Everything about Alexander Ales totally explained
Alexander Ales (
Alesius) (
April 23,
1500–
March 17,
1565) was a
Scottish theologian of the school of
Augsburg.
Originally
Alexander Alane, he was born at
Edinburgh. He studied at
St Andrews in the newly-founded college of St Leonard's, where he graduated in 1515. Some time afterwards he was appointed a canon of the collegiate church, where he contended vigorously for the scholastic
theology as against the doctrines of the Reformers. His views entirely changed, however, on the execution of
Patrick Hamilton, abbot of Fern, in
1528. He had been chosen to meet Hamilton in controversy, with a view to convincing him of his errors, but the arguments, of the Scottish proto-
martyr, and above all the spectacle of his heroism at the stake, impressed Alesius so powerfully that he was won over to the cause of the Reformers.
A sermon he preached before the
Synod at St Andrews against the dissoluteness of the clergy offended the
provost, who placed him in prison, and might have carried his resentment further if Alesius hadn't escaped to Germany in 1532. After travelling through northern Europe, he settled down at
Wittenberg, where he made the acquaintance of
Martin Luther and
Philipp Melanchthon, and signed the
Augsburg confession. Meanwhile he was tried in Scotland for
heresy and condemned without a hearing. In
1533 a decree of the Scottish clergy, prohibiting the reading of the
New Testament by the laity, drew from Alesius a defence of the right of the people, in the form of a letter to King
James V of Scotland (1513–42).
A reply to this by
Johann Cochlaeus, also addressed to the Scottish king, occasioned a second letter from Alesius, in which he amplified his argument with great force and entered into more general questions. In August 1534 he and a few others were excommunicated at
Holyrood by the deputy of the archbishop of St Andrews. When King
Henry VIII of England (1509–47) broke with the
church of Rome Alesius was persuaded to go to
England, where he was cordially received (August
1535) by the king and his advisers,
Thomas Cranmer and
Thomas Cromwell.
After a short stay at
Lambeth Palace he was appointed, through the influence of Cromwell, then chancellor of the university, to lecture on theology at the
University of Cambridge; but when he'd delivered a few expositions of the Hebrew
psalms, he was prevented from continuing by the papal party. Returning to London he supported himself for some time by practising as a physician. In
1537 he attended a convocation of the clergy, and at the request of Cromwell conducted a controversy with
John Stokesley,
Bishop of London, on the nature of the
sacraments. His argument was afterwards published under the title
Of Me Auctorile of the Word of God concerning the number of the sacraments.
In
1539 Alesius was compelled to flee for a second time to Germany, as a result of Thomas Cromwell's fall from power and the enactment of the statute of the Six Articles. He was appointed to a theological chair at the university of
Frankfurt (Oder), where he was the first professor to teach the reformed doctrines. He was in England again for a short time during
Edward VI's reign, and was commissioned by Cranmer to make a
Latin version of the
First Prayer-Book (1549) for the information of
Martin Bucer, whose opinion was desired.
Returning to
Leipsig he passed the remainder of his days in peace and honour, and was twice elected Rector of the
University. His writings were both exegetical and controversial, but chiefly the latter. They include
Expositio Libri Psalmorum Davidis (1550). His controversial works refer to such subjects as the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, against Servetus, etc.
Alesius published a large number of exegetical, dogmatic and polemical works, of which over twenty are mentioned by Bale in his
List of English Writers. In his controversial works he upholds the synergistic views of the Scottish theologian
John Major. He displayed his interest in his native land by the publication of a
Cohortatio ad Concordiam Pietatis, missa in Patriam suam (1544), which had the express approval of Luther, and a
Cohortatio ad Pietatis Concordiam ineundam (1559).
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