Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/514

Rh 476 A L D A L E and bestowing on him from time to time sums amounting in all to 40,000 crowns. If, therefore, he died in the public hospital, he probably went there for the better treatment of his disease. His death occurred on the 10th Nov. 1607. Aldrovandi was chiefly remarkable for laborious and patient research. He seems to hare been totally destitute of the critical faculty ; and hardly any attempt is made in his great work to classify facts or to distinguish between the true and the fabulous, the im portant and the trivial. Much is thus included that is of no scientific value, but it also contains much information of very great Interest to the naturalist. ALDSTONE, or ALSTON Moon, a market-town of England, in the county of Cumberland, situated on an eminence near the South Tyne, 19 miles E.S.E. from Carlisle, with which it is connected by railway. The surrounding country, which is bleak and desolate, contains lead mines, mostly belonging to Greenwich Hospital, for merly very valuable, but now almost exhausted. Thread, flannel, and shot are manufactured in the town. Popu lation (1871) of parish, 5680 ; of town, 2G27. ALE, a fermented liquor obtained from an infusion of malt, and differing from beer chiefly in having a less pro portion of hops. Before the introduction of hops into England from Flanders, about 152-4, ale was the name exclusively applied to malt liquor, the term beer being .gradually introduced at a later period to describe liquor brewed with an infusion of hops. The two words, however, are now used with little distinction of meaning. Ale, the wine of barley, is said to have originally been made in Egypt. The natives alike of Spain, France, and Britain .all use an infusion of barley for their ordinary liquor, which was called ccelia and ceria in the first country, cerevisia, in the second, and curmi in the third all literally importing the strong water. &quot;All the several nations,&quot; says Pliny, &quot;who inhabit the west of Europe have a liquor with which they intoxicate themselves, made of corn and water. The manner of making this liquor is sometimes different in Gaul, Spain, and other countries, and is called by many various names ; but its nature and properties are everywhere the -same. The people of Spain, in particular, brew the liquor so well .that it will keep good a long time. So exquisite is the cunning of mankind in gratifying their vicious appetites that they have thus invented a method to make water itself intoxicate.&quot; The method in which the ancient Britons and other Celtic nations made their ale is thus described by Isidorus and Orosius : &quot; The grain is steeped in water, and made to germinate, by which its spirits are excited and set at liberty; it is then dried and ground ; after which it is infused in a certain quantity of water, which, being fermented, becomes a pleasant, warming, strength- ening, and intoxicating liquor.&quot; This ale was most commonly made of barley, but some times of wheat, oats, and millet. Ale was the favourite liquor of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Before their con version to Christianity, they believed that drinking large and frequent draughts of ale was one of the chief felicities which those heroes enjoyed who were admitted into the hall of Odin. Anciently the Welsh and Scots had two kinds of ale, called common ale and spiced ale, the relative values of which were thus appraised by law : &quot;If a fanner had no mead, he shall pay two casks of spiced ale, or four casks of common ale, for one cask of mead.&quot; By this law .a cask of spiced ale, nine palms in height and eighteen palms in diameter, was valued at a sum of money equal in value to 7, 10s. of our present money; and a cask of common ale of the same dimensions at a sum equal to X3, 15s. This is a sufficient proof that even common ale at that period was an article of luxury among the Welsh, which could only be obtained by the great and opulent. For details as to the process of manufacture, statistics, .&c., see BREWING. ALE-CONNER, an officer appointed yearly at the coiirt- leet of ancient manors for the assize of ale and ale-measures. The gu---tato)-fs cervisia? called in different localities by the different names, &quot;ale-tasters,&quot; &quot;ale-founders,&quot; and &quot; ale-conners &quot; were sworn to examine beer and ale, to take care that they were good and wholesome and were sold at proper prices. In London, four ale-conners are still chosen annually by the liverymen in common hall assembled, on Midsummer Day. Since ale and beer have become excisable commodities the custom of appointing ale-tasters has in most places fallen into disuse. (For the means now employed to test the quality of ales, see ADULTERATION, p. 172.) ALEANDRO, GIROLAMO (HIERONYMUS), cardinal, commonly called &quot; the Elder/ to distinguish him from his grand-nephew of the same name, was born at Motta, near Venice, on the 13th of February 1480 (died 1542). He studied at Venice, and while still a youth acquired great reputation for learning. In 1508 he went to Paris, on the invitation of Louis XII., as professor of belles lettres, and he held for a time the position of rector in the uni versity. Entering the service of the prince-bishop of Liege, he was sent by that prelate on a mission to Rome, where Pope Leo X. retained him, giving him (1519) the office of librarian of the Vatican. In the autumn of 1520 he went to Germany to be present as papal nuncio at the coronation of Charles V., and in the following spring he appeared at the diet of Worms, where he headed the opposition to Luther, advocating the most extreme measures to repress the doctrines of the Reformer. His conduct not merely called forth the fiercest denunciations of Luther, but estranged from him Erasmus, who had been his intimate friend at Venice. The edict against the Reformer, which was finally adopted by the emperor and the diet, was drawn up and proposed by Aleandro. After the close of the diet the papal nuncio went to the Netherlands, where he kindled the flames of persecution, two monks of Antwerp, the first martyrs of the Reformation, being burnt to ashes in Brussels at his instigation. In 1523, Clement VII., having appointed him archbishop of Brindisi and Oria, sent him as nuncio to the court of Francis I. He was taken prisoner along with that monarch at the battle of Pavia (1525), and was only released on the payment of a heavy ransom. He was subsequently employed on various papal missions, especially to Germany, but was unsuccessful in preventing the German princes from making a truce with the Reformers, or in checking to any extent the progress of the new doctrines. In 1538 Paul III. con ferred upon him the cardinal s hat, when he took the title of St Chrysogonus. He died at Rome on the 31st January or 1st February 1542. Aleandro compiled a Lexicon Gfccco-Latinum, and wrote Latin verse of considerable merit. The Vatican library contains a volume of manuscript letters and other documents written by him in con nection with his various missions against Luther. Its historical value renders this the most important of his works. ALEMAN, Louis, Archbishop of Aries, and Cardinal of St Cecilia, was born at Bugey in 1390. He was one of the presidents of the Council of Basle in 1431. and led the party that maintained the supremacy of councils over popes in opposition to the claims of Eugenius IV. It was on his motion that the latter was deposed by the council, and Felix V. elected in his stead. Eugenius thereupon deposed the arch-pope, and deprived Aleman of all his ecclesiastical dignities, but these were restored by Nicholas V. in 1447, Felix V. having previously resigned, on the advice of the cardinal. In 1527 Aleman was canonised by Popo Clement VII. ALEMANNI, a large German tribe on the Upper Rhine. They are first mentioned by Dion Cassius, who relates that the Emperor Caracalla gained, in 213 A.D., a victory over them on the banks of the Maine, and thence assumed