Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/494

AMPHIBALUM 438 AMPHILOCHIUS problem of showing tliut the chances of the gambler are always against him. It is noted for its elegant and polished, though simple, application of the calculus of probabilities. The favourable appreciation of his work by men like Delanibre resulted in his call to Lyons and later, in 1805, to the Ecole Polytechnique at Paris, where, in 1S09, he rose to the position of Professor of Analysis, and was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and where his work alternated between mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. He pub- lished a number of articles on calculus, on curves, and other purely mathematical topics, as well as on chemistry and light, and even on zoology. Ampere's fame, however, rests on his remarkable work in electro-dynamics. It was on 11 September, 1820, that an academician, returning from Geneva, re- peated before the Academy the epoch-marking ex- periments of the Danish savant Oersted. A wire through which an electric current passes was shown to deflect a magnetic needle, causing it to place itself at right angles to the direction of the current. The connexion between electricity and magnetism yas indicated by these experiments, and the foundation was laid for the science of electro-magnetics. Only a week later, on the 18th of the same month, Ampere demonstrated before the Academy another remarkable fact: the mutual attraction or repulsion of two parallel wires carrying currents, according as the currents are in the same or in opposite directions. This laid the foundation of the science of electro-dynamics. Ampdre continued his experiments, published the results in 1822, and, finally, developed his "Mathe- matical Theory of the Phenomena of Electro-dyna- mics" in 1830. In 1821 he suggested an electric telegraph, using separate wires for every letter. His final work, published after his death, was the am- bitious "Essai sur la philosophie des sciences, ou exposition analytique d'une classification naturelle de toutes les connaissances humaines ". His predi- lection for philosophic, psychological, and metaphysi- cal speculation was very marked. His arduous task as teacher, together with the engrossing functions of a government official — he was Inspector-General of the University — prevented him from devoting him- self more to the work of the experimenter. He was a member of the Institute of France, the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, the Academies of Berlin, Stockliolra, Brussels, and Lisbon, and other scientific societies. In 1872 Madame Chevreux edited his "Journal and Correspondence". In 1881 the Paris Conference of Electricians honoured his memory by naming the practical unit of electric current the ampire. His religious life is interesting. He says that at eighteen years he found three culminating points in his life, his First Communion, the reading of Thomas's "Eulogy of Descartes", and the taking of the Bastille. His marriage to the pious Julie Carron was secretly performed by a priest, her family refusing to recognize the competency of the "con- stitutional" clergyman; this fact impressed him very deeply. On the day of his wife's deatli he wrote two verses from the Psalms, and the prayer, "O Lord, God of .Mercy, unite me in Heaven with those whom you have permitted me to love on earth ". Serious doubts harassed him at times, and made him very unhappy. Tlicn he would take refuge in the read- ing of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church. "Doubt", ho says in a letter to a friend, "is the greatest torment that a man suffers on eartli ". His death took place at Marseilles, in his sixty-second year. Ampf.re. Juumal el corrcspondance (Paris, 1872); Sainte Hkdvk und I.lTTiili in Rcvut de» Deux Mondea (13 Feb.. 1887); bliHie d Amph-r. in (taUrie. del conlemnoraina illustres. Vol. X, traiiBlution Ijy Aiiaijo in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Inntitulion (Va»liington. 1872); LAHTHE-MENAaKii, in Lea Conlrmpormni, IM (Paris); Galwev, Ampl-re'a iStrugglc mth Doubt m The Catholic World. XXXVII, 418. William Fox. Amphibalum. See Ch.i.suule. Amphilochius of Iconium, a Christian bishop of the fourth ccnturj', son of a Cappadocian family of distinction, b. perhaps at Cajsarea, c. 339 or 340; d. probably some time between 394 and 403. His father was an eminent lawyer, and his mother Livia remarkable for gentleness and wisdom. He was probably first cousin to Gregory of Nazianzus, and was brought up in the peculiarly religious atmos- phere of the Christian aristocracy of his native province. He studied for the bar, practised at Constantinople, but soon retired to lead a religious life in the vicinity of his friend and relative, the "theologian" of Nazianzus. He was soon drawn within the circle of St. Basil's influence, and seems to have been for a while a member of ihe Christian "City of the Poor" that Basil had built at Casarea. Early in 374 he was bishop of the important see of Iconium, probably placed there by Basil, whom he continued to aid in Cappadocian ecclesiastical affairs until Basil's death (379). Thenceforth he remained in close relations with Gregory of Nazianzus, and accompanied him to the Synod of Constrntinople (381), where St. Jerome met and conversed with him (De Vir. 111., c. 133). In the history of theology he occupies a place of prominence for his defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit against the Macedonians (q. v.). It was to him that St. Basil dedicated his work "On the Holy Spirit". He wrote a similar work, now lost. We know, however, that he read it to St. Jerome on the occasion of their meeting at Constantinople. His attitude towards Arianism is illustrated by the well-known anecdote concerning his audience with Theodosius and his son Arcadius. When the Emperor rebuked him for ignoring the presence of his son, he reminded him that the Lord of the universe abhorreth those who are ungrateful towards His Son, their Saviour and Benefactor. He was very energetic against the Messalians (q. v.), and contributed to the extirpation of that heresy. His contemporaries rated him very high as a theologian and a scholarly writer. Not to speak of his ad- mirers and friends already mentioned, St. Jerome says (Ep. 70) of the Cappadocian triad (Basil, Gregory, and Amphilochius) that "they cram their boolts with the lessons and sentences of the philoso- phers to such an extent that you cannot tell which you ought to admire most in them, their secular erudition or their scriptural knowledge". In the next generation Theodoret described him in very flattering terms (Hist. Eccl., IV, x; V,xvi),and he is quoted by councils as late as 787. His only genuine extant work is, according to Bardenhewer (Pa- trologie, p. 249), the "Epistola Synodica", a letter against the Macedonian heresy in the name of the bishops of Lycaonia, and probably addressed to the bishops of Lycia (Goldhom, S. Basil., 0pp. Sel. Dogm., 630-635). The spurious "Iambics to Se- leucus" offer an early and important catalogue of the canonical writings; other spurious fragments, current under his name, are taken from scriptural discourses, dogmatic letters and controversial writ- ings (P. G., XXXIX, 13-130). Fessler-Jungmann, Instil. Patrolog., I, GOO-604; Lights FOOT in Diet, of Christ. Biagr., I, 103-107. Thomas J. Shahan. Amphilochius of Sida (Side), in Pamphylia, a bisliiip (if llic first half of the fifth century, member of the I'ciuncil of ICphosus (431), where he vigorously opposed the Messalians and subscribed to the con- denmation and deposition of Nestorius. He does not seem to have been equally firm at a later period. Even if he did not assist at the "Robber Council" of E])hesus (449), he showed great sympathy for Dioscorus of Alexandria at the Coimcil of Chalcedon, and consented with reluctance to his condemnation. Ho subscribed to the "tomus" of Pope Leo, and the