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 COIMBATORE

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COIMBRA

conversion made him a favourite preacher, notwith- standing insufficient studies. He was instrumental in the foundation of convents at Bagneres-de-Bigorrc (1853), Lyons (1857). the "Desert" of Tarasteix near Lourdes (1857), and in London (1S62), where he had been known during his artistic career. After some years spent in England he went on a preaching tour thuough Germany and France and ultimately retired to Tarastei.x. At the outbreak of the Franco-German War he fled to Switzerland, andlaterontookchargeof the lazaretto at Spandaii, where he contracted small- pox. He was buried in St. Hedwig's church, Berlin. Among his works are "LeCatholicisme en Angleterre", a speech delivered at Mechlin, also in English (Paris, 1804); "Gloire a Marie" (1849); "Amour a Jesus" (1851); "Fleurs du Carmel"; " Couronnement de la Madonne"; "Thabor" (1870), five collections of sa- cred songs with accompaniment, pious but somewhat shallow; this also holds good of his mass (1856).

Gergeres. Conversion du pianiste Hermann (Paris, 1861); MoREAU, Hermann au Saint Desert de Tarasteix (Paris. 1875); Stlvain, Vie du R. P. Hermann (Paris, 1881); tr. German (Aachen, 1881); Italian (Turin, 1883).

B. Zimmerman.

Coimbatore (Koimbatuh), Diocese op (Coijiba- TUREN.sis). — The city of Coimbatore is the capital of the district of Coimbatore in Madras, British India, situated on the River Noyel. Its population in 1901 was 53,080; of these 3,000 are Catholics. The dio- cese embraces the Collectorate of Coimbatore (e.xcept the Taluk of the C'ollegal), the'Nilgiris with the south- eastern ^^'J■Tlaad, the Taluks of Palghat, CoUancodoo, Tamalpuram, and part of Wallavanad, the Chittur Taluks, and the Ncllianipathy Hills in the Cochin territory. In 1846 Coimbatore was separated from the Vicariate Apostolic of Pondicherry, and in 1850 was made a vicariate Apostolic. On 1 Sept., 1886, it was constituted a diocese, and the Right Rev. Joseph Louis Bardon, Bishop of Telmessus, who had been vicar Apostolic, was chosen as its first bishop.

The total population of the diocese is 2,500,000, of whom 37,080 are Catholics. There are 41 European and 13 native priests. In the ecclesiastical seminary are 14 students. The diocese has 2 religious com- munities, of men and 3 of women. There are for boys a second-grade college, a middle school, and a high school ; and for girls eighteen convent schools. There are also 07 elementary schools, with 4239 pupils. There are 2 hospitals, 4 orphanages, and an industrial school.

The Madras Catholic Direclorj/, for 1907; The Statesman's IVar Boofc (London, 1906); Konvcrsations-Lexikon (St. Louis, 1905).

Leo A. Kelly.

Coimbra, Dioce.se of (Conimbricensis), in Portu- gal, suffragan of Braga, in the province of Beira. The cathedral city has 13,369 inhabitants. The first known bishop was Lucentius, who assisted (563) at the First Council of Braga, the metropolitan See of Coimbra, until the latter was attached to the ecclesi- astical province of Merida (650-62). Titular bishops of Coimbra continued the succession under the Arab conquest, one of whom witnessed the consecration of the church of Santiago de Compostela in 876. The see was re-established in 1088, after the reconquest of the city by the Christians (1064). The first bishop of the new series was Martin. Among the more famous bishops have been Pedro (1300), chancellor of King Diniz, and Manoel de Menezes (1573-78), rector of the university, who fell with Dorn Sebastian on the field of Kassr-el-Kebir. The old cathedral of Coimbra, built in the first half of the twelfth century, partly at the expense of Bishop Miguel and his chapter, is a remarkable monument of Romanesque architecture; the new cathedral, a Renai.ssance building dating from 15S0, is of little interest. The episcopal palace was also built in (he

sixteenth century. The principal monastery of the diocese is that of Santa Cruz, founded in 1131 by Alfonso VII, and for some time the most important in the kingilom by reason of its wealth and privileges. Its prior was authorized by Anastasius IV and Celes- tinc- III to wear the episcopal insignia. In 1904 the diocese had a population of 875,853, divided among
 * «)S jiari-shes.

FuiBEZ, Espafm Sagrada (Madrid, 1759), XIV, 71-96; BoRGES DE FiGUEiREDo, Coimbra antiga e modema (Lisbon, 1886).

University op Coimbra. — The earliest certain information concerning a univensity in Portugal dates from 1288, when the Abbot of Alcobaza, several priors of convents, and parish priests made known to Nicholas IV that they had obtained from King Diniz the foundation of a "Studium Generale" at Lisbon, and had arranged among themselves to defray the salaries of the doctors and masters from the revenues of their monasteries and churches; they besought the pope to confirm tliis agreement and to protect the work they were undertaking "for the service of God and the glory of their country". In a Bull of 9 August, 1290, addressed to the "University of the masters and students of Lisbon", the pope acceded to their request and expressed liis satisfac- tion with the creation of this new seat of studies. This Bull "sanctions taxation of lodgings in the Paris and Bologna fashion, grants dispensation from residence to masters and students and authorizes the Bishop of Lisbon (or, sede vacante, the Vicar-capit- ular) to confer the jus ubiqve docendi on all faculties except Theology." Frequent quarrels between the students and the citizens led the King of Portugal to request the pope to transfer the new school to Coimbra, a more tranquil place, and to grant at the same time to the new foundation all the "privileges" of the former one. The transfer took place 15 February, 1308, on which date King Diniz issued the charter of foundation, quite similar to that of Alfonso the Wise for the University of Salamanca in Castile. The sciences then taught at Coimbra were canon and civil law, medicine, dialectic, and grammar. Theol- ogy was taught in the convents of the Dominicans and the Franciscans. For reasons unknown to us, the university was again moved to Lisbon in 1339, by order of Alfonso IV. In 1354 it returned to Coimbra, only to be again transferred to Lisbon in 1377. From this time until its final transfer to Coimbra in 1537, the university enjoyed greater prosperity. At the beginning of the fifteenth century theology appears regularly as one of the sciences taught there.

During the reign of John III (1521-57) important reforms were carried out, and the university reached the acme of its career. The faculties liitherto widely scattereil in cUfferent edifices were brought together under one roof in the " Palacio del Rey ", and new and illustrious professors were invited from Ca.stile; for the faculty of theology, Alfonso de Prado and Anto- nio lie Fonseca, the latter a doctor of Paris; for the faculty of law, the famous canonist Martin de Aspil- cueta (Doctor Navarrus), Manuel de Costa, and Antonio Suarez, all three from Salamanca; and for medicine, Francisco Franco and Rodrigo Reinoso. The classical languages and literatures were taught in the Colegio de las Artes, as a preparation for the graver studies of the university; this college was at first quite independent of the latter, but was event- ually incorporated with it and confided to the Jesuits. One of its first professors was the Scotch Latinist, George Buchanan, later a follower of John Knox and a reviler of Mary Stuart. The colleges of Sao Pedro and Sao Paulo were founded for graduates (doctors) who purposed to devote themselves to teaching; other colleges were founded for the students of various religious orders in which they might follow the com-