FONSECA LIMA E s•va, MA:\oKI, DA. (1793-1862). A South American soldier, born at Rio de Janeiro. Ile entered the Portuguese Army in Brazil, joined the movement for the independence of the country, and was com missioned lieutenant-eolonel and appointed Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Pedro I. In 1828 he was promoted to be brigadier, and in 1831, when Pedro 1. was compelled to abdicate, identified himself with the Liberals. Ile was s appointed Minister of War in 1831, and again in 1835; was Acting ,Alinister of the Navy in 1835-36, and :Minister of the Interior in 18:36-37. In 1851 he heeame general and eminnander-in-chief of the army.
FONT (Lat. foes, fountain; probably con nected ultimately with funflcre, t k. xciv, (loth, gittion, AS. (MG. yio:un, gicssca, Skt, 1122. to pour). The vessel used in churches as the repository of the baptismal water. In the early Christian period, while immersion continued to be the ordinary form of the administration of the saerament of bap tism, the baptistery (q.v..), or other place set apart for the ceremony, was furnished with a basin sufficiently capacious to admit of the ad ministration of the rite. But when it heeame customary to baptize by pouring the water on the head of the person to he baptized, the size of the basin was naturally diminished, and eventu ally it assumed the dimensions and the form which are now familiar to us in most of the mediaval churches in Great Britain and upon the Continent, thus doing away with the neces sity for a separate building to contain it.
The earliest traditional example of a baptismal font is the great porphyry basin in the baptistery of Constantine in Rome, supposed since the early :Middle Ages to have been that in which the Emperor was baptized. The baptismal font in its original form, as found in early baptisteries from the fourth to the tenth century. consists of a large basin, usually of octagonal form, with three steps, set below the pavement of the build ing, like the piscina of the Roman baths, and surrounded by a high veil (see BAPTISTERY) . During the Romanesque period a. radical change took place. The basin was raised above the
floor-level, and instead of being built IID, was usually hollowed out of a single block of marble, the exterior surface, between three and four feet high, being carved with appropriate religious subjects in relief. The North European schools were famous for their large bronze fonts, pre eminent an song which are those of Lambert Patras for Saint Bartholomew at T,iftge and for the Cathedral of Alerseburg. Such fonts aver aged from eight to twelve feet in diameter. The fonts for baptism by allusion are smaller basins, raised on a base. They are of varying form: square. octagonal, cylindrical, hexagonal, the in terior bowl being always round, and seldom ex ceeding two feet in diameter. The howl was sup ported usually by a heavy cylindrical shaft, often flanked by four or more minor shafts, sometimes by a. square pier. As the Gothic period advanced. fonts became of decreasing importance and size. and of simpler decoration.
ln the Roman Catholic Church the service of Holy Saturday contains a solemn form for the blessing of the water to be used in baptism. After a series of prayers, and amid a very imposing cere monial, the 'chrism,' or consecrated oil Ides ed by the bishop, :Lod also the so-called 'oil of Ville. are mingled with the bapti-mal .i%ater, which is reserved lot subsequent use. \\ ith a view to the preservation of the water t 1(ns re served, the foul, especially when it is of porous stone, is sometimes lined with lead: front an early (lilt(' it is furnished \% by a lock, and is ()nen of a highly ornamental character. The ordinary place I I I le font is at the western of the nay( , near the entrance of the •hurch, btu in many eases it stands in a separate chapel, or a baptistery, or at least in a compartment screened oil' for the purpose. Even when it stands in the (pen more it is properly inclosed by a rail. consult : Paley, ///ustrotimis of 1 tri ismal Is (1,021.1( it, 18.14) ; Simpson, `Tries of Ancient 1.1(11(11.smal Fonts (London, 1841) ; Corblet„ thstoire (tit cement (11c Implemt. ( Paris,