Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/517

Rh decree of the Scottish clergy, prohibiting the reading of the New Testament by the laity, drew from Alesius an ably-argued defence of the right of the people, in the form of a letter to James V. A reply to this by John Cochlæus, also addressed to the Scottish king, occasioned a second letter from Alesius, in which he not only restates and amplifies his argument with great force and beauty of style, but enters at some length into more general questions connected with the Reformation. In, Henry VIII. having broken with the Church of Rome, Alesius was induced to remove to England, where he was very cordially received by the king and his advisers Cranmer and Cromwell. After a short residence at Lambeth he was appointed, through the influence of Cromwell, thenchan cellor of the university, to lecture on theology at ; but when he had delivered a few expositions of the Hebrew psalms, he was compelled by the opposition of the papal party to desist. Returning to London, he supported himself for some time by practising as a physician. In he attended a convocation of the clergy, and at the request of Cromwell, the president, conducted a controversy with Stokesley, bishop of London, on the nature of the sacraments. His argument, which was marked by great ability, was afterwards at. In Alesius was compelled to flee for the second time to Germany, in consequence of the enactment of the persecuting statute known as the Six Articles. He was immediately chosen to fill a theological chair in the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he was the first professor who taught the Reformed doctrines. In he quitted Frankfort for a similar position at, his contention that it was the duty of the civil magistrate to punish fornication having given offence to some of the authorities of the former university. At Alesius remained until his death, which occurred on the 17th March. He enjoyed the intimate friendship of Melancthon, to whom he rendered valuable assistance in many of his disputations with the Catholic doctors.

1em  ALESSANDRI, (Alexander ab Alexandro), a learned jurisconsult, born at Naples about  (died ). He studied at Naples and Rome, and afterwards practised for a time as advocate in both. At Naples he is said to have been royal proto-notary in. Dissatisfied, according to his own account, with the corrupt administration of justice, he at length quitted the bar, and devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits, especially to the study of philology and antiquities. A sinecure appointment, which he owed to the favour of the pope, enabled him to lead a life of learned leisure at Rome, where he died on the 2d October. What is known of his biography has been gathered chiefly from detached statements in his work entitled Dies Geniales, which appeared at Rome in, and is constructed after the model of the Noctes Atticæ of Aulus Gellius, and the Saturnalia of Macrobius. The work consists of a confused mass of heterogeneous materials relating to philology, antiquities, law, dreams, spectres, &c., and shows great credulity and want of judgment on the part of its author.   ALESSANDRIA, a province of Italy, in the former duchy of Piedmont, bounded on the N. by Novara, on the E. by Pavia, on the S. by Genoa, and on the W. by Turin; with an area of 1951 square. There are no hills of much elevation in the province, and the surface generally is flat. The chief rivers are the Po, the Tanaro, the Belbo, the Orba, and the Bormida. The soil is fertile, the chief products being wheat, maize, wine, silk, madder, hemp, flax, and fruit. The capital is Alessandria; of the province in 1871, 683,361. , a of Italy, the capital of the above province, is situated in a marshy district near the confluence of the Tanaro and the Bormida. It is a strongly fortified place, its citadel, on the left bank of the Tanaro, being one of the most important in Europe. The itself, which lies chiefly on the right bank of the river, is the seat of a bishop, and contains a cathedral and more than a dozen other churches, besides monasteries and nunneries. The principal manufactures of Alessandria are silk, linen, and woollen goods, stockings, and hats. Large quantities of fruit and flowers are also produced in the neighbourhood. The trade of the city is extensive, and there are two important fairs held every that are much resorted to by merchants from all parts of Italy. Alessandria was built in by the Lombard League as a bulwark against Frederick Barbarossa. It received its present name in honour of Pope Alexander III., but it was also called Cesarea for a time. In it was unsuccessfully besieged by Frederick Barbarossa, who nicknamed it in derision Della Paglia, i.e. “of straw.” It was ceded to Savoy by the peace of Utrecht in 1713, after having belonged, at different periods, to the houses of Montferrat and Milan. Its fortifications were greatly enlarged and strengthened by Bonaparte during the French occupation, which lasted from 1800 to 1814. The citadel of Alessandria was taken by the Austrians after the battle of Novara in 1849. Near Alessandria is Marengo, where Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1800. In consequence of this defeat the Austrians concluded the armistice of Alessandria, ceding all Italy north of the Mincio to the French. (1862), 27,027; of commune, 56,545.  ALESSI, (–), a distinguished architect, born at Perugia, was a pupil of Caporali and a friend of Michael Angelo. He was an enthusiastic student of ancient architecture, and his style gained for him a European reputation. Genoa is indebted to him for a number of its most magnificent palaces, and specimens of his skill may be seen in the churches of San-Paolo and San-Vittoria at Milan, in certain parts of the Escurial, and in numerous churches and palaces throughout Sicily, Flanders, and Germany.  ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, so called from the  aleut, signifying a bold, is the  given by the n discoverers to a chain of small s situated in the , and extending in an easterly direction from the  of , in , to the  of , in. This has been sometimes divided into three groups; the s nearest  being properly called Aleutia, the central group the Andreanov or Andrenovian, and those nearest to  the Fox s. They are all included between 52° and 55°N. , and 172°E. and 163°W. The Aleutian s were discovered by the   in, and were carefully explored in  by , under a  from the. During his third and last voyage, in,  ed the eastern portion of the , accurately determined the positions of some of the most remarkable s, and corrected many errors of former s. Subsequent expeditions of the , aided by the  of  rs on the s, as well as on  of the , have afforded further information as to this remarkable chain. The whole of the s are 