THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
papal throne May 12, 1328. But already on the 4th of August, after vainly seeking recognition from both princes and peoples, he was obliged to leave Rome with Louis. On the return of the latter to Germany, Nicholas sought refuge in Pisa. In 1330 he craved mercy of John XXII., and made a confession of his sins; but this did not save him from spending the rest of his life in prison. He died Oct. 16, 1333. Nicholas took part in the controversy concerning the right of his order to own property in a work entitled De controversia paupertatis Christi (in J. F. Boehmer, Fontes Rerum Germanicorum, iv. 517 sqq., Stuttgart, 1868).
K. Benrath.
Bibliography: Consult, besides the work of Boehmer named in the text: Kopp, ut sup. under Nicholas IV., vol. v., part 1, Lucerne, 1858; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom., ii. 805 sqq., Berlin, 1867; S. Riezler. Die litterarischen Widersacher der Papste zur Zeit Ludwig des Baiern, Leipsic, 1874; C. M filler, Der Kampf Ludwigs des Baiern mit der rbmischen Kurie, i. 192, Tubingen, 1879; Eubel, Der Gegenpapsl Nikolaus V., in Historisches J ahrbuch der Gorresgesellschaft, vol. xii., 1891; Bower, Popes, iii. 82-86; Milman, Latin Christianity, vii. 103- 111; Creighton, Papacy, i. 47.
Nicholas V.: Pope 1447-55. This humanist, Tommaso Parentucelli of Sargana, was made archbishop of Bologna in 1439 by Eugenius IV., who had noted his ability at the Council of Florence in 1439. After he had executed the difficult mission of snatching from the Germans at the Diet of Frankfort all the advantages they had gained at the Council of Basel, the pope raised him to the rank of cardinal. He was therefore able to take part in the conclave at the death of Eugene in the same year, and was himself chosen. His pontificate is equally noteworthy from a political standpoint as from that of the encouragement of art and science. He concluded with the German King Frederic III. in 1448 the Aschaff enburg concordat, which accorded to the pope annats, reservations and the Menses Papales (q.v.; also see Concordats, III., 2). He put an end to the schism and celebrated a magnificent jubilee in 1450. He was a man of such wide culture that jEneas Sylvius said of him: " What he does not know is beyond the range of human knowledge." Besides his antiquarian studies he still found time and means to embellish Rome. He reerected its walls in 1451, began the extension of the Vatican Palace, the completion of which was prevented by his death, and founded the Vatican library. He was but little liked by the Romans, as is shown by a conspiracy of Stefano Porcaro against him and even against the existence of the papacy in Rome, which was fortunately discovered (Jan., 1453). The mental depression produced by this was intensified by the terrible news that Constantinople had fallen into the hands of the Turks (1453). He ordered the preaching of a crusade but without success; all he could do was to join the League of Lodi (1454), founded for the defense of Christendom. He died Mar. 24, 1455.
K. Benrath. Bibliography: A Vita by Manetti is in L. A. Muratori, ut sup. (under Nicholas IV.), iii. 2, pp. 907 sqq.; and one by Georgius was printed Rome, 1742. Consult: Schaff, Christian Church, v. 2, § 49; Pastor, Popes, ii. 3-313; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iii. 1, 110 sqq., Berlin, 1868; Dehio, Die Bauprojekts Nikolaus V., in Re-
pertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, vol. iii., 1880; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, lxviii.; E. Pears, Destruction of the German Empire and . . the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, London, 1903; Creighton, Papacy, ii. 385 sqq., iii. 97 sqq.; Bower, Popes, iii. 235-238; Milman, Latin Christianity, viii. 90, 130, 488, 491; Platina, Popes, ii. 235-250.
NICHOLAS OF BASEL. See Friends of God.
NICHOLAS OF BIBRA (NICOLAUS DE BIBERA) : A medieval German satirical poet; b. apparently at Geithain (24 m. s.s.e. of Leipsic), Saxony; d., presumably at Bibra (25 m. s.w. of Halle), after 1307. Trithemius, in his Scriptores ecclesiastici, mentions an Erfurt theologian and poet of the name, of whom he had seen a work entitled Occultus, who had left also a De cavendo malo and a volume of letters. Flacius, in his search for material against the papal system, came upon several manuscripts of the Occultus and gave some extracts from them in his Catalogus testium veritatis. A little further information was given, from a manuscript at Helmstadt, by Leyser in his Historia poetarum et poematum medii cevi (Halle, 1721); but no thorough knowledge of Nicholas's work was gained until Hofler published the entire poem (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, xxxvii., 1861, 163-262), from an inferior manuscript at Prague, and Fischer produced a critical edition (Halle, 1870). From this it appeared that the two works mentioned by Trithemius were really the same, and that the author had called himself " Occultus," i.e., anonymous. Nothing is known of him except what can be gathered from his work. He seems to have studied at Padua, to have been four times in Rome, and then to have settled in Erfurt as a cleric, possibly a canon. A document of 1279 describes him as " custos ecclesise Byberacensis." His poems, in 2,441 leonine hexameters, seem to have been mainly composed between 1281 and 1283, and put together by himself, with notes, from 1305 to 1307. Flacius was misled by prejudice in including him among the precursors of the Reformation; but Nicholas is a writer from whom much may be learned about the conditions prevailing in Germany, both in Church and State, at the end of the thirteenth century. (G. Kawerau.)
Bibliography: There is a Germ, transl. of the Carmen by Rienacker in the Year Book of the Royal Academy at Erfurt, new series, vii. 1-101. Consult: O. Lorenz, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, ii. 133 sqq., Berlin, 1887; F. X. Wegele, Friedrich der Freidige, pp. 366-369, Nordlingen, 1870; Potthast, Wegweiser, p. 851.
NICHOLAS OF CUSA. See Cusa, Nicholas of.
NICHOLAS OF HEREFORD (NICHOLAS HER- FORD) : Lollard, and collaborator with Wyclif in translating the English Bible; d. in the Carthusian monastery at St. Anne's, Coventry, after 1417. Of his early life little is known. He was a student of Queen's College, Oxford, where he was bursar 1374-75, and took his doctorate in 1382. Here he in all probability came under the influence of John Wyclif, and by 1382 was already known and marked as an enemy by the friars. In that year he preached a sermon which, with his previous utterances, led to his suspension, along with that of Wyclif and Philip Repington, from the exercise of public functions. Nicholas was tried before