Veste near Nuremberg, at which he had been second in command
under Wallenstein, duke of Friedland (with whom he was a
great favourite), he was next placed at the head of the corps
formed by Maximilian I. of Bavaria to support Wallenstein.
In this post his tact and diplomatic ability were put to a
severe test in the preservation of harmony between the two
dukes. Finally Count Aldringer was won over by the court
party which sought to displace the too successful duke of
Friedland. After Wallenstein's death Aldringer commanded
against the Swedes on the Danube, and at the defence of Landshut
he fell (July 22, 1634). His great possessions descended to
his sister, and thence to the family of Clary and Aldringen.
See Brohm, Johann von Aldringen (Halle, 1882), and
Hermann Hallwich, Johann von Aldringen (Leipzig, 1885);
also Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, s.v. Gallas,
correcting earlier biography of Aldringer in the same work.
ALDROVANDI, ULISSI (1522-1605), Italian naturalist, was,
born of noble parentage at Bologna on the 11th of September
1522. He was apprenticed to a merchant in Brescia, but a
commercial career being distasteful to him, he turned his
attention to law and medicine, studying first in his native
town and afterwards at Padua. In 1550 he was accused of
heresy, but succeeded in clearing himself before the
Inquisition. In 1553 he took his doctor's degree in
medicine at Bologna, and in the following year was appointed
professor of philosophy and also lecturer on botany at the
university. In 1560 he was transferred to the chair of natural
history. At his instance the senate of Bologna established in
1568 a botanical garden, of which he was appointed the first
director. About the same time he became inspector of drugs, and
in that capacity published in 1574 a work entitled Antidotarii
Bononiensis Epitome, which formed the model for many subsequent
pharmacopoeias. He was also instrumental in founding the public
museum of Bologna, which contains, especially in the natural
history department, a large number of specimens collected by
him. The results of his various researches were embodied
in a magnum opus, which was designed to include everything
that was known about natural history. The first three
volumes, comprising his ornithology, were published in 1599,
and a fourth, treating of insects, appeared in 1602. After
his death a number of other volumes were compiled from his
manuscript materials, under the editorship of several of his
pupils, to whom the task was entrusted by the senate of
Bologna. The work was enriched by a large number of
illustrations prepared at great expense, the author having,
it is said, employed several celebrated artists for thirty
years. Among these were Lorenzo Benini of Florence and
Christopher Coriolanus of Nuremberg. It has been said,
indeed, that the cost of the undertaking was so great as to
exhaust its author's means, and that he died penniless and
blind in the public hospital of Bologna. This, however, is
probably incorrect, at least as regards the allegation of
poverty. Published records of the senate of Bologna show
that it liberally supported Aldrovandi in his undertaking,
doubling his salary soon after his appointment as professor,
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 of May 1605.
Aldrovandi was chiefly remarkable for laborious and patient
research. He seems to have 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 important 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.
ALE, an old word for a fermented liquor obtained chiefly from
malt. In England ``ale'' is nowadays practically synonymous
with ``beer.'' Before the introduction of hops into England
from Flanders in the 16th century ale was the name exclusively
applied to malt liquor, the term beer being gradually
introduced to describe liquor brewed with an infusion of
hops. This distinction does not apply at the present time,
except in so far as the term ale is not applied to black
beers (stout and porter) nor to lager beer. In the United
States, however, it is customary to confine the designation
beer to the article obtained by the bottom fermentation
process. In former times the Welsh and Scots had two distinct
kinds of ale, called common and spiced ales, the relative
values of which were appraised by law in the following terms:
``If a farmer have no mead, he shall pay two casks of spiced
ale, or four casks of common ale, for one cask of mead.''
There are numerous varieties of English ales, such as mild
ale, which is a full, sweetish beer, of a dark colour and with
relatively little hop; pale ale, which is relatively dry, of
light colour and of a more pronounced hop flavour than the
mild ale; and bitter and stock ales, the latter term being
generally reserved for superior beers, such as are used for
bottling. The terms pale, bitter, stock, light, &c.,
are to be regarded as trade distinctions and not as exact
definitions of quality or type. (See BEER and BREWING.)
Parish Ales.--In old England an ``ale'' was synonymous with
a parish festival or merry-making at which ale was the chief
drink. The word was generally used in composition. Thus
there were leet-ales (that held on leet or manorial court day);
lamb-ales (that held at lamb-shearing); Whitsun-ales, clerk-ales,
church-ales and so on. The word bridal is really bride-ale,
the wedding feast. Bid-ales, once very common throughout
England, were ``benefit'' feasts to which a general invitation
was given, and all the neighbours attending were expected to
make some contribution to help the object of the ``benefit.''
(See ``Bidding-Weddings'' under BRIDE.) These parish festivals
were of much ecclesiastical and social importance in medieval
England. The chief purpose of church-ales and clerk-ales, at
least, was to facilitate the collection of parish-dues, or
to make an actual profit for the church from the sale of the
liquor by the church wardens. These profits kept the parish
church in repair, or were distributed as alms to the poor. At
Sygate, Norfolk, on the gallery of the church is inscribed--
God speed the plough
And give us good ale enow . . .
Be merry and glade,
With good ale was this work made.
On the beam of a screen in the church of Thorpe-le-Soken,
Essex, is the following inscription in raised Gothic
letters, on a scroll held by two angels--``This cost is the
bachelers made by ales thesn be ther med.'' The date is about
1480. The feast was usually held in a barn near the church
or in the churchyard. In Tudor times church-ales were held on
Sundays. Gradually the parish-ales were limited to the
Whitsun season, and these still have local survivals.
The colleges of the universities used formerly to brew
their own ales and hold festivals known as college-ales.
Some of these ales are still brewed and famous, like
``chancellor'' at Queen's College, and ``archdeacon'' at Morton
College, Oxford, and ``audit ale'' at Trinity, Cambridge.
See Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great
Britain (Wm. Carew Hazlitt's edition, 1905).
ALEANDRO, GIROLAMO (HIERONYMUS ALEANDER) (1480- 1542), Italian
cardinal, was born at Motta, near Venice, on the 13th of February
1480. He studied at Venice, where he became acquainted with
Erasmus and Aldus Manutius, and at an early age was reputed
one of the most learned men of the time. In 1508 he went to
Paris on the invitation of Louis XII. as professor of belles
lettres, and held for a time the position of rector in the
university. Entering the service of Eberhard, 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 following year
he went to Germany to be present as papal nuncio at the
coronation of Charles V., and was also present 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 evoked the fiercest denunciations of
Luther, but it also displeased more moderate men and especially
Erasmus. 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 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 released only on 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. He
was created cardinal in 1536 by Paul III. (at the same time as
Reginald Pole) and died at Rome on the 1st of February 1542.
Aleandro compiled a Lexicon Graeco-Latinum (Paris, 1512),
and wrote Latin verse of considerable merit inserted in
M. Tuscanus's Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italiorum. The
Vatican library contains a volume of manuscript letters and
other documents written by him in connexion with his various
missions against Luther. They were utilized by Pallavicino
in his Istoria del Concilio Tridentino (i. 23-28),
who gives a very partial account of the Worms conference.
Aleandro, who is sometimes called ``the elder,'' must be
distinguished from his grand-nephew, also called Girolamo
Aleandro (1374-1629). The younger Aleandro was a very
distinguished scholar, and wrote Psalmi poenitentiales
versibus elegiacis expressi (Treves, 1593), Gaii, veteris
juris consulti Institutionum fragmenta, cum commentario
(Venice, 1600), Explicatio veteris tabulae marmorcae
solis effigie symbolisque exculptae (Rome, 1616).
ALEARDI, ALEARDO, COUNT (1812-1878), Italian poet, was
born at Verona on the 4th of November 1812, and thus soon
after his birth became an Austrian subject. Inspired from
his cradle with a hatred of the foreigner, he found himself
disqualified for the position in the public service to which
his rank would have entitled him, and unable to publish
his patriotic verses. Arnaldo da Rocca, a narrative poem,
nevertheless appeared in 1842, and the revolutionary year
1848 made an opening for his Lettere a Maria. He took an
active part in the popular uprising, and was for some time
imprisoned. In 1856 he produced the finest of his pieces,
an ode to the maritime cities of Italy, and in 1858 a poem
on his own misfortunes. After the expulsion of the Austrians
from Lombardy he returned to Verona, published his poems in
a collected edition (1862), became professor at the Academy
of Fine Art, member of the Italian parliament and eventually
senator. He died on the 17th of July 1878. Aleardi's
warmth of patriotic feeling hardly finds adequate expression
in his poetry; it is his merit to excel in description,
but his fault to substitute description for action.
ALE-CONNER, an officer appointed yearly at the court-leet of
