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COCHEM

Father C'obo was beyond all doubt the ablest and most thorough student of nature and man in Spanish Amer- ica durmg the seventeenth century. Yet, the first, and almost only, acknowledgment of his worth dates from the fourth year of the nineteenth century. The distinguished Spanish botanist Cavanilles not only paid a handsome tribute of respect to the memory of Father Cobo in an address delivered at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Madrid, in 1S04, but he gave the name of Cobcea to a genus of plants belonging to the BignoniaceiE of Mexico, Cohoca scandens being its most striking representative.

Cobo's long residence in both Americas (sixty-one years), his position as priest and, several times, as missionary, and the consequently close relations in which he stood to the Indians, as well as to Creoles and half-brei-ds, gave him unusual opportunities for obtaining reliable information, and he made the fullest use of these. We have from his pen, two works, one of which (and the most important) is, unfortunately, incomplete. It is also stated that he WTote a work on botany in ten volumes, which, it seems, is lost, or at least its whereabouts is unknown to-day. Of his main work, to which biographers give the title of "Historia general de las Indias", and which he finished in 1653, only the first half is known and has appeared in print (in four volumes, at Seville, 1S90 and years succeeding). The remain- der, in which lie treats, or claims to have treated, of every geographical and political subdiNasion in detail, has either never been finished or is lost. His other book appeared in print in 1882, and forms part of the "History of the New World" mentioned, but he made a separate manuscript of it in 1639, and so it came to be published as "Historia de la fun- daci6n de Lima", a few years before the publica- tion of the principal manu-script. The "History of the New World" places Cobo, as a chronicler and didactic writer, on a plane higher than that occupied by his contemporaries not to speak of his prede- cessors. It is not a dry and dreary catalogue of events; man appears in it on a stage, and that stage is a conscientious picture of the nature in which man has moved and moves. The value of this work for several branches of science (not only for history) is much greater than is believed. The book, only recently published, is very little known and appre- ciated. The "History of the New World" may, in American literature, be compared with one work only, the "General and Natural History of the Indies", by Oviedo. But Oviedo wrote a full cen- tury earlier than Cobo, hence the resemblance is limited to the fact that both authors seek to include all Spanish America — its natural features as well as its inhabitants. The same may be said of Gomara and Acosta. Cobo enjoyed superior advantages and made good use of them. A centviry more of knowl- edge and experience was at his command. Hence we find in his book a wealth of information which no other author of his time imparts or can impart. And that knowledge is systematized and in a meas- ure co-ordinated. On the animals and plants of the new continent, neither Nieremberg, nor Herniindez, nor Monardes can compare in wealth of information with Cobo. In regard to man, his pre-Columbian past and vestiges, Cobo is, for the South American west coast, a source of primary importance. We are astonished at his many and close observations on customs and manners. His descriptions of some of the principal ruins in South America are usually very correct. In a word it is evident from these two works of Cobo that he was an investigator of great perspicacity and, for his time, a scientist of unusual merit.

Torres Saldamando. Aniifjuos Jesuitas del Peru (I^iraa. 1882); Cadanilles, Ditcurso gohre algunog holdnicos egpanolrs dtl tielo XVII in the Anale» de hUtona natural (Madrid, 1804). Ad. F. Bandelieu.

Coccaleo, Viator.^, a Capuchin friar, so called from his birthplace, Coccaglio in Lombardy, date of birth unknown; d. 1793. For a time he was lector in theol- ogy and wrote several works that give him a place among the noteworthy theologians in a period of theo- logical decline. These arc: ''Tentamina theologico- scholastica" (Bergamo, 1768-74); "Tentaminum thoologicorum in moralibus Synojisis " (Venice, 1791); " Instituta moralia" (Milan, 1700). His defence of papal supremacy, "Italus ad Justinum Febronium" (Lucca, 1768; Trent, 1774), is one of the principal apologies against Febronius. Besides writing several works against Jansenism, he took part in the discus- sion concerning the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the sanctification of Holy Days, inailc fanuuis by the Synod of Pistoja (178(1)', and' jMiblishi-.l: " Kiflrssioni sopra I'origine e il fine di'lla divoziunc del S. Cuore di Gesv'i" (Naples, 1780) ; " Riposta sul dubljio, se la solfl Messa basti a santificare le feste" (Bologna, 1781'^ To these may be added his studies on the text and meaning of the poem of Prosper of Aquitaine, " Contra Ingratos" (2 vols., Brescia, 1756 and 1763) and his work on the philosophic spirit of Prosper's epigrams (Brescia, 1760).

John of Ratisbon, Appendix ad BibUothec. Script. C'apuc- cinorum (Rome, 1S52), 40; Scheeben-, Dogmatik, I, 455.

John M. Lenhart.

Cochabamba, Diocese op (Cocabamben.sis). — The city from which this diocese takes its name is the capital of the department of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Founded in 1563 it was called originally Oropesa. It is situated on the Rio de la Rocha and is the second largest city and one of the most important commercial centres of the republic. According to the census of 1902, the population is over 40,000, of whom practi- cally all are Catholics.

The Diocese of Cochabamba was erected by a Bull of Pius IX, 25 Jime, 1847, and is a suffragan of Char- cas (La Plata). It was the fourth diocese established in Bolivia, the Archdioce.se of Charcas (La Plata) and the Dioceses of La Paz and Santa Cruz having been created early in the seventeenth century. It com- prises the department of Cochabamba and part of the adjoining department of Beni. The population, mostly Catholic, in 1902 was over 330,000. Besides a number of schools and charitable institutions the diocese has 55 parishes, 80 churches and chapels, and 160 priests.

K,itif rsations-Lex. (St. Louis, Missouri. 1903), s. v.; Ger- arrhin Caltolica (Rome, 1908).

Cochem, Martin of, a celebrated German theolo- gian, preacher and ascetic writer, b. at Cochem, a small town on the Moselle, in 1630 ; d. in the convent at Wag- hausel, 10 September, 1712. He came of a family devotedly attached to the Faith, and while still young entered the novitiate of the Capuchins, where hedis- tingui^hod himself by his fervour and his fidelity to the religious rule. After his elevation to the priest- hood, he was assigned to a professorship of theology, a position which for several years he filled most credit- ably. However, it was in another sphere that he was to exercise his zeal and acquire fame. Of the evils which befell Europe in conseciuence of the Thirty Years War, the plague was by no means the least, and when, in 1666, it made its appearance in the Rhenish country, such were its ravages that it became neces- sary to close the novitiates and houses of study. Just at tliis crisis. Father Martin was left without anj' special charge and, in company with his fellow monks, he devoted himself to the bodily and spiritual com- fort of the afflicted. What mo.st distressed him was the religious ignorance to which a large number of the faithful ha<l fallen victims on account of being deprived of their jiastors. To combat this sad condition, he resolved to compo.se little popular treatises on the truths and duties of religion, and in 166G he published