Nicholas, born at Orleans in 1634, was much esteemed at the court of France, and... and appointed secretary of an embassy which that court sent to the commonwealth of Venice, as appears by the title of his Translation of Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent; but he afterwards published writings which gave such offence, that he was imprisoned in the Bastille. The first works he printed were the History of the Government of Venice, and that of the Ulcoks, a people of Croatia. In 1683 he published his translations into French of Machiavel's Prince, and Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, and Political Discourses of his own upon Tacitus. These performances were well received by the public. He did not prefix his own name to the two last-mentioned works, but concealed himself under that of La Mothe Joffeau. His translation of Father Paul was attacked by the partisans of the pope's unbounded power and authority. In France, however, it met with great success; all the advocates for the liberty of the Gallican church promoting the success of it to the utmost of their power, though at the same time there were three memorials presented to have it suppressed. When the second edition of this translation was published, it was violently attacked by the Abbé St Real, in a letter he wrote to Mr Bayle, dated October 17, 1685. Amelot defended himself in a letter to the same gentleman. In 1684, he printed, at Paris, a French translation of Baltasar Gracián's Oracula Manual, with the title of l'Homme de Cour. In 1686, he printed La Morale de Tacite de la Flatterie; in which work he collected several particular facts and maxims, which represent in a strong light the artifices of court flatterers, and the mischievous effect of their poisonous discourses. Frederick Leonard, a bookseller at Paris, having proposed, in the year 1692, to print a collection of all the treaties of peace between the kings of France and all the other princes of Europe, since the reign of Charles VII. to the year 1690, Amelot published a small volume in duodecimo, containing a preliminary discourse upon these treaties; wherein he endeavours to show, that most princes, when they enter into a treaty, think more how to evade than how to perform the terms they subscribe to. He published also an edition of Cardinal d'Ollat's letters in 1697, with several observations of his own; which, as he tells us in his advertisement, may serve as a supplement to the history of the reigns of Henry III. and Henry IV., kings of France. He wrote several other works; and died at Paris in 1706, at the age of 73. Amelot was at one time confined in the Bastille, probably on account of his political writings.

AMELOTTE Denis, a celebrated French writer, was born at Saintonge in 1606. He maintained a close correspondence with the fathers of the Oratory, a congregation of priests founded by Philip of Neri. He wrote the life of Charles de Gendron, second superior of this congregation, and published it at Paris in 1643. In this work he said something of the famous Abbot of St Cyran, which greatly displeased the gentlemen of Port Royal, who, out of revenge, published a libel against him, entitled Idée générale de l'esprit et de livre de P. Amelotte. He was so much provoked by this satire, that he did all in his power to injure them. They had finished a translation of the New Testament, and were desirous to have it published; for which purpose they endeavoured to procure an approbation from the doctors of the Sorbonne, and a privilege from the king. But Amelotte, by his influence with the chancellor, prevented them from succeeding. In this he had also a view to his own interest; for he was about to publish a translation of his own. Amelotte's translation with annotations, in 4 volumes octavo, was printed in the years 1666, 1667, and 1668. It is not very accurate, according to F. Simon, who tells us that it contains some very gross blunders. Amelotte wrote also an Abridgement of Divinity, a Catechism for the Jubilee, and a kind of Christian Manual for every day. Towards the end of his life, he entered into the congregation of the Oratory in 1650; and continued amongst them till his death, which happened in 1678.