NICOLAI
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NICOLAI
of Christianity, it would neither be discarded as a her- es}', nor did it attempt to set up a peculiar Church of its own. By the thinkers of Protestantism it was looked upon as simply one among many theological views, and as heterodoxy by the side of orthodoxy. Yet, as Hagenbach has well said of the labors of Nicolai and his associates : " In this pronounced eflbrt towards uni- versal culture and popular illuminism, and in this in- tellectual activity, who would dare to say there was nothing but vanity and destructive sentiment and ef- fort? Nay, who would deride it witli cold and careless presumption, or condemn it with blind zeal? We must frankly confess that, with this perverted tendency, there was also a noble impulse towards something better than European humanity in general had previously possess- ed— an impulse to escape from the diminutive forms of a contracted and commonplace life into universal hu- manity, and to attain a safe and joyous consciousness of it. It was a tendency which we still call by the beautiful name of 'the public good.'" Nicolai did not contribute much to the Biblioihek himself, but the management alone of such a periodica], so largely cir- culated and read in its day, shows him to have been in- defatigable, as in the meanwhile, notwithstanding all his other avocations, he produced many works. Among these the most important in their bearings on rehgion and theology are, Sehuldus Nothanker (1773, etc.), a sort of religious novel, which had great success, and was translated into English, French, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish; a sharply satirical performance: — Geschichte eines dicken Maiines (1794), against the disciples of the Kantish philosophy, to which Nicolai objected that all its new views were incorrect, and all its correct views not new : — Sempronius Gundihert (1799), a satire against the Kantians. Besides these there are worthy of our notice, an A utohiof/i-ajjhij, published in the Bild- nisse jeizt lebender Berlinei- Gelehrten ; and a work en- titled Ueher meine r/elehrte Bildang, iiber meine Keiintiiiss del- Kiitischen PhilosojMe und meine SchriJ'ten dieselbe betreffhid, und iiber die Herren Kant, J. B. Erhai'd, und Ficiite (Berl. 1799). Nicolai died in Berlin in 1811. See Jorden's Lexikon deutscker Dichter n. Prosaislen (iv, 32) ; Gcickingk, Nicolai's Leben, etc. (Berlin, 1820) ; Kober- stein, Gesch. d. deutschen Natiomd-Literatitr (in Index) ; Kurz, Gesch. d. deutsck. Lit. vol. ii ; Fichte (J. J.), Xi- colai's Leben u. Sonderbare Meinunrjen (Tubing. 1801); Hase, Ch. Hist. p. 639; Ueberweg, Uist. of I'hilus. ii, 118; Hurst's Hagenbach, Ch. Hist, of the Tt'sih and 19//< Cent, i, 297, 304, 306 sq., 312 sq., 34(5, 490; ii, 178 sq., 263, 280; Kahnis, Hist, of German Protestantism, p. 44. See also the peculiar views of Dr. Hurst, Hist, of Ra- tionalism, p. 117, 118. (J. H. W.)
Nicolai, Jean, a French Dominican theologian, was born at IMonza in 1594. He took the vows of the Dominican Order at the earlj^ age of sixteen, and his degree of D.D. at Paris in 1632. For twenty years he filled with high reputation the divinity chair in the house belonging to his order in the Rue St. Jacques, and became its jirior in 1661. He spent a considerable portion of his time in commenting on the works of Thomas Aquinas, whose principles he attempted to rec- oncile with such as widely differ from the genuine no- tions of the Augustinian school ; hence his criticisms have been greatly contested by the followers of Aquinas and St. Augustine. In 1657 he published S. Thomm Aquinatis Exposilio continua super quutuor Evangelis- tas, etc., in folio, with numerous notes; he afterwards edited the whole in 19 vols, folio. He also published the Pantheloffia of father Kainer of Pisa (Lyons, 1655, 3 vols, folio). He was also author of Gallia Dirpiitus adcersus praposterum. Catalonia assei'torum vindicata, etc. (Paris, 1664). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxvii, 959 ; Niceron, Memoires, vol. xiv, s. v,
Nicolai, Melchior, an eminent German theolo- gian, who nourished near the beginning of the 17th century as a university professor at Tubingen, was iden-
tified with the Lutheran controversy which was carried on in his time between the theohjgians of Gicssen and Tiibingen concerning tlie Kivwaa^ and Kpv-^iQ of tlie di- vine attributes. The theologians of Tubingen (Luke Osiander, Theodore Thummius, and Melchior Nicolai) supposed that Christ, during his state of humiliation, continued to possess the divine properties of omnipo- tence, omnipresence, etc., but concealed them from men. The divines of Giessen (JMuuzer and Fcuerborn) assert- ed that he voluntarily laid them aside. For further particulars, see Dorner, Doctrine of the Person of Christ, vol. ii, pt. i, p. 179 sq. ; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. iv, 970 sq. ; comp. Thummii TaTrtnoj(yiypa<pia sucra (Tubing. 1623-4), and Nicolai, Considerutv Theolog.xol. iv; Qvws- tioniun cant rove rsarum de profundissima Kii'uimi Christi (ibid. 1622, 4to) ; Hagenbach, Hist, of Loctrines, ii, 353 ; Gass, Gesch. der Prot. Dogmatik, i, 277.
Nicolai, Philip, a distinguished German theolo- gian, noted also as a hymnologist, was born at Menger- inghausen, in the principality of Waldeck, Germany, Aug. 10, 1556. His father was a Lutheran pastor. Phihp followed him in his profession, and commenced his ministry in 1576 as assistant to him in his native village. Later he removed to Hardeck, whence he was expelled by the Papists. In 1596 he removed to Unna. in Westphalia. In 1601 he became pastor of St. Catharine's Church, Hamburg, where he died Oct. 26, 1608. While at Unna the city was visited by a fearful pestilence, which carried off more than 1400 per- sons. His mind becoming greatly affected by the ap- palling events happening around him, he was led to think much of death, heaven, and eternit}'. In the study of St. Augustine's City of God, and the contem- plation of the eternal life, he became so absorbed that he remained cheerful and well in the midst of the sur- rounding distress. In 1598 he published his medita- tions for the benefit of others. The work is entitled Freudenspiegel des eicigen I^ebens, or " The Joyous IMir- ror of Life Eternal." To this he appended two hymns that speedily gained a remarkable popularity. One has for a title, "Of the Voice at Midnight, and the Wise Virgins who met their Heavenly Bridegroom" — Wacht uvf! rvft WIS die Stimme, or, in the English version :