Alexander of Hales

Alexander VIII. (Pietro Ottoboni): Pope 1689-91. He came of a Venetian family, was made cardinal by Innocent X., and, later, Bishop of Brescia and datarius apostolicus. When Innocent XI. died (Aug. 11, 1689), much depended on the choice of his successor, both for Louis XIV. and for the League of Augsburg, formed to oppose him. His ambassador, the Duke de Chaulnes, succeeded on Oct. 6 in accomplishing the election of Cardinal Ottoboni. Louis, whom the coalition had placed in a critical situation, believed that he would find the new pope more complaisant in some disputed points than his predecessor had been. He attempted to conciliate the curia by restoring Avignon, and abandoned the right of extraterritorial immunity which he had so stubbornly claimed for the palace of his ambassador in Rome. Alexander showed a friendly spirit, and made the Bishop of Beauvais a cardinal. The coalition urged the pope neither directly nor indirectly to approve the four articles of the "Gallican liberties" of 1682, on which the strife had turned between the king and the clergy of his party, on one side, and Rome, on the other. Alexander might have been willing to confirm the bishops whom Louis had nominated in return for their part in bringing about this declaration, if they would avail themselves of the pretext that they defended the articles only in their private capacity. Louis rejected this accommodation, and the pope condemned the declaration and dispensed the clergy from the oath they had taken to uphold it.

Alexander made his name memorable in Rome by many benefits to the city, and showed his love for learning by the purchase for the Vatican library of the rich collection of Christina of Sweden. He is reproached, however, for yielding completely to the inroads of nepotism, which his predecessors had driven out. He died Feb. 1, 1691.

(A. HAUCK.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gerin Pape Alexandre VIII. et Louis XIV. d'apres documents inedite, Paris, 1878; Petrucelli della Gattina, Histoire diplomaggw des conclaves, iii. 213, Paris, 1865; A. Remnant. Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, 639, Berlin, 1870; Bower. Popes, iii. 334-335; Rankp, Popes, ii. 424. iii. 461.

ALEXANDER OF HALES (Halensis or Alensis, Halesius or Alesius; called Doctor Irrefragabilis and Theologorum Monarcha): Scholastic theologian; b. at Hales, Gloucestershire, England; d. in Paris Aug. 21, 1245. He was educated in the monastery at Hales, studied and lectured at Paris, and acquired great fame as a teacher in theology, and entered the order of St. Francis in 1222. His Summa universae theologiae (first printed at Venice, 1475) was undertaken at the request of Innocent IV., and received his approbation. It was finished by Alexander's scholars after his death. It is an independent work giving a triple series of authorities-- those who say yes, those who say no, and then the reconciliation or judgment. The authorities are chosen not only from the Bible and the Fathers, but also among Greek, Latin, and Arabic poets and philosophers, and later theologians. It treats in its first part the doctrines of God and his attributes; in its second, those of creation and sin; in its third, those of redemption and atonement; and, in its fourth and last, those of the sacraments. Among the doctrines which were specially developed and, so to speak, fixed by Alexander of Hales, are those of the thesaurus supererogationis perfectorum, of the character indelibilis of baptism, confirmation, ordination, etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. B. Haureau, De la philosophie scolastique, vol. i., Paris, 1850; A. Stockl, Geschichteder Philosophie, vol. ii., Mainz, 1865; A. Neander, Christian Church; iv. 420-519; J. E. Erdmann, Geschichte der Philosophie, i. 133, 431, Berlin, 1877, Eng. transl., 3 vols., London, 1893; Moeller, Christian Church, 1328, 414, 428.