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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Coelchu

From volume 4 of the work.
Also COLGA, COLCU (Lat. Colcus)
A distinguished Abbot of the School of Clonmacnoise in Ireland, who flourished during the latter half of the eighth century. He had been a student of this school, and had devoted himself especially to the study of St. Paul, whom he looked upon as his special patron. Coelchu was remarkable for his learning, and was surnamed the Scribe, and also the Wise. Colgan (Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ) mentions one tract from the pen of Coelchu which was then extant, and which was entirely of a devotional character. He is generally assumed to be the person with whom Alcuin apparently had some correspondence. A letter of Alcuin's to him has been published by Ussher (Sylloge, Ep. xviii) and republished by Colgan. It is headed "Albini Magistri ad Colcum lectorem in Scotia. Benedicto magistro et pio patri Colcu Alcuinus humilis levita salutem". There can hardly be any doubt that the Colcu spoken of was the Abbot of Clonmacnoise, and that the writer of the letter was Alcuin, not Albin the companion of Clement, though there is no reason for concluding from the style of the address that Alcuin had ever been a student of Coelchu's at Clonmacnoise. In this letter Alcuin gives Coelchu an account of the state of religion on the Continent, mentions Joseph, one of Coelchu's pupils then in France, speaks of disputes between King Charles and Offa of Mercia, on account of which he himself was likely to be sent as negotiator into England. This clearly proves that the letter was written shortly before 790. He sends Coelchu presents of money from King Charles and from himself for the monastery of Clonmacnoise and for other monks in Ireland, and asks their prayers for himself and the king. There is another reference to Coelchu in Alcuin's letter to Joseph, mentioned already in the letter to Coelchu. Though Coelchu was spoken of as the Scribe or Doctor of all the Irish, none of his writings have come down to us.
COLGAN, Acta SS. Hiberniœ Louvain, 1645), 20 Feb., 378; USSHER, Sylloge (Dublin, 1632), Ep. xviii; WARE-HARRIS, Writers of Ireland (Dublin, 1739-64), 511; MABILLON, Annales O. S. B., ad annum 790; LANIGAN, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (Dublin, 1829) III, 228-232.
James MacCaffrey.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Cogitosus

From volume 4 of the work.
An Irishman, an author, and a monk of Kildare; the date and place of his birth and of his death are unknown, it is uncertain even in what century he lived. In the one work which he wrote, his life of St. Brigid, he asks a prayer pro me nepote culpabili, from which both Ware and Ussher conclude that he was a nephew of St. Brigid, and, accordingly, he is put down by them among the writers of the sixth century. But the word nepos may also be applied to one who, like the prodigal, had lived riotously, and it may be, that Cogitosus, recalling some former lapses from virtue, so uses the word of himself. At all events, his editor, Vossius, is quite satisfied that Cogitosus was no nephew of St. Brigid, because in two genealogical menologies which Vossius had, in which were enumerated the names of fourteen holy men of that saint's family the name of Cogitosus is not to be found. Nor did the latter live in the sixth century because he speaks of a long succession of bishops and abbesses at Kildare, showing that he writes of a period long after the time of St. Brigid, who died in 525, and of St. Conleth, who died a few years earlier. Besides this, the description of the church of Kildare belongs to a much later time; and the author calls St. Conleth an archbishop, a term not usual in the Western church until the opening of the ninth century. On the other hand, he describes Kildare before it was plundered by the Danes, in 835, and before St. Brigades remains were removed to Down. The probability therefore is that he lived and wrote the life of St. Brigid about the beginning of the ninth century. His work is a panegyric rather than a biography. He gives so few details of the saint's life that he omits the date and place of her birth and the date of her death; nor does he make mention of any of her contemporaries if we except St. Conleth, the first Bishop of Kildare, an Macaille from whom she received the veil. He gives the names of her parents, but is careful to conceal the fact that she was illegitimate, and that her mother was a slave. On the other hand, he dwells with evident satisfaction on her piety, her humility, her charity, her zeal for religion, the esteem in which she was held by all. And he narrates at length the many miracles she wrought, and tells of the numbers who came as pilgrims to Kildare, attracted by her fame. In his anxiety to exalt her he says she had as abbess authority over all the abbesses of Ireland, although as a matter of fact she could govern only those who followed her rule; and his statement that she appointed the Bishop of Kildare could not, of course, mean that she conferred any jurisdiction. Cogitosus writes in fairly good Latin, much better indeed than might be expected in that age, and his description of the church of Kiildare with its interior decorations is specially interesting for the history of early Irish art and architecture.
E. A. D'Alton.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Coenred

From volume 4 of the work.
(Or CENRED, also COENRÆD, COINRED, KENRED, and CHRENRED)
King of Mercia (reigned 704-709); date of birth and death unknown. He was the son of King Wulfhere and his Queen Eormengild. When Wulfhere died, in 675, Coenred was probably too young to succeed, and his uncle Æthelred ascended the throne. The A. S. Chronicle speaks of Coenred becoming King of the Southumbrians (a name very rarely used) in 702, and succeeding to the throne of Mercia in 704, when Æthelred retired to the cloister. Southumbria probably designates the northern portion of Mercia, which Æthelred recovered from Northumbria. It is inferred that the people of this region rebelled against Æthelred and chose Coenred for their king, and later induced Æthelred to resign the whole of Mercia in favour of Coenred in 704. A reaction against the Southumbrians took place in 709, when Coenred abdicated in favour of Coelred, the son of Æthelred. Coenred then accompanied Offa, King of the East Saxons, to Rome, where he received the monastic habit from Pope Constantine. He was present at a council of the Mercian clergy in 705, and his name appears on several charters granting lands to Waldhere, Bishop of London, to Cuthswith, Abbess of Worcester, and also to the Abbey of Evesham. It does not appear that he was ever married. A great lover of peace, and of a pious disposition, he was more suited for the cloister than the throne. St. Bede tells us that he befriended St. Wilfrid when in exile, and relates in detail his efforts to convert to a better life one of his chief nobles, who finally died in despair.
LINGARD, Hist. of England, I. iii; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ad ann. 702, 704, 709; BEDE, Eccl. Hist., bk. V, xiii, xix, xxiv; WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, Gest. Reg. (Eng. Hist. Soc.), i, iii; IDEM, Gest. Pont., 239, 317, 351-2, 386; HADDAN AND STUBBS, Councils, III, 273.
G. E. HIND.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sicard

From volume 13 of the work.
Bishop of Cremona (Italy) in the twelfth century, a member of one of the principal families of that city, d. 1215. After having pursued his studies in different cities, he was made subdeacon by Lucius III in 1182, after which he returned to his native city, and was ordained priest by Offredus, Bishop of Cremona, whose successor he became in 1185. During his lifetime he was entrusted with many important missions by the Holy See, and enjoyed the confidence of the Emperor Frederick I. He was famed as an historian, canonist, and liturgiologist. His "Chronicon" containing a summary account of the history of the world down to 1213, is valuable because of the light it throws on the Crusade of Frederick I. He also composed an important work on the liturgy., "Mitrale, seu de officiis ecclesiasticis summa", in nine books; and a "Summa Canonum" or handbook of canon law, based on the so-called "Decretum Gelasianum".
MIGNE, P.L., CCCXIII; MURATORI, Rerum Ital. Script., VII; see WATTENBACH, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, II, 315-27; KOMOROWSKI, Sicard Bischof von Cremona (Konigsberg, 1881).
PATRICK J. HEALY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sicca Veneria

From volume 13 of the work.
A titular see in Africa Proconsularis, suffragan of Carthage. Sicca was an ancient important town in the kingdom of Numidia, very probably of Phoenician origin, on the Bagradas, on the road from Carthage to Hippo Regius and from Musti to Cirta. It got its name from a celebrated temple of Venus. It was to Sicca, after the first Punic War, that the Carthaginians sent the Mercenaries whose discontent they feared. Included later in the proconsulate it received from Augustus the title of colony. It had moreover been colonized by the Sittians of Cirta, whence the name Colonia Cirta Nova and Colonia Julia Veneria Cirta Nova Iulia; it is sometimes even called simply Cirta. Arnobius taught rhetoric there under Diocletian. Six of its bishops are known: Castus, at the Council of Carthage, 255; Patritius in 349; Fortunatianus mentioned in 407, present in 411 at a conference of Carthage and spoken of by St. Augustine, "Retractationes" XLI; Urbanus in 418, mentioned in 429 by St. Augustine, "Epist." ccxxix; Paul towards 480; Candidus in 646. The town commanding the principal natural roads leading from Algeria to Tunis preserved a great strategic importance till the French occupation; the Arabs called it Shikka Benar, or Shak Banaria, but it is better known as Le Kef (rock). It is the chief town of a civil "controle" in Tunis, contains 6000 inhabitants, and is connected with Tunis by a railroad. Its only interesting monuments are two mosques and the fortress. Among the Roman ruins are baths, cisterns, the remains of a temple (of Augustus?); some of the inscriptions discovered are Christian; the most curious ruins are however those of the Basilica Kasr el-Ghoul, 107.25 feet by 52 feet ending in an apse; the flooring was in mosaics; the baptistery of Dar el-Djir; a monastery below Ain Hadjima; and especially the Basilica of St. Peter of Dar el-Kous, of which the narthex is at present used as a church: it measures 139.75 feet by 54.75, the naves are roofless, but the apse is intact
SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog. s. v.; MULLER, Notes a Ptolemy, ed. Didot, I, 646; TOULOTTE, Geog. de l'Afrique chretienne. Proconsulaire (Rennes, 1892), 241-6; DIEHL, L'Afrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sidron de Hossche

From volume 7 of the work.
(Lat. HOSSCHIUS)
Sidron de Hossche, poet and priest; born at Mercken, West Flanders, in 1596; died at Tongres in 1653. In his early youth he followed his father's occupation as a shepherd, and at the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tongres (Belgium). He soon showed wonderful facility in Latin versification, and his first work "De Christo Patiente" in elegiac verse was published in 1635. The chorus of praise with which the work was received brought its author to the notice of Leopold William, Governor General of the Netherlands, who appointed him tutor to his two sons, which post he filled for two years. Life at court not appealing to him Hosschius retired to Tongres and remained there until his death. Among the more famous of his works, besides the "De Christo Patiente" there have come down to us, the "De Cursu vitæ humanæ" which was translated into French verse in 1756 by L. Deslandes; the "De lacrymis S. Petri" and many other elegies, allegories, and occasional verses. His contemporaries held him in great esteem, and acclaimed him as worthy of the Augustan age of Latin poetry. While his Latin is very pure and his style modelled on the classical authors, he himself is by no means a classic. The verdict of unbiased criticism pronounces his works to be examples of elegant versification. They were published at Antwerp in 1656, and have often been reprinted; they form two volumes of the Barbou collection, printed in Paris in 1723.
Two anonymous collections of Latin verses published in Bruges in 1630 and 1634, have within recent years been identified as forming part of Hossche's output.
The township of Mercken, in 1844, dedicated a fountain in honour of Hossche, and surmounted it with a bust of the poet.
LEVAUX, Etude sur S. Hosschius in Ann. de la Soc. d'émulation de Bruges (1886); DE BACKER, Bibliothèque de la compagnie de Jésus (Liège, 1869-1876); FOPPEUS, Bibliotheca Biblica.
J. C. Grey.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sidyma

From volume 13 of the work.
A titular see in Lycia, suffragan of Myra; mentioned by Ptolemy, V, 3, 5; Pliny, V, 28; Hierocles, 684, 15; Stephanus Byzantinus, s. v., Cedrenus (ed. Bonn) 344. Near the sea and to the west of Patara it was built on the southern slope of Cragus, to the north-west of the estuary of the Kanthus. Its history is unknown; its ruins, which prove it to have been an unimportant place, are near the village of Doodoorgar, in the vilayet of Koniah, and consist of a theatre, agora, temples, tombs, and some inscriptions. Le Quien, "Oriens christianus", I, 973, mentions three of its bishops: Hypatius, who signed the letter of the bishops of Lycia to the Emperor Leo, 458; Zemarchus, at the councils of Constantinople in 680 and 692; Nicodemus, at Nicaea, 787; Eustathius, present at the Council of Seleucia, 359, was bishop both of Pinara and of Sidyma (see Le Quien, ibid., 975). The see is mentioned by the Greek "Notitiae episcopatuum" until the thirteenth century.
FELLOWS, Lycia, 151 seq.; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog., s.v., RAMSEY, Asia Minor, 425; TEXIER, Asie mineure, 675.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Leo Diaconus

From volume 9 of the work.
Byzantine historian; b. at Kaloe, at the foot of Mount Tmolos, in Ionia, about the year 950; the year of his death is unknown. In his early youth he came to study at Constantinople and, as his name tells, was ordained deacon. In 986 he took part in the war against the Bulgars under the Emperor Basil II (976-1025), was present at the siege of Triaditza (Sofia), where the imperial army was defeated. and barely escaped with his life. After the year 992 he began to write a history of the empire, presumably at Constantinople. The work is incomplete. Apparently he died before he could finish it. The history, divided into ten books, covers the years from 959 to 975, that is, the reigns of Romanus II (959-963), Nicephorus Phocas (963-969) and John Zimisces (969-976). It describes the wars against the Arabs in which the fortresses of Cilicia and the Island of Cyprus were won back (964-965), the conquest of Antioch and Northern Syria from the Moslems (968-969). the Bulgarian War (969) and the defeat of the Southern Russians (971), one of the most brilliant periods of the later Empire. For the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces, Leo the Deacon is the one source, the only contemporary historian, from whom all later writers have drawn their material. His authorities are his own observation and the account of eyewitnesses. He says: "The events as I saw them with my own eyes (for eyes are more trustworthy than ears, as Herodotus says) and as I gathered them from those who saw them, these things I write in my book" (Bonn edition. p. 5). Although Leo is so valuable an authority for his period critics do not judge his manner of writing favourably. He is affected and dull, fond of foreign (Latin) words, and has a mania for unusual and extravagant forms; for simple words like "brother", or even the verb "to be" he prefers absurd artificial synonyms. Krumbacher sums up his style as "trivial and pedantic". Leo quotes Procopius, Homer, and especially the Bible (in the Septuagint). His loyalty to the emperor often prejudices his honesty. His history is continued by Michael Psellus. Leo's book was not very popular in the following centuries. Other writers who drew their information from him, were preferred, e.g. Nicephorus Bryennius. A result of this is that only one manuscript of his history is extant (cod. Paris, 1712).
First complete edition in the Paris Corpus, edited with a commentary by HASE (Paris, 1819) reprinted in the Bonn Series (1828), and in P.G., CXVII. 635-926. HASE had already published Book VI with a Latin version and an analysis of the whole work in the Notices et extraits de la bibliothËque nationale, VIII (Paris, 1810), 2, 254-296; FISCHER, Beitr"ge zur historischen Kritik des Leon Diakonos in Mitteilungen des Instituts f¸r Oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung, VII (1886), 353-377; SCHULMBERGER, Nicéphore Phocas (Paris, 1890).
ADRIAN FORTESCUE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Leonard Alea

From volume 1 of the work.
​Alea, Leonard, a French polemical writer of the early years of the nineteenth century, b. in Paris, date unknown; d. 1812. He came from a family of bankers. He published anonymously in 1801 his first book, "L'antidote de l'athéisme", and the following year a new edition appeared, enlarged to two volumes, with its title changed to "La religion triomphante des attentats de l'impiété", and bearing the name of its author. The book was written to refute Sylvien Maréchal's "Dictionnaire des Athées" then lately published, and was so timely, fair, and to the point that it received a cordial welcome. Marechal himself acknowledged his adversary's moderation. Cardinal Gerdil expressed his high appreciation of the work, and Portalis, to whom Alea had dedicated the second edition, was delighted with the book, and subsequently tried to get the author to enter the Council of State but without success. Alea's only other work is "Réflexions contre le divorce", which also appeared in 1802.
Beugnet in Dict. de théol. cath. s. v.
J. C. Davey.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Leonard of Chios

From volume 9 of the work.
Born at an uncertain date on the Island of Chios, then under Genoese domination; died in Chios or in Italy, 1842. He himself says he was of humble parents. He entered the Dominican Order in Chios, and after profession was sent to Padua for his philosophical and theological studies. After ordination he taught at both Padua and Genoa, then at the request of Maria Justiniani returned to his native island, and was made Bishop of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos by Eugene IV. Emperor Constantine Palaelogus had sent a request to the pope, asking that efforts be made to effect a union between the Latin and Greek Churches: for this purpose Leonard was selected to accompany Isidore, Cardinal-Bishop of Sabine, to Constantinople. Some degree of success was attained through their efforts, and a treaty was ratified in December, 1452. However, the Greeks refused the aid of the Latin troops, and in the following year Leonard was a witness to the devastation of the city by Mohammed II. Leonard and the cardinal were miraculously spared from the slaughter which ensued, the latter returning to Rome and Leonard to his diocese. From Chios he wrote to the pope a detailed account of the fall of Constantinople in a letter, which is often reprinted by historians ("Historia captae a Turcis Constantinopolis,", Nuremberg, 1544; P.G., CLIX, 923 sq.; Lonicer, "Chronica Turcica", I, Frankfurt, 1578: "De capta a Mehemete II. Constantinopoli Leonardi Chiensis et Godefredi Langi narrationes," ed. L'Ecuy, Paris, 1823). He governed his diocese for the next three years, until Lesbos also fell and he was taken captive to Constantinople. He obtained his freedom the following year, and immediately wrote the pope a description of the sack of his diocese ("Leonardi Chiensis de Lesbo a Turcis capta epistola Pio Papae II missa", ed. Hopf, Konigsberg, 1866). His best-known writings are the two letters mentioned above and an apologetical tract in answer to the humanist Poggio. Both tracts with biographical sketches were edited by Michael Justinian (Avila, 1657). There is reason to believe that many of his letters remain unedited in the Vatican Library.
ECHARD and QUETIF, Scriptores O.P., II, 816; STREBER in Kirchenlex., s.v. Leonhard von Chios; HOPF, op. cit.
Ignatius Smith.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Leonardo Antonelli

From volume 1 of the work.
Cardinal, b. at Sinigaglia, 6 November 1730; d. 23 January, 1811, nephew of Cardinal Nicolo Maria Antonelli. During the early part of his long diplomatic career he held among other offices those of canon of the Vatican Basilica, Prefect of archives in the Castle of San Angelo, Secretary of the Sacred College and Assessor of the Holy Office. He was created Cardinal-Priest of St. Sabina by Pius VI in the consistory of 24 April, 1775, and later Dean of the Sacred College and Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. At the time of the French Revolution, with a view to preventing the suspension of church services, he lent his support to the vote for the civil constitution of the French clergy decreed by the National Assembly of France (12 July, 1790). In addition to the responsible posts already mentioned, he filled those of grand penitentiary, prefect of the Signature of Justice and of the Congregation of the Index, and pro-secretary of Briefs. He assisted in the preparation of the Concordat, and was present at the election of Pius VII (1800), whom he later accompanied to Paris (1804). He was banished from Rome by the French (1808) to Spoleto and later to Sinigaglia, where he died, leaving to the Congregation of Propaganda bequests for the support of twelve Armenian students in the College of Urbano. Though Antonelli has been criticized for arrogating to the papacy too arbitrary a civil power, a perusal of his letter to the bishops of Ireland reveals a more tolerant spirit than is generally attributed to him. Possessed of a rich library, he was the friend and protector of letters, and had as librarian the learned Cancellieri. He also acquired some fame as an archaeologist.
CANCELLIERI, Cenotaphium Leonardi Antonelli Cardinalis (Pesaro, 1825).
F.M. RUDGE