Pierre d'Ailly

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"Aliacensis" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Aliacensis (crater).

Pierre d'Ailly (in Latin, Petrus Aliacensis, Petrus de Alliaco) (1351 – August 9, 1420), was a French theologian, astrologer, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

D'Ailly was born in Compiègne. He was affiliated with the College de Navarre, University of Paris, where he taught Jean Gerson and Nicholas of Clémanges. D'Ailly rose to prominence leading the university's effort to secure removal of John Blanchard as chancellor. D'Ailly served as chancellor of the University from 1385 to 1395, and Gerson succeeded him. Both were involved in the effort to end the Great Schism by means of an ecumenical council, participating in both the Council of Pisa (1409) and the Council of Constance (1414-1418) which condemned the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus. D'Ailly served as bishop of Cambrai and became a cardinal.

D'Ailly wrote extensively on the Schism, reform, astrology and other topics. D'Ailly's Imago Mundi, a work of cosmography, influenced Christopher Columbus in his estimates of the size of world land-mass.

Aliacensis crater, on the Moon, is named after him.

[edit] Sources

  • Louis B. Pascoe, Church and Reform: bishops, theologians, and canon lawyers in the thought of Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420). Leiden: Brill, 2005.
  • Laura A. Smoller, History, Prophecy, and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre D'Ailly, 1350-1420. Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ; 1994) ISBN 0-691-08788-1.
  • Alan E. Bernstein, Pierre d'Ailly and the Blanchard affair : University and Chancellor of Paris at the beginning of the Great Schism. Leiden: Brill, 1978.

[edit] Further reading