RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Neil Neoplatonism
Eutychianism and Nestorianism, or to the dyophysitic problem. The work is a noteworthy endeavor to make a Christian philosophical compend of anthropology. Paul and Moses are equated with Menander and Aristotle, and the influence of Galen is also marked. The highest proof of divine providence and of the exalted destiny of man is based on the incarnation; lofty praise is accorded the unity and harmony of the entire creation, while, on the other hand, redemption is robbed of its value as a historical fact. The book shows how strong and complete was the blending of Christianity and Hellenism in the fourth century. It was much used and highly esteemed until the Renaissance, and was translated into Latin by Alfanus in the eleventh century (ed. Holzinger, Prague, 1887) and in the twelfth century by Burgundio of Pisa (ed. Burkhardt, Meidlinger, 1891-96), as well as by the Humanists Kono and Valla. An Italian version appeared in 1509 and an Old Armenian translation was also made. (R. Schmid.)
Bibliography : M. Evangelides, Nemesius und seine Quellen, Berlin, 1882; Bender, Untersuchung ilber Nemesius, Heidelberg, 1898; B. Domanski, Die Psychologie des Nemesius, in Beitrage zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, vol. iii., Munster, 1900; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, vi. 283-285; DCB, iv. 16.
NENNIUS: The traditional author of the Historia Britonum, a work which purports to be a history of Britain to the Saxon conquest. It has little historical value and there is much dispute concerning its origin. It has been ascribed to Gildas, to an Irish bishop of the ninth century known as Mark the Hermit, and to an anonymous writer. The later investigators believe it to be a compilation of various dates, in which Nennius may have taken part. If so, he is to be assigned to the close of the eighth or first half of the ninth century and was probably a monk of Wales. But information concerning him is late and doubtful and the work itself offers little that is conclusive. The best edition is by T. Mommsen in Chronica minora, iii. (MGH, Auct.ant., xiii. 1898), Eng. transl. by J. A. Giles (London, 1841, and in Bohn's Antiquarian Library) .
Bibliography: 0. W. Scholl, De ecclesiastical Britonum Scotorumque historice foniibus, Berlin, 1851; W. F. Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales, i. 37-41, Edinburgh, 1868; A. de la Borderie, Etudes historiques bretonnes; Vhistoria Britonum attribute a Nennius, Paris, 1883; H. Zimmer, Nennius vindicatus, Berlin, 1893; idem, in A7.4, xix (1894), 436-443; the preface to Mommsen's edition, ut. sup. ; R. Thurneysen, in Zeitschrift fur deutsche Theologie, xxviii (1895), 80-113; F. Lot, in Le Moyen Age, viii (1895), 177-184, ix (1896), 25-36; DNB, xl. 217-221.
NEOPHYTES (NOVICES): A term applied in the early Church to newly baptized Christians (I Tim. iii. 6). It was used especially during the " week of the neophytes," during which the newly baptized wore the white baptismal garments; it designated also the younger members of the congregation, and where a regular annual season for baptism was observed the members baptized during the last year seemed to have been termed neophytes. The " apostolic rule " (I Tim. iii. 6) that no neophyte could be a bishop is frequently repeated, and in the second Nicene canon of 325 this prohibition is made to include the priestly office. The rule was frequently violated, or at least con-
sidered capable of suspension, so that laymen were repeatedly chosen bishops, and Ambrose (q.v.) and Synesius (q.v.) were not even baptized when elected to the episcopate. In the East the rule was milder, Justinian enacting that a layman should be in orders at least three months before being made bishop (Novellce, cxxiii. 1). (H. Achelis.)
NEOPLATONISM.
I. Character and Origin. II. The System of Plotinus.
Doctrine of the " One " (§ 1). The World-Soul (§ 2). Religion and Ethics (§ 3). III. Further Development of Neoplatonism. Porphyry (§1). Jamblichus and Others (§ 2). The Athenian School (§ 3).
I. Character and Origin: Neoplatonism is the last development of Greek philosophy, in which the mind of antiquity, using many elements of the older systems, especially the Platonic, passed beyond the realistic tendencies of the Stoics and Epicureans, dogmatically conquered skepticism, and rose to a height of mystic speculation which was influenced partially by Oriental and Christian ideas. This speculation was directed principally upon the Godhead and the relation to it of mankind and the universe, though physics, ethics, and logic were not wholly neglected. The theosophic-mystical tendency which is apparent in Plato is responsible for a desertion, to a certain extent, of the path of scientific strictness of reasoning followed by the older Greek philosophers. In the historical development the Neoplatonists follow immediately upon the Neopythagoreans and the Pythagoreanizing or eclectic Platonists;- but the Neoplatonist school had much more that was original and independent than the school which preceded it, bringing the sum total of knowledge into a new philosophic system. *-As a definite school, it originated in Alexandria, where the mixture of nationalities made for a fusion of earlier philosophic and religious tendencies. Its founder was Ammonius Saccas (q.v.), who had been brought up a Christian and had then returned to Hellenism. He left no written remains, and it is thus difficult to determine his exact relation to his "successors. Among his pupils were Plotinus, the two Origens (the Neoplatonist and the Christian), and Longinus the critic. When Neoplatonism is mentioned in a general way, it connotes mainly the teaching of Plotinus (b. at Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt, 204; d. at Campania 270). After studying under Ammonius for some ten years he accompanied the Emperor Gordian in his campaign against the Persians, in order to learn something of their philosophy. In 244 he went to Rome and won numerous adherents to his teaching, among them the Emperor Gallienus and his wife Salonina. He taught here till about 268, retiring then to the country estate of a disciple in Campania. He did not reduce his doctrine to writing until toward the close of his life, and then did not publish it, leaving this to be done by his pupil Porphyry, who arranged the fifty-four treatises of the master in six Enneades, placing them in logical order from the simplest to the most abstruse — although he also gives their chronological sequence. They were first
Neoplatonism