THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
brought him in close relation with the court at Paris. When the Avignonese pope, Clement VII., died (1394), Ailly's influence secured the recognition by France of his successor, the Spaniard Peter de Luna (Benedict XIII.). As a reward Benedict made Ailly bishop of Puy (1395), and two years later bishop of Cambrai. In 1398 Charles VI. of France and Wenceslaus of Germany sent him upon unsuccessful missions to both Boniface IX. and Benedict, to try to induce them to resign their office. Benedict was then kept a prisoner in Avignon by French troops till he escaped to Spain (1403). In 1398 and again in 1408 France withdrew its obedience from Benedict, without, however, declaring for his rival. The attempt to nationalize the French Church failed because the civil authorities of the time conducted Church affairs worse than the pope. In 1408 Ailly finally abandoned the cause of Benedict. The addition of a new element of discord by the choice of a third pope at the Council of Pisa (q.v.) in June, 1409, was not in accord with Ailly's wishes; but in the main he stood by the council (cf. his Apologia concilii Pisani, in Tschackert, pp. 31 sqq.), though he continued to write in favor of reform by another council. John XXIII. (the Roman pope) sought to conciliate him by an appointment (June 7, 1411) as cardinal, with the title Cardinalis Sancti Chrysogoni, though he himself preferred to be called " the Cardinal of Cambrai." He attended the council called in Rome by John in 1412, where he interested himself in a reform of the calendar. In 1413 he traveled through Germany and the Netherlands as papal legate, and at the same time was active as a writer.
Ailly's most important services in church history, however, were rendered at the Council of Constance (met Nov. 5, 1414; see Constance, Council of). Here he maintained the superiority of a general council over the pope, but at the same time defended the privileges of the college of cardinals against the council. It was due to Gerson and Ailly that after the flight of John XXIII. from Constance (Mar. 20, 1415), the council was not adjourned. He had the courage to preside over the first popeless session (Mar. 26, 1415), and to carry out the order of business of that important gathering. The council had to decide three points: (1) The causa unionis (abolition of the schism); (2) the causa reformationis (reformation of the Church in capite et in membris); and (3) causa fidei (the case of John Huss). Ailly was very active in the last two. As president of the commission on faith, he examined Huss (June 7 and 8, 1415; Documenta J. Hus., ed. F Palacky, Prague, 1869, pp. 273 sqq.), and was present at his condemnation (July 6). He expressed his ideas on reform, as deputy of the college of cardinals, in the commission on reform and in a writing of Nov., 1416, De reformatione ecclesice (in H. von der Hardt, Magnum cecumenicum Constantiense concilium, i., part viii., Frankfort, 1700). His views on the power of the Church he had already published (October) in his De potestate ecclesice. When, in November, the council proceeded to the choice of a new pope, Ailly was a candidate; but the opposition of the English pre-
vented his election. He lived on good terms with his successful competitor, Otto di Colonna, and as his legate at Avignon continued influential in the French Church till his death. Ailly was always faithful to the interests of his country, although he was more churchman than Frenchman. He influenced the young Luther by his doubts concerning the doctrine of transubstantiation (cf. Luther's De captivitate Babylonica, Erlangen ed., var. arg., v. 29). In 1410 he wrote a geographical work Imago mundi ( n.p., n.d.), which has interest as having been one of the sources from which Columbus drew his belief in the possibility of a western passage to India (cf. Tschackert, 334 sqq.).
Paul Tschackert. Bibliography: P. Tschackert, Peter von AUK, Gotha, 1877 (gives bibliography of Ailly's works, pp. 348-366); L. Salembier, Petrus de A lliaco, Lille, 1886 (also gives bibliography of his works, pp. 2 sqq.); G. Erler, Dietrich von Nieheim, Leipsic, 1887; H. Finke, Forschungen und Quellen zur Geschichte des Konstanzer Konzils, pp. 103-132, Paderborn, 1889 (gives the diary of Ailly's colleague, Cardinal Fillastre, pp. 163 sqq.); B. Bess, Zur Geschichte des Konstanzer Konzils, vol. i., Marburg, 1891.
AILRED, el'red (.ELRED, ETHELRED) : Abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in England (20 m. n. of York); b. at Hexham (20 m. w. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), probably in 1109; d. at Rievaulx Jan. 12, 1166. He spent his youth at the court of Scotland, entered the abbey of Rievaulx in 1131, became abbot of Revesby, Lincolnshire and returned to Rievaulx as abbot in 1146. H wrote historical and theological works, the former of which include lives of St. Edward the Confessor and St. Ninian, while among the latter are: Sermones ; Speculum charitatis ; De spirituali amieitia ; De duodecimo anno Christi; Regula sive institutio inclusarum; and De natura animw. All of his printed works, with life by an anonymous author, are in MPL, cxcv.
Bibliography: Thos. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, ii. 187-196, London, 1846; J. H. Newman, Lives of the English Saints, 2 vols., ib. 1845-46; A. P. Forbes, in Lives of St. Ninian, St. Kentigern, St. Columba, Introduction, ib. 1875; Ethelred, in DNB, xviii. 33-35 (contains list of his writings).
AIMOIN, e"mwan': The name of two French monks, both known as historians.
1. Aimoin of St. Germain: Teacher in the monastery school of Saint-Germain-des-Pres near Paris. He seems to have begun his literary career about 865, and to have died at the end of the ninth century or in the beginning of the tenth. His works, all of a hagiographical nature, are in MPL, cxxvi. 1009-56.
2. Aimoin of Fleury: A disciple of Abbo of Fleury (q.v.), at whose suggestion, and therefore not later than 1004, he wrote a Historia Francorum, from their origin to the time of Clovis II. (d. 657). His life of Abbo has greater historical value; and his account of the translation of the relics of St. Benedict to Fleury contains numerous data for French history of the tenth century. His works are in MPL, cxxxix. 375-414, 617-870; and there are extracts in MGH, Script., ix. (1851) 374-376. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: (1) A. Ebert, Geschichte der Lilteratur dea Antlelalters, ii. 352-355; W Wattenbach, DGQ, i. (1904) 330. (2) W. Wattenbach, ut sup., pp. 121. 466-470.