AMBLIMONT, Fuschemberg, Count d', a French officer of marine, and a writer on naval tactics, who, having joined the Spanish service, was killed in the battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797.
AMBLY, Claude Jean Antoine, Marquis d', a field-marshal and commander of the order of St. Louis under Louis XV. He was a member of the States-General in 1789, and distinguished himself by his vehement opposition to the revolutionary party. He emigrated, and died at Hamburg in 1797.
AMBODIK, Nestor-Maximovitsch, a Russian physician, was born in 1740 at Veprik, a village in the government of Pultowa, and died in 1812. He studied at the university of Kiev, and afterwards at the military hospital of St. Petersburg, and took the degree of doctor of medicine at Strasbourg in 1776. He became an eminent physician and accoucheur in St. Petersburg, and at the same time devoted attention to botany. Besides medical works, he published "Elements of Botany," and a "Botanical Dictionary."—J. H. B.
AMBOISE, the name of a noble French family which belonged originally to the town of Amboise on the Loire, and produced a number of distinguished men, most of whom were sons of Pierre d'Amboise, lord of Chaumont, chamberlain to Charles VII. and Louis XI. The most remarkable was:—
Amboise, George d', archbishop and cardinal, the celebrated prime minister of Louis XII., born in the year 1460. His preferments in the church began very early, for he was only fourteen when he was made bishop of Montauban; but somewhat later he received a temporary check, when, having engaged himself in a plot formed by the duke of Orleans (whose confidential friend he had become), to remove the young king, Charles VIII., from under the tutelage of Anne of Beaujeu, the affair was discovered, and D'Amboise, after being kept in confinement for upwards of two years, was "banished" to his diocese of Montauban. Better days dawned upon him when his friend the duke was restored to court favour, and in 1493 he became archbishop of Rouen and lieutenant-general of Normandy, in which last office he showed signal administrative capacity. A wider field, however, for the development of his talents as a statesman, and his excellent qualities as a man, was soon to be laid open to him. In 1498 Charles VIII. died, and the duke of Orleans acceding to the throne with the title of Louis XII., his friend D'Amboise rose into the position of prime minister of France. The archbishop of Rouen did not now belie those indications of high character which he had already given. The fiscal burdens of the nation were very greatly and, for that reign at least, permanently diminished. The licence of the soldiery was checked, and a state of admirable discipline established throughout the army. Most important of all, the courts of law were purified, and energetic and judicious measures taken to make justice as accessible to the poor as to the rich and influential. The religious orders, too, had to submit to a process of reform which D'Amboise, armed with formidable powers as pope's legate for France, imposed upon them. His foreign policy, meanwhile, was perhaps open to more objection; at least, if it was intended to be beneficial to France and Louis, it was hardly marked by a very scrupulous regard for the rights of other nations and princes. He was the right hand of Louis on his expedition to Italy, when the duchy of Milan and other parts of the north of that country fell into the hands of the French; and it was D'Amboise who, on the Milanese subsequently again placing themselves under their old duke, Sforza, once more reduced them to obedience to France.
When, in 1498, he had negotiated with Pope Alexander VI. the divorce of Louis XII. from Jeanne de France, the unhappy daughter of Louis XI., as a step to his marriage with the widow of Charles VIII., the pope had rewarded the important stipulations granted in favour of Cæsar Borgia, by making the prime minister of Louis a cardinal; and on the death of Alexander, D'Amboise was only prevented from becoming pope by the adroitness of Cardinal Julian de Rovere, afterwards Julius II. The cardinal of Amboise was only fifty when he died in the convent of the Celestines at Lyons (1510). It was while lying here on his deathbed, his thoughts dwelling sadly on the evil that had mixed with the good of his busy life, that he exclaimed to the good friar who waited on him: "Brother John! Why have I not all my life been brother John?"
AMBOISE. Three Frenchmen of note bear this name, unconnected with the above family. These are:—
Amboise, Adrien d', son of Jean d'Amboise, surgeon to Charles IX.; was rector of the university of Paris, and afterwards bishop of Treguier. Died 1616.
Amboise, François d', his brother, became a distinguished lawyer in the time of Henry III., who showed him much favour. He wrote a number of works, mostly of a light and facetious nature. Born 1550; died 1620.
Amboise, Jacques d', another brother, was originally a surgeon, but afterwards obtained the degree of doctor of medicine. He became rector of the university of Paris in 1594, and distinguished himself by the energy of his opposition to the jesuits. Died in 1606.—A. M.
AMBOISE, Michael d', surnamed L'Esclave Fortuné, natural son of Charles Chaumont d'Amboise, born at Naples early in the sixteenth century; author of a number of amatory effusions, and translations from the Italian into French.
AMBRA, Francesco d', a Florentine, author of three excellent comedies, "Il Furto," "La Cofanaria," and "J. Bernardi." Died at Rome in 1558.
AMBROGI, Antonio Maria, an Italian jesuit of Florence, born in 1713, died at Rome in 1788. He was professor in the Collegio Romano, and author of numerous translations from the Latin and French.
AMBROGI, Domenico, a Bolognese painter of the 17th century, who studied under Francesco Brizio, whence he came to be called Menichino (familiar form of Domenico) del Brizio. He executed landscapes and architectural pieces.
AMBROGIO, Giovanni, was an artist engaged in decorating the cathedral of Florence (the Santa Maria del Fiore) in 1384. The façade with which his designs were connected has been long destroyed.
AMBROGIO or AMBROSIO, Teseo. See Ambrose, Theseus.
AMBROGIO DA FOSSANO, an Italian painter and architect of the beginning of the sixteenth century. His masterpiece is the celebrated façade of the Certosa, near Pavia. As a painter he followed the school of Mantegna.—R. M.
AMBROISE, Ausbert, Autpert, or Ansbert, an ecclesiastic of the age of Charlemagne, wrote a "Commentarius in Apocalypsin," Cologne, 1536; and other theological works.
AMBROISE DE LOMBEZ, Father, a Capuchin, author of a "Traité de la paixé intérieure." Born at Lombez in 1708; died 1778.
AMBROSE, Saint, was born a.d. 340 in Gaul, of which his father was prætorian prefect, and probably in the town of Trier or Treves, then called Augusta Trevinorum, the principal town in the prefecture. His future greatness is said to have been indicated by a circumstance which occurred in his infancy. The story is told of him, as of Plato, that while he was sleeping in his cradle, a swarm of bees settled on his lips without inflicting any injury. He received the advantage of education at Rome, and studied as an advocate under Anicius Probus and Symmachus, and then proceeded to Milan for the purpose of following the legal profession. There he gained considerable distinction by pleading causes, until he was appointed consular prefect of Liguria, the province in which Milan was situated.
The manner in which he acquitted himself in this office, was such as to give general satisfaction to the emperor and the people, when an event occurred which changed the whole course of his life. On the death of Auxentius, archbishop of Milan, the church was gathered together to elect a successor. The contention between the opposing parties was so strong, that Ambrose deemed it necessary to attend to preserve the public peace. A scene of strife and confusion ensued, in which all parties seemed to forget the important business upon which they were assembled. Ambrose, supported by the authority of his office and vigorous eloquence, commanded a hearing; in the midst of his address, in which, like the town-clerk at Ephesus, he entreated them to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly, he was saluted with the general cry, "Ambrose is bishop." The call made upon him to assume the episcopal office was so urgent, that he could not refuse to accede to the unanimous wish of the people. The methods, however, which he took to divert them from their purpose, and to impress them with an idea of his unfitness for this dignity, were strange indeed, and such as betray the singularly unhealthy tone of his mind, as well as the morbid feelings of the age. He affected the character of harshness, by inflicting undue severity on malefactors; he courted a reputation
