Abælardus (Petrus), b. 1079. A teacher of philosophy at Paris, renowned
for being loved by the celebrated Eloise. He was accused of teaching
erroneous opinions, chiefly about the Creation and the Trinity, and was
condemned by a council at Soissons in 1121 and by that of Sens 1140,
at the instigation of St. Bernard. He was hunted about, but spent
his last days as a monk at Cluni. He died 21 April, 1142. "Abelard,"
observes Hallam, "was almost the first who awakened mankind, in the
age of darkness, to a sympathy with intellectual excellence."
Abano (Petrus de). See Petrus, de Abano.
Abauzit (Firmin), a French writer, descended from an Arabian family
which settled in the South of France early in the ninth century,
b. Uzes, 11 Nov. 1679. He travelled in Holland and became acquainted
with Bayle, attained a reputation for philosophy, and was consulted by
Voltaire and Rousseau. Among his works are, Reflections on the Gospels,
and an essay on the Apocalypse, in which he questions the authority
of that work. Died at Geneva 20 March, 1767. His Miscellanies were
translated in English by E. Harwood, 1774.
Abbot (Francis Ellingwood). American Freethinker, b. Boston, 6
Nov. 1836. He graduated at Harvard University 1859, began life as a
Unitarian minister, but becoming too broad for that Church, resigned
in 1869. He started the Index, a journal of free religious inquiry
and anti-supernaturalism, at Toledo, but since 1874 at Boston. This he
edited 1870-80. In 1872 appeared his Impeachment of Christianity. In
addition to his work on the Index, Mr. Abbot has lectured a great
deal, and has contributed to the North American Review and other
periodicals. He was the first president of the American National
Liberal League. Mr. Abbot is an evolutionist and Theist, and defends
his views in Scientific Theism, 1886.
Ablaing van Giessenburg (R.C.) See Giessenburg.
Abu Bakr Ibn Al-Tufail (Abu J'afar) Al Isbili. Spanish Arabian
philosopher, b. at Guadys, wrote a philosophical romance of pantheistic
tendency Hai Ibn Yakdan, translated into Latin by Pocock, Oxford 1671,
and into English by S. Ockley, 1711, under the title of The Improvement
of Human Reason. Died at Morocco 1185.
Abu-Fazil (Abu al Fadhl ibn Mubarak, called Al Hindi), vizier to
the great Emperor Akbar from 1572. Although by birth a Muhammadan,
his investigations into the religions of India made him see equal
worth in all, and, like his master, Akbar, he was tolerant of all
sects. His chief work is the Ayin Akbary, a statistical account of
the Indian Empire. It was translated by F. Gladwin, 1777. He was
assassinated 1604.
Abul-Abbas-Abdallah III. (Al Mamoun), the seventh Abbasside, caliph,
son of Haroun al Rashid, was b. at Bagdad 16 Sept. 786. He was a patron
of science and literature, collected Greek and Hebrew manuscripts,
and invited the scholars of all nations to his capital. He wrote
several treatises and poems. Died in war near Tarsus, 9 Aug. 833.
Abul-Ola (Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Sulaiman), celebrated Arabian poet,
b. at Maari, in Syria, Dec., 973. His free opinions gave much scandal
to devout Moslems. He was blind through small-pox from the age of
four years, but his poems exhibit much knowledge. He called himself
"the doubly imprisoned captive," in allusion to his seclusion and
loss of sight. He took no pains to conceal that he believed in no
revealed religion. Died May, 1057, and ordered the following verse
to be written on his tomb:--"I owe this to the fault of my father:
none owe the like to mine."
Abu Tahir (al Karmatti), the chief of a freethinking sect at Bahrein,
on the Persian Gulf, who with a comparatively small number of followers
captured Mecca (930), and took away the black stone. He suddenly
attacked, defeated, and took prisoner Abissaj whom, at the head of
thirty thousand men, the caliph had sent against him. Died in 943.
Achillini (Alessandro), Italian physician and philosopher b. Bologna 29
Oct. 1463. He expounded the doctrines of Averroes, and wrote largely
upon anatomy. Died 2 Aug. 1512. His collected works were published
at Venice, 1545.
Ackermann (Louise-Victorine, née Choquet), French poetess, b. Paris 30
Nov. 1813. She travelled to Germany and there married (1853) a young
theologian, Paul Ackerman, who in preparing for the ministry lost his
Christian faith, and who, after becoming teacher to Prince Frederick
William (afterwards Frederick III.), died at the age of thirty-four
(1846). Both were friends of Proudhon. Madame Ackermann's poems
(Paris 1863-74 and 85) exhibit her as a philosophic pessimist and
Atheist. "God is dethroned," says M. Caro of her poems (Revue des
Deux Mondes, 15 May, 1874). She professes hatred of Christianity
and its interested professors. She has also published Thoughts of a
Solitary. Sainte Beuve calls her "the learned solitary of Nice."
Acollas (Pierre Antoine René Paul Emile), French jurisconsult and
political writer, b. La Châtre 25 June, 1826, studied law at Paris. For
participating in the Geneva congress of the International Society
in 1867 he was condemned to one year's imprisonment. In 1871 he was
appointed head of the law faculty by the Commune. He has published
several manuals popularising the legal rights of the people, and has
written on Marriage its Past, Present, and Future, 1880. Mrs. Besant
has translated his monograph on The Idea of God in the Revolution,
published in the Droits de l'Homme.
Acontius (Jacobus--Italian, Giacomo Aconzio). Born at Trent early
in sixteenth century. After receiving ordination in the Church of
Rome he relinquished that faith and fled to Switzerland in 1557. He
subsequently came to England and served Queen Elizabeth as a military
engineer. To her he dedicated his Strategems of Satan, published at
Basle 1565. This was one of the earliest latitudinarian works, and
was placed upon the Index. It was also bitterly assailed by Protestant
divines, both in England and on the Continent. An English translation
appeared in 1648. Some proceedings were taken against Acontius before
Bishop Grindall, of the result of which no account is given. Some
passages of Milton's Areopagitica may be traced to Acontius, who,
Cheynell informs us, lived till 1623. Stephen's Dictionary of National
Biography says he is believed to have died shortly after 1566.
Acosta (Uriel). Born at Oporto 1597, the son of a Christianised Jew;
he was brought up as a Christian, but on reaching maturity, rejected
that faith. He went to Holland, where he published a work equally
criticising Moses and Jesus. For this he was excommunicated by the
Synagogue, fined and put in prison by the Amsterdam authorities,
and his work suppressed. After suffering many indignities from both
Jews and Christians, he committed suicide 1647.
Adams (George), of Bristol, sentenced in 1842 to one month's
imprisonment for selling the Oracle of Reason.
Adams (Robert C.), Canadian Freethought writer and lecturer. Author
of Travels in Faith from Tradition to Reason (New York, 1884), also
Evolution, a Summary of Evidence.
Adler (Felix) Ph. D. American Freethinker, the son of a Jewish rabbi,
was b. in Alzey, Germany, 13 Aug. 1851. He graduated at Columbia
College, 1870, was professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature
at Cornell University from '74 to May '76, when he established in
New York the Society of Ethical Culture, to which he discourses on
Sundays. In 1877 he published a volume entitled Creed and Deed, in
which he rejects supernatural religion. Dr. Adler has also contributed
many papers to the Radical literature of America.
Ænesidemus. A Cretan sceptical philosopher of the first century. He
adopted the principle of Heraclitus, that all things were in course
of change, and argued against our knowledge of ultimate causes.
Airy (Sir George Biddell). English Astronomer Royal, b. Alnwick
27 July, 1801. Educated at Cambridge, where he became senior
wrangler 1823. During a long life Professor Airy did much to advance
astronomical science. His Notes on the Earlier Hebrew Scriptures 1876,
proves him to have been a thorough-going Freethinker.
Aitkenhead (Thomas), an Edinburgh student aged eighteen, who was
indicted for blasphemy, by order of the Privy Council, for having
called the Old Testament "Ezra's Fables," and having maintained
that God and nature were the same. He was found guilty 24 Dec. 1696,
and hanged for blasphemy, 8 Jan. 1697.
Aitzema (Lieuwe van), a nobleman of Friesland, b. at Dorckum 19
Nov. 1600, author of a suppressed History of the Netherlands, between
1621-68. Is classed by Reimmann as an Atheist. Died at the Hague 23
Feb. 1669.
Akbar (Jalal-ed-din Muhammad), the greatest of the emperors of
Hindostan, b. 15 Oct. 1542, was famous for his wide administration and
improvement of the empire. Akbar showed toleration alike to Christians,
Muhammadans, and to all forms of the Hindu faith. He had the Christian
gospels and several Brahmanical treatises translated into Persian. The
result of his many conferences on religion between learned men of
all sects, are collected in the Dabistan. Akbar was brought up as a
Muhammadan, but became a Theist, acknowledging one God, but rejecting
all other dogmas. Died Sept. 1605.
Alberger (John). American author of Monks, Popes, and their Political
Intrigues (Baltimore, 1871) and Antiquity of Christianity (New York,
1874).
Albini (Giuseppe). Italian physiologist, b. Milan. In 1845 he
studied medicine in Paris. He has written on embryology and many
other physiological subjects.
Alchindus. Yakub ibn Is'hak ibn Subbah (Abú Yúsuf) called Al Kindi,
Arab physician and philosopher, the great grandson of one of the
companions of Muhammad, the prophet, flourished from 814 to about
840. He was a rationalist in religion, and for his scientific studies
he was set down as a magician.
Alciati (Giovanni Paolo). A Milanese of noble family. At first
a Romanist, he resigned that faith for Calvinism, but gradually
advanced to Anti-trinitarianism, which he defends in two letters
to Gregorio Pauli, dated Austerlitz 1564 and 1565. Beza says that
Alciati deserted the Christian faith and became a Muhammadan, but
Bayle takes pains to disprove this. Died at Dantzic about 1570.
Aleardi (Gaetano). Italian poet, known as Aleardo Aleardi, b. Verona, 4
Nov. 1812. He was engaged in a life-long struggle against the Austrian
dominion, and his patriotic poems were much admired. In 1859 he was
elected deputy to Parliament for Brescia. Died Verona, 16 July, 1878.
Alembert (Jean le Rond d'), mathematician and philosopher, b. at
Paris 16 Nov. 1717. He was an illegitimate son of Canon Destouches
and Mme. Tencin, and received his Christian name from a church
near which he was exposed as a foundling. He afterwards resided
for forty years with his nurse, nor would he leave her for the most
tempting offers. In 1741, he was admitted a member of the Academy of
Sciences. In 1749, he obtained the prize medal from the Academy of
Berlin, for a discourse on the theory of winds. In 1749, he solved the
problem of the procession of the equinoxes and explained the mutation
of the earth's axis. He next engaged with Diderot, with whose opinions
he was in complete accord, in compiling the famous Encyclopédie, for
which he wrote the preliminary discourse. In addition to this great
work he published many historical, philosophical and scientific essays,
and largely corresponded with Voltaire. His work on the Destruction
of the Jesuits is a caustic and far-reaching production. In a letter
to Frederick the Great, he says: "As for the existence of a supreme
intelligence, I think that those who deny it advance more than they
can prove, and scepticism is the only reasonable course." He goes on
to say, however, that experience invincibly proves the materiality of
the "soul." Died 29 Oct. 1783. In 1799 two volumes of his posthumous
essays were printed in Paris. His works prove d'Alembert to have been
of broad spirit and of most extensive knowledge.
Alfieri (Vittorio), Count. Famous Italian poet and dramatist, b. Asti,
Piedmont, 17 Jan. 1749, of a noble family. His tragedies are justly
celebrated, and in his Essay on Tyranny he shows himself as favorable
to religious as to political liberty. Written in his youth, this work
was revised at a more advanced age, the author remarking that if he
had no longer the courage, or rather the fire, necessary to compose
it, he nevertheless retained intelligence, independence and judgment
enough to approve it, and to let it stand as the last of his literary
productions. His attack is chiefly directed against Catholicism,
but he does not spare Christianity. "Born among a people," he says,
"slavish, ignorant, and already entirely subjugated by priests, the
Christian religion knows only how to enjoin the blindest obedience,
and is unacquainted even with the name of liberty." Alfieri's tragedy
of Saul has been prohibited on the English stage. Died Florence,
8 Oct. 1803.
Alfonso X., surnamed the Wise, King of Castillo and of Leon; b. in
1223, crowned 1252. A patron of science and lover of astronomy. He
compiled a complete digest of Roman, feudal and canon law, and
had drawn up the astronomical tables called Alfonsine Tables. By
his liberality and example he gave a great impulse to Spanish
literature. For his intercourse with Jews and Arabians, his
independence towards the Pope and his free disposal of the clerical
revenues, he has been stigmatised as an Atheist. To him is attributed
the well-known remark that had he been present at the creation of the
world he would have proposed some improvements. Father Lenfant adds
the pious lie that "The king had scarcely pronounced this blasphemy
when a thunderbolt fell and reduced his wife and two children to
ashes." Alfonso X. died 4 April, 1284.
Algarotti (Francesco), Count. Italian writer and art critic, b. at
Venice, 11 Dec. 1712. A visit to England led him to write Newtonianism
for the Ladies. He afterwards visited Berlin and became the friend
both of Voltaire and of Frederick the Great, who appointed him his
Chamberlain. Died with philosophical composure at Pisa, 3 May, 1764.
Alger (William Rounseville), b. at Freetown, Massachusetts, 30
Dec. 1822, educated at Harvard, became a Unitarian preacher of the
advanced type. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future
Life, with a complete bibliography of the subject by Ezra Abbot,
is a standard work, written from the Universalist point of view.
Allen (Charles Grant Blairfindie), naturalist and author, b. in
Kingston, Canada, 24 Feb. 1848. He studied at Merton College, Oxford,
and graduated with honors 1871. In 1873 appointed Professor of Logic
in Queen's College, Spanish town, Jamaica; from 1874 to '77 he was
its principal. Since then he has resided in England, and become
known by his popular expositions of Darwinism. His published works
include Physiological Æsthetics (1877), The Evolutionist at Large
(1881), Nature Studies (1883), Charles Darwin (1885), and several
novels. Grant Allen has also edited the miscellaneous works of Buckle,
and has written on Force and Energy (1888).
Allen (Ethan) Col., American soldier, b. at Litchfield, Connecticut,
10 Jan. 1737. One of the most active of the revolutionary heroes,
he raised a company of volunteers known as the "Green Mountain Boys,"
and took by surprise the British fortress of Ticonderoga, capturing
100 guns, 10 May, 1775. He was declared an outlaw and £100 offered
for his arrest by Gov. Tryon of New York. Afterwards he was taken
prisoner and sent to England. At first treated with cruelty, he was
eventually exchanged for another officer, 6 May, 1778. He was a member
of the state legislature, and succeeded in obtaining the recognition
of Vermont as an independent state. He published in 1784 Reason
the only Oracle of Man, the first publication in the United States
openly directed against the Christian religion. It has been frequently
reprinted and is still popular in America. Died Burlington, Vermont,
13 Feb. 1789. A statue is erected to him at Montpelier, Vermont.
Allsop (Thomas). "The favorite disciple of Coleridge," b. 10 April,
1794, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, he lived till 1880. A friend
of Robert Owen and the Chartists. He was implicated in the attempt
of Orsini against Napoleon III. In his Letters, Conversations and
Recollections of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he has imported many of
his Freethought views.