Nicephorus Callistus Xaxthopulus, son of Callistus Xanthopulus, is the last of the Greek Church historians, and the only one their Church produced in the Middle Ages. He is frequently denominated the ecclesi- astical Thucydides, because of the elegance of his style, and the '■ theological Pliny," because of the supersti- tion and credulity which are betrayed in his writings. The precise date of his birth is not ascertained. He flourished at Constantinople near the opening of the 14th century, and was probably a monk of St. Sophia, of which he was librarian. According to his own statement (Hist. Eccles. vol. i, c. 1) he commenced his Ch. Hist. at an early age, and labored at it till he was thirty-six years old. It is dedicated to the elder Andronicus Pa- Iseologus. As the latter was already well advanced in years, and died in 1327, it is supposed that Nicephorus was still alive in 1356, and therefore during the reign of John Cantacuzenus. We possess no information of his personal history. His work is of great interest, as it is the only contribution to Cliurch history which ap- peared in the East from the 6th century to the 14th. It is, however, generally condemned in modern times as a compilation of fables and absurdities, and Casau- bon says of it, " Historia eius non pluris quam folia far- fari facienda est" {Exercitt. in Baron, i, sect. 17; comp. Joh. Gerhard, Method. Stud. Theol. p. 238). If ;ve set aside the too great credulity of the author, the work will be judged as not v.'ithout merits. Says Dowling: "Though he amply partook of the superstition of the age in which he lived, and paraphrased the writers from whom he derived his information in the extravagant style characteristic of the later Greeks, he has transmit- ted some important facts, of which we should without him have remained in ignorance" {Study cf Eccles. His- tory, p. 91-93). In his first chapter Nicephorus speaks of the utility of ecclesiastical history, and gives a list of his predecessors in that line from Eusebius to Procopius and Agathias, with a notice concerning each of them — in which indeed he accuses Eusebius of heresy and Soc- rates of impurity. He states that each of them wrote only the history of a period, and some often wandered away from the pure doctrine, while he intends to give a full and impartial history. The work is divided into eighteen parts, treating of the internal and external his- tory of the Church with reference to the dogmas, doc- trines, and usages. IMonasticism and the cpiscoijacy are specially considered. The jilan was good. It be- gins with the incarnation (a— o Ttjc; Kara irapK-a roii 2wr»)|Ooe tTrt(pa7'(iac), and continues to the death of I'hocas (611). He, besides, refers to five other parts which were to extend down to the death of Leo Philo- sophus (911); but of these we find only the headings, which seem to have been written subsequently by some one else. Whether he did not continue his history any further, or whether the other parts of his work are lost.
NICEPHORUS
53
NICERON
is unknown. This, however, is certain, that while he was to have given the whole historj' of the Church in these eighteen parts, as stated in his preface, they em- brace only a period of 600 years. As to the nature of the work, it is evident that Nicephorus made extensive use of the earlj' jMSS. of ecclesiastical history, merely conijileting them by means of all kinds of materials. He made use for his purpose of the ancient Greek writ- ers, political sources, legends, and traditions. He great- ly neglected the history of the Latin Chnrch. Thus, while he gives full details concerning Anastasius Sinai- ta, John rhiloponus,and the leaders of the Monophysites, he says nothing of the Pelagians and their controversj'. His information on the invasions of the Huns, Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, and .Vlans is valuable. There IS only one Greek MS. known of this history. It was stolen under !Matliias Cnrvinus by a Turkish sol- dier out of the library of Buda (Ofen) and brought to Constantinople ; here it was bought by a Christian, and after manj^ adventures now lies in the imperial library at Vienna. It was published in Latin by John Lange in Erfurt, Nicephori Hist. Ecdesiastica (Basle, 1553, fol.; often reprinted, Basle, 1560; Ant\v.L560; Paris, 1562-73; Frankf. 1588, 1618). The Greek text was subsequently published also : Greece et Lett, cura Frontonis Duccei (Par. 1630, 2 vols.). Nicephorus is also considered as the au- thor of the Catalof/us imperatorum C. Politanoruni versi- bus iambicis Gr. in Labbei P rot replica liistor. Byzant. p. 34: — Catulogus jMtriarcharum Constant iiiojwlil. ibid. p. 35, extends down to Callistus, under John Cantacuze- nus: — Excidium Ilierosol. versibiis iamliicis, in MoreUi Exposit. inemorahilium qua Ilieros. sunt (Paris, 1620) : — Synopsis totius script, sacrce ad calcem Epigrammatum Theodori P?-odromi (Paris, 1536) : — 'Slvvraypa de templo et miixiculis S. Marice adfontem, in MSS. See Lambec. Comment, viii, 119; Oudini Comm. de Scripit. iii, 710; Fabricius, Bihl. Grceca, ed. Harl. vii, 437 sq. ; Stiiudlin, Gesch. u, Literatur d. Kirchengeschichte, p. Ill sq.; Dar- ling, C/jc/. Bihliographica, ii, 2192; Cave, Hist. Lit. ad ann. 1333 ; Dupin, Bibliotheque des ecrioaiiis ecclesias- tiques du quatorzieme siecle. (J. H. W.)
Nicephorus Ciiartophylax, an Eastern mo- nastic, is supposed to have flourished some time about the close of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th cen- tury. Fabricius thinks he is the same as Nicephorus