Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/489

AMMONIUS 433 AMORRHITES kingdom of Judah (IV K., xxiv); and wlien the fall finally came, it was the king of the Ammonites who sent assassins into Judea to murder the goenu)r who had gathered together the remnant of Judah (IV K., xxv; Jer., xl. 14). After the return the old hatred is still seen to live (II Ksd., iv). In the time of Judas Machabeus, the Ammonites are still a strong Eeople, and the great leader had to fight many battles efore he conquered them (I Mach., v). No further mention of them occurs in biblical times; Justin Martyr refers to them as a numerous people in his day, out in the course of the next century they vanish completely from the view of history. Hike liictionnru a:4 II^>^[^(;s. VluouRorx; JewUh Encyelo- pmtia; Di:Lrr/sfii. Dili. man, Uhivku. (jUay, CommentarifS {Numbt-ra); I.agkangk, Historical Method. John F. Fenlon. Ammonius Saccas. See Neo-Platonism. Amorbach, former Benedictine abbey in Lower Franconia (liavaria), about twenty-five miles south of .Vschaffenburg. It was founded in the early part of the eiglith century by St. Pirmin, who had been called to that region by Count Rut hard to preacli the Gospel. The Saint, with his disciple .Vmor, first took up his abode at what is now called Amor- bnmnen, but later built an abbey near by, in the Oden forest, in the valley of the Mudau, a tributary of the Main. The alibey, which was con.secrated in 734, became the centre of Christianity and civilization in the Oden forest. The town of Amorbach, which in 1900 had 2,173 inhabitants, grew up about its walls and its monks not only labourecl in the neigh- bouring districts but also penetrated into northern Germany, where they aiileci in the conversion of the Saxons. Several of the first bishops of Venlen, the scene of the mi.ssionary activity of tliese monks, were former abbots of .morbach. In the early days of its history the abbey received generous gifts from Charles Martel and liis sons. Pepin united it to the Diocese of VViirzburg, though in modern times it was tran.s- ferred to JIainz. It suffered much in the tenth century from the invasion of the Huns, and later, in l.i21, during the Peasants' War, and in 1631, from the Swedes. In the seventeenth century the abbey buildings and the beautiful church, long famous for its organ, were rebuilt. Amorbach was suppressetl in 1803 and pas.sed into the possession of the house of Leiningen. In 1816, the town and abbey came under the jurisdiction of Bavaria. Gropp, .£(«« mille anjwnim monaat. B. M. V. in Amorlmrh (Frankfort, 17.3(i); Himiedrand, Amorbach u. der itstl. Oiien- veaUi (Aschaffcnburg, 1883); Stamminger in Kirchenlex. H. M. Brock. Amorios (also Amorium), a titular see of Phrygia in Asia Minor, now known as Hergan Kaleh. It was a see as early as 43 1 . LEyciEN, Oricns Christ. (1740), I, 853 sq.; Gams, I, 447. Amorrhites, a name of doubtful origin and mean- ing, used to ile.signate an ancient people often men- tioned in the Old Testament. It is by many sup- posed to be derivetl from a word akin to the Hebrew vimfrand to mean "mountaineers", " highlanders"; but 'Amir is summit", not "mountain". The name is much older than any part of the Bible and even much older than the Hebrew people itself; the attempt, then, to fix its meaning by Hebrew usage and the local habitation of the .morrliites in Hebrew times can only be regarded as niisdirectcil elTort. That some of the .Vmorrhites, thou.sands of years after the name came to be u.sed, dwelt in mountains can no longer be judged as serious proof that Amor- rhite means highlander; its signification .still remains obscure. It is worthy of note, nevertheless, that the Amorrhites of biblical and pre-biblical times have usually been found in mountamous districts, although those best known are the Amorrhites of the Jordan Valley, whose sway, however, extended to the moun- tains east of the Jordan. I. ExTE.NT. — In application, the name has a wider and narrower extent m the Bible, varying in a man- ner the reason for which cannot often be discovered. (1) At times it seems conterminous with Chanaanite, and designates all the inhabitants of the Land of Chanaan before the advent of Israel. Thus the Prophet .mos calls Palestine the land of the Amor- rhite, anil the race which Israel cast out was the .Vmorrhite (ii, 9, 10); this u.sage prevails also in Gen., xlviii, 22, and Jos., xxiv, 15, 18. The .same may be gathered from various passages where certain Chanaanitish races or tribes have at one time a specific name and at another are classed as .morrhite; thus, the inhabitants of Gabaon are called indiffer- ently Ilevites and .-Vmorrhites (Jos., xi, 19; II Kings, xxi, 2), and of Jerusalem, either Jebusites or Amor- rhites (Jos., XV, 63, xviii, 28; Judges, i, 21, and Jos., X, 5, 6, and Ezeoh., xvi, 3). The Amorrhites of Gen., xiv, 13, are Hethites (Hittites) in (ien., xxiii, and the Philistines are likewise deemed Amorrhites (I Kings, vii, 14). While the name therefore seems applicaole to all the non-Israelitish peoples of Chanaan, it is to bo noted that it generally has a le-sser extension than Chanaanite, and the .Vmorrhites themselves arc sometimes regarded as onlv a branch of the Chanaanile family {(Jen., x, 16). (2) Another usage distinguishes sharply between Chanaariites and .Vmorrhites, putting both on a level as tribes thvelling with several others in Palestine, the Amorrhites, when located, inhabiting the mountains of central and southern Palestine (Deut., i, 7, 19, 27, 44; Gen., xiv, 7,13; xv, 21; Jos., x, 5, 12, xxiv, 8; Ex., iii, 8, etc.). There is no evidence that the Amorrhites at any stage of their history occupied the coa.st lands. (3) .Vgain, the name is appLed to the race dwelling on the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, from the .rnon to Mt. Ilermon, and extending east- ward to Jazer and Ile.sebon (Num., xxi, 13, 24, 32; Deut., iii, 8, 9), comprising the territory of Sehon, King of Ile.sebon, and Og, King of Basan (Bashan). which later constituted the entire possessions of the Hebrews east of the Jordan. These variations in the biblical use of the term Amorrhite — as ilesignating all the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, or only one part or tribe dwelling in the mountainous districts of the centre and south, or, finally, those east of the Jordan — are found often side by side, and cannot easily be accounted for; it is to be remarked, however, that the application to all the inhabitants of Palestine generally occurs wlieii it is question of the idolatrous rites of the ancient inhabitants, or when they are viewed together as a people doomed for their iniquities to be supplanted by the Israelites, in which cases the Amorrhites may be taken as the most fitting type, though they are but part of the population and in reality confined to the districts implied by the other u.ses of the term. The name of the .-Vmorrhite also lingered in Hebrew tradition as representative of gigantic stature and warlike character, and is likely to be employed wlicji the writer is thinking of the ancient inliabitants as Israel's foes in battle (Deut., ii, 11, 20; iii, 11, 13), while precisely the same population under peaceful conditions is called Chan.aanite. It has been noted by upholders of the documentary theory that the writer of the Elohistic document seems to u.se both terms as coextensive. This is the usual account of the variations, and it is noteworthy for the view of Amorrhite history which it embodies; yet it may well be that the name, instead of being first the name of a southern or trans-Jordanie tribe and extended in time to many various peoples, is on the contrary a survival of an ancient usage for all the inhabitant^ of Palestine anil bordering countries. .s early as 3800 B. c, some believe, the Babylonians called Syria