Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/121

ALE ALEXANDER,, bishop or patriarch of Constantinople from. 317 to 340. He was present in 325 at the council of Nice, in which the Arian doctrines were condemned.  ALEXANDER I., patriarch of Antioch, noted as a peacemaker in the early church. He brought the followers of Eustathius to renounce their heresy. Died in 421.  ALEXANDER,, a native of Asia Minor, and the founder of a monastic order called or "the sleepless," from the circumstance that the monks belonging to it were divided into six choirs, who were in their turn, occupied night and day in religious service. He died in 430.  ALEXANDER, a Phrygian physician, who fell a martyr to Christianity in 177.  ALEXANDER, A., author of a well-known treatise on chess, and celebrated as a player, born at Paris in 1770.  ALEXANDER,, a peripatetic philosopher of the first century, and one of the preceptors of Nero.  ALEXANDER ÆTOLUS, one of the Alexandrian poets and grammarians. He was born in Ætolia, but removed to Alexandria, in the library of which he obtained a situation from the king, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Only fragments of his numerous poems have come down to us.  ALEXANDER,, the son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra; born 40. In company with his twin sister, he was taken to Rome, and educated by the wife of the triumvir along with her other children. <section end="121H" /> <section begin="121I" />ALEXANDER,, the most famous expounder of the Aristotelian philosophy, was a native of Aphrodisias in Asia Minor. His chief endeavour was to develop clearly the doctrines of his great master. His writings are numerous. Several are still in manuscript. The most interesting of his published works is one which discusses "Fate," maintaining the doctrine of freewill against the Stoics. He flourished about the end of the second century after Christ.—J. D. <section end="121I" /> <section begin="121J" />ALEXANDER in Northamptonshire, a learned prior, who left some MS. quoted by Fuller in his Church History, lived about the beginning of the thirteenth century. <section end="121J" /> <section begin="121K" />ALEXANDER,, brother of John Alexander, translated into English Morgagni's work, "De sedibus et causis moriborum." Died in 1768. <section end="121K" /> <section begin="121L" />ALEXANDER BEN MOSES ETHUSAN, a German Jew who composed about the beginning of the eighteenth century a history of his people, under the title of "Beth-Israel." <section end="121L" /> <section begin="121M" />ALEXANDER, a French poet, in considerable repute as the author of several rhymed romances, was a Norman by birth, and lived at Paris about the middle of the twelfth century. His principal work, a continuation of the Alexandriad of Lambert the Short, is remarkable for its smooth verse and graphic descriptions. It is, perhaps, the oldest romance of the kind in the French language.—J. S., G. <section end="121M" /> <section begin="121N" />ALEXANDER, surnamed, a Sicilian abbot and historian, wrote about. 1160 a history of Roger II. of Sicily. <section end="121N" /> <section begin="121O" />* ALEXANDER,, a French philologist, of late years distinguished by numerous valuable contributions to philological science, was born at Paris in 1797. <section end="121O" /> <section begin="121P" />* ALEXANDER,, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg, compelled to retire from his duchy during the troubles of 1848, and since restored; succeeded his father Alexius in 1834. <section end="121P" /> <section begin="121Q" />ALEXANDER,, a learned Greek, who lived in the century immediately before the Christian era. He wrote numerous works, chiefly on history and geography, and by his great learning won the surname of Polyhistor. <section end="121Q" /> <section begin="121R" />ALEXANDER ,—hence called, from the name of his birthplace, near Glocester. Although early raised to an archdeaconry, he resolved to study at Paris, where he quickly became one of the most famous teachers at the most brilliant epoch of the scholastic philosophy. One of his pupils was St. Bonaventura; but it is not true that he had the honour of teaching St. Thomas and Duns Scotus. He died in Paris in 1245. His great work is a "Summa Theologiæ." Aquinas reproduced many of his dicta. He was surnamed in the middle ages, "Infallible Doctor" and "Fountain of Light."—J. P. N. <section end="121R" /> <section begin="121S" />ALEXANDER,, a monkish chronicler of Westphalia, flourished about the year 1210. He continued the "Breviarium Rerum Memorabilium" of another Westphalian monk, Isibord, and to the many incredible cures and miracles of the latter added many more equally incredible. <section end="121S" /> <section begin="121T" />ALEXANDER,, a Benedictine monk, author of a celebrated French work, "Traité general des horologes," was born at Orleans in 1653, and entered a monastery of that city in his twentieth year. He addicted himself throughout his monastic life, which extended over forty years, to the study of the exact sciences; and besides the work just mentioned (not published till the year of his death, 1734), produced at intervals fourteen elaborate scientific treatises, all of which, with the exception of that on "Tides," remain in MS. He was also the inventor of a clock, ingeniously contrived to indicate at once mean time and solar time.—J. S., G. <section end="121T" /> <section begin="121U" />ALEXANDER,, an English writer, author of some satirical pieces published in "The Library." Died in 1765. <section end="121U" /> <section begin="121V" />ALEXANDER,, a Swiss mathematician of the seventeenth century, wrote a treatise on algebra, which has been translated into English. <section end="121V" /> <section begin="121W" />ALEXANDER,, a Greek poet and rhetorician of the first century. He has left some fragments of astronomical and geographical forms. <section end="121W" /> <section begin="121X" />ALEXANDER, The Right Rev., was born in the year 1799, in the grand duchy of Posen, of Jewish parents, and began life as a Jewish rabbi. Becoming, however, a convert to Christianity, he was baptized in 1826, and soon afterwards was ordained to a curacy in Ireland. He then became a missionary to his own people, in connection with the "Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews," and in 1832 was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature in King's College, London. In 1841, overtures were made by the king of Prussia to the English government for the establishment of a protestant bishopric in Jerusalem, under the joint auspices of the sovereigns of England and Prussia; and an arrangement having been entered into for the accomplishment of this object. Dr. Alexander was consecrated as the first bishop of the united church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, on Sunday, November 7. The establishment of this bishopric gave rise to much dispute at the time, and is still condemned by many high ecclesiastical authorities. But none could do otherwise than regret the sudden death of the amiable bishop, which took place while he was on a journey to Cairo, November 23, 1845.—R. S. O. <section end="121X" /> <section begin="121Y" />ALEXANDER,, a Greek writer on natural history, about two centuries. A few fragments of his works are extant. <section end="121Y" /> <section begin="121YA" />ALEXANDER,, a Benedictine monk, favourably spoken of as a writer on medicine and surgery, was born at Paris in 1654; died in 1728. <section end="121YA" /> <section begin="121YB" />ALEXANDER,, a French ecclesiastic of some rank, and author of an ecclesiastical history, was born at Rouen in 1637. He was a zealous Jansenist, and by his writings brought himself into trouble with Pope Innocent XI., who proscribed him in 1684. He continued his literary labours till his death in 1724. His works comprise a history of the Old, and a commentary on the New Testament.—J. S., G. <section end="121YB" /> <section begin="121YC" />ALEXANDER,, a Greek rhetorician of the 2nd century of the Christian era. He wrote a work—"De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis." <section end="121YC" /> <section begin="121YD" />ALEXANDER, a celebrated impostor in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He possessed a majestic figure, and great intellectual power, and was thus enabled to perpetrate a successful imposture, and maintain the credit of an oracle. <section end="121YD" /> <section begin="121YE" />ALEXANDER,, a Greek rhetorician, a native of Seleucia, celebrated for his personal endowments and oratorical talent. He was secretary to the Emperor Antoninus Pius. <section end="121YE" /> <section begin="121YF" />ALEXANDER,, a Gallic historian, fragments of whose work on the early history of France are preserved in that of Gregory of Tours, lived in the fourth century. <section end="121YF" /> <section begin="121YG" />ALEXANDER,, procurator of Judea,. 46, and subsequently prætor of Egypt under Nero. He commanded a battalion under Titus at the siege of Jerusalem. <section end="121YG" /> <section begin="121Zcontin" />ALEXANDER, a famous Greek physician, who practised at Rome in the sixth century. Nothing is known of his life, except that he visited France and Spain. He appears from his works to have been a Christian, and to have shared in most of the superstitions which disfigured the Christianity of his time. In his principal work, (twelve books on medicine), an elaborate treatise on all the diseases of the human body, he mixes up with the results of much scientific investigation, not a little of the credulity with respect to magical appliances which characterized his age. But <section end="121Zcontin" />