Pierre d'Ailly

Pierre d'Ailly (French: [d‿aji]; Latin: Petrus Aliacensis, Petrus de Alliaco; 1351 – 9 August 1420) was a French theologian, astrologer and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

D'Ailly was born in Compiègne in 1350 or 1351 of a prosperous bourgeois family. He studied in Paris at the Collège de Navarre, receiving the licentiate in arts in 1367 and the master’s a year later, and was active in university affairs by 1372. D'Ailly taught the Bible in 1375 and the Sentences of Peter Lombard in 1376–1377, and received the licentiate and doctorate in theology in 1381. He was affiliated with the university, serving as rector in 1384; among his pupils were Jean Gerson and Nicholas of Clémanges.

The church's Great Schism, between two popes, arose in 1378. In the spring of 1379, 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. Notwithstanding this prompt adhesion, he was firm in his desire to put an end to the schism, and when, on 20 May 1381, the university decreed that the best means to this end was to gather together a general council, d'Ailly supported this motion before the king's council in the presence of the Duke of Anjou. The dissatisfaction displayed shortly after by the government obliged the university to give up this scheme, and this was probably the cause of Pierre d'Ailly's temporary retirement to Noyon, where he held a canonry. There he continued the struggle for his side in a humorous work, in which the partisans of the council are amusingly taken to task by the demon Leviathan.

D'Ailly returned to prominence by leading the university's effort to secure removal of John Blanchard as chancellor, in which Blanchard was accused by d'Ailly before the Avignon antipope Clement VII of abuse of office. Subsequently, d'Ailly was twice entrusted with a mission to Clement VII in 1388 to defend the doctrines of the university, and especially those concerning the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, against the preaching friar Jean de Montson, and in 1389 to petition in the name of the king for the canonization of the young cardinal Pierre de Luxembourg. The success which attended his efforts on these two occasions, and the eloquence which he displayed, perhaps contributed to his choice as the king's almoner and confessor. At the same time, by means of an exchange, he obtained to the highest dignity in the university, becoming chancellor of Notre-Dame de Paris. This acceptability to many interests helps explain his advancement.

D'Ailly served as chancellor of the University from 1389 to 1395, and Gerson succeeded him. Both were involved in expelling the Dominican Order from the university for refusing to embrace the idea of the Immaculate Conception and in the effort mentioned above to end the Great Schism by means of an ecumenical council.

When Antipope Benedict XIII succeeded Clement VII at Avignon in 1394, d'Ailly was entrusted by the king with a mission of congratulation to the new pontiff. His obsequious language on this occasion, and the favours with which it was rewarded, formed a too violent contrast to the determined attitude of the university of Paris, which, tired of the schism, was even then demanding the resignation of the two pontiffs. D'Ailly himself had not long before taken part in the drawing up of a letter to the king in which the advantages of this double abdication were set forth, but since then his zeal had seemed to cool a little. Nevertheless, on his return from Avignon, he again in the presence of the king enlarged upon the advantages offered by the way which the university commended.

The suspicions aroused by his conduct found further confirmation when he caused himself—or allowed himself—to be nominated bishop of Le Puy by Benedict on 2 April 1395. The great number of benefices which he held left room for some doubt as to his disinterestedness. Henceforward he was under suspicion at the university, and was excluded from the assemblies where the union was discussed.

D'Ailly's ecclesiastical career prospered, however. After Le Puy, he was appointed Bishop of Noyon, and Bishop of Cambrai (1397). By virtue of this position, he became also a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. In order to take possession of his new episcopal see, he had to brave the wrath of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, override the resistance of the clergy and bourgeoisie, and even withstand an armed attack on the part of several lords; but his protector, the duke of Orleans, had his investiture performed by Wenceslaus, king of the Romans. The latter, though a partisan of the pope of Rome, took the opportunity of enjoining on d'Ailly to go in his name and argue with the pope of Avignon, a move which had as its object to persuade Benedict to an abdication, the necessity of which was becoming more and more evident. However, the language of d'Ailly seems on this occasion to have been lacking in decision; however that may be, it led to no felicitous result. From this point on, he spent most of his energy to addressing the schism. Although he was slow at first to embrace the conciliar solution to the Schism, he was participating in councils by 1409.