Balthasar Cordier

(Corderius)

Exegete and editor of patristic works, b. at Antwerp, 7 June, 1592; d. at Rome, 24 June, 1650. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1612, and after teaching Greek, moral theology, and Sacred Scripture, devoted himself to translating and editing manuscripts of Greek catenæ and other works of the Greek Fathers, for which he searched the libraries of Europe.

He published the following: (1) Catena sexaginta quinque Patrum græcorum in S. Lucam” (Antwerp, 1628); (2) Catena Patrum græcorum in S. Joannem” (Antwerp, 1630); (3) Joannis Philoponi in cap. I Geneseos . . . libri septem” (Antwerp, 1630); (4) S. Cyrilli apologiæ morales” (Vienna, 1630);(5) Opera S. Dionysii Areopagitæ cum S. Maximi scholiis” (Antwerp, 1634); (6) Expositio Patrum græcorum in Psalmos” (Antwerp, 1643-46); (7) Symbolæ in Matthæum” (2 vols., of which, however, only the second is by him; Toulouse, 1646-47); (8) S. Dorothei archimandritæ institutiones asceticæ” (Antwerp, 1646); (9) S. P. N. Cyrilli archiepiscopi Alexandini homiliæ XIX in Jeremiam” (Antwerp, 1648) — in this case as in a few others, his critical acumen was at fault; these homilies are Origen’s.He is also the author of a commentary on the Book of Job, “Job Illustratus” (Antwerp, 1646; reprinted in Migne’s Cursus S. Scripturæ”. XIII and XIV, and in Campon’s edition of Cornelius a Lapide).