Cooper (Robert), Secularist writer and lecturer, b. 29 Dec. 1819, at Barton-on-Irwell, near Manchester. He had the advantage of being brought up in a Freethought family. At fourteen he became teacher in the Co-operative Schools, Salford, lectured at fifteen, and by seventeen became an acknowledged advocate of Owenism, holding a public discussion with the Rev. J. Bromley. Some of his lectures were published—one on Original Sin sold twelve thousand copies—when he was scarcely eighteen. The Holy Scriptures Analysed (1832) was denounced by the Bishop of Exeter in the House of Lords. Cooper was dismissed from a situation he had held ten years, and in 1841 became a Socialist missionary in the North of England and Scotland. At Edinburgh (1845) he wrote Free Agency and Orthodoxy, and compiled the Infidel’s Text Book. About ’50 he came to London, lecturing with success at John Street Institution. In ’54 he started the London Investigator, which he edited for three years. In it appears his lectures on “Science v. Theology,” “Admissions of Distinguished Men,” etc. Failing health obliged him to retire leaving the Investigator to “Anthony Collins” (W. H. Johnson), and afterwards to “Iconoclast” (C. Bradlaugh). At his last lecture he fainted on the platform. In 1858 he remodelled his Infidel Text-Book into a work on The Bible and Its Evidences. He devoted himself to political reform until his death, 3 May, 1868.
Cooper (Thomas), M.D., LL.D., natural philosopher, politician, jurist and author, b. London, 22 Oct. 1759. Educated at Oxford, he afterwards studied law and medicine; was admitted to the bar and lived at Manchester, where he wrote a number of tracts on “Materialism,” “Whether Deity be a Free Agent,” etc., 1789. Deputed with James Watt, the inventor, by the Constitutional clubs to congratulate the Democrats of France (April, 1792), he was attacked by Burke and replied in a vigorous pamphlet. In ’94 he published Information Concerning America, and in the next year followed his friend Priestly to Philadelphia, established himself as a lawyer and was made judge. He also conducted the Emporium of Arts and Sciences in that city. He was Professor of Medicine at Carlisle College, ’12, and afterwards held the chairs both of Chemistry and Political Economy in South Carolina College, of which he became President, 1820–34. This position he was forced to resign on account of his religious views. He translated from Justinian and Broussais, and digested the Statutes of South Carolina. In philosophy a Materialist, in religion a Freethinker, in politics a Democrat, he urged his views in many pamphlets. One on The Right of Free Discussion, and a little book on Geology and the Pentateuch, in reply to Prof. Silliman, were republished in London by James Watson. Died at Columbia, 11 May, 1840.[1]
Coornhert (Dirk Volkertszoon), Dutch humanist, poet and writer, b. Amsterdam, 1522. He travelled in his youth through Spain and Portugal. He set up as an engraver at Haarlem, and became thereafter notary and secretary of the city of Haarlem. He had a profound horror of intolerance, and defended liberty against Beza and Calvin. The clergy vituperated him as a Judas and as instigated by Satan, etc. Bayle, who writes of him as Theodore Koornhert, says he communed neither with Protestants nor Catholics. The magistrates of Delft drove him out of their city. He translated Cicero’s De Officiis, and other works. Died at Gouda, 20 Oct. 1590.
Cordonnier de Saint Hyacinthe. See [Saint-Hyacinthe (Themiseuil de)].
Corvin-Wiersbitski (Otto Julius Bernhard von), Prussian Pole of noble family, who traced their descent from the Roman Corvinii, b. Gumbinnen, 12 Oct. 1812. He served in the Prussian army, where he met his friend Friedrich von Sallet; retired into the Landwehr 1835, went to Leipsic and entered upon a literary career, wrote the History of the Dutch Revolution, 1841; the History of Christian Fanaticism, 1845, which was suppressed in Austria. He took part with the democrats in ’48; was condemned to be shot 15 Sept. ’49, but the sentence was commuted; spent six years’ solitary confinement in prison; came to London, became correspondent to the Times; went through American Civil War, and afterwards Franco-Prussian War, as a special correspondent. He has written a History of the New Time, 1848–71. Died since 1886.
Cotta (Bernhard), German geologist, b. Little Zillbach, Thuringia, 24 Oct. 1808. He studied at the Academy of Mining, in Freiberg, where he was appointed professor in ’42. His first production, The Dendroliths, ’32, proved him a diligent investigator. It was followed by many geological treatises. Cotta did much to support the nebular hypothesis and the law of natural development without miraculous agency. He also wrote on phrenology. Died at Freiburg, 13 Sept 1879.
Cotta (C. Aurelius), Roman philosopher, orator and statesman, b. B.C. 124. In ’75 he became Consul. On the expiration of his office he obtained Gaul as a province. Cicero had a high opinion of him and gives his sceptical arguments in the third book of his De Natura Deorum.
Courier (Paul Louis), French writer, b. Paris, 4 Jan. 1772. He entered the army and became an officer of artillery, serving with distinction in the Army of the Republic. He wrote many pamphlets, directed against the clerical restoration, which place him foremost among the literary men of the generation. His writings are now classics, but they brought him nothing but imprisonment, and he was apparently assassinated, 10 April, 1825. He had a presentiment that the bigots would kill him.
Coventry (Henry), a native of Cambridgeshire, b. about 1710, Fellow of Magdalene College, author of Letters of Philemon to Hydaspus on False Religion (1736). Died 29 Dec. 1752.
Coward (William), M.D., b. Winchester, 1656. Graduated at Wadham College, Oxford, 1677. Settled first at Northampton, afterwards at London. Published, besides some medical works, Second Thoughts Concerning Human Soul, which excited much indignation by denying natural immortality. The House of Commons (17 March, 1704) ordered his work to be burnt. He died in 1725.