Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/492

Rh 454 A L B A L B Jaminy in 1651, sufficiently attest his great activity. He was the most widely read and most learned man of his time. The whole of Aristotle s works, presented in the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, were by him digested, interpreted, and systematised in accordance with church doctrine. Albert s activity, how ever, is rather philosophical than theological, for while pressing philosophy in general, and Aristotle in particular, into the service of theology, he excludes from what belongs to the natural reason all that is specially biblical, as, e.g., miracles, the atonement, and the Trinity ; though he does not refuse to see with Augustin exemplifications, shadow- ings, of the latter doctrine even in nature. The philosophical works occupying the first six and the last of the twenty- one volumes are generally divided according to the Aristotelian scheme of the sciences, and consist of inter pretations and condensations of Aristotle s relative works, with supplementary discussions depending on the questions then agitated, and occasionally divergences from the opinions of the master. In logic, he attempts to unite the three rival theories of universals, holding that uni- versals exist in three ways (1.) Ante res, as ideas in the mind of God, from which the class is modelled, and which therefore exist before individual things ; (2.) In rebus, as the common basis in a class of individual objects; (3.) Post res, as the mental notion of the class. In the meta physical and physical treatises he mainly repeats Aristotle, differing from him as regards the eternity of the world and the definition of the soul. His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologies, in two volumes. This last is in substance a repetition of the first in a more didactic form. Albert s knowledge of physical science was consider able, and for the age accurate. His industry in every de partment was great, and though we find in his system many of those inner gaps from which no scholastic philosophy was ever free, yet the protracted study of Aristotle gave him a great power of systematic thought and exposition, and the results of that study, as left to us, by no means warrant the contemptuous title sometimes given him the &quot; Ape of Aristotle.&quot; They rather lead us to appreciate the motives which caused his contemporaries to bestow on him the honourable surname &quot; The Great,&quot; and the no less honour able title, &quot; Doctor Universalis.&quot; For Albert s life the best authorities are Sighart, Albertus Magnus, sein Leben und seine Wissenschaft, 1857; and D Assailly, Albert le Grand, 1870. The most comprehensive surveys of his philosophy are those of Stockl, Geschichte d. Scholastischcn Philosoplde, and, in smaller compass, Erdmann, Grundriss d. Ges. d. Phil., vol. i. Haureau, Ritter, and Frantl may also be referred to. ALBI, a city of France, capital of the department of the Tarn, is situated on the river Tarn, 41 miles N.E. of Toulouse. It is a place of great antiquity, and was a stronghold of the early French Protestants, giving its name to the Albigerises. It is the seat of an archbishop, and has a chamber of commerce and a public library of 12,000 volumes. The cathedral, dedicated to St Cecilia, is a magnificent Gothic edifice, in the style of the 13th century, and has one of the finest choirs in France. Here there is a very valuable silver shrine, of exquisite mosaic work, containing the relics of St Glair, the first bishop of the see. The environs are charming, and the promenade of La Lice, without the city, is a beautiful terrace bordered with two rows of very fine trees. At one end is the con vent of the Dominicans. Albi has woollen and linen manufactures ; coal, iron, and copper are wrought in the vicinity ; and the surrounding district is very fertile, pro ducing much grain and fruit. Population (1872), 17,409. ALBIGENSES, a sect opposed to the Church of Home, which derives its name from Albiga (the modern Albi, noticed above), either because its doctrines were ex pressly condemned at a council held there, or, more pro bably, because its adherents were to be found in great numbers in that town and its neighbourhood. The Albi- genses were kindred in origin and more or less similar in doctrine to the sects known in Italy as Paterins, in Germany as Catharists, and in France as Bulgarians, but they are not to be entirely identified with any of these. Still less ought they to be confounded, as has frequently been the case, with the Waldenses, who first appear at a later period in history, and are materially different in their doctrinal views. The descent of the Albigenses may be traced with tolerable distinctness from the Paulicians, a sect that sprang into existence in the Eastern Church during the Gth century. (See PAULICIANS.) The Paulicians were Gnostics, and were accused by their enemies and persecutors of holding Manichsean doctrines, which, it is said, they vehemently disowned. Their creed, whatever it was pre cisely, spread gradually westward through Europe. In the 9th century it found many adherents in Bulgaria, and 300 years later it was maintained and defended, though not without important modifications, by the Albigenses in the south of France. The attempt to discover the precise doc trinal opinions held by the Albigenses is attended with a double difficulty. No formal creed or definite doctrinal statement framed by themselves exists, and in default of this it is impossible to depend on the representations of their views given by their opponents in the Church of Rome, who did not scruple to exaggerate and distort the opinions held by those whom they had branded as heretics. It is probably impossible now to determine accurately what is true and what is false in these representations. It seems almost certain, however, that the bond which united the Albigenses was not so much a positive fully-developed religious faith as a determined opposition to the Church of Rome. They inherited indeed, as has been already said, certain doctrines of eastern origin, such as the Manicha3an dualism, docetism in relation to the person of Christ, and a theory of metempsychosis. They seem, like the Manichees, to have disowned the authority of the Old Testament; and the division of their adherents into perfecti and credent es is similar to the Manichsean distinction between electi and auditores. The statement that they rejected marriage, often made by Roman Catholics, has probably no other foundation in fact than that they denied that marriage was a sacrament; and many other statements as to their doctrine and practice must be received at least with suspicion as coming from prejudiced and implacable opponents. The history of the Albigenses may be said to be written in blood. At first the church was content to condemn their errors at various councils (1165, 1176, 1178, 1179), but as their practical opposition to Rome became stronger, more decided measures were taken. Innocent III. had scarcely ascended the papal throne when he sent legates to Toulouse ( 1 1 98) to endeavour to suppress the sect. Two Cistercians, Guy and Regnier, were first commissioned, and in 1199 they were joined by Peter of Castelnau and others, who were known throughout the district as inquisitors. Ray mond VI., count of Toulouse, took the part of his Albi- gensian subjects, though not himself belonging to the sect, and for this he was excommunicated in 1207. A year later the pope found a pretext for resorting to the most extreme measures in the assassination of his legate Peter of Castelnau, Jan. 15, 1 208. A crusade against the Albigenses was at once ordered, and Raymond, who had meanwhile submitted and done penance, was forced to take the field against his own subjects. The bloody war of extermina tion which followed has scarcely a parallel in history. As