Background

Pierre d'Ailly was born in Compiègne, France in 1350, in a prosperous bourgeois family.

Education

D’Ailly studied at the College of Navarre of the University of Paris, where he received his doctorate of theology in 1381.

Career

Pierre d'Ailly was grand master of Navarre front 1384 to 1389, and from 1389 to 1395 he was chancellor of the University of Paris. In 1395 d’Ailly became bishop of LePuy, and in 1397 bishop of Cambrai. He was made a cardinal in 1411. D’Ailly wrote commentaries on Aristotle (the De anima and the Meteorológica), as well as a number of astronomical and astrological works, including a commentary on the De sphaera of Sacrobosco. In his treatises on astrology, he reflects a more lenient attitude than that of either Nicole Oresme or Henry of Hesse. He was also concerned with the problem of calendar reform, and wrote a work on this subject for the Council of Constance (1414). After the council, d'Ailly returned to Paris. When in France's civil discord the Burgundian faction seized Paris in 1419, killing some professors in the process, he fled south and retired to Avignon. D'Ailly, known as the Cardinal of Cambrai, died in 1420 in Avignon.

Achievements

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  Pierre d'Ailly`s most significant scientific work is a collection of cosmographical and astronomical treatises with the collective title Imago mundi. The Imago includes sixteen treatises on geography and astronomy, and the concordance of astrology, astronomy, and theology with historical events; only the first of these is the Imago mundi properly speaking. In the geographical portion of the Imago (the first treatise), d’Ailly makes use of the newly translated Geography of Ptolemy.
  
  He was an advocate of the calendar reform later made by Pope Gregory XII; and, like many important thinkers of his day, he took great interest in astrology, which he felt was consistent with religion. His book on geography, Imago mundi, was read carefully by Columbus, who said that it inspired his voyage of 1492 by suggesting the feasibility of sailing from Spain west to India. D'Ailly also wrote on astronomy, meteorology, mathematics, logic, metaphysics, and psychology.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ymago Mundi

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  • Tractatus Et Sermones

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  • Concordantia astronomiae cum theologia EdJoannes Angelus

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  • Destructiones modorum significandi und ihre Destruktionen

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  • Peter of Ailly: Concepts and Insolubles: An Annotated Translation

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  • Destructiones modorum significandi und ihre Destruktionen

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  • Ymago mundi y otros opusculos
  • Imago mundi del Cardenal Pedro d'Ailly y Juan Gerson

Religion

In his religious affiliation Pierre d'Ailly was a Roman Catholic and was one of the most formidable adversaries of John XXIII at the Council of Constance (1414–1418). His works on the nature of the Church had the most lasting influence. He developed the theory of conciliarism and the concept that the only infallible body in the Church is the whole of the faithful. These ideas were later shared by the Protestant reformers.

Views

In his philosophical and scientific outlook, d’Ailly is considered a nominalist; however, his scientific writing shows little originality and much unacknowledged borrowing. He has a more significant claim to historical prominence as a leader of the conciliar movement. He advocated the doctrine of conciliarism - the subordination of the pope to a general council - and in 1381 he suggested convoking such a council in an effort to end the schism.

One of the university's chief concerns was the Western Schism (1378-1417), in which rival popes claimed legitimacy. At first D'Ailly supported the Avignon pope Benedict XIII, but he soon became a radical leader of the Conciliar movement. The Conciliarists argued that a general council of the Church is superior to the pope and that therefore a general council could end the schism by choosing a new pope satisfactory to all parties. D'Ailly played a prominent part at the Council of Pisa (1409), which elected a new pope, Alexander V. In 1411 Alexander's successor, John XXIII, made D'Ailly a cardinal. When the rival popes refused to resign, however, the Council of Constance (1414-1418) was called. D'Ailly was an acknowledged leader and effected the decision to have the contending popes abdicate. The council then elected a new pope, Martin V, and the schism was ended. D'Ailly himself was a candidate for the papal throne, but he lost the election because of opposition from France's enemies, England and Burgundy. He retired for safety to Avignon, where he served Martin V.

Quotations: “The power of harmonies raptures the human soul so much to itself that it is not only elevated above other passions and cares, but even above itself.”

Connections

associate:

Pope Clement VII

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, Clement VII 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.

supporter:

Baldassarre Cossa

Baldassarre Cossa (c. 1370 – 22 December 1419) was Pisan antipope John XXIII (1410–1415) during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church regards him as an antipope, as he opposed Pope Gregory XII whom the Catholic Church now recognizes as the rightful successor of Saint Peter. He was eventually deposed and tried for various crimes, though later accounts question the veracity of those accusations.

He raised Pierre d'Ailly to the rank of cardinal (June 6, 1411), and further, 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).

References

• The Political Thought of Pierre D'Ailly: the Voluntarist Tradition
• Pierre D'Ailly, Astrologue, Aventurier Et Cardinal
• Pierre D'Ailly and the Blanchard Affair: University and Chancellor of Paris at the Beginning of the Great Schism (Studies in Medieval and Reformation
• History, Prophecy, and the Stars Although astrology was viewed with suspicion by the medieval church, it became a major area of inquiry for the renowned cardinal and scholar Pierre d'Ailly, whose astrological and apocalyptic writings had a significant influence on Christopher Columbus. D'Ailly's writings on the stars, the focus of this book, clearly illustrate the complex relationships among astrology, science, and Christian thinking in the late Middle Ages. Through an examination of his letters, sermons, and philosophical, astrological, and theological treatises, Laura Ackerman Smoller reveals astrology's appeal as a scientific means to interpret history and prophecy, and not merely as a magical way to forecast and manipulate one's own fate. At the same time, she shows how d'Ailly dealt with delicate problems--such as free will and God's omnipotence--in elevating astrology to a compelling, but not always consistent, "natural theology." The French cardinal's most intriguing prediction was for the advent of Antichrist in 1789, one that stemmed from his deep concern over the Great Schism (1378-1414). Smoller maintains that the division in the church led d'Ailly to fear the imminence of the apocalypse, and that he eventually turned to astrology to quell his apocalyptic fears, thereby gaining confidence that a church council could heal the Schism. In elucidating the place of astrology in medieval society, this book also affords a personal glimpse of a man facing a profound crisis. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
• Pierre D'Ailly et la Découverte De l'Amérique
• Le Temps Des Astronomes: L'astronomie Et Le Decompte Du Temps De Pierre D'ailly a Newton
• Le schisme et la pourpre : Le cardinal Pierre d'Ailly
• Church and Reform: Bishops, Theologians, and Canon Lawyers in the Thought of Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420)
• The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies A radical revision of the geographical history of the discovery of the Americas that links Columbus's southbound route with colonialism, slavery, and today's divide between the industrialized North and the developing South. Everyone knows that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic, seeking a new route to the East. Few note, however, that Columbus's intention was also to sail south, to the tropics. In The Tropics of Empire, Nicolás Wey Gómez rewrites the geographical history of the discovery of the Americas, casting it as part of Europe's reawakening to the natural and human resources of the South. Wey Gómez shows that Columbus shared in a scientific and technical tradition that linked terrestrial latitude to the nature of places, and that he drew a highly consequential distinction between the higher, cooler latitudes of Mediterranean Europe and the globe's lower, hotter latitudes. The legacy of Columbus's assumptions, Wey Gómez contends, ranges from colonialism and slavery in the early Caribbean to the present divide between the industrialized North and the developing South. This distinction between North and South allowed Columbus to believe not only that he was heading toward the largest and richest lands on the globe but also that the people he would encounter there were bound to possess a nature (whether “childish” or “monstrous”) that seemed to justify rendering them Europe's subjects or slaves. The political lessons Columbus drew from this distinction provided legitimacy to a process of territorial expansion that was increasingly being construed as the discovery of the vast and unexpectedly productive “torrid zone.” The Tropics of Empire investigates the complicated nexus between place and colonialism in Columbus's invention of the American tropics. It tells the story of a culture intent on remaining the moral center of an expanding geography that was slowly relegating Europe to the northern fringe of the globe. Wey Gómez draws on sources that include official debates over Columbus's proposal to the Spanish crown, Columbus's own writings and annotations, and accounts by early biographers. The Tropics of Empire is illustrated by color reproductions of period maps that make vivid the geographical conceptions of Columbus and his contemporaries.
• Pierre D'Ailly and the Council of Constance: A Study inOckhamiteTheory and Pract
• Notice Historique Et Littéraire Sur Le Card. Pierre D ́ailly, Éveque De Cambrai Au Xv S
• La Pensée de Pierre d'Ailly. Un philosophe engagé du Moyen Âge.
• Peter of Ailly and the Harvest of Fourteenth-Century Philosophy This work describes the state of philosophy at the end of the 14th century by examining the teaching of Peter of Ailly (1370-1420), who used the theological teaching of God's omnipotence to remove certainty concerning the physical, moral and supernatural orders. The book features many quotations with Latin on facing pages.
• Between Church and State: The Lives of Four French Prelates in the Late Middle Ages For the past several decades, French historians have emphasized the writing of history in terms of structures, cultures, and mentalities, an approach exemplified by proponents of the Annales school. With this volume, Bernard Guenée, himself associated with the Annalistes, marks a decisive break with this dominant mode of French historiography. Still recognizing the Annalistes' indispensable contribution, Guenée turns to the genre of biography as a way to attend more closely to chance, to individual events and personalities, and to a sense of time as people actually experienced it. His erudite, lively, elegantly written study links in sequence the lives of four French bishops, illuminating medieval and early modern history through their writings. Guenée chooses as his frame the momentous period from the height of Saint Louis's reign in the mid-thirteenth century to the beginning of the Italian wars two hundred years later. During this time of schism in the church, of war between nascent states, and of treachery among princes, Bernard Gui (1261-1331), Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353), Pierre D'Ailly (1351-1420), and Thomas Basin (1412-1490) all rose from modest circumstances to the dignity of office. Guenée shows us how these prelates used their talent, ambition, patrons, zeal, and experience to juggle the competing demands of obedience to church and state; to overcome competition from an upcoming new generation; and to cope with plague, war, and violence. Free of jargon yet steeped in learning, Between Church and State reveals the career patterns and politics of an era while forging a new model for points of departure in historical scholarship. For the past several decades, French historians have emphasized the writing of history in terms of structures, cultures, and mentalities, an approach exemplified by proponents of the Annales school. With this volume, Bernard Guenée, himself associated with the Annalistes, marks a decisive break with this dominant mode of French historiography. Still recognizing the Annalistes' indispensable contribution, Guenée turns to the genre of biography as a way to attend more closely to chance, to individual events and personalities, and to a sense of time as people actually experienced it. His erudite, lively, elegantly written study links in sequence the lives of four French bishops, illuminating medieval and early modern history through their writings. Guenée chooses as his frame the momentous period from the height of Saint Louis's reign in the mid-thirteenth century to the beginning of the Italian wars two hundred years later. During this time of schism in the church, of war between nascent states, and of treachery among princes, Bernard Gui (1261-1331), Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353), Pierre D'Ailly (1351-1420), and Thomas Basin (1412-1490) all rose from modest circumstances to the dignity of office. Guenée shows us how these prelates used their talent, ambition, patrons, zeal, and experience to juggle the competing demands of obedience to church and state; to overcome competition from an upcoming new generation; and to cope with plague, war, and violence. Free of jargon yet steeped in learning, Between Church and State reveals the career patterns and politics of an era while forging a new model for points of departure in historical scholarship.