A NolUu-d.
scapular, and gray mantle. In many respects they closelv resemble the Beguines (q. v.) and the Lollards (q. v.).
Nolley, Ricii^iONn, a INIethodist Episcopal minis- ter, was born in Virginia about 1790; emigrated early in life to Georgia; was converted in 1800; began to preach in 1807, when he was received into conference and sent to Edisto Circuit, where he did good service among the slaves; in 1809 was stationed at Wilming- ton, N. C; in 1810, at Charleston, S. C, where he la- bored sturdily in spite of severe persecution. In 1812 he was sent on a mission to the Tombigbee coinitry, in pursuance of which he endured almost incredible hard- ships, and performed a vast amount of labor for the souls of the half-savage population. '■ For two years he ranged over a vast extent of country, preaching continually, stopping for no obstructions of flood or weather. When his horse could not go on, he sliouldered his saddle-bags
and pressed forward on foot. He took special care of the children growing up in a half-savage condition over all the country, catechising and instructing them with the utmost diligence, as the best means of averting bar- barism from the settlements"' (Stevens). In 1814 Nolley was appointed to the Attakapas Circuit, in Louisiana; was returned to it in 1815 ; and lost his life from expos- ure in fording a stream, Nov. 5, of the same year. He was a man of great humility and holiness, and of indefat- igable labor. His preaching was edifying and spiritual, well suited to the population among whom he labored, and he carried everywhere the conviction of the truth of the religion which he preached. See 3fimiles of Conferences, i, 275; Biogirqjhical Sketches of Methodist Ministers, p. 213 ; Simimers, Sketches of Meth. Ministers in the South, p. 253 ; Stevens, I/ist. of Meth. Einscopal Church, vol. iv (see Index). (.J. H. \V.)
Noltenius, Joiiaxn Arsoi.d, a German Protestant theologian, was born at Sparemberg, in Westphalia, April 16, 1683. His family had been driven from Hol- land by the persecutions of the duke of Alva. After studying theology at Franecker and Duysburg, he be- came pastor in Hanover in 1709; in 1718 he was ap- pointed professor of theology at Frankfort-on-the-Oder; in 1720, chaplain to the king; and aftenvards Church counsellor and governor of the young princes. He died at Berlin March 2, 1740. As a court-preacher Noltenius gained an enviable notoriety ; as a man he was highly respected for his straightforward and consistent walk. He wrote, De judiciis sanctorum in mundum et angelos (Bremen, 1718, 4to): — Ai-gumentum pro veritate religi- onis Christiance, ex miraculis descentum (Frankf.-ad-O. 1718, 4to) : — In jjrojJieiiam Ziphanice (ibid. 1719, 1720, 4to) : — Miscellun. Predigtcn (ibid. 1727, 4to) : — and sev- eral articles in the Bibl. Bremensis; among them a curi- ous letter, in 1734, in which he gives an account of the chemiccd miracle operated in Berlin in imitation of that of St. Januarius at Naples. See Hering, Beitrdye z. Gesch. d. Reform. Kirche in Brandenburg, i, CO ; Chaufe- pie, Nouveau Diet. Hist. s. v. ; Gass, Dogmen. Gesch. iii, 126. (.1. N. P.)
Nomianisni. See Antixo.mians.
Nominalism (from Lat. nomen, " a name") is the doctrine that general notions, such as the notion of a tree, have no realities corresponding to them, and have no existence but as names or words, and nothing more (flatus rods). Sir William Hamilton says, ''The doc- trine of nominalism, as it is called, maintains that every notion, considered in itself, is singular, but becomes, as it were, general, through the intention of the mind to make it represent every other resembling notion, or no- tion of the same class. Take, for example, the term 7nan. Here we can call up no notion, no idea, corre- sponding to the universality of the class or term. This is manifestly impossible ; for as man involves contra- dictory attributes, and as contradictions cannot coexist in one representation, an idea or notion adequate to man cannot be realized in thought. The class man includes individuals, male and female, white and black, and cop- per-colored, tall and short, fat and thin, straight and crooked, whole and mutilated, etc. ; and the notion of the class must, therefore, at once represent all and none of these. It is therefore evident, though the absurdity was maintained by Locke, that we cannot accomplish this; and this being impossible, we cannot represent to ourselves the class man by any equivalent notion or idea. All tliat we can do is to call up some individual image, and consider it as representing, though inade- quately representing, the generality. This we easily do ; for as we can call into imagination any individual, so we can make that individual image stand for any or for every other which it resembles, in those essential points which constitute the identity of the class. This opinion, which, after Hobbes, has been in modern times maintained, among others, by Berkeley, Hume, Adam Smith, Campbell, and Stewart, appears to me not only
NOMINALISM
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NOMINALISM