AMELOTE (AMELOTTE), DENYS. – Oratorian theologian, born at Saintes in 1606, died in Paris in 1679. A doctor at the Sorbonne, COINDRE, ANDRÉ (v.), of whom he was one of the principal disciples, in the work of missions among the people; in 1650 he entered the Oratory, becoming its assistant and superior of the mother house.
His major work is the Version of the New Testament, with notes, in 3 vols., Paris 1666–70, based “on the ancient Latin edition,” praised by Richard Simon, which went through more than 30 editions. He published La vie du père Charles de Condren, Paris 1643, the first substantial example of psychological biography, and in 1654 La vie de sœur Marguerite du Saint-Sacrement, which met with much opposition (v. ACARIE). He also produced a Concordance of the four Gospels, in French (1669) and in Latin (1670), and Le Epistole ed i Vangeli di tutto l'anno, con l'ordinario della Messa in francese e in latino, reprinted several times. A fierce opponent of Jansenism, he wrote La défense des constitutions d'Innocent X et des décrets de l'Assemblée générale du Clergé de France contre la doctrine de Jansénus, Paris 1660 (Latin translation, Cologne 1690), NICCOLÒ (v.) replied in 1661. His final work is the excellent Abrégé de la théologie ou des principales vérités de la religion, Paris 1675, imbued with Berullian spirit: God is the principle of all things and must be the end of all our actions; Jesus Christ became man in order to communicate himself to us “by uniting himself to all the degrees of being that are gathered together in man”; hope is not an imperfect virtue because it seeks God as our sole end.