Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/215

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

dini in Anglia,’ Antwerp, 1645, 16mo, with three engraved portraits; reprinted, Munich, 1646, 16mo. The two Latin editions of this book are in great requisition among collectors (Backer, Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, ed. 1869, i. 1369; Cat. of the Huth Library, i. 282). An English translation by William Barclay Turnbull was published at London, 1858, 8vo (Gillow, Bibl. Dict. of the English Catholics, i. 564). 2. An account of his father. Printed in Foley's ‘Records,’ iii. 64. 3. ‘Vita e morte del fratello Tomaso Stilintono [i.e. Stillington, alias Oglethorpe], novitio Inglese della Compagnia di Giesu, morto in Messina, 15 Sept. 1617;’ manuscript at Stonyhurst College (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 338).

[Authorities cited above.]

T. C.

CORBIE or CORBINGTON, GERARD (1558–1637), catholic exile, was a native of the county of Durham. He was a severe sufferer for his profession of the catholic faith, being compelled frequently to cross to Ireland, and ultimately he became a voluntary exile with his family in Belgium. Three of his sons, Ambrose [q. v.], Ralph [q. v.], and Robert, having joined the Society of Jesus, his son Richard having died when a student at St. Omer, and his two daughters, May and Catharine, having become Benedictine nuns, he and his wife Isabella (née Richardson) agreed to separate and to consecrate themselves to religion. He accordingly entered the Society of Jesus at Watten as a temporal coadjutor, in 1628, and she in 1633, when in her eightieth year, became a professed Benedictine nun at Ghent, and died a centenarian in 1652. Gerard became blind five years before his death, which occurred at Watten on 17 Sept. 1637.

[Foley's Records, iii. 62–8; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, 674.]

T. C.

CORBIE or CORBINGTON, RALPH (1598–1644), jesuit, son of Gerard Corbie [q. v.], was born on 25 March 1598, near Dublin, his parents having been compelled to retire to Ireland from the county of Durham in order to escape persecution at home (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, p. 74). At the age of five he was taken to England by his parents, and he spent his childhood in the bishopric of Durham or in Lancashire. Afterwards he studied in the English college at St. Omer, at Seville, and at Valladolid, where he was ordained priest. He entered the Society of Jesus at Watten in 1626. About 1631 he was sent to the English mission, and the county of Durham was the scene of his labours (Foley, Records, vii. 169). Being seized by the rebels at Hamsterley on 8 July 1644, when vesting for mass, he was conveyed to London and committed to Newgate on the 22nd of that month, together with John Duckett, a secular priest. At their trial at the Old Bailey sessions (4 Sept.) they both admitted they were priests; they were condemned to death and executed at Tyburn on 7 Sept. 1644.

There is a long life of Corbie in Foley's ‘Records,’ iii. 68–96, taken principally from the ‘Certamen Triplex’ written by his brother Ambrose Corbie [q. v.] From the latter work Father Matthias Tanner in his ‘Societas Jesu usque ad sanguinis et vitæ profusionem militans,’ and Bishop Challoner in his ‘Memoirs of Missionary Priests’ (edit. 1742, ii. 278–85), derived their notices. There is an engraved portrait of him in the ‘Certamen Triplex.’

[Authorities cited above; also Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 111; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (1824), ii. 386; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. vol. i.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 339.]

T. C.

CORBMAC, Saint (6th cent.), was the son of Eogan, and descended in the ninth generation from Olioll Olum, king of Munster (d. 234). He had five brothers, all of whom ‘laboured for Christ’ in different provinces of Ireland, and ‘to each the piety of after times assigned heavenly honours.’ One of them, St. Emhin, is the reputed author of the ‘Tripartite Life of St. Patrick.’

Corbmac, desirous of pursuing a religious life, set out from his birthplace in Munster for the north of Ireland, in search of a solitary place. Arriving in Connaught, he first visited the court of Eogan Bel, who lived in the fortress of Dun Eogain, situated on an island in Lough Measg. The remains of this fortress were visible when Dr. O'Donovan visited the island in 1838. Not being well received by the king, Corbmac left the island, announcing as a prophet of God that ‘it was preordained’ that the palace should become a monastery.

Crossing the river Robe on his journey northward, he arrived at Fort Lothair, in the territory of Ceara (Carra, county of Mayo). Here he was hospitably received by Olioll Inbanda and Aedh Flaithemda, sons of Cellach, and twelve chieftains, but when about to settle among them he was opposed by St. Finan, who had built an oratory there, and was afraid that ‘the boundaries of his church would be narrowed if another set up near him.’ This Finan was abbot of Teampull Ratha, a church the ruins of which are still to be seen in the parish of Raymochy, co. Donegal. In consequence of this opposition he pursued his journey, and arrived at the dwelling of a virgin named Daria, daughter of Catheir,