Just one more blog inspired by Cornelius and then I’ll move on. I promise.
As a modern forename Cornelius is not common. Offhand I can think only of Cornelius Ryan, who wrote The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far, amongst other works on the Second World War.
Roddy MacDowell’s chimp in The Planet of the Apes was called Cornelius and Shakespeare used the name a couple of times, in Cymbeline and Hamlet. I’ve found that there is a basketball player called Cornelius Hawkins, nicknamed Connie.
But its origin is much grander. The Cornelii – let’s call them the Cornelians and my spellcheck will stop bothering me – were one of the great aristocratic clans (gentes) of Rome. Over hundreds of years they provided a high proportion of Consuls, Rome’s chief executives, as well as many other leaders.
One of her greatest generals was Scipio (pictured), the man who finally defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama in North Africa and ended the Second Punic War (202 BC). In full his name was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, where Publius is a personal name, used by intimates, Cornelius his clan name and Scipio is family name. The ‘Africanus’ was an honour given to him after his victory over Hannibal, similar to the British award of a peerage to a successful general, for example Montgomery of Alamein. ‘Major’ distinguishes him from a later Scipio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus
I read that Scipio turned down huge powers in Rome, such as ‘dictator for life’ at the end of his campaign, but later Cornelians were less modest.
Cornelius Sulla, who lived from 138-78 BC, was another general who twice marched his armies on Rome at one time was granted an indeterminate term as dictator. He was part of the process whereby the Republic, with its checks and balances and fears of absolute power, was breaking apart and moving towards the time of the Emperors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cornelius_Sulla
Cornelius Cinna (d 84BC) was another strong man who served as Consul for four years in succession – strictly illegal – and continued the dangerous precedents, using his army to cow the Senate, murdering his opponents and subverting the constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cornelius_Cinna
Later in the century other Cornelians tried the same thing with less success. Cornelius Lentulus Sura and Cornelius Cethegus were involved in the Catiline conspiracy to take over Rome. They were exposed by Cicero, found guilty and judicially strangled in 63 BC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Cornelius_Lentulus_%28Sura%29
So, to bring these meanderings back to the Hundlebys, was there once an ancient history buff called Bradley who fancied the name? Highly unlikely, I would have thought, because most of these men were rather unsavoury characters and were known in any case by their surname – Scipio, Sulla, etc.
It’s more likely that the name was used for religious reasons. Here there are two main candidates, two ‘saints’ in fact.
The first is the Roman centurion Cornelius, whom we meet in The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10. Already a devout man, Cornelius was told about the gospel in a dream and approached the apostle Peter with a view to baptism. Peter needed a dream himself to be convinced that gentiles as well as Jews were welcome in the Christian fold but eventually Cornelius was baptized. Later he was canonised by the Catholic Church, as was just about anybody whose name appears in the New Testament.
The whole story is drenched in myth, but it represents a vital moment in the history of Christianity, when it ceased to be a Jewish heresy and began its rise to domination of the western world.
The Bradleys seem to have had a taste for Biblical names and I would guess that Centurion Cornelius was the reason for its adoption.
There are other saints named Cornelius, one of whom was a pope and a martyr.
He was a member of the old Cornelian clan and ‘reigned’ as Bishop Rome from 253-251 AD.
Finally, my researches have turned up one interesting fact. Did you know that the rooster mascot of Kellogg’s is called Cornelius?
As a modern forename Cornelius is not common. Offhand I can think only of Cornelius Ryan, who wrote The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far, amongst other works on the Second World War.
Roddy MacDowell’s chimp in The Planet of the Apes was called Cornelius and Shakespeare used the name a couple of times, in Cymbeline and Hamlet. I’ve found that there is a basketball player called Cornelius Hawkins, nicknamed Connie.
But its origin is much grander. The Cornelii – let’s call them the Cornelians and my spellcheck will stop bothering me – were one of the great aristocratic clans (gentes) of Rome. Over hundreds of years they provided a high proportion of Consuls, Rome’s chief executives, as well as many other leaders.
One of her greatest generals was Scipio (pictured), the man who finally defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama in North Africa and ended the Second Punic War (202 BC). In full his name was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, where Publius is a personal name, used by intimates, Cornelius his clan name and Scipio is family name. The ‘Africanus’ was an honour given to him after his victory over Hannibal, similar to the British award of a peerage to a successful general, for example Montgomery of Alamein. ‘Major’ distinguishes him from a later Scipio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus
I read that Scipio turned down huge powers in Rome, such as ‘dictator for life’ at the end of his campaign, but later Cornelians were less modest.
Cornelius Sulla, who lived from 138-78 BC, was another general who twice marched his armies on Rome at one time was granted an indeterminate term as dictator. He was part of the process whereby the Republic, with its checks and balances and fears of absolute power, was breaking apart and moving towards the time of the Emperors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cornelius_Sulla
Cornelius Cinna (d 84BC) was another strong man who served as Consul for four years in succession – strictly illegal – and continued the dangerous precedents, using his army to cow the Senate, murdering his opponents and subverting the constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cornelius_Cinna
Later in the century other Cornelians tried the same thing with less success. Cornelius Lentulus Sura and Cornelius Cethegus were involved in the Catiline conspiracy to take over Rome. They were exposed by Cicero, found guilty and judicially strangled in 63 BC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Cornelius_Lentulus_%28Sura%29
So, to bring these meanderings back to the Hundlebys, was there once an ancient history buff called Bradley who fancied the name? Highly unlikely, I would have thought, because most of these men were rather unsavoury characters and were known in any case by their surname – Scipio, Sulla, etc.
It’s more likely that the name was used for religious reasons. Here there are two main candidates, two ‘saints’ in fact.
The first is the Roman centurion Cornelius, whom we meet in The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10. Already a devout man, Cornelius was told about the gospel in a dream and approached the apostle Peter with a view to baptism. Peter needed a dream himself to be convinced that gentiles as well as Jews were welcome in the Christian fold but eventually Cornelius was baptized. Later he was canonised by the Catholic Church, as was just about anybody whose name appears in the New Testament.
The whole story is drenched in myth, but it represents a vital moment in the history of Christianity, when it ceased to be a Jewish heresy and began its rise to domination of the western world.
The Bradleys seem to have had a taste for Biblical names and I would guess that Centurion Cornelius was the reason for its adoption.
There are other saints named Cornelius, one of whom was a pope and a martyr.
He was a member of the old Cornelian clan and ‘reigned’ as Bishop Rome from 253-251 AD.
Finally, my researches have turned up one interesting fact. Did you know that the rooster mascot of Kellogg’s is called Cornelius?
Corn – Cornelius, get it?
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