vrais Principes de l'eglise Gallicane sur la puissance ecclesiastique. The consecration of Frayssinous as bishop of Hermopolis "in partibus," his election to the French Academy, and his appointment to the grand-mastership of the university, followed in rapid succession. In 1824, he became minister of public instruction and of ecclesiastical affairs under the administration of Villele; and about the same time he was created a peer of France with the title of count. In 1828 he. along with his colleagues in the Villele ministry, was compelled to resign office, and the subsequent revolution of July 1830 led to his retirement to Rome. He died at St. Geniez on Dec. 12, 1841. His lectures were published in 1825 as Defense du Christianisme (15th ed. 1843, Eng. trans 1836).
See Bertrand, Bibl. Sulpicienne (t. ii. 135 sq.; iii. 253) for biblio graphy, and G. A. Henrion (Vie de M. Frayssinous, 1844). FRAZER, SIR JAMES GEORGE ), British anthropologist, was born at Glasgow on Jan. 1, 1854. Educated at Helensburgh, Glasgow university and Trinity college, Cam bridge, he was elected a fellow of the latter college in 1879 and called to the bar in the same year. He was knighted in 1914, received the O.M. in 1925 and the order of commander of the Legion of Honour in 1926. His fame as an author was established by the publication in 1890 of The Golden Bough (re-issued in 12 volumes under seven titles between 1907 and 1915; in 1922 ap peared an abridged edition under the original title). This work is a comprehensive study of ancient cults and folk lore and covers a vast field of anthropological research. In 1926 he issued vol. I of The Worship of Nature, dealing with the worship of the sky and of the earth. Among his many other publications are: Totemism (1887) ; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Studies in the History of Oriental Religion (1906, 2nd ed. 1907, 3rd ed. 1914) ; Totem ism and Exogamy (1910). In his honour the Frazer Memorial lectureship has been founded by which in rotation an annual lecture on some anthropological topic, in the field in which Sir James's special activities are most prominent, is delivered at the universities with which he has been associated.