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AMERICANISM 428 AMICE tack and innuendo. la fact, it seems probable that during the years 1894-9(5, the A. P. A. was consid- erably more of a vexation to the leaders of the Re- publican party than to the prelates of the Catholic Church. The loss of prestige due to these several notable discomfitures in national politics told on the membership of the A. P. A. Its councils failed to meet, its state organizations fell into desuetude, and, although it prcsered its national organization by elections up to 1900, its historj- may be said to have closed for all purposes of general mterest. H. F. Bowers was re-elected its national president m 1S98, an office which he still holds (1906). Although the A. P. A. had a platform calling for not a few changes in the laws, and in the policies of government, it failed to establish any of its demands, or to bring into our history any new departure in statecraft. I'pon two matters only did the A. P. A. leave a record, though a rather ineffective one, in Congress. It joined in the opposition prevalent for a time against further grants of federal money to the Catholic In- dian schools; and it sought to prevent the accept- ance by Congress of the Marquette statue, presented by the State of Wisconsin to the nation, pursuant to a law of Congress. Hoar, Autobiography (New York, 1904), II, 278; Hub- bard in TheAretia,X,7&; Robinson in Am. Journal of Politics, V 504- Gladden in The Centura Magazine, XXV, 289; Spald- ing in N Am Review, CLIX, 278; Tratnor in JV. Am. Review, ibid., 67; CLXII, 658. Humphrey J. Desmond. Americanism. See Testem Benevolenti.e. Amherst, Francis Kerril, D.D., Bishop of Northampton; b. at London, 21 March, 1819; d. 21 August, 1883. He was the eldest son of William Kerril Amherst, of Parndon, County Essex, Esquire, and of iMary Louisa, daughter of Francis Fortescue Turville, of Bosworth Hall, County Leicester, Es- quire. He was sent to Oscott College in 1S30, and after eight years left it with no intention of enter- ing the ecclesiastical state. He returned to Oscott, however, in 1841, and was ordained priest by Cardi- nal (then Bishop) Wiseman, 6 June, 1846. Shortly after, he joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, but returned to Oscott once more, in 1855, to be pro- fessor. After eleven months in this position he was appointed to the mission of Stafford, and thence, on Bishop Wareing's resignation, to the See of Northampton. He was consecrated 4 July, 1858. He was appointed Assistant at the Pontifical Throne 8 June, 1862. He resigned his see in 1879, owing to ill health, and the following year was translated to Sozusa. He died at his residence, Fieldgate, Kenil- worth, County Warwick, 21 August, 1883. GiLLow, Bibl. Diet, of Eng. Catholics, I, 28. John J. a' Becket. Amias, John, Venerable, an English Martvr; b. at Wakefield; d. at York, 16 March, 1589. He exer- cised the trade of a cloth-merchant in Wakefield until the death of his wife, when he divided his property among his children, and became a priest at Reims in 1,581. Of his missionary life we know little; he w;is arrested at the house of a Mr. Murton in Lanca-shire, taken to York, and tried in company with two other martyrs, Dalby and Dibdale. An- thony (Dean) Champney was present at their execu- tion, of which he has left an account in his history. Other accounts note that he went to death "as joyfully as if to a feast ". He was declared Venerable in 1880. Ciialloner; Foley, Records S.J., iii, 739; Pollen, Acta »f English Martyri (London, 1891), 331. Patrick Ryan. Amice, a short linen cloth, square or oblong in shape and, like the other sacerdotal vestments, need- ing to be blessed before use. The purpo.se of this vestment, which is the first to be put on by the priest in vesting for the Mass, is to cover the shoulders, and originally also the head, of the wearer. Many of the older religious orders still wear the amice after the fashion which prevailed in the Middle Ages; that is to say, the amice is first laid over the head and the ends allowed to fall upon the shoulders, then the other vestments from the alb to the chasuble are put on, and finally, on reaching the altar, the priest folds back the amice from the head, so that it hangs around the neck and over the chasuble like a small cowl. In this way, as will be readily understood, the amice forms a sort of collar, effectively protecting the precious material of the chasuble from contact with the skin. On leaving the sanctuary, the amice is again pulled up over the head, and thus both in coming and going it serves as a head-covering in heu of the modern berretta. This method of wearing the amice has fallen into desuetude for the clergy at large, and the only surviving trace of it is the rubric directing that, in putting it on, the amice should for a moment be laid upon the head before it is adjusted round the neck. The subdeacon at his ordination receives the amice from the hands of the bishop, who says to him " Receive the amice, by which is signified the discipline of the voice" (castigatio vocis). This seems to have reference to some primitive use of the amice as a sort of muffler to protect the throat. On the other hand, the prayer which the clergy are directed to say in assuming this vestment speaks of it as galeam salutis, " the helmet of salvation against the wiles of the enemy", thus emphasizing the use as a head covering. Strictly speaking, the amice, being a sacred vestment, ought not to be worn by clerics below the grade of subdeacon. In tracing the history of the amice we are confronted by the same difficulty which meets us in the case of most of the other vestments, viz. the impossibility of determining the precise meaning of the expressions used by early writers. The word amictus, which is still the Latin name for this vestment, and from which our word amice is derived, seems clearly to be used in its present sense by Amalarius at the beginning of the ninth century. He tells us that this amict'us is the first vestment put on, and it enfolds the neck (De Eccles. Offic, II, xN-ii, in P. L., CV, 1094). We may also probably feel confidence in identifying with the same vestment the anagolagium spoken of in the first Ordo Romanus, a document which belongs to the middle of the eighth century or earlier. Anagolagium seems to be merely a corruption of the word aiiabolium (or anaholadium), which is defined by St. Isidore of Se lle as a sort of linen wrap used by women to throw over their shoulders, otherwise called a sitidon. There is nothing to indicate that this last was a liturgical garment, hence we must conclude that we cannot safely trace our present amice farther back than the above-mentioned reference in the first Roman Ordo (P. L., LXVIII, 940). It is curious that this anagolagium, though it was also worn by the papal deacon and subdeacon. was put on by the Pope over, not under, the alb. To this day the Pope, when pontificating, wears a sort of second amice of stripcil .'^ilk called a fanon, which is put on after the alb and subsequently folded back over the upper part of the chasuble. The amice, moreover, in the Ambrosial! Rite is also put on after the alb. At what date the amice came to be regarded as an indispensa- ble part of the priest's hturgical attire is not quite clear; for both Bishop Theodulph of Orleans (d. 821) and Walafrid Strabo (d. 849) seem to ignore it under circumstances in which we shouki certainly have expected it to be mentioned. On the other hand, the " Admonitio Synodalis ", a document of uncertain date, but commonly referred to the ninth century (see, however. Revue b^nC-dictine, 1892, p. 99), dis- tinctly enjoins that no one must say Ma.ss without amice, alb, stole, maniple and cnasuble. Early