Roman Catholic states were to be allowed to maintain
their form of worship, and all ecclesiastical lands secular-
ized by the Lutherans before the treaty of Passau (1552)
were to remain Lutheran. Although the exclusion of any
concessions to other sects, most importantly the Calvin-
ists, was to have serious repercussions, the Peace of Augs-
burg lasted for 63 years.
Aulic Council (German Reichshofrat) The court council
of the Holy Roman Empire from 1498 until the empire’s
dissolution in 1806. Attempting to make his government
more effective, Emperor MAXIMILIAN I established the
council as his supreme executive and judicial body with
responsibility for everything except finance and drafting
documents. He appointed and paid the members who fol-
lowed his court until settling permanently in Vienna. In
1559 Ferdinand I strengthened the council, especially in
the exercise of the emperor’s judicial powers. During the
18th century the Aulic Council grew stronger as its rival
body, the Reichskammergericht, declined.
Aurispa, Giovanni (Giovanni Pichumerio) (c. 1370–
1459) Sicilian-born teacher of Greek and collector of
manuscripts
He made two trips to the East (1405–13, 1421–23), prin-
cipally to look for texts of Greek authors but also to take
Greek lessons from Manuel CHRYSOLORAS. Aurispa recov-
ered over 300 manuscripts, including the Venetian manu-
script of the Iliad (MS. Venetus A), the Laurentian
manuscript of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Apollonius of
Rhodes, and manuscripts of the Homeric Hymns and the
Greek Anthology. In 1438 Aurispa was made a papal sec-
retary by Eugenius IV. He died at Ferrara. Aurispa pro-
duced few works; he translated the commentary of
Hierocles on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras (1474) and
may have translated the works of Archimedes. His main
importance lies in his efforts to copy and encourage the
copying of Greek texts and to distribute them. He also
drew attention in his teaching while professor of Greek at
Florence to literary rather than philosophical values in
Greek literature.
autobiography The narrative re-creation of the writer’s
own life, which only emerged as a distinct literary genre in
the Renaissance. There are very occasional examples of
autobiography in antiquity and in the Middle Ages; the
Confessions (c. 400) of St. Augustine of Hippo contains a
celebrated account of his early life and spiritual quest, but
no one else was to approach its degree of introspection for
over a thousand years. DANTE’s Vita nuova (c. 1292–1300)
and PETRARCH’s Secretum (1342–43) are autobiographical
without being in the strict sense autobiographies. Rather,
for the beginnings of secular autobiography, it is necessary
to look to the personal records kept by Italian merchants
from the late 13th century onwards. Some are merely ac-
counts of business negotiations, but others, like the Zibal-
done quaresimale (1457–85) of the Florentine Giovanni
Rucellai, also contain passages of self-questioning. The
first full-scale autobiography is arguably the Commentarii
(1458–64) of Aenea Silvio Piccolomini, who became Pope
PIUS II. While focusing on external events, and on the
characters and politics of the period, it does contain an
implicit portrait of the man himself. Perhaps the two most
interesting and revealing Renaissance autobiographies,
however, are the famous Life (or Autobiography) of Ben-
venuto CELLINIand De vita propria liber (The Book of My
Life) of Girolamo CARDANO. Remarkable for its profound
self-scrutiny, Cardano’s document was written in his old
age and not published until 1643. To find such an essay in
the genre in England it is necessary to wait until the early
17th century and the Life of Edward, Lord Herbert of
Cherbury (1582–1648), which traces his adventures from
birth to 1624, and is a splendidly unabashed account of
the author’s own abundant virtues.
See also: BIOGRAPHYauto sacramental (Spanish, “sacramental act”) A dra-
matic genre in Spain that reached its height in the 17th
century with the autos of Pedro Caldéron de la Barca
(1600–81). The auto was a one-act allegorical play in
verse, originally dealing with an aspect of the Holy Eu-
charist; it derived from the tableaux, which had tradition-
ally been part of the procession accompanying the
Eucharist as it was carried through the streets during the
festival of Corpus Christi. These tableaux had developed
into a dramatic form similar to that of the miracle and
mystery plays in England and the Netherlands in the Mid-
dle Ages, and, like them, were mounted on carts and per-
formed out-of-doors. The autos began to appear in Spain
in the 16th century and were transformed by Caldéron
from a simple form of pious entertainment into a signifi-
cant new dramatic form. He exploited the allegorical el-
ements of the auto and extended its range in the process,
but after his death, it degenerated into farce until perfor-
mances were finally prohibited by royal decree in 1765.Averlino Antonio See FILARETEAvignon, papacy at The period of papal exile from
Rome when Avignon was the seat of seven popes
(1309–78) and also of four who claimed the title during
the Great Schism (1378–c. 1430). Following the bank-
ruptcy of the papacy, the Frenchman Clement V (pope
1305–14) chose Avignon as his residence in 1309. During
this socalled BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY, all seven Avignon
popes were0French, as were most of the cardinals they ap-
pointed. All except Clement VI (pope 1342–52) were uni-
versity trained and demonstrated considerable skill inAAvviiggnnoonn,, ppaappaaccyy aatt 3377