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 CORBINIAN

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CORCORAN

the Blessed Sacrament. In the controversy to which this work gave rise, his chief opponent was Ratram- nus, one of his own monks, whose views, however, are at variance with Cathohc teaching; both treatises are printed in Migne, P. L., CXX-CXXI. The library of Corbie, rich and extensive, was removed to Saint- Germain-des-Pr^s in 1624.

Mabillon, Lives of St. Bathilde and Bl. Theodefrid in Acta Sanctorum O. S. B. soec. II. (Venice, 1733); Sainte-Marthe, Gallia Christiana (Paris, 1728), X, 1263; Migne, Diet, des abbayes (Paris, 1856); Seiters in Kirchenlex, III, lOSS-89; Chevalier, Topo-bibliogr. (Paris, 1S94-99), 793-94, good bib- liography. A view of the abbey, as it was before suppression, is given in Delacourt and Delisle, Monasticon Gallicanum (Paris, 1871), II. pi. 76.

G. Cyprian Alston.

Corbinian, Saint, Bishop of Freising, in Bavaria, b. about 680 at Chatres near Melun, France; d. 8 September, 730. His feast is celebrated 8 Septembor, translation, 20 November; emblem, a bear. Nothing is known of his youth. His father, Waldekiso, died before the birth of Corbinian. After the death of his mother, Corbiniana, he lived as a hermit at the church of Saint-Germain at Chatres. With some of his disciples he went to Rome in 716 (709). Here he was consecrated bishop, given the pallium, and sent to preach, which he cUd with great success in the vicinity of his former home. In 723 (716) he again visited Rome, with the intention of resigning. The pope would not listen to his request. On his return trip Corbinian came to Mais in TjtoI, where he was induced by messengers of Duke Grimoald to go to Bavaria, and settle at Freising. The dates of the Roman jour- neys are somewhat confused, but the people of Freis- ing seem to consider 724 as the date of Corbinian 's arrival, for in 1724 was celebrated the tenth, and in 1824 the eleventh centenary of the existence of the diocese. On accoimt of the incestuous marriage of Grimoald, his apparent repentance, and subsequent relapse, Corbinian left Freising, but returned in 729 (725), on the invitation of Hucbert, Grimoald's suc- cessor, and continued his apostolic labours. His body was buried at Freising, then transferred to Mais, and in 769 brought back to Freising by Bishop Aribo, who also wrote his life. St. Corbinian was a man of zeal, and of strong feeling, not to say temper, and exercised great influence over all with whom he came in con- tact.

Mann, Popes of the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902). Vol. I, Pt. II. p. 152 sq.; Hope, Conversion of the Teutonic Races, II, 40,' Acta SS., September. Ill, 261; Meichelbeck, Historia Fris- ingensis I, pt. II. 3 sqq.; Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (1887), I, 345; Wattenbach, Deulschl. Geschichtsquellen, 1,96; Fastlinger, Beitr. zur Gesch. des Erzb. Munchen und Freising (1901). VII.

Francis Mershm.\n.

Corcoran, James Andrew, theologian, editor, and Orientalist, b. at Charleston, South Carolina, U. S. A., 30 March, 1820; d. at Philadelphia, 16 July, 1889. In his fourteenth year he was sent to the College of Propaganda, Rome, where he made a brilliant course and was ordained priest 21 December, 1842. He was the first native of the Carolinas who received priestly orders. He remained a year longer in Rome to com- plete his studies and was made doctor in sacred theol- ogy. He read with ease the literatures and dialects of Western and Northern Europe, spoke Latin as fluently as his native tongue, and acquired that thorough mastery of the idiom which distinguishes the text of the Second Plenary Council of Balti- more. In addition, he was a profound Semitic scholar, with a special predilection for SjTiac. On the death of Bishop England in 1842 he was recalled to Charleston, where he taught in the seminary, doing parochial work in the meantime, and in conjunction with Dr. Lynch edited the "Unile<l States Catholic Miscellany", the first distinctively Catholic literary periodical publi.shed in the United States. His posi- tion as a Catholic editor naturally involved him in

many controversies, one being on the life and teach- ings of Martin Luther, for which Dr. Corcoran pro- cured from Europe an abundance of Lulherana. He had made great headway with the preparation of a life of Luther, when in 1861 his manuscript and li- brary were destroj'ed by fire. During the Civil War his sympathies were with the South, and the end of the struggle found him rector of a parish at Wilming- ton, North Carolina, where he proved his fidelity to pastoral duty during an epidemic of cholera which decimated his little flock. He was made secretary to the Baltimore Provincial Councils of 1855 and 1858; also secretary in chief at the Second Plenary Council of 1866. He was one of the editors of the complete works of Bishop England. In 1868 he was chosen by the unanimous voice of the American hierarchy as their theologian on the commission preparatory to the Vatican Council. He was assigned to the doc- trinal commission presided over by Cardinal Billio. During the debates on papal infallibility, a doctrine which he firmly held, he drew up for Archbishop .Spalding the famous ", Spalding Formula", destined as an olive-branch, in which the doctrine is rather implied than flatly stated. But those were no days for compromises. While at the council. Bishop Wood of Philadelphia, his school-fellow at the Propaganda, perfected arrangements by which Dr. Corcoran took i a theological chair in the newly-opened seminary at Overbrook, near Philadelphia. This position he re- tained until death, declining, on the plea of advancing years, a call to the Catholic L'niversity at Washington. In 1876 the ".American Catholic Quarterly Review" was founded, and Dr. Corcoran was made chief edi- tor. His able articles and book notices were the prin- cipal source of its success. (For a list of his contribu- tions see General Index of the Review, Philadelphia, 1900, p. 15.) In 1883, when the archbishops of the United States were invited to Rome to prepare for the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, they took Dr. Corcoran with them as secretary, and, at their request, he was permitted to be present and take notes at the sessions held with the three cardinals appointed by Pope Leo XIII as a special commission. The following year he was made a domestic prelate and assisted as secretary at the Plenary Council. That Monsignor Corcoran did not bequeath to pos- terity works of any great size is explained by th«p circumstances of his life. He was too busy a mar> to devote himself to literary pursuits. A great parjv of his time was occupied with his unmense corresjf- pondence. He may be said to have been weightecS down with "the solicitude of all the Churches", fo] such was the confidence which the bishops and clergjl reposed in his judgment, that they sought his counsel on all difficult points of theology and canon lawS He was apparently unconscious of his great giftfp claiming no superiority, and was extremely affabltf His love for the Church, and his loyal adhesion to a[ her doctrines, were patent in all he said or wrote.

Keane. In Memoriam: Mgr. Corcoran in Am. Cath. Quwl Rev. (Philadelphia, 1889), 738.

James F. Loughlin.

Corcoran, Michael, soldier, b. at Carrowkeel County Sligo, Ireland, 21 September, 1827; d. )| Fairfax Court House, Virginia, U. S. A., 22 Decenl ber, 1863. His father was an army pensioner, atl he himself joined the Royal Irish Constabulail when nineteen years of age. He resigned after thr>Ii years' service and emigrated to New York in Auguf] 1849. Here he soon became a leader among 11; fellow-count rjmien. He enlisted .as a private in tljj Sixty-Nintli "Regiment of the State Mihtia, a coil mand composed of Catholics of Irish birth or descerl and rose from rank to rank until he was elect! colonel, 2,') August, 1859. The next year the IMnr of Wales (afterwards King Edward MI of EnglanK visited New York, and in the militarj' parade givj