THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
NICETAS ACOMINATUS: Byzantine historian and theologian; b. at Chonse (the ancient Colossal, whence he is often called Choniates); d. at Nica?a after 1210. Rising to high offices of state, he was governor of the province of Philippopolis when Frederick Barbarossa marched through that district in 1189; but on the taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1203 he fled with many others to Nicsea. The Historia Byzantina of Nicetas, in twenty-one books, embraces the period from 1180 to 1205, and is noteworthy for reliability and good judgment. His theological studies found their culmination in his " Treasury of Orthodoxy." This begins with an account of Judaism and Hellenism, followed by a presentation of the chief doctrines of the Church. The fourth book begins the polemics against Simon Magus, and thus prepares the way for the ultimate consideration of many obscure heresies. The latter books are devoted to Islam, the Roman Catholics, and the divergencies of opinion within the Greek Church. The work is, therefore, an indispensable source for a knowledge of the heresies of the twelfth century, though only the first five books (in Latin translation) and a portion of the twentieth book have as yet been published (reprinted in MPG, cxxxix. 1101-1144, cxl. 9-281).
(Philipp Meyer.)
Bibliography: T. Uspensky wrote an account of Nicetas in Russian, St. Petersburg, 1874; Krummacher, Geschichte, pp. 91-92, 281 sqq.; C. Neumann, Griechische Geschichtsschreiber im 12. Jahrhunderi. pp. 103 sqq., Leipsic,
1888.
NICETAS, DAVID: Bishop of Dadybra in Paphlagonia; d. 880. He was one of the most distinguished of the Byzantine panegyrists and devoted himself particularly to the eulogy of the apostles. His productions have little historical basis, however; and his panegyrics on certain saints are equally valueless. His biography of the Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople, on the other hand, is of distinct historical importance. His works, which also include lengthy comments on the poems of Gregory Nazianzen, are in MPG, iv. 682-842, xxxviii. 842-846, cv. 15-582. (Philipp Meyer.)
Bibliography: A. Mai, Patrum nova bibliotheca, vi. 2, pp. 3-8, 8 vols., Rome, 1852-71; Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Grceca, vii. 747-749, Hamburg, 1801; P. Meyer, in JPT, 1886, pp. 386 sqq.; Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 167, 679 et passim; Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1900, pp. 268 sqq.
NICETAS PECTORATUS: Greek mystic and polemic author of the eleventh century. He was a monk at Studium and a pupil of Simeon the younger, from whom he received his mystical trend. Here belong a series of his writings, especially the three hundred " Chapters " (ed. Nicodemus Hagiorites, in his Philokalia, Venice, 1782, and in MPG, cxx. 852-1009). Nicetas likewise wrote a biography of Simeon, edited in Romaic, by Dionysios Zagoraios in his edition of Simeon the younger (1790; 1886), and also collected his teacher's works. He polemized both against the Roman Catholics in his " On Unleavened Bread and Sabbath Fasting and the Marriage of the Clergy " (ed. A. K. Demetracopulos, in his Bibliotheca ecclesiastica, pp. 18 sqq., Leipsic, 1866), and against the Armenians and
Roman Catholics in " On Leavened and Unleavened Bread " (ed. J. Hergenrother, in his Monumenta Grceca adversus Photium, pp. 139 sqq., Regensburg, 1869) . Nicetas was the author of many other works, twenty-seven of which are enumerated by Demetracopulos (ut sup. pp. 5 sqq.).
(Philipp Meyer.)
Bibliography: K. Holl, Enthusiasmus una" Bussgewalt beim griechischen Monchtum, pp. 3 sqq., Leipsic, 1898, cf. P. Meyer, in GGA, 1898, No. 11, pp. 846 sqq.; Fabricius- Harles, Bibliotheca Groeca, vii. 753 sqq., Hamburg, 1801; A. Mai, Patrum nova bibliotheca, vi. 2, pp. 10-13, 8 vols., Rome, 1852-71; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, xiii. 210, 217- 220, 249.
NICETAS OF REMESIANA: Missionary bishop of that city (the modern Turkish Ak and the Servian Bela Palauka, 180 m. n. of Saloniki), where he was born about 345; d. there about 420. The only direct sources concerning him are Gennadius's De vir. ill., xxii. and the twenty-ninth epistle and seventeenth and twenty-seventh carmen of Paulinus of Nola, whom Niceta visited in 398 and 402. The objects of his missionary activity were the Bessi, Scyths, Geti, and Dacians, and his diocese accordingly extended to the Don in the north, Pontus in the east, the jEgean in the south, and the boundaries of Dalmatia and Illyria in the west. Despite the vast extent of this diocese, the Gospel struck deep root there; monasteries and nunneries arose, the barbarians learned to praise Christ in Latin, and to live in peace and purity. The importance of Nicetas as a missionary thus rests upon the fact that he seems to have been the first to devote his life to a systematic and successful evangelization of the mountain tribes of the Hsemus. He derives his significance as an author, on the other hand, from his practical defense of the consubstantiality of the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from his zealous emphasis upon the creed that he might protect the souls committed to him from all peril of heresy. As an adherent of the Nicene Creed, therefore, he opposed both Arians and Macedonians.
Gennadius ascribes to Nicetas six tractates for the instruction of candidates for baptism. The fifth of these, De symbolo, is identical with the extant Explanatio symboli (ed. C. P. Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, pp. 341-360, Christiania, 1883); while the third, De fide unicce majestatis (also mentioned by Cassiodorus) corresponds to the two treatises De ratione fidei and De Spiritus Sancti potentia (ed., with the De diversis appellationibus domino nostra Jesu Christo convenientibus, by A. Mai, Nova collectio, vii. 314-332). The remaining tractates mentioned by Gennadius are lost. The Explanatio symboli is remarkable as containing for the first time the article of the communion of saints, which, though doubtless existing far earlier, is here introduced apparently to lead his diocese to cling to the Catholic Church and to reject Arianism. It has also been supposed, but without sufficient reason, that Nicetas was the author of the Te Deum and the two treatises De vigiliis servorum Dei and De psalmodim bono. (E. Hum pel.)
Bibliography: E. Hiimpel, Niceta, Bischof von Remesiana, Bonn, 1895 (cf. F. Kattenbusch, in TLZ, 1896, pp. 297- 303); J. Sickenberger, in R iimische Quartalschrift, xii (1898), 55-84; A. E, Burn, Niceta of Remesiana, his Life and Works,