Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1181

CON besiegers, in spite of their overwhelming numbers, were repulsed with great slaughter. At length Mahomet conceived the daring scheme of transporting his lighter vessels by land, from the Bosphorus to the higher part of the harbour, a distance of ten miles, and thus was enabled to make a double attack upon the city, from the harbour as well as from the land. The garrison was at last completely worn out by the persevering assaults of the hordes of besiegers, and in May, 1453, the city was taken. Constantine, who fought to the last with desperate courage, fell amidst the tumult by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a mountain of the slain. With him perished the Greek empire.—J. T.  CONSTANTINE, elected emperor by the Roman army in Britain in 407, had been a private soldier, and owed his elevation solely to his name. He performed his part, however, with considerable success; Gaul and Spain submitted to him; and Honorius, hard pressed by the Goths, acknowledged his sovereignty in the hope of his assistance. After the death of Alaric he was defeated by the famous general Constantius, taken prisoner, and put to death in 411.—W. B.  CONSTANTINE, Pope, was elected to the pontificate in 708. Two years later he visited the Emperor Justinian, and received from him a ratification of the privileges and rights of the church. His dispute with the archbishop of Milan respecting the consecration of a bishop, issued in securing that prerogative to the pope. He died in 715.—W. B.  CONSTANTINE, Antipope, was chosen by a party at the death of Paul I. in 767. He owed his consecration to the forcible interference of his brother, Duke Soton; but in little more than a year he was dethroned, and after being subjected to various indignities and tortures, was immured in a convent till his death.—W. B.  CONSTANTINE PAULOVICH, Grand Duke of Russia, was the second son of Paul I., and born in 1779. He displayed the spirit of a brave and hardy soldier in the military operations against Napoleon, and specially distinguished himself by his resolute stand and orderly retreat with the reserve at Austerlitz. He afterwards held the office of commander-in-chief in Poland, and at the death of his brother Alexander would have succeeded to the throne; but he had solemnly renounced his right to it. Persisting in the act, he attended the coronation of his younger brother Nicholas, and returned to Warsaw, where the severity of his rule was one cause of the outbreak of 1830, in which he narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the insurgents. He died of cholera at Witepsk in the following year.—W. B.  CONSTANTINE VSEVOLODOVICH, born 1186, was created Prince of Novogorod by his father Vsevolod, who then held the sovereignty of Russia under the title of grand duke of Vladimir. Subsequently transferred to the government of Rostof, he refused to resign it to his brother George, in terms of their father's arrangements respecting the succession; and after the death of Vsevolod, the two princes fought in 1216, at Yourief, a battle which gave the grand dukedom to Constantine. He held it till 1219, in which year he died.—W. B.  CONSTANTINUS, surnamed, a medical writer of the eleventh century. After travelling thirty-nine years in the east in search of knowledge, he returned to Carthage, his native city; but being suspected of magic, he took refuge with Duke Robert of Salerno. He spent his latter years in the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he wrote his works. These were published at Basle in 1539.—R. M., A.  CONSTANTIUS I., surnamed, Roman emperor, . 305-306, was the son of Eutropius, a noble Dardanian. He obtained the title of Cæsar by his victories in Britain and Germany, and afterwards received the government of Britain, Gaul, and Spain. Upon the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, Constantius and Galerius became the Augusti, a title that was given only to the emperors. He died fifteen months afterwards at Eboracum (York) in Britain. His son, Constantine the Great, succeeded him in his share of the government.—R. M., A. <section end="1181H" /> <section begin="1181I" />CONSTANTIUS II., Roman emperor,. 337-361, was the third son of Constantine the Great by his second wife, Fausta. On the death of Constantine, he received the East as his share of the empire. He was engaged in a war with the Persians, while his brothers Constantine and Constans were contending for empire in the West; but after the death of Constans the whole empire became subject to him. He put to death his cousin Gallus in 354. In 355 he raised Julian to the dignity of Cæsar, and gave him the command in Gaul; but the latter having been proclaimed emperor at Paris, Constantius set out for Europe, but died on his march at Cilicia in 361.—R. M., A. <section end="1181I" /> <section begin="1181J" />CONSTANTIUS III., Emperor of the West,. 421. The success of his arms won him the hand of Placidia, the sister of Honorius, by the latter of whom he was declared Augustus in 421. He died in the seventh month of his reign.—R. M., A. <section end="1181J" /> <section begin="1181K" />CONVERSO,, a musician, was born at Correggio before the middle of the sixteenth century. He is only known by two books of madrigals published at Venice—one in 1575, and one in 1584—several pieces from which, adapted to English words, are greatly esteemed in this country.—G. A. M. <section end="1181K" /> <section begin="1181L" />CONWAY,, an English general and statesman, second son of the first Lord Conway, was born in 1720. He served in the Seven Years' war, and commanded with high reputation the British forces in Germany under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick in 1761. On his return to England he obtained a seat in parliament, and held the office of secretary of state from 1765 till 1768. He returned to the exercise of his profession, and in 1782 was appointed commander of the forces. He was the author of a comedy called "False Appearances," and of a variety of poetical pieces and political tracts. General Conway is better known as the intimate friend of Horace Walpole. He died in 1795.—J. T. <section end="1181L" /> <section begin="1181M" />CONYBEARE,, an English divine and geologist, was born in 1779, and died in 1824. He was educated at Westminster and Oxford. He was made Anglo-Saxon professor in 1807, and professor of poetry in 1812. In 1824 he preached the Bampton lecture. Conybeare was devoted to geology and chemistry, in the former of which especially he attained to considerable eminence.—R. M., A. <section end="1181M" /> <section begin="1181N" />CONYBEARE,, D.D., a learned prelate of the church of England, born at Pinhoe, near Exeter, in 1692; died at Bath in 1755. He was educated at Exeter college, Oxford, of which he became a probationary fellow in 1710. Ordained priest in 1716, he held for some time a curacy in Surrey; became one of his majesty's preachers at Whitehall; was appointed rector of St. Clement's in Oxford in 1724; and in 1730, after taking his degree of D.D., was raised to the headship of Exeter college. Two years afterwards he published his celebrated "Defence of Revealed Religion," in answer to Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation. In 1750 Dr. Conybeare succeeded Butler in the see of Bristol, the latter being translated to Durham. <section end="1181N" /> <section begin="1181O" />CONYBEARE, Very Rev., dean of Llandaff, a distinguished geologist, was the son of a clergyman in London, born on the 27th of June, 1787. He entered Christ Church college, Oxford, in January, 1805, and took his degree of B.A. in 1808, and M.A. in 1811. Mr. Conybeare was one of the earliest founders of the Geological Society, and his papers, contributed to the Transactions of that society, prove how earnestly he laboured in this field of scientific inquiry. He was the first to describe the plesiosaurus in his paper read before the Geological Society of London, a paper that procured for him from Cuvier the highest encomiums which one philosopher could bestow on another. His papers on coal-fields are most valuable—scientifically and practically. He drew up the report for the British Association in 1832 on the progress, actual state, and ulterior prospects of geological science. His published papers, according to Agassiz's Bibliography, amount to sixteen in number—all of which are of great scientific interest. Mr. Conybeare was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1819. He was also a corresponding member of the Royal Institute of France, and a fellow of the Geological Society. He became dean of Llandaff in 1845, having been previously public preacher in his own university, and Bampton lecturer in 1839. His death occurred on the 12th of August, 1857, at the age of seventy-one years.—E. L. <section end="1181O" /> <section begin="1181Zcontin" />COOKE,, Mus. Doc, a celebrated English musician, was the son of Benjamin Cooke, a music-seller in New street, Covent garden. He was born in 1732, and lost his father at the early age of nine years; but previously to that event he had been placed under the instructions of Dr. Pepusch, and made so rapid a progress, that at twelve years old he was competent to the duty of deputy-organist of Westminster abbey. In 1757 he succeeded Bernard Gates as lay-clerk and master of the boys at Westminster abbey; and in 1762 he was, without any solicitation on his part, appointed by Bishop Pearce, then dean of <section end="1181Zcontin" />