NICEPHORUS
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NICEPHORUS
Aix (809) whether the Spanish and French churches were right in adding the Filioque clause in tliis creed, and it was referred by Charlemagne to pope Leo, who allowed the creed to be sung, but without the addition; and Walafrid Strabo says that the creed was chanted in France and Germany after the condemnation of the Fe- lician heresy in Gaul. Leo the Great, however, in con- sequence of the opposition of the patriarch of Aquilea and Photius, at length authorized the use of the clause, and used it in letters to the bishop of Astorga and the monks of Mount Olivet. Charlemagne decreed that the interpolation was to be used ; the Council of Toledo (447 and 580) adopted it ; and it was inserted by the Catholic Visigoths and Franks. In G80 arclibishop Theodore and an English council accepted the clause. Pope Ben- edict in 1024, at the request of the emperor, required the creed to be chanted in Italy. It is the custom for the priest alone to intone the words, " I believe in one God.'' The Nicene Creed was only received into the "Ordo Eomanus" by pope Benedict A^III in A.D. 1014. The reason assigned for this long delay is the strict orthodoxy of the AVestern Church ; this making un- necessary a decided expression against Arianism. Its position in the liturgy varies in the different rituals. In the Koman liturgy it is read on all Sundays, feasts of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, apostles' days, and all the principal festivals, but not on week-daj's or the minor saints' days, when the Apostles' Creed is used. In the English Prayer-book, the Nicene Creed occurs only in the Communion office ; but in the American revision it has been placed with the Apostles' Creed, iu the order of Morning and Evening Prayer, the minister having liberty to use either of them in the ordinarj' services, and also in the administration of the Communion, when necessary. See, besides the literature in the article Ckeei), Harvey, Hist, and Theology of the Three Creeds ; Schaff, Ch. Hist, iii, 129 sq. ; Liddon, Divinity of Christ, p. 18, 200, 256, 359, 410, 432, 434 sq., 473 ; Burnet, Ex- amination of the Thirty-nine Articles, p. 135 sq. ; Blunt, Diet, of Theology, s. v. ; Biblical Repository, v, 280 ; Church Rev. Oct. 1870, p. 383 ; Meth. Qit. Rev. Jan. 1875, p. 136. (J.H.W.)
Nicephorus Bi.emmidas or Blemjiydas, a noted Greek ascetical writer, flourished in the 13th century. According to a recent Russian bibliographer, Nicepho- rus was born at Constantinople in 1198. He was of a noble and wealthy family; but, converted to Christian- ity, he decided fur a life of devotion, and after taking holy orders fell into extreme asceticism. The wealth which came to him from his friends he spent for the good of the Christian cause. At Nictea he built a church at his own expense, and served it as presbj-ter. Univer- sally esteemed for his Christian life, lie yet suffered many trials and disappointments. From imperial friends he encountered opposition for his censures on concubinage. Under the emperor Theodore Lascaris, the successor of the licentious Ducas, Nicephorus was more favored, and on the death of patriarch Germanus, in 1255, was offered his place. Nicephorus, however, declined the honor. In the religious disputes between the Greeks and the Latins, Blemmidas showed himself well-disposed towards the latter. He died as abbot of a convent near Ephesus in 1272. He wrote various works, but all of them were devoted especially to secure the peace of the Church, and this, says Neander, " he was induced to do by a pure- ly Christian interest, separate from all other considera- tions." Nicephorus's writings are not all accessible as yet, but twelve works have thus far been determined as his, and have recently been brought out in the liibli- otheca Ecclesiastica continens Gra'corum Theologoruni Opera, vol. i (Leips. 18{)6, 8vo). Nicephorus's principal writings thus far determined are: (1.) Opusculuni de Processione Spiritns Sancti, etc. In this work he adopts entirely the views of the Koman Catholics on the pro- cession of the Holy Ghost and other matters; which is the more surprising as he wrote a second work on the same subject, wherein he defends the opinion of the
Greek Church. Leo Allatius {De Consensu, ii, 14) en- deavors to justify him for his want of consistency, shov/- ing that he either wrote that work when very young, before he liad formed a thorough conviction on tlie point, or that some schismatics published their opinions under the name of Blemmidas: — (2.) De Processione Sjnritus Sancti lihri ii. This is the second work just mentioned, the first book of which is dedicated to the emperor Theodore Lascaris, and the second to .Jacob, archbishop of Bulgaria (ed. Gncce et Latine. by Oderius Kaynaldus, in the ajtpendix to the first volume of his Annulis Ecclesiast. bj' Leo Allatius in the first volume of Orthodoxce G7-ceciie Sci-ijjt.) : — (3.) Epistola ad pluri- mos data postqvani 3farchesinam temple ejecerat, Grace et Latine, in the second book of Leo Allatius, De Con- sensu:— (4.) 'Eirnop) Xoyncr)^ (Augsburg, 1605, 8vo). There are also many other writings by Blemmidas ex- tant in manuscript iu the libraries of ISInnich, Rome, Paris, and other places. See Cave, Hist. Liter, ad ann, 1255; V ahviv'ius, Bibl. Grcec. xi, 394; Neander, Church Hist, iv, 541 sq. ; Hauck, Theolog. Jahresbericht, 1867, ii, 253, 251. (J.H.W.) .