Nicetas, David, commonly called Paj)hlago,n\hex on account of his having been born in or having be- come bishop of Paphlagonia, lived about the year 880. He is best known as the author of a biography of the patriarch Ignatius, who died in 878. This biography is untrustworthy : at the end Ignatius is made to ascend into heaven, and his opponent Photius is accused of all possible wrongs. As in this the author served the Latin party, it is easy to understand why his work has been praised by the Roman Catholic writers. It must be
admitted, however, that the work furnishes some val- uable materials for the history of the patriarchs. It has been repeatedly published (Gr. et Lat. ed. Matth. Raderus [Ingolstadt, 1604]), and in the acts of the coun- cils, as in Ilardouin, v, 955. Another polemic work, Liber p7-o Si/nodo Chalcedon, adv, epistolam regis Arme- nim (Gr. et Lat. apud Allat. Gi-ac. Orthod, i, G63), is also attributed, but without sufficient proofs, to Nicetas. He is besides considered as the author of a number of hymns, and panegyrics of saints and martyrs mentioned under liis name in the catalogues of MSS., such as Laudatio s. Barbarce, Encomium in mart. Theodorum, in Nicolaum, in Panteleemonem,, etc. ; but on account of the many writers of the same name it is difficult to ascertain their authenticity. Some of the discourses (Apostolorum encomia, oratio in Mai'cum evangel, etc.) are given by Combefis, Latine in Bibl. Concionatoria, Gr. et Lat. m Auctar. Bibl, patruni noviss, (Paris, 1672), and in Illus- trium Christi martyrum triumphis (Paris, 1660). Ni- cephorus (lib.xiv,cap. 28) calls Nicetas a philosopher, but at present we know of no work of his to justify the ap- pellation. The Qucesfiones in Philosop)hiam et commen- tarii in Aristot. categor, et quinque voces Porphyrii, mentioned by Gesner, are proved by Fabricius to be due to a later writer. See Allat. De Simeon, p. 102, 111; id. De Psellis, § 13; Oudinus, ii, 215; Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. ed. Harl. vii, 747 ; Hanckius, De script, Byzanf, p. 261 ; Brucker, Histor, Philos, iii, 543. — Herzog, Real-En- cyklopddie, x, 322, (J, N. P.)
Nicetas Nic^anus, an Eastern ecclesiastic of uncertain age, was chartophylax at Nicrea. He wrote De Schismate inter Eccles, Gree-cum et Romanan, extant in MS. in Paris and elsewhere; Leo Allatius gives a fragment of it in De Synodo Photian, Also perhaps De Azymis et Subbatorum Jejvnio et Nuptiis Sucerdo- tum, which others ascribe to Nicetas Pectoratus (q. v.). See Cave, Hist. Lit. D, p, 14,
Nicetas (or Nechites) of Nicomedea, an East- ern prelate, flourished as archbishop of Nicomedea in the first half of the r2th centurj'. When, in 1136, Anselm, bishop of Havelberg, was sent by pope Innocent II to Constantinople for the purpose of effecting a union be- tween the Eastern and Western churches, Nicetas ap- peared at this meeting as the defender of the Eastern views on the doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Ghost, When Anselm, at a subsequent period, was re- siding at the court of pope Eugenius III, he drew up, at the request of that pope, a full account of the confer- ence (in D'Achery, Sjncileg. vol. i). We may take it for granted, indeed, that we are not presented here with a set of minutes drawn up with diplomatic accuracy; still we have every reason to presume that the manner in which the Greek prelate managed his cause in this conference has in all essential respects been truty rep- resented by Anselm. He represents Nicetas as saying many pointed and striking things against the Latin Church, such as he assiu-edly could not have invented from his own point of vie^v, and would not have put into the mouth of his opponent. In respect to the contested point in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, Nicetas ap- pealed, as the Greeks were ever wont to do, to the pas- sage in the Gospel of John, and to the inviolable au- thority of the Nicene Creed, Anselm replied conform- ably with the doctrine of the Church, as it had been settled since the time of Vincentius Lirinensis, He pre- sented on the other side the progressive evolution of that doctrine under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, actuating the Church, by virtue of which the doctrine, contained as to its germ in the sacred Scriptures, had been more exactly defined and explained, and what it contained in spirit reduced to the form of more precise conceptions; just as the work of one universal council is completed in the gradual development of Christian doctrine by another and later. All this is the work of the same Spirit, promised by Christ to his disciples and to his Church ; of whom he says that he would teach
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