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 COELCHU

92

COENRED

always handling his subjects objectively and dispas- sionately. His erudition was extraordinary and he was possessed of a rare and penetrating critical judg- ment. On the question of papal power and author- ity, Coeffeteau's position is described as that of a mod- ified Gallicanism. He held that the infallibility of the pope or of an (Ecumenical council was restricted to matters of faith and did not bear upon questions of fact or of persons. A council, he held, was not supe- rior to a pope except in the case of schism, when it could depose the doubtful incumbent to elect one whose right and authority would be beyond question. In this Coeffeteau differed from the Sorbonne, which asserted the council's superiority in all cases. Be- sides being called the father of French eloquence, Coeffeteau was a recognized master of the French language. He was the first to use it as a means of theological expression, and the purity of his diction, especially in his historical writings and translations, is admitted and commended by manj' excellent authorities.

QuETIF-EcHARD, Scriplores Ord. Pr(rd., II, 434; CouLON in Vacant. DM. de thiol, cath. (Pari.s. 1906), fa3c. XVIII, col. 267; Urbain, Nicolas Coeffeteau (Paris, 1894).

John R. Volz.

Coelchu, al.so Colg.v, Colcu (Lat. Colcus), a dis- tinguished Aljbot of the School of Clonmacnoise in Ire- land, wlio 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 Hiberniie) mentions one tract from the pen of Coelchu which was then extant, and which was en- tirely of a devotional character. He is generally as- sumed 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. Benedieto magistro et pio patri Colcu Alcuinus humilis levita salutem". There can hardly be any doubt that the Colcu spoken of was the .Xbbot 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 accoimt of the state of religion on the Continent, mentions Joseph, one of Coelchu's pupils then in France, speaks of dis- putes between King Charles and Offa of Mercia, on ac- count 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 Coel- chu 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 writ^ ings have come down to us.

Colgan Ada SS. fftfeemtcr (Louvain, 1645), 20 Feb.. 378; Ussher. Sylloge (Dublin, 1632), Ep. xviii; Ware-Harris. Writers of Ireland (Dublin, 1739-64), 511; Mabillon, Annates U.S. B., ad annum 790; Lanigax, Ecclesiastical History of Ire- land (Dublin, 1829), III, 228-232.

Jame.s MacCaffrey.

Coelde, Theodore (Theodore of Munster; Theo- DOHK of O.snabrCck; Dkrick, Dederick, or Diete- liirn, C6i.de), Friar Minor and mis.sionary, b. at .Miinsfer, in 14.'5.5; d. at Louvain, 11 December, 1515. lie was a different jierson from the Dominican, Theo- dore of Miinster, and from the iVugustinian, Theodore of Osnabriick; and was called Tli'eodnrc von Munster (Theodoricus a Monastcrio) from the place of bus

birth; and Theodore von Osnabriick from his father's native town. Coelde made his first studies at Cologne, and entered the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine at an early age. In 1454 he was received into the Franciscan Order in the Netherlands. When the plague broke out at Brussels in 1489, Coelde went about administering the last sacraments to the dying; and when the sacristan accompanying him fell a victim to the plague, Coelde attached the lantern to his girdle, and, with the pyx in one hand and the bell in the other, continued his ministrations. Before the end of the plague, more than thirty-two thousand had received the last rites of the Church from the heroic friar. In 1470 Coelde composed a brief, popu- lar treatise on the truths of the Catholic Faith, entitled " Kerstenspiegel " or "Christenspiegel" (The Chris- tian's Mirror), which is considered to be the first German catechism. It went through thirty-two edi- tions in Low German and two in High German, and came to be used throughout Germany and the Nether- lands as the principal work of popular instruction in religious matters. At the request of his friend and admirer, Archbishop Hermann, he wrote a series of me<iitations on the sufferings of Christ, which appeared probably about the same time as the " Christen- spiegel". In 1618 the remains of Coelde were ex- humed, and, after the suppression of the Franciscan convent at Louvain, were transferred to Saint-Trond, where they now repose behind the liigh altar.

Schlager. Beitrage zur Geschichte der kdlnischen Frfin^ ziskaner-Ordensprovinz (Cologne, 1904), 190, passim; ScHOUT- EN8, Martyrologium Minorilico-Belgicum (Hoog.straetei, 1902),

211,213. Stephen M. Donovan.

Coello, Alonzo S.vnchez. See SXnchez-Coello,

Alonzo.

Coemgen (or Kevin), Saint, Abbot of Glenda- lough, Ireland, b. about 498, the date being very ob- scure; d. .3 June, 618; son of Coemlog and Coemell. His name signifies fair-begotten. He was baptized by St. Cronan and educated by St. Petroc, a Briton. From his twelfth year he studied under monks, and eventually embraced the monastic state. Subse- quently he founded the famous monastery of Glen- dalough (the Valley of the Tw-o Lakes), the parent of several other monastic foundations. After visiting Sts. Coluraba, Comgall, and Cannich at LTsneach (Usny Hill) in Westmeath, he proceeded to Clonmac- noise, where St. Cieran had died three days before, in 544. Having firmly established his community, he retired into solitude for four years, and only re- turned to Glendalough at the earnest entreaty of his monks. He belonged to the second order of Irish saints and probably was never a bishop. So nu- merous were his followers that Glendalough became a veritable city in the desert. His festival is kept throughout Ireland. Glendalough became an episco- pal see, but is now incorporated with Dublin. St. Kevin's house and St. Kevin's bed of rock are still to be seen: and the Seven i liuirlirsof Glendalough have for centuries been vImi III !iy pilnrims.

O'Hanlon, Lu>es o/ /r, 'i >-,,„'/> iHul.lin, 1875), VI, 28 sqq.; Healy, Ireland's Ancirnl ."^cliaals and Scholars (Dublin, 1890); Lanigan, Ecclesiastical Hist, of Ireland (Dublin, 1829), II; Olden in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.

CoLUMBA Edmonds.

Coenred (or Cenred, also Coenr.s;d, Coinred, Kenred, and Chrenrf.d), King of Mercia (reigned 704-709); date of birth and death unknown. He was the son of King Wulfhero and his Queen Eormen- gild. When Wulfhere died, in (i75. (_'oenretl was prob- ably too young to succeed, and his uncle .Ethelred ascended the throne. The A. S. Chronicle speaks of Coenred becoming King of the Southumbrians (a name very rarely uscil) in 702, and succeeding to the throne of Mercia in 704, when .Ethelred retired to the cloister. Southumbria proljably designates the north-