Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/577

Rh M N O N 533 chair of experimental physics in the College de Navarre. Nollet s strength lay in popular exposition rather than in profound investigation, but he cannot be denied the credit of having greatly helped by his influence and example the cause of electrical science. NOMANSLAND. See KAFFRARIA, vol. xiii. p. 817. NOMINALISM. See SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. NONCONFORMITY, LAW RELATING TO. The history of the gradual relief of nonconformists in England from their disabilities will be found under ENGLAND, and under the heads of the various denominations, e.g., BAPTISTS, INDEPENDENTS, METHODISM, QUAKERS, &c. See also OATHS. It is proposed here to note simply the present legal aspects of nonconformity apart from its history, that is, the matters in which the law as to nonconformists still differs from that applicable to members of the Church of England. The differences may be conveniently grouped under six heads. (1) Judicial notice. The courts, both temporal and spiritual, take judicial notice of the tenets and authorities of the Church of England, the crown being head of the law and of the church. Where the tenets and authorities of a nonconformist body come in question, they must be proved by evidence. By Lord Lyndhurst s Act, 7 and 8 Viet., c. 45, where no particular religious doctrine or mode of worship has been prescribed by the deed or instrument of trust the usage of the congregation for twenty-five years is to be taken as conclusive evidence of the doctrine and worship which may be properly observed in such meeting-houses. (2) Tribunal. Offences against the law ecclesiastical (not being crimes) committed by clergy of the Church of England as a rule come by letters of re quest from the bishop of the diocese before the Arches Court of Canterbury or the Chancery Court of York (of both of which the same person is now judge). Similar matters arising in noncon formist bodies can only be tried by the ordinary secular courts, and generally depend upon the question whether a minister has done any act which is not in accordance with the rules governing the par ticular body of which he is a minister. A nonconformist body is in law nothing more than a voluntary association, whose members may enforce discipline by any tribunal assented to by them, but must be subject in the last degree to the courts of the realm. Brawling in a church by a person in holy orders is an offence within the Church Discipline Act, 3 and 4 Viet., c. 86, and falls under the cognizance of the spiritual courts ; similar conduct by a nonconformist minister in his own place of worship can only be punished as an offence under 9 and 10 Viet., c. 59. (3) Status of ministers. A noncon formist minister is not in holy orders, and his chapel is not a con secrated building. His status is, however, recognized to a limited extent. By the Toleration Act, 1 Will, and M., c. 18, a minister, preacher, or teacher of a nonconformist congregation is exempt from certain parochial offices, as that of churchwarden. He is also exempt from serving in the militia or on a jury. These privileges only attach where the place of worship of which he is a minister has been duly registered, 18 and 19 Viet., c. 81, unless in the case of bodies subject to special legislation, as Quakers. Registration is not required in the case of consecrated buildings. By 45 and 46 Viet., c. 50, s. 12, a nonconformist minister cannot be elected an alderman or councillor. He cannot take a degree in divinity at Oxford, Cambridge, or Durham, 34 and 35 Viet., c. 26, and so is debarred from holding any professorship of divinity in those universities. (4) Marriage. Marriage by a person in holy orders was probably necessary at common law, at any rate from the Reformation up to 1836. (See MARRIAGE.) And from the date of Lord Hardwicke s Marriage Act, 26 Geo. II., c. 33 (1753), up to 1836 the ceremony must have been performed in a consecrated building. The first Act of Parliament that relieved dissenters (other than Jews and Quakers) from these restrictions was the Marriage Act of 1836, 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 85. Since that Act the ceremony of marriage may be performed in a nonconformist place of worship, but it must be after due notice to the superintendent registrar and in his presence or in that of a registrar, and the build ing must be one that is duly certified for marriages. These pre liminaries (except the first, and that only where the marriage is not by banns, licence, or special licence) are not necessary where the marriage takes place in a church. Marriage by banns, licence, or special licence cannot take place except in a church. (5) Burial. By the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880, 43 and 44 Viet, c. 41, burial may take place in a churchyard without the rites of the Church of England. But in such a case notice must be given in a specified form, which is unnecessary where the burial service is conducted by a clergyman of the Church of England. (6) Parish offices. By 1 Will, and M., c. 18, s. 5, a dissenter chosen church warden and scrupling to take the oaths may execute his office by deputy. His acceptance of office is made optional by the Act ; there is nothing to prevent his discharging it if he see fit to do so. This seems to be still the law, although a declaration was substituted for the oath by 5 and 6 Will IV., c. 62, s. 9. The Colonies. In crown colonies ecclesiastical jurisdiction may be conferred by the sole authority of the crown. In colonies which have parliamentary representation the crown cannot give to a metropolitan bishop jurisdiction or coercive legal authority over suffragan bishops or over any other person. In colonies of the former kind the Church of England may still preserve the privileges which attach to her in the mother country ; in colonies of the latter kind she is in the same position as any other religious body, simply a voluntary association. Since the Irish Church Act, 1869, 32 and 33 Viet., c. 42, the Church of Ireland has been practically in the same position as the Church of England in colonies which have representative government. NONJURORS in English history are the small minority of the beneficed clergy who incurred the penalties of sus pension and deprivation for refusing to swear allegiance to William and Mary in 1689. The party, which was headed by Archbishop Sancroft and Bishop Ken, with five other members of the episcopal bench, included such men as Jeremy Collier, George Hickes, William Sherlock, Charles Leslie, and Henry Dodwell. See ENGLAND, vol. viii. p. 378. NONNUS, Greek epic poet, author of the Dionysiaca, was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid. He can scarcely have been earlier than the 5th century of our era, but probably wrote in the first half of it, as his versi fication is imitated by Proclus, who was born 412 A.D. Nothing is known of his personal history, but his extensive mythological erudition almost proves him to have been a grammarian. His principal work, the Dionysiaca, an epic in forty-eight books on the history of Bacchus, is a vast storehouse of legendary fable, embellished, especially in the long episode of Bacchus s Indian expedition, with not a little of the poet s own invention. From one point of view it may be described as the swan-song of the ancient mythology ; its spirit, at the same time, is anything but Hellenic. In its vast and formless luxuriance, its beau tiful but artificial versification, its delineation of action and passion to the entire neglect of character, it resembles the colossal epics of India, while its glittering but too often frigid conceits bring it near to the Italian bastard epic of Marino and his school. Like his countryman and near contemporary Claudian, Nonnus is a writer of copious learning and still more copious fancy, eminent in inven tion, in description, and in melody, whose faults may be charged upon his age, while his merits are his own. This is more particularly the case with the author of the Dionysiaca, whose reforms in versification originated with himself, while they were accepted by all succeeding poets. In his hands, says Hermann, the Homeric hexameter, greatly corrupted by time and licence, though losing some thing of its dignity, recovered its elegance and harmony, and was framed to so strict a pattern that no one ignorant of prosody could henceforth attempt to write an epic. His influence on the vocabulary of his successors was likewise very considerable. We also possess under his name a paraphrase of the Gospel of St John, which is chiefly interesting as apparently indicating that, notwith standing his mythological lore, Nonnus conformed to Christianity. The style is not inferior to that of his epic, but, employed in embellishing the simple narrative of the evangelist, it produces an impression of extreme bombast and want of taste. The first edition of Nonnus was published by Falkenburg at Antwerp in 1569 from a MS. procured at Taranto by Sambucus, an Hungarian. The standard edition is Graefe s (Leipsic, 1819-26) ; but the most useful is that by Count de Marcellus (Paris, 1856), accompanied by valuable notes and prolegomena, and a Frencli prose translation. The analyses by Ouvaroff(St Petersburg, 1817) and Koehler (Halle, 1853) are useful aids to the study of so long and intricate a poem. The paraphrase on St John is edited