Collius, Francis

, a doctor of the Ambrosian college at Milan, and grand penitentiary of that diocese, who died in 1640, at a very advanced age, made himself famous by a treatise “De Animabus Paganorum,” published in two volumes 4to at Milan, in 1622 and 1623. He here examines into the final state in the world to come of several illustrious pagans, and hazards bold and ingenious conjectures on matters far beyond the reach of his intellect. He saves the Egyptian midwives, the queen of Sheba, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. and does not despair of the salvation of the seven sages of Greece, nor of that of Socrates; but condemns Pythagoras, Aristotle, and several |

others though he acknowledges that they knew the true God. This work, properly speaking, seems to be nothing more than a vehicle for the display of the author’s erudition, of which it doubtless contains a great deal. It is now ranked among the curious and rare. He also wrote “Conclusiones theologies,” 1609, 4to, and a treatise “De sanguine Christi,” full of profound disquisition and citations innumerable, Milan, 1617, 4to, but in less estimation than his treatise “de Animabus.” ¹