NIC 
cen in Natural Hiffory. See CHE 
NICON, i in Biography, a diftinguifhed Ruffian prelate, 
was born in 1613, of obf{cure parents, ina ee belonging 
to the government of Nifhnei Novgorod received at 
ag baptifmal font the name of Nikita, ae eee. 
en he became a monk, he changed to Nicon, the appel- 
ros by which he is more generally known. He was edu- 
cated in the convent o acarius, where his ftudies were 
directed almoft entirely to ‘the holy {criptures, and influenced 
by the exhortations of his preceptors, he imbibed at a very 
early period the ftrongeft attachment toa monattic life, but 
his father fet his face againft it, and he entered into the mar- 
riage ftate, and thus precluded from admiffion into the con- 
vent, he was ordained a fecular prieft. With his wife he 
take the ve va he ec 
for his retreat a {mall ifland in the White fea, inhabited only 
ya sits perfons, who formed a kind of ecclefiaftical eta- 
blifhment, as remarkable for the aufterity of the rules as 
for bie! folitude of the fituation. There were twelve monks, 
2, 
i) 
She whole aa: 
a red to their re- 
fpetive habitations. After a fho nce in this ifland, he 
accompanied the ehief of the ecclefiaftical eftablifhment to 
of{cow, to raife a colleGtion for r 
an opportunity of difplaying a sete aged inftanc 
nefs and difcretion. Durin 
s till he had carried his point, and fuch 
was ¢ ence which he manifefted, that he aCually 
foftened the hearts of thofe who but a fhort time before had 
exulted i in his {uppofed deftru€tion ; and many of the deluded 
3 
NIC 
multitude flocked around him, intreating him not only to 
uct, but to intercede for them 
: armed with full powers dele- 
gated tl the oo he finally quelled the rebellion. To 
him’alfo was c 
lute difpofal of “life and death; an office eich he executed 
with fo much judgment and lenity, that he only punifhed 
with death ‘the leader of the fedition, ten others fuffered the 
punifhment of the knoot, and were afterwards banifhed, and 
a few were condemned to a fhort term of im = orient: 
The condu& of Nicon on this occafion was admired even by 
his enemies: he gained the refpe¢t of the inhabitants by the 
unwearied affiduity with which he performed the funCtions of 
his archiepifcopal office, and conciliated their affection by 
aéts of unbounded charity. He built and endowed alms- 
houfes for widows, oe men, and orphans, was the great 
mined that the moft ancient Sclavonian verfion of the bible 
was exaét, and that the numerous errors which had crept into 
the later copies fhould be corre&ted. He fuperintended the 
printing of a new regen of this Sclavonian bible, which was 
become exceedingly rare. He removed from the churches 
the pictures of ere perfons m many of the 
» to who 
Ru fhans offered the moft ie nd adoration : he abolifhed cer- 
bee 
affert that ** he wifhed 
throne, and that he not only ae the neht of fitting 
clofe to the czar in the fenate, but pretended that pies 
peace nor war could be made nears his confent.”?  « Thi 
idle ares ? bias Mr. Coxe, ‘ has been adopted by th 
compiler of the article Ruffia in the ae Hiftory,”’ on 
acing can be more void o ati 
After having es attained oe higi helt fummit of human 
grandeur to which a fubje& can arrive, he fell a vidtim a 
popular sae aul to the cabals of a court. His fall 
was more fu an his rife, andi is traced from the follow- 
which occafionally bordered upon arrogance; by trufting 
folely 
