RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Norwich Novatian
Eckehard IV. in his Liber benedictionum, and by himself in a letter addressed to Bishop Hugo of Sitten (998-1017). From Eckehard it appears that Notker translated into German the book of Job and the Psalms and the M or alia of Gregory the Great. According to his own letter, in order to facilitate the exposition of the sacred writings, he undertook " a thing well-nigh unheard-of," the translation of Latin works into German. First he tried his hand with two works of Boethius, De consolatione philosophic and De sancta trinitate; then he turned to poetry, and rendered the Disticha of Cato, Vergil's " Bucolics " and Terence's Andria. Next followed some prose works in the province of the liberal arts, the Nuptice philologies et Mercurii of Marcianus Capella, the De categoriis and De interpretatione of Aristotle, and the Principia arithmetics (a work now unknown). Then he returned to the Scriptures, first translating the whole Psalter with comments from Augustine and going on to Job, which, according to Eckehard, he finished on the day of his death (see Bible Versions, B, VII., § 1). Of these there are now extant Boethius's De consolatione, the Marcianus Capella, the Aristotle, and the Psalter, to which last are appended the Scriptural canticles, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds. There are also extant several small original Latin works of Notker's, including one on rhetoric and a short treatise De partibus logics, and two short German works usually classed together under the title De musica. His work as a translator is marked by a thorough understanding of his task and a remarkable success in finding the right German words for the most difficult abstract expressions.
(G. Holz.)
Bibliography: On 1. The Vita by Eckehard with commentary is in ASB, April, i. 576-596, with the Processus canonizationis, pp. 596-604; G. Meyer von Knonau, in Mittheilungen der antiquarischen Gessellschaft in Zurich, xix. 4 (1877); E. Diimmler, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, xxv. 197-220, Gottingen, 1885; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1885), 59, 254-257, ii. 479, i (1893), 60, 187, 272- 274, 395, ii. 509; Z. Schwalm and P. von Winterfeld, in NA, xxvii. 740 sqq. On 2. P. Piper, Die Schriften N others und seiner Schule, Freiburg, 1882; J. Kelle, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur, i. 232 sqq., Berlin, 1892; R. Kogel, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur, i. 2, pp. 598 sqq., Strasburg, 1897.
NOTT, ELIPHALET: American clergyman and educator; b. at Ashford, Conn., June 25, 1773; d. at Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 29, 1866. His parents, who were farmers, died while he was still a boy. He studied the languages and mathematics, and taught school. He entered Brown University in 1790, and was licensed to preach in 1795. He was pastor and teacher at Cherry Valley, N. Y., in 1796-97, and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Albany, N. Y., in 1798-1804. In 1804 he was elected to the presidency of Union College, an office which he filled for more than sixty-two years, with eminent dignity and ability. When he entered upon his duties, the institution had only fourteen students and was in great pecuniary straits. Under his management it became one of the strongest literary institutions in the country. He paid much attention to natural science, especially to the laws of heat; and obtained about thirty patents for inventions in that department, one of which was the first stove for burning anthracite coal.
As an educator he was practical, unconventional, and greatly beloved. On the platform, he advocated temperance, opposed slavery, and always figured as an earnest exponent of civil and religious liberty. He was original, scholarly, and impressive as a preacher and is considered one of the greatest pulpit orators of his time. His eulogy on the death of Alexander Hamilton, delivered at Albany, July 29, 1804, remains a classic. He published Councils to Young Men (New York, 1810); Lectures on Temperance (Albany, 1847); and the Resurrection of Christ (New York, 1872).
Bibliography: C. van Santvoord and T. Lewis, Memoir of Eliphalet Nott, New York, 1876.
NOURRY. See Le Nourry.
NOURSE, EDWARD EVERETT: Congregationalism b. at Bayfield, Wis., Dec. 24, 1863. He was educated at Macalester College, St. Paul (1886- 1887), Lake Forest College (1884-86, 1887-88; B.A., 1888), Hartford Theological Seminary (grad., 1891; fellow, 1893-94), and the University of Jena (1894- 1895), and was ordained by the presbytery of Chippewa, Wis., in 1893. From 1895 to 1898 he was pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Berlin, Conn.; since 1898 he has been connected with Hartford Theological Seminary, as instructor (1898-90), associate professor of Biblical theology (1900-05), and professor of Biblical history and theology (since 1905). He has likewise been a lecturer at Mount Holyoke College since 1901 and at the Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy since 1904. In theology he is a liberal conservative. Besides contributing articles on New-Testament topics to the New International Encyclopaedia (New York, 1902- 1906), and in addition to his activity as associate editor of A Standard Dictionary of the Bible (1909), he has written Genesis and the Religious Development of Israel (Hartford, 1906).