Moses Amyraut

Moïse Amyraut (Latin: Moyses Amyraldus; September 1596 – 8 January 1664),

Life

Early life Amyraut was born in Bourgueil, in the valley of the Changeon in the province of Anjou. His father was a lawyer, and, preparing Moses for the same profession, sent him, on the completion of his study of the humanities at Orléans, to the university of Poitiers.

At the university he took the degree of licentiate (BA) of laws. In this book, he tried to mitigate the harsh features of predestination by his Universalismus hypotheticus. God, he taught, predestines all men to happiness on condition of their having faith. This gave rise to a charge of heresy, of which he was acquitted at the national synod held at Alençon in 1637, and presided over by Benjamin Basnage (1580–1652). The charge was brought up again at the national synod of Charenton in 1644, when he was again acquitted.

His De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion (1641) gave him early a high place as a metaphysician. Exclusive of his controversial writings, he left behind him a very voluminous series of practical evangelical books, which have long remained the "fireside" favourites of the peasantry of French Protestantism. Amongst these are Estat des fideles apres la mort; Sur l'oraison dominicale; Du merite des oeuvres; Traité de la justification; and paraphrases of books of the Old and New Testament.

Later years

His closing years were weakened by a severe fall he met with in 1657. He died on 18 January 1664 in Saumur.

Seventeenth century opponents There were a number of theologians who defended Calvinistic orthodoxy against Amyraut and Saumur, including Friedrich Spanheim (1600–1649) and Francis Turretin (1623–1687). Ultimately, the Helvetic Consensus was drafted to counteract the theology of Saumur and Amyraldism.

Publications

His major works include;

A treatise on religions, confuting those who think that there exists no difference between them, (Saumur, 1631). A short treatise on predestination and the principal arguments in its defence, (Saumur, 1634). Paraphrases on various books of the New Testament and of the Psalms (12 vols. 8vo, 1644-1662) A discourse on the state of believers after death, (Saumur, 1646) (written after the death of his daughter Elizabeth) An Apologia in defence of the Reformed Religion, (Saumur, 1647) De la Vocation des Pasteurs (Saumur, 1649) Christian ethics, 6 vol. (Saumur, 1652-1660) In favour of the government of the Church, as opposed to the abolition of synods and their authority, Saumur, 1653) The life of François de la Noue, from the beginning of religious troubles in 1560 until his death, (Leyden, 1661) In Symbolum Apostol. exercitatio (Saumur, 1663, small 8vo)