Amsdorf, Nicolas, born near Wurtzen, in Mis- nia, Dec. 3, 1483, was a celebrated disciple and warm supporter of Luther. Educated at Leipsic and Witten- berg, he became licentiate of theology in 1511, and ac- companied Luther in 1519 to the Leipsic disputation, and in 1521 to Worms. He was greatly instrumental in introducing the Reformation into Magdeburg and Goslar. In 1542 he was consecrated bishop of Naum- burg by Luther ; but his life in this office was embit- tered by strife, and in 1548 he had to flee to Jena. In the adiaphoristic controversy he opposed Melanc- thon strenuously. A work having a title purporting that good works are pernicious, and a hindrance to sal- vation, came from his pen (reprinted in Baumgarten, Geschichte der Religi<msparttien, p. 1172-78). He died May 14, 1565. A biography of Amsdorf, with a selec- tion from his works, has been published by Pressel, in the collective work Ltben mid ausgi inihlte Sehriften der Vater d. luth. Kirche, vol. viii (also published separate- ly, Elberfeld, 1862, 8vo). See also Mosheim, Ch. Hist. iii, 147; Bibliotheca Sacra, 1863, p. 641.
Amulet (Lat. amuletum,, from amolior, to avert evil ; French amidette ; according to others, originally from the Arabic hamail, a locket suspended from the neck). From the earliest ages the Orientals have be- lieved in the influences of the stars, in spells, witch- craft, and the malign power of envy ; and to protect themselves against the maladies and other evils which such influences were supposed to occasion, almost all the ancient nations wore amulets (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx, 15). These consisted, and still consist, chiefly of tickets inscribed with sacred sentences (Shaw, i, 365 ; Lane's Mod. Egypt, ii, 365), and of certain stones (comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii, 12, 34) or pieces of metal (Richardson, Dissertation; D'Arvieux, iii, 208; Chardin, i, 243 sq. ; iii, 205 sq. ; Niebuhr, i, 65 ; ii, 162). Not only were persons thus protected, but even houses were, as the}- still are, guarded from sup- posed malign influences by certain holy inscriptions upon the doors. The previous existence of these cus- toms is implied in the attempt of Moses to turn them to becoming uses by directing that certain passages extracted from the law should be employed (Exod. xiii, 9, 16; Deut. vi, 8; xi, 18). The door-schedules being noticed elsewhere [see Door-posts], we here limit our attention to personal amulets. By this re- ligious appropriation the then all-pervading tendency to idolatry was in this matter obviated, although in
1, Modern Oriental Amulets. 2, 3, 4, 5, Ancient Egyptian.
later times, when the tendency to idolatry had passed away, such written scrolls degenerated into instru- ments of superstition (q. v.).
The "ear-rings" in Gen.xxxv,4 (d^BM, nezamim' ; tvwTia, inaures), were obviously connected with idol- atrous worship, and were probably amulets taken from the bodies of the slain Shechemites. They are subsequently mentioned among the spoils of Midian (Judg. viii, 24), and perhaps their objectionable char- acter was the reason why Gideon asked for them. Again, in Hos. iii, 13, "decking herself with ear- rings" is mentioned as one of the signs of the "days of Baalim." Hence in Chaldee an ear-ring is called X'J"Hp, kaddisha' , sanctity. But amulets were more often worn round the neck, like the golden bulla or leather loram of the Roman boys. Sometimes they were precious stones, supposed to be endowed with peculiar virtues. In the "Mirror of stones" the strangest properties are attributed to the amethyst, Kinr cetus, Alectoria, Ceraunium, etc. ; and Pliny, speaking of succinum, saj-s " It is useful to bind upon children like an amulet" (xxxvii, 12, 37). They were generally suspended as the centre-piece of a necklace (q. v.), and among the Egyptians often consisted of the emblems of various deities, or the symbol of truth and justice (" Thmei"). A gem of this kind, formed of sapphires, was worn by the chief judge of Egypt (Diod. i, 48, 75), and a similar one is repre- sented as worn by the youthful deity Harpocrates (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, iii, 364). The Arabs hang round their children's necks the figure of an open hand, a custom which, according to Shaw, arises from the unluckiness of the number 5. This principle is often found in the use of amulets. See Seraphim.
The D^'linb (lechashim' , charms) of Isa. iii, 20 (Sept. TTfpic'tZia, Vu'lg. inaures, Auth. Vers, ear-rings), it is now allowed, denote amulets, although they served also the purpose of ornament. They were probably precious stones, or small plates of gold or silver, with sentences of the law or magic formula? inscribed on them, and worn in the ears, or suspended by a chain round the neck. " Ear-rings" is not perhaps a bad translation. It is certain that ear-rings were some- times used in this way as instruments of superstition, and that at a very early period, as in Gen. xxxv, 4, where Jacob takes away the ear-rings of his people along with their false gods. Ear-rings, with strange figures and characters, are still used as charms in the 1 East (Chardin, in Harmer, iii, 314). Schroeder, how- ' ever, deduces from the Arabic that these amulets were ! in the form of serpents, and similar probably to those golden amulets of the same form which the women of the pagan Arabs wore suspended between their breasts, the use of which was interdicted by Mohammed I (Schroeder, De Vestitu Mulierum, cap. xi, p. 172, 173; Grotefend, art. Amulete, in Ersch and Gruber's En-