NICHOLAS IL 



of Prato, in 1300. to build the Capella dolla Ciutols, and to enlarge 

 their Uuomo. Loaded with honours and distinctions u well as years, 

 ha in 1320 oloMd his life in bii nativ* city, and wai there buried 

 witl.iu that monument which ho had hinmilf oonitructed about forty 

 yean before, the Campo Santo, which for other* was a bury ing-place, 

 lor himself a mausoleum. 



NIUKPHOKU8, born in 758, wai the aon of Theodorus, the chief 

 aecrvtary of state to the Emperor Constuntiue V., and wai made 

 patriarch of Constantinople in the year 806. He warmly defended 

 UM worship of image* against the Iconoclasts, and watt consequently 

 baniahrd to the convent of St. Theodore, on one of the islands of the 

 Propontia, by the emperor Leo the Armenian, in 316. He died in liu 

 retirement in June 823. Nicephorus wrote several historical and 

 theological work*. 1. ' Chronograph ia Brevi*,' being a short chronicle 

 of eTenU from the beginning of the world to the time of the author'* 

 death, with the serin of king*, emperors, patriarchs, bishops, to. It 

 wa* translated into Latin, and published with notes, by Father Qoar, 

 Parti, 1652. 2. 'Breviarium Hiatoricuui,' or historical abridgment 

 from the end of Maurice's reign, 602, till the beginning of the reign 

 of Irene and her ion Constantino, 780. Father Petau published a 

 Latin translation of it in 1616, and M. Cousin ha* given a French 

 translation of it in the third volume of his 'History of Constantinople.' 

 Both the above work* of Nicephorus form part of the collection of 

 the ' Byiantine Historians.' 3. ' Stichometria Librorum Sacrorum,' 

 or enumeration of the books of Scripture, with the number of verses 

 in each, inserted in the eighth volume of Pearson'* ' Critici Sacri.' 

 4. Several treatise* against the Iconoclasts. 5. Seventeen canons 

 inserted in the Collection of Councils and other 'Opuacula.' The 

 'Life of the Patriarch Nicephorus,' by Ignatius, a contemporary 

 writer, ha* been translated into Latin, and inaerted in tho 'Acta Sanc- 

 torum.' Nicephorus is numbered among the saints both of tho Greek 

 and Kornan Church. 



NICE'PHORUS I., Emperor of Constantinople, was Logotheta, or 

 iuteudant of the finances of the empire under the reign of the Empress 

 Irene and of her son Constantino VI., iu the latter part of the 8th 

 oentury. Irene, having deprived her son of his eyes, usurped the 

 throne. After reigning alone for six years a conspiracy broke out 

 againbt her, headed by Nicepborus, who was proclaimed emperor, and 

 crowned at Santa Sophia in 802. He banished Irene to the island of 

 Lesbos, where the lived and died iu a state of destitution. The 

 troop* in Asia revolted against Nicephorus, who showed himself ava- 

 ricious and cruel, and proclaimed the patrician Bardanes etnperor ; 

 but Nicephoru* defeated and seized Bardanes, confined him to a 

 monastery, and deprived him of his tight. The Empress Irene hod 

 consented to pay an annual tribute to the Saracens, in order to stop 

 their incursions into the territories of the empire; but Nicephorus 

 refosed to continue tbe payment, and wrote a message of defiance to 

 the kalif Haruu-al-Kaahid. The kalif collected a vast army, which 

 devastated Asia Minor, and destroyed the city of Heraclca on the 

 coast of the Euxiue. Nicephorus wa* obliged to sue for peace and 

 pay tribute to tho kalif. In an attack which the emperor made on 

 the Bulgarian* he wa* utterly defeated by them and killed, July 25, 

 811. Hi* son Stauraciu* succeeded him, but reigned only six month-, 

 and waa succeeded by Michael Khangube, master of tho palace. 



NIC'EPHOKUS II. (called PHOCAS, but who must not be con- 

 founded with the usurper Phocas, who reigned in the beginning of 

 the 7th century) wa* descended of a noble Byzantine family, and 

 distinguished hiiuielf as a commander iu the field. After the death 

 of Romanus II., in 959, his widow Theopbauo, who was accused of 

 having poisoned him, reigned as guardian to her infant sou, but finding 

 herself insecure on the throne, she invited Nicephorus to come to Con- 

 stantinople, end promised him her hand. Nicephorus came, married 

 Thtophano, and assumed the title of Augustus, in 063. Ho repeatedly 

 attacked tbe Saracens, and drove them out of Cilioia and part of 

 Syria. In 908, Otho I, emperor of Germany, cent an embassy to 

 Nicephorus, who received it in nn uncivil manner. [LuiTi'RiiiDOS.] 

 But his avarice made him unpopular, and his wife, tbe unprincipled 

 Theopbano, having formed an intrigue with John Zimiscea, an 

 Armenian officer, conspired with him against her husband. Zainiscop, 

 with other conspirators, wa* introduced at night into the bedchamber 

 of the rtupcror, whom they murdered, in 960. 



KPHORU8 1IL, called BOTABIATBB, an old officer of some 

 mihUry reputation in the Hjnutine army in Asia, revolted against 

 the emperor Michael L-ucas in 1078, and with a body of troops, chiefly 



composed of Turkish mercenaries, marched to Calchedon, upon which 

 Michael resigned the purple, and Nioephorus was proclaimed emperor 

 at Constantinople. Michael was sent to a monastery with tbe title of 

 Archbishop of Epbetua. Another aspirant to the throne, Nioephorus 



liryennius, was defeated, taken prisoner, and deprived of his sight. 

 A fresh insurrection, led by basilacius, was likewise put down by the 

 troops of Nioephorus under the command of Alexis Conincnua. 

 Alexis himself, who had an hereditary claim to tbe throne, was soon 

 afterwards proclaimed emperor by the eoldiera. Having entered Con- 

 stantinople by surprise, he seised Nicephorus and banished him to a 

 mona-tery, where ha died soon sfter, in 1081. [Ai.Kiis COMMENDS.] 



h'HATUS, a physician mentioned by I>kMcori.1es (' Prtef.,' lib. i, 

 p. 2, td. Spreng.), as one of the followers of Aselepimdes, who attended 

 particularly to mat- ria medics. None of his writing* remain, but his 



prescriptions are several times mentioned by Qalen (' Opera,' ed. Kuhu, 

 t xii- ].. 634 ; t xiii. pp. 87, 96, 98, 110, 180, 232, 233 ; t. xiv. i 

 and once by Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' L xxxii., c. 31). We learn from Cvliu* 

 Aurelianus (' Morb. Chron., 1 1. it, o. 5) that he wrote also on catalepsy. 

 He flourished about tbe year B.o. 40. 



HICERON. JEAN-PIEKRE, was born at Paris in 1685. He entered 

 the regular order of Barnabites, and devoted himself to the study of 

 languages and biography. He led a life without incident, and died 

 at Paris on the 8th of July 1788. He is chiefly known as the author 

 or in some parts rather the compiler of ' Meaioins pour servir 

 u 1'llistoire des Homines Illustres dans la Rcpubliquo des Lettrea,' of 

 which thirty -nine volumes were published by Niceron, and four wore 

 added after his death. All who have had occasion to study the earlier 

 literary history of France must ba under obligations to this laborious 

 and meritorious work. Itn merits are never very high in criticism, 

 philosophy, or the essential elements of spirited and descriptive 

 biography. Niceron was however a curious and laborious reader, 

 and iu those instances where he exhibits the fruit of his own original 

 research, his matter is highly valuable. Many of the lives however 

 are mere compilations from other sources, and appear to have been 

 hastily prepared to suit the order of publication. There is little attempt 

 at a proportional distribution of space, secondary author* sometimes 

 receiving notices as elaborate as the most distinguished men of their 

 age. This is a defect sometimes not unpleasiug, as it generally attends 

 enthusiasm in some particular walk of literature, and marks the 

 original investigator. Niceron published some translations from 

 the English. (Uimoiret, torn. xl. 379-396 ; Nouveau, Didionnairc 

 Hittortque.) 



NICE'TAS, a physician of Constantinople, supposed to have lived 

 in tbe reign of Isaac Comnenus, about the middle of tbe llth century, 

 of whom nothing is known, except that he formed the collection of 

 surgical works that bears his name. It exists at present only in manu- 

 script, of which there are three copies, one at Florence and two at 

 Paris; but part of it was published at Florence, 1754, folio, with the 

 title ' Gnecorum Chirurgici Libi-i, Soraui units do Fracturarum Signis, 

 Oribasii duo de Fractia et ile Luxatis : e Collections Nioetse ab anti- 

 quicsimo et optimo codice Florentine descripti, couversi, atque editi 

 ab Antonio Cocchio,' &c. Perhaps he is the person to whom Theo- 

 phylact's fifty-fifth letter is addressed, who is styled "Physician to 

 the King." (Fabr., Bibl Or. ; Haller, Bibl. Chirurg.) 



N1CETAS, ACOM1NATUS. [BYZAKTISE HISTORIANS, voL i, 

 col. 1070.] 



NICHOLAS I., a Deacon of Rome, was electt d pope, mainly through 

 tbe influence, of the emperor Louis II., who was then at Rome, in 

 April 858, and was consecrated in St. Peter's church in presence of 

 the emperor. The new pope sent legates to Constantinople to urge 

 the emperor Michael III. to restore Ignatius to tho patriarchal see, 

 into which Photius had intruded himself, and at the same time to 

 reclaim the dioceses of lllyricum, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, which 

 the court of Constantinople had detached from the see of Rome during 

 the schism of the Iconoclasts, and which, after that schism hod bean 

 put down by the Eastern emperors, had not been restored. (Thomas- 

 sin, ' Discipline de 1'Eglise,' vol. L) Tho allegiance paid by the Roman 

 pontiffs to Charlemagne and his successors as emperors of the West 

 had greatly widened the breach between the Roman see and the Byzan- 

 tines, and the echism of Photius completed the separation of the two 

 churches. Nicholas excommunicated Photius, who in return, at a 

 council assembled at Constantinople, anathematised Nicholas and his 

 followers, asserting at tbe same time, that "since tbe seat of the 

 empire had been removed from Rome to Constantinople, the primacy 

 and privileges enjoyed till then by the Roman Bee had become trans- 

 ferred unto that of the new capital." The legates of Nicholas returned 

 to Rome without effecting anything. In the year 865 Nicholas had the 

 satisfaction of receiving into the bosom of tho church Hogoris, king of tho 

 Bulgarians, with part of bis nation. But on the other side he involved 

 himself iu a serious dispute with his former patron the emperor l.oiii*, 

 on account of Lotharius, king of Lorraine, having repudiated Theot- 

 berg hi* wife and married his concubine Waldrada. The pope had 

 appointed the archbishop* of Troves and Cologne ns his legates to 

 examine into tho affair ; but tho legates, in a council held at Met/ in 

 868, obtained a decision in favour of Lotharius, upon which Nicholas 

 assembled a council at Rome in 8C4, in which the two archbishops 

 were deposed, and Lothariua's divorce and marriage were declared 

 null The emperor Louis took the part of the archbishops, and marched 

 with troopn to Rni to oblig tbe pope to revoke the sentence. An 

 affray took place in front of St. Peter's church between the soldier* of 

 the emperor and the pope's followers, but the emperor soon after cpn- 

 sun ted to withdraw his troop*. In 8U7, Kami tho Macedonian having 

 murdered the emperor Michael, succeeded him on the throne, and 

 shortly after restored Ignatius to the patriarchal tee and banished 

 Photius. Nicholas himself died at Homo in the name year, and wai 

 succeeded by Adrian II. Nicholas bos left a number of letters upon 

 questions of church doctrine and discipline, which are inserted in 

 Coleti's ' Collection of Councils.' 



NICHOLAS IF., Gerard of Burgundy, succeeded Stephen IX. as 



pope in 1059. An opposite faction chose John bishop of VelUttri, who 



took the name of Benedict X., but the council of Sutri disavowed him, 



( ml Benedict was. obliged to resign bis claim. Nicholas assembled a 



