RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Coquerel Cornelius
a bishop, Valentinus of Cordova, who supported Samson was deposed and a number of decrees were issued in accordance with the views and practise of the laxer party (cf. Baudissin, 177 sqq.). For the synods of 1494 and 1540 cf. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, viii. 364, 796.
The University of Cordova was founded c. 980 by the Calif Hakim II. It is true that both theology and jurisprudence had been cultivated in Cordova before this time by famous teachers; but it was due to Hakim's energy and support that chairs were estabHshed for other branches of learning, the Ubrary was augmented, and a complete university began to flourish. That the library grew to 600,000 books may be an exaggeration, but it was certainly the best in Arab Spain. At the time of its greatest prosperity (c. 1100) Cordova had the best astronomical observatory in all Europe and was renowned as the center of the study of astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. A little later it became the principal seat of the Arabian study of Aristotle, and thus it became the mediator between the ancient philosophy and medieval speculation. Its most famous teacher was Averroes (b. in Cordova 1126), and his most famous pupil was Maimonides (q.v.). The capture of Cordova by the Christians (1236) made an end of the university, and a Jewish school which had flourished for several centuries did not long survive the fall of the city. (O. ZoCKLEKf.)
Bibliography: On the bishopric consult KL, iii. 1092- 1094. On the synods: J. S. de Aguirre, Collectio maxima conciliorum Hispanice, iii. 149, Rome, 1693 (also ed. G. Catalani, 6 vols., Rome, 1753-55); W. Baudissin, Eulogius und Alvar, pp. 70 sqq., 127-128, 177 sqq., Leipeic, 1872; W. Gams, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, II. ii. 311 sqq., Regensburg, 1874; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv. 99, 179, 260. On the university: H. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2 vols., London, 1895; V. de la Fuente, Historia de las Universidades . . in Espana, vols, iii.-iv., Madrid, 1888-89. On the philosophy: E. Renan, Averroes et I'averroisme, Paris, 1861; L. Dugat, Histoire des philosophes et des theologiens Musulmans 632-1258, ib. 1878; A. F. Mehren, ttudes tur la philosopkie d'Averrhoes, ib. 1888; KL, i. 1745-50; and the works on hist, of philosophy.
CORDUS, cer'dus, EURICIUS, yu-ri'shius: Humanist of the sixteenth century; b. at Simtshausen near Wetter (7 m. n.w. of Marburg), Hesse, 1486; d. at Bremen 1535. He was the son of a peasant, went to school in Marburg, and entered the University of Erfurt in 1505. Here, after teaching a while in Cassel, he became magister in 1516 and rector of St. Mary's school. In 1521 he studied medicine in Ferrara. When he returned to Erfurt the humanists were scattered as a result of civic turmoil. He, therefore, in 1523 gladly accepted a call to be a physician in Brunswick, and still more eagerly he went in 1527, on the invitation of Landgrave Philip, to the newly founded University of Marburg. But as a result of controversies with colleagues his continuance there became unpleasant, so in 1534 he accepted a position as teacher in the gymnasium at Bremen. He laid the foundations of his fame as a poet chiefly by his witty epigrams, of which more than 1,200 were collected in thirteen books; Lessing's dependence on Cordus has been demonstrated. His Bucolicorum eclogoe appeared at Leipsic in 1518. As a
medical writer he labored to free the art of healing from superstition, and he undertook in the book Botanologicon (Cologne, 1534) to point out, by means of the empirical observation of nature, new paths for the investigation of the plant world. In distinction from most humanists, Cordus was not satisfied with directing his ridicule merely against the evils of church life and the faults of the clergy, but he sided energetically and permanently with the Reformation. He defended it in a poem of more than 1,500 hexameters addressed to the Emperor Charles V. and the German princes.
Carl Mirbt.
Bibliography: C. Krause, Euricius Cordus, Hanau, 1863; idem. Melius Eobanus Hessua, sein Leben und seine Werke, 2 vols., Gotha, 1879; G. Bauch, Die Universitat Erfurt im Zeitalter des Friihhumanismus, Breslau, 1904.
CORINTH. See Greece, I.
CORINTHIANS, FIRST AND SECOND EPIS- TLES TO THE. See Paul the Apostle.
CORNELIUS: Pope 251-252. After the martyrdom of Fabian (Jan. 20, 250) the see was vacant for over a year, during which time the rigorist presbyter Novatian (q.v.) presided over the Church. In Apr., 251, Cornelius was chosen bishop. Of his early life little is known. Cyprian tells that he had gone through all the lower orders and that he did not seek the episcopal office, but was compelled to accept it, and characterizes him as a quiet, modest, and humble man, an excellent administrator, and a steadfast upholder of the faith. A strong man was needed at this period (that of the Decian persecution), especially as the rigorist teaching of Novatian threatened to bring about a schism in the Church. He blamed Cornelius for his conduct in the time of the persecution, and asserted that he had been a libellaticus, i.e., had saved himself by an equivocal written declaration made before the pagan official (see Lapsed). Novatian even had himself consecrated to the Roman See by three foreign bishops. Both he and Cornelius made efforts to have their election acknowledged by the metropolitans of Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Ephesus. Cyprian of Carthage delayed his decision, and sent two bishops, Caldonius and Fortunatus, to Rome to inquire into the matter. But before they returned, having in the mean time seen the legates of Cornelius, the bishops Pompeius and Stephanus, he declared against Novatian. From that time on the relations between Cyprian and Cornelius were cordial, and Cyprian earnestly and successfuUy endeavored to detach Novatian's followers from him and induce them to acknowledge Cornelius. On Sept. 14 or 15, 252, Cornehus suffered martyrdom with twenty-one Christians of both sexes at Centumcellffi (now Civita Vecchia). Several letters of Cornelius are extant concerning his controversy with Novatian, somewhat vehement in tone and biased in judgment. [They have been frequently appealed to by controversialists on both sides of the question of the Roman primacy, and are of interest also in regard to the question of baptism by heretics.] The death of Cornelius is placed by some authorities in June or July, 253.