The Church establishment comprises, according to Thaarup, six bishops, the oldest of whom is primate, 80 probsts, and about 440 pastors of churches and chapels. There are 440 prestegilds or parishes, many of them of large extent, containing from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants, and requiring four or five separate churches or chapels. The incomes of the bishops may be reckoned about $4000, and of the rural clergy from £800 to ^1000. The sources from which these are derived are a small assessment of grain in lieu of tithe from each farm, Easter and Christ- mas offerings, and dues for marriages, christenings, and funerals, which are pretty high. There are fiar prices, as in Scotland, by which payments in grain may be converted into money. In every prestegild there are several farms, besides the glebe, which belong to the living, and are let for a share of the produce, or at a small j-early rent, and a fine at each renewal. One of these is ap]iropriated to the minister's widow, as a kind of life annuity. The Norwegian clergy are a well-in- formed body of men, possessing much influence over tlieir flocks, and conscientious in the discharge of their duties. According to the census of 180(5, the population was composed of 1,096,6.51 Lutherans, 3662 sectarians, 1038 Mormons, 316 Roman Catholics, 15 Greek Catlio- lics, and 25 Jews. The Romanists and Jews have only in very recent times secured permission to settle in Nor- wav. See Thorlak, Hktoria rerum NoiTarjicarum (Co- penh. 1711); Schiining, Norgcs Ri;/(s Ilistorie (Soroe, 1771); iMunch, Det Xorske Folk's Ilistorie, vol. i-vi (Christ. 1852-59); Blom, Das Kdni</7-(ich Noru-egen (Leips. 1843, 2 vols. 8vo); Bowde, Xorirai/, its People, Products, and Iiistitutions (Lond. 1867, 8vo); Hurst's Hagenbach, Ch. Hist. i8l/i and 19lh Centuries (see In- dex in vol. ii) ; Maclean Hist, of Christian Missions in the Hid. Ayes; Brit, and For. L'r. Per. Oct, 1868, art. iii,
NORZI
195
NOSSAIRIANS
which should be read with corrections in April, 18G9, p. 430-435 ; and the excellent articles by the Kev, Gideon Draper in the Methodist (N. Y. Aug. 1872).
Norzi, Jedidja Salomon di, ben-Abraham, a learned Italian rabbi, was born in IMantua about loGO, and derived his family name (■':J"1'!5 '''1) from the fact that his parents resided in Norzi, or Norica, a small town in the district of Spoleto. He studied under Sam- uel Cases, and, through his great piety and profound learning, was elected to the co-rabbinate, tirst with Lu- liauo Shalom Cases, who died in 1G30, then with Eliezer Cases, and from 1G04 up to the time of his death, which occurred after 162G, was co-rabbi with Jacob Chajim Cases. As early as 1588 Norzi was favorably known among his literary co-religionists by his work on the jurisprudence of the Hebrews (m^lt^n'i mPXiT), which was published at Mantua in 1597. The work, however, to which he consecrated all his life was the study and expurgation of the text of the Bible, and with this design he undertook several long voyages to collect ancient MSS. of the Old Testament and of the Masorah. The results of his patient rcsearclies, and which immortalized his name, are embodied in a critical and Masoretic commentary on the entire Hebrew Script- ures. To render his critical labors as complete as possi- ble, and to edit the Hebrew text in as perfect a condition as thorough learning and conscientious industry could make it, Norzi left no resources untouched. He searched through the Midrashim, the Talmud, and the whole cy- cle of rabbinic literature, for various readings. He con- sulted all the Masoretic works, both published and un- published ; he collated all the MSS. to which he could get access, among which was the !MS. from Toledo of the year 1277, now Cod. de Rossi 782 ; he compared all the best printed editions, and availed himself of the learning and critical labors of his predecessors and friends, especially of the MS. work called rilDTS rmrb r^O, The Masorah, the Hedge of the Law, by jMeier ben-Todros Abulfia of Borgos, and of the co-operation of his friend Menachara di Lonzano of Palestine, who also furnished Norzi with important MSS. from his own library ; and though he lived to finish the work to which he had consecrated his life, having completed it in 1G26, and called it "ill V^3, The Eejuiirer of the Breach, after Isa. Iviii, 12, he did not live to see the fruit of his labors printed, as he died near 1G30. His work remained in JIS. for about 112 years. The commentary was then edited by Raphael Chajim Basila, and pub- lished for the tirst time, with Hebrew text, under the altered title I'b mjiO, A Gift-nferiiu/, the Oblation of Salomon Jedidja (the name of Norzi, "> ttJ, being an ab- breviation of niT'Ti rrcb'i^) (Mantua, 1742-44, 4 pts. and 2 vols. 4to). Basila, the learned editor, added some notes, and also appended a list of 900 variations. A second edition appeared in Vienna in I81G. The com- mentary on the Pentateuch alone, with the Hebrew text, appeared in Dobrovna in 1804; on the Prophets and the Hagiographa, with the Hebrew text, in Wilna about 1820. The work of Norzi marked great prog- ress in Biblical exegesis, but it has no longer any value. Norzi also wrote a treatise on the accents, entitled ""'"IX^n "l-aX'a, which he quotes in his commentary on Gen. i, 11 ; Numb, xi, 15; 1 Sam. xv, G; Esth. i, 6; ii, 8 ; Isa. xxxviii, 2 ; Eccles. ii, 7 ; and a treatise on the letters nSD 133, called n£3 152 ''hhD, which he quotes in the commentary on Gen. i, 11 ; but these have not as 3'et come to light. See Steinschncider, Catalogus Lib. ILebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 2o7G-77 ; Fl'irst Bibliotheca Judaica, iii, 39 sq. ; Eiclihorn. Kiideitung in dasAlte Testament; Rosenmiiller, llandbucli f'iir die Li- teratur der biblischen Exegesis; and Giusburg in Kitto S.V. (J.H.W.)