COSMOGONY
He became a monk, and as such resided for a time in the convents of Riddagshausen and Loccum, but hay- ing embraced the docbrine of Luther, was expelled in 1623. He then went to Wittenberg, and thence to Marburg in 1626, and laid the foundation of the uni- versity there. He was present at the two synods of Pattensen, 1644, and MQnden, 1646, and made himself very useful to the cause by his preachings, writings, and travels; but the duke Erich II having returned to the Roman Church, Corvinus was taken and held a prisoner at Kalenberg in 1649. He died in Hanover in 165S. His principal work is the PosttUa in evangeUa €t eputoku. See Baring, Lebm Corvin's (Hann. 1749) ; Uhlhom, Ein Sendbrief v. Antonius Corvinus m. einer Uographuchen JEMeitung (Gdttingen, 1863); Herzog, Real-Encylchp. iii, 166.
Cob (1 Mace, xv, 23). See Coos.
Co^sam (Ka»<ra/£, prob. for Heb. DDp, a dwmar), son of Elmodam, and father of Addi, ancestors of Christ, and descendants of David in the private line, before Salathiel (Luke iii, 28), B.C. ante 688. He is not mentioned in the Old Testament. See Gbmbal- ooT (op Christ).
Cosin, John, a learned prelate of the Church of England, was bom at Norwich Nov. 80, 1694. In 1624 he became a,prebendary of Durham, in 1628 rector of Brancepath, in 1634 master of Peter-house, and in 1640 dean of Peterborough. The Puritans deprived him of his preferments during the Commonwealth, and even went the length of impeaching him on a charge of be- ing inclined to popery. (For the charges, see Hook, Ecdes. Biography J iv, 182.) He was acquitted of all these charges, and then retired to France, where he remained until the restoration of Charles II, who raised him to the see of Durham, Dec. 2, 1660, which office he filled with eminent charity and zeal. He died in 1672. Among his writings are, A History of Transubstantui- Hon, and A Scholaiical History of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures, published, with his Life, 1673. His whole works are collected in the Library of Anglo^aiholie Theology (Oxford, 1848^3, 6 vols. 8vo).
CoBxnas, St., and his brother St. DAMIANUS, of Arabia, lived in the 3d century, and practiced medi- cine at iEgea, in Cilicia. The governor Lysias com- manded that they, with their three other brothers, should mcrifice to the heathen deities, and as they re- fused so to do, commanded their heads to be cut off in 303. They are honored as martyrs, and as special patrons of physicians and druggists. They are com- memorated in the Roman Church on the 27th Sept.
Wetzer u.Welte, Kirchen-Lex, ii, 902; ActccSancUmm (Sept., tom. xii.
Cosmas and Damianns, Order of, an order of knights spiritual, founded in the 11th century, who adopted the rule of St. Benedict. They devoted them- selves especially to the care of the pUgrims going to Palestine. They were destroyed by the Turks soon after their organization.
Cosmas IndioopletisteB (i- e* traversing In- dia), an Egyptian monk, living probably about the middle of the 6th century. He visited as a merchant Egypt, India, and other Eastern countries, and wrote a work, entitled XQuniaviKrl roiroypa^ia, in which he undertook to substitute for the pagan geography of the ancients a new Christian system of geography, based upon all kinds of delusions. His work is con- tained in the second volume of Montfaucon's CoUecHo novapatnm Or, (Paris, 1707).
Cosmogony (^m KwjfioQ, the world, and 7<5voc, generation), strictly the science of the origin of the earth. The term is applied also to the various theo- ries of the formation of the material universe. If we except the cosmo^ny of the Indians (which is for the most part extravagant and even monstrous, although the '* Institutes of Menu*' speak of a simpler system; |
see Sir William Hamilton's Atiatic Reteartket, t«Lt\ the earliest profane cosmogony extant is that (rf'He^ (in the first part of his Thofgcmy, ver. 116-453), wkiA is delivered in verse, and which served as tbe gnaa^ work for the various physical speculations of moitlfie Greek philosophers. It differs widely from tbe ncda of Homer (^IKad, xiv, 200), which is also poetk, sak represented the more popular view of the Gredcs m this subject. The first prose coemogonl^ anuHig bes- then writers were those of the early Ionic phikiN> phers, of whom Thales, Anaximenes, AnaximaiKkf, and Anaxagoras were the most celebrated. Th( tb^ ones of the ancients on this subject may be redoced to three; for those of modems, see Cbkatio9 ; €vtk view of Ovid (in his Metamorphoses\ see Chaos.
" 1. That which represents the world as eterml ii form as well as substance. Ocellus LucaniB is oae (rf the most ancient philosophers who supposed the vock to have existed from eternity. Aristotle appean M have embraced the same decline. His theory it, Uut not only the heaven and earth, but also "i^'m^t* lad inanimate beings in general, were without beginniz^ His opinion rested on the belief that the tinivene w» necessarily the eternal effect of a canse equally eie^ nal, such as the Divine Spirit, which, being at obk power and action, could not remain idle. Tet be ad- mitted that a spiritual substance was the cause of tbs universe, of its motion and its form. He says poa- tively, in his Metaphysics, that €k>d is an inuUi^eat spirit iywq), incorporeal, immovable, indiviable, the mover of all things. According to him, the murine is less a creation than an emanation of the Deitr. Plato says the universe is an eternal image of the in- mutable Idea or l^pe, united, frmn eternity, wiik changeable matter. The followers of this philoeopba both developed and distorted this idea. AmnMnim, i disciple of Produs, taught, in the 6th century, at Al- exandria, the co-eternity of God and the murerse. Several ancient philosophers (as also modems) htTe gone fkirther, and taught that tiie universe is one irUk Deity. Of this opinion were Xenophanes, PSiBei- ides, Melissus, Zeno of Elea, and the Megaric sect