AMYRAUT, MOISE (1596-1664), also known as Amyral dos, French Protestant theologian and metaphysician, studied at Orleans, Poitiers, and then at Saumur under the famous Scottish Protestant teacher, John Cameron. He was made pastor of Sau mur and professor of theology there. Amyraut and his colleagues, Louis Cappel and Josue de la Place, also Cameron's pupils, col laborated in the Theses Salmurienses, and in 1631 published his Traite des religions.
Amyraut was chosen by the national synod of 1631 to present to the king the complaint of the French Protestants against the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His oration on this occasion is famous in the history of French Protestantism. Later he con ferred with Richelieu, but without success, on the possibilities of reconciliation.
Amyraut held fast to Calvinism, but in his Traite de la predes tination he tried to mitigate its harsher features by his "universal ismus hypotheticus"—that God predestines all men to happiness on condition of their having faith. For this doctrine he was thrice accused of heresy before the synod, but without success. His most important metaphysical work was De l'elevation de la f oy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion (1641) . But perhaps he is better remembered by his simpler works of devotion, which have remained fireside favourites of the French Protestant peasantry. MoIse Amyraut died Jan. 18, 1664.
See Edm. Saigey, Moses Amyraut, sa vie et ses ecrits (1849) ; Alex. Schweizer in Tub. theol. Jahrb., pp. 155 seq. 41 seq. (1852) ; Protest ant Central-Dogmen ii. 225 seq. (18S4) ; and in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; Bayle, s.v.; Biog. Univ., s.v.; John Quick's Synod. in Gall. Reform. pp. ; ibid. M.S. Icones Sacrae Gallicanae; Lije of Cameron.