Neefs, Petici:, called the Old, an eminent Flemish
painter ^vho mostly confined himself to the cultivation of ecclesiastical art, was born at Antwerp in 1570. He was a disciple of the elder Henry Steenwyck, whose manner he closely imitated. He painted views of churches and convents, especially interiors, preferring those in the Gothic style of architecture. He possessed a profound knowledge of perspective, and represented his subjects, with all their rich ornaments and every architectural member, with strict truth, and yet with- out betraying the appearance of anxious labor. Ev- ery object is marked with minute precision, and fin- ished with an exquisite touch and a light pencil. His bright, clear pictures, in which he avoided the darkish- brown coloring sometimes observable in the works of his master Steenwyck, are the most esteemed. Being an indifferent designer of figures, he often got F. Francks, Van Thulden, Velvet Breughel, or Teniers to paint the figures ; those of the two last greatly enhance the value of the pictures of Neefs. He died in 1651. His son, Peter Martin (called the Young), painted in the same style, and chose the same subjects as his father, but was by no means ccjual to him. See Spooner, Biog. Ilist. of the Fine Arts, ii, 612.
Neely, Piiiur P., a minister of the ]\Iethoilist Epis- copal Church, South, was born in IJutherford County, Teini., Sept. 9, 1819. He was converted in 1836, and in 1837 joined the Tennessee Conference, and was ap- pointed junior preacher on Jackson Circuit, West Ten- nessee. On the division of the conference he became a member of the Memphis Conference, and was stationed at Holly Springs, ^liss., in 1841. During the two years following he was stationed in Huntsville, Ala. : in 1844 was appointed president of the Columbia Female Col- lege; in 1846 travelled as agent of the Transylvania University. In 1848 he was transferred to the Alabama Conference, and labored in its boundaries until his death at Jlobile, Ala., Nov. 9, 1868. See Min. Ann. Conf. M. E. Church, South, p. 233.
Neemi'as CSeffjing v. r. 'Ntpovnl), the Grjecised form (Ecclus. xlix, 13; 2 Mace, i, 18, 20, 21, 23, 31, 36; ii, 13) of the name of Neiiemiah (q. v.).
Neercassel, Jan vax, an eminent Dutch prelate, W.1S horn at (Jorkum in 1623, and after a thorough edu- cation entered into holy orders. He j)ined the congre- gation of the Oratory, taught theology at ^Mechlin and at Cologne, then was nominated archdeacon of Utrecht, and finally, in 1661, was elevated to the bishopric of that city under the title of Bishop of Castoria. In ]6()3 he became the only bishop of the five hundred thousand Catholics scattered throughout Holland, and governed his vast diocese with such great solicitude that he suc- ceeded in re-establishing ecclesiastical discipline. Neer- cassel enjoyed the greatest consideration even among Protestants. He was in correspondence with eminent scholars and divines, among these Bossuet, who liighly esteemed Neercassel's writings. He died at Zwollo in 1686. Bishop Neercassel was in sympathy with the French Jansenists, and several of them, among others Dr. Arnauld himself, fomid in his episcopate a refuge. Neercassel himself remained in peace with lionie; but the successor he had pointed out was not chosen on account of the interference of the Jesuits, who feared that ]\I. van lleusscn might prove a schismatic, and finally Coddes, one of the three whom the Society of Jesus proposed to the papal see. was elevated. We have of Neercassel's works, /)e Satwtorum ct pracipne. B. Malice cultu (Utrecht. 1675, 8vo\ translated into French by abbe Le l.'oy (Paris, 1679, 8vo) -.—Traetatus de lectioue ScHplurarum. in quo Protestantium eas legendi praxis refellitur, Catholicorum rero stabilitiir (Emmer- ich, 1677, 8 vo), translated into French (Cologne, 1680, 8yQ):—Amor pairitrns, seu de recto vsu Clarium (Em- merich, 1683, 12mo) ; in a new edition, given the follow- ing year, the author suppressed the iiropositions which had displeased at Kome ; the ,4 mor pwnitens was trans- lated into French (I'trccht, 1741, 3 vols. 12mo). See
NEESING
9ir
NEGES
Dti Pin, Les A uteurs EccUsiastiques IT""' Cent. ; Hoefer, Nouv. Bio'j. Generale, s. v. ; Tresjelles, The Jansenists (Lond. 186'l, 12mo), p. 54, 55. (J. H. W.)
Neesing (an obsolete word for sneezing) is found only in Job xli, 10, as a rendering of rtdilJ?, atishah' (which occurs only there), from an otherwise unused root signifying to sneeze (q. v.).
Nefasti, Dies, i. e. unlawful days, a term among the ancient Romans for those days on which neither courts of justice nor the assemblies of people could be held ; afterwards they were dedicated chiefly to the worship of the gods. Numa Pompilius is said to have been the originator of the dies nefasti.
Ueff, Felix, a philanthropic Swiss Protestant divine, was born in 1798 at a small village near Geneva. While yet a youth he enlisted as a soldier in the Genevcse service, where his excellent conduct and superior quali- fications soon procured him advancement. But he be- came obnoxious to his brother-officers by the unbending principles and the high-toned purity of his life, the re- sult of the careful teachings of his widowed and pious mother. He was advised to leave the army for the pulpit, and finally resolving to follow this advice, be re- signed his commission in 1819. He now offered himself for the work of a catechist or parish missionary, and labored for two years in that capacity in several of the Swiss cantons, and afterwards for six months at Greno- ble. But when he desired to be ordained, he found that religious scruples prevented his connecting himself with the Established Church of Geneva, while from his be- ing a foreigner he could not hope to receive ordination through the Protestant Church of France. He was therefore advised to repair to England, where he was ordained, May 19, 1823, in Mr. Clayton's chapel in the Poultry ; and a few days afterwarcls left London to re- turn to the scene of his former labors at Mens. How- ever gratifying his reception among that attached peo- ple, his benevolent mind fixed on another place, in a wild and sequestered portion of the High Alps, as more nrgently in need of his services. The consistory of the Protestant churches permitting, he entered on his pas- toral charge in 1824. Thus this devoted minister, who might have enjoyed comfort and leisure^n the beautiful and fertile vales of Languedoc, chose to settle in a poor and wildly extending Alpine district, comprising not less than seventeen isolated villages within a circuit of eighty miles. There was one part of his parish, the Val Fressiniere, where the inhabitants were so low so- cially, as w-ell as uncivilized in the most common arts of life, as to be scarcely removed in many respects above the condition of barbarism. Noif perceived that his first step must be to supply the want of education, and, unable to pay a teacher, he joined the duties of a schoolmaster to those he already bore. Having at length succeeded in interesting the people in his eftbrts, he induced them to build a school-house, he directing the workmen, and acting at once as architect and mason. But such excessive labor exhausted his constitution, and he died April 12, 1829, leaving a name entitled to be ranked among the best benefactors of his fellow -creat- ures. See Gilly, Memoirs of Neff, and of his Labors among the French Protestants of Dauphine, a Remnant of the Primitive Christians of Gaul (Lond. 1832, 8vo) ; Bost, Life of Felix AV/7"(Lond. 1855) ; Jamieson, Cyclop. ofRelig. Biog. p. 349 • Darling, Cyclop. Bihliog. ii, 2166 ; The London Quarterly Review, April, 1833. (J. N. P.)