memory at Brescello dated in 1576, he is said to have died at the age of seventy-eight. Nizzoli was one of the most elegant Latin writers of his time. His "Thesaurus Ciceronianus," several times re-published with additions, and entitled "Apparatus Latine Locutionis," is acknowledged to be a very useful work, though criticised by Henry Stephens. In his work on "The true Principles of Philosophising" he vehemently attacked the peripatetic doctrines, and particularly exposed the barbarisms of the scholastics, to which, from his great love of Ciceronian purity, he was a bitter enemy. Of this performance a new edition was given by Leibnitz, with an illustrative preface. Moreri. Tiraboschi. Brucker.--A. NOAH, the patriarch and prophet, was the son of Lamech, a descendant from Seth the third son of Adam, and born in the year 2948 B. C. In his days a general corruption of manners prevailed among the human race, and the descendants both of Cain and of Seth in general, seemed to vie with each other in impiety, injustice, and every species of immorality. Noah, however, had the fortitude to preserve himself uncontaminated by the evil examples which surrounded him, and to secure the divine approbation by his piety and virtue. Affected by the wretched depravity in which his fellow men were sunk, he undertook the office of a public preacher, and endeavoured by his exhortations and admonitions to reform their morals, and to restore true religion among them. His labours proving in vain, and their wickedness having arrived at the highest pitch, God determined to exhibit a signal testimony of his displeasure against vice, and sentenced them to destruction by an universal deluge. But, as Noah had "found grace in the eyes of the Lord," God was pleased to select him and his family, for the purpose of perpetuating the human species, and of preserving the various classes of living creatures from becoming exinct by that dreadful catastrophe. With this view, Noah was divinely directed to build an ark, or vessel of three decks or stories, divided into apartments, and sufficiently capacious to contain his family, a pair of all unclean animals, or, probably, such as were not fit for food, and seven pair of all the clean species, which might serve for human sustenance, together with the provision requisite for their support during the period of the threatened judgment, This vessel he was ordered to cover with bitumen, both within and without, to keep out the water. When it was completed and furnished with the proper necessaries, and all the animals were collected, seven days before the deluge Noah was directed to enter the ark, with his family, and the animals to be properly settled against that event. At length the dreadful day arrived which was to display the commencement of the divine vengeance on a guilty world; when the fountains of the great deep broke up, which able modern naturalists suppose to have been a preternatural eruption of water from the southern ocean, and an uncommon torrent of rain began to descend, and continued for forty days, till the tops of the highest mountains were overflowed, and a general destruction brought upon mankind and all living creatures, those only excepted which were preserved in the ark. This tremendous ruin of the old world took place in the year 2349, B. C. when Noah was six hundred years of age. After the flood had prevailed an hundred and fifty days, the waters began gradually to subside, and in the seventh month after the commencement of the deluge, the ark which had hitherto floated on their surface rested on the mountains of Ararat, supposed to be the mountains which go by that name in Armenia. In the tenth month the tops of the mountains were visible; and forty days afterwards Noah sent out of the ark a raven and a dove, the latter of which only returned to him, for want of food. Seven days afterwards he sent forth the dove a second time, which returned in the evening, with the leaf of an olive tree in its bill, shewing that what had been the cultivated districts of the earth were now emerging from the inundation. After the expiration of other seven days, he sent forth the dove a third time, which returned to him no more, thereby indicating that the earth was in a proper state to afford nutriment to the animals which he had preserved. Noah now made the necessary preparations for quitting the ark, which he left on the first day of the six hundred and first year of his age, with his wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives, and the animals which were to stock the new world. The first thing which he did upon his landing, was to erect an altar, on which he offered a burnt-sacrifice of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, by way of thanksgiving for the merciful deliverance which he had experienced. With this expression of his gratitude the divine Being was well pleased, and blessed Noah and his family; commanding them to multiply and re plenish the earth, giving them power over all living creatures, and a permission to eat of them as freely as of the produce of the ground. However, they were forbidden to eat the blood of animals, or to shed that of man. same time God gave them a gracious assurance, At the that he would not again destroy the earth by a flood, directing them to consider the phenomenon of the rainbow as a token of this promise. After coming down from the mountains of Ararat, Noah applied himself to the cultivation of the ground, and he also planted a vineyard. From the grapes of this plantation he afterwards expressed wine, the first making of which is by some ascribed to him. However, he does not appear as yet to have been aware of its strength; for having been tempted by its agreeable taste to drink of it too freely, he became completely inebriated, and fell asleep in an indecent and naked posture. In this situation he was seen by his son Ham, who, instead of reverently covering his father's nakedness, went out to his brethren Shem and Japheth, and endeavoured to divert them at the expence of their venerable parent; but those worthier sons of the patriarch, influenced by true filial piety and respect, took a mantle on both their shoulders, and, going backwards, concealed their father's shame. When Noah awoké, and was informed of the conduct of his respective sons, filled with indignation at the undutiful part which Ham had acted, he pronounced an imprecation against him, declaring that Canaan, his youngest son, and who was probably most dear to him, should be the servant of Shem and Japheth; while he poured out his best blessings on both the latter, for their proper behaviour on that occasion. This imprecation and these blessings were prophetical, and remarkably fulfilled in the posterity of the sons of Noah; many of the descendants of Ham, who peopled Africa, having been reduced to a state of slavery, and all the most illustrious nations of Asia and Europe springing from the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Noah died in 1998 B. C. in the nine hundred and fiftieth year of his age. Nunerous traditions, some of them highly absurd, have been propagated concerning this patriarch by the oriental Christians, the Jews, and the Mahometans, several of which may be found in the last of our authorities, and in D'Herbelot's "Bibl. Orient." Genesis v.ix. 2 Peter ii. 5. Ancient Un. Hist. vol. I. bock i. ch. 1. Blair's Chron. Tab.-M. NOAILLES, LEWIS-ANTHONY DE, an il VOL. VIL lustrious French prelate and cardinal in the seventeenth and former part of the eighteenth century, was the second son of Anne, the first duke de Noailles, and born in the year 1651. birth, and distinguished himself not only by He received an education worthy of his high his literary improvement, but by the ardour of his piety from his early years. Being inclined to the clerical profession, he pursued his studies at the university of Paris, and after taking the degree of licentiate at the Sorbonne, with great reputation, was admitted to the degree of doctor in the same faculty in the year 1676. Apprized of his merit, in 1679 the king presented him to the see of Cahors; from which he was translated, in the following year, to that of Chalons on the Marne. In both these situations he distinguished himself by the zeal and fidelity with which he discharged the duties of his pastoral function, by his diffusive charity, and bright example of the other christian virtues. bishopric of Paris became vacant by the death When, in the year 1695, the archof Francis de Harlay, Lewis XIV. fixed upwho at first hesitated to accept of that dignity; on the bishop of Chalons for his successor, representing to his majesty, that he should meet with enemies among all parties at Paris, as he was determined not to make himself a party in the quarrels of the Jesuits, and should oppose the sentiments of the Jansenists. Being assured, however, of the king's support, he undertook the new charge, and steadily pursued the same course which he had followed in his other sees, shewing himself the vigilant and affectionate pastor of his flock, and publishing excellent rules for the reformation of the clergy. Among other objects that engaged his zeal, was the rooting out of quietism, which was gaining ground in his diocese. With this view he proceeded against the persons who entertained those notions by judicial sentences; and he also drew his pen against them. In 1697, he published "Pastoral Instruction on the Subject of Christian Perfection, and the inward Life, against the Illusions of false Mystics." He, likewise, published a "Pastoral Letter" against the Jansenists, containing a condemnation of a book written by the abhé Barcos, entitled, "An Exposition of the Catholic Faith on the Subject of Grace." The Jesuits, however, were not satisfied with what he wrote against their opponents, remembering that in the bation to father Quesnel's "Moral Reflecwhen bishop of Chalons, he gave his approyear 1685, tions," which were favourable to some of the notions of the bishop of Ypres, and finding that he still continued to patronize that work. They, therefore, determined to direct their attack against the archbishop, and one of their society, father Doucin, gave the signal of war by publishing, in 1698, the famous problem, "Whom are we to believe? M. de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, while condemning the Exposition of Faith;' or, M. de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons, while approving the Moral Reflections?" The publication of this piece gave rise to an enmity between the Jesuits and the archbishop, which was displayed on both sides, on various occasions, during the remainder of our prelate's life. In the year 1700, he presided at an assembly of the clergy, in which he procured one hundred and twentyseven propositions to be condemned, extracted from the works of different casuists, many of whom were Jesuits. Afterwards he presided in several general assemblies, ordinary and extraordinary, of the clergy of France. During the year 1700, at the instance of the king, M. de Noailles was preferred to the dignity of cardinal; and in the same year he assisted at the conclave in which Clement XI. was elected pope. In 1701, the famous case of conscience was proposed for resolution, Whether the sacrament ought to be administered to a person who had signed the formulary, while he was firmly convinced that the pope and the church were mistaken with respect to a matter of fact?" This question was resolved in the affirmative by forty doctors of the Sorbonne, who had adopted the distinction invented by the celebrated Arnaud, acknowledging the right of the Roman pontiff to condemn the five propositions attributed to Jansenius, (see his article) but maintaining that they were not bound to believe the fact, that those propositions were to be found in Jansenius's book, in the sense in which they had been condemned; and who also maintained, that in matters of fact the pope was fallible, especially when his decisions were merely personal, and not confirmed by a general council. On this occasion the Jesuits asserted, that faith and confidence in the papal decisions relating to matter of fact, had no less the characters of a well-grounded and divine faith, than when these decisions related merely to matters of right. While the opposite parties, were warmly agitating these points, cardinal de Noailles issued an ordinance in the year 1703, year condemning the resolution of the case of conscience by the doctors of the Sorbonne, maintaining, at the same time, the acknowledgment of the right on the ground of divine faith, and that of the fact on the ground of human faith. Others of the bishops united with the Jesuits in their opinion on this subject. With the hope of terminating the quarrels to which their difference in sentiment gave rise, in the 1705, pope Clement XI. published a bull, by which he enjoined the admission of the fact, without any explanation of the principle on which it was founded. This bull was received by the assembly of the clergy in the same year, but with a clause of explanation which, having been suggested by cardinal de Noailles, drew on him the displeasure of the pope. The cardinal, however, enjoined subscription to it on the nuns of Port-Royal; who signed it with the clause of reserve, that in so doing they did not violate the pacification of Clement IX. This manner of receiving it not proving satisfactory, the king requested of the pope a bull for the suppression of that monastery; and under this authority the archbishop, who had often called that place "the abode of innocence and piety,' gave orders in 1709 for its being rased to the foundations, and dispersed the nuns among the different religious houses at Paris. In the preceding year the pope had issued a decree against the "Moral Reflections ;" but the parliament of Paris refusing to register it, as inconsistent with the privileges of the Gallican churches, it was not received in France, notwithstanding that some of the bishops condemned that work without making mention of the decree. Alarmed at the success which that book met with, the Jesuits engaged Lewis XIV. to solicit the condemnation of it at the court of Rome, by a formal bull. In the mean time father le Tellier, the king's confessor, who was a member of that order, and personally hostile to cardinal de Noailles, threw the whole church of France into confusion, by assuming the freedom of directing mandatorial letters to all the bishops, requiring their signatures to a condemnation of Quesnel's work. Exasperated at this interference with his metropolitan rights, the cardinal applied to the king for justice; but without being able to obtain that protection which his majesty had formerly promised him. Thus circumstanced, he determined to vindicate the authority of his see against the encroaching disturbers of the peace of his church, and interdicted the whole order of Jesuits from officiating either as France and Rome, for the purpose of restoring of their differences. Soon afterwards, howpeace to the church by an amicable adjustment ever, the financial projects of Mr. Law, and of the public, diverted mens minds from religitheir consequences, by engrossing the attention the religious world. In this state of things the ous quarrels, and restored a temporary peace to cardinal avowed a change in his sentiments, and retracted his appeal to a general council. In 1728, he received the bull Unigenitus without any reserve or qualification; and he died in the following year, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. His learning, in general, was very respectable; and he had paid particular attention to the study of the sacred scriptures, the fathers, and divinity, positive and moral. ber; in conversation he was interesting and Of society he was an useful and amiable mementertaining; and he had a heart sensible to friendship, and full of candour, frankness and benevolence. So numerous were the objects of his charitable attention, that they swallowed up the whole of his large income; and when after his death his moveables were disposed of and his expences paid, his remaining hundred livres. In right of his archbishopric property did not amount to more than five of Paris he was duke of St. Cloud and peer of France; and he was also commander of the order of the Holy Ghost, patron of the house and society of the Sorbonne, and superior of the college of Navarre. He published some other pastoral "Letters" and "Instructions," besides those which have been mentioned in the preceding narrative. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Mosh. Hist. Eccl. sæc. xvii. sect. ii. par. i. cap. 1. & sac. xviii.-M. While such as we have seen were the ecclesiastical proceedings in France, pope Clement XI. granted the request of the French monarch, because he considered it as the request of the Jesuits; and, in the year 1713, issued out the famous bull Unigenitus, in which Quesnel's work was condemned, and an hundred and one propositions contained in it pronounced heretical. The dissentions and tumults excited in France by this edict, were violent in the highest degree. A numerous body of bishops being assembled at Paris, some declared their readiness to accept it, purely and simply; others were willing to receive it with certain modifications and restrictions; while others, with the cardinal de Noailles at their head, unmoved at the authority of the pontiff and the resentment and indignation of Lewis XIV. by avowing their unqualified rejection of it, and appealing from the bull to a general council, made a noble stand against the despotic proceedings of the court of Rome. Upon this the king, who was governed by his confessor, prohibited the cardinal from appearing at court, and sent the bishops who joined him to their dioceses. Exiled from Versailles, the cardinal found himself surrounded at Paris with a large body of persons of all ranks, both among the clergy and laity, some of whom were eminently distinguished by their piety and erudition, who united with him against Rome and the court. But their opposition was overborn by the persecution of their enemies: many of them being obliged to fly for refuge into foreign countries; while a considerable number, by the terrors of penal laws, and by various acts of tyranny and violence, were forced to receive the papal edict. At length the strong hand of miscellaneous writer, remarkable for the vicisNOBLE, EUSTACHE LE, a copious and very despotism bowed the parliament and the Sor- situdes of his life and fortune, was born in bonne into submission, and the bull Unigenitus 1643 of a distinguished family at Troyes. was registered among the laws of the state. Brought up to the law, he rose by his talents The triumph of the cardinal's enemies, how- to the post of procureur-general in the parlia ever, was not of long duration; for upon the ment of Metz. He was in the height of repudeath of Lewis XIV. in 1715, the duke of tation when he underwent a charge of having Orleans, regent of the kingdom, recalled M. forged acts of court for his own emolument, de Noailles to court, and placed him at the Being committed to the Chatelet, he was conhead of the council of conscience; and he also demned to an amende-honorable, and banishsent le Tellier into exile. The bishops who ment for nine years. From this sentence he had opposed the bull now boldly resumed the appealed, and was transferred to the Conciergecontest with their adversaries, and appealed, rie. In that prison was then confined Gabrielle and reappealed to a future council. whole kingdom becoming agitated with this Epiciere, whom her husband had shut up for The Perreau, known by the name of la belle controversy, the regent enjoined silence on both misconduct. Le Noble became fond of her, parties, but without effect; and in vain were and undertook to be her advocate; and a connegociations carried on between the courts of nexion ensued between them, the consequences of which caused the woman to be sent to a convent to lie in. She afterwards made her escape, and le Noble, who found means to get out of the Conciergerie, joined her, when they passed some time together, frequently changing their abode through fear of discovery. Le Noble was at length retaken and remanded to prison, where he was tried on the former charge, and in 1698 was condemned to the same amende and banishment for nine years. Three children, the fruit of his licentious connexion, were adjudged to him for maintenance. He, however, obtained permission to remain in France, on the condition of ceasing to execute any judiciary office. His misfortunes produced no amendment of his life, which continued as dissipated and irregular as ever, till his death in 1711, at the age of sixty-eight. He was reduced to such a state of indigence, that he was buried at the charge of the parish, though his works are said to have produced above one hundred thousand crowns to his printers. These have been collected in nineteen volumes, 12mo. They may be divided into three classes: First, the serious, consisting of historical and political pieces, and even of works relative to religion; of these, his "Entretiens Politiques sur les affaires du tems," a periodical publication, was highly popular at its first appearance, on account of its keen and lively sallies and low pleasantries. Secondly, the romantic, comprizing a number of works, half history, half romance, in which there are some interesting passages, but in general they are trivial and slight effusions. Thirdly, the poetical, consisting of translations, fables, tales, comedies, epistles, &c. These have very little merit as poems, but the application of some of them to the purpose of pasquinade gave them temporary popularity. When it is considered that this man wrote most of his works in prison, or under the pressure of urgent necessities, their variety and facility may be admired; but they betray all the incorrectness, the want of judgment and solidity, that might be expected from the circumstances of their composition. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.—A. NOBREGA, MANOEL DA, the head of the first Jesuits that ever set foot in South America, a country wherein that order has done more good and less evil, than in any other part of the world. He was a Portuguese by birth, studied first at Coimbra, afterwards at Salamanca, then returning to Coimbra graduated in canon law, his master, Martin Aspilcueta Navarro, a man of great eminence in his day, pronouncing him the best of all his pupils. Nobrega's father held the rank of Desembargador; one of his uncles that of Chancellor mor; both were in favour with the king. With such connections, and with his own personal talents, any thing seemed open to his ambition; but failing to obtain some university preferment which ought to have been awarded him, he rejected the world, as the world had done him, and entered in this fit of disgust the newly established order of Jesuits in 1544. During one of his preaching peregrinations an adventure happened to him at Santiago, which may be worth repeating. He and his companion, who, as usual, subsisted upon alms, had been remarkably unsuccessful one day in their begging trade; for a woman in the market place had burlesqued Nobrega's sermon with such effect, that they were ashamed to show their faces there. Thoroughly hungry, having fasted the whole day for want of food, they repaired at night to the hospital, and got into a room where a party of travelling beggars were eating and carousing. These fellows took them by their dress for gentlemen of the profession, and one of them cried out, "Sit down, comrades, and eat, and you shall be judges between us, for we are in a grand dispute which is the best beggar." Nobrega and his companion, who were half starved, looked upon the food before them, in their own language, as a God-send, and fell to without farther pressing, while the rogues, one after another, laid open all the tricks of their trade. One who thought himself the cunningest kept back tilk the rest had finished, and then he began his story. "Ah!" said he, "you don't know how to beg! mind my way now. I never ask alms, but I go up to a door, and give a great groan, saying, Blessed be Mary the mother of God, or blessed be such a saint.' They who are in the house come out, hearing this groan, to see what is the matter, and then I begin with as feeble a voice as I can, O sir, great is the mercy which God has shown me! You must know that I was a slave in Turkey, and the dog of a Turk, my master, led me a terrible life to make me renounce Christ, swearing that I should die by his hands if I did not renegade. O dog, I used to answer, I will never renounce the faith of our Lord; for our lady (or Santiago, or any other saint who may suit the place where I am begging) will deliver me.' And truly, brethren, so it happened to me, sinner as you see me here! for, one night when I lay loaded with chains in a dungeon, commending myself to the saint's mercy (bless |