many things which the apostles at that time could not understand. Even the doctrine of the Trinity, as ex- plained by the Council of Nice, the doctrine of the di- vinity of the Holy Ghost, cannot be pointed out as a dogma expressed in so many words in the Bible (lib. ii, c. xxii sq.). Ansclm alleged as an argument for the authority of the Koman Church that all here- sies had found their birthplace in the Greek Church ; while in the former the pure doctrine had ever been preserved free from alloy amid all the disputes proceed- ing from that other quarter. To this Nicetas replied, " If the heresies had sprung up in the Greek Church, still they were subdued there ; and they could only con- tribute to the clearer evolution and stronger confirma- tion of the faith"' (lib. iii, c. xi). And he endeavors to point out here a substantial advantage of the Greek Church over the Latin, tracing it to the predominating scientific culture which had distinguished the Greek Church from the beginning. " Perhaps the very reason why so many heresies had not sprung up among the Romans was that there had not been among them so many learned and acute investigators of the sacred Scriptures. If that conceit of knowledge by which the Greek heretics had been misled deserved censure, still the ignorance of the Latins, who affirmed neither one thing nor another about the faith, but only followed the lead of others in unlearned simplicity, deserved not to be praised. It must be ascribed either to blamable negligence in examining into the faith, or to singular inactivity of mind and dulness of apprehension, or to hinderances growing out of the heavy load of secular business."' He applies to the Latins in this regard the words in 1 Tim. i, 7, and to the Greeks what Aristotle says of the usefulness of doubt as a passage-way to truth. Earnestly does Nicetas protest against the inti- mation that the Greek Church might be compelled to adopt what the pope, without a council held in concur- rence with the Greeks, could on his own self-assumed authority prescribe. He then goes on to say that if such authority belongs to the pope, then all study of the Scriptures and of the sciences, all Greek intellect and Greek learning, were superfluous. The pope alone would be bishop, teacher, and pastor; he alone would have to be responsible to God for all whom God had committed to his charge alone. The Apostolic Creed did not teach men to acknowledge a Roman Church in especial, but one common, catholic, apostolic Church (lib. iii, c. viii). Though Nicetas defended the use of ordinary bread in the celebration of the Lord's Sup- per, a custom which had always been handed down in the Greek Church, yet he estimates the importance of this disputed point with Christian moderation (lib. c, c. xviii). He says that he himself, in case no other bread was to be had, would have no hesitation in using unleavened bread in the mass. " Since, however," he adds, " the number of the narrow-minded far exceeds that of persons well-instructed in the faith, and the undis- tinguishing multitude easily take offence, it was worthy of all pains that both Latins and Greeks should be in- duced to join heart and hand in bringing about, in some suitable place and at some suitable time, a general coun- • cil, at which the use of leavened or unleavened bread by all at the same time should be adopted ; or if such an agreement could not be arrived at without giving scandal to one of the two parties, yet all should agree in this, that neither party should condemn the other, and this ilifTorence should no longer turn to the injury of holy charity." '■ Mutual condemnation," says he, " is a far greater sin than this diversity of custom, which is in itself a matter of indifference." Both finally agreed that a general council, consisting of Latins and Greeks, for the purpose of bringing about a reunion of the two churches was a thing greatly to be desired. The irritable state of feeling, however, between the two parties, heightened by the Crusades and the conse- quences following in their train, and the arrogant pre- tensions of the popes, who \voidd not lower their tone,
put the assembling of such a council out of the ques- tion ; and, even if it coulil have been held, it would have failed to bring about the result desired by Nicetas and Anselm. Nothing further of the personal history of Nicetas is accessible to us. (J. H. W.)
Nicetas Pectoratus (o (rr/jSaroc), an Eastern ascetic, noted as a Church writer, was, at the time when patriarch Michael Ca?rularius (q. v.) separated from the Romish Church, a monk in the convent of Studium, near Constantinople. He is mentioned as a pupil of abbot Simeon of St. Mamas. An enemy of the Latins, he sided at once with the jtatriarchs, and wrote on the custom of fasting on the Sabbath and on the marriage of priests. In 1054 came the Romish ambas- sadors, and at their head cardinal Humbert and arch- deacon Frederick. The cardinal and Nicetas held a con- ference in the convent of Studium, which ended— the emperor also interfering in the matter — by a retraction on the part of Nicetas of all he had said, a condem- nation of the enemies of Rome, and submission to the burning of his works. This is mentioned only by Latin writers (comp. Canis. Lectt. antiqua, iii, pt. i, p. 325, and Vibertus in Vita s. Leonits, ii, 5; Lea, Hist, of Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 199, note i ; and the review of the Bihliothe- ca Ecclesiastica, in Ilauck, Theolne/. Jahreshericht, 1867, ii, 252), but such things occurred so often in the Greek Church that there is no reason to doubt its truth; be- sides, it did not oblige Nicetas to foreswear forever his attachment to the Greek Church. Among his works at present extant, the principal is Liber adv. Latinos de Azymis, de Sabbatomm jejimiis et nupiiis Sacerdotum, Latine apud Canis. 1. c. p. 308, ed. Basnage {cum refuta- tione Iluinberti, comp. Allat. De Missa incesanctijic. § 2, 16 ; De purrjufor, p. 870). This book has been recently brought out in the Bibl. Eccks. vol. i (Leips. 1866, 8vo), and is entitled Yi(pi twv dZvi-ioji: A copy of this work in Greek is preserved in the imperial library at Vienna. As will be noticed from a preceding article, some crit- ics ascribe its authorship to Nicetas Nicfeanus (q. v.). Among the other writings of Nicetas, we notice Carmen lambicum in Simeotiem junior em Greece, in Allat. De Si- meon, p. 168: — Tractatus de anima, in fragments in Al- lat. De sipiodo T'hotian. cap. 14 -.^-Capita ascetica, cajnta de Sanctis patribus, contra blasphemam Armeniorum hceresim, de processione Sp. S., de calesti hierai-chia, de piaradiso terrestri, epistolce, etc., mentioned in Fabrioius, Bibl. Grmc. ed. Harl. vii, 753, 754. See Allat. De perp. consens. ii, 9, § G; Cave, Hist. Lit. ii, 136; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. xxiv, 219; Neander, CIi. Hist. iii. 583; Herzog, Real- Enn/khpadie, x, 323 ; and Hauck as above noticed. (.J.H.W.)