60

NOMUS

NONNA

This would throw the treatise of Hippolytusback to a.d. 205, or thereabouts. From its lan-guage and tone, we would conclude that Noetuswas then dead, a view which Epiphanius (Haer.57, cap. 1) expressly confirms, saying that heand his brother both died soon after their excom-munication, and were buried without Christianrites. The period of his teaching at Rome mustthen have been some few years precious to theyear 205. But the Refutation of Heresies givesus a farther note of time. In ix. 2, Hippolytustells us that it was when Zephyrinus was mana-ging the affairs of the church that the school ofNoetus was firmly established at Rome, and thatZephyrinus connived at its establishmentthrough bribes. It is not possible, however,to approximate more closely to the precisedate, than to fix his excommunication and deathabout the year 200. Hippolytus {Refat. x. 23)tells us that a portion of the Montanists adoptedthe views of Noetus. He seems to have writtensome works, from which Hippolytus oftenquotes. The original authority for Noetus is ofcourse Hippolytus, the precise references towhich we have already given. Cf. the Libellus*Synodicus 20, concerning a pretended synodunder Victor, which excommunicated Noetus andSabellius. Die Quellen der aeltesten Ketzerge -schichte von R. A. Lipsius, Leipzig, 1875, pp.179-190. Harnack in Herzog, Real-Encyclop,s.v. Momrchianismus. Hilgenfeld’s Ketzerge -schichte , p. 616 [Praxeas] [Epigonus] [Cleo-Menes]. [G. T. S.]

NOMUS, one of the leading personages atConstantinople in the latter years of TheodosiusII., with whom he was all-powerful— ra rrjsoiKovpevrjs 4v xeptrlv ex&v TTpayfiara (Labbe,Concil. iv. 407). Nomus filled in succession allthe highest offices in the state. In 443 he was“magister officiorum ” {Cod, Theod. nov. p. 14,1); consul in 445; patrician in 449, the yearof the infamous “ Latrocinium.” Nomus wasthe confidential friend of Chrysaphius theeunuch and shared with him the government ofthe emperor and the empire. Through theirmeans Dioscorus of Alexandria and the Euty-chian doctrines he supported were brought intofavour with the court, while the adherents ofthe orthodox faith, and especially Theodoret,against whom Dioscorus had a personal pique,were systematically depressed. Through hisinfluence the feeble Theodosius was induced topublish a decree in 448 confining Theodoret tothe limits of his diocese. The interesting seriesof letters, to the principal men of the empire,in which Theodoret, while observing the man-date, protested against its arbitrary character,contains several addressed to Nomus. He hadhad a short interview with the great man, whichwas curtailed by the serious illness, and itsrenewal prevented by the death, of a member ofthe family of Nomus. This gave rise to a shortcourteous letter of respectful sympathy (Theod.Ep. 58), followed by one of considerable length{Ep. 81), in which, after expressing his surprisethat neither of his two former letters had re-ceived any answer, he proceeds to defend him-self from the charges which had been the osten-sible ground of the emperor’s decree, and torecount the services he had rendered to thechurch during a quarter of a century, which

had merited far different treatment, and closeswith the earnest entreaty that as so muchpower rested in his hands, Nomus would takethe trouble of acquainting himself with th*real evils of the church, and use his authority toarrest them. Nomus still maintaining hisformer silence, Theodoret wrote again {Ep. 96)saying that he was quite unaware how he couldhave given him offence, and requesting him totell him what his cause of complaint againsthim was, and thus give him an opportunity ofclearing himself. With the death of Theodosiusand the accession of Marcian and Pulcheria,Nomus’s power sensibly waned. He took, how-ever, a leading position as a high state official atthe council of Chalcedon (Labbe, iv. 77, 475,&c.). During the session of this council a libelor petition against him was presented by anephew of Cyril, Athanasius by name, a presby-ter of Alexandria, who had come to Constan-tinople to seek redress for the ill-usage he andhis family had sustained from Dioscorus, accus-ing Nomus of acts of violence and extortion bywhich he and his relatives had been reduced tobeggary, and his brother had died of distress(Labbe, iv. 407-410). [E. V.J

NONNA (1), the mother of Gregory Nazi-anzen. She was a lady of good birth, thechild of Christian parents, Philtatius and Gor-gonia, brought up in the practice of the Chris-tian virtues, of which she was so admirable anexample. Her son describes in glowing termsthe holiness of her life and the beautiful con-formity of all her actions to the highest stan-dards of Christian excellence. To her example,aided by her prayers, he ascribes the conversionof his father from the strange medley of pagan-ism and Christianity which formed the tenetsof the Hypsistarian sect, to which by birthhe belonged (Greg. Naz. Orat. 11, 19; Carm. 1,2). We know of two other children of themarriage besides Gregory ; a sister namedGorgonia, probably older than himself, and abrother named Caesarius. It is unnecessary torepeat what has been already said of the in-fluence of the pious example and instructions ofsuch a mother in forming the character of theson whom she regarded as given in answer toher prayers, and whom before his birth shedevoted to the service of God [GregoriusNazianzenus, ii. p. 742, col. 2], Nonna’s lifewas quiet and uneventful, though not devoid ofthe domestic sorrows which necessarily fall tothe lot of the mother of a family {Orat. 19,p. 292). Her health was usually very robust,but in 371 the year preceding her son’s reluc-tant elevation to the episcopate as bishop ofSasima, she suffered from a severe illness whichcaused the postponement of an intended visit ofher son’s to his friend Basil (Greg. Naz. Ep- 4).But on arriving at her house he found the crisisof her disorder passed, her recovery beingascribed by her to a vision, in which she hadbeen fed by her son with cakes of bread markedwith a cross, and blessed by him (Greg. Naz.Orat. 9, p. 306). Three years later, 374, theelder Gregory died, and his widow only survivedhim a very short time. The date of her deathis placed with great probability on Aug. 5 (onwhich day Nonna is commemorated both by theGreek and Latin churches), in the year 374 {Orat.