CORNELY
37S
CORNELY
Cornelius a Lapide wrote ample commentaries on all
the books of the Catholic Canon of Scriiitiire, with the
exception only of Job and the Psalms. lOvcii lufore
leaving Flanders, he edited the "Conmicntarius in
omnes divi Pauli epistolas" (1614) and "in Penta-
teuchum" (1616), both at Antwerp. The commen-
taries on the Greater and Lesser Prophets, on the
Acts of the Apostles, the Canonical Epistles and the
Apocalypse, Ecclesiasticus and the Proverbs, fol-
lowed later on. The rest were edited only after his
death; but all of them have been several times re-
edited, both separately and collectively. Of the
Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul he himself
was permitted to see at least eleven editions. The
complete series, with Job and the Psalms added by
other hands, appeared at Antwerp, 1681, 1714; at
Venice, 1717, 1740, 1798; at Cologne, 1732; at Turin,
1838; at Lyons, 1839-42, 1865 and 1866; at Malta,
1843-46; at Naples, 18.54; at Lyons and Paris, 1855
and 1856; at Milan, 1857; at Paris, 1859-63. The
last-mentioned edition has been enriched byCrampon
and Peronne with many annotations from more recent
interpreters. .\11 these commentaries are on a very
large scale. They explain not only the literal, but also
the allegorical, tropological, and anagogical sense of the
sacred text, and furnish a large number of quotations
from the Fathers and the later interpreters of Holy
Writ during the Middle Ages. Like most of his pre-
decessors and contemporaries, a Lapide intends to
serve not only the historical and scientific study of
the Bible, but, even more, the purposes of pious medi-
tation, and especially of pulpit exposition. An ex-
tract from the commentary on the Acts appeared
in 1737 at Tyrnau, under the title: "Effigies Sancti
Pauli, sive idea vitae apostolicEe". A large work in
4 vols., "Les trfeors de Cornelius a Lapide: ex-
traits de ses commentaircs de I'dcriture sainte a
I'usage des predicateurs, des communautes et des
families chr^tiennes ", by the Abbe Barbier, was pub-
lished at Le Mans and Paris, 1856, re-edited at Paris,
1859, 1872, 1876, 1885, 1896; and an Italian transla-
tion of the same, by F. M. Faber, appeared at Parma,
1869-70, in 10 vols., 16 mo.
These numerous editions show how highly these works are estimated by Catholics. But Protestant voices have joined in the appreciation. G. H. Goe- tzius (Leipzig, 1699) wrote an academical disserta- tion, "Exercitatio theologica de Cornelii a Lapide Commentariis in Sacram Scripturam", in which he praises the Jesuit author as the most important of Catholic Scriptural writers. An English translation of the complete commentaries was undertaken by the Rev. Thomas W. Mossman, an Anglican clergyman, under the title, "The great Commentary of Cornelius
a Lapide" (London, 1876 ). A manuscript in the
Vatican Library contains an Arabic translation of the Commentary on the Apocalypse, by Yusuf ibn Girgis (beginning of the eighteenth century). The same Maronite writer is said to have translated the Com- mentary on the Epistles of St. Paul.
Terwecoren, Comdiiis a Lapide in Collection de precis his- ioriquts (Brussels, 1837), 610-14, 630-45; De Backer and SoMMERvoGEL, Bibl. de la c. de J. (Brussels and Paris, 1893), IV. 1511-26, IX (1900), 573.
John P. van Ivasteren.
Comely, Karl Josep Rudolf, German Biblical scholar and Jesuit, b. 19 April, 1830, at Breyell in Germany; d. at Treves, 3 March, 1908. On the com- pletion of his classical studies he matriculated at Miinster in Westphalia to study philology and theol- ogy. In 18,52 he joined the Society of Jesus. Re- cognizing his abilities, his superiors determined to give him the best possible training both practical and theo- retical. Conseipiently, his novitiate finished, he took a two years' course of Scholastic philosophy at Pader- born and Bomi and another year of sacred and profane oratory. Then he was sent to Feklkirch to teach
Latin, Greek, and German, and to preside at the dispu-
tations of the students of philosophy from 1857 to
1859. After this practical experience he returned to
Paderborn to go through the necessary course of dog-
matic and moral theology previous to his ordination
in 1860. The next years he devoted to special study
of the Scriptural sciences and languages in Geimany,
at Ghazir near Beirut, in Egypt, and in Paris, and by
dint of hard labour acquired an extensive knowledge
of Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, and .\ramaic. After
five years thus spent in special work, he was recalled
to Maria-Laach, the theologate of the Society, to
review his varied acquirements in the light of dog-
matic theology and to prepare his theses for the final
examination and the ilegree of Doctor in the Society.
After the customary third year of probation spent in
study and practice of the exercises and the Institute
of St. Ignatius, he was appointed professor of Scrip-
ture and Oriental languages at Maria-Laach.
When the Jesuits founded the ]5eriodical "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach", Father Comely became at first a regular contributor and then its editor from 1872 to i 1879. His style is remarkable for clearness and j vigour and compares favourably with the great Ger- I man classics. The ring of indignation and irony in I his articles against the Old Catholics, on the Protes- ' tant Association, and on political hypocrisy finds its |t explanation in the unwarranted attacks and in the |i relentless persecution of tiie Church and of the order j| to which he belonged. The expulsion of the Jesuits from Germany in 1872 interrupted his career as a pro- fessor and rendered the task of the etlitor extremely difficult. With three or four of his brethren he took up his residence at Tervueren near Brussels, and though many of his collaborators and the rich library of Maria-Laach were scattered about in different places, he succeeded not only in maintaining the peri- odical on its former level but also in strengthening and widening its influence on Catholic Ciermany. Most of the men who from that time on contributed to the "Stimmen" were won and trained by the magnetic personality of Cornely, who frequently inspired and always carefully revised their papers, thus securing uniformity of tone and tendency. An important stage in the development of the "Stimmen" was marked by the appearance of the first supplements (Erganzungshefte), in 1876. This new departure was occasioned by the numerous philosophic writings of Father Tilmann Pesch. They could not all be pub- lished in the "Stimmen" without altering the general character of the periodical and .sacrificing the interest of some classes of readers. They might, of course, have been separately published in book form. But Cornely was of opinion that a series of supplements to a widely read review would reach larger numbers and would in a manner offset the numerous non-Catholic publications of a similar character. The supplements embody the most varied scholarship: theology, philo- sophy, literature, and science.
To quicken the interest of his countrymen in the missionary work of theChurch, FatherCornely founded in 1873 "Die katholischen Missionen". Intended for German readers this magazine was above all to describe the labours and successes of the German mis- sionary and to give the history, the geography, and the ethnographic features of the German missions in foreign countries. In the beginning Cornely took the lion's share of the work upon himself. Soon, how- ever, the labour was thus divided: Cornely wrote the reports on Europe and Australia; Baumgartner re- portetl on Asia; Kreiten on .-Africa; and von Hum- melauer on .\merica. In 1879 Cornely was appointed professor of exegesis at the Gregorian University in Rome. Here lie jilanned and wrote the first volumes of the "Cursus Scri|itura^ Sacra;", a complete Biblica! encyclopedia, the largest publication of its kind ir modern Catholic literature. To carrj' out a plan sc
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