Idumrea, and the desert of Sinai. — Van Iperen, Histor. Crit. Edom. et Amalecitar. (Leonard. 1768) ; Jour, of Sac. Lit. Apr. 1852, p. 89 sq. ; Noldeke, Ueber die Amulekiter. etc. (Gotting. 1863). See Canaanite.
On the apparent discrepancy between Deut. i, 44 and Num. xiv, 45, see Amorite.
Amalric of Bena, or of Chartres (in Latin, Amal- ricus or Emelricus ; in French, Amaury), a celebrated theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages, born at Bena, a village near Chartres, lived at Paris toward the close of the twelfth and the beginning of the thir- teenth century. He gave instruction in dialectics and other liberal arts comprised in the Trivium and Quadririum. He undertook to explain the metaphys- ical works of Aristotle, which had just been translated into Latin, partly from some new copies, partly from Arabic versions, which had been imported from the East. In these works Amalric advances the opinion that all beings proceed from a first matter, which in itself has neither form nor figure, but in which the motion is continual and necessary. The Arabs had long before begun to introduce this philosophy into Western Europe; for as earl}' as the ninth century Scotus Erigena (q. v.) taught that the first matter was every thing, and that it was God. Although the te- merity of this language was frequently complained of, the doctrine of Erigena was never expressly con- demned, and Amalric was therefore not afraid of again professing it. He also maintained the ideality of God and the first matter, but he pretended to reconcile this view with the writings of Moses and the theology of the Catholic Church. From the continual and neces- sary movement of the first matter, he concluded that all particular beings were ultimately to re-enter the bosom of the Being of Beings, which alone is inde- structible, and that before this ultimate consummation the vicissitudes of nature would have divided the his- tory of the world and of religion into three periods corresponding to the three persons of the Trinity. See Almericians. He developed his ideas especially in a work entitled ' ' Physion, a Treaty of Natural Things " This book was condemned by the University of Paris in 1204. Amalric appealed from this sentence to the pope, and went himself to Rome ; but Pope Innocent III confirmed the sentence in 1207. Amalric was compelled to retract, which he did with great reluc- tance. He died from grief in 1209. In 1210, when ten of his chief followers were burned, the body of Amalric was also exhumed, and his bones burned, to- gether with his books, inclusive of the metaphysics of Aristotle. — Herzog, Real-Encyklopadie, i, 268 ; Hocfer, Biog. Generate, ii, 305.
A'mam (Heb. Amam', C2X, gathering; Sept. 'Apap), a city in the southern part of the tribe of Ju- dah, mentioned between Hazor and Shema (Josh, xv, 26), being apparently situated in the tract afterward assigned to Simeon (Josh, xix, 1-9); probably about midway on the southern border between the Mediter- ranean and the Dead Sea. The enumeration in Josh. xv. 32, shows that this name is to be taken in connec- tion with the preceding, i. e. Hazor- Amain [see Ha- zor], which probably designates the same place as Keriotii-Hezrom (q. v.). See Tribe.
Amama, Sixtin, a Protestant theologian, and pro fessor of Hebrew at Franecker, was born there Oct. 15, 1593, and died Nov. 9, 1639. He visited England in 1613. He wrote Censura Vulgatce Latins Editiorm Pentateuchi (1620), and, in reply to Mersenne, his An- tibarbarus Bibhcus (Franc. 1628, 4to), containing stric- tures on other books of the Vulgate, namely, the His- torical Books, Psalms, Solomon's writings, and (in a posthumous edition) Isaiah and Jeremiah. He pub- lished also a collation of the Dutch version with the originals (Bybehche Conferencie, Amst. 1623), and a Hebrew grammar (Amst 1625) ; and edited some posthumous works of Drusius.
AHAN
188
AMASA
A'man ('Auav), the Graecized form (Tobit xiv, 10 ; E<th. x, 7, etc.) of the name Haman (q. v.).
Ama'na [many Am' and] (Heb. Amanah' , i13 ^X, a coven mi, as in Neh. x, 1), the name of a river and of a hill.
1 The marginal reading (of many codices, with the Syriac, the Targum, and the Complutensian ed. of the Sept.) in 2 Kings v, 12, of the stream near Damascus called in the text Abaxa (q. v.).
2. (Sept. Triortc, Vulg. A mana.') A mountain men- tioned iu Cant, iv, 8, in connection with Shenir and Hermon, as the resort of wild beasts. Some have supposed it to be Mount A mantis in Cilicia, to which the dominion of Solomon is alleged to have extended north- ward. But the context, with other circumstances, leaves little doubt that this Mount Amana was rather the southern part or summit of Anti-Libanus, and was so called perhaps from containing the sources of the river Amana or Abaxa (q. v.). The rabbins, indeed, call Mount Lebanon various names (Reland, Palast. p. 320), among which appears that of Amanon Cji3»K, Gittin, fol. viii, 1, v. r. bWQil, Umanus, or Mt. Hor, according to Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 117).
Ama'nah, the correct form of the name Abaxa (q. v.), which has probably crept in by an error of copyists. See Amana.
Amandus, St., bishop of Maestricht, called "the apostle of Belgium," was born in 589 in Nantes, of a Roman family, and at twenty-one entered a monastery near Rochelle. After visiting Rome, he was in 626 ordained a missionary bishop without any fixed see, and he labored first in Brabant and Flanders, then in Sclavonia near the Danube. After this he passed into Austrasia, but was driven away by Dagobert, whom he had reproved for his vices ; afterward, however, the penitent prince recalled him, and made him the spirit- ual instructor of his son Sigebert. In the territory of Ghent, to which he went next, he was cruelly used, and, after being appointed bishop of Maestricht in 649, he resigned it at the end of three years, in order that he might resume his former mode of life. He was a great itinerant preacher, founded many monasteries, and died in 679, on the 6th of February. — Baillet, Februarv 6; Butler, Lives of Saints, i, 369; Neander, Ch. Hist, iii, 41.