COLBT, JOHN. 



COLIN, ALEXANDER. 



mt 



ooeerfaloeas, and Mipportod by that strong religious feeling which 

 formed . |>riucipsl feature of his character. Ho died on the Sth ot 

 January IMS, and waa buried by the ode of hU uncle, in Highgate 

 old church yard. HU wife survived him till 1852. She U noticed 

 further, with the post's other children, under COLSRIDQI, SAMUEL 

 TATLOB. 



COLKT. JOHN, the founder of 81 Paul's School, was bore in tho 

 parish of Si. Antbolin, London, in 1448, ud WM tho eldest ion of Sir 

 Hrnry Colet, knight, twice lord mayor, who had beside* him twenty- 

 on* cUlHrro. In 1 483 he wa tent to Magdalen College, Oxford, wbrra 

 he pawed seven yran, and took the usual degree* in arts. Her.- he 

 atodied Latin, with some of the Ore. k authon through a Latin medium, 

 and matbeoiatir*. Having tbu* laid a good foundation of learning at 

 DOOM, he travelled abroad for further improvement ; firat to Franco, 

 and then to Italy, in which two countries he continued from 1493 to 

 1407. Before hia departure however, and indeed when only of two 

 yean' (landing in the univeraity, being then in acolythe'i orders, he 

 waa instituted to the rectory of Dennington in Suffolk, which be 

 odd till h>s death. HU father alo presented him in 14S5 to the 

 rectory of rhyming in Huntingdon*!. ire, which be resigned in 1498. 

 At Paris ha became acquainted with Budcua, and was afterwards 

 introduced to Krarmua. In Italy he contracted a friendship with 

 numerous eminent persons, and especially with some of hia own 

 countrymen, among whom were Qrocyn, Linacre, Lilly, and Latimer, 

 all of whom were studying the Greek language, then but little known 

 ..land. Whilst abroad he devoted himself chiefly to divinity 

 and the tudy of the civil and canon law. During bu absence from 

 England he was made a prebendary of York in 1497, and was alto 

 made a canon and prebendary of St. Martin's-le-Grand in London. He 

 returned in this year, and was ordained deacon ; taking priest's orders 

 in the following year. Soon after tbu be retired to Oxford, where 

 Erasmus came, and renewed bu friendship with him. In Oxford be 

 read public lectures upon St. Paul's Epistles gratuitously. In 1502, 

 having proceeded in divinity, ho became prebendary of Durnsford in 

 the church of Salisbury, and in 1504 resigned bin prebendary at St 

 itartin's-le-Orand. In the same year he commenced D.D. In May 

 1(05 be was instituted to the prebendary of Mora in St. Paul's, 

 London, and in the tame year and month was appointed dean. In 

 UiU office he reformed the decayed discipline of his cathedral, and 

 introduced a new practice of preaching himself upon Sundays and 

 great festivals. 



By bis own and by other lectures which be caused to be read in 

 hia cathedral, Colet mainly assuted in raising that spirit of inquiry 

 after the holy Scriptures which eventually produced tin- reformation ; 

 bat the contempt which he avowed for the abuse* in religious houses, 

 bis aversion to the celibacy of the clergy, and the general freedom of 

 hU opinions, made him obnoxious to some of the clergy, and especially 

 to Fitzjames, then bihop of London, who accused him to Archbishop 

 Warham as a dangerous man, and even preferred articles against him. 

 Warbam however dismissed the case. From Bishop Latimcr's sermons 

 it should seem that Fitzjames afterwards tried to stir up the king aud 

 court against him. 



At length, tired with trouble and persecution, Colet began to think 

 of retiring from the world. He bad now an ample estate, without nny 

 near relations, for numerous as his brethren bad been, he bad outlived 

 thrm all He raolved therefore, in the midst of life and health, to 

 consecrate hU fortune to some lasting benefaction, which be performed 

 in the foundation of St. Paul's School, of which he appointed William 

 Lilly first master in 1512. He ordained that there should be in this 

 school a high-master, a snr-master, and a chaplain, who should teach 

 gratU 163 children, divided into eight classes; and he endowed it 

 with lands and bouses then producing an income of 122/. 4. 7 id. per 

 annum, of which endowment be made the Company of Mercers 

 trustee*. The gross average income of St. Paul's School was, more 

 than twenty years ago, about 53001. per annum, and U now much 

 larger. (Carlisle's ' Grammar Schools,' vol. ii. p. 94.) To further his 

 scheme of retiring, Colet built for himself a handsome house near the 

 royal palace of Richmond in Surrey, in which he intended to reside ; 

 but having been seized by the sweating-sickness twice, and relapsing 

 into it a third time, a consumption ensued, which proved fatal, Sep- 

 tember 16, 1619, in his fifty-third year. He was buried in St. Paul's 

 choir, with an humble monument which he bad himtelf prepared some 

 yean before, bearing simply his name. Another monument was 

 afterwards set up for him by the Mercers' Company, of a handsomer 

 description, but it was destroyed in the fire of 1666. It had previously 

 been engraved for Dugdale's ' HUtory of St Paul's.' 



Dean Colet's works were : 1. Orstio ad Clerum in Convocatione,' 

 anno 1611 ; repriDUd by Dr. Samuel Knight, in the appendix to hU 

 LU* of Colet,' with an old KoglUh translation of it, up|>oaed to have 

 bean done by the author himself. 2. ' The Construction of the Eight 

 Parti of Speech, entitled Absoluliwimus da octo OrationU partium 

 oonstrocUuoe Ltbellas,' Svo, Antw., 1630. 8. ' Rudiuienta Gramma- 

 ticca,' for tbe use of his school, commonly called ' Paul's Accidence,' 

 ovo, 1639. 4. < l>aily Devotions,' said not to be all of bU composition. 

 6. ' Monition to a Godly Lif.-,' Svo, 1534, Ac. Many of hU letters are 

 printed in Krasmu*'* ' Kpistles,' and five, with one from Erasmus, in 

 the appendix to Knight'. 'Life.' Tbe original statutes of St Paul's 

 School, signed by Dean Colet, were some years ago accidentally picked 



up at a booksrller's by the late Mr. Hamper of Birmingham, and by 

 him presented to the British Museum. 



(Knight, l</ f ,.f lir. Jokn Col*, Svo, London, 1724 ; Wood, Atktiur 



COLIGNY, OASPARD DE, born in February 1516, was the son of 



( liupi.nl de Coligny. lord of Chatillon sur-Loiug and marshal of France, 

 and of Louise de Moutmorency, sitter to the famoun duke and con- 

 stable of that name. Coligny served in Italy under Frauds I., snd 

 was present at the battle of CerUolea. Henri 1 1. made him colonel* 

 general of infantry, and 'afterwards in 1562 admiral of France. In the 

 latter capacity he sent a colony to llrasil, which however was soon 

 after driven away by the Portuguese. Coligny himself continued to 

 serve in the army by land. Hedefended St Quentin against Philip II., 

 and was made prisoner at the surrender of the place, 



Having embraced the reformed religion, Coligny became, with Louis 

 prince of Condi, one of tbe great leaders of the Protestant party 

 against Catherine de' Medici and tbe Guises, during the reign of 

 Charles IX. Coligny was much respected by his party : he was 

 prudent in his plans and cool in danger; defeat did not dishearten 

 him, and he rose again after it as formidable as ever. After tbe loss 

 of the battle of Drenx, in which Condi was taken prisoner, Coligny 

 saved the remains of bu army. The following year peace was made, 

 but in 1 567 the civil and religious war broke out again, and the battle 

 of St Denis was fought, in which the old Constable Montmorency, 

 who commanded the royal or Catholic army, was killed. A short 

 truce followed, but hostilities broke out again in 1569, when tbe battle 

 of Jarnac was fought, in which the Prince of Condi was killed. 

 Coligny again took the command and saved hU army, which was coon 

 after joined by the Princo of Beam (afterwards Henri IV.), then 

 sixteen years of age, and Henry, tbe son of Condi, who was but 

 seventeen. The Prince of Beam was declared the head of the Protest- 

 .mt-. but Coligny exercised all the functions of leader and commander. 

 On tbe 3rd of October 1569 Coligny lost the battle of Moncontour, 

 against the Duke of Anjou (afterwards Henri III). Still Coligny 

 continued the war south of the Loire, gained several advantages, and 

 at but a peace was concluded at St Germain in August 1570, which 

 was called ' la paix boitcuce ct mal assise,' because it waa con. 

 by the Sieur de Biron, who was lame, and by De Mesmes, l.r.1 ,.f 

 Miilassife. Tbe peace however fully deserved its nickname by the 

 spirit in which it was concluded by tho court The leaders of the 

 Protestants, and Coligny among the rest, entertained strong suspicions 

 on the subject ; but they were lulled into security by the apparent 

 frankness of Charles IX, aud the approaching marriage of the Prince 

 of Blarn with the Princess Margaret, tbo king's sister. Coligny came 

 to court, and was well received, but on tbe 22nd of August 1 

 was shot at in the street by an attendant of the Duke of Guise. Tim 

 wounds however did not prove dangerous. The attempt was made at 

 the instigation of the Duchess of Nemours, whose first husband, 

 Francis, duke of Guise, had been assassinated by a Huguenot fanatic 

 at tbe siege of Orleans in 1563, when Coligny was unjustly suspected 

 of having directed the blow. The Duke of Anjou and the queen-mother 

 were parties to the attempt upon Coligny's life. On the 24th of August 

 1572, two days later, the massacre of ' la Sainte Barthi51emi ' took place. 

 [CuiBLEs IX] The Duke of Guise himself led tbe murderers to the 

 house of the admiral, but remained in the court below, while Beanie, 

 one of his servants, went up followed by others. They found Coligny 

 seated in an arm-chair. " Young man," said he to Besme, " you ought 

 to respect my gray hairs; but, do what you will, you can but f\. 

 toy life by a few days." They stabbed him in several place?, and 

 threw him, still breathing, out of a window into the court, where he fell 

 at the feet of the Duke of Guise. His body was left exposed to the 

 fury of the populace, and at last was hung by the feet to a gibbet 

 HU head was cut off and sent to Catherine de' Medici. Montmoreucy, 

 cousin to the admiral, had hU body secretly buried in the vaults of 

 tbe chateau of Chantilly, where it remained in a leaden coffin till 1786, 

 when Montesquieu asked for the remains of Coligny from the Duke of 

 Luxembourg, lord of Chatillon, and transferred them to bis own estato 

 of Maupertuis, where he raised a sepulchral chapel and a monument 

 to the memory of the admiral. After the revolution tbe momnm-nt 

 was transferred to the Musee dca Monumens FrancaU, and a Latin 

 inscription wss placed upon it by M. Marron, the head of the Protestant 

 consistory at Paris. 



COLIN, ALEXANDER, the sculptor of the excellent marble alti- 

 rilievi of the celebrated tomb of the Emperor Maximilian I. in the 

 Kreuzkirche at Innsbruck. Colin was born at Mechlin in 162(i, and 

 in 1563 was invited by the Emperor Ferdinand I. to Innsbruck, to 

 complete the alti-rilievi of his grandfather's tomb, which had been 

 commenced by tbe brothers AbeL They were completed by Colin, 

 with the help of assistants, in three years, for on one side of tho 

 monument is "Alexand. Colinua Mechliuiensis, sculpsit, anno 1566." 

 Tho sculptures consut of twenty-four marble tablet*, fixed into the 

 four sides of the tomb, aud record all the principal acts aud victories 

 of the Emperor Maximilian. Tbe figures are small, but they are 

 executed with great skill and extreme care. Tbe tomb U surroi 

 by twenty-eight colossal bronce statues of heroes of the middle ages ; 

 it U altogether one of the most magnificent monuments in Europe, 

 and has often been mentioned in the very higbent terms by old and 

 modern travellers. The bronze statues were executed by a founder of 



