Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/150

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COLOGNE


116


COLOGNE


1818. After his ordination (20 Dec, 1783) he was professor of history and Greek at the Royal Seminary, and curate at St. Stephen's, Strasburg. During the reign of terror, brought about at Strasburg by the apostate monk, Eulogius Schneider, he secretly re- mained in the city, and under various disguises admin- istered the sacraments. After the fall of Robespierre he went about preaching and instructing, and worked so successfully for the restoration of religion in the city of Strasburg that Napoleon appointed him Bishop of Mainz; he was consecrated at Paris, 24 August, 1802. The metropolitan see of St. Boniface had been vacant for ten years ; the cathedral had been profaned and partially destroyed in 1793; a new diocese had been formed under the old title of Mainz, but subject to the Archbishop of Mechlin; revolution, war, and secularization of convents, monasteries, and the prop- erty of the former archdiocese had ruined his new dio- cese spiritually and financially. Colmar worked like a true apostle; he rebuilt and reconsecrated the pro- faned cathedral, and by his influence saved the ca- thedral of Speyer which was about to be destroyed by order of the Government. After many difficulties he opened a seminary (1804), which he placed under the direction of the Venerable Libermann; he visited every parish and school, and reorganized the liturgical services, confraternities, devotions, and processions, which the Revolution had swept away. His principal aim was to organize a system of catechetical instruc- tion, to inspire his priests with apostolic zeal, and to guard them against the false enlightenment of that age. He was an active adversary of Wessenberg and the rationalistic liberal tendencies represented by him and the lUuminati. He tried to reintroduce several religious communities in his diocese, but accom- plished, however, only the restoration of the Institute of Mary Ward (Dames Anglaises). Shortly before his death he established the Sisters of Divine Providence in the Bavarian part of his diocese (the former Dio- cese of Speyer). During the epidemic of 1813 and 1814. after the battle of Leipzig, he personally served the sick and dying. Colraar edited a collection of old German church hymns (1807) and several excellent prayer books. His sermons were published in seven volumes (Mainz, 1836; Ratisbon, 1879).

Selbst, /. L. Colmar (1902); Remling, Gesch. der Bischofe von iSpeyeT (,Speyer, 1867); see also life by S.\usen in both editions of Colmar's sermons.

Frederick G. Holweck.

Cologne (Ger. Koln or Coln), German city and archbishopric.

The City. — Cologne, in size the third city of Pru.ssia, and the capital of the district {Regierungsbezirk) of Cologne, is situated in the lowlands of the lower Rhine on both sides of the river. Its area is 45 square miles; its population (1 December, 1905), 428,722, of whom 339,790 are Catholics, 76,718 Protestants, 11,035 of other sects.

The history of Cologne goes back to the first century before Christ. After Marcus Agrippa transplanted the Ubii from the right to the left bank of the Rhine (38 B. c), Ara Ubiorum, the centre of the civil and re- ligious life of this tribe, occupied the site of the mod- ern Cologne. In A. D. 50 Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, founded here a colony of veterans called Colonia Agrippina; the inhabitants of the two settle- ments mingled freely with each other, while the Ger- mans gradually a.ssumed Roman customs. After the revolt of the Batavians, Cologne was made the capital of a Roman province and was repeatedly the residence of the imperial court. At an early date Christianity came to Cologne with the Roman soldiers and traders; according to Irensus of Lyons, it was a bishop's see as early as the second century. However, Saint Ma- temus, a contemporary of ('onstantine, is the first historically certain Bisliop of Cologne. As a result of its favourable situation, the city survived the stormy per-


iod of the migrations of the Teutonic tribes. Wlien the Ripuarian Franks took possession of the country in the fifth century, it became the residence of their king. <-)n account of the scr\-ices of the Bishops of Cologne to the Merovingian kings, the city was to have been the metropolitan .see of Saint Boniface, but Mainz was chosen, for unknown reasons, and Cologne did not be- come an archbishopric until the time of Charlemagne. The city suffered heavily from invasions of the North- men, especially in the autumn of 881, but recovered quickly from these calamities, especially during the reign of the Saxon emperors and of such vigorous archbishops as Bruno, Heribert, Piligrim, and others.

In the course of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- turies Cologne attained great prosperity. The basis of this prosperity was the commercial activity of the city, which placed it in relation not only with North- ern Europe, but also with Hungary, Venice, and Genoa. The local crafts also flourished ; the spinners, weavers, and dyers, the woollen-drapers, goldsmiths, sword-cutlers, and armour-makers of Cologne were es- pecially celebrated. The ecclesiastical importance of the city was equally great; no city north of the Alps was so rich in great churches, sanctuaries, relics, ami religious communities. It was known as the " German Rome ", and was annually visited by pilgrims, especially after Rainald of Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne (1159- 67), brought thither the remains of the Three Magi from Milan. Learning was zealously cultivated in the cathedral school, in the collegiate chapters, and the cloisters; famous philosophers taught here, among them Rupert of Deutz, Caesarius of Heisterbach, Duns Scotus, and Blessed Albertus Magnus. The arts also floiu-ished, on account of the numerous churches and civil buildings. With the growth of the municipal prosperity, the pride of the citizens and their desire for independence also increased, and caused them to feel more dissatisfied with the sovereignty of the arch- bishop. This resulted in bitter feuds between the archbishops and the city, which lasted for two cen- turies with varying fortunes. The first uprising oc- curred under Anno II, at Easter of the year 1074; the citizens rose against the archbishop, but were de- feated within three days, and severely punished. They received important concessions from Archbishop Henrj' I of Molenark (1225-38) and his successor, the powerful Conrad of Hostaden (1238-1261), who laid the corner-stone of the cathedral. The bloody battle of Worringen in 1288, in which the citizens of Cologne allied with Brabant took prisoner Archbishop Sieg- fried of Westerburg (1274-97), resulted in an almost complete freedom for the city; to regain his liberty, the archbishop recognized the political independence of Cologne, but reserved certain rights, notably the administration of justice.

A long period of peace with the outside world fol- lowed. Cologne joined the Hanseatic League in the thirteenth century, and became an imperial free city in the fourteenth. On the other hand internal dissen- sions frequently disturbed the city. After the close of the twelfth century the government of the city was in the hands of patrician families, who filled all the of- fices in the city government with members of their own order. In time the craft organizations (guilds) increased in strength and demanded a share in the government. As early as 1370, in the uprising of the weavers, they gained the upper hand for a short time, but it was not until 1396 that the rule of the patri- cians was finally abolished. On 14 September of that year the new democratic constitution was adopted, in accordance with which only representatives of the guilds sat in the city council. The last act of the patricians was the foundation of the university (1388), which rapidly began to prosper. By their firmness and wisilom the new rulers maintained themselves against the patricians, against .Arch- bishop Dietrich of Mors (1419), and against Charles