LAMY Or LAMI (BERNARD), a learned Roman Catholic divine, born at Mans in 1640, commenced his education at the college of his native place, and completed it under the Fathers of the Oratory in Paris. He speedily gained a considerable reputa tion, and became successively Professor of Seller lettres at VendOme and juilly, and of philosophy at Saumur and Angers. In the latter city Lamy's zealous advocacy of the Cartesian philosophy raised most violent opposition from the Thomists, who were then. in the ascendency, and who procured an arret du conseil,' condemnatory of his teaching (August 6,1673), and prohibitinghim from exercising any ecclesiastical or educational function in France. Abandoned by the superiors of the Oratory, who weakly yielded to the storm, Lamy retreated first to St. Martin in Dauphigny, and then to Grenoble, where he found an enlightened protector in the bishop, Cardinal de Camus, by whose influence, at the end of eight months, his sentence was par tially revoked, and Ile was permitted to preach theology in that city. In 1686 he was recalled to Paris, where Ile passed a tranquil life, until the con troversy with Ai. de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, caused by the publication of his Harmony, forced him to retire to Rouen, where he spent the re mainder of lais life in study and devotion. He died January 29, 1713. Lamy lived an ascetic life, and was as remarkable for his piety as for his ex tensive learning, nor did the controversies in which he engaged impair the gentleness and humility of his character. His range of knowledge was very wide, as his printed works, embracing rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, mechanics, perspective, etc., testify, and his contributions to theology, in spite of defective arrangement and some ill-founded theories, long sustained a well-deserved reputation.
The following are the principal :—(t.) Apparatus Biblia smra, Grenoble 16S7, originally no more than tables of the chief facts of Scripture, with rules for its study, compiled for his pupils at Grenoble ; published in a much enlarged form at Lyons in 1696, nnder the title Apparatus Biblicus. This, which in its day was perhaps the best introduc tion ' to the Bible extant, was more than once trans lated, into French (by Bellegarde, and by Boyer, at the request of the Bishop of Chalons, Lyons 1699) and English (London I72S). (2.) Demonstration de la veriti et a'e la saintet,i de la morale C./wet/vine, Paris 16SS, ed. 2, 1706-1711, an answer to the sceptical objectors of the day. (3.) Harmonia quatnor Evangelistarnm, Paris 1689, a work which gave rise to much controversy, and many objec tions, to which he replied in (4) Commentarins in Harmoniam, to which. \vas aimexed, Apparatus Chronol. et Geograph., Paris 1699, a work more generally esteemed than the Harmony itself. The theories which provoked the most vehement oppo sition, and finally drove Lamy from Paris, were (a) that our Lord did not celebrate the Jewish Passover with his disciples (now generally accepted by the soundest scholars) ; (b) that John the Baptist was imprisoned twice ; by the Sanhedrim and by Herod ; and (c) that the three Marys mentioned in the Gos pels are identical. Lamy's last work, De Taber macula feeder's, de Saud. civitat. 7erus. et de temple ejus, Paris I72o, to which he had devoted more than thirty years of assiduous labour and research, and for which he had had illustrations prepared by the most skilful artists, did not appear till after his death, under the editorship of Pere Desmolins.— E. V.