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NENNIUS (fl. 796)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 372 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NENNIUS (fl. 796) , a Welsh writer to whom we owe the Historia Britonum, lived and wrote in Brecknock or See also:Radnor. His See also:work is known to us through See also:thirty See also:manuscripts; but the earliest of these cannot be dated much earlier than the See also:year roots; and all are defaced by interpolations which give to the work so confused a See also:character that critics were See also:long disposed to treat it as an unskilful See also:forgery. A new turn was given to the controversy by Heinrich Zimmer, who, in his Nennius vindicatus (1893), traced the See also:history of the work and, by a comparison of the manuscripts with the 11th-See also:century See also:translation of the Irish See also:scholar, Gilla Coemgim (d. 1072), succeeded in stripping off the later accretions from the See also:original See also:nucleus of the Historia. Zimmer follows previous critics in rejecting the Prologus maim. (§§ 1, 2), the Capitula, or table of contents, and See also:part of the Mirabilia which See also:form the concluding See also:section. But he proves that Nennius should be regarded as the compiler of the Historia proper (§§ 7-65). Zimmer's conclusions are of more See also:interest to See also:literary critics. than to historians. The only part of the Historia which deserves to se treated as a See also:historical document is the section known as the Genealogiae Saxonum (§§ 57-65). This is merely a recension of a work which was composed about 679 by a Briton of See also:Strathclyde. The author's name is unknown; but he is, after See also:Gildas, our earliest authority for the facts of the See also:English See also:conquest of See also:England.

Nennius himself gives us the See also:

oldest legends See also:relating to the victories of See also:King See also:Arthur; the value of the Historia from this point of view is admitted by the severest critics. The See also:chief authorities whom Nennius followed were Gildas' De excidio Britonum, See also:Eusebius, the Vita Patricii of Murichu Maccu Machtheni, the Collectanea of Tirechan, the See also:Liber occupations (an Irish work on the See also:settlement of See also:Ireland), the Liber de See also:sex aetatibus mundi, the See also:chronicle of Prosper of See also:Aquitaine, the Liber beati Germani. The See also:sources from which he derived his notices of King Arthur (§ 56) have not been determined. See J. See also:Stevenson's edition of the Historia Britonum (English Hist. See also:Soc., 1838), based on a careful study of the See also:MSS. ; A. de la Borderie, L'Historia Britonum (See also:Paris and See also:London, 1883), which summarizes the older negative See also:criticism; H. Zimmer, Nennius vindicatus (See also:Berlin, 1893) ; T. See also:Mommsen in Neues Archie der Gesellschaft far altere deutsche Geschichtskunde, xix. 283. (H. W.

C. D.) NEO-CAESAREA, See also:

SYNOD OF, a synod held shortly after that of See also:Ancyra, probably about 314 or 315 (although See also:Hefele inclines to put it somewhat later). Its See also:principal work was the See also:adoption of fifteen disciplinary canons, which were subsequently accepted as ecumenical by the See also:Council of See also:Chalcedon, 451, and of which the most important are the following: i. degrading priests who marry after ordination; vii. forbidding a See also:priest to be See also:present at the second See also:marriage of any one; viii. refusing ordination to the See also:husband of an adulteress; xi. fixing thirty years as the See also:age below which one might not be ordained (because See also:Christ began His public See also:ministry at the age of thirty) ; xiii. according to See also:city priests the See also:precedence over See also:country priests; xiv. permitting Chorepiscopi to celebrate the sacraments; xv. requiring that there be seven deacons in every city. See Mansi ii. pp. 539-551; See also:Hardouin i. pp. 282-286; Hefele (2nd ed.) i. pp. 242-251 (Eng. trans. i. pp. 222-230). (T. F. C.) NEOCOMIAN, in See also:geology, the name given to the lowest See also:stage of the Cretaceous See also:system. It was introduced by J.

Thurmann in 1835 on See also:

account of the development of these rocks at NeuclAtel (Neocomum), See also:Switzerland. It has been employed in more than one sense. In the type See also:area the rocks have been divided into two sub-stages, a See also:lower, Valanginian (from Valengin, E. See also:Desor, 1854) and an upper, Hauterivian (from Hauterive, E. See also:Renevier, 1874); there is also another See also:local sub-stage, the infra-Valanginian or Berriasian (from Berrias, H. Coquand, 1876). These three sub-stages constitute the Neocomian in its restricted sense. A. von Koenen and other See also:German geologists extend the use of the See also:term to include the whole of the Lower Cretaceous up to the See also:top of the See also:Gault or See also:Albian. Renevier divided the Lower Cretaceous into the Neocomian See also:division, embracing the three sub-stages mentioned above, and an Urgonian division, including the Barremian, Rhodanian and See also:Aptian sub-stages. See also:Sir A. See also:Geikie (See also:Text See also:Book of Geology, 4th ed., 1903) regards " Neocomian" as synonymous with Lower Cretaceous, and he, like Renevier, closes this portion of the system at the top of the Lower See also:Green-See also:sand (Aptian). Other See also:British geologists (A.

J. See also:

Jukes-See also:Browne, &c.) restrict the Neocomian to the marine beds of Speeton and Tealby, and their estuarine equivalents, the See also:Weald See also:Clay and See also:Hastings Sands (See also:Wealden). Much confusion would be avoided by dropping the term Neocomian entirely and employing instead, for the type area, the sub-divisions given above. This becomes the more obvious when it is pointed out that the Berriasian type is limited to See also:Dauphine; the Valanginian has not a much wider range; and the Hauterivian does not extend See also:north of the Paris See also:basin. Characteristic fossils of the Berriasian are Hoplites euthymi, H. occitanicus; of the Valanginian, Natica See also:leviathan, Belemnites pistilliformis and B. dilatatus, Oxynoticeras Gevrili; of the Hauterivian, Hoplites radiatus, Crioceras capricornu, Exogyra Couloni and Toxaster complanatus. The marine equivalents of these rocks in England are the lower Speeton See also:Clays of See also:Yorkshire and the Tealby beds of See also:Lincoln-See also:shire. The Wealden beds of See also:southern England represent approximately an estuarine phase of See also:deposit of the same age. The Hits clay of See also:Germany and Wealden of See also:Hanover; the limestones and shales of See also:Teschen; the Aptychus and Pygope diphyoides marls of See also:Spain, and the Petchorian formation of See also:Russia are equivalents of the Neocomian in its narrower sense. See CRETACEOUS, WEALDEN, SPEETON BEDS. (J. A. H.) is found, except See also:gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments.

See also:

Agriculture, pottery, See also:weaving, the domestication of animals, the burying of the dead in dolmens, and the rearing of megalithic monuments are the typical developments of See also:man during this stage. See See also:ARCHAEOLOGY ; also See also:Lord See also:Avebury, Prehistoric Times (1900) ; Sir See also:John See also:Evans, See also:Ancient See also:Stone Implements of See also:Great See also:Britain (1h97); Sir J. See also:Prestwich, Geology (1886-i888).

End of Article: NENNIUS (fl. 796)

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