., Emperor of Constantinople, was a native of Seleucia, and rose by the favour of the Empress Irene, and by his own hypocritical intrigues, to the high office of logotheta, or minister of finances. In 802 A.D., assisted by the ungrateful treachery of some eunuchs who were high in favour with the queen, he seized upon the purple. After Nicephorus had consolidated his power by the most cruel measures, he despatched a letter to the caliph Harun-al-Raschid, demanding back the tribute-money paid him by the Empress Irene. The caliph replied by devastating the plains of Phrygia; and, after various fortunes, the death of Harun-al-Raschid in 809, left Nicephorus to direct a system of universal butchery against the Bulgarians. He was surprised and slain in 811. (See Constantinopolitan History.)

Nicephorus II., surnamed Phocas, Emperor of Constantinople, was the descendant of a warlike race, and was born about 912 A.D. He was brought up in the camp, and rose by his own merit through the different grades of promotion until he was appointed magnum domesticus in 954. His military genius was first displayed in several expeditions against the Saracens during 956 and 958; but not until 959 did it appear in its full splendour. He then proposed to the young emperor Romanus II. the bold design of taking Crete, which had been for more than a hundred years the impregnable stronghold of a desperate gang of Arabian pirates. The enterprise received the approval of the emperor; and in 960 Nicephorus was laying vigorous siege to the massive fortifications of Candia, the capital of the Cretans. Complete success was achieved in the following year. He captured the city, and along with it the whole island; the inhabitants yielded to his proselytizing zeal, and received baptism; and the long-extinct honours of a triumph were revived to reward him on his return to Constantinople. But in the full enjoyment of his renown, the conqueror did not forget to follow up his success. Setting out at the head of a mighty army in 962, he forced his way through the narrow passes of Mount Amnus, and entering Syria, compelled the principal cities to throw open their gates. He was advancing in his career of victory towards the River Euphrates, when intelligence reached him, in 963, of the death of the Emperor Romanus. The thought of aspiring to the vacant throne now seized him, and changed the generous and free-hearted warrior into the wily votary of ambition. His designs were executed with a soldier-like promptness and decision. He first procured for himself the appointment to the supreme command of the oriental armies during the minority of the infant princes; then he gained over to his interest the officers and soldiers; and at length he married the deceased emperor's wife—the infamous Theophano—and assumed the title of Augustus. But Nicephorus was not so popular on the throne as in the camp. Though he reappeared at the head of his armies, and yearly made a successful invasion against the Saracens, yet the heavy taxes which were levied to support these expeditions more than counterbalanced, in the public estimation, the glory gained by them. The emperor came to be generally accused of hypocrisy and avarice. His fickle wife in course of time joined the number of his enemies, and began to plot his death. One of her paramours, John Zimisces, a brave and able general of the imperial armies, was induced to undertake the office of assassin. On a December night in 969, he crossed in a small boat from the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, and was admitted by a rope-ladder into the palace. There a band of cut-throats, putting themselves under his direction, burst into the royal apartment, and murdered Nicephorus as he started from sleep. The arch-assassin immediately afterwards married Theophano, and succeeded to the purple.

Nicephorus III., surnamed Baloniates, Emperor of Constantinople, claimed to be a descendant of the Roman Fabii. He served in the imperial forces, and in 1078 had risen to be commander of the army in Asia. In that year, aided by the Sultan Soliman, he raised the standard of revolt against the Emperor Michael VII. The discontented populace of Constantinople received him with enthusiasm; the weak emperor resigned his crown to retire into a monastery; and Nicephorus ascended the throne on the 25th March 1078. The new reign was inaugurated with a cruel and narrow-minded policy which soon brought it to a close. The rebel generals Ursel, Bryennius, and Basilacius, who were soon afterwards defeated and captured, had their eyes put out, and were reserved for further cruelties. Even the brave Alexis Comnenus, the conqueror of these, became at length the object of the emperor's ever-watchful suspicions, and was forced to flee from the ungrateful court. It was this injustice that caused the downfall of Nicephorus. Alexis was proclaimed emperor by the indignant soldiery, and Nicephorus, resigning the crown retired to end his days in a monastery.

Nicephorus Callistus, an ecclesiastical historian, was born towards the close of the thirteenth century, and died about 1350. In his thirty-sixth year he was engaged at Constantinople in the composition of an Historia Ecclesiastica, founded on the narratives of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, and others. It is filled with absurd fables; and of the twenty-three books only eighteen are extant. They were published in Greek and Latin, in 3 vols. fol., Paris, 1630.

Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, was the son of Theodoreus, one of the imperial secretaries of Constantius Copronymus, and was born in 758. From his father he inherited a zeal for image-worship, which gave a colour to all the principal events of his life. He was present as imperial commissary at the Nicene Council of 787, and raised his voice against the Iconoclasts. This spirit of partizanship only became more intense when, in 806, he was raised from the condition of a monk to the patriarchate of Constantinople. An edict against the worship of images was passed in 814 by Leo the Armenian; but neither entreaties nor menaces could prevail upon Nicephorus to assent to it. He rather preferred to be deposed in the following year, and to spend the rest of his days in a convent. His death took place in June 828. Of his works, which are written in Greek, the best is his Brevarium Historicum, a compendious history of the period extending between 602 A.D. and 770. It was published, with a Latin version and notes, in 8vo, Paris, 1616; and was reprinted in the Corpus Historiae Byzantinae. A Life of the Patriarch Nicephorus, by his contemporary Ignatius, has been translated into Latin, and inserted in the Acta Sanctorum.

Nicholas I., the earliest of the Roman pontiffs who bore that name, was elevated from the rank of a deacon to the papal chair in April 858. One of his first endeavours was to realize the alleged supremacy of the popedom. Assuming as his authority the new ecclesiastical code, now known by the name of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, he asserted that the Pope, as the representative of St Peter, was the head of Christ's body the church; that the bishops, as members of that body, had no other law than his will; and that all offences throughout Christendom should be liable to be arraigned before his tribunal. These principles, so boldly asserted, were as boldly carried into practice. Taking part in the dispute concerning the patriarchate of Constantinople between Ignatius and Photius, he excommunicated the latter in 863, and maintained a fierce controversy with the Emperor Michael III. in support of this exercise of his ecclesiastical authority. He also interfered, during the same year, with the attempt of Lotharius, King Nicholas, of Lotharingia, to divorce his wife Thietberga, and to marry his concubine Waldrada. The Emperor Louis, the brother of Lotharius, bent upon forcing Nicholas to withdraw his interference, marched into Rome at the head of an army. But the fervent and long-continued devotions and the saint-like composure of the Pope soon awed the superstitious potentate into submission and reconciliation. Nicholas continued for the rest of his life to vindicate successfully the absolute ecclesiastical supremacy of the see of Rome. He died in 867. His letters, amounting to about a hundred, and treating of church doctrine and discipline, were published in folio, Rome, 1542. The rest of his works were inserted in Coleti's Collection of Councils.

Nicholas II., whose original name was Gerhard, was promoted from the bishopric of Florence to the Papal chair in 1058. Under the guidance of the able and ambitious Hildebrand, who was afterwards supreme pontiff under the title of Gregory VII., he proceeded to establish his authority, and to provide for the increased stability and influence of the Papal see. John, bishop of Velletri, who had been set up as a rival Pope, under the name of Benedict X., was forced to submit. A law was passed in 1059 which took the power of choosing the supreme pontiff out of the hands of the Roman mob, placed it in the hands of the cardinal bishops and priests, and restricted the elective influence of the emperor and the citizens of Rome to a mere assent. The new Pope was even daring enough to claim the possession of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, to give them in fief to Robert Guiscard, a Norman, and thus to establish the civil supremacy of the Roman see over that territory which was afterwards known as the kingdom of Naples. Nicholas was further engaged in enforcing a stricter morality upon the priests, when he died in July 1061.

Nicholas III., whose original name was Giovanni Garantii, succeeded John XXI. in 1277. His descent from the noble family of the Orsini, his tact, and his energy rendered him a powerful upholder of the despotism of the Roman see. He obtained from the Emperor Rudolph several grants of territory in Italy, and punished the haughty insubordination of Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, by depriving him of the dignity of senator of Rome. Other great projects were occupying his attention, when a stroke of apoplexy brought his career to a close in 1280.

Nicholas IV., originally known by the name of Jerome of Ascoli, was raised from the bishopric of Palestrina to the pontifical chair in 1288. Though sometimes guilty of favouritism, he was characterized in general by an enlightened zeal for the welfare of the church. He was a liberal patron of theological as well as civil learning; he sent forth missionaries as far as China; and he used his utmost efforts to revive the spirit of the Crusades. It is said to have been the final expulsion of the Christians from the Holy Land that hastened his death in 1292.

Nicholas V., whose real name was Tommaso Da Sarzana, succeeded Eugenius IV. in 1447. The meek probity of his character did not suffer him to adopt the usual aggressive policy of the popedom; and his literary tastes induced him to seek for that general peace which is so favourable to the advancement of learning and civilization. The consequence was, that in 1449 the anti-Pope Felix V., who had for several years maintained a schism in the church, tendered his submission; and about the same time the Italian states, discontinuing their accustomed broils, relapsed into tranquillity. The learned pontiff was thus enabled to devote the rest of his life to the promotion of polite letters. Under his rule Rome became the favourite seat of learning. The most liberal patronage was extended to literary merit; wits and scholars from all parts of Europe thronged the pontifical court; a library, containing famous manuscripts of the Christian fathers and the great Greek authors, began to be formed in the Vatican; and messengers were constantly arriving from all the countries of Christendom with new treasures for its shelves. This rapid advance towards general enlightenment was prematurely interrupted by the death of his wise and munificent promoter in 1455.

Nicholas, Sr., one of the Cape Verde Islands, is situated in N. Lat. 16° 42', W. Long. 24° 20'. Its shape is irregular; and its area is 115 square miles. There are two remarkable mountains in the island, one of which, near the centre, has the form of a sugar-loaf, and is called the Peak of Trade. The soil is fertile, but there is not much wood or water. There are several not very good harbours on the south coast; but the principal trade is carried on at Grand or St George Bay, at the western extremity. Pop. 5418.

Nichols, John, a writer of literary anecdotes, was born at Islington in 1745, and at the age of twelve became an apprentice to the famous printer William Bowyer. His taste for literature, his industry, and his business talents soon raised him high in the favour of his master. He was taken into partnership in 1766, and succeeded to the entire business in 1777. It was then that the aptitude for curious biographical and topographical research by which he was specially characterized began to appear to the world. In course of time it found full scope in the Gentleman's Magazine, of which he became editor and part proprietor in 1778; in his History of Leicestershire, which he began in 1785, and completed in 4 vols. fol. in 1815; and in a series of rare literary and antiquarian works which he continued to edit and print. But its chief result was the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, in 9 vols. 8vo, 1812–15. This work was a rich biographical treasury, containing numerous traits of eminent men of every stamp, and much correspondence, judiciously selected and accurately given. But Nichols had not yet exhausted his stock of this sort of historical materials. In 1817–22, he published Literary Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, intended as a Sequel to the Literary Anecdotes, in 4 vols. A fifth volume was in the press, and a sixth in preparation, when the author died in 1826. The former was published in 1828, and the latter in 1831. A seventh volume appeared in 1848, and an eighth in 1858, both by his son, John Bowyer Nichols, who succeeded to his father's business. (See Gentleman's Magazine for 1826.)

Nicholson, William, an eminent chemist and mechanician, was born in London in 1753. His early years were spent in commercial pursuits, but he soon abandoned that occupation for the more congenial walk of scientific research. He opened a school in the metropolis in 1775, which he continued to conduct with great success for a long series of years. Meanwhile he prosecuted mechanical invention and scientific inquiry with great zeal. Besides English translations of the chemical works of Fourcroy, Chaptal, &c., he wrote numerous treatises on natural philosophy and chemistry, and was unquestionably the most eminent philosophical journalist of his day. His most valued works are his Dictionary of Chemistry, 2 vols. 4to, 1795; and his Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, 5 vols. 4to, 1797–1802, of which a new series appeared in 36 vols. 8vo, 1802–14. He invented an araxometer and other instruments, but so impoverished himself by these pursuits that he was imprisoned for debt. He died in London in June 1815. (See Dissert. Sixth, chap. vii.)