LOUIS

See also:

• LOUIS ALEMAN (c. 1390-1450)

ALEMAN (c. 1390-1450)  , French cardinal, was born of a noble family at the castle of Arbent near Bugey about the year 139o . He was successively bishop of Maguelonne (1418), arch-bishop of Arles (1423) and cardinal priest of St Cecilia (1426) . He was a prominent member of the council of Basel, and, together with Cardinal Julian, led the party which maintained the supremacy of general councils over the pope's authority . In 1440 Aleman obtained the support of the emperor Sigismund and of the duke of Milan to his views, and proclaiming the deposition of Pope Eugenius IV., placed the tiara upon the head of Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy (henceforward known as antipope Felix V.) . Eugenius retorted by excommunicating the antipope and depriving Aleman of all his ecclesiastical dignities . In order to make an end of the schism, Felix V. finally abdicated on Aleman's advice, and Nicholas V.,who had succeeded in 1447, restored the cardinal to all his honours and employed him as legate to Germany in 1449 . On his return he retired to his diocese of Arles, where he devoted himself zealously to the instruction of his people . He died on the 16th of September 1450, and was beatified by Pope Clement VII. in 1527 . See U . Chevalier, Repert. des sources hist . (Paris, 1905), p . 13o .

ALEMAN, MATEO (1549—1609?),

Spanish novelist and man of letters, was born at Seville in 1547 . He graduated at Seville University in 1564, studied later at Salamanca and Alcala, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of malversation, but was speedily released . In 1599 he published the first part of Guzmdn de Alfarache, a celebrated picaresque novel which passed through not less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not appear till 1604 . In 16o8 Aleman emigrated to America, and is said to have carried on business as a printer in Mexico; his Ortografia castellana (1609), published in that city, contains ingenious and practical proposals for the reform of Spanish spelling . Nothing is recorded of Aleman after 1609, but it is sometimes asserted that he, was still living in 1617 . He married, unhappily, Catalina de Espinosa in 1571, and was constantly in money difficulties, being imprisoned for debt at Seville at the end of 16oa . He is the author of a life (1604) of St Antony of Padua, and versions of two odes of Horace bear witness to his taste and metrical accomplishment . His chief title to remembrance, however, is Guzman de Alfarache, which was translated into French in 1600, into English in 1623 and into Latin in 1623 . See J . Hazaiias y la Rua, Discursos leidos en la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas letras el 25 de marzo de 1802 (Sevilla, 1892); J . Gestoso y Perez, Nuevos datos para'ilustrar las biografias del Maestro Juan de Malara y de Mateo Aleman (Sevilla, 1896) . (J .