NOMINA SACRA. — Alongside abbreviations (v.) by suspension, in Christian times contracted abbreviations of sacred words are found, which, following the expression used by L. Traube to designate them, are now known as n. s.
Contraction is not of Christian origin, since in inscriptions prior to the common era words abbreviated by this method are already encountered, in addition to the names of emperors and Egyptian months, written with the suppression of intermediate letters in papyri and ostraca (cf. L. Schiaparelli, Note megalografica, in Arch. stor. ital., 73 (1915), p. 307, note 2; and C. H. Turner [vedi BIBLICA.], p. 63, note); but it is commonly considered a Christian system of abbreviation, because it is beyond doubt that the first n. s. were not written in abbreviated form merely by imitation of a previous usage, but also to give them a particular distinction, a sacred character precisely. Even the line written above the n. s. probably originally had a distinctive meaning, although it cannot be excluded that it was also used as an abbreviation mark, especially when contraction spread as a system of abbreviation to many words that have no sacred character.
The Greek sacred names found in the oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint and the New Testament number fifteen in all, of which the first in use are 60 = 8x6, KC = Κύριος, ΙC = Ἰχθύς and ΧC = Χριστός; subsequently they would have been influenced by these: ΠΗΡ (ο ΠΑΡ ο ΠΡ) = Π(ατή)ρ, ΠΝΑ = Πνεῦμα and, then, gradually the others: ΟΥΝΟC = οὐρανός, ΑΝΟC = ἄνθρωπος, ΔΑΔ = Δαυίδ, ΗΗΑ (ο ΙCΑ) = Ἰσραήλ, ΙΑΗΜ (ο ΙΑΜ ο ΗΑΜ) = Ἱεροσόλυμα, ΧΥC = υἱός, CHP = σωτήρ, CTPOC (ο CΡΟC) = Σταυρός, ΜΡ (ο ΜΗΡ) = μήτηρ.
In Latin paleography the original sacred meaning of the n. s. is much more certain than in Greek, because it is certain that they passed from Greek into Latin with the first translations of the Bible. In the oldest manuscripts (4th century) only the first four names of the earliest Greek recension appear: DS = Deus, IHS = Iesus, XPS = Christus, SPS = Spiritus, which imitate the Greek sign in such a way as to reproduce it in part even graphically, disregarding the correspondence with the respective Latin words. In the 5th century, certainly under the influence of KC, the name Dominus appears, abbreviated in the two forms DMS and DNS; and the adjective Sanctus (SCS), which in turn arose under the influence of SPS, with which it is found united in the same sacred expression. Between the 5th and 6th centuries are added also CLRS = clericus, DIACS = diaconus, EPS = episcopus, PBR = presbyter, REVS = reverentissimus, ECCLA = ecclesia, NR = noster, simple compendia arising under the influence of the preceding names, even if used exclusively in texts of religious content. From the 6th century onward, the use of such compendia, having spread to secular texts, determined the triumph of abbreviations by contraction.
In Greek, on the other hand, abbreviations by contraction will continue almost exclusively to be used for words that have a connection with the n. s. or derive from them (e.g.):
- ΟΚΟΣ = Θεοτόκος, ΟΥΝΙΟΣ = ουράνιος, ΠΙΝΙΚΟΣ (ο ΠΙΝΑΤΙΚΟΣ) = πνευματικός, ΑΝΙΝΟΣ = άνθρωπος, ΠΡΙΣ = πατρίς, ΚΟΣ = κυρίως, εκ.).
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NOMOCANONI. — This is the name given, from the 11th century onward, to collections containing imperial laws and conciliar canons.
Among the most famous should be recalled the nomocanon of fifty titles, resulting from the union of two collections (the Collectio quinquaginta titulorum and the LXXXVII Capitula) by John Scholasticus, patriarch of Constantinople; and the nomocanon of fourteen titles, which gathers conciliar decrees, letters of the Church Fathers, and imperial constitutions drawn from the Collectio tripertita and the Novellae of Emperor Heraclius. On these nomocanons and other collections of the same name, V. COLLEZIONI CANONICHE, B.
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NONA. — This is that part of the Divine Office recited at the ninth hour (= 3 p.m.), according to the Greco-Roman division of the day. This hour of prayer, already used in the Synagogue (cf. Dan. 6:10; Ps. 54:18), passed into Christian usage (Acts 3:1; cf. 2:15; 10:9) as a private prayer to sanctify the day (Didaché, chap. 8, 3; Tertullian, De oratione, 23; De ieiunio, chap. 10; Apostolic Constitutions, chap. VIII, n. 34, 1); as a canonical hour reserved for monks, it was in use in the 4th century. During the 5th century, it was also introduced into the daytime Office of the basilicas of Rome.
It consists of the hymn (originally lacking in the Roman Office), three Psalms (the number three already used by the monks of Egypt), a lesson followed by a responsory (in the Roman Office), a verse, and the final prayer.
Early writers (Hippolytus, Apostolic Constitutions, Cyprian, and others) established various connections between the individual daytime hours and certain moments of Christ’s Passion and the lives of the Apostles, but the Church has not accepted these, except for the hymn of Terce. There is, however, a special connection between the daytime hours and the Holy Mass: on feast days and Sundays, the conventual Mass is said after Terce; on weekdays after Sext; during fasting and penitential seasons (Advent, Lent, Vigils) after Nones. In these last two cases, Sext and Nones are anticipated before noon.
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NONA (Aenona), ancient DIOCESE of. — The small town of N. (Nin), situated at one of the northernmost points of the Dalmatian coast, near Zara, played a very important part in the religious life of the Croats. The historian Bulić and other scholars have definitively abandoned the old tradition that held the diocese of N. to be of apostolic origin with its first bishop, St. Asellus or Anselm—the very name suggests Frankish influence in the 9th century—one of the seventy-two disciples of the Lord.
The diocese was founded between 864 and 867: the first mention of it appears in a letter of Pope St. Nicholas I. That is, the archbishop of Spalato and the bishops of the Dalmatian cities, as Byzantine subjects, followed Photius in the schism (863), whereas the Croats remained faithful to the Pope and founded their own diocese at N., which encompassed the entire territory of the Croatian state. The first bishop of N. whose name has been preserved is Theodosius. Later, when the archbishop of Spalato had again submitted to the Holy See and church organization had been reorganized at the Councils of Spalato in 925 and 928 in the presence of the Croatian king Tomislav, the diocese of N. was suppressed out of envy by the Dalmatian bishops, and its bishop Gregory was transferred to the restored see of Scardona (Skradin). The consequence of all this was disputes and struggles within the Church, which in 1075 led to the restoration of the diocese of Rome, which at that time still extended into western Croatia on both sides of Mount Velebit. The diocese was a notable stronghold of the paleoslavic language in the Roman liturgy and a center for the dissemination of Croatian political thought. It was suppressed on June 30, 1828, together with other small Dalmatian dioceses, and its territory was annexed to the archdiocese of Zara.
Among the illustrious bishops of N., should be recalled Theodosius, a Croat, papal legate to Prince Boris of Bulgaria; Gregory and John Divinić (Difinico, 1475-1530), a holy man of profound learning. According to the Concordat between Yugoslavia and the Holy See (signed in 1935 but not ratified), the diocese of N. was to have been restored.
Among the churches, special mention should be made of the cathedral of St. Anselm, now an archpriestly and parish church; St. Cross in paleo-Croatian style (9th century); and St. Ambrose with its ancient Benedictine monastery.
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NONANTOLA, ABBEY nullius of. — Founded in 751-52 in honor of the holy Apostles, to whose name was added that of St. Sylvester from 756, by St. Anselm, formerly a Lombard duke (v. ANSELMO of N). The abbey soon became and long remained a lively center of monastic culture. From 1411 it passed into commendam and often to the Este family; in 1514 it was given to the Cistercians, and in 1768 Clement XIII suppressed II. It was restored by Pius VII on January 23, 1821, and given in commendam to the archbishop pro tempore of Modena; it was secularized in 1866. In 1926 it was permanently united to the archbishopric of Modena. It has a Chapter (since 1928), a minor seminary, and its own Curia, with 31 parishes and 57,646 inhabitants.
After various vicissitudes in the 12th century, the abbey church was rebuilt in imitation of the cathedral of Modena, designed by Lanfranco, while the portal (ca. 1121) clearly reflects the style of Wiligelmus. The church, which had been disfigured by restorations and remodellings, especially during the Baroque period, was restored in the second decade of this century. It now appears as a three-aisled basilica with a large crypt supported by 92 small columns. In the sanctuary is the mausoleum of St. Sylvester (1380), decorated with sculptures depicting scenes from the life of the Saint. On the altars are works by M. Lambertini, F. Bianchi Ferrari, and the Carracci. In the adjoining seminary are a very important library and archive. Among other things, they preserve two particularly interesting codices bound in silver and gold. These are a Gradual and an Evangelary; the latter, from the 12th century, is known as the "Matilda Codex" and is decorated with precious miniatures in Byzantine style. A considerable number of N. codices, which display a characteristic type of precaroline Italian script specific to that scriptorium, are now in the Biblioteca nazionale di Roma, in the Sessoriano collection. What remains of the once very rich abbey treasury is in the inner chapel of St. Charles Borromeo, who was formerly commendatory abbot of N. — See pl. CXXII.
NONCONFORMISTS — NON EXPEDIT
Condemned by Anglican bishops. All who did not adhere to these decrees were expelled from their parishes and deprived of their benefices. According to some, there were 2000 ministers who refused to submit, while others claim the number did not exceed 800. In 1665, with another decree, the Five-Mile Act, nonconformist ministers were ordered to live five miles away from the place where they had ministered or from cities that had representation in Parliament. These draconian laws were first mitigated by King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence and, after the Revolution of 1688, were repealed for Protestants, though they remained in force for Catholics until 1829 and for Jews until 1858.