ALE 



ALE 



fJifwn to the Cliinefe fuperftitions, Alexander virtually an- 

 tmlkil, in 1656, the fciitence of his predcctfTor, and allowed 

 ihc Chine fc converts the liberty of performing feveral of the 

 rites to whieh they had been accultomed, and to which they 

 Were principally attached. 



Alexander VII. whatever were his principles and pcrfonal 

 charafter, approved himfelf a friend to htcrature andtlie fine 

 arts, and expended confiderable fums in promoting them. 

 He embellifhed the city of Rome, and ereftcd the magnili- 

 ccnt college, " Delia Sapienza," which he furnidied with a 

 line librai-y, and a botanical garden. He appointed fix new 

 ^rofelTorfliips, and inereafed the falarics of the former profef- 

 lors. As an author, this pontiff has been highly extolled by 

 Ms paiiegyrifts; a volume of Latin poems, entitled, " Philo- 

 matni Mufa: juveniles," confiding of heroic, elegiac, and 

 lyric verfes, and a tragedy under the title of " Pompty," 

 after the model of Seneca, written in his youth, whilil he 

 was a ftudent at Sienna, was publidied in folio, at the Lou- 

 vre, in 1656 Alexander VII. died in the year 1667, with 

 a higher reputation for talents than for honefty, as Bayk 

 fays, more lamented by the Jefuits than the Janfenills. 

 Mofteim's Ecel. Hift. vol. v. p. 26 — 99 — 214. Bower's 

 Popes, vol. vii. p. 483. Gen. Uift. 



Alexandlr VIII. pope, originally called Peter Otto- 

 boni, was born at Venice in 1610; and having iludied at 

 \ enice and P;idua, was made a bifliop and cardinal by Inno- 

 cent X. ; and, at the age uf 79, fucceeded Innocent XI. in 

 "the papal fee. Inftead of devoting the powers which he had 

 acquired at this late period of life to the fervice of religion, 

 his thoughts were chiefly employed in providing for his rela- 

 'tions, and accumulating upon them honour and wealth. Ac- 

 cordingly one of his domeftics being alked by this pontiff 

 what the people faid of him, replied, that they faid, " He loft 

 no time in the advancement of his family." Right," fays 

 the pope, " for I have only half an hour left of the four and 

 twenty." His indifference with regard to compromifing the 

 difpute that fubfilled between France and the court of Rome, 

 was confidered by the French court as an evidence of his 

 difpofition to yield to the claims of the clergy of France ; 

 and he found panegyriils who extolled his liberality. But 

 they found themfelves deceived, when, at the clofe of his life, 

 he ilFued a bull of execration againft every thing that had 

 been done to the prejudice of tlie pope's authority in the 

 affembly of the clergy of France in 1682. Having enjoyed 

 tlie honour and emoluments of his ftation 15 or 16 months, 

 he died in 1691, with " a charaftcr ftained with the reproach 

 of avarice and duplicity." Gen. Dift. Bower's Popes, 

 vol. vii. p. 490. 



Alexander, an abbot of Sicily, was an hiftorian of the 

 1 2th century. He wrote four books of the life and reign of 

 Roger, king of Sicily ; printed at SaragofTa in 1578, and 

 inferted in the coUeftion, intitlcd, " Hifpania illuftrata." 

 Dupin. Eccl. Hift. vol. iv. p. i8x. 



Alexander Celisenus, abbot of Ceglio, wasanhifto- 

 nan, who flourilhed in the reign of Roger, king of Sicily, 

 between the years 1102 and 1 154, and recorded the aftions 

 of this reign. His dates are incorreft. Voff. de Lat. Hift. 

 lib. ii. c. 53. 



Alexander, bifhop of Hierapolis, flourifhed about the 

 year 43 1 . He was deputed by John of Antioch to attend 

 the council of Ephefus, and to defend the caufe of Nefto- 

 rius, to whom he was zealoufly attached ; and on that occa- 

 fion he figned the excommunication of Cyril : but as Cyril 

 and his party prevailed, he was himfelf expelled from his fee, 

 and fent into exile in Egypt. Several of his letters are ex- 

 tant among the " Ephefian Epiftles," cited by Lupus. Cave. 

 H.L. vol. i..p. 418. ( 



ALTXANnER AS Alexandro, fo calkd, becaufe his 

 Chriftianand family names were Alexander, was born at Na- 

 ples in 1461. He relinquifhed the praflice of the law, to 

 \fhicli he was at firll devoted, becaufe, in the exercife of this 

 profefTion, his integrity was in danger of being corrupted ; 

 and lie preferred a fmall fortune, in the tranquillity of retire- 

 ment, and with the approbation of his own mind, to the pur- 

 fuit of gain, with the liazardof his confcience. Againft the 

 power and favour of the great, he himfelf fays, an advocate 

 would find it inipoffible to fnpport his clients ; and the iffue 

 of fuits depended not fo much on thejullice of the caufe, as on 

 the will and favour of an indolent or corrupt judge ; fo that it 

 was fruitlefs to ftudy with diligence and labour controverted , 

 points of law, with the varieties of its cafes; and he adds, that 

 the provifions of law, though wifely contrived, were often ini- 

 quitoufly fet afide and perverted. To fuch circumftances, 

 and with thefe views and apprehenfions, he afted honour- 

 ably in declining a profeflion, which he could not exercife at 

 the period, and in the country in which he lived, with ad- 

 vantage to thofe by whom he was employed, and without 

 incurring felf-reproach. From the works of the ancients, 

 to which he had been accuflomed to direft his attention, he 

 made a colleftion of paffages relating to the hiftory and cuf- 

 toms of the Greeks and Romans, which he arranged in fix 

 books, under the title of " Dies Geniales ;" a work which 

 manifcfts more learning than judgment or tafte.' An edition 

 of this w-ork, with notes of various writers, was publidied in 

 two volumes, 8vo. at Leyden, in 1673. The author ap- 

 pears to have been credulous and fuperftitious, as he gives 

 a ftrange account of dreams and fpeftres, and of haunted 

 apartments in his houfe at Rome. He died in this city 

 about the year 1523. Gen. Dift. 



Alexand-ro ab Alexandro, proto-medicus of Sicily, 

 in which illand he was born earl) in the 1 5th century ; left 

 a work on the duties and privileges of the office he held, 

 which was afterwards publifhed : " Conilitutiones et regu- 

 lata jurifdiftionis Regii protomedicatus Sicilian elucidata, 

 fcripta" Haller fays, circa A. 1429, edlta Panormi, 1564, 

 4to. a I Phlllippo Ingraffia. 



Alexander Noel, or NaTalis, a Dominican friar, 

 and one of the moft laborious writers of the 17th centurj-, 

 was born at Rouen, in Normandy, in 1639. Having been 

 admitted into the order of Dominican friars, in 1653', he 

 went to purfue his ftudies in philofophy and divinity, at the 

 great convent in Paris ; and was appointed, at the comple- 

 tion of his ftudies, to teach philofophy in the fame convent. 

 He continued in the exercife of this ofHce for 12 years; 

 and declining that of a preacher, he devoted himfelf entirely 

 to the ftudy of the fcriptures and ecclcfiaftical hiftor)', and 

 was created a doftor of the Sorbonne in 1675. By Colbert, 

 theminifter, with whofe efteem he was honoured, he was in- 

 troduced to his fon, who was afterwards archbilhop of Roan; 

 and in this connexion he enjoyed the advantage of thofe 

 conferences that were held in an affembly of perfons of the 

 moil diftinguilhed learning, formed by the minifter for the 

 improvement of his fon. Thefe conferences led him to con- 

 ceive the defign of writing an ecclcfiaftical hiftory. The tirft vo- 

 lume of this work, which he executed with great afliduity, and 

 which was intitled, " Selefta Hitloriae Ecclefiafticce capita, 

 etin Ipca ejufdem infignia Differtationes Hiftoricae, Chronolo- 

 gies, Dogmaticve," was publifhed in 1676. It confifts of 26 

 volumes in 8vo, the laft four of which were not pubhfhed till 

 1686. In the firft volume he gives a hiftory of the firft age 

 of the church, with an account of the perfecutions which it 

 fuffered, the fucceffion of popes, the herefies which arofe, and 

 the councils which condemned them, the writers in favour of 

 Chriftianity, and the kings and emperors who reigned during 



the 



