FRASER BURGH

a _ seaport of Scotland, in Aberdeen shire, 254 miles east of Banff. It is substantially built, has two harbours, a good trade, and is the chief seat of the Scottish herring Simon. fishery. Pneumatic-tool works have psoas established there. Pop. (1931), FRASER RIVER, the principal river in British Columbia, rising in the Rocky Mountains. It first flows northwest for about 270 miles, then turns south, and after a total course of 470 miles falls into the Gulf of Georgia. Gold is found both on the Fraser and its affluents, and the salmon fisheries are important. Its principal affluents are the Thomson and Stuart Rivers. New Westminster, Hope, Yale (head os ps ee and Lytton are on its an FRATER’NITY, an a ociation of 570 FRATERNITY men who unite to promote their common interest, busine or pleasure. In this wide sense it includes all secret and benevolent societies, the monastic and sacerdotal congregations, the orders of knighthood, and also guilds, trades unions, and the like. In a limited sense it is applied to religious societies for pious practices and_ benevolent objects. These were often formed during the Middle Ages, from a desire of imitating the holy orders. Many of these societies, which did not obtain or did not seek the acknowledgment of the Church, had the appearance of separatist organizations, and incurred the charge of heresy. The pious fraternities which were formed under the direction of the Church, or were acknowledged by it, were either required by their rules to afford a istance to travellers, to the unfortunate, the distre ed, the sick, and the deserted, on account of the inefficiency of the police, and the want of institutions for the poor, or to perform certain acts of penitence and devotion. Of this description were the Fratres Pontijices, a brotherhood that originated in Tuscany in the twelfth century, where it maintained establishments on the banks of the Arno, to enable travellers to cro the river, and to succour them in case of distre A similar society was afterwards formed in France, where it built bridges and hospitals, maintained ferries, kept the roads in repair, and provided for the security of the highways. Similar to these were the Knights and Companions of the Santa Hermandad (or Holy Brotherhood) in Spain; the Familiars and Cro -bearers in the service of the Spanish Inquisition; the Calendar Brothers in Germany; and the Alexians in Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands. The profe ed object of the Alexians, so called from Alexius their patron saint, was to visit the sick and imprisoned; to collect alms for distribution; to corsole criminals, and accompany them to the place of execution; to bury the dead, and to cause ma es to be said for those who had been executed, or for persons found dead.; There were also Grey Penitent as (an old fraternity of an order existing as early as 1264 in Rome, and introduced into France under Henry III); the black fraternities of Jercy and of Death; the Red, the Blue, the Green, and the Violet Penitents, so called from the colour of their cowl; the divisions of each were known by the colours of the girdle or mantle. The fraternity of the Holy Trinity was founded at Rome in 1548 by Philip pe eri Tor the relief of pilgrims an e cure dismi ed from the hospitals, The Brothers of Charity are another fraternity whose hospitals are found in all the principal cities of Catholic Christen dom.