forming a separate nation (October 1–November 1, 1416). By this campaign, which exposed him to the worst retaliation of the English, he inaugurated his rôle of “procurator and defender of the king of France.”
When at last the question arose of giving the Christian world a new pope, this time sole and uncontested, Pierre d’Ailly defended the right of the cardinals, if not to keep the election entirely in their own hands, at any rate to share in the election, and he brought forward an ingenious system for reconciling the pretensions of the council with the rights of the Sacred College. In this way was elected Pope Martin V. (November 11, 1417), and the task of Pierre d’Ailly was at last finished.
The predominance of the Anglo-Burgundians in France having made it impossible for him to stay there, he went to Avignon to end his days in melancholy calculations arising from the calamities of which he had been the witness, and the astrological reckonings, in which he found pleasure, of the chances for and against the world coming to an end in the near future. He died on the 9th of August 1420.
Pierre d’Ailly’s written works are numerous. A great part of them was published with the works of Gerson (by Ellies du Pin, Antwerp, 1706); another part appeared in the 15th century, probably at Brussels, and there are many treatises and sermons still unpublished. In philosophy he was a nominalist. Many questions in science and astrology, such as the reform of the calendar, attracted his attention. His other works consisted of theological essays, ascetic or exegetic, questions of ecclesiastical discipline and reform, and of various polemical writings called forth for the most part by the schism.
Whatever reservations may be made as to a certain interested or ambitious side of his character, Pierre d’Ailly, whose devotion to the cause of union and reform is incontestable, remains one of the leading spirits of the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.
Bibliography.—P. Tschackert, Peter van Ailli (Gotha, 1877); L. Salembier, Petrus de Alliaco (Lille, 1886); H. Denifle et Em. Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, t. iii. (Paris, 1894); N. Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme d’Occident (Paris, 4 vols., 1896–1902); and Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes, vol. lxv., 1904, pp. 557-574. (N. V.)
AILSA CRAIG, an island rock at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde, 10 m. W. of Girvan, Ayrshire, Scotland. It is of conoidal form, with an irregular elliptic base, and rises abruptly to a height of 1114 ft. The only side from which the rock can be ascended is the east; the other sides being for the most part perpendicular, and generally presenting lofty columnar forms, though not so regular as those of Staffa. This island is composed of micro-granite with riebeckite, of great interest on account of the rare occurrence of this type in Britain. It is comparatively fine-grained and of a greyish colour. Its essential constituents are felspar, quartz and riebeckite—a soda amphibole. The last of these minerals occurs in small irregular patches between the idiomorphic felspars which Dr J. J. H. Teall has found to be a soda orthoclase. The rock is allied to paisanite described by C. A. Osann and has been termed ailsite by Professor M. F. Heddle. It forms part of an intrusive mass which, on the south and west cliffs of the island, has a columnar arrangement and is traversed by dykes of dolerite, most of which run in a north-west direction. The age of this mass is uncertain, as its relations to other rocks are not visible in the island. As riebeckite-granophyre has been found in Skye it may be of Tertiary age. The rock is a favourite material for curling-stones, about three-fourths (according to estimate) of those in use in the countries where the game obtains being made of it. On this account curling-stones are popularly known as “Ailsas” or “Ailsa Craigs.” A columnar cave exists towards the northern side of the island, and on the eastern are the remains of a tower, with several vaulted rooms. Two springs occur and some scanty grass affords subsistence to rabbits, and, on the higher levels, to goats. The precipitous parts are frequented by large flocks of solan geese and other sea birds. The lighthouse on the southern side shows a flashing light visible for 13 m. In 1831 the twelfth earl of Cassillis became first marquis of Ailsa, taking the title from the Craig, which was his property. When John Keats was in Girvan during his Scottish tour in 1818 he apostrophized the rock in a fine sonnet.
AIMAK, or Eimak (Mongolian for “clan,” or section of a tribe), the name given to certain nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of Mongolian stock inhabiting the north and north-west Afghan highlands immediately to the north of Herat. They were originally known as “chahar (the four) Eimaks,” because there were four principal tribes: the Taimani (the predominating element in the population of Ghur), the Ferozkhoi, the Jamshidi and, according to some authorities, the Hazara. The Aimak peoples number upwards of a quarter of a million, and speak a dialect said to be closely related to the Kalmuck. They are Sunnite Mahommedans in distinction from the Hazara who are Shiites. They are predominantly of Iranian or quasi-Iranian blood, while the Hazara are Turanian. They are a bold, wild people and renowned fighters.
AIMARD, GUSTAVE, the pen-name of Olivier Gloux (1818–1883), French novelist, who was born in Paris on the 13th of September 1818. He made use of the materials collected in a roving and adventurous youth and early manhood in numerous romances in the style of J. Fenimore Cooper. Among the best of them are: Les Trappeurs de l’Arkansas (1858); La Grande flibuste (1860); Nuits mexicaines (1863); La Forêt vierge (1870). He died in Paris on the 20th of June 1883. Many of his novels have been translated into English.
AIMOIN (c. 960–c. 1010), French chronicler, was born at Villefranche de Longchapt about 960, and in early life entered the monastery of Fleury, where he became a monk and passed the greater part of his life. His chief work is a Historia Francorum, or Libri V. de Gestis Francorum, which deals with the history of the Franks from the earliest times to 653, and was continued by other writers until the middle of the 12th century. It was much in vogue during the middle ages, but its historical value is now regarded as slight. It has been edited by G. Waitz and published in the Monumenta Germaniae historica: Scriptores, Band xxvi. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826–1892). He also wrote a Vita Abbonis, abbatis Floriacensis, the last of a series of lives of the abbots of Fleury, all of which, except the life of Abbo, have been lost. This has been published by J. Mabillon in the Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti (Paris, 1668–1701). Aimoin’s third work was the composition of books ii. and iii. of the Miracula sancti Benedicti, the first book of which was written by another monk of Fleury named Adrevald. This also appears in the Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti.
Aimoin, who died about 1010, must be distinguished from Aimoin, a monk of St Germain-des-Prés, who wrote De miraculis sancti Germani, and a fragment De Normanorum gestis circa Parisiacam urbem et de divina in eos ultione tempore Caroli calvi. Both of these are published in the Historiae Francorum Scriptores, Tome ii. (Paris, 1639–1649).
See Histoire littéraire de la France, tome vii. (Paris, 1865–1869).
AIN, a department on the eastern frontier of France, formed in 1790 from Bresse, the Pays de Gex, Bugey, Dombes and Valromey, districts of Burgundy. It is bounded N. by the departments of Jura and Saône-et-Loire, W. by Saône-et-Loire and Rhône, S. by Isère, and E. by the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie and the Swiss cantons Geneva and Vaud. Pop. (1906) 345,856. Area 2248 sq. m. The department takes its name from the river Ain, which traverses its centre in a southerly direction and separates it roughly into two well-marked physical divisions—a region of mountains to the east. and of plains to the west. The mountainous region is occupied by the southern portion of the Jura, which is divided into parallel chains running north and south and decreasing in height from east to west. The most easterly of these chains, that forming the Pays de Gex in the extreme north-east of the department, contains the Cret de la Neige (6653 ft.) and other of the highest summits in the whole range. The district of Bugey occupies the triangle formed by the Rhone in the south-east of the department. West of the Ain, with the exception of the district covered by the Revermont, the westernmost chain of the Jura, the country
