Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/388

ALEXANDER OF HALES. edition, Venice. 1576. 4 volumes), written at the command of Pope Innocent IV., and enjoined by his successor, ^Mexander IV., to be used by all professors and students of theology in Christen- dom. Alexander gave the doctrines of the Church a more rigorously syllogistic form than they had previously had, and may thus be considered as the author of the scholastic theology. Instead of appealing to tradition and authority, he deduces with great subtlety, from assumed premises, the most startling doctrines of Catholicism, especial- ly in favor of the prerogatives of the papacy. He refuses any toleration to heretics, and would have them deprived of all property; he absolves sub- jects from all obligation to obey a prince who is not obedient to the Church. The spiritual power, which blesses and consecrates kings, is, by that very fact, above all temporal powers, to say noth- ing of the essential dignity of its nature. It has the right to appoint and to judge these powers, while the Pope has no judge but God. In ecclesi- astical affairs, also, he maintains the Pope's au- thority to be full, absolute, and superior to all laws and customs. The points on which Alexan- der exercises his dialectics are sometimes simply ludicrous; as when he discusses the question Avhether a mouse that should nibble a consecrated wafer would thereby eat the body of Christ.

ALEXANDER OF THE NORTH,. Charles XII. of Sweden. Sometimes so called from his warlike exploits.

ALEXANDER POL'YHIS'TOR ( Gk. Holvta- Tup, poliilihlor, very learned). A famous his- torian of the first century B.C., who was a native of Cottyacum, in Phrygia, but was edu- cated at Miletus. In Sulla's war against Mith- vidates he was taken captive and brought to Rome, where Cornelius Lentulus gave him his fi'eedom. Sulla afterward granted him Roman citizenship. Alexander gained the surname Poly- histor because of the great number of his his- torical works: but he also wrote on geography, granunar. science, rhetoric, and philosophy. All of his books have perished; but the.y were ex- tensively quoted by Pliny the Elder, Diogenes Laertius, and particularly Clement of Alexan- dria and Eusebius. These excerpts show him to have been a rather poor compiler without marked literary ability or historical judgment. But he was evidently a great reader, and he perused .Jew- ish and Samaritan works as well as CJreek au- thors. Thus the world is indebted to Alexander for all extant information concerning such .Jew- ish writers as Philo, the epic poet; Ezekiel, the tragedian; Eupolemus, the historian; Demetrius or Artapanus, the chronicler; Aristeas, the his- torian, and such Samaritan writers as Theodotus and Molon. The genuineness of these fragments has been doulited by Ranch and Cruice; but the defense by Miiller, Freudenthal, and Schiirer is quite convincing. Alexander refers twice to the Bible, and gives from Berosus the story of the Deluge and possibly also the legend of the con- fusion of tongues. The text of the fragments ^will be found in Eusebius, I'rcrparalio Enuiiriclira (London, 1.S42), Clement, fitromafa, i., 21, 130 (Oxford, l.SliO): Miiller, Fratimcnta. iii.. 211 flf., and translated in I. R. Cory's A}>cirnt Fnitiments (London, 1S70), J. Freudenthal, Ilcllcnifstische aiudien (Breslau, 1875), and E. Scliiirer's Geschichle des jiidischen Volkcs, iii., 340 ff. (Leipzig. 18!t8), discuss e.xcellently the question of their genuineness. ALEXANDER SEVE'RUS (c. 20.')-2.3.5) . Em- peror of Rome from 222 to 23.5 and cousin, adopted son, and successor of Elagabalus. Tbe excellent ed- ucation which he received from his mother, Julia MammaM, rendered him one of the best princes in an age when virtue was reckoned nune dan- gerous than vice in a monarch. He souglit the society of the learned; Paulus and Ulpian were his counselors, Plato and Cicero were, next to Horace and Vergil, his favorite authors. Al- though a pagan, lie reverenced the doctrines of Christianity, and often quoted that saying: "Whatsoever ye would that men shoukl do to you, do ye even so to them." Beloved as he was by the citizens on account of his equity, he soon be- came an object of hatred to the unruly Pra?torian Guards. His first expedition, against Artaxerxes, King of Persia, w'as happily terminated by a speedy overthrow of the enemy. But during one which he undertook against the Germans on the Rhine, to defend the frontiers of the Empire from their incursions, an insurrection broke out among his troops, headed by Maximinus, in which Alexander was murdered, along with his mother, not far from Mainz. The grateful peo- ple, however, enrolled him among the gods. After his death, military despotism obtained the ascendency.

ALEXANDER'S FEAST, or the Power of Mr.sic. An ode Avrittcn liy John Dryden for St. Cecilia's Day, 1697. It contains a number of lines now familiar from quotation. ALEXANDER, The Papiilagonian. A cele- Ijrated impostor of the early part of the sec- ond century a.d., of whom Lucian gives a description. He was born at Abonouteichos, in Asia Minor, and after being for some time asso- ciated with another charlatan named Cocconas, of Byzantium, returned to his native place and established a pretended oracle of .Esculapius. whom he sliowed in the form of a serpent. Here he gained great reputation, which extended even to Ital,v. He was especially resorted to during the plague of 160 a.d. AL'EXAN'DRA, Caroline JIarie Charlotte Louise .Julie (1844 — ). Queen of England. She is the daughter of Christian IX.. King of Den- mark, and was born at Copenhagen, December 1, 1844. She was married to Albert Edward. Prince of Wales, JIarch 10, 1S03. and has had three sons (two of whora have since died) and tlirce daughters. She visited Russia at the time of the death of Alexander III., and has also made sev- eral visits to Denmarlc. She is interested in many benevolent enterprises, and is an accom- plished musician, holding the degree of honorary musical doctor. Upon the accession of Albert Edward to the throne (1901), she became Queen of England. See Edward VII.

ALEXANDRA,. Empress of Russia. See.

ALEXANDRE, ii'laks-iin'dra. Rabbi Aaron (c. 1700-18.50). A German chess-player, liorn at Hohenfeld, Bavaria. He went to Strassburg in 1803 as an instructor in German, and subse- quently to Paris and London. He published an Fnciiclopedie des I'checs (1837), and a Collcclioii dcs pins hcdiix prohUmes d'^checs (1846), both still valuable.

ALEXANDRE LE GRAND, a'lfiks'iiN'dr' Ic griiN'. The name of a tragedy by Racine, produced in 1005. The actress who played Axiane