THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: J. F Baltus, Defense des saints pares accuse! de Platonisme, Paris, 1711; H. E. F. Guericke, De schola qua Alexandria! floruit catechetica, Halle, 1824; C. F. W. Hasselbach, De schola qucs floruit catechetica, Stettin, 1824; E. R. Redepenning, Origenes, i., Bonn, 184]; J. Simon, Histoire critique de I'ecole d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1845; E. Vacherot, Histoire critique de I'ecole d'Alexandrie, 2 vols., Paris, 1846; C. Kingsley, Alexandria and her Schools, Cambridge, 1854; C. Bigg, Christian Platonists of Alexandria, Oxford, 1886; A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengschichte, i., ii., Freiberg, 1894, Eng. transl., 7 vols., London, 1895-1900.
ALEXANDRIA, SYNODS OF. For the synods held in Alexandria in 320 or 321 and 362, see Arianism I., 1, §2; I., 3, §6; for the synod in 400, see Origenistic Controversies; for the synod in 430, see Nestorius.
ALEXIANS: An order, aiming to care for the sick and bury the dead, which originated in the Netherlands at the time of the black death about the middle of the fourteenth century. The members were at first called Cellitce (Dutch, Gellebroeders, " Cell-brothers ") and Lollards, or Nollards, on account of their monotonous intoning at burials. When and where they chose St. Alexius — according to the legend, a son of rich parents who gave all his possessions to the poor, lived for many years unrecognized as a beggar in his father's house, and died July 17, 417 — as patron is not known. The place may have been Antwerp, or Cologne, or elsewhere in Lower Germany. A certain Tobias is said to have had a part in their foundation, and the name Fratres voluntarie pauperes, which is sometimes applied to them, may have been their oldest and chosen designation. From the fifteenth century they were found in great numbers in Belgium and western Germany. In 1459 Pius II. permitted them to take the solemn vows. To avoid being taken for Beghards, and to escape persecution, they adopted the monastic rule of St. Augustine (with black cassock), and Sixtus IV confirmed the arrangement in 1472. Later they appeared in the four provinces of the Upper Rhine, Middle Rhine, Flanders, and Brabant, without central government or priests at the head of the different monasteries. Jan Busch (q.v.), the monastic reformer of the fifteenth century, took note of their illiterate and deficient lay character. A reform of the order, which was verging on decay, was undertaken in 1854 by the monastery of Mariaberg in Aachen, and was confirmed by Pius IX. in 1870. About fifteen houses, for both sexes, scattered over western Germany, are affiliated with Aachen, and there are others in Belgium. O. ZocKLERf.
Bibliography: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iii. 401-406; G.
Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebestatigkeit im Mittelalter, pp.
390 sqq., Stuttgart, 1884; W Moll, Vorreformatorische
Kirchengeschichle der Niederlande, ii. 250 sqq.,Leipsic, 1895;
Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen i. 479-481.
ALEXIUS I., Q-lex'i-us, COMNENUS: Emperor of Constantinople 1081-1118, founder of the Comnenus dynasty. He was the nephew of Isaac Comnenus, who as emperor (1057-59) had tried through the army to save the state from the selfish tyranny of the official class, but had been put to death, with the result that for two decades military weakness, administrative demoralization, and the loss of provinces to Turks and Normans had brought the empire into an almost hopeless condition.
During this period Alexius won considerable renown by defeating a Norman mercenary captain named Ursel, who attempted to found a kingdom in Asia Minor, and two pretenders to the imperial throne. He was adopted by the empress Maria, but found himself so zealously watched in Constantinople that his only safety was to seize the crown for himself, which he accomplished by a masterly conspiracy. New dangers, however, threatened him. Asia Minor was largely in Mohammedan hands; the sovereignty of the empire in the Balkan peninsula was scarcely more than nominal; and Robert Guiscard menaced the Adriatic provinces, having already taken the south Italian ones. Alexius summoned his forces, and ratified the burdensome treaty with Venice which his predecessor had made, but he was defeated, and the Normans occupied Durazzo, the western gate of the empire. He tried to create a diversion by inciting the German king, Henry IV., to an attack on southern Italy, which afforded only temporary relief, and nothing but Robert's death in 1085 saved him from this determined foe.
Steady pressure from the half-barbarous hordes of the Balkans made a new danger, and at one time it seemed likely that the Turkish pirates of Asia Minor and the Sultan of Iconium would join them in an attempt to effect the complete overthrow of the empire. By the aid of the Cumans, however, they were defeated with horrible slaughter (1091). The lack of military force inspired Alexius with the idea of gaining assistance from the West. The first crusade (1095-99), partly due to his appeals for the expulsion of the Turks, assumed far different proportions from those which he had expected; but he might have welcomed it, had it not been that the participation of Bohemund, Robert Guiscard's son, gave it the appearance of a mere episode in the old Norman inroads. At first all went peaceably, but mutual distrust soon showed itself. At the siege of Nicasa (1097), Alexius did not wait to see if the crusaders would fulfil their agreement to restore to him the territory which had but recently belonged to the empire, but gained the city by a secret agreement with the Turkish garrison. When Antioch fell (1098), it was not restored to the emperor. This marked the crisis of the undertaking. The Turks threatened to recapture Antioch, and Alexius was entreated to send the help he had promised. He saw that by giving it he would make the Turks his irreconcilable foes, without finding submissive vassals in the crusaders, and he drew back, seizing the opportunity to recover possession of the coasts of Asia Minor, with the large maritime cities and the islands, and then using this recovered territory as a base of operations against the new Norman principality in Syria. Bohemund found himself obliged in 1104 to seek help from the pope and the kings of England and France. He spread the belief that Alexius was the enemy of Christianity and a master of all deceits and wiles. A new crusade, led by Bohemund, sought to pass through the Eastern empire, but its purpose was perfectly understood in Constantinople. Preparations were made in time, and in the winter of 1107-08 Alexius won the greatest