the French, when the leader of the latter, the Due de Nemours, was slain. In the neighbourhood, to the west of the Lago di Salpi, are the ruins of the ancient Apulian
town Salapia. Population about 17,500.CERIGO, the ancient Cythera (Ku%>a), one of the Ionian islands, situated at a distance of not less than 150 miles from Zante, but only about 8 miles from Cape Malea on the southern coast of Greece. Its length from N. to S. is nearly 20 miles, and its greatest breadth about 12; its area is 1 1 4 square miles. The general character of the surface is rocky and broken ; but streams abound, and there are various parts of considerable fertility. Two caves, of imposing dimensions, and adorned with stalactites of great beauty, are the most notable among its natural peculiarities ; one is situated at the seaward end of the glen of the Mylopotamus, and the other, named Santa Sophia, about two hours ride from Capsali. Less of the ground is cultivated and more of it is in pasture land than in any other of the seven islands. Some wine and corn are produced, and the quality of the olive oil is good. The honey is still highly prized, as it was in remote antiquity ; and a considerable quantity of cheese is manufactured from the milk of the goat. Salt, flax, cotton, and currants are also mentioned among the produce. The people are industrious, and many of them go to seek employment as labourers in the Morea and Asia Minor. Unfortunately the island has hardly a regular harbour on any part of the coast ; and from its situation at the meeting as it were of seas, the currents in the neighbourhood are strong, and storms are very frequent. The best anchorage is at San Nicole, at the middle of the eastern side of the island. The principal village is Capsali, a place of about 1500 inhabitants, at the southern extremity, with a bishop, and several convents and churches ; the lesser hamlets are Modari, Potamo, and San Nicolo. There are compara tively few traces of antiquity, and the identification of the ancient cities has not been satisfactorily accomplished. The capital bore the same name as the island, and con sisted of a maritime and an inland portion, distant from each other about 10 stadia. The site of the upper city is probably at Paleopoli, about three miles from the present port of Avlemona ; but no trace can be discovered of the famous shrine of the Venus of Cythera, whose worship had been introduced from Syria, and ultimately spread over Greece. The present inhabitants of the island are very badly educated. The number of priests is out of all pro portion to the population, and no fewer than 260 churches or chapels have been counted. Spirtdion Vlandi, author of an Italian and Romaic lexicon, published at Venice in 1806, is one of the few Cerigotes who have made appear ance in literature. In 1857 the total population was 13,256, the excess of females being 1028; it appears now to number about 10,000. At a very early date Cythera was the seat of a Phoenician settlement, established in connection with the purple fishery of the neighbouring coast. For a time dependent on Argos, it became afterwards an im portant possession of the Spartans, who annually despatched a governor named the Cytherodices. In the Peloponnesian War, Nicias occupied the island, and in 393 it was captured by Conon the Athenian. By Augustus it was bestowed on Eurycles. Its modern history has been very much the same as that of the other Ionian Islands ; but it was subject to Venice for a much shorter period from 1717 to 1797. See the works referred to under Cephalonta.
CERIGOTTO, an island of Greece, belonging to the Ionian group, and situated between Cerigo and Crete in 35 50 N. lat. and 23 20 E. long. It was anciently known as ^Egilia, and is now called by its inhabitants Lius. With an area of about 10 square miles it supports a population of about 300, who are mainly Cretan refugees, and in favourable seasons exports a quantity of good wheat. It was long a favourite resort of Greek pirates.
CERINTHUS was the founder of one of the earliest heretical sects of the Christians. He was brought up in Egypt (Theod. Hcer. Fab. ii. 3), but removed to Asia Minor, where he propagated his doctrines. He flourished, according to Eusebius (Hist. JEccl. iii. 28) in the time of Trajan (98-117). Irenaeus relates a story which repre sents him as a contemporary of the apostle John (Contra Hcer. iii. 3, 4). He says that John, the disciple of the Lord, when in Ephesus went to bathe, and when he saw Cerinthus inside, he leapt from the bath without bathing, crying out, " Let us flee, lest the bath fall, for Cerinthus the enemy of the truth is within." Ireuocus heard this story from some people who heard it from Polycarp, who may have heard it directly, or more likely at second-hand, from some of the friends of St John. The same story is told in regard to Ebion, but not on so good authority. We know nothing of the death of Cerinthus.
We possess three different authorities for the opinions of Cerinthus, to some extent inconsistent with each other, Ireuseus, Caius the Roman presbyter, and the third unknown. Lipsius has tried to prove that the third was Hippolytus,
According to Irenseus (Contra Hcer. i. 26), Cerinthus taught " that the world was not made by the supreme God, but by a certain power which was separated and distant from the supreme authority, which is over all, and which was ignorant of the God over all." He also maintained " that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the offspring of Joseph and Mary, born like all other human beings, and that he was juster and wiser and more prudent than all." He affirmed also " that after his baptism the Christ came down into him in the form of a dove from the Lord, who is above all, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father and performed miracles, but towards the end the Christ flew away from Jesus, and that Jesus suffered and was raised up, but that the Christ remained impassible, being spiritual." The same information is given in the treatise The Refutation of Heresies, first ascribed to Origen, and now to Hippolytus (lib. vii. c. 33), in the very words of Irenaeus, and the writer repeats it in his summary (x. 21), with the addition that it was by an angelic power that the world was made. Irenanis (iii. xi. 7, see also Jerome, De Viris III. c. 9) also informs us that the gospel of St John contained statements which were specially intended to remove the error of Cerinthus, and of the Nicolaitanes who held the opinion before him, that the maker of the world and the supreme God were different.
follows. " Cerinthus. by means of revelations which pretend to be written by a great apostle, speaking falsely, introduces wonders which he speaks of as if they had been shown to him by angels, saying that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ was to be on earth, and that again men in bodily form would live in Jerusalem and be subject to lusts and pleasures. And being an enemy to the Scriptures, and wishing to lead astray, he affirms that a thousand years will be spent in marriage feasting " (Eus. Hist. Ecd. iii. 28). It is plain from this passage that Caius derived his opinion of the character of the millennium in which Cerinthus believed from the revelations which Cerinthus w r rote in the name of a great apostle. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, affirms that some maintained that the Apocalypse was not the production of the apostle John, not even of a saint, but of Cerinthus, who established the sect called Cerinthian from him, and who wished to give a respectable name to his own fiction (Eus. Hist. Ecd. vii. 25). The context proves conclusively that Dionysius
refers specially to Caius, whose words he partly quotes
