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CORINTHIANS CORIOLANUS 355 and also to give decisive judgments on certain practices, in regard to which the Corinthian converts had been affected by the proverbial immorality of the place. " Every one of yon," Paul wrote to them (i. 12), "saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." Critics are almost unanimous in assuming that the party of Paul consisted of Christians who had been converted by him, chiefly from paganism; that the party of Apollos favored a Hellenico-philosophical ten- dency, and adopted Alexandrian forms of thought; and that the followers of Peter en- couraged the tendency, common in the early churches, to engraft upon Christianity the ritual and restrictions of Judaism. But the greatest difference of opinion exists as to the party of Christ, most of the writers on the subject agreeing however so far as to assume that this party objected to the authority which Peter, Paul, and Apollos enjoyed with the other parties, and wished Christ to be regarded as the only head and authority of the church. In the first four chapters the apostle condemns their assumption of wisdom and disposition to glory in men, and urges them to unity on the foundation which is laid in Christ. In the re- mainder of the epistle he censures the church for having tolerated immoralities, condemns lawsuits between Christians before heathen judges, and, in answer to queries proposed to him by the Corinthians, gives various instruc- tions concerning marriage and celibacy, the use of meat which had been offered to idols, the exercise of supernatural gifts, and the proprie- ties of public worship. The epistle closes with an elaborate exposition of the doctrine of the resurrection, and with general greetings. The second epistle has been much admired for its oratorical structure. The occasion of it seems to have been less special, at least less urgent ; for he congratulates the disciples on the effect of his former censures, which had produced a godly sorrow and a revival of proper discipline. The burden of the second epistle is to com- mend them for their steadfastness, to rejoice in the conviction that he had labored with them in all sincerity and with all zeal, and to apologize to them for what might appear to be a foolish pride. It vindicates the character and effects of the religion which he had pro- claimed, and his own dignity and authority as an apostle, apparently with reference to anti- Pauline influences which were still operating in the ch'urch. This second letter was proba- bly written from Philippi, and about one year after the sending of the first. The Pauline origin of these two epistles is generally recog- nized even by the theologians of the critical school, and in the modern controversies on the life and true teachings of Jesus they are on that account of special importance. It is in- ferred from 1 Cor. v. 9 that our first epistle to the Corinthians was preceded by one which is now lost. An apocryphal book extant in the Armenian language (latest edition by Aucher, Venice, 1819) claims to be this epistle, and has found a defender in Rinck, who has trans- lated it into German (1823). A number of exegetical writers, as Olshausen, Bleek, Nean- der, Ewald, Hilgenfeld, and Klopper (Exege- tisch-kritische Untersuchungen uber den zweiten Brief an die Korinther, Gottingen, 1869), as- sume that another letter which is likewise lost was sent after the first and before the second ; while Weisse and Hausrath consider the second epistle as a combination of two or three dif- ferent epistles, and in particular the first seven chapters to have been written later than the last four. CORIOLANUS, the name bestowed by the Ro- man people on the patrician Cneius Marcius, for the conquest of the Volscian town of Co- rioli. He was a leading member of the senate during the dissensions which followed soon after the establishment of the tribunes. Hav- ing been rejected as candidate for the consul- ship, he was so exasperated against the people, that during the great famine which then oc- curred he proposed in the senate the retention of grain sent from Sicily until the plebeians should consent to sacrifice the new magistracy created for the defence of their rights (491 B. 0.). For this he was impeached by the tri- bunes and condemned to exile by the assem- bly of the people, to which tus case was referred by the senate. He left Rome, made his way to Antium, the capital of the Volsci, against whom he had fought bravely a few years before, took the command of their army, ravaged the Roman colonies, conquered the towns of the Latins, their allies, and compelled this people to join him. He penetrated to Rome, and ravaged from his camp at the Cluilian dike the lands of the plebeians, sparing those of his own order. The terrified plebs now entreated the senate to re- voke the decree of banishment ; the senators refused to compromise the dignity of Rome, but were finally compelled to yield. Five consular and other distinguished citizens carried the de- cree of recall into the camp of Coriolanus; but he demanded the restitution to the Volsci of all the lands formerly conquered from them, and the acceptance of this condition within 30 days. Before the expiration of this term the Romans, reduced to extremity, sent one embassy after another to the haughty exile. He refused to listen to the senators or to the priests, but could not resist the reproaches of his mother Veturia, and the tears of his wife Volumnia, who led an embassy of matrons. " Thou hast saved Rome," said he to his mother, "but lost thy son." He then returned with his army into the land of the Volsci, who, according to some historians, punished his defection with death ; according to others, he was suffered to live quietly among them. The matrons of Rome, it is said, mourn- ed his death for a whole year, in a temple erect- ed to Fortuna Muliebris, to commemorate their merits. The history of Coriolanus contains so many improbabilities that its authenticity has been seriously questioned by modern critics.