Belgium, and Germany, Alesius took up his abode in Wittemberg towards the end of 1531, where he attached himself with a special affection to the person and teaching of Melancthon, and devoted several years to the study of Greek and Hebrew, and the evangelical theology. He took an active part in the affairs of the university, and in 1534 filled the honourable office of Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
Meanwhile the bishops at home had proceeded against him for heresy, and had condemned and banished him without a hearing. On receiving intimation of this, and also that they had issued an edict prohibiting the reading of Tyndal's translation of the New Testament, which since 1526 had been finding its way into the Scottish ports, Alesius determined to appeal to the young king, James V., not only to ask a hearing for himself, but still more to implore him to cancel the unholy and oppressive edict of the bishops. In 1533 he penned at Wittemberg a highly interesting letter to the king, entitled "Epistola contra decretum quoddam Episcoporum in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Novi Testamenti libros lingua vernacula," which was printed and published, and copies of which he despatched with a messenger into Scotland. It is written with great force of argument and beauty of style, and deserved a better fate than to have been forgotten by his countrymen, and almost totally lost. It was never reprinted, apparently, and only two copies of it are known to be now in existence. It immediately involved its patriotic author in an unpleasant controversy. John Cochlæus, a Romish theologian, who had made himself notorious by the number and the scurrility of his attacks upon the Reformers, had no sooner seen the epistle of Alesius, than he addressed a counter-epistle to James V., which had the good effect of drawing from Alesius a second epistle to the king, of greater length and still deeper interest than the first. He replies to the sophistical arguments of Cochlæus; reargues with much power the question of allowing the use of the vernacular Bible to the laity, and enters at some length into the general questions which had been raised by the German reformers. This valuable tract, which is almost as rare as the first, is entitled "Alexandri Alesii Scoti Responsio ad Cochlæi Calumnias," and was no doubt printed at Wittemberg in 1534. By these writings, Alesius took the honourable position of being the first Scotchman who stood forward to defend, by learned argument, the right of his countrymen to possess and to read the word of God in their mother tongue—a service which it is remarkable that none of our historians record, and which was first brought into prominent notice by a recent author, the Rev. Christopher Anderson, in his Annals of the English Bible. There can be little doubt that Melancthon was at least joint author of these epistles—a highly interesting fact, bringing out, as it does, a connection between 'the preceptor of Germany' and the early Scottish Reformation, which has escaped the notice of all our protestant ecclesiastical historians, both native and foreign.
In 1535 Alesius removed from Wittemberg to England. He was the bearer of Melancthon's present of a copy of his "Loci Communes "to the English king, and was warmly recommended both to Henry and Cranmer by his illustrious friend. Both the king and the archbishop received him with great kindness. He lived for some time with Cranmer at Lambeth, was dubbed 'king's scholar' by Henry, and was taken into the service of Cromwell, the king's prime minister, on a handsome stipend. Acting in his capacity of chancellor of Cambridge, Cromwell sent him down to read lectures on theology in that university, and he continued there for a time, residing in Queen's college, and delivering public expositions in the schools on the Hebrew Psalter. The disciple of Melancthon, however, was not listened to at Cambridge very patiently or very long. Opposition arose. Tumults were threatened, and Alesius was obliged to quit the university and return to London. This was in 1536. For the next three years he supported himself partly by his stipend and partly by the practice of medicine, in which, he tells us, he had encouraging success. In 1537 he was taken into a convocation of the clergy by Cromwell, who presided as the king's vicar-general, and was invited to dispute with Stokesley and the other popish bishops on the subject of the sacraments, which he did with ability and effect. In the same year, or the following one, he married, in the expectation, no doubt, of being allowed to settle down permanently in England; but in 1539 the persecuting statute of the Six articles compelled him to return to Germany. He was warmly welcomed back by his old friends at Wittemberg, and through Melancthon's influence was provided, in 1540, with a theological chair in the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. He was the first professor of the Reformed theology there. But his stay in Frankfort was short. A dispute arose between him and another of the professors on an important question of academic morality and discipline; and his opponent having found means to procure an order from the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg enjoining silence on Alesius, the latter was so much disgusted by this strong exertion of authority on the side of an immoral laxity of manners, that he instantly left Frankfort. His next move was to Leipzig, where, in 1543, he was appointed professor of theology in the recently-reformed university, and where he spent honourably and usefully the remainder of his singularly eventful life. He never revisited Scotland; but he continued to take the liveliest interest in its religious affairs. He addressed to his countrymen a beautiful and eloquent "Cohortatio ad concordiam pietatis ineundam," in which he warmly pleaded the cause of evangelical truth and purity, and exhorted them to put an end to their religious and political divisions. This interesting composition also passed through Melancthon's hands, and appears, from one of Melancthon's letters, to have been submitted to Luther's judgment before being printed, who highly approved of it.
Alesius retained the friendship of Melancthon till the last day of that great scholar and reformer's life, and was often closely associated with him in the public ecclesiastical transactions of that important period. Melancthon had a high opinion of his abilities as a theologian, and preferred him to every other coadjutor at the numerous colloquia which he held with the doctors of Rome, and with the heretical teachers who ere long arose in the Lutheran church. His industry as an author was indefatigable; and during the last twenty years of his life, he gave to the world a long series of works in the departments of exegetic and polemical theology, including Expositions of the First Book of the Psalms, the Gospel of John, the two Epistles to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus, and Disputations on the Epistle to the Romans. His polemical works were directed against the errors of Rome, Servetus, Gentilis, and Osiander. He translated into Latin, by Cranmer's request, the First Liturgy of King Edward. By these writings, and by his numerous personal services to the cause of truth, the reputation of Alesius became widely extended in the Reformation age. John Bale dedicated to him, along with John Knox, that part of his work on the Celebrated Writers of Britain which referred to Scotland. Beza, in his "Icones," celebrates him as a man who was a distinguished ornament of his country.
Alesius died at Leipzig, 17th March, 1565, after having been twice rector of the university, and frequently dean of the theological faculty. Some outlines of his life were sketched by Jacob Thomasius in one of his "Orationes;" and some additional facts were stated in the "Observationes Halenses," it is believed from the same pen. Wodrow also made some collections for his life, which are still in MS. in the library of the university of Glasgow, but these have been ascertained to be of little importance. A full and accurate life of this distinguished, but almost forgotten Scottish reformer, is still a desideratum, which the author of the present outline hopes, ere long, to be able to supply.—P. L.
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