Alexander Aless
| Alexander Ales | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alexander Alane 23 April 1500 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 17 March 1565 (aged 64) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation | theologian and controversialist |
Alexander Ales (Alesius) (23 April 1500 – 17 March 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 had not 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.
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. He briefly attended the court of Henry's queen, Anne Boleyn, of whom he thought very highly and he was actually in London during the circumstances of her downfall, although it was his belief that she was not guilty of adultery or any of the crimes for she was put to death. Later, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn's daughter, he wrote a letter to the new Queen detailing his memories of her mother's final weeks in power.
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