Chapter LXXVIII: Act 1903: , the powers and duties of the Board of Trade under the (3)
AICHINGER, GREGOR (c. 1565-1628), one of the greatest German composers of the Golden Age. He was organist to the Fugger family of Augsburg in 1584. In 1599 he went for a two years' visit to Rome. This was for musical and not for ecclesiastical reasons, though he had taken orders before his appointment under Fugger. Proske, in the preface to vol. ii. of his Musica Divina, calls him a priest of Regensburg, and is inclined to give him the palm for the devout and ingenuous mastery of his style. Certainly this impression is fully borne out by the beautiful and somewhat quaint works included in that great anthology.
AICKIN, FRANCIS (d. 1805), Irish actor, first appeared in London in 1765 as Dick Amlet in Vanbrugh's The Confederacy at Drury Lane. He acted there, and at Covent Garden, until 1792. His repertory consisted of over eighty characters, and among his best parts were the Ghost in Hamlet and Jaques in As You Like It. His success in impassioned declamatory roles obtained for him the nickname of ``Tyrant.''
His younger brother James AICHIN (d. 1803) was playing leading parts in both comedy and tragedy at the Edinburgh theatre, when he gave offence to his public by his protest against the discharge of a fellow-actor. He therefore went to London, and from 1767 to 1800 was a member of the Drury Lane Company and for some years a deputy manager. He quarrelled with John Philip Kemble, with whom, in 1792, he fought a bloodless duel.
AIDAN (d. 606), king of the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada, was the son of Gabran, king of Dalriada, and became king after the death of his kinsman King Conall, when he was crowned at Iona by St Columba. He refused to allow his kingdom to remain in dependence on the Irish Dairiada, but coming into collision with his southern neighbours he led a large force against AEthelfrith, king of the Northumbrians, and was defeated at a place called Daegsanstane, probablv in Liddesdale.
See Bede, Historiae Ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum, edited by O'. Plummer (Oxford, 1896); Adamnan, Vita S. Columbae, edited by J. T. Fowler (Oxford, 1894).
AIDAN, or AEDAN, first bishop of Lindisfarne, a monk of Hii (Iona), was sent by the abbot Senegi to Northumbria, at the request of King Oswald, A.D. 634-635. He restored Christianity, and in accordance with the traditions of Irish episcopacy chose the island of Lindisfarne, close to the royal city of Bamborough, as his see. Although he retained the Irish Easter, his character and energy in missionary work won him the respect of Honorius and Felix. He survived Oswald, and died shortly after the murder of his friend Oswine of Deira, on the 31st of August 651, in the 17th year of his episcopate.
See Bede, Hist. Eccl. (ed. Plummer), iii. 3, 5, 17, 25.
AIDE-DE-CAMP (Fr. for camp-assistant or, perhaps, field-assistant), an officer of the personal staff of a general, who acts as his confidential secretary in routine matters. In Great Britain the office of aide-de-camp to the king is given as a reward or an honorary distinction. In many foreign armies the word adjutant is used for an aide-de-camp, and adjutant general for a royal aide-de-camp. The common abbreviation for aide-de-camp in the British service is ``A.D.C.,'' and in the United States ``aid.'' Civil governors, such as the lord lieutenant of Ireland, have also, as a rule, officers on their staffs with the title and functions of aides-de-camp.
AIDIN. (1) A vilayet in the S.W. of Asia Minor including the ancient Lydia, Ionia, Carla and western Lycia. It derives its name from the Seljuk emir who took Tralles, and is the richest and most productive province of Asiatic Turkey. The seat of government is Smyrna. (2) The principal town of the valley of the Menderes or Maeander, about 70 m. E.S.E. of Smyrna. It is called also Guzel Hissar from the beauty of its situation on the lower slopes of Mons Messogis and along the course of the ancient Eudon. It is the capital of a sanjak. It was taken by the Seljuks, Aidin and Mentesh, late in the 13th century, and about 1390, when ruled by Isa Bey, a descendant of the first-named, acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty. In the Seljuk period it was a secondary city under the provincial capital, Tireh (q.v.) In the 17th century it came under the power of the Karasmans of Manisa and remained so till about 1820. Aidin is on the Smyrna-Dineir railway, has large tanneries and sweetmeat manufactories, and exports figs, cotton and raisins. It was greatly damaged by an earthquake in 1899. On a neighbouring height are to be seen the ruins of the ancient Tralles (q.v.), the site to which the name Guzel Hissar was particularly given by the Seljuks. Aidin is the seat of a British consular agent. As there are considerable numbers of Greeks, Armenians and Jews among the inhabitants, there are a Greek cathedral, several churches and synagogues in addition to the fine Turkish mosques. (D. G. H.)
AIDONE, a town of Sicily, in the province of Caltanisetta. From the town of Caltanisetta it is 22 m. E.S.E. direct (18 m. S.S.W. of the railway station of Raddusa, which is 41 m. W. of Catania). Pop. (1901) 8548. There are some interesting churches of the 14th century (see E. Mauceri in L'Arte, 1906, 17). On the Serra Orlando, a mountain not far off, are the extensive remains of an unknown city, the finest in eastern Sicily, but rapidly suffering destruction from the spread of cultivation and unauthorized excavations.
See P. Orsi in Atti del Congresso di Scienze Storiche, vol. v 178 Rome, 1904).
AIDS, a term of medieval finance, were part of the service due to a lord from his men, and appear to have been based upon the principle that they ought to assist him in special emergency or need. The occasions for demanding them and the amount to be demanded would thus be matters of dispute, while the loose use of the term to denote many different payments increases the difficulty of the subject.
Both in Normandy and in England, in the 12th century, the two recognized occasions on which, by custom, the lord could demand ``aid,'' were (1) the knighting of his eldest son, (2) the marriage of his eldest daughter; but while in England the third occasion was, according to Glanvill, as in Normandy, his payment of ``relief'' on his succession, it was, according to the Great Charter (1215), the lord's ransom from captivity. By its provisions, the king covenanted to exact an ``aid'' from his barons on these three occasions alone--and then only a ``reasonable'' one--except by ``the common counsel'' of his realm. Enormous importance has been attached to this provision, as establishing the principle of taxation by consent, but its scope was limited to the barons (and the city of London), and the word ``aids'' was omitted from subsequent issues of the charter. The barons, on their part, covenanted to claim from their feudal tenants only the above three customary aids. The last levy by the crown was that of James I. on the knighting of his eldest son (1609) and the marriage of his daughter (1613).
From at least the days of Henry I. the term ``aid'' was also applied (1) to the special contributions of boroughs to the king's revenue, (2) to a payment in lieu of the military service due from the crown's knights. Both these occur on the pipe roll of 1130, the latter as auxilium militum (and possibly as auxilium comitatus.) The borough ``aids'' were alternatively known as ``gifts'' (dona), resembling in this the ``benevolences'' of later days. When first met with, under Henry I., they are fixed round sums, but under Henry II. (as the Dialogue of the Exchequer explains) they were either assessed on a population basis by crown officers or were sums offered by the towns and accepted by them as sufficient. In the latter case the townsfolk were collectively responsible for the amount. The Great Charter, as stated above, extended specially to London the limitation on baronial ``aids,'' but left untouched its liability to tallage, a lower and more arbitrary form of taxation, which the towns shared with the crown's demesne manors, and which London . resisted in vain. The two exactions, although distinct, have to be studied together, and when in 1296-1297 Edward I. was forced to his great surrender, he was formerly supposed by historians to have pledged himself, under De tallagio non concedendo, to levy no tallage or aid except by common consent of his people. It is now held, however, that he limited this concession to ``aides, mises,'' and ``prises,'' retaining the right to tallage. Eventually, by a statute of 1340, it was provided that the nation should not be called upon ``to make any common aid or sustain charge'' except by consent of parliament. The aids spoken of at this period are of yet another character, namely, the grant of a certain proportion of all ``movables'' (i.e. personal property), a form of taxation introduced about 1188 and now rapidly increasing in importance. These subsidies were conveniently classed under the vague term ``aids,'' as were also the grants made by the clergy in convocation, the term covering both feudal and non-feudal levies from the higher clergy and proportions not only of ``movables'' but of ecclesiastical revenues as well.
The ``knight's aid'' of 1130 spoken of above is probably identical with auxilium exercitus spoken of in the oldest custumals of Normandy, where the phrase appears to represent what was known in England as ``scutage.'' Even in England the phrase ``quando Rex accipit auxilium de militibus'' occurs in 1166 and appears to be loosely used for scutage.
The same loose use enabled the early barons to demand ``aid'' from their tenants on various grounds, such as their indebtedness to the Jews, as is well seen in the Norfolk fragments of returns to the Inquest of Sheriffs (1170).
Sheriff's aid was a local payment of a fixed nature paid in early days to the sheriff for his service. It was the subject of a hot dispute between Henry II. and Becket in 1163.
AUTHORITIES.--Stubbs' Constitutional History and Select Charters; M'Kechnie's Magna Carta; Pollock and Maitland's History of English Law; Maitland's Domesday Book and Beyond; Dialogus de Scaccario (Oxford, 1892); Madox's History of the Exchequer; Round's Feudal England and The Commune of London; The Pipe Rolls (Record Commission and Pipe Roll Society). (J. H. R.)
AIGRETTE (from the Fr. for egret, or lesser white heron), the tufted crest, or head-plumes of the egret, used for adorning a woman's head-dress, the term being also given to any similar ornament, in gems, &c. An aigrette is also worn by certain ranks of officers in the French army. By analogy the word is used in various sciences for feathery excrescences of like appearance, as for the tufts on the heads of insects, the feathery down of the dandelion, the luminous rays at the end of electrified bodies, or the luminous rays seen in solar eclipses, diverging from the moon's edge.
AIGUES-MORTES, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Gard 25 m. S.S.W. of Nimes, on a branch line of the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee railway. Pop. (1906) 3577. Aigues-Mortes occupies an isolated position in the marshy plain at the western extremity of the Rhone delta, 2 1/2 m. from the Golfe du Lion. It owes its celebrity to the medieval fortifications of remarkable completeness with which it is surrounded. They form a parallelogram 596 yds. long by 149 yds. broad, and consist of crenellated walls from 25 to 36 ft. in height, dominated at intervals by towers. Of these, the Tour de Constance, built by Louis IX., is the most interesting; it commands the northwestern angle of the ramparts, and contains two circular, Vaulted chambers, used as prisons for Protestants after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The remainder of the fortifications were built in the reign of Philip III. Aigues-Mortes is the meeting-place of several canals connecting it with Beaucaire, with Cette, with the Lesser Rhone and with the Mediterranean, on which it has a small port. Fishing and the manufacture of soda are the chief industries with which the town is connected. It has trade in coal, oranges and other fruits, and in wine. In the surrounding country there are important vineyards, which are preserved from disease by periodical submersion. There is a statue in the town in memory of Louis IX. who embarked from Aigues-Mortes in 1248 and 1270 for the seventh and eighth crusades. To further the prosperity of the town a most liberal charter was granted to it, and in addition the trade of the port was artificially fostered by a decree requiring that every vessel navigating within sight of its lights should put in there. This ordinance remained in force till the reign of Louis XIV.
AIGUILLE (Fr. for needle), the sharp jagged points above the snow-line, standing upon the massif of a mountain split by frost action along joints or planes of cleavage with sides too steep for snow to rest upon them. Aiguilles are thus the forms remaining from the splitting up of the high ridges with houseroof structure into detached pinnacles.
AIGUILLETTE (Fr. diminutive of AIGUILLE, a needle; the obsolete English form is ``aglet''), originally a tag of metal, often made of precious metals and richly chased, attached to the end of a lace or ribbon, and pointed, so as to pass more easily through eyelet holes. The term was, in time, applied to any bright ornament or pendant for the dress made of metal, and is now specially used of ornamental cords and tags of gold and silver lace, worn on naval and military uniforms. The aiguillette is fastened to the shoulder, the various cords hanging down therefrom being fastened at their other end on the front of the coat.
AIGUILLON, EMMANUEL ARMAND DE WIGNEROD DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU, DUC D' (1720-1782), French statesman, nephew of the marechal de Richelieu, was born on the 31st of July 1720. He entered the army at the age of seventeen, and at the age of nineteen was made colonel of the regiment of Brie. He served in the campaigns in Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession, was seriously wounded at the siege of Chateau-Dauphin (1744), was taken prisoner (1746) and was made marechal de camp in 1748. His marriage in 1740 with Louise Felicite de Brehan, daughter of the comte de Plelo, coupled with his connexion with the Richelieu family, gave, him an important place at court. He was a member of the so-called parti devot, the faction opposed to Madame de Pompadour, to the Jansenists and to the parlement, and his hostility to the new ideas drew upon him the anger of the pamphleteers. In 1753 he was appointed commandant (governor) of Brittany and soon became unpopular in that province, which had retained a large number of privileges called ``liberties.'' He first came into collision with the provincial estates on the question of the royal imposts (1758), but was then blamed for his inertia in the preparation of a squadron against England (1759), and finally alienated the parlement of Brittany by violating the privileges of the province (1762). In June 1764 the king, at the instance of d'Aiguillon, quashed a decree of the parlement forbidding the levying of new imposts without the consent of the estates, and refused to receive the remonstrances of the parlement against the duke. On the 11th of November 1765 La Chalotais, the procureur of the parlement, was arrested, but whether at the instigation of d'Aiguillon is not certain. The conflict between d'Aiguillon and the Bretons lasted two years. In the place of the parlement, which had resigned, d'Aiguillon organized a tribunal of more or less competent judges, who were ridiculed by the pamphleteers and ironically termed the bailliage d'Aiguillon. In 1768 the duke was forced to suppress this tribunal, and returned to court, where he resumed his intrigue with the parti devot and finally obtained the dismissal of the minister Choiseul (December 24, 1770). When Louis XV., acting on the advice of Madame Dubarry, reorganized the government with a view to suppressing the resistance of the parlements, d'Aiguillon was made minister of foreign affairs, Maupeou and the Abbe Terray (1715-1778) also obtaining places in the ministry. The new ministry, albeit one of reform, was very unpopular, and was styled the ``triumvirate.'' All the failures of the government were attributed to the mistakes of the ministers. Thus d'Aiguillon was blamed for having provoked the coup d'etat of Gustavus III., king of Sweden, in 1772, although the instructions of the comte de Vergennes, the French ambassador in Sweden, had been written by the minister, the duc de la Vrilliere. D'Aiguillon, however, could do nothing to rehabilitate French diplomacy; he acquiesced in the first division of Poland, renewed the Family Compact, and, although a supporter of the Jesuits, sanctioned the suppression of the society. After the death of Louis XV. he quarrelled with Maupeou and with the young queen, Marie Antoinette, who demanded his dismissal from the ministry (1774). He died, forgotten, in 1782. In no circumstances had he shown any special ability. He was more fitted for intrigue than for government, and his attempts to restore the status of French diplomacy met with scant success.
See Memoires du ministere du duc d'Aiguillon (3rd ed., Paris and Lyons, 1792), probably written by J. L. Soulavie. On d'Aiguillon's governorship of Brittany see Carre, La Chalotais et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1893); Marion, La Bretagne et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1898); and Barthelemy Pocquet, Le Duc d'Aiguillon et La Chalotais (Paris, 1901--1902). The three last have full biblioaraphies. See also Flammermont, Le Chancelier Maupeou et les parlements (Paris, 1883); Frederic Masson, Le Cardinal de Bernis (Paris, 1884).
AIGUILLON, MARIE MADELEINE DE WIGNEROD DU PONT DE COURLAY, DUCHESSE D' (1604-1675), daughter of Cardinal Richelieu's sister. In 1620 she married a nephew of the constable de Luynes, Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, who died in 1622. In 1625, through her influence, she was made a lady-in-waiting (dame d'atour) to Ihe queen-mother, and in 1638 was created duchess of Aiguihon. She did not marry a second time, although Richelieu wished to marry her to a prince--either to the comte de Soissons or to the king's brother. After the death of the cardinal (1642) she retained her honours and titles, but withdrew from the court, and devoted herself entirely to works of charity. She entered into relations with Saint Vincent de Paul and helped him to establish the hospital for foundlings. She also took part in organizing the General Hospital and several others in the provinces. She died on the 17th of April 1675. She was the patroness of Corneille, who in 1636 dedicated to her his tragedy of The Cid.
See E. Flechier, Oraison funebre de Mme. Marie de Wignerod, duchesse d'Aiguillon; Bonneau-Avenant, La duchesse d'Aiguillon (1879); M.emoires de Saint-Simon, ed. by A. de Boislisle (1879 et seq..)
AIGUN, or AIHUN (also Sakhalyan-ula-khoto), a town of China, province Hei-lung-kiang, in northern Manchuria, situated on the right bank of the Amur, in a fertile and populous region, 20 m. below Blagovyeshchensk, where it occupies nearly 2 m. on the bank of the river. There is a palisaded fort in the middle of the town, inside of which is the house of the fu-tu (governor). Its merchants carry on an active local trade in grain, mustard, oil and tobacco, and some of its firms supply the Russian administration with grain and flour. During the ``Boxer'' rising of 1900 it was, for a few weeks, the centre of military action directed against the Russians. The population, of some 20,000, includes a few hundred Mussulmans. The town was founded first on the left bank of the Amur, below the mouth of the Zeya, but was abandoned, and the present town was founded in 1684. It was here that Count Muraviev concluded, in May 1857, the Aihun treaty, according to which the left bank of the Amur was conceded to Russia.
AIKEN, a city and the county-seat of Aiken county, South Carolina, U.S.A., 17 m. E.N.E. of Augusta, Georgia. Pop. (1890) 2362; (1900) 3414 (2131 of negro descent); (1910) 3911. It is served by the Southern railway, and by an electric line connecting with Augusta. Aiken is a fashionable winter resort, chiefly frequented by Northerners, and is pleasantly situated about 500 ft. above sea level in the heart of the famous sand-hill and pine-forest region of the state. The dry and unusually equable temperature (mean for winter 50 deg. F., for spring 57 deg. F., and for autumn 64 deg. F.) and the balmy air laden with the fragrance of the pine forests have combined to make Aiken a health and pleasure resort; its climate is said to be especially beneficial for those afflicted with pulmonary diseases. There are fine hotels, club houses and cottages, and the Palmetto Golf Links near the city are probably the finest in the southern states; fox-hunting, polo, tennis and shooting are among the popular sports. There are some excellent drives in the vicinity. The city is the seat of the Aiken Institute (for whites) and the Schofield Normal and Industrial School (for negroes). There are lumber mills, cotton mills and cotton-gins; and cotton, farm products and artificial stone are exported. Considerable quantities of aluminium are obtained from the kaolin deposits in the vicinity. The city's water supply is obtained from artesian wells. Aiken was settled in the early part of the 19th century, but was not incorporated until 1835, when it was named in honour of William Aiken (1806-1887), governor of the state in 1844--1847, and a representative in Congress in 1851-1857.
AIKIN, ARTHUR (1773-1854), English chemist and mineralogist, was born on the 19th of May 1773, at Warrington in Lancashire. He studied chemistry under Priestley and gave attention to the practical applications of the science. To mineralogy he was likewise attracted, and he was one of the founders of the Geological Society of London, 1807, and honorary secretary, 1812-1817. To the transactions of that society he contributed papers on the Wrekin and the Shropshire coalfield, &c. Later he became secretary of the Society of Arts, and in 1841 treasurer of the Chemical Society. In early life he had been for a short time a Unitarian minister. He was highly esteemed as a man of sound judgment and wide knowledge. He died in London on the 15th of April 1854.
PUBLICATIONS.--Journal of a Tour through North Wales and part of Shropshire with observations in Mineralogy and other branches of Natural History (London, 1797); A Manual of Mineralogy (1814; ed. 2, 1815); A Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy (with his brother C. R. Aikin), 2 vols. (London, 1807, 1814).
AIKIN, JOHN (1747-1822), English doctor and writer, was born at Kibworth-Harcourt, and received his elementary education at the Noncomformist academy at Warrington, where his father was tutor. He studied medicine in the university of Edinburgh, and in London under Dr Wilham Hunter. He practised as a surgeon at Chester and Warrington. Finally, he went to Leyden, took the degree of M.D. (1780), and in 1784 established himself as a doctor in Yarmouth. In 1792 he removed to London, where he practised as a consulting physician. But he concerned himself more with the advocacy of liberty of conscience than with his professional duties, and he began at an early period to devote himself to literary pursuits. In conjunction with his sister, Mrs Barbauld (q.v.), he published a popular series of volumes entitled Evenings at Home (6 vols., 1792-1795), excellently adapted for elementary family reading, which were translated into almost every European language. In 1798 Dr Aikin retired from professional life and devoted himself with great industry to various literary undertakings, among which his General Biography (10 vols., 1799-1815) holds a conspicuous place. Besides these, he published Biog. Memoirs of Medicine (1780); Lives of John Selden and Archbishop Usher (1812) and other works. He edited the Monthly Magazine from 1796 to 1807, and conducted a paper called the Athenaeum from 1807 to 1809, when it was discontinued. Aikin died in 1822.
His daughter, LUCY AIKIN (1781-1864), born at Warrington on the 6th of November 1781, had some repute as a historical writer. After producing various books for the young, and a novel, Lorimer (1814), she published in 1818 her Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, which passed through several editions. This was followed by Memoirs of the Court of James I. (1822), Memoirs of the Court of Charles I. (1833) and a Life of Addison (1843). Miss Aikin died at Hampstead, where she had lived for forty years, on the 29th of January 1864.
See a Memoir of John Aikin, with selections of his miscellaneous pieces (1823), by his daughter; and the Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters of William Ellery Channing, edited by P. H. Le Breton.
AIKMAN, WILLIAM (1682-1731), British portrait-painter, was born at Cairney, Forfarshire. He was intended by his father for the bar, but followed his natural bent by becoming a pupil under Sir John Medina, the leading painter of the day in Scotland. In 1707 he went to Italy, resided in Rome for three years, afterwards travelled to Constantinople and Smyrna, and in 1712 returned home. In Edinburgh, where he practised as a portrait-painter for some years, he enjoyed the patronage of the duke of Argyll; and on his removal to London in 1723 he soon obtained many important commissions. Perhaps his most successful work was the portrait of the poet Gay. He also painted portraits of himself, Fletcher of Saltoun, William Carstares and Thomson the poet. The likenesses were generally truthful and the style was modelled very closely upon that of Sir Godfrey Kneller. Aikman held a good position in literary society and counted among his personal friends Swift, Pope, Thomson, Allan Ramsay, Somervile and Mallet.
AILANTHUS (more correctly ailantus, from ailanto, an Amboyna word probably meaning ``Tree of the Gods,'' or ``Tree of Heaven''), a genus of trees belonging to the natural order Simarubaceae. The best known species, A. glandulosa, Chinese sumach or tree of heaven, is a handsome, quick-growing tree with spreading branches and large compound leaves, resembling those of the ash, and bearing numerous pairs of long pointed leaflets. The small greenish flowers are borne on branched panicles; and the male ones are characterized by having a disgusting odour. The fruits are free in clusters, and each is drawn out into a long wing with the seed in the middle. The wood is fine grained and satiny. The tree, which is a native of China and Japan, was introduced into England in 1751 and is a favourite in parks and gardens. A silk spinning moth, the ailanthus moth (Bombyx or Philosamia cynthia), lives on its leaves, and yields a silk more durable and cheaper than mulberry silk, but inferior to it in fineness and gloss. This moth is common near many towns in the eastern United States; it is about 5 in. across, with angulated wings, and in colour olive brown, with white markings. Other species of ailanthus are: A. imberbifiora and A. punctata, important Australian timber-trees; and A. excelsa, common in India.
AILLY, PIERRE D, (1350-1420), French theologian, was born at Compiegne in 1350 of a bourgeois family, and studied in Paris at the celebrated college of Navarre. He became a licentiate of arts in 1367, procurator of the French ``nation'' in 1372, bachelor of theology in 1372, and licentiate and doctor in that faculty in 1381.
Since 1378 Western Christendom, in consequence of the election of the two popes Urban VI. and Clement VII., had been divided into two obediences. In the spring of 1379 Pierre d'Ailly, in anticipation even of the decision of the university of Paris, had carried to the pope of Avignon the ``role'' of the French nation, but notwithstanding this prompt adhesion he was firm in his desire to put an end to the schism, and when, on the 20th of May 1381, the university decreed that the best means to this end was to try to gather together a general council, Pierre d'Ailly supported this motion before the king's council in the presence of the duke of Anjou. The dissatisfaction displayed shortly after by the government obliged the university to give up this scheme, and was probably the cause of Pierre d'Ailly's temporary retirement to Noyon, where he held a canonry. There he continued the struggle for his side in a humorous work, in which the partisans of the council are amusingly taken to task by the demon Leviathan.
After his return to Paris, where from 1384 onwards he filled the position of master of the college of Navarre, and took part in a violent campaign against the chancellor of Notre-Dame, he was twice entrusted with a mission to Clement VII. in 1388 to defend the doctrines of the university, and especially those concerning the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, against the preaching friar Jean de Montson, and in 1389 to petition in the name of the king for the canonization of the young cardinal Peter of Luxemburg. The success which attended his efforts on these two occasions, and the eloquence which he displayed, perhaps contributed to his choice as the king,s almoner and confessor. At the same time, by means of an exchange, he obtained to the highest dignity in the university, becoming chancellor of Notre-Dame de Paris.
When in 1394 Benedict XIII. succeeded Clement VII. at Avignon, Pierre d'Ailly was entrusted by the king with a mission of congratulation to the new pontiff. His obsequious language on this occasion, and the favours with which it was rewarded, formed a too violent contrast to the determined attitude of the university of Paris, which, tired of the schism, was even then demanding the resignation of the two pontiffs. Pierre d'Ailly himself had not long before taken part in the drawing up of a letter to the king in which the advantages of this double abdication were set forth, but since then his zeal had seemed to cool a little. None the less, on his return from Avignon, he again in the presence of the king enlarged upon the advantages offered by the way which the university commended. But the suspicions aroused by his conduct found further confirmation when he caused himself--or allowed himself--to be nominated bishop of Le Puy by Benedict XIII. (April 2, 1395 ). The great number of benefices which he held left room for some doubt as to his disinterestedness. Henceforward he was under suspicion at the university, and was excluded from the assemblies where the union was discussed.
Some time afterwards Pierre d'Ailly became bishop of Cambrai (March 19, 1397) by the favour of the pope, who had yielded no whit, and, by virtue of this position, became also a prince of the empire. In order to take possession of his new see, he had to brave the wrath of the duke of Burgundy, override the resistance of the clergy and bourgeoisie, and even withstand an armed attack on the part of several lords; but his protector, the duke of Orleans, had his investiture performed by Wenceslaus, king of the Romans. The latter, though a partisan of the pope of Rome, took the opportunity of enjoining on Pierre d'Ailly to go in his name and argue with the pope of Avignon, a move which had as its object to persuade Benedict XIII. to an abdication, the necessity of which was becoming more and more evident. However, the language of the bishop of Cambrai seems on this occasion to have been lacking in decision; however that may be, it led to no felicitous result.
France next tried to bring violent pressure to bear to conquer the obstinacy of Benedict XIII. by threatening a formal withdrawal from his obedience. Pierre d'Ailly, who, in spite of his attachment to the pope, had been carried away by the example of the kingdom, was among the first who, in 1403, after experience of what had happened, counselled and celebrated the restoration of obedience. He was sent by Charles VI. on an embassy to Benedict XIII. and seized this opportunity of lavishing on the pontiff friendly congratulations mingled with useful advice. Two years later, before the same pontiff, he preached in the city of Genoa a sermon which led to the general institution, in the countries of the obedience of Avignon, of the festival of the Holy Trinity.
At the ecclesiastical council which took place at Paris in 1406 Pierre d'Ailly made every effort to avert a new withdrawal from the obedience and, by order of the king, took the part of defender of Benedict XIII., a course which yet again exposed him to attacks from the university party. The following year he and his disciple Gerson formed part of the great embassy sent by the princes to the two pontiffs, and while in Italy he was occupied in praiseworthy but vain efforts to induce the pope of Rome to remove himself to a town on the Italian coast, in the neighbourhood of his rival, where it was hoped that the double abdication would take place. Discouraged by his failure to effect this, he returned to his diocese of Cambrai at the beginning of 1408. At this time he was still faithful to Benedict XIII., and the disinclination he felt to joining the members of the French clergy who were on the point of ratifying the royal declaration of neutrality excited the anger of Charles VI.'s government, and a mandate, which was however not executed, ordered the arrest of the bishop of Cambrai.
It was not till after the cardinals of the two colleges had led to the convocation of the general council of Uisa that Tierre d'Aiily renounced the support of Benedict XIII., and, for want of a better policy, again allied himself with the cause which he had championed in his youth. In the council lay now, to judge from his words, the only chance of salvation; and, in view of the requirements of the case, he began to argue that, in case of schism, a council could be convoked by any one of the faithful, and would have the right to judge and even to depose the rival pontiffs. This was, in fact, the procedure of the council of Pisa, in which Pierre d'Ailly took part. After the declaration of the deposition of Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. it went on to the election of Alexander V. (June 26th, 1409), This pope reigned only ten months; his successor, John XXIII., raised Pierre d'Ailly to the rank of cardinal (June 6, 1411), and furtuer, to indemnify him for the loss of the bishopric of Cambrai, conferred upon him the administration of that of Limoges (November 3, 1412), which was shortly after exchanged for the bishopric of Orange. He also nominated Pierre d'Ailly as his legate in Germany (March 18, 1413).
Forgetting these benefits, the cardinal of Cambrai was one of the most formidable adversaries of John XXIII. at the council of Constance. Convinced as he was of the necessity for union and reform, he contributed more than any one to the adoption of the principle that, since the schism had survived the council of Pisa, it was necessary again to take up the work for a fundamental union, without considering the rights of John XXIII. any more than they had those of Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. From this point of view Pierre d'Ailly, together with his compatriot Cardinal Fillastre, took the preponderating part during the first few months. Afterwards, seeing the trend of events, he showed some uneasiness and hesitation. He refused, however, to undertake the defence of John XXIII., and only appeared in the trial of this pope to make depositions against him, which were sometimes of an overwhelming character.
Among the important matters which claimed his attention at Constance may be mentioned also the condemnation of the errors of Wycliffe and the trial of John Huss. The reading in public of his two treatises De Potestate ecclesiastica and De Reformalione Ecclesiae revealed, besides ideas very peculiar to himself on the reform and constitution of the church, his design of reducing the power of the English in the council by denying them the right of forming a separate nation (October 1-November 1, 1416). By this campaign, which exposed him to the worst retaliation of the English, he inaugurated his role of ``procurator and defender of the king of France.''
When at last the question arose of giving the Christian world a new pope, this time sole and uncontested, Pierre d'Ailly defended the right of the cardinals, if not to keep the election entirely in their own hands, at any rate to share in the election, and he brought forward an ingenious system for reconciling the pretensions of the council with the rights of the Sacred College. In this way was elected Pope Martin V. (November 11, 1417), and the task of Pierre d'Ailly was at last finished.
The predominance of the Anglo-Burgundians in France having made it impossible for him to stay there, he went to Avignon to end his days in melancholy calculations arising from the calamities of which he had been the witness, and the astrological reckonings, in which he found pleasure, of the chances for and against the world coming to an end in the near future. He died on the 9th of August 1420.
Pierre d'Ailly's written works are numerous. A great part of them was published with the works of Gerson (by Elhes du Pin, Antwerp, 1706); another part appeared in the 15th century, probably at Brussels, and there are many treatises and sermons still unpublished. In philosophy he was a nominalist. Many questions in science and astrology, such as the reform of the calendar, attracted his attention. His other works consisted of theological essays, ascetic or exegetic, questions of ecclesiastical discipline and reform, and of various polemical writings called forth for the most part by the schism.
Whatever reservations may be made as to a certain interested or ambitious side of his character, Pierre d'Ailly, whose devotion to the cause of union and reform is incontestable, remains one of the leading spirits of the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--P. Tschackert, Peter van Ailli (Gotha, 1877); L. Salembier, Petrus de Alliaco (Lille, 1886); H. Denifle et Em. Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, t. iii. (Paris, 1894); N. Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident (Paris, 4 vols., 1896-1902); and Bibliotheque de l'ecole des chartes, vol. lxv., 1904, pp. 557-574. (N. V.)
AILSA CRAIG, an island rock at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde, 10 m. W. of Girvan, Ayrshire, Scotland. It is of conoidal form, with an irregular elliptic base, and rises abruptly to a height of 1114 ft. The only side from which the rock can be ascended is the east; the other sides being for the most part perpendicular, and generally presenting lofty columnar forms, though not so regular as those of Staffa. This island is composed of micro-granite with riebeckite, of great interest on account of the rare occurrence of this type in Britain. It is comparatively fine-grained and of a greyish colour. Its essential constituents are felspar, quartz and riebeckite--a soda amphibole. The last of these minerals occurs in small irregular patches between the idiomorphic felspars which Dr J. J. H. Tean has found to be a soda orthoclase. The rock is allied to paisanite described by C. A. Osann and has been termed ailsite by Professor M. F. Heddle. It forms part of an intrusive mass which, on the south and west cliffs of the island, has a columnar arrangement and is traversed by dykes of dolerite, most of which run in a north-west direction. The age of this mass is uncertain, as its relations to other rocks are not visible in the island. As riebeckite-granophyre has been found in Skye it may be of Tertiary age. The rock is a favourite material for curling-stones, about three-fourths (according to estimate) of those in use in the countries where the game obtains being made of it. On this account curling-stones are popularly known as ``Ailsas'' or ``Ailsa Craigs.'' A columnar cave exists towards the northern side of the island, and on the eastern are the remains of a tower, with several vaulted rooms. Two springs occur and some scanty grass affords subsistence to rabbits, and, on the higher levels, to goats. The precipitous parts are frequented by large flocks of solan geese and other sea birds. The lighthouse on the southern side shows a flashing light visible for 13 m. In 1831 the twelfth earl of Cassillis became first marquis of Ailsa, taking the title from the Craig, which was his property. When John Keats was in Girvan during his Scottish tour in 1818 he apostrophized the rock in a fine sonnet.
AIMAK, or EIMAK (Mongolian for ``clan,'' or section of a tribe), the name given to certain nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of Mongolian stock inhabiting the north and north-west Afghan highlands immediately to the north of Herat. They were originally known as ``chahar (the four) Eimaks,'' because there were four principal tribes: the Taimani (the predominating element in the population of Ghur), the Ferozkhoi, the Jamshidi and, according to some authorities, the Hazara. The Aimak peoples number upwards of a quarter of a million, and speak a dialect said to be closely related to the Kalmuck. They are Sunnite Mahommedans in distinction from the Hazara who are Shiites. They are predominantly of Iranian or quasi-Iranian blood, while the Hazara are Turanian. They are a bold, wild people and renowned fighters.
AIMARD, GUSTAVE, the pen-name of OLIVIER GLOUX (1818-1883), French novelist, who was born in Paris on the 13th of September 1818. He made use of the materials collected in a roving and adventurous youth and early manhood in numerous romances in the style of J. Fenimore Cooper. Among the best of them are: Les Trappeurs de l'Arkansas (1858); La Grande flibuste (1860); Nuits mexicaines (1863); La Foret vierge (1870). He died in Paris on the 20th of June 1883. Many of his novels have been translated into English.
AIMOIN (c. 960-c. 1010), French chronicler, was born at Villefranche de Longchapt about 960, and in early life entered the monastery of Fleury, where he became a monk and passed the greater part of his life. His chief work is a Historia Francorum, or Libri v. de Gestis Francorum, which deals with the history of the Franks from the earliest times to 653, and was continued by other writers until the middle of the 12th century. It was much in vogue during the middle ages, but its historical value is now regarded as slight. It has been edited by G. Waitz and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, Band xxvi. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826-1892). He also wrote a Vita Abbonis, abbatis Floriacensis, the last of a series of lives of the abbots of Fleury, all of which, except the life of Abbo, have been lost. This has been published by J. Mabillon in the Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti (Paris, 1668-1701). Aimoin's third work was the composition of books ii. and iii. of the Miracula sancti Benedicti, the first book of which was written by another monk of Fleury named Adrevald. This also appears in the Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti. Aimoin, who died about 1010, must be distinguished from Aimoin, a monk of St Germain-des-Pres, who wrote De mircalis sancti Germani, and a fragment De Normanorum gestis circa Parisiacam urbem et de divine in eos ultione tempore Caroli calvi. Both of these are published in the Historiae Francorum Scriptores, Tome ii. (Paris, 1639-1649).
See Histoire litteraire de la France, tome vii. (Paris, 1865-1869).
AIN, a department on the eastern frontier of France, formed in 1790 from Bresse, the Pays de Gex, Bugey, Dombes and Valromey, districts of Burgundy. It is bounded N. by the departments of Jura and Saone-et-Loire, W. by Saone-et-Loire and Rhone, S. by Isere, and E. by the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie and the Swiss cantons Geneva and Vaud. Pop. (1906) 345,856. Area 2248 sq. m. The department takes its name from the river Ain, which traverses its centre in a southerly direction and separates it roughly into two well-marked physical divisions--a region of mountains to the east. and of plains to the west. The mountainous region is occupied by the southern portion of the Jura, which is divided into parallel chains running north and south and decreasing in height from east to west. The most easterly of these chains, that forming the Pays de Gex in the extreme north-east of the department, contains the Cret de la Neige (6653 ft.) and other of the highest summits in the whole range. The district of Bugey occupies the triangle formed by the Rhone in the south-east of the depart- . ment. West of the Ain, with the exception of the district covered by the Revermont, the westernmost chain of the Jura, the country is flat, consisting in the north of the south portion of the Bresse, in the south of the marshy Dombes. The chief rivers of the eastern region are the Valserine and the Seran, right-hand tributaries of the Rhone, which forms the eastern and southern boundary of the department; and the Albarine and Oignin, left-hand aflluents of the Ain. The Bresse is watered by the Veyle and the Reyssouze, both flowing into the Saone, which washes the western limit of the department. The climate is cold in the eastern and central districts of Ain, but it is on the whole healthy, except in the Dombes. The average rainfall is about 38 in. The soil in the valleys and plains of the department, especially in the Bresse, is fertile, producing large quantities of wheat, as well as oats, buckwheat and maize. East of the Ain, forests of fir and oak abound on the mountains, the lower slopes of which give excellent pasture for sheep and cattle, and much cheese is produced. Horse-raising is carried on in the Dombes. The pigs and fowls of the Bresse and the geese and turkeys of the Dombes are largely exported. The vineyards of Bugey and Revermont yield good wines. The chief mineral product is the asphalt of the mines of Seyssel on the eastern frontier, besides which potter's clay, building stone, hydraulic lime and cement are produced in the department. There are many corn and saw mills and the wood-working industry is important. Silk fabrics, coarse woollen cloth, paper and clocks are manufactured. Live-stock and agricultural products are exported; the chief imports are wood and raw silk. The department is within the judicial circumscription of the appeal court of Lyons and the educational circumscription (academie) of Lyons. It forms part of the archiepiscopal province of Besancon. The Rhone and the Saone are navigable for considerable distances in the department; the chief railway is that of the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee Company, whose line from Macon to Culoz traverses the department. Ain is divided into five arrondissements--those of Bourg and Trevoux in the west, and those of Gex, Nantua and Belley in the east; containing in all 36 cantons and 455 communes. Bourg is the capital and Belley is the seat of a bishop. Jujurieux, in the arrondissement of Nantua, has the most important silk factory in the department, occupying over 1000 workpeople. Bellegarde on the eastern frontier is an industrial centre; it has a manufactory of wood-pulp, and saw and flour mills, power for which is obtained from the waters of the Rhone, Oyonnax and its environs, north of Nantua, are noted for the production of articles in wood and horn, especially combs. St Rambert, in the arrondissement of Belley, besides being of industrial importance for its manufactures of silk and paper, possesses the remains of a Benedictine abbey, powerful in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Gothic church of Ambronay in the arrondissement of Belley, the church of St Paul de Varax (about 9 m. S.W. of Bourg), a building in the Romanesque style of Burgundy, and that of Nantua (12th century), are of architectural interest. Ferney, 4 m. S.W. of Gex, is famous as the residence of Voltaire from 1758-1778.
AINGER, ALFRED (1837-1904), English divine and man of letters, was born in London on the 9th of February 1837, the son of an architect. He was educated at King's College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1860 to a curacy at Alrewas, near Rugeley. There he remained until 1864, when he became an assistant master at the Sheffield Collegiate School. His connexion with the Temple church, in London, began in 1866, when he was appointed reader; and in 1894 he succeeded Dr Vaughan as master. In 1887 he was presented to a canonry in Bristol cathedral, and he was chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. He died on the 8th of February 1904. Canon Ainger's gentle wit and humour, his generosity and lovable disposition, endeared him to a wide circle. In literature his name is chiefly associated with his sympathetic appreciation of Charles Lamb and Thomas flood. His works include: Charles Lamb (1882) and Crabbe (1903) in the ``English Men of Letters'' series; editions of Lamb's Essays of Elia (1883) and of his Letters (1888; 2nd ed., 1904), of the Poems (1897) of Thomas Hood, with a biographical introduction; The Life and Works of Charles Lamb (12 vols., 1899-1900), articles on Tennyson and Du Maurier in the Dictionary of National Biography; The Gospel and Human Life (1904), sermons; Lectures and Essays (2 vols., 1905), edited by the Rev. H. C. Beeching.
See also Edith Sichel, The Life and Letters of Canon Ainger (1906).
AINMULLER, MAXIMILIAN EMMANUEL (1807-1870), German artist and glass-painter, was born at Munich on the 14th of February 1807. By the advice of Gartner, director of the royal porcelain manufactory, he devoted himself to the study of glass-painting, both as a mechanical process and as an art, and in 1828 he was appointed director of the newly-founded royal painted-glass manufactory at Munich. The method which he gradually perfected there was a development of the enamel process adopted in the Renaissance, and consisted in actually painting the design upon the glass, which was subjected, as each colour was laid on, to carefully-adjusted heating. The earliest specimens of Ainmuller's work are to be found in the cathedral of Regensburg. With a few exceptions, all the windows in Glasgow cathedral are from his hand. Specimens may also be seen in St Paul's cathedral, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Cologne cathedral contains some of his finest productions. Ainmuller had considerable skill as an oil-painter, especially in interiors, his pictures of the Chapel Royal at Windsor and of Westminster Abbey being much admired. He died on the 9th of December 1870.
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The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia, Volume 1 of 28Chapter LXXVIII: Act 1903: , the powers and duties of the Board of Trade under the (3)
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