CURLET
573
CURSING
relics are preserved in the church. Only two bishops
of Curium are recorded: Zeno, present at the Council
of Ephesus (431), and Michael, in 10,51. Ricaut (The
Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches,
London, 1679, ]>. 94) mentions a Bishoji Cosma-s who
resided there, who was, however, probably a titular
or a superannuated bishop.
Lequien, Or. Christ., II. 1057; Hackett, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, 312, 456: Ma.s-Latrie, Histoire de Chj/pre, passim; Idem, L'tle de Chypre, 22; di Cesnola, Cyprtts.
S. Petrides.
Curley, J.\mes, astronomer, b. at Athleague, County Roscommon, Ireland, 26 October, 1796; d. at George- town. District of Columbia, U. S., 24 July, 1S89. His early education was limited, though his talent for mathematics was discovered, and to some extent de\eloped, by a teacher in liis native town. He left Ireland in his youth, arriving in Pliiladelphia, 10 Octo- ber, 1817. Here he worked for two years as a book- keeper and then taught mathematics at Frederick, Maryland. In 1826 he became a student at the old seminary in Washington, intending to prepare him- self for the priesthood, and at the same time taught one of its classes. The seminary, however, which had been established in 1820, was closed in the fol- lowing year and he entered the Society of Jesus, 29 September. 1827. After completing his novitiate he again taught in Frederick and was sent (1831) to teach natural philo.sophy at Georgetown CoUege. He also studied theology and was ordained priest on 1 June, 1833. His first Mass was said at the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, where he afterwards acted as chaplain for fifty years. He spent the remainder of his life at Georgetown, where he tauglit natural phil- osophy and mathematics for forty-eight years. He planned and superintended the building of the George- towTi Observatorj' in 1844 and was its first director, filling this position for many years. One of his earliest achievements was the determination of the longitude of Washington. His results did not agree wntli those obtained at the Naval Observatorj', and it was not until after the laying of the first transat- lantic cable in 1858 that lus determination was found to be near the truth. The coincidence, however, was partly accidental, as the method which he employed was not susceptible of very great precision. Father Curley was alio much interested in botany. He is best remembered, however, as a teacher. He WTote "Annals of the Observatory of Georgeto^Ti College, D. C. containing the description of the Observatory and the description and use of the transit instrument and meridian circle" (New York, 1852).
Woodstock Letters. XVIII. 3; Shea. History of Georgetown College (Washington. 1891); McLacghun, CoUege Days at Georgetown (Philadelphia, 1899).
H. M. Brock.
Curr, Joseph, priest, controversialist, and martyr of charity, b. at Sheffield, England, in the Last quarter of the eighteenth ccnturj'; d. at Leeds, 29 June, 1847. He was educated at Crook Hall, County Durham, and Ushaw College, was ordained a priest and served for some years the missions in Rook Street and Granby Row, Manchester, where he engaged in controversy with the Protestant Bible Association. Later, after a retirement to La Trappe in France, he returned to Ushaw, going thence to Callaly, Northumberland. About 1840 he was at St. Albans,"Blackburn, with Dr. Sharjiles, until the latter was consecrated Bishop of Samaria in partihus. Father Curr then went to Whit- by, remaining there until about 1846. when he was ap- pointed to Sheffield. During thetyphasfeverepidemic of 1847, Leedswasalmost bereft of priests; Father Curr volunteered for service there, and fell a victim to the disease. His principal works are: "The Instructor's Assistant", long used in Manchester Sunday Schools; "Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed
Virgin", from the Italian of Liguori (Manchester);
"Spiritual Retreat", adapted from Bourdaloue;
"Familiar Instructions in Catholic Faith and Moral-
ity" (Manchester, 1827). There remain two sermons,
also several pamphlets and newspaper letters of a con-
troversial character.
Orthodox Journal (1835), 36, 40; Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Erw. Cath., I, 608. *
Patrick Ryan.
Curry, John, doctor of medicine and Irish his- torian; b. in Dublin in the first quarter of the eighteenth century; d. there, 1780. He studied medicine at Paris and Reims and returned to Dub- lin to practise his profession. He was an ardent Catholic and, to refute the calumnies levelled .against his coreligionists, published in London, in 1747, a "Brief .\ccount from the most authentic Protestant AVriters of the Irish Rebellion, 1641". This was bitterly attacked by Walter Harris in a volume pub- lished in Dublin, 1752, and in reply Curry published his "Historical Memoirs", afterwards enlarged and published (1775) under the title "An Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland". This is his best work; a new edition of it, enlarged from Curry's manuscript, was published by Charles O'Con- nor of Belnagare, in 2 vols. (Dublin, 1786), and in one vol. (Dublin, 1810). In this work, after a brief glance over the developments in Ireland after the invasion of Henrj' II, he takes up the real history at the reign of Elizabeth and carries it down to the Settlement under William III. Curry took a prom- inent part in the struggle of the Irish Catholics for the repeal of the Penal Laws, and was one of the founders of the (Irish) Catholic Committee which met in Esse.x Street, 1760. Besides the works al- ready mentioned, he published "An Essay on Ordi- nary- Fevers" (London, 1743) and "Some Thoughts on the Nature of Fevers" (London, 1774).
Memoir by Charles O'Connor in the editions of Historical Review published at DubUn, 1786. 1810; Wyse. Sketch of the Catholic .i.i.iociation (London, 1829); Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1878).
James MacC.^ffrey.
Cursing. — In its popular acceptation cursing is often confounded, especially in the phrase "cursing and swearing", with the use of profane and insulting language; in canon law it sometimes signifies the ban of excommunication pronounced by the Church. In its more common Biblical sense it means the opposite of blessing (cf. Num.. .xxiii, 27), and is generally either a threat of the Divine wrath, or its actual visi- tation, or its prophetic announcement, though occa- sionally it is a mere petition that calamity may be visited by God on persons or things in refpiital for wrongdoing. Thim among many other instances we find God cursing the serpent (Gen., iii, 14), the earth (Gen., iii, 17), and Cain (Gen., iv, 11). Similarly Noe curses Chanaan (Gen., ix, 25); Josue, him who should build the city of Jericho (Jos., vi, 26-27); and in various books of the Old Testament there are long lists of curses against transgressors of the Law (cf. Lev., xxvi, 14-25; Deut., x.xvii, 15, etc.). So, too, in the New Testament, Christ curses the barren fig-tree (Mark, xi, 14), pronounces his denunciation of woe against the increduloiis cities (M.att., xi, 21), against the rich, the worKlliiig, the scribes and the Pharisees, and foretells the awful malediction that is to come upon the damned (Matt , xx\', 41). The word curse is also applied to the victim of expiation for sin (Gal., iii, 13), to sins temporal and eternal (Gen., ii, 17; Matt., X.XV, 41).
In moral theology, to curse is to call down evil upon God or creatures, rational or irrational, living or dead. St. Thomas treats of it under the name malcdiciio, and says that imprecation may be made either effi- caciously and by way of command, as when made by
