Lambert’s most important work, Pyrometrie (Berlin, 1779), is a systematic treatise on heat, containing the records and full discussion of many of his own experiments. Worthy of special notice also are Photometria (Augsburg, 1760), Insigniores orbitae cometarum proprietates (Augsburg, 1761), and Beiträge zum Gebrauche der Mathematik und deren Anwendung (4 vols., Berlin, 1765-1772).
The Memoirs of the Berlin Academy from 1761 to 1784 contain many of his papers, which treat of such subjects as resistance of fluids, magnetism, comets, probabilities, the problem of three bodies, meteorology, &c. In the Acta Helvetica (1752-1760) and in the Nova acta erudita (1763-1769) several of his contributions appear. In Bode’s Jahrbuch (1776-1780) he discusses nutation, aberration of light, Saturn’s rings and comets; in the Nova acta Helvetica (1787) he has a long paper “Sur le son des corps élastiques,” in Bernoulli and Hindenburg’s Magazin (1787-1788) he treats of the roots of equation and of parallel lines; and in Hindenburg’s Archiv (1798-1799) he writes on optics and perspective. Many of these pieces were published posthumously. Recognized as among the first mathematicians of his day, he was also widely known for the universality and depth of his philological and philosophical knowledge. The most valuable of his logical and philosophical memoirs were published collectively in 2 vols. (1782).
See Huber’s Lambert nach seinem Leben und Wirken; M. Chasles, Geschichte der Geometrie; and Baensch, Lamberts Philosophie und seine Stellung zu Kant (1902).
LAMBERT [alias Nicholson], JOHN (d. 1538), English Protestant martyr, was born at Norwich and educated at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. and was admitted in 1521 a fellow of Queen’s College on the nomination of Catherine of Aragon. After acting for some years as a “mass-priest,” his views were unsettled by the arguments of Bilney and Arthur; and episcopal persecution compelled him, according to his own account, to assume the name Lambert instead of Nicholson. He likewise removed to Antwerp, where he became chaplain to the English factory, and formed a friendship with Frith and Tyndale. Returning to England in 1531, he came under the notice of Archbishop Warham, who questioned him closely on his religious beliefs. Warham’s death in August 1532 relieved Lambert from immediate danger, and he earned a living for some years by teaching Latin and Greek near the Stocks Market in London. The duke of Norfolk and other reactionaries accused him of heresy in 1536, but reforming tendencies were still in the ascendant, and Lambert escaped. In 1538, however, the reaction had begun, and Lambert was its first victim. He singled himself out for persecution by denying the Real Presence: and Henry VIII., who had just rejected the Lutheran proposals for a theological union, was in no mood to tolerate worse heresies. Lambert had challenged some views expressed by Dr John Taylor, afterwards bishop of Lincoln; and Cranmer as archbishop condemned Lambert’s opinions. He appealed to the king as supreme head of the Church, and on the 16th of November Henry heard the case in person before a large assembly of spiritual and temporal peers. For five hours Lambert disputed with the king and ten bishops; and then, as he boldly denied that the Eucharist was the body of Christ, he was condemned to death by Cromwell as vicegerent. Henry’s condescension and patience produced a great impression on his Catholic subjects; but Cromwell is said by Foxe to have asked Lambert’s pardon before his execution, and Cranmer eventually adopted the views he condemned in Lambert. Lambert was burnt at Smithfield on the 22nd of November.
See Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; Foxe’s Acts and Monuments; Froude, History; Dixon, Church History; Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation, Dict. of Nat. Biog. and authorities there cited.
(A. F. P.)
LAMBERT, JOHN (1619-1694), English general in the Great Rebellion, was born at Calton Hall, Kirkby Malham, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His family was of ancient lineage, and long settled in the county. He studied law, but did not make it his profession. In 1639 he married Frances, daughter of Sir William Lister. At the opening of the Civil War he took up arms for the parliament, and in September 1642 was appointed a captain of horse in the army commanded by Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax. A year later he had become colonel of a regiment of horse, and he distinguished himself at the siege of Hull in October, 1643. Early in 1644 he did good service at the battles of Nantwich and Bradford. At Marston Moor Lambert’s own regiment was routed by the charge of Goring’s horse; but he cut his way through with a few troops and joined Cromwell on the other side of the field. When the New Model army was formed in the beginning of 1645, Colonel Lambert was appointed to succeed Fairfax in command of the northern forces. General Poyntz, however, soon replaced him, and under this officer he served in the Yorkshire campaign of 1645, receiving a wound before Pontefract. In 1646 he was given a regiment in the New Model, serving with Fairfax in the west of England, and he was a commissioner, with Cromwell and others, for the surrender of Oxford in the same year. “It is evident,” says C. H. Firth (Dict. Nat. Biog.), “that he was from the first regarded as an officer of exceptional capacity and specially selected for semi-political employments.”