RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Amos Amulet
is no literary testimony that the blood of martyrs was preserved as is presupposed, and no satisfactory reason has been given why it should have been thus saved. (2) A large percentage of these ampullae come from the graves of children under seven years of age, who can hardly have suffered in the persecutions of the Christians; furthermore, more than one-half of them are of the time of Constantine or later. (3) Non-Christian graves furnish similar vessels with red sediment. (4) In no case has the sediment been proved to be blood by chemical and microscopic examination. The attempt made in 1872 is untrustworthy, and its results are rejected by competent judges. (5) The specimens with inscriptions (such as sang., sa., and the like) and the monogram of Christ or the cross are forgeries. The red sediment is probably oxid of iron produced by the decomposition of the glass. It has been suggested that it is the remains of communion wine, and the sixth canon of the Synod of Carthage of 397 lends support to the view, but the chemical analysis is against it (cf., however, Berthelot in Revue archeologique,new series, xxxiii., 1877, p. 396). Certain beathen burial customs in which wine (cf. Schultze, Katakomben, pp. 52, 54, and note 15) or oil was used offer analogies. The original purpose and significance of these ampullae was probably not uniform.
(Victor Schultze.)
Bibliography: F. X. Kraus, Die Blutampullen der romitchen Katakomben, Frankfort, 1868; idem, Ueber den gegenwartigen Stand der Frage nach dem Inhalte und der Bedeutung der rbmischen Blutampullen, Freiburg, 1872; idem, Roma sotterranea, pp. 507 sqq., ib. 1879; " Paulinus," Die Martyrer der Katakomben und die rbmische Praxis, Leipsic, 1871; G. B. de Rossi, Roma sotterranea, iii. 602 sqq., Rome, 1877; Victor Schultze, Die sogenannten Blutglaser der rbmischen Katakomben, in ZKW, i. (1880) 515 sqq.; idem, Die Katakomben, pp. 225 sqq., Leipsic, 1882.
AMRAPHEL. See Hammurabi and his Code,
I., § 1.
AMSDORF, NIKOLAUS VON: German Protestant; b. at Torgau (30 m. n.e. of Leipsic) Dec. 3, 1483; d. at Eisenach May 14, 1565. He began his studies at the University of Leipsic in 1500, but two years later went to Wittenberg, being among the first students in the newly founded university in that city. There he fell under the influence of Luther, whose intimate friend he became, and to whose teachings he lent unquestioning adhesion from the very beginning. He was with Luther at the Leipsic disputation in 1519, accompanied him to Worms in 1521, and was in the secret of his sojourn at the Wartburg. In 1524 he became pastor and superintendent in Magdeburg and was active in introducing the Reformation into that city, organizing the ritual closely on the model of Wittenberg. He performed similar services in Goslar and Einbeck. From the first he was rigid in his views, opposed to the least departure from the orthodox Lutheran doctrine, and fierce in his attacks on such men as Melanchthon and Butzer who came to represent a policy ol conciliation and compromise both within the Protestant Church and toward the Roman Catholic princes. Thus he was largely instrumental in the lure of the Regensburg conference of 1541, where
his attitude toward the emperor was as fearless as it was narrow. In the same year the Elector John Frederick appointed him bishop of Naumburg-Zeitz against the wishes of the chapter and in spite of the protest of the emperor. The battle of Muhlberg (1547) compelled him to seek refuge in Weimar. His quarrel with Melanchthon and his supporters had grown embittered with time, and he helped to found a new university at Jena in opposition to the tendencies represented at Wittenberg. In the same spirit he assumed charge of the Jena edition of Luther's works, which was to correct the alleged faults and omissions of the Wittenberg edition.
In 1552 Amsdorf was made superintendent at Eisenach, whence, with Flacius, whom he caused to be called to Jena, he carried on a virulent polemic against the so-called Philippists and Adiaphorists. The formal break between the orthodox Lutheran party and the followers of Melanchthon at the colloquy of Worms in 1557 was largely due to Amsdorf's efforts. From 1554 to 1559 he was engaged in a violent controversy with Justus Menius, superintendent at Gotha, concerning the doctrine of good works as essential to salvation; and in the stress of conflict he was led to assume the extreme position that good works are actually detrimental to the welfare of the soul, denoting by " good works," however, those that man performs for the express purpose of attaining salvation. When, in 1561, as a result of his views on the doctrine of sin, Flacius, together with his followers, was expelled from Jena, Amsdorf was spared because of his advanced age and his great services to the Protestant cause in the early days of the Reformation. (G. Kawerau.)
Bibliography: E. J. Meier, biography of Amsdorf in M. Meurer, Das Leben der Altvater der lutherischen Kirche, iii., Leipsic, 1863; Eichhorn, Amsdorfiana, in ZKG, vol. xxii., 1901.
AMULET, am'yu-let: A word first used to designate objects having a magical effect in warding off or driving away evils — the evil eye, illness, demons, etc. — and thus practically equivalent to " talisman." By degrees it came to be employed for objects worn about the person. Used down to the seventeenth century for things forbidden by the Church, it gradually acquired a more general meaning. The limits of this article preclude the discussion of the origin of amulets, of their psychological basis, or of their significance in the universal history of religion.
In the Old Testament, objects of the kind are
mentioned among the ornaments worn by women
(Isa.iii. 16-26) and by animals (Judges
In the Old viii. 21); the bells on the border of
Testament the high priest's robe had no other
and Juda- primary significance (cf. " the bells ism. of the horses," Zech. xiv. 20). Later Judaism completely surrounded the individual with intangible spirits, but provided numerous means of protection against the evil they might effect — the presence of angels, pronouncing the name of God, amulets containing the Holy Name, and fragments of Scripture worn on the person (the " phylacteries " of Matt, xxiii. 5) or fastened
Amulet Anabaptists