vent’ (Biog. Dict. Soc. D. U. K.). He died in 1203 in the abbey of Citeaux, where an epitaph, which is asserted to refer to Alain de Lille, speaks of him as one
Qui duo, qui septem, qui totum scibile scivit.
[Dempster's Scotorum Scriptorum Nomenclatura, 1620, and Historia Ecsclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, 1627; MS. Cotton. Titus, D. xx. f. 138; Ellies-Dupin's Table Universelle des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques, 1698–1711; Oudin's Commentarius de Scriptoribus Ecclesiæ Antiquis, 1722 ; Moreri's Grand Dictionnaire Historique, 1740; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 1748; Historica Relatio de Vita et Morte Alani Magni de Insulis, Doctoris Universalis, in Migne's Patrologiæ Cursus completus, vol. ccx. 1855; Albert Dupuis' Alain de Lille, Etudes de Philosophie Scholastique, 1859; Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, vol. i. 1860; Histoire Littéraire de la France, vol. xiv.]
ALAN of Beccles (d. 1240) was official secretary to Bishops Pandulf and Thomas de Blundeville of Norwich between the years 1218 and 1236. He became archdeacon of Sudbury in 1225. After this he was at Paris, as he is mentioned as one of the English of note who left the university of Paris in 1229 on the dispersion of the students in consequence of the riots between them and the citizens. In 1239 he was appointed one of the arbitrators between Bishop Grosseteste and his chapter on the question of visitation. In 1240 he is mentioned as giving way to the demands of the legate Otho for money, in spite of his previous firmness, as Otho succeeded by dividing his opponents. He died suddenly in 1240, and Matthew Paris, while acknowledging his eminence in literature, regards his death as a judgment for the injuries his conduct had caused to St. Albans.
[Le Neve, Fasti; Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj., Rolls Ser., iii. 168, 528. iv. 43, 262, and Hist. Anglor., Rolls Ser., ii. 432, Gesta Abbatum, Rolls Ser., i. 330; Epistolæ R. Grosseteste, Rolls Ser., 259].
ALAN of Lynn (fl. 1424?), a Carmelite monk, author of ‘Elucidationes Aristotelis,’ ‘De Quadruplici Sensu Scripturæ,’ &c., studied theology at Cambridge, and was buried among the Carmelites at Lynn. A list of his works is given by Tanner, ‘Biblioth. Britannico-Hib.’ p. 17, Fabricius, ‘Bibl. med. et infim. Latin.’ i. 37.
[Leland, De Scriptoribus. 347, 434.]
ALAN of Tewkesbury, a writer of the twelfth century, was, according to the express statement of Gervase of Canterbury, an Englishman by descent, ‘natione Anglus’ (Chronica, ed. Stubbs, Rolls Ser., i. 335). He appears to have passed some years of his life as a canon of Benevento in Italy, at that time a possession of the Holy See and a great ecclesiastical centre. It is probable that during his residence there he became deeply interested in the struggle which Becket was carrying on with Henry II, and he may have received, directly or indirectly, from Alexander III himself, the information and documents which enabled him subsequently to become the biographer of the archbishop. On his return to England in 1174, he entered the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, and after a five years' novitiate, in August 1179, was elected prior, in succession to Herlewin (Gervase, i. 293). According to Gervase, his appointment was almost forced upon Archbishop Richard by the other monks, from their conviction of Alan's high qualities. In the exercise of his authority as prior, he seems to have sought to assert on a smaller scale the prerogatives for which Alexander III was at the same time contending with the emperor in Italy. About the year 1184, he visited the court of Henry for the purpose of conferring with that monarch respecting the proposed election of Odo, a former prior of Christchurch, to the archbishopric—the election being at that time vested in the monks at Canterbury. On this and on other occasions he appears as a strenuous supporter of the monks and of Rome against the crown and the episcopal party. He also incurred Henry's displeasure by procuring from Rome authority to collect Peter's pence throughout the realm—a proceeding which drew from Henry the angry comment ‘that the prior of Christchurch wanted to be a second pope in England’ (Gervase, i. 313). In the memorable contest respecting the election of Archbishop Baldwin, Alan took a foremost part, and his sympathy with the monastic cause seems to have completely prevailed over that which Baldwin might have claimed on the ground of their common English descent. Alan subsequently sought to upset the election, and Henry himself repaired to Canterbury in order to arbitrate in the matter. At an interview in the consistory, Alan swooned away under the influence of his excitement, whereupon Henry in his alarm declared Baldwin's election irregular and void. Baldwin himself also refused to accept the dignity unless his election were sanctioned by the convent, and Alan, satisfied with this recognition of the privileges of the body over which he presided, then gave way and recognised Baldwin's election as valid. According to Gervase, Baldwin subsequently revenged himself on Alan for his obstructive
