Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/129

Rh his commission, and made himself so remarkable by the brilliance and success of his practice of commerce, that in 1613 he was named director-general of the Indian trade. In 1617 he was made president at Bantam; and in 1619, having taken and destroyed Jacatra, he founded on its ruins the city of Batavia, which he forthwith proclaimed the capital of the Dutch East Indies. In 1622 Coen revisited Europe, but five years afterwards he returned to Java. In 1629 the Javanese emperor attempted to dislodge the interlopers, and laid siege to Batavia ; but Coen beat oft all his attacks. He died the following year.  CŒNOBITES (from KOIVO S, common, and /Stos, life), a religious ord&r living in a convent, or in community, in opposition to the anchorets or hermits who live in solitude. See.  CŒUR,, founder of the trade between France and the Levant, was born at Bourges, near the close of the 14th century. His father, Pierre Coeur, was one of the richest peltry merchants of the flourishing city of Bourges ; and we hear first of Jacques in 1418, when he married Macée de Léodepart, daughter of an influential citizen, afterwards provost, a quondam valet of John of Berry. About 1 429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named Godard ; and in 1432 he is heard of at Damascus, buying and bartering, and transporting Levan tine ware (gall-nuts, wools and silks, goats hair, brocades and carpets) to the interior of France by way of Narbonne. In the same year he established himself at Montpellier, and there commenced those gigantic operations which have made him illustrious among financiers of all time. Details are absolutely wanting; but it is certain that in a few years he placed his country in a position to contend not unsuc cessfully with the great trading republics of Italy and Catalonia, and acquired such reputation as to bs able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the Order of Rhodes and to Venice herself. In 1436 Coeur was summoned to Paris by Charles VII., and made master of the mint that had been established in that city. The post was of vast importance, and the duties were onerous in proportion. The country was deluged with the base monies of three reigns, charged with super scriptions both French and English ; and Charles had de termined on a sweeping reform. In this design he was ably .seconded by the great merchant, who, in fact, inspired or prepared all the ordinances concerning the coinage of France issued between 1435 and 1451. In 1438 he was made steward of the royal expenditure ; and in 1440 he and his family were ennobled by letters patent. In 1444 he was sent as one of the royal commissioners to preside over the new parliament of Languedoc a dignity he bore through successive years till the day of his disgrace. In 1445 his agents in the East negotiated a treaty between the Sultan of Egypt and the Knights of Rhodes ; and in 1447, at his instance, Jean de Village, his nephew by mar riage, was charged with a mission to Egypt. The results of this communication&quot; were most important ; concessions were obtained which greatly improved the position of the French consuls in the Levant, and that influence in the East was thereby founded which, though often interrupted, was for several centuries a chief commercial glory of France. In the same year Coiur assisted in an embassy to the counts of Savoy ; and in 1448 he represented the French king at the court of Nicholas V., who treated him with utmost distinction, lodged him in the Papal palace, and gave him a special licence to traffic with the Infidels. From about this time he made large advances to Charles for carry ing on his wars; and in 1449, after fighting at the king s side through the campaign, he entered Rouen in his train. At this moment the great trader s glory was at its height. He had represented France in three embassies, and had sup plied the sinews of that war which had ousted the English from Normandy. He was invested with various offices of dignity, and possessed the most colossal fortune that had ever been amassed by a private Frenchman. The sea was covered with his ships ; he had 300 factors in his employ, and houses of business in all chief cities of France. He had built hotels and chapels and had founded colleges in Paris, at Montpellier, at Bourges. Dealing in all things money and arms, peltry and jewels, brocades and woollens broking, banking, farming, he had absorbed the trade of the country, and merchants complained they could make no gains on account of &quot;that Jacquet.&quot; Soon, however, he was a broken man and a fugitive. Charles was sur rounded with the enemies of the merchant ; he was &quot; un stable as water,&quot; and he was always needy. Jacques Cceur had to go the way of others who had been the friends and favourites of the king. In February 1449 Agnes Sorel, the mistress of Charles, died of puerperal fever. It was maintained, however, that the Dauphin Louis had procured her death; and some con siderable time after her death, Jacques Cceur, who had been named one of her executors, was accused formally of having poisoned her. There was not even a pretext for such a charge, but for these and other alleged crimes, the king, on the 31st July 1451, gave orders for the arrest of Jacques Coeur and for the seizure of his goods, reserving to himself a large sum for the war in Guienne. Commissioners extraordinary, the merchant s declared enemies, were chosen to conduct the trial, and an inquiry commenced, the judges in which were either the prisoner s debtors or the holders of his forfeited estates. He was accused of having .paid French gold and ingots to the Infidels, of coining light money, of kidnapping oarsmen for his galleys, of sending back a Christian slave who had taken sanctuary on board one of his ships, and of committing frauds and exactions in Languedoc to the king s prejudice. He defended himself with all the energy of his nature. His innocence was manifest ; but a conviction was neces sary, and in spite of strenuous efforts on the part of his friends, after twenty-two months of confinement in five prisons, he was condemned to do public penance for his fault, to pay the king a sum equal to about 1,000,000 of modern money, and to remain a prisoner till full satis faction had been obtained ; his sentence also embraced confiscation of all his property, and exile during royal pleasure. On June 5, 1453, the sentence took efl ect ; at Poitou the shameful form of making honourable amends was gone through ; and for nearly three years nothing is known of him. It is probable that he remained in prison ; it is certain that his vast possessions were distributed among the intimates of Charles. In 1455 Jacques Cceur, wherever confined, contrived to escape into Provence. He was pursued ; but a party headed by Jean de Village and two of his old factors, carried him ott to Tarascon, whence, by way of Marseilles, Nice, and Pisa, he managed to reach Rome. He was honourably and joyfully received by Nicholas V., who was fitting out an expedition against the Turks. On the death of Nicholas, Calixtus III. continued his work, and named his guest captain of a fleet of sixteen galleys sent to the relief of Rhodes and the Archipelago. He set out on this expedition, but was taken ill at Chios, and died there, November 25, 1456. He was buried on the island, but his place of sepulchre is not known. The stnin was not removed from his honour till the reigo of Louis XL, when, at the instance of Geoffroy Cceur, the great mer chant s name was finally rehabilitated.

