Pierre d'Ailly 1351 – 1420
Pierre d'Ailly was a French scholastic theologian, cardinal, and statesman of the Church and one of the leading figures of the conciliarist movement that resolved the Western Schism. After studies and teaching at Paris and a long career as bishop of Le Puy and then Cambrai, he played a central role at the Councils of Pisa and Constance, where the schism was ended in 1417. His Imago Mundi, a synthetic compendium of medieval astronomy and geography, was carried by Christopher Columbus on his voyages, and his treatises on the authority of the general council shaped late medieval and early Reformation political ecclesiology.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Medieval, Scholasticism, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Pierre d'Ailly:
“The general council, lawfully gathered, is greater than the pope.”
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Attributed to Pierre d'Ailly:
“Reform begins at the head and descends to the members.”
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Attributed to Pierre d'Ailly:
“Astronomy serves theology when it teaches the order of creation.”
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Attributed to Pierre d'Ailly:
“What is uncertain in faith should be left to councils, not to private opinion.”
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Attributed to Pierre d'Ailly:
“The world is round, and its parts may yet be discovered.”