Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/827

Rh A N A A N A 783 The university of Saumur at the same time had fixed its eyes on him as professor of theology. The great churches of Paris and Rouen also contended for him, and sent their deputies to win him, to the provincial synod of Anjou. Amyraut had left the choice to the synod. He was appointed to Saumur, and to the professor s chair along with the pastorate. On the occasion of his inauguration he maintained for thesis De Sacerdotio Christi. His co- professors were Lewis Capell and Josua de la Place, who were also Cameron s pupils. Very beautiful was the life long friendship of these three remarkable men. They remain associated still as the joint authors of a body of divinity entitled Theses Salmurienses. Full of energy in every atom of him, Amyraut devoted himself to his labour of love with a fine enthusiasm of love of labour. He very speedily gave French Protestantism a potentiality it had never possessed before. In 1631 he published his Traite des Religions, a book that still lives ; and from this year onward he was a foremost man in the church, especi ally at the national and provincial synods. One incident in his synodical services stands out, as the like do in the story of Luther and of John Knox. Chosen to represent the provincial synod of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine at the national synod held in 1631 at Charenton, that assembly appointed him their orator to address the king, and to present to him &quot; The Copy of their Complaints and Grievances for the Infractions and Violations of the Edict of Nantes.&quot; Previous deputies had addressed the king on their bended knees, whereas the representatives of the Roman Catholics had been permitted to stand. Amyraut consented to be orator only if the assembly authorised him to stand. There was intense resistance. Richelieu himself, preceded by lesser dignitaries, condescended to visit Amy raut privately, to draw him over to kneel ; but the stout-hearted orator held resolutely to equality with the Roman Catholics, and carried his point. Standing in the presence of king and court, he recounted the complaints and grievances of his church, and charmed even his adver saries with his mingled dignity of manner and suavity of address. Long afterwards Richelieu recalled the memorable incident ; and the &quot; Oration,&quot; which was immediately published in the French Mercury, remains a historic land mark in the history of French Protestantism. During his absence on this matter the assembly debated &quot; Whether the Lutherans who desired it, might be admitted into communion with the Reformed Churches of France at the Lord s Table 1 &quot; It was decided in the affirmative previous to his return ; but he approved with astonishing eloquence, and thereafter was ever in the front rank in maintaining intercommunication between all churches holding the main doctrines of the Reformation. His defence against many adversaries on the question was published in 1647 De Secessione ab Ecdesid Romand deque Ratione Pacis inter Evangelicos in Religionis Negotio constitucndce. Bayle (s.v.) recounts the title-pages of no fewer than thirty-two books of which Amyraut was the author. These show that he took part in all the great controversies on Predestination and Arminianism which then so agitated and harassed all Europe. Substantially he held fast the Calvinism of his preceptor Cameron ; but, like Richard Baxter in England, by his breadth and charity exposed himself to all manner of misconstruction from Peter du Moulin and others ultra- orthodox. His La Defense de Calvin never was answered, although superabundantly replied to. The university of Saumur became the university of French Protestantism. Amyraut had as many as a hundred students in attendance upon his prelections. Another historic part filled by Amyraut was in the negotiations originated with Mons. le Goux, lord of Berchere, first president of the parliament of Burgundy, when exiled to Saumur, for a reconciliation and reunion of the Roman Catholics of France with the French Protestants. Very large were the concessions made by Richelieu in his personal interviews with Amy raut ; but, as with the Worcester House negotiations in England between the Church of England and Non conformists, they inevitably fell through. On all sides the statesmanship and eloquence of Amyraut were con ceded. When the king visited Saumur in 1651, Amyraut declined to close his church on the Sunday, but preached a sermon that rang through Europe on the text, &quot;Fear God, honour the king.&quot; Amyraut remained to the end one of the most prominent names of French Protestantism; and his De I Elevation de la Foy et de I Abaissement de la Raison en la Creance des Mysteres de la Religion (1641) gave him early a high place as a metaphysician, which was sustained by &quot;after works. Exclusive of his controversial writings, he left behind him a very voluminous series of practical evangelical books, which remain the fireside favourites of the peasantry of French Protestantism still. His Estat des Fideles apres la Mort has comforted many mourners ; his Sur I Oraison Dominicale is striking and rich; his DuMerite des (Euvres and Traite de la Justification, weighty and powerful; his Paraphrases on Old Testa ment and New Testament books of Holy Scripture, judicious and suggestive sometimes penetrative. His closing years were weakened by a severe fall he met with in 1657. He died on 18th January 1664. His portrait was published by his son, but v.ith no name or inscription underneath. (Bayle, s.v. ; Liog. Univ., s.v. ; John Quick s Synod, in Gall. Reform., pp. 352-7 ; ibid. MS. Icones Sacrce Galli- cance; Life of Cameron.} (A. B. G.) ANA, a Latin plural termination appropriated to various collections of the observations and criticisms of eminent men, delivered in conversation and recorded by their friends, or discovered among their papers after their de cease. Though the term Ana is of comparatively modern origin, the introduction of this species of composition is not of recent date. It appears, from D Herbelot s Biblio- tkeque Orientale, that from the earliest periods the Eastern nations were in the habit of preserving the maxims of their sages. From them the practice passed to the Greeks and Romans. Plato and Xenophon treasured up and re corded the sayings of their master Socrates ; and Arrian, in the concluding books of his Enchiridion, now lost, col lected the casual observations of Epictetus. The numerous apophthegms scattered in Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and other writers, show that it was customary in Greece to pre serve the colloquially expressed ideas of illustrious men. It appears that Julius Caesar compiled a book of apophthegms, in which he related the ban mots of Cicero ; and Quintilian informs us that a freedman of that celebrated wit and orator composed three books of a work entitled De Joels Ciceronis. We are told by Suetonius that Caius Melissus, originally the slave but afterwards the freedman and librarian of Maecenas, collected the sayings of his master ; and Aulus Gellius has filled his Nodes Atticai with anec dotes which he heard from the eminent scholars and critics whose society he frequented in Rome. But though vestiges of Ana may be traced in the classi cal ages, it is only in modern times that they have come to be regarded as constituting a distinct species of composi tion, comprising literary anecdotes, critical reflections, and historical incidents, mingled with the detail of bon mots and ludicrous tales. The term Ana seems to have been applied to such collections as far back as the beginning of the 15th century. Francesco Barbaro, in a letter to Poggio, says that the information and anecdotes which Poggio and Barthelemi Montepolitiano had picked up dur ing a literary excursion through Germany will be called ATM : &quot; Quemadmodum mala ab Appio e Claudia gente