AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE, Abraham Nicolas, historian and publicist, was born at Orleans in February 1634, and died at Paris 8th December 1706. Little is known of his personal history beyond the fact that he was secretary to an embassy from the French court to the republic of Venice. At a later period he was imprisoned in the Bastile by order of Louis XIV. In 1676 he published at Amsterdam his Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, in three volumes. Under the assumed name of De la Mothe Josseval, he published in 1683 a translation of Fra Paolo Sarpi’s History of the Council of Trent. This work, and especially certain notes added by the translator, gave great offence to the advocates of the unlimited authority of the pope, and three separate memorials were presented to have it repressed. Amelot also published translations of Machiavel’s Prince, and of the Annals of Tacitus, besides several other works.

AMELOTTE, Denis, a French ecclesiastic and author, was born at Saintes in Saintonge in 1606, and died October 7, 1678. Soon after receiving priest’s orders he became a member of the congregation of the oratory of St Philip Neri. In 1643 he published a Life of Charles de Goudren, second superior of the congregation, which by some of its remarks on the famous abbot of St Cyran, gave great offence to the Port Royalists. Another work, containing a vehement attack on the doctrines of the Jansenists, still further embittered the feelings of the party towards him, and elicited from Nicole a severely satirical reply entitled Idée Générale de l'Esprit et du Livre du P. Amelotte. Amelotte in revenge availed himself of his influence with the chancellor to prevent the publication of the newly - completed Port Royalist translation of the New Testament, which had therefore to be issued at Mons in Flanders. He thus secured a free field for a translation of his own with annotations, which appeared in 4 vols. octavo in 1666-8. The dedication to the archbishop of Paris contained another abusive denunciation of the Jansenists.