RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Corvey
Cosmas Indicopleustes
merous writings special mention may be made of his Manual of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America (New York, 1859, 4th ed., 1902); History of the Reformed Church in Am-erica (1895); and A Digest of the Constitutional and Synodical Legislation of the Reformed Church in America (1906). He likewise wrote a number of histories of counties and local churches, and edited Centennial Discourses, in collaboration with T. W Chambers and J. Anderson (New York, 1876), and Centennial of the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, N J., with D. D. Demarest and P. D. Van Cleef (1885).
COSIN, JOHN: Bishop of Durham; b. in Norwich Nov. 30, 1594; d. in London Jan. 15, 1672. He studied at Cambridge (Caius College); became secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and chaplain of Bishop Neile of Durham; became pr( bendary of Durham 1624, archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire 1625, master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1635, vice-chancellor of the university 1639, dean of Peterborough 1640. He was a friend of Laud and a strict ritualist; also a man of strong character who made his views effective; consequently he came early into collision with the Puritans. In 1041 he was sequestered from all his benefices by vote of the House of Commons; in 1644 he was rejected from his mastership, having been concerned in sending the college plate to the royal mint. He went to Paris, where he acted as chaplain to the ladies of Queen Henrietta Maria's household belonging to the Church of England. On the Restoration he was reinstated in his benefices and made bishop of Durham (1660). His strong convictions and earnest life, his energy and administrative ability, with a thorough knowledge of the world, pleasing manners, and a commanding presence, have caused him to be characterized as " one of the greatest prelates of his own or of any age." He was severe toward Romanists and Puritans, and used his full power to rid his diocese of them; nevertheless his Puritan antagonists charged him with "popery," and some of his principles and practises were little short of Puritanical. He was a leading member of the Savoy Conference in 1661, and probably had more influence than any one else in the revision of the prayer-book made the same year. His best-known work is his Collection of Private Devotions in the Practice of the Ancient Church Called the Hours of Prayer (London, 1627; new ed., 1867), which was prepared by royal command for the use of the queen's maids of honor, and gave much offense to the Puritans. In France he wrote Historia transubstantiationis papalis (published 1675; Eng. transl., 1676; ed., with memoir, by J. S. Brewer, 1840 and 1850); Regni Anglia religio catholica, prisca, casta, defcecata, a vindication of the Church of England (first published by Thomas Smith in his Vitce quorumdam eruditissimorum et illustrium virorum, London, 1707; several later editions; translations into Italian, 1853, 1866, into Spanish and modern Greek, 1856, French and German, 1857, Russian, 1866, English, by P. Meyrick, 1870); and A Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy Scripture : or the cer-
tain and indubitate books thereof as they are received in the Church of England (1657). His Notes on the Book of Common Prayer (pubhshed in NichoU's Comment on the Book of Common Prayer, 1710) is of interest for the history of the prayer-book. His complete works were published in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (5 vols., Oxford, 1843-55), and his correspondence was published by the Surtees Society of Durham (2 vols., 1869-72).
BiBLiOGRAPny: Consult, besides the memoir in his Historia transuhslantialiovis, ut sup., DNB, xii. 264-271; Wright and Neil, Prutesiaut Dictionary, pp. 146-148, London, 1904.
COSMAS AND DAMIAN, SAINTS: According to legend, two brothers from Arabia, Christians, who practised medicine at iEgae, on the Bay of Issus, Cilicia, at the time of the Diocletian persecution. They took no fees, and by means of prayer and the sign of the cross accomplished wonderful cures. They refused to renounce their faith at the bidding of the governor, Lysias, endured manifold tortures, and finally were executed by the sword. Their brothers, Anthimus, Leontius, and Euprepius, suffered at the same time with like fortitude. Cosmas and Damian are the patrons of physicians and apothecaries, and are represented with the emblems of their profession. Their day is Sept. 27.
(O. ZoCKLERf.) Bibliography: ASB, Sept., vii. 400-448; Analecta Bollandiana, i (1882), 586-596; J. E. Wessely, Ikonographie Gottes und der Heiligen, p. 135, Leipsic, 1874.
COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES ("Cosmas the Indian navigator ") : An Alexandrian merchant who, in the first half of the sixth century, visited Abyssinia, Arabia, and India; afterward he became a monk and wrote several books, of which the only one preserved is caUed " A Christian Topography of the World " (written in Greek, in twelve books; published, with Latin version, in MPG, Ixxxviii. 10-475; Eng. transl., with notes and introduction by J. W. McCrindle, vol. xcviii. of the Hakluyt Society's Publications, London, 1897). The purpose of the writer is to set forth certain views about geography and cosmography supposed to be taught in the Bible; incidentally he has much vilification for those who drew" their natural science from another source, particularly such as impiously asserted the earth to be round. To his way of thinking an exact model of the universe was furnished by the Mosaic tabernacle; there are two worlds, an upper and a lower, divided by the firmament; the table of showbread represented the earth, which consequently is a rectangular plane twice as long from east to west as broad from north to south; the candlestick typified the sun; there is another earth beyond the ocean, which was the seat of paradise and the abode of man till the deluge, when the ark floated over the intervening waters; the heavens form four walls joined to the outer edges of the earth and are vaulted overhead. Notwithstanding his fantastic science, Cosmas was a good observer, shrewd of judgment, and is considered truthful; " the nonsense of the monk was mingled with the practical knowledge of the traveler" (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, v. 148-149). _ His reports of Abyssinia, India, and China are interesting, and the fifth book has value for Biblical
Costa, Izaak da Councils and Synods