Gnostic Representation of a Dog-headed Figure.
basaltic gem in the collection of viscount Strangford. It is still more to the point to observe that on one of the slabs found at Khorsabad and represented by Botta (pi. 141), we have the front of a temple depicted with an animal near the entrance, which can be notliing else than a bitch suckling a puppy, the head of the animal
NIBLOCK
44
KIC^AN COUNCILS
having, however, disappeared. The worship of idols representint; the huiiian Ixidy siirmoiiiited by tlie head of an animal (as in the well-known case of Nisroch) was common among the Assyrians (see also Kawlinson, A nc. Monarchieg, i, 294; Thevenot, Itin. i, 305; La Roque, p, 227 ; Paul Lucas, Ilin. in A sia Min. etc., p. 252). In the Sabian books the corresponding name is that of an evil dtemon, who sits on a throne upon tlie earth, while his feet rest on the bottom of Tartarus ; but it is doubt- ful whether this should be identified with the Avite Nibhaz (Geseu. T^/zMai/r. p. 842; Iken, Dissert, de Idola Nibchuz, in his Dissertations, i, 15G sq. ; Norberg, Ono- mast. Cod. Nasar, p. 99; Beyer, Add. to Selden's Dii Syr. p. 321).
Niblock, Isaiah, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in ]\Ionaghan County, Ireland, in 1794. He studied divinity under the care of John Dick, D.D., pro- fessor of theology in the United Secession Church in Glasgow, Scotland, and was licensed to preach in 1817. He came to America in 1818, and commenced imme- diately to preach in Philadelphia. In December of the same year he was induced to go west of the Alleghany mountains, where he received appointments to supply the vacancies northwest of the Alleghany Kiver for three months. On April 23, 1819, he was called by the united congregations of Butler and White Oak Springs, over which he was ordained antl installed, by the Mononga- hela Associate Reformed Presbytery, in jNIay of the same year. His ministry in Butler County lasted for over forty-five years, during wliich time manj^ colonies branched off from the field of his labors, whose influence has been felt extensively in building up flourishing con- gregations in the great West. He died June 29, 1864. Dr. Niblock was a minister of modest disposition and retiring habits. He was an able and faithful expositor of the Scriptures. His life was one of self-denial and arduous labor. See AVilson, Presh. Hist. Almanac, 1866, p, 277. (J. L. S.)
Nib'.shan (Heb. Nibshan', "d?? [but with the def. article], lifjht soil [Gesen.] ox fortress [FUrst]; Sept. Nf/iirdr v. r. N«(^Xn^wj'), a city in the wilderness of Judah, mentioned between Secacah and the "City of Salt" (.Tosh. XV, 62). It is barely mentioned by Eusebins and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Nephram). It is possibly the ruined site marked on Van de Velde's Ma}) as Kasi el-Zeiman on Wady Hasaseh, which runs up from the Dead Sea not far N. of Ain-Jidy.
Niccea. See Nic.ean Counxils.
Nicaean Councils {Concilium Nicwmim). Im- portant ecclesiastical assemblies Avere held at Nica?a or Nice, formerly a city of Bithynia, in Asia jMinor, sit- uated on the eastern shore of Lake Ascania. It was built, or rather rebuilt (for an older town had existed on its site), by Antigonus, the son of Philip (B.C. 316), and received the name of Antigonea, which Lysima- chus changed to Niciea, in honor of his wife. It was a handsome town, and of great importance in the time of the Roman and Byzantine emperors; all the streets crossed each other at right angles, and from a mag- nificent monument in the centre the four gates of the city were visible. It was the second city of Bithynia, only twenty Lnglish miles from the imperial residence of Nicomcdca, and easily accessible by sea and land from all parts of the empire. It became of such im- portance that it even disputed with Nicomedea the title of metropolis of Bithynia. Under the Byzantine emperors it was long a bulwark .-igainst the Arabs and Seljuks, the latter of wlmm contpiered it about 1080. Before the end (if the ('eiuury it was taken from tliem by the soldiers of the first crusade, but was restored at the next treaty of peace. In 1204, (Constantinople hav- ing become the scat of a Latin empire, Theodore Las- caris made Nicrea the capital of a Greek kingdom or empire in Western Asia, comprehending Bithynia. iMy- sia, Ionia, and a part of Lydia. He was succeeded by
John Ducas A'atatzer (1222-55), Theodore II (1255-59), John Lascaris (1259), and ^Michael Paheologus, who in 1201 transferred the seat of power to Constantinople. In 1330 the city surrendered to Orklian, and was in- corporated with the recently founded Ottoman capital, Nictea is now a miserable Turkish village, Is-nik (cor- rupted from E('f Nifcnia)'), of only some 1500 inhabi- tants, and there remains nothing but a rude picture in the solitary church of St. Mary to the mcmorj' of tho event which has given the place a name in the history of the world.
I. Two Church councils have been held at Nicsea, but only one of these was properly cecumenical, and it is regarded as the first and inost important of such coun- cils. " Next to the apostolic council at Jerusalem," says Schaff, " it is the most important and the most il- lustrious of all the councils of Christendom" (Ch. Hist. iii, 630). It was convened by the emperor Constantino in A.D. 325. With the imperial invitation for attend- ance the different bishops were proffered the service of public conveyances for themselves and two presbyters and three servants; and when the 318 bishops who had complied with the emperor's request gathered at Niciea, the emperor himself opened the council on June 19 in his own palace, and its use for future sessions was af- forded to the ecclesiastical gathering, as it appears from the records that the sessions, continuing for two months, were held sometimes at the palace and sometimes at a church or some public building. The empire, at tlie time of the call of the councU, had in all about 1800 bishops (1000 for the Greek provinces, 800 for the Latin), and of these, if 318 attended, as reported by Athanasius {Ad Afros, c. 2, et al.), Socrates {Hist. Eccles. bk. viii), and Theodoret {Hist. L'cclcs. i, 7), there were one sixth of the episcopal sees represented at Nicaia — a large number, indeed, if we take into con- sideration the vastness of the imperial realm and the difficidties of travel in those times. Including the pres- byters and deacons and other attendants, the number may have amounted in all to between 1500 and 2000. Most of the Eastern provinces were strongh' represent- ed. Besides a great number of obscure mediocrities, there were several distinguished and venerable men, as e.g. Eusebius of Ciesarea, who was most eminent for learning; the young archdeacon Athanasius, who ac- companied the bishop Alexander of Alexandria, for zeal, intellect, and eloquence. Some, as confessors, still bore in their body the marks of Christ from the times of persecution : Paphnutius of the Upper Thebaid, Pot- amon of Heraklea, whose right eye had been put out, and Paul of Neo-Ca\sarea, who had been tortured with red-hot iron under Licinius, and was crippled in both his hands. Others were distinguished for extraordinary ascetic holiness, and even for miraculous works; like Jacob of Nisibis, who had spent years as a hermit in forests and caves, and lived like a wild beast on roots and leaves, and Spyridion (or St. Spiro) of Cyprus, the patron of the Ionian Isles, who even after his ordina- tion remained a simple shepherd. The Latin Church, on the contrary, had onh' seven delegates : from Spain, Hosius or Osius of Cordova, the ablest and most in- fluential of the Western representatives; from France, Nicasius of Dijon; from North Africa. Ca'cilian of Carthage; from Pannonia, Donnnis of Strido; from Italy, Eustorgius of Milan and Marcus of Calabria; from Rome, the two presbyters Victor or Vitus and Vincentins, .as delegates of the aged pope Sylvester I, who found it impossible to attend in person. A Persian bishop, John, also, and a Gothic bishop, Theophilus, the foreruinier and teacher of the Gothic Bible translator L'llilas, were present.