Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/259

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Corrigan
253
Corro

had made some careful observations, but he cannot have made many, for he remarks (p. 244) that ‘assurance may be given against any sudden termination,’ while the fact is that this form of valvular disease is the commonest morbid appearance associated with sudden and immediate death, and that patients suffering from it are liable to death at any moment. His ‘Lectures on the Nature and Treatment of Fever’ in Dublin, 1853, support the views then becoming prevalent as to the distinction between typhus and typhoid fever. In 1866 he published some general remarks on cholera, and he wrote a few other medical papers of minor importance. His success was due to his good sense and large practical experience, but he was not a profound physician nor a learned one. He had received little general education, and had no knowledge of the writings of his predecessors, but he was the first prominent physician of the race and religion of the majority in Ireland, and the populace were pleased with his success, and spread his fame through the country, so that no physician in Ireland had before received so many fees as he did.

[Works; Lancet, February, 1880.]

N. M.

CORRO, ANTONIO de, otherwise Corranus and Bellerive (1527–1591), theologian, was born in 1527 at Seville, his father being Antonio de Corro, doctor of laws. He belonged in early life to an ascetic order (probably the monks of St. Jerome), but renounced the Roman catholic faith when about the age of thirty. This step he ascribes to the influence of certain disclosures made to him by a member of the Spanish inquisition, who also introduced him to the writings of Luther and Bullinger. At this time he seems to have been at Compostella. The next ten years (1558–68) he spent in France and Flanders. Though not formally identifying himself with any protestant communion, he had exercised ministerial functions for five years in the province of Saintonge, when he was excluded by the synod of Loudun. Repairing to Antwerp, he was chosen in 1567 pastor of the Walloon church, but the civil authorities, under Spanish influence, refused to confirm his settlement. In his defence he published a letter, addressed to Philip II of Spain, in which he details the reasons of his change and gives the heads of his religious belief. In December 1567 the Lutherans of Antwerp published their confession of faith. De Corro at once (21 Jan. 1567, i.e. 1568) wrote them a ‘godly admonition,’ recommending a greater moderation in the matter of Eucharistic doctrine, with a view to protestant unanimity, in accordance with the ideas of John Laski [q. v.] On the arrival of the Duke of Alva at Antwerp in 1568 De Corro came to London with a wife, two children, and two servants, took up his abode in a house belonging to the Duchess of Suffolk in Cripplegate ward, and attached himself to the Italian congregation of the Strangers' Church. Soon after, by favour of Sir William Cecil and the Earl of Leicester, he became pastor of the Spanish congregation. As early as 1563 he had written from France, respecting the printing of a Spanish version of the Bible, to Cassiodoro de Reyna (also a native of Seville), the first pastor of the Spanish congregation in London. But when the letter arrived De Reyna was no longer in London, having fled under a grievous charge, and it would seem that the Spanish congregation had ceased to exist, until the arrival of De Corro with other exiles gave occasion for reviving it. On 16 Jan. 1568 (i.e. 1569) he addressed a letter to Archbishop Parker, accompanied by his two publications in French, which he thought would be good reading for two children of the archbishop, who were then learning that language. Doctrinal differences soon arose between De Corro and his co-presbyter, Girolamo Jerlito, pastor of the Italian congregation, the main charge being that in his teaching, and in a work printed at Norwich, De Corro showed a leaning to Pelagianism. In seven letters De Corro laid the case before Beza at Geneva, who did not like ‘the hot, accusing spirit of this Spaniard,’ and left the matter in the hands of Grindal, in whom, as bishop of London, was vested the superintendence of the Strangers' Church. Grindal owned the ‘good learning’ of De Corro, but disapproved ‘his spirit and his dealings.’ At length in 1570 (before 11 April) he suspended him for slander, at the instance of Jean Cousin, pastor of the French congregation, and the Spanish congregation again came to an end. Cecil stood his friend, and got Sandys, Grindal's successor, to appoint him, in May 1571, Latin reader in divinity at the Temple. He held this post for three years, but did not get on well with Richard Alvey [q. v.], the master of the Temple, and was thought to have discoursed ‘not wisely on predestination and suspiciously on Arianism’ (Tanner). William Barlow, afterwards archdeacon of Salisbury [q. v.], praises his eloquence and learning, but deems him wanting in respect for recognised authorities, and too great an admirer of Castellio. On 5 March 1575–6 the Earl of Leicester, chancellor of Oxford University, sent letters to the vice-chancellor and convocation asking that he might proceed D.D. without fee. On 2 April convocation granted the request on