ALB 
in twenty-four hours, and the kingdom of Spain in fifteen 
days. Alberoni, who took with him great wealth, was 
upon the fecond day of his journey, when it was perceiv¬ 
ed that he was carrying out of the kingdom with him the 
celebrated will of Charles II. of Spain, which gave that 
kingdom to its then fovereign. Perfons were detached 
from Madrid to wrefl this ferious and important docu¬ 
ment from him, which it was fuppofed he intended to take 
to the emperor of Germany, to ingratiate himfelf with 
him. With fome violence they effected their purpofe, 
and the cardinal proceeded on his journey to the frontiers 
of France, where he was received by an officer, fent by the 
regent to conduct him through that kingdom as a Rate pri- 
foner. As a true politician, however, yields to circum- 
fhmccs, and is never embarrafTed by any change of affairs, 
Alberoni, on his arrival in France, wrote to the regent, 
to offer him his fervices againft Spain. To this letter, 
however, his highnefs difdained to return any anfwer. 
The cardinal’s difgrace happened in 1720, and he retired 
to Parma for fome time, till he was fummoned by the pope 
to atten'd a confiftory, in which his conduct was to be exa¬ 
mined by fome of the members of the Sacred College, ref- 
pedting a correfpondence he was fuppofed to have kept up 
with the Grand Seignior. He was fentenced to be confin¬ 
ed one year in the Jefuits.College at Rome. After this 
he returned to Parma, near which city he founded, at a 
very great expenee, an efiablifinment for the inftruffion of 
young men dellined for the priefthood. In the difaftrous 
campaign of 1746, the buildings were deftroyed by the 
three armies that were in the neighbourhood ; and, as the 
cardinal was not fuppofed to have been over-delicate in his 
acquirement of the means by which his efiablifinment was 
to have been fupported, his countrymen did not appear to 
exprefs much diffatisfadlion at the demolition of it. Al¬ 
beroni, foon after this, went to Rome, and was made le¬ 
gate of Romagna by Clement XII. He died at Rome, in 
1752, at the age of eighty-feven years, llepreferved in¬ 
tire, to the laft, the powers of his mind and of his body. 
ALBERT, Margrave of Brandenburg, and the laft 
grand mailer of the Teutonic-order, laid alide the habit of 
his order, embraced Lutheranifm, and concluded a peace 
at Cracow in 1525, by which he was acknowledged duke 
of the eafit part of Prufiia (formerly called for that reafon 
Ducal Prujia), but to be held as-a fief of Poland, and to 
defcend to his male heirs. See Prussia. 
ALBERTI (Leone Battifta), was defcended from a no¬ 
ble family in Florence ; and perfectly acquainted with 
painting, fculpture, and architedlure. He wrote of all 
three in Latin ; but his ftudiesdid not permit him to leave 
any thing confiderable behind him in painting. He was 
employed by pope Nicholas V. in his buildings, which he 
executed in a beautiful manner; and his work on archi¬ 
tecture, which confifts of ten books, is greatly efteemed. 
He died in 1485. 
AI.BERTISTS, a feCl of fcholaftics, fo named from 
their leader Albertus Magnus. 
ALBERTUS MAGNUS, a very learned man in the 
thirteenth century, who, among a multitude of books, 
wrote fieveral upon the various mathematical fciences, as 
Arithmetic, Geometry, Perfpedtive or Optics, Mufic, 
Aftrology, and Aftronomy. 
Albertus Magnus was born at Lawingen on the Danube, 
in Suabia, ini205, or according to fome in 1193 ; and he 
diedatagreat age, at Cologne, November 15, 1280. Vof- 
fius and other authors fpeak of him as a great genius, and 
deeply (killed in all the learning of the age. His writings 
were fo numerous, that they make twenty-one volumes in 
folio, in the Lyons edition of 1615. He has paffed alfo 
for the author of fome writings relating to midwifery, &c. 
under the title of De natura. rerum, and De fecreth mulierum, 
in which there are many phrafes and expreftions unavoida¬ 
ble on fuch a fubjedt, w hich gave great offence, and raif- 
ed a clamour againft him as the fuppofed\ author, and in- 
confiftent with his character, being a Dominican friar, and 
fometime bifihop of Ratilbon ; which dignity however he 
A L B 239 
foon refigned, through his love for folitude, to enter again 
into the monaftic life. But the advocates of Albert aft'ert, 
that he was not the author of either of tliefe two works. 
It muft be acknowledged however, that there are, in his 
Comment upon tire Mafter of Sentences, fome queftions 
concerning the pradtice of conjugal duty, in which he has 
ufed fome words rather too grofs for ch ifte and delicate 
ears: but they allege what he himfelf ufed to fay in h s 
own vindication, that he came to the knowledge of fo ma¬ 
ny monftrous things at confelTion, that it was impoffible so 
avoid touching upon fuch queftions. Albert was certain¬ 
ly a man of a mod curious and inquifitive turn of mine 1 , 
which gave rife to other accufations againft him; fuch as, 
that he laboured to find out the philofiopher’s done; that 
he was a magician; and that he made a machine in the 
fhapeof a man, which was an oracle to him, and explain¬ 
ed all the difficulties he propofied: the common Cant accu¬ 
fations of thofe times of ignorance and fuperftition. But, 
having great knowledge in the mathematics and mecha¬ 
nics, by his (kill in thefe fciences he probably formed a 
head, with fprings, capable of articulate founds; like the 
machines of Boetius and others. John Matthieus de Lu¬ 
na, in his treatife De Rerum Inventoribus, has attributed 
'the invention of fire-arms to Albert; but in this he is re¬ 
futed by Naude, in his Apologie des Grands Homines. 
ALBERTUS, a gold coin, worth about fourteen 
French livres: it was coined by Albertus archduke of 
Auftria. 
ALBESIA, in antiquity, a kind of (hields otherwife 
called Decumana. See Decumaka. 
ALBX, a city of France, the capital of the Albigeois, 
in Languedoc. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Cecilia, 
and lias one of the fined; choirs in the kingdom. Here 
was a very valuable (ilver (brine, of exquilite workman- 
fhip, of the Mofaic kind, containing the reliques of St. 
Clair, the firft bifiiop of this city. It is feated on the river 
Tarn, thirty-five miles north-by-weft of Touloufe, and 
250 fouthof Paris. E.lon.o. 52. N.-lat. 43. 56. 
The Albigeois is a final! territory about twenty-feven 
miles in length, a id twenty in breadth, abounding in 
corn, woad, grapes, faliVon, plums, and (beep ; and the 
inhabitants trade in dried prunes, grapes, a coarfie fort of 
cloth, and wines of Gaillac. They have likewife feveral 
coal-mines. 
ALBIGENSES, in church-hiftory, a feel or party of 
reformers, about Touloufe and the Albigeois in Langue¬ 
doc, who fprung up in the twelfth century, and diftin- 
guiftied themfelves by their oppofition to the difeipline 
and ceremonies of the Romifh church. 
This fed had their name, it is fuppofed, either by rea¬ 
fon there were great numbers of them in the diocefe of 
Albi, or becaufe they were condemned by a council held 
in that city. In effect, it does not appear that they were 
known by this name before the holding of that council. 
The Albigcnfes were alfo called Albiani, Albigejei, Albii , 
and Albanenfcs, though fome diftinguifh thefe laft front 
them. Other names given to them are, Hcnricians , Abe- 
lardijh, Bulgatians, &c. fome on account of the qualities 
they affumed ; others on that of the country from whence 
it is pretended they were derived; and others on account 
of perfons of note who adopted their caufe, as Peter de 
Brius, Arnold de Breffe, Abelard, Henry, See. Beren- 
garius, if not Wickliff himfelf, is by fome ranked in the 
number. 
The errors imputed to them by their opponents, the 
monks of thofe days, were, That they admitted two 
Chrifts; one evil, who appeared on earth; the other 
good, who lias not yet appeared •. That they denied the 
refurreCtion of the body ; and maintained human fouls to 
be dtemons imprifoned in our bodies, by way of punifli- 
ment for their fins: That they condemned all the facra- 
ments of the church; rejected baptifin as ufelefs; held 
the eucharift in abhorrence ; excluded the ufe of con- 
fefiions and penance; maintained marriage unlawful 3 
laughed at purgatory, prayers for the dead, images, cru- 
' cifixes,. 
