Louis Aleman, Blessed, — Cardinal, Archbishop of Arles, b. at Arment (Bugey, France) c. 1390, d. at Salon (Bouches-du-Rhône) 15 Oct. 1450. He obtained the doctorate in decrees at Avignon in 1414; while still a youth he secured ecclesiastical benefices, was present at the Council of Pisa in 1409 and then at that of Constance, where he was elected custodian of the Conclave that elected Martin V (1417). The new pope on 22 June 1418 named him Bishop of Maguelonne and himself consecrated him at Mantua on 20 Nov. There he remained at the papal court; during the Pope’s residence in Florence he was entrusted with missions for the pacification of the Papal States, and in 1423 he negotiated with the city of Siena regarding the council that was transferred from Pavia to that city. On 3 Dec. of that year he was transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Arles. While governor at Bologna, he was created Cardinal of S. Cecilia on 26 May 1426 and there received the hat on 12 June, holding office as legate. However, according to C. Ghirardacci (Storia di Bologna, in Rer. Ital. Script., XXXIII, 1, Città di Castello 1932, pp. 3 ff.) his avarice made him unpopular with the people. The powerful Canetoli family took advantage of this, and in June 1428 they imprisoned him in the palace; after his release he left Bologna on 23 Aug., accompanied by the elders and nobles.
He was also Vice-Camerlengo and showed his tendencies when he opposed the bull by which Eugenius IV on 12 Nov. 1431 dissolved the Council of Basle, which had begun to assemble in those months. Then, on 25 July 1432, in the church of S. Giacomo di Scossacavalli, he and four other cardinals, after recalling that they had repeatedly asked the Pope for permission to go to Basle, declared their adherence to the Council, naming procurators to represent them (Hefele-Leclercq, VII, p. 753).
Later, when in the twelfth session (13 July 1433) the Council summoned the Pope to appear at Basle, A. together with Cardinal Giovanni Casanova, disguised themselves, left Rome and embarked at Ostia on a galley provided by the Duke of Milan, who was most hostile to Eugenius IV (ibid., p. 811).
After the temporary reconciliation of Eugenius IV with the Council (bull 15 Dec. 1433), A. with the Pope’s consent took part in the Council, where he soon acted as the true supporter and leader of the conciliar party “with the aim of elevating the Council to a stable authority that united in itself all power and sovereign faculties and condemned the Pope to a secondary and subordinate position” (Pastor, I, p. 312). When the Pope, in regard to certain disputes of the Church of Grasse in Provence, gave a decision contrary to that of the Council, the exasperation of the council fathers reached such a point that on 20 Jan. 1436 they sent A. together with the Archbishop of Lyons and the Bishop of Lucca to Florence to summon Eugenius IV to withdraw what he had done against the Council (Hefele-Leclercq, VII, p. 919).
A. now appeared as the leader of those who had set out to obstruct every agreement with the Pope, with the intention of reserving exclusively to the Council the solution of the questions troubling Christendom at that time; at Basle indeed it was desired that negotiations for the reunion of the Byzantines should be conducted according to the initiatives of the Council at Basle itself, in Savoy and preferably in Avignon; the decision on this point was formulated on 5 Dec. 1436 by A. Having become the leader of the party against Cardinal Legate Cesarini, he presided over the general congregation of 23 Feb. 1437, in which it was decided to send an embassy to Constantinople for this purpose. And since Eugenius IV was unwilling to follow the Council in this line and conducted negotiations with the Greeks on his own account, A. with his faction dared to summon the Pope to appear before the Council within sixty days and render account of his disobedience, misgovernment and abuse of authority (31 July 1437). Since Eugenius IV had transferred the Council to Ferrara (18 Sept.), at Basle they dared on 10 Oct. to declare his contumacy, continue the process against him and on 16 May 1439 (XXXIII session) arrive at his solemn deposition; and since on that day only seven bishops were present, A. had the relics of the saints of Basle placed in the seats of the absent bishops and declared that the Council would continue its labours. The most important matter was now the election of a new pope; and since there was no cardinal at Basle but A., it was decided on 24 Oct. to add thirty-two other electors, and together they elected on 5 Nov. the antipope Felix V. Thus was officially opened once more the schism in the West. A. set himself to secure the adhesion of the Council from all the Western nations and in particular from Germany. Eugenius IV on his part on 23 March 1440 declared Felix V a heretic and schismatic, and on 11 Apr. A. was deprived of the cardinalate. He continued in his former conduct until, Eugenius IV having died and Nicholas V been elected, reconciliation was achieved. The Council, transferred from Basle to Lausanne, was dissolved, Felix V resigned (7 Apr. 1449) and A. recovered the cardinalate on 19 Dec. 1449. A man otherwise excellent, he was gravely at fault in obstinately persisting in the false theory of the superiority of the Council over the Pope, which he had probably adopted during his stay at Constance, and in carrying it to its extreme conclusions without regard for the fact that it led straight to tumultuous revolutionary anarchy. After his death a few months later, his tomb in the convent of the Friars Minor became an object of popular veneration and miracles were said to be worked there. In his bull of 7 Apr. 1527 Clement VII decided that A. might “be called blessed and venerated” (cf. Acta SS. Iulii, I, Venice 1746, pp. 491-92; Septembris, V, ibid., pp. 436-62); indeed in some dioceses of France he is venerated on 17 Sept.