Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/490

Rh 434 AMORT and Palestine the land of the Amorrhite. Centuries later (1400 h. c). in the Tol cl-Amarna tablets, the name is applied to the inland country north and north-east of Palestine; lOgyptian inscriptions use the term for the same territory, but extend it to the countries eastward as far as the Orontes. In ninth- century Assyrian inscriptions northern and southern Palestine are included under the name. The term, then, may originally or verj' early have been applied to all this territory-"; or more likely it was used first to designate the country north of Palestine and later extended south and oast. If these .morrhites of the north, however, are to be considered one in race with the Amorrhites of the Hible, no hght has yet been shed upon their migrations into central and southern Palestine or beyond the Jordan. For the present, that part of their history rests in obscurity, though conjectures are plentiful. II. Race. — Tiie close relationship of the Amorrhite with the races or tribes usually classed as Chanaan- itish is asserted in Gen., x, 15, 16, and implied in the numerous passages where Amorrliite is used in place of Chanaanite, Jebusite, or a cognate name. That these tribes are Semitic in origin is doubted by many, but their language, religion, and institutions are un- questionably Semitic. The Amorrhite is represented as the fourth .son of Chanaan. son of Ham. Sayce tries to connect thetn with a North African Hamitic race, the Libyans, mainlj' on the strength of the facial resemblance he discovers between them in one Egyptian sculpture of the time of Rameses III. This resemblance is not elsewhere borne out and in any case must be considered a precarious foundation for such an hypothesis. No details have come down to us which will enable us to distinguish the Amor- rhites from their kinsfolk (see Chan,.a.n), except that they seem to have been remarkable for their stature, strength, and wickedness. They dwelt in walled cities and were warlike in spirit. III. Amorrhites and Israel. — Though a very ancient race, the Amorrhites have left but a shght mark on history in pre-biblical times. They were not the original inhabitants of Palestine, though the time and circumstances of their advent are unknown. They first appear in the Bible as inhabitants of southern Palestine, where they are defeated by Chodorlahomor and his allies (Gen., xiv, 7). The Israelites find tliem in the same region when they attempt, contrary to the divine command, to enter Palestine from the south and are repulsed (Num., xiii and xiv). About this period certain tribes of Amorrhites gain possession of the land east of the Jordan; so there the Israelites next come in contact with the Amorrhites and ask permission of Sehon, their king, to pass through his dominions, promising to do no damage and to pay for whatever they take on the way. The request being refused, war follows. Sehon is defeated and slain, antl the Israelites take possession of his territory from the Arnon to the Jeboc. Crossing the Jeboc, they inflict the same fate upon Og, King of Basan, and his territory (Num., xxi; Deut., ii and iii). These lands, which were awarded to the tribes of Ruben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasses, extended from the Arnon as far north as Mount Hermon (Deut., iv, 4(>-49). When Josue had cros.sed the Jordan and with divine aid had gained several signal victories, fear fell upon the neighbouring .morrhites. The inhabitants of Ga- baon (Gibeon), an Amorrliite city, yielded to Josue, which enraged their brethren. They were accord- ingly attacked and besieged by a confederation of Amorrhite kings (the five kings of Jerusalem, Heb- ron, Jerimoth, Lacliis, and Hglon), and .sent to Josue for aid. Josue, coming to their rescue, put the Amorrhites to flight, cut them olT in great numbers, captured and slaughtered the five .Vmorrliite kings and hung their bodies upon trees till the evening (.los., x). It was on this occasion that Josue com- manded the sea and moon to stand still (for various opinions on this passage, see Josue). This victory secured to Israel the tenure of Palestine. The Amorrhites were not driven ovit of Palestine nor exterminated. Many of them intermarried with the Hebrews and contaminated them by their idolatries and vices (Judges, iii; I Esd., ix). In the time of Solomon, and even of Esdras and Nehemias, they are still distinguished from their conquerors, but are finally merged into the general population of Pales- tine. S.VYCE in H.^ST., Diet, of the Bible, s. v. Amorrhites and Chanaan: Jastrow, ibid., V, 72, s. v. Races of the Old Testament; Jewish Encyclopedia, a. v.; Sayce, Races of the Old Testament; Legendre in Vig., Diet, de la Bible. John F. Fenlon. Amort, EusEBius, philosopher and theologian, b. at Bibermiihle in Bavaria, 15 November, 1692; d. at Polling, 5 February, 1775. He was educated by the Jesuits at Munich and at an early age joined the Canons Regular in the convent of Polling, where he spent most of liis life as a teacher of philosophy, theology, and canon law, a tireless student in many departments of ecclesiastical lore, and an investigator of natural phenomena. He was foremost among the German theologians of the eighteenth century as a guide and an inspirer of ecclesiastical youth, and may be considered a model of hfelong devotion to all the sciences that befit an ecclesiastic. As early as 1722 he founded, and with some interruptions carried on for several years, an influential review, " Parnassus Boicus, oder Neueroffneter Musenberg". . academy formed by him at Polling became in time the model on which was based the Academy of Sciences of Munich. He spent the years 1733-35 at Rome, whence he returned to Bavaria enriched with precious knowledge acquired by intense study in the libraries of the Eternal City and by intercourse with many learned men. Thenceforth he counted among liis correspondents such scholars as Benedict XIII and Benedict XIV, Father Concina, Cardinals Leccari, GalU, Orsi, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and others. For a period of forty years his pen was never idle, and from it unceasingly poured forth learned volumes and brochures filled with rare and choice learning It has been truly said that his seventy volumes, if distributed in an orderly collection, would resemble a general encyclopedia. As a philo.sopher, he is best known by his solid work " Pliilosophia PoUingana" (.ugsburg, 1730) and by his " Wolfiana Judicia de philosophia et Leibnitiana physicfi,'' (Frankfort, 1736). As a dogmatic theologian and Christian apologist he won applause by his " Demonstratio critica rehgionis cathoUciE nova, modesta, facilis " etc. (Venice, 1744), written to promote the reunion of the Protestant sects with the Catholic Church, and by his " De origine, ])rogressu, valore et fructu indulgentiarum accurata notitia historica, dogmatica, critica" (-■Vugsburg, 1735). His most extensive work, "Theo- logia eclectica, moralis et scholastica ", published at Augsburg (1752) in four folio volumes, and later at Bologna (1753) in twenty-four octavo volumes, merited the honour of a revision by Benedict XIV. He wrote also "Theologia moralis inter rigorem et laxitatem media" (Augsburg, 1239), " Ethica Chris- tiana" (.Vugsburg, 1758), and other moral treatises. St. Ali>honsus Liguori admired lus theological pru- dence, and Gury calls him a " probabilista moderatus doctrind et sapientiii clarus"; others (e. g. Toussaint) accu.se him of an inclination to rigorism in practice. He translated into Latin the " Dictionnaire des cas de conscience" of Pontas (Venice, 1733), but modi- fied its Gallican tone and rigoristic views. Of his canonical works the most important is lus "Vetus Disciplina canonieorum et regularium" (Venice, 1748), "Elementa juris canonici veteris et