but it is now believed that the number was never so great as was at first estimated by the Jesuit Fathers and the earliest English colonists. A careful modern estimate is that the Algonquins at no time numbered over 90,000 souls and possibly not over 50,000. But as the actual number of Algonquins now living is in excess of that, it is more than likely that the early missionaries did not exaggerate and that there may have been nearly a quarter of a million of them, as some moderns still claim. The missions among them began with the Micmac tribe of Nova Scotia and the Abenakis (q. v.) of Maine. The work at Tadoussac was contemporaneous with the first attempt at colonization; it extended north as far as Hudson Bay, and along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa to the Great Lakes on whose shores the Algonquins were found, sometimes living with the Hurons who were kinsmen of the Iroquois. The Chippewas, whom Raymbault and Jogues visited at Sault Ste. Marie in 1641, were Algonquins as were those whom Allouez (q. v.) later gathered together in his famous mission of La Pointe on Lake Superior. The Algonquin language has been more cultivated than any of the other North American tongues. Its sounds are not difficult to catch, its vocabulary is copious and its expressions clear. The early missionaries called it the "Indian court language." It was the most widely diffused and most fertile in dialects of all the Indian tongues. "It was spoken, though not exclusively", says Bancroft, "in a territory that extended through sixty degrees of longitude and more than twenty degrees of latitude." This facilitated to some extent the work of the missionaries. Eliot translated the Bible into Algonquin and Father Rasle (q.v.) left an Abenaki Dictionary which is the possession of Harvard University. In recent days, Bishop Baraga (q. v.) of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, has written a remarkable series of works such as the Ojibway Catechism, prayer book, hymn book, extracts from the Old and New Testament, the Gospels of the year, and a grammar and dictionary. They regarded Manabozho, or the Great Hare, as their ancestor, and the tribe that bore his totem was entitled to the greatest respect. He was the founder and teacher of the nation, the creator of the sun and moon, and the shaper of the earth. He still lives in the Arctic Ocean. The Supreme Spirit they called Monedo, or Manitou, to whom they ascribe some of the attributes of God, but who does not judge or punish evil doing. Bad actions are not considered as committed against him. There is an evil spirit who has to be propitiated, and besides him are many others who bring all temporal misfortunes. Hence the universal superstition, magic, sorcery, and the like. According to one authority the number of Indians of Algonquin stock in 1902 was estimated at about 82,000 souls, of whom 43,000 are in the United States, the remainder being in Canada with the exception of a few refugees in Mexico.
Drake, The Indian Tribes of the United States; Jesuit Relations; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France.
Alienation of Church Property. See Property Ecclesiastical.
Alife, a diocese made up of twelve communes in the province of Caserta, Archbishopric of Benevento, Italy. The name of a Bishop of Alife appears for the first time among the signatories of the Roman Synod of 499, in the time of Pope Symmachus (Clarus episcopus Ecclesiæ Allifanæ subscripsi—) "Monumenta Germaniæ Historica," auct. Antiquiss., XII, 400. It contains 17 parishes, 60 priests, 23,890 inhabitants.
Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Italia (Venice, 1866), XIX, 89; Ughelli, Italia Sacra (Venice, 1722), VIII, 206; Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiæ catholicæ (Ratisbon, 1873), 847; D'avino, Cenni Storici (Naples, 1820), 8.
Alighieri, Dante. See Dante.
Alimentation.—Support or maintenance. Aliment in a broad sense means whatever is necessary to sustain human life: not merely food and drink, but lodging, clothing, care during sickness and burial. A parent is bound to supply such aliment to his child, and this whether it is of legitimate or illegitimate birth; and, if the latter, whether it is the fruit of simple unlawful cohabitation, or of an adulterous, incestuous, or sacrilegious one. This is a duty imposed by the natural law, personal and real, since it not only binds the father himself but is a claim upon his estate. The husband owes aliment to his wife, and children owe it to their father and mother, and to other relatives who are in want. The Common Law of civilized countries determines all these duties. By the religious profession the professed is incorporated into his order, and has a right to aliment from it; becoming a son, so to speak, of his monastery, he acquires the rights of the son of a family in his father's house. He retains this right even if he is shut up in another monastery to do penance there, or if he is expelled unjustly from his order; he is entitled to it while on trial for some charge, though this may result in his expulsion; but his sentence once pronounced and accepted, he can claim nothing from his monastery.
Clerics must be assured of something that will support them, since they cannot be promoted to major orders if they have no title guaranteeing them an honourable subsistence. As a matter of fact it has always been repugnant to the Church that one who exercises the holy ministry should have to beg his bread or practise some undignified calling. Formerly, no one was ordained even to minor orders who had not some ecclesiastical charge in a church which provided him with a suitable maintenance; the church for which he was ordained was called the "Title of Ordination", and he himself was said to be "titled" (Intitulatus). Later, after it had become the custom not only to give the tonsure, but also minor and major orders, without a title, Alexander III, in the Third Lateran Council, condemned bishops who should ordain deacons and priests without a title, to support such priests from the episcopal table if they came to want. Innocent III extended this discipline to subdeacons, and it is since this that the "title of ordination" is exacted only for the major orders. The Council of Trent, Sess. XXI, ch. 2, "De ref.", maintained the necessity for the "title of ordination", and recognized three: a benefice, a patrimony, and a fixed income. Title in general is something that assures support for life to a cleric promoted to major orders. Even religious must receive some such assurance when they are ordained. Religious of solemn vows are ordained under the "Title of Poverty", or of "Religious Profession", and this assures them permanent support from the revenues of the monastery. Religious of simple vows are ordinarily ordained, by virtue of Apostolic indults, under the "Title of the Common Table", which assures them due support from the goods of the congregation to which they belong. Should they, through an indult of secularization, be permitted to withdraw from their religious family, they may not do so until they have been accepted by some bishop and are provided with a title that offers them a respectable living.
Secular clerics will be secured against need when they are ordained, by the title of a benefice, patrimony, or stable income. By the title of a benefice the cleric promoted to major orders is provided with a perpetual ecclesiastical office, the revenue from which suffices for his proper support. By the title of patrimony, the ordained clerk, having personal property gives a guarantee to his bishop that, in case he should not be provided with an ecclesiastical
