Nicolas DK Cl.KMANGES. See CLtiJIANOES.
Nicolas DE CusA. See Cusa.
Nicolas VAN Egjiond, a Dutch theologian, was born in the County of Egmond near the close of tho 15th century. He entered the Order of the Carmelites, took his degrees at Louvain, and was there received as doctor in theology. He distinguished himself by the bitter- ness of his words in his disputes with Erasmus. The pulpit was his arena; and when pope Hadrian VI im- posed silence upon him, Egmond vented his wrath in anonymous libels. Erasmus, who frequently speaks of him in his letters, seems not much more moderate in regard to him, and describes him thus : " Homo natura fatuus, nee admodum doctus, moribus immanis, pncfracti animi impotenti impetu," etc. He died in 1527. The following distich, in the form of an epitaph, was made against Nicolas:
" Hie j.icet Egmondus telhiris inutile pondus ; Dilexit rnbieni, iiou habeat requiem."
Sec Erasmus, Fpistolce ; Paquot, Memoires. — Hoefer, Nouv. Bioff. Generale, xxxvii, 988.
Nicolas Dn Flavigny, a French prelate, flourished in the tirst half of the 13th centurv. We find him at first dean of the church of Laugres in 1229. He had doubtless gained great renown by his learning and his character, for in that year (February 20), the Church of Besan(;on having been agitated by grave discords for two years, Gregory IX selected Nicolas de Flavigny to put an end to them, and made him archbisho]). This choice resulted in removing tlie multitude of competitors, whose ambitious conspiracies had caused much scandal, and in restoring peace to the Church of Besan^on. But scarcely was Nicolas established in his metropolitan chair tlian he was besieged by more turbulent agitators. They were the citizens of Bcsancon, his sulijects and vassals, according to tlie feudal law, who. again insur- gent, had pronounced the fall of liis temjioral autliority. The citizens of Bcsancon were determined to conquer their independence; with this design they had already exiled one of their archbishops, and would persecute others: of all the adversaries who could oppose Nicolas, they were the most dangerous. He could not reduce them without having recourse to the emperor. Nicolas, at this formidable juncture, went to the emperor, claimed
NICOLAS
77
NICOLAS
his titles, his rights, and obtained from Frederick II, in the month of December, V231, a diploma fidl of menaces against the confederate citizens. They submitted, but with the firm resolution of again attempting to gain their civil independence. Thibauld de Kougemont, viscount of Besan9on, also had great controversies with our archbishop. This viscount had arrogated to him- self divers rights in the city formerly exercised by the metropolitan authority. Nicolas summoned him before his tribunal, and demanded an account of his abuses. The viscount at first resisted ; yet as his power was not as formidable as that of the citizens, Nicolas himself, without the aid of the emperor, soon brought him to sign a formal disavowal of his pretensions. This occurred in 1232. About the same time Nicolas, having difficulty with the count de Montbeliard, who had permitted some usurpation of the domains of the monks of Lure, hesitated not to excommunicate him. Nicolas, then, was evidently a vigilant and lirm prelate. In the month of August, 1235, he was in Mayence, where, as prince of the empire, he sat in the councils of Frederick II. He died Sept. 7, 1235, while returning from this city. In the last century, a manuscript work of Nicolas de Flavigny was found preserved at Citeaux, entitled Concoixha Evan<jeliorum Nicohti C'risojjolilani. It is not known where this work is now stored. The authors of the liistoire litteraire de la France have omitted the name of this writer. See Dunod de Char- nage, liistoire de I'Er/lise de Besan^on, i, 196; Huillard Breliolles, Hist. Diploni. Frederici If, vol. iv; Gallia Christiana retus, vol. i. — Hoefer, Nouv. Bioff. Generale, xxxvii, 98G.
Nicolas DE Flije. See Flije.
Nicolas VON Hof (Nicolaus a Curia), better known as Nicolaus Decius, a contemporary of Luther, was, like him, first a monk in connection with the Ro- mish Church. From 1519 to 1522 he was prior of the monastery at Steterburg, in Wolfenbiittel. In Jul}', 1522, he left his position, because he had joined in the Reformation, and went to Brunswick, where Gottschalk Cruse or Crusius, a personal friend of Luther, especially attracted him by his evangelical preaching. For a time Nicolas occupied himself as a schoolmaster at Bruns- wick, but in 1523 he became a Lutheran pastor at Stet- tin, where he died, March 21, 1541. He is best known as the author of two hymns, which are still in use in the German Church, and have also been translated into English. The one, the most celebrated of his hymns, is his " AUein Gott in der Hoh' sei Ehr," said to be a free rendering of the old hymnus anr/elicits, " Gloria in excelsis Deo," which in its Greek version, Au^a iv v\(yiaToig ^f (^, had very earlj' come into use in the Eastern Church as the " great doxology," and was introduced into the Latin Church about the year 360 by St. Hilarj', bishop of Poitiers (q. v.). The German version was pub- lished in 1529, and was designed to take the place of the Latin "Gloria." An English translation is to be found in the Moravian I/i/mn-book; No. 165, where it is erroneously ascribed to Selnecker (" To God on high all glory be"). The other hymn, a very popular commun- ion liymn, is his " O Lamm Gottes unschuldig," based on .John i, 29, and founded on the ancient Latin hymn, "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis." It is translated in Jacobi's Psahnodia Germanica, i, 16 ("O Lamb of God, our Saviour") (London, 1722), and by Porter in Schaff's Christ in Song, p. 583. See Koch, Gesch. d. deutschen KircJtenliedes, i, 419 sq. ; Theolo- gisches Unicersal-Lexikon, s. v. Decius; jMiller, Singers ami Songs of the Church (London, 1869), p. 38; Herzog, Real-EncyMopddie, xix, 402; Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir christl. Wissenschaft ti. christl. Lehen (published by Schneider, Berlin, 1856) ; Knapp. Ecangelischer Lieder- schatz, p. 1327, s. v. (B. P.)