Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/823

Rh A M S A M S 779 professor of theology in 1511. He joined Luther at the very beginning of his great struggle (1517) ; continued all along one of his most admiring and determined supporters; was with him at the Lcipsic conference (1519), and the Diet of Worms (1521) ; and was in the secret of his Wart- bur&quot;- seclusion. He assisted the first efforts of the Refor mation at Magdeburg (1524), at Goslar (1531), and at Einbeck (1534) ; took an active part in the debates at Sclnnalkald (1537), where he defended the use of the sacrament by the unbelieving; and (1539) spoke out strongly against the bigamy of the Elector of Hesse. After the death&quot; of the Count Palatine, bishop of Naumburg- Zeiz, he was installed there (Jan. 20, 1512), though in opposition to the chapter, by the elector of Saxony and Luther. His position was a painful one, and he longed to get back to Magdeburg, but was persuaded by Luther to stay. After Luther s death (1546) and the battle of Muhlberg (1547) he had to yield to his rival Pflug, and retire to the protection of the young duke of Weimar. Here he took part in founding Jena university (1548); opposed the &quot;Augsburg Interim&quot; (1548); superintended the publication of tho Jena edition of Luther s works ; and debated on the freedom of the will, original sin, and, more noticeably, on the Christian value of good works, in regard to which he held that they were not only useless, but pre judicial. He urged the separation of the High Lutheran party from Melanchthon (1557), got the Saxon dukes to oppose the Frankfurt Recess (1558), and continued to fight for the purity of Lutheran doctrine. He died at Eisenach, May 14, 1565, and was buried in the high church there, where his effigy shows a well-knit frame and sharp- cut features. He was a man of strong will, of great apti tude for controversy, and considerable learning, and thus exercised a decided influence on the Reformation. Many letters and other short productions of his pen are extant in MS., especially five thick volumes of Amsdorfiana, in the Weimar library. A small sect, which adopted his opinion on good works, was called after him ; but it is now of mere historical interest. AMSLER, SAMUEL, one of the most distinguished of modern engravers, was born at Schinznach, in the canton of Aargau, in 1791. He studied his art under Lips and Hess, and from 1816 pursued it in Italy, and chiefly at Rome, till in 1829 he succeeded his former master Hess as professor of copper engraving in the Munich academy. The works he designed and engraved are remarkable for the grace of the figures, and for the wonderful skill with which he retains and expresses the characteristics of the original paintings and statues. He was a passionate admirer of Raphael, and had great success in reproducing his works. Amsler s principal engravings are &quot; The Triumphal March of Alexander the Great,&quot; and a full-length &quot; Christ,&quot; after the sculptures of Thorwaldsen and Dannecker ; the &quot;Burial of Christ,&quot; and two &quot; Madonnas,&quot; after the pictures of Raphael ; and the &quot; Triumph of Religion in the Arts,&quot; after Overbeck, his last work, on which he spent six years. He died May 18, 1849. AMSTERDAM, or AMSTELDAM, formerly called Amstd- redam, capital of the Netherlands, situated in the province of North Holland, is built somewhat in the form of a half- moon, on the Y or Ij, an arm of the Zuyder Zee, in 52 22 N. lat, and 4 53 E. long. The name Amsterdam means &quot;the dam or dyke of the Amstel,&quot; from a river so called which passes in a north-easterly direction through the city, the &quot; dam&quot; referring to the extensive and costly system of embankments, canals, and sluices necessary to secure this low-lying city against the encroachments of the tide. Towards the land Amsterdam was at one time sur rounded by a fosse or canal, and regularly fortified; but its ramparts have been demolished, and the twenty-eight bastions that formed part of the defences are now used ao promenades or covered with buildings. Within the city, four canals the Prinseu Gracht, Keizer s Gracht, Heeren Gracht, and the Singel extend, in the form of polygonal crescents, nearly parallel to each other and to the former fosse; while numerous smaller canals intersect the city in every direction, dividing it into about 90 islands, with nearly 290 bridges. Some of these are of stone, but the majority are of iron and wood, and constructed so as to allow vessels for inland navigation to pass through. The site of Amsterdam was originally a peat bog, and all its buildings rest upon piles that are driven some 40 or 50 feet through a mass of loose sand and mud xintil they reach a solid stratum of firm clay. This foundation is perfectly secure as long as the piles remain under water. In 1822, however, an overladen corn magazine sank into the mud. The piles are liable to the ravages of wood-worms that are supposed to have been brought by vessels from foreign ports. The streets in the oldest parts of the town are narrow and irregular, but are nowhere without pavements or footways. The houses frequently present a picturesque sky-line, broken by fantastic gables, roofs, chimneys, towers, and turrets of all forms and dimensions. Four of the principal of those towers have exterior galleries very near the top, running round them, from which an alarm used to be blown in case of fire, and a light shown to indicate the locality of the fire to the citizens, who from the age of twenty to fifty are all enrolled in the fire-brigade and civic guard. This mode of signalling is now, however, super seded by a system of telegraphic communication embrac ing the whole city. Westward of the Amstel, which passes almost through the centre of the city, is the more modern part, where the houses are often exceedingly handsome, and the streets broad, and planted with rows of large trees between the houses and the canals. The chief promenades are the Vondelspark, laid out and maintained by private individuals, with the design of its being ultimately pre sented to the city ; and the Plantoadje or Plantation, part of which is occupied by the botanic and the zoological gardens, and which is also supported by private contribu tions. Of the public buildings, the principal is the palace, an imposing structure, built in 1648, by the architect Jacob van Kampen, and adorned with stone carvings by the cele brated artist Artus Quellinus of Antwerp. It is supported on 13,659 piles, and is 282 feet long, with a breadth of 235 feet and a height of 116, exclusive of a turreted cupola, which rises 66 feet above the main building. It was originally the Stadhuis, but was appropriated as a palace by King Louis Napoleon in 1808. The most mag-