COLETI
99
COLGAN
all Latin Grammars of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries: "Opus de Sacranientis Ecclesiae " (ISO"),
which with the following treatises, long preserved
in MS., was finally edited by the Rev-. J. H. Lup-
ton, sur-master of the school; two treatises on
the "Hierarchies" of Dionysius (1869); "An Expo-
sition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans" (1873);
"An Exposition of St. Paul's first Epistle to the
Corinthians" (1874); "Letters to Radulphus" on the
Mosaic account of the Creation, and some minor works
(1876); "Statutes of St. Paul's School" (often re-
printed). Pitts (de Ang. Scriptoribus, P.aris, 1619)
gives several additional works by Colet.none of which
are extant. Many of his letters are in the works of
Erasmus.
The account of Colet by EnASMns in Bpistotm (Leyden), III, cccxxxv, tr. LuPTOx (London, 1883), was the foundation of most of his biographies published before the end of the seven- teenth century. .Since then there have been several lives pui)- lished, none by a Catholic writer.— Knight, Life of John Cole! (London, 1724; republished Oxford, 1823; written with strong Protestant bias); Seebohm. Oxford Reformers: Colet, Erasmus and Afore (London, 18671; Luiton, Life of John Colel (London, 1887). For a bibliography see LnpTON, In- Irodticlion to Colet's Letters to Radulphus; G.\rdiner. Register of St. Paul's School (London, 1884); Lef. in Diet. Nnl. Bioq. (London. 1887), XI, 321-328, with account of various Colet M&S. still existing.
Edwin Burton.
Coleti (CoLETTi), NicoL.\, priest and historian, b. at
Venice, 1680; d. in the .same city, 176,5. He studied
at Padua, where he received the degree of Doctor.
He was sent to the church of San Moisc at Venice, and
there devoted himself to historical and antiquarian
research. His first work of importance was a new
edition of Ughelli's "Italia Sacra" published in ten
vohm^ies from 1717 to 1722. Besides correcting
many errors, Coleti continued Ughelli's history to the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Coleti then
undertook the compilation of his large work entitled
"Collectio Conciliorum ". Up to this time there had
been two standard histories of the cotmcils, that of
Labbe and Cossart (Paris, 1671-72), and that of Har-
douin (Paris, 1715). Baluze had begun a similar
work, but only the first volume had appeared. Co-
leti's collection was based on that of Labbe, though he
availed himself of the labours of Baluze and H.ir-
douin. The work was published by his brother Sebas-
tiano at Venice from 1728 to 17.3,3 in twenty-three vol-
umes. The last two were called " Apparatus primus "
and "Apparatus .secundus", containing the indexes,
for which the collection was especially valuable.
Other works of Colcti's were "Scries episcoporum
Cremonensium aucta" (Milan, 1749); "Monumenta
ecclesia; Venetse S. Moisis" (1758) — this is valuable to
the historian for the ancient documents it makes
knov\'n. Coleti also annotated a manuscript of Maf-
fei now preser\'ed in the Biblioteca Vallicellana at
Rome .and bearing the title: " Supplementum .\ca-
cianura monumenta nunquam edita continens, qua;
marchio Scipio Maffeius a vetustissimis Veronesis cap-
ituli codicibus eruit atque illustravit. editum Venetiis
apud Sebastianum Coleti anno 1728". In addition to
the above, two posthumous di.ssertations, .said to have
been published by his brothers, have been .attributed
to Coleti, but the only mention of them is found in an
old catalogue.
Vacant. Diet, de theol. calh., s. v.; Hurter, Nomendator; Richard and Girattd, Biblioteca Sacra, s. v.; Dandolo, La caduta delta republica di Venezia (Venice, IS.'S.'i).
Leo A. Kelly.
Colette (diminutive of Niooletta, Colett.v), Saint, founder of the Colettine Poor Clares (Clar- isses), b. 13 Jan., 1.381, at Corbie in Picardy, France; d. at Ghent, 6 March, 1447. Her father, Robert Boellet, was the carpenter of the famous Benedictine Abbey of. Corbie:, her mother's name, was Mar-
guerite Moyon. Colette joined successively the Be-
guines, the Benedictines, and the Urbanist Poor
Clares. Later she lived for a while as a recluse. Hav-
ing resolved to reform the Poor Clares, she turned to
the antipope, Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna), then
recognizeil by France as the rightful pope. Benedict
allowed her to enter the order of Poor C'lares and em-
l»wered her by scver.al Bulls, dated 1406, 1407, 1408,
and 1412 to found new convents and complete the re-
form of the order. With the approval of the Countess
of Geneva and the Franciscan Henri de la Beaume, her
confessor and spiritual guide, Colette began her work
at Beaume, in the Diocese of Geneva. She remained
there but a short time and soon opened at Besangon
her first convent in an almost abandoned house of
Urbanist Poor Clares. Thence her reform spread to
Auxonne (1410), to Poligny, to Ghent (1412), to
Heidelberg (1444), to Amiens, etc. To the seventeen
convents founded during her lifetime must be added
another begun by her at Pont-;VMousson in Lorraine.
She also inaugurated a reform among the Franciscan
friars (the Coletani), not to be confounded with the Ob-
servants. These Coletani remained obedient to the au-
thority of the ])rovincial of the Franciscan convents,
and never att:iinpd much importance even in France.
In 1448 they had only tliirteen convents, and together
with other small branches of the Franciscan Order
were suppressed in 1517 by Leo X. In addition to the
strict rules of the Poor Clares, the Colettines follow
their special const ilut ions sanctioned in 14.34 by the
General of the I'laiiciscans, William of Casale, ap-
proved in 14 IS l)v .\ieholas V, in 1458 by Pius II, and
in 14S2 by Sixliis IV.
St. (HI. ttc \\:is beatified 23 January, 1740, and can- onized -'1 .M;iy, 1S07. She was not only a woman of sincere iiiety, but also intelligent and energetic, and exercised a remarkable moral jiower over all her asso- ciates. She was very austere and mortified in her life, for which God rewarded her by supernatural favours and the gift of miracles. For the convents refonned by her she prescribed extreme poverty, to go barefooted, and the observance of perpetual fast and abstinence. The Colettine Sisters are found to-day, outside of France, in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Eng- land, and the United States.
Bizouard, Hist, de Sainte Colette et des Clarisses en Bourgogne (Besancon, 1890); aEHMMX. Sainte Colette de Corbie (Paris, 1903); Pino.x, >'■.,■, '■..', if^ in Les Saints (Paris. 1907. 2d ed.); DE .'^ini , ; / ; i .v,m€s (Paris. 1907), XVII;
Sellier, I'i. ' ' ' I ins. 1854, 1861). tr. S(. Ciorc,
St. Colette, nn,' !■:. !'■:':■, '-,,, ihililjn, 1864); Analecta Bolland (1904>, Vn, Itiu 1, lol.i-to. tor the contemporary accounts of her hfe see Acta .S.S., 1, 539-89.
Michael Bihl.
Colgan, John, hagiographer and historian, b. in County Donegal, Ireland, about the beginning of the seventeenth century; d. probably in 1(357. Having joined the Franciscan Order he was sent to study in the Irish Franciscan College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain. Here he is said to have acted as pro- fessor of theology for some time, but he soon forsook the professorial chair in order to devote himself to the Iri.sh studies for which that college is justly famous. Father Hugh Ward (d. 1635) had projected a com- plete history of the Irish saints, and for this purpose had sent some of his brethren, notably Michael O'Clery, to Ireland to collect materials. Ward dtedl before he could make any progress in his work, b'uti the materials that had been gathered remained.l Colgan, being a competent master of the li-ish Idn- guage, had tluis ready ;it hand a collection of nianu- .scripts une(|ual!ed in 'thk; <l(^pnrtment of , Iri.sh hagi^ ology. He imdftrthok a great work, to lie published! in six volunree, ddaliitg with (lie whole range of Irish ecclesiastical' history and antiquities. In 1645 he publfshed at Louvain the third volume of this series (Acta Sanctorum. Hiberniae, etc.), containing^ the.
