AMBROSIASTER 406 AMELIA 1868. He lield that the mission of the Oblates was to revive the EngUsh secular clergy by taking part in its life and in its labours, and thus setting them an example. Their community life helps them to sanctify themselves by the practices of an approved rule; they devote themselves to ecclesiastical studies, but more especially to ascetical and mystical theology, which enables them to give pious souls an enlightened guidance; they undertake all the tasks entrusted to them by the archbishop, whose mis- sionaries they are, and to whom they owe complete obedience. . ,., . (I) Tli-LEMONT. Mcmoires pour servir A Vhist. eccUsiast. des six premiers sierles. X. 102-109, 229-231; B.M'nard, Hisloire de Saint Ambroiae (Paris, 1872), 149-192, 513-519; (II) Heltot, Hisl. des ordres rehg. et milit. (Pans, 1792), IV 56-68' HElMnucHER, Die Orden und Kongregat. der KatholUch. Kirehe (Paderborn, 1896), 488, 489, 510, 511; Cesar Tettamentios, EcctesicB el Parthenonia Beatm Mance de Monte suprn Varesium plena hislnria et descriplia (Milan, 1655); (III) Barth. Rossi, De origine et proqressu rongrC' galioriis Oblatorwn Sanctorum Ambrosii et Caroli (Milan, 1734); Acla Ecclesice mediolanensis a Carolo ejriscopo condita (Milan, 1549), S26 seq.; Sancli Caroli Borrommi homilioe, I 286-296- IV, 271-281; Sylvain, Hisloire de Saint Charles Borromee (Lille. 1884), III, 79-106; Helyot, ut supr., VIII, 29-37- HEiMBLirnER, itt supr., II, 336-338. (IV) Badnard, Hisloire du Cardinal Pie (Paris. 1886), I, 432 sq.; see, also, the various biographies of Cardinals Wiseman and Manning; The Religious Houses of the United Kingdom (London, 1887); C&nstiiutiones Conitregationis Anglicance Oblatorum Sancti Caroli (London, 1877). J. M. Besse. Ambrosi aster, the name given to the author of a commentary on all the Epistles of St. Paul, with the exception of that to the Hebrews. It is usually pviblished among the ^■orks of St. Ambrose (P. L., XVH. 4.5-508). Before each Epistle and its inter- pretation a short prologue is found which sets forth purpose and context. In the commentaries the text is given by sections; and for each portion a natural and logical explanation is furnished. All in all the com- mentary is an excellent work. Some modern scholars believe it the best that was written before the sixteenth century. Its teaching is entirely orthodox, with, perhaps, the sole exception of the author's belief in the millennium. The Latin text of the Pauline Epistles differs considerably from the Vulgate. According to all appearances it was taken from the version known as the "Itala". Ref- erence to the Greek text is rarely found; in fact the writer seems to be ignorant of the Greek language. The author hardly ever seeks a hidden or mystic sense in the text; hence it becomes evident how widely the commentary differs in character from the exegetical works of St. Ambrose. In his interpreta- tions of Scriptural works St. Ambrose is not much given to research into the natural and literal meaning. Generally he is in quest of a higher allegoric or mystic sense. And although he distinguishes between the literal and the higher signification, still it is the latter principally that he tries to bring out. Not so with Ambrosiaster. The natural and logical sense is the only object the writer has in view. As to the time when the commentary was written, there are many indications which point to the latter part of the fourth century. Of the heresies or sects referred to, none antedates that period. The persecution of the Emperor Julian (301-36.3) is spoken of as a recent occurrence. Finally Pope Damasus (366-384) is mentioned as actually presiding (hodie) over the destinies of the Church. It is quite likely that the writer lived in Rome; his reference to the primacy of St. Peter and the power wielded by Pope Damasus would suggest the idea. The identification of the writer however is not so easy. During the Middle Ages the commentary was commonly ascribed to St. Ambrose. The first doubts as to his authorship were raiserl by Eriismus in the sixteenth century; Bince that iJeriod the author has been known as Ambrosiaster (Pseudo-Ambrosius). Scholars have suggested a great variety of names. St. Augustine, in quoting a passage from the commentary, attributes it to St. Hilary; hence some writers believed that either St. Hilaiy of Poitiers, or St. Hilary of Pavia, or the schismatic deacon Hilary of Rome was meant. Others sought the writer in St. Remigius, in the Pelagian Bishop Julian of ^clanum, in the African writer Tyconius, in the schismatic priest Faustinus of Rome, or in the converted Jew Isaac of Rome. Most of these views are mere conjectures, or directly opposed to the facts known about the writer. The more recent opinion is that the author of the com- mentaries is also the author of the pseudo-Augustinian "Qua>stiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti ". Accord- ing to a suggestion made by Dom Germain Morin, O.S.B., and adopted by A. Souter, the author of these commentaries was a distinguished layman of consular rank, by the name of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius. Souter, .4 Shidy of Ambrosiaster (Cambridge University Press, 1905); Bardenhewer, Patroloqie (Freiburg, 1901), 382, 387; Nirschl, Patrologie (Mainz, 1883), II. Francis J. Schaefer. Ambrosius-ad-nemus. See Ambrosi.j<s. Ambulatory, a cloister, gallery, or alley; a shel- tered place, straight or circular, for exercise in walking; the aisle that makes the circuit of the apse of a church. The central eastern apse of a church was often en- circled by a semicircular ai-sle, called the ambulatory. Of these ambulatories there are three species: (I) the ambulatory with tangential chapels; (2) the ambula- tory without chapels; (3) variants of the above. By far the most common type is that in which the chapels radiate to the north-east, east and south-east. An ambulatory without radiating chapels is so rare in Romanesque work that supposed examples should be regarded as doubtful. Sometimes there is a rec- tangular ambulatory, as in the Romsey eastern chapel. Ambulatories are constructed either on the inside or outside of a building, or in a public thorough- fare wholly or partially under cover, or entirely open to the sky, and are used only to walk in. The term is sometimes applied to' a covered way round a build- ing, such as the space between the columns and cella of a peripteral temple, or around an open space as the cloisters of a monastic church, as the Campo Santo at Pisa, or the atrium of an ancient ba.silica, e. g. that of St. Ambrose at Milan. The term can be used as an equivalent of either cloister or atrium. Longfellow, A Cyclopedia of Works of Architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant (New York, 1895); Gwilt, En- cyclopedia of Architecture (London, 1881); Bond, Gothic Architecture in England (London, 1905). Thomas H. Poole. Amelia, The Diocese of, comprises seven towns in the province of Perugia, Italy, and is under the im- mediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. The Christian origin of this Umbrian mountain town is w-rappod in mystery. The Bishopric of Amelia appears on the pages of liistory relatively late. Ughelli mentions an Orthodolphus, Bishop, about the year 344. He mentions also Stephen, of whom there is no trace in liistory. Flavius, Bishop of Amelia, seems to have been present at a synod held at Rome, 14 November, 465, by Pope Hilary. Ughelli goes on to enumerate Tiburtius, Martinianus, and then a Sallustino iircsont at a synod held in 502 under Pope Synunacluis. Still further according to Tghelli, in the fifth century there was a Bishop of Amelia by name Sincerus. The BoUandists, however, show that the date of his episcopate is uncertain; there is question even of his very existence (June, III, 17). A Bishop of Amelia appears in 649 at the pro^^ncial synod held by Pope Martin at the Lateran. The city of Amelia had great political importance during the eighth century, when between the opposition of the iconocl.-ist Byzantine emperors and the conquering Lombard
