Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/272

Alesius take away the adoration or worshipping of Christ in the sacrament; by whose procurement that heresy was put into the last communion book; so much prevailed that one man's authority at that time.’ (For this disputation see Sermons and Remains of Bishop Latimer, ed. Corrie, Parker Society's Publications; and compare Ecclesiastical Biography, ii. 588 seqq., esp. 604 note.) This at least shows the reputation of Alesius in England to have been enduring; Parker (afterwards archbishop) called him ‘virum in theologia perdoctum.’ He seems to have in more ways than one made himself useful to Bucer, whose German ‘Ordinationes Anglorum Ecclesiæ’ he translated into Latin, accompanying it with a preface, ‘for the consolation of the churches everywhere in these sad times’ (, ut supra, ed. 1812, i. 579). At Leipzig he enjoyed a peaceful and honoured old age, being twice, in 1555 and 1561, chosen rector of the university, as a member of the Saxon ‘nation.’ Alesius's last public appearance of which a record remains was the disputation held by him at Leipzig, 29 Nov. 1560, in which he upheld the views of Major already referred to. He died at Leipzig, 17 March 1565. He had been married to an Englishwoman ‘of the illustrious family de Mayn,’ who bore him two daughters and a son. Of the former one survived him. Alesius seems to have attracted much goodwill among those who were more or less of his own way of thinking, and who admired his intelligence, his learning, and his promptitude and skill as a combatant. His great master, Melanchthon, who was in the habit of speaking of him as Scotus, without mentioning either his christian name or his surname, appears on occasion to have thought him rather paradoxical and flighty, but to have set store by his friendship. The wise Camerarius speaks of him in terms of praise hardly less enthusiastic than those applied to him by the passionate Bale. His chief distinction is that while in his career as an advocate of the new learning he was courageous when courage was needed, he possessed a flexibility of mind and a moderation of sentiment rare among the reformers, and not least so among those of his native land. He is at the same time one of those figures in the history of the reformation which show its cosmopolitan character to have been from some points of view as marked as was that of the Renascence.

The following list of Alesius's original works is taken from A. T. Paget's memoir in the ‘Biographical Dictionary of the U. K. S.’ for which the list in Bale's ‘Scriptorum Brytanniæ Centuria XIV.’ had served as a basis. Nearly all are in one volume each.

Exegetical.—1. ‘In aliquot Psalmos,’ or ‘Expositio Libri Psalmorum Davidis juxta Hebræorum et D. Hieronymi Supputationes,’ Leipzig, 1550, 1596, fol. 2. ‘De Utilitate Psalmorum’ in the Leipzig edition of ‘De Autore et Usu Psalmorum,’ 1542, 8vo. 3. ‘In Evangelium Johannis,’ Basel, 1553, 8vo. 4. ‘In omnes Epistolas Pauli libri XIV.’ 5. ‘Disputationes in Paulum ad Romanos,’ Leipzig, 1553, 8vo. 6. ‘Expositio I. Epistolæ ad Timotheum et Epistolæ ad Titum,’ Leipzig, 1550, 8vo; and 7. ‘Posterioris ad Timotheum,’ Leipzig, 1551, 8vo. [These last two are not in Bale's list.]

Dogmatic and Controversial.—The following works refer to the circulation of the Bible in the vernacular: 8. ‘De Scripturis legendis in Lingua materna,’ Leipzig, 1533, 8vo. (But see above.) 9. ‘Ad Scotorum Regem contra Episcopos,’ Strassburg, 1542, 12mo and 8vo. 10. ‘Contra Calumnias Cochlæi,’ Leipzig, 1551, 8vo. (This is not the same as the ‘Disputatio,’ though such might seem to be the case from Paget.) 11. ‘Responsio ad Jacobum V Regem’, 12mo, and Leipzig, 1554, 8vo.

Controversial works against the Roman Catholics are: 12. ‘Liber de Schismate, scil. purgans Reformatos ab isto crimine.’ 13. ‘De Authoritate verbi Dei adversus Joannem Stokisley Londinensem episcopum,’ a Strassburg edition, 12mo, 1542. 14. ‘De Missa ac Cœna Domini.’ 15. ‘Responsio adversus Ricardum Tapperum de Missa ac Cœna Domini,’ Leipzig, 1565, 8vo. 16. ‘Contra Lovaniensium Articulos,’ or in the edition Leipzig, 1559, 8vo, ‘Responsio ad XXXII Lovaniensium Articulos.’ 17. ‘Pro Scotorum Concordia.’ According to Paget this tractate, published Leipzig, 1544, 8vo, as ‘Cohortatio Alex. Alesii ad Concordiam Pietatis in Patriam missa,’ is distinct from 18. ‘Cohortatio ad Pietatis Concordiam ineundam,’ Leipzig, 1559, 8vo.

The following chiefly refer to protestant controversies: 19. ‘De Justificatione contra Osiandrum,’ published under different titles, Wittenberg, 1552, 8vo, and Leipzig, 1553, 8vo, and 1554, 8vo. 20. ‘De utriusque Naturæ Officiis in Christo.’ 21. ‘De distincta ejus Hypostasi.’ 22. ‘Contra Michaelem Servetum ejusque Blasphemias Disputationes tres,’ Leipzig, 1554, 8vo. 23. ‘Assertio Doctrinæ Catholicæ de Trinitate adversus Valent. Gentilem,’ Leipzig, 1569, 8vo, and Geneva, 1567, fol. 24. ‘Disputatio de perpetuo consensu Ecclesiæ,’ Leipzig, 1553, 8vo. 25. ‘Oratio de Gratitudine,’ Leipzig, 1541, 8vo. 26. ‘De restituendis Scholis,’ Leipzig,