Alesius, Ales, or Aless, Alexander [key], 1500–1565, Scottish Protestant theologian. As canon of the collegiate church at St. Andrews he tried to reclaim Patrick Hamilton from his Lutheran views but was himself persuaded to accept the reformed teachings. In 1532 he escaped to the Continent, where he gained the confidence of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon and joined in signing the Augsburg Confession. He was commended to Henry VIII by them, and arriving in England in 1535, he enjoyed friendly association with Archbishop Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, and others. He lectured on divinity at Cambridge and afterward practiced medicine in London. After Cromwell's fall in 1540, Alesius returned to Germany, where he was professor of theology, first at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and later at Leipzig.
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