AMYRAUT, MOÏSE. - Calvinist theologian, b. at Bourgueil in Sept. 1596, d. at Saumur on 8 Jan. 1664. He studied law at Poitiers, then theology at Saumur, where he was already a pastor in 1626. Of a calm and reflective disposition, he was charged with presenting to the Synod of Charenton (1631) the complaints of the Protestants concerning the infringements of the edicts issued in their favor, and he acted so skillfully as nevertheless to keep his coreligionists in the-
(Superintendency of Antiquities, Naples)
AMULET—Amulets hung from a necklace from Sannio. Pre-Roman period—Naples, National Museum.
obedience to the king. Appointed professor of theology in 1633, he published in 1634 his Traité de la prédestination (Saumur), in which he professed, concerning grace, a doctrine broader than the Calvinist one, extending the hypothetical universality of grace even to pagans and distinguishing between resistible and irresistible grace; an opinion which he was able to defend also at the Synods of Loudon (1659–60) and Charenton (1633). His friends or protectors included Cardinal Richelieu, Hirdouin de Péréfixe, and Cardinal Mararino.
He left numerous writings, including: Traité des religions contre ceux qui les extiment indifférentes (Paris 1631); De providentia Dei in malo (Saumur 1638); Disputatio de libero hominis arbitrio (ibid. 1657). He also wrote noteworthy works on the Letters of St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. In 1660–64 he published with his friends L. Cappel and Giosuè de la Place a collection of theological theses: Syntagma thesium theologicarum in academia salauriensi variis temporibus disputatarum, placed on the Index by decree of 24 Sept. 1686.