RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Nicholas of Strasburg Nicolai
He was graduated from Dartmouth College (A.B., 1869) and Virginia Theological Seminary (1871), being ordered deacon in the same year and priested in 1872. He was curate of St. Thomas's, Hanover, N. H. (1871-72) and of St. Paul's, Baltimore (1872- 1875), and rector of the Church of the Ascension, Westminster, Md. (1875-79), and of St. Mark's, Philadelphia (1879-91). In 1891 he was consecrated bishop of Milwaukee, after having declined the proffered see of Indiana in 1883. Bibliography: W. S. Perry, The Episcopate in America, p. 335, New York, 1895.
NICHOLSON, WILLIAM RUFUS: Reformed Episcopal; b. in Green County, Miss., Jan. 8, 1822; d. at Philadelphia, Pa., June 7, 1901. He graduated from La Grange College, Ala., 1840; became pastor of the Poydras Street Methodist Episcopal Church, New Orleans, La., 1842; entered the Protestant Episcopal Church, and became rector of St. John's, Cincinnati, O., 1849; of St. Paul's, Boston, 1859; of Trinity Church, Newark, N. J., 1872; he then entered the Reformed Episcopal Church, and took charge of the Second Reformed Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, 1874. In 1876 he was consecrated bishop, and later was chosen dean of the Reformed Episcopal Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. He wrote, besides numerous tracts on doctrinal subjects, The Bearing of Prophecy on Inspiration in The Inspired Word, ed. A. T. Pierson (New York, 1888).
NICLAES (NICLAS), HENDRIK. See Fami-
LISTS.
NICODEMUS, GOSPEL OF. See Apocrypha, B, I., 7.
NICODEMUS (NIKOLAUS) HAGIORITES: Monk in the monastery of Dionysius on Mount Athos; b. on the Island of Naxos 1748; d. at Mount Athos, in the monastery of the Skourtseans above Karyes, 1809. His life passed quietly, except that he was involved in the Kolywa controversy which in the second half of the eighteenth century arose over the question whether the memorial celebrations for the dead should take place on Saturday according to the opinion of the old orthodox or on Sunday. Nicodemus adhered to the orthodox tendency, had to suffer for it, but was finally justified. His importance lies in his extensive literary work. He was not a creative spirit, but reproduced old Greek orthodoxy, putting it in the garb of popular Greek and thus making it the common possession of his church. His principal departments are hagiography, asceticism, mysticism, liturgies, canon law, and practical exegesis. Among his works on hagiography is to be mentioned especially: " Ritual for the Twelve Months of the Year " (3 vols., Venice, 1819; 12 vols., Constantinople, 1841 sqq.; 3 vols., Zakynthos, 1868), a rich source for the study of the worship of saints in the Greek Church. Other works are: " The New Martyrology" (ib., 1799); " The New Choice " (Venice, 1803). He also edited " A Collection of the Divine Utterances and the Inspired Doctrines of the Holy Fathers " (Venice, 1782), a work of Paulos, the founder of the monastery
of Euergetis. In the sphere of asceticism and mysticism he published: " Love of Beauty of the Holy Ascetics" (Venice, 1782); "The Invisible Battle" (Venice, 1796); "Spiritual Exercises" (Venice, 1800); "Handbook of Directions" (Vienna, 1801); "The Excellence of Christians" (Venice, 1803). For the use of the Church in the narrower sense he published a " Book of Confession " (1794, 7th ed., 1854) which is still used. But he achieved his highest fame by the compilation of the corpus of Greek canon law, " Rudder of the Intellectual Ship of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church " (Leipsic, 1800 and later editions). In the sphere of exegesis he wrote an interesting commentary on the Catholic Epistles (Venice, 1819) and translated Euthymius Zygabenus' commentary on the Psalms into popular Greek (Constantinople, 1819-21). (Philipp Meyer.) Bibliography: A sketch of his life is prefixed to the " Ritual," ut sup. Consult further: R. Nicolai, Geschichte der neugriechischen Litteratur, Leipsic, 1876; L. Petit, in Echos d'orient, 1899, pp. 321 sqq.; A. D. Kyriakos, Geschichte der orientalischen Kirchen, p. 155, Leipsic, 1902.
NICOL, THOMAS: Church of Scotland; b. at Castleton of Kincardine, parish of Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Oct. 21, 1846. He was educated at the universities of Aberdeen (M.A., 1868), Edinburgh (B.D., 1871), and Tubingen (1871), after which he was minister at Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire (1873-79), and Tolbooth Parish, Edinburgh (1879- 1899). Since 1899 he has been professor of divinity and Biblical criticism in the University of Aberdeen. He was also editor of the Church of Scotland Mission Record from 1886 to 1900, Croall lecturer in 1897- 1898, and Baird lecturer in 1907, and has been convener of the Church of Scotland Jewish Mission Committee since 1896. In addition to translating J. T. Beck's Pastorallehren des Neuen Testaments (Giitersloh, 1880) in collaboration with J. A. M'Clymont (Pastoral Theology of the New Testament, Edinburgh, 1885), and editing the Church of Scotland Sabbath School Teachers' Book (1890), he has written Recent Explorations in Bible Lands (1892); Recent Archceology and the Bible (Croall lectures; 1898); The Present Position and Prospects of Biblical Science (1899); and The Four Gospels in the Earliest Church History (1908).
NICOLAI, ni"co-lai', PHILIPP: German Lutheran theologian and hymn-writer; b. at Mengeringhausen (12 m. n. of Waldeck) Aug. 10, 1556; d. at Hamburg Oct. 26, 1608. In 1575 he visited the University of Erfurt, and subsequently Wittenberg. In the year 1583 he was called as Evangelical preacher to his father's former field of labor at Herdecke, Westphalia; in 1587 to Nieder-Wildungen, and almost immediately to Alt-Wildungen, where he was court preacher to the Lutheran countess of Waldeck, and tutor to her son. Here he became involved in the conflict with encroaching Calvinism, which he opposed with his pen. In 1596 he accepted a call as preacher at Unna, Westphalia, where the Lutherans, after a long struggle with the Calvinists, had gained the supremacy. Here he wrote that notorious book: Kurzer Bericht von der Calvinisten Gott und ihrer Religion (1598). The evil reports about his manner of life, scattered abroad by
Nicolai Nicolas