Frisia 279accused of these ideas. Those accused, condemned, and
executed likely were a number of people, clerical and lay,
who may or may not have actually held these beliefs. In
1310, Parisian theologians had burned the Beguine Mar-
garet PORETTE, author of the Mirror of Simple Souls.
Throughout the 14th century, inquisitors pursued a merci-
less struggle against these “brothers and sisters of the Free
Spirit.” The friars claimed to have found a well-organized
sect, primarily made up of women, who expressed their
ideas and mystical feelings in the vernacular with danger-
ous ramifications for the basic beliefs of Christendom and
the intermediatory role of the clergy.
See alsoANTICLERICALISM; INQUISITION.
Further reading:Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of
the Ecumenical Councils,Vol. 1, Nicaea to Lateran V(Lon-
don: Sheed & Ward, 1990), 1.333–401, especially
383–384; Gordon Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages:
The Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, c. 1250–1450, 2
vols. (Manchester: University Press, 1967); Robert E.
Lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Middle Ages
(1972; reprint, Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1991); Raoul Vaneigem, The Movement of the
Free Spirit, trans. Randall Cherry and Ian Patterson
(1986; reprint, New York: Zone Books, 1994).
fresco painting (secco) The fresco was one of the
techniques of mural painting on the walls in the Middle
Ages and Renaissance. The etymology was derived from
the Italian expression pittura a fresco.In that technique
pigments of color in paint of mineral origin and diluted
in water were applied to a still wet or frescobuono plas-
ter that was composed of a mixture of sand and lime.
This produced a chemical reaction with the carbon diox-
ide in air that led during drying to the formation of a
fairly durable skin or surface of calcium carbonate into
which the pigments became fixed. This technique was
especially developed and used in central Italy from the
13th century. The moist climates of northern Italy and
Europe made it a more problematic medium in terms of
durability.
See alsoANGELICO,FRA;CIMABUE,GIOVANNI;ARENA
CHAPEL;DUCCIO DIBUONINSEGNA;GIOTTO DIBONDINE;
GOTHIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE;LORENZETTI,AMBROGIO
AND PIETRO;MASSACCIO,TOMASSO CASSAI;MARTINI,
SIMONE; PAINTING;PIERO DELLAFRANCESCO.
Further reading:Gianluigi Colalucci, “Fresco,” The
Dictionary of Art,11.761–764; E.H. Gombrich,Means and
Ends: Reflections on the History of Fresco Painting (Lon-
don: Thames and Hudson, 1976); Millard Meiss, The
Great Age of Fresco: Discoveries, Recoveries, and Survivals
(New York: G. Braziller in Association with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970).
friars SeeCARMELITES;DOMINICAN ORDER;FRANCISCAN
ORDER;MENDICANT ORDERS.
Friday prayer(salat al-jumlah) Friday prayer has
always been a communal and important form of worship
and community activity from the very beginnings of
ISLAM. It was to be performed each Friday (Yam al-Juma)
afternoon shortly after the Sun begins to set. Performed in
a MOSQUEsupposedly large enough to allow for the whole
community to assemble, the Friday prayer has tradition-
ally begun with a religious address or sermon followed by
a congregational prayer. Islamic legal scholars regarded
attendance at the Friday prayer as a binding religious obli-
gation for all free male Muslims who had attained matu-
rity and were of sound mind and body. They generally did
not require the attendance of women, children, slaves,
travelers, or the sick, although these might attend volun-
tarily. This prayer service was also intended to manifest
the size and strength of the Muslim community.
During the time of the Friday prayer Islamic law pro-
hibited buying and selling and the making of contracts,
such as those for a marriage. Legal scholars have dis-
agreed on whether such transactions and contracts, hav-
ing been made at those times, remained valid or were
rendered void. Friday, though the most excellent and fes-
tive day of the week, was never considered a SABBATHor
day of rest for Muslims in the manner of the Jewish and
Christian practice. One could conduct business after
prayer on Fridays and it was thought it might be blessed
by God and perhaps one might prosper more in one’s
business after devoutly attending Friday prayer.
Further reading:Syed Abdul Latif, The Concept of
Society in Islam and Prayers in Islam(Lahore: Hijra Inter-
national Publishers, 1983).Frisia According to Roman authors of the first century
C.E., the Frisians lived along the shores of the North Sea
beyond the Rhine frontier, or the coastal area of the pre-
sent Dutch province of Friesland. An unusual special fea-
ture of their settlements was that their dwellings were
built on artificial hills to protect them from the sea. They
lived through the exploitation of the resources of the sur-
rounding salt marshes. From their coastal settlements
they spread, between the fifth and the eighth century,
along the coasts from Zealand northeast to western
Schleswig-Holstein below DENMARK. They began to func-
tion as trading intermediaries among ENGLAND, the
Rhineland, and Scandinavia. The FRANKS subjugated
them between the seventh and early eighth centuries.
Anglo-Saxon missionaries, in particular Willibrord
(658–739), the first bishop of the Frisians from 695, and
BONIFACE, martyred in Frisia in 754, eventually converted
them to Christianity.
The late eighth and early ninth centuries was the
high point of Frisian commerce. From Dorestad, at the
head of the Rhine delta, Frisian merchants went upriver
as far as Alsace and attended markets at LONDON, York,
and SAINT-DENIS, near PARIS. They opened up navigation