la femme, and the Débat du mondain et du religieux, present cynical views of love. He is
often compared with Villon, as some of his poems intersect thematically with Villon’s;
the direction of influence between the two poets has yet to be clarified.
Janice C.Zinser
[See also: VILLON, FRANÇOIS]
Alexis, Guillaume. Œuvres poétiques de Guillaume Alexis, prieur de Bucy, ed. Arthur Piaget and
Émile Picot. 3 vols. Paris: Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1896–1908.
ALGER OF LIÈGE
(ca. 1050–ca. 1131). As deacon and scholasticus of Saint-Bartholomew in Liège, and
later canon of Saint-Lambert and secretary to Bishop Otbert after 1101, Alger became the
leading master in Liège and was involved in major controversies. His Liber de
misericordia et iustitia addressed questions in the conflict between Bishop Otbert and
adherents of the Gregorian reform movement; De sacramentis corporis et sanguinis
dominici was a product of the debate in Liège occasioned by Rupert of Deutz’s
eucharistic doctrine. In 1121, Alger entered the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, where he
died ca. 1131.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: GREGORIAN REFORM]
Alger of Liège. De sacramentis corporis et sanguinis dominici. PL 180.739–854.
——. Liber de misericordia et iustitia. PL 180.857–968.
——. Letters, ed. Philippus Jaffé. In Monumenta Bambergensia, Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum
5(1869):262–67, 373–79.
Häring, Nicholas M. “A Study in the Sacramentology of Alger of Liège.” Medieval Studies
20(1958):41–78.
Le Bras, Gabriel. “Le Liber de misericordia et iustitia d’Alger de Liège.” Nouvelle revue historique
de droit français et étranger 45(1921):80–118.
Van Engen, John. Rupert of Deutz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, pp. 168–73. [On
Alger’s De sacramentis corporis et sanguinis dominici.]
ALISCANS
. A 12th-century epic of 8,435 decasyllabic lines divided into rhymed laisses, Aliscans
offers variations on material in the latter part of the Chanson de Guillaume: the death of
Vivien; the flight of Guillaume to Orange; the battles against Desramé and his monstrous
pagans, with final victory won for Guillaume by the heroic exploits of Rainouart;
Rainouart’s exclusion from the celebrations that follow; the reconciliation; and finally his
baptism, knighting, and marriage to Aelis, the king’s daughter and Guillaume’s niece.
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