Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/293

ALBANI  that baffled and dismayed Europe. Mehemet-Ali was routed, his house at Diakovo burned down, and himself massacred. The Albanians had much to avenge. They had not yet forgotten the war of a century before when their women precipitated themselves by hundreds over the rocks near Yamina to escape Ali-Pasha's soldiers. The Turks finally relinquished their efforts to quell the movement they had themselves helped to precipitate, and Montenegro had to content herself with the barren tracts of the Boyana and the port of Dulcigno. She could not have aspired even to these, had not Russia, anxious to spread the doctrines of "Orthodoxy", advocated the dismemberment of Catholic and Mussulman Albania in favour of the Servian race.

After Scutari, Yanina is the largest and most interesting town of modern Albania. Near it are the ruins of the temple of Dodona, the cradle of pagan civilization in Greece. This oracle uttered its prophecies by interpreting the rustling of oak branches; the fame of its priestesses drew votaries from all parts of Greece. In this neighbourhood also dwelt the Pelagic tribes of Selles, or Helles, and the Graiki, whose names were afterwards taken to denote the Hellenes, or Greeks. The plateau of Tanina is fertile and favourably situated for defence, and the inhabitants of the city have been able to develop many industries, such as the inlaying of metal, weaving gold-threaded stuffs, and the fabrication of fire­arms. It is difficult to get the exact statistics of any province of the Turkish Empire; the population of Albania is variously estimated, from 1,200,000 to 1,600,000, of which 1,500,000 are strictly Albanian. In the Kirchenlex. (Freiburg, 1899), XI, 18, Father Neher estimates the population at about 1,400,000, one million of which is made up of Mussulmans. There are 318,000 members of the Greek schismatic church, and about 120,000 Catholics. It must be added that there are in Greece proper about 250,000 Albanians, and in Italy about 100,000, the latter being all Catholics. In summing up the characteristics of the race, there are two points on which travellers invariably agree: the chivalry toward the weaker sex of even the unreclaimed Albanian, and the spotless chastity of their women. For the rest, human life is as cheap as in all lands where individuals must reckon on themselves for its preservation.

(See, , , and the other dioceses of Albania.)

2em

Albani, a distinguished Italian family, said to be descended from Albanian refugees of the fifteenth century. It soon divided into two branches, those of Bergamo and those of Urbino. They gave to the Church one Pope (Clement XI, 1700–21) and several well-known cardinals. (1), soldier, statesman, and canonist, b. at Bergamo, 3 January, 1504 d. 25 April, 1591. For services to the Venetian republic he was rewarded with the office of inquisitor at Bergamo, where he made the acquaintance of Cardinal Ghisliero. When the latter became Pius V, he invited Albani to Rome, made him a cardinal (1570), and employed him on diplomatic missions, among them being the formation of an alliance of Christian princes against the Turks. Gian Girolamo was a distinguished canonist, and was accounted by his contemporaries a man of "solid judgment rare erudition and eloquence, free and firm in his decisions, pleasant and temperate in speech, in every way a grave and reliable person". Among his often reprinted works are "De donatione Constantini" (Cologne, 1535), "De cardinalatu" (Rome, 1541) "De potestate papæ et concilii" (Venice, 1544) "De immunitate ecclesiarum" (Rome, 1553): cf Hurter, "Nomencl. Lit." (2d ed.), I, 122.—(2) See .—(3), Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina (1711), cousin of Clement XI, b. 15 August, 1682, at Urbino; d. 21 September, 1751; patron of ecclesiastical literature; he left a valuable library, a gallery of paintings and sculpture, and a cabinet of coins that eventually was added to the Vatican collection. He edited, in two volumes, the letters, briefs, and bulls of Clement XI (Rome, 1724), the "Menologium Græcorum" (3 vols., Urbino, 1727), and historical memoirs of Urbino (Rome 1722–24).—(4), brother of Annibale, b. at Urbino, 19 October, 1692, d. 11 December, 1779. He entered the priesthood at the earnest insistence of Clement XI, but gave no little trouble to that Pope because of his worldly and undisciplined life. In 1721 Innocent XII made him cardinal. He was a friend of Austria during the delicate negotiations of his own time, and sided with the opposition in the reign of Clement XIV (1769–74). He was also an enlightened patron of art and artists, helped to reconcile with the Church the sculptor and art-historian Winckelmann, built the Villa Albani (1760) and filled it with treasures of antique sculpture and other precious relics of Greek and Roman art (dispersed by Napoleon I; the famous Antinous is there still). His coins went to the Vatican Library, over which he presided as bibliothecarius from 1761 (Strocchi, "De vitâ Alex. Albani," Rome, 1790).—(5), born at Rome, 26 February, 1727; died September, 1803; a nephew of Clement XI, and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia at the age twenty-seven.—(6) , nephew of the preceding, b. at Rome, 1750, made cardinal 1801; he shared the habitual devotion of his house to Austria, took refuge in Vienna, 1796–1814, returned to Rome after the downfall of Napoleon, and occupied offices of distinction in the papal administration until his death (1834). He left his fortune partly to the Holy See, partly for religious purposes. With his brother Filippo the family died out; its name and part of its possessions passed to the Chigi.

2em

Albano, a suburban see, comprising seven towns in't!ie Province of Rome. Albano (derived from Alba Longa) is situated ten miles from Rome, on the Appian Way. It was a military post, and hence Christian soldiers must have been stationed there at a very early date. Appii Forum and the Three Taverns, where St. Paul was met on his way to Rome by the brethren are not far distant (Acts, xxviii, 14, 15). In the very year of his consulate, Acilius Glabrio was compelled by Domitian to fight, unarmed, in the amphitheatre at Albano, a Numidian bear, according to Juvenal (Sat., iv, 99); an enormous lion, according to Dio Cassius (Hist. Rom., LXVI, iii). This same Acilius Glabrio is later included in a Christian group of the Flavian family as a molitor rerum novarum (Suet., D. 10). The "Liber Pontificalis," under the name Silvester (ed. Duchesne, Paris, 18,S6, I, 1.S5) says: "fecit basilicam Augustus Constantinus in civitate Albanensi, videlicet S. Joannis Baptistæ" [Harnack, "Die Mission", (Leipzig), 1902, p. 501]. This basilica of the time of 