Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/419

 CORIA

36;^

CORINTH

father. In 735 b. c. the island received Corinthian colonists led by Chersicrates. Its navy and trade increased to such an extent that as early as (104 B. c. it covild wage war upon Corinth. During the Peloponnesian War, when allied with the Athe- nians, Corfu fitted out 120 ships and overcame its suzerain. But internal strife soon caused the de- cay of its power; while the people sided with the Athenians, the aristocracy were helped by the Corin- thians. From the rule of the Macedonians Corfu passed to that of the Romans. Under the Byzantines it became practically the capital of the Ionian Islands and of the neighbouring cities in Epirus (Preveza, Buthrotum, etc.), and signalized itself by courage- ous conflicts with Dalmatians, Bulgars, and Saracens. About the end of the twelfth century it formed a duchy under the despots of Epirus. Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, conquered it in 1274. It recovered its independence by expelling the Neapolitan garrison and took refuge in the protectorate of \'enice. After the capture of Constantinople, Mohammed II sent an army which laid unsuccessful siege to Corfu to punish it for having heljjed Buthrotum. Soljmian II was equally unsuccessful, though he took away 16,000 prisoners. In 1716 Ahmed III was ahso driven back, the inhabitants being helped by the Sa.xon general Matthias Schulenburg and inspired by a monk who led the way bearing an uplifted cross. For a brief wiiile, together with Venice (1791), Corfu came under French rule, and was then successively conquered by the Turks and the Russians (1799). The Seven Islands were united in a republic under a Turkish and Russian protectorate. The Treaty of Tilsit gave them again to the French in 1807, but in 1809 the islands, with the exception of Corfu, fell into the power of England. In 1815 the United States of the Ionian Islands were put untler the jirotectorate of Great Britain, with Corfu as capital .and residence of the governor. On 8 Marcli, 1S4, the islands were an- nexed to Greece, and since this time Corfu (Gr. Ker- kyra), with Paxos, Santa Maura (Leukas), and Ithaca, etc. have formed a nomarchy or province of the kingdom.

The island has a mild, salubrious ciimate. It is hilly, with rather barren valleys, and produces corn and oil. Brimstone and marble are among its ex- ports. The whole population is about 70,000. Ital- ian is still much used, together with Greek, chiefly among the Catholic population. The city of Corfu is situated on the eastern coast and boasts of a broad and good port. It exhibits ruins of a temple of Poseidon, a cenotaph of Menecrates, and a statue of Schulenburg. In 1861 the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria built there, in the purest Greek style, her magnificent palace, the Achilleion, named after a colossal statue of Achilles on one of the terraces of the park ; this palace has been bought by the Emperor of Germany. The po|iulation of the city is about 17,000; 5000 Jews, 4000 Catholics, the rest orthodox Greeks.

According to legend the Church of Corfu was founded by St. Jason, a disciple of St. Paul, but the first known bishop is Ajiollodorus, present at Nicaea in .325. It was at first a sufTr.ag!in of Nico- polis in Epirus Vetus, but in the Middle Ages was made a metropolis. Since 1900 it has again become asimple bishopric. (.See " Echos d'Orient", III, 285 8qq.) Among its distinguished prelates were St. Arsenius, a tenth-century author of homilies, and Georgius Bardanes, in the thirteenth century, a fiery adversary of the Latins. (See Lequien, "ll, 145.) The island honours as its patron the celebrated St. Spyridon, whose relics lie in the Greek cathedral. Since the thirteenth centun,- Corfu has al.so been a Catholic archiepi.scopal see. Tim archdiocese includes Paxos, Antipaxos, other islets, and several localities in Epirus, between Parga and Sasino; the Catholics,

however, have almost comiiletely disappeared except in Corfu. There is but one parish, with six churches or chaiiels, and some ten priests. The Sisters of Our Lady of Compassion conduct a .school and an orphan- age. (For the episcopal list see Lequien, III, 877, completed by Gams, .399, and I'Aibel, I, 217, II, 152.) Among the archliishops, the famous Benedictine Car- dhial, .\ngi-lo Maria Quirini, who died in Italyin 1759, des(>rvcs nimtion.

M"'"'"-. " ' ' "■ ' ", \.::i.r. ir.TL'l; Qvimm, Pri-

ntonli't '. ' 1 . . t 1:. , 1, ,-, ; MoesTOXYDES,

rilu^nr < '1 V ;m' ;. . . r„,-«Vfsi (Corfu,

aviKlioTa (Afliens, ISSIM; Hll>HOM l.Nos, ^vvoiniKrt laropia ttj^ KepniJpat (Corfu, 1S95); Jervis, Histori/ of Coiiu (London, 1852); CLAPARiiDE, Corfou cl les Corfiotes (Paris, 1900).

S. Petrides.

Coria (Cauria), Diocese of (Cauriensis), in Spain, suffragan of Toledo; it includes nearly the en- tire province of Ciiceres, with the exception of a few parishes that belong to the Diocese of Salamanca. The first mention of a Diocese of Coria is in 589 when its bishoji, Jacintus, subscribed the acts of the Third Council of Toledo. Under Visigothic rule Coria was a suffragan of Merida. During the Arab conquest the episcopal list was continued by means of titular bish- ops; one of them. Jacobus, appears among the pre- lates who assisted at the consecration of the church of Compostela in 876. After the reconquest of the city (1142) Alfonso VII turned the mosque into a cathe- dral, and had it reconsecrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin and all the saints. The first bishop of the new series was Inigo Navarron. The statistics for 1906 were: Catholics. 171.011: priests, 250; parishes, 124; churches, l.")!i; ( !i -j:! 1 Isd.

Fi-oREz. £• ;. 1 I Irid, 1759), XIV, 52-61; D.i\aLA

ia Tealro de las J ,i i.: -,, / ;..;iia (M.adrid. 1647), II, 433-76.

Eduardo db Hinojosa.

Corinth (('oRiNTHU.s),a titular archiepiscopalseeof Greece. The origin of Corinth belongs to jirehistoric legend. About 1100 B.C. this city, delivered from the Argives by the Dorian inva-sion, became the centre of the Ileracloid rule in Peloponnesus ; at this time it waged successful wars against neighbouring cities, including Athens. A little later, under the tyranny of the Bacchiada; (750-657 b. c), it founded many colonies, among them CorcjTa and Syracuse. About 657 B. c. a revolution substituted for tyranny a government based on jiojiular election ; from that t ime Corinth took no great jiart in Greek history, except as the scene of the Isthmian games and by the transit duty it im- posed on all goods passing by its citadel. Its name is scarcely mentioned during the Medic wars, and after beginning the Peloponnesian war (432-404) it handed the direction of it over to Sparta and later on aban- doned its ally. The foreign policy of this .submissive vassal of Philip (later the federal centre, but not the inspirer, of the Acha-an league) was ne\-er positive and domestic; its true glory was its luxury, riches, and artistic culture. It gave its name to the third and most ornamental of the orders of Greek architecture. Corinth was cajitured and ]ilundered by Mummius (146 B. c), restored and embellished again by Cjesar and Hadrian, and ravaged in turn by tli(! Ileruli, Visi- goths, and Slavs. In 1205 it was cajitured by the French, who gave it u]) to the Venetians, by whom it was held, cxcejiting brief intervals, until 1715. The Turks left it in 1821, and in 1858, after a .severe earth- quake, it was transferred (o the western shore of the gulf. The new town, in the ))rovinces of Argolis and Corinthia, has alxmt 4.">0 inhabitants, and exports drieil currants, oil, corn, and silk. The ancient site is now occupied by a wretched village, Palaeo-Corin- thos, or Old Corinth, with five churches, probably built where temiiles had formerly stood. Near by are the lofty Acropolis (Acro-Corintlins) and ruins of a
 * '»mi)lc and amphitheatre. The ship canal between the