Nicolaism 521took place at some point between 1341 and 1347. He had
been condemned for a confused group of anti-Aristotelian
theses and banned from teaching in faculties of THEOLOGY.
He retracted his controversial ideas at Avignon and at
Paris, where he burned his own manuscripts. From 1348,
he lived at Metz as canon and dean of the cathedral chap-
ter. He had alternative ideas about the creation of the uni-
verse, the study of being, and epistemology. He also wrote
about OPTICS. There also exist his Theological Question
concerning medieval optics, and some valuable letters
about a theory of demonstration. He died after 1350, per-
haps as late as 1369.
See alsoNOMINALISM.
Further reading:Nicholas of Autrecourt, The Univer-
sal Treatise of Nicholas of Autrecourt,trans. Leonard A.
Kennedy (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1971);
Nicholas of Autrecourt, Nicholas of Autrecourt: His Corre-
spondence with Master Giles and Bernard of Arezzo, A Criti-
cal Edition from the Two Parisian Manuscripts with an
Introduction, English Translation, Explanatory Notes, and
Indexes(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994); Julius R. Weinberg,
Nicolaus of Autrecourt: A Study in Fourteenth Century
Thought (1948; reprint, New York: Greenwood Press,
1969).
Nicholas of Cusa(Nicholas of Krebs, Nicholas
Kryfts)(1401–1464)humanist, theologian, jurist, canon-
ist, cardinal, papal legate
Nicholas Krebs received his name Nicholas of Cusa from
the German village of Kues near Trier, where he was born
in 1401. His library is still preserved there. He studied
with the BRETHREN OF THECOMMONLIFEat Deventer
and attended the universities of Heidelberg in 1416,
where the ideas of WILLIAMof Ockham were taught; the
university of PADUAin 1417, where he had contact with
Italian humanist thought; and the university of COLOGNE
in 1425. He was ordained in 1430, having also earned a
doctorate in canon law.
In 1448, he was made titular CARDINALof San Pietro
in Vincoli. He was already famous as a learned mathe-
matician, physician, astronomer, and cosmographer. A
collector of manuscripts, he was interested in geographi-
cal discoveries. Nicholas rejected the hypothesis of con-
centric spheres bounding the universe and affirmed that
the Earth was in movement. He believed that the Earth
revolved around the Sun.
According to his mystical vision of the world and
humankind, the human mind was not able to grasp real-
ity, which is the object of metaphysics and THEOLOGY.
Knowledge was therefore just “learned ignorance.” This
idea and that of the “coincidence of contraries” were
foundational assumptions in all of his work. Truth was an
absolute, he maintained. However, knowledge was neces-
sarily relative, complex, finite, and comparative. To seek
truth, one must rise above reason and appeal to one’s
intuition and thereby attain such a simplicity of thought
that contradictions would coincide. Besides pursuing his
intellectual work, Nicholas was active especially at the
Council of BASEL(1431–49), in which he presented his
famous treatise on reform of church and state, De concor-
dantia catholica, in 1433. He was also dispatched on
numerous diplomatic missions, such as his great legation
to CONSTANTINOPLEof 1451–52. Initially a partisan of
conciliarism, he shifted to support the maintenance of
papal power. He also worked in favor of toleration and
reconciliation with the followers of John HUS. Nicholas of
Cusa died at Todi in Umbria on August 11, 1464, on his
way to Ancona, where his friend Pope PIUSII had sum-
moned him to help send off a CRUSADE.
Further reading: Nicholas, of Cusa, Cardinal,
Nicholas of Cusa“On Learned Ignorance”: A Translation
and an Appraisalof De Docta Ignorantia (Minneapolis: A.
J. Benning Press, 1981); Nicholas of Cusa, Unity and
Reform: Selected Writings of Nicholas de Cusa,ed. John P.
Dolan (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press,
1962); F. Edward Cranz, Nicholas of Cusa and the Renais-
sance,ed. Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000); Jasper Hopkins, A Concise
Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa(Min-
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1978); Paul E.
Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963).Nicholas of Myra, Bishop(fifth century)one of the
most renowned and legendary saints
Little is actually known about the life of Nicholas of
Myra. He was bishop of Myra in Lycia in ANATOLIAin the
fifth century. His cult was established from the sixth cen-
tury at CONSTANTINOPLE. His reputation was built around
some famous episodes, saving young girls from prostitu-
tion, saving three officials condemned to DEATH, restoring
life to three children cut up by a butcher, and calming a
storm threatening sailors. He had saintly patronage over
young girls, boys, pawnbrokers, apothecaries, perfume
makers, students, sailors, and MERCHANTS. He was also
the patron saint of RUSSIA. When Myra fell to ISLAMor
when some Italian merchants simply stole his RELICS,
they were taken to BARI and his cult quickly spread
throughout the West. He was a favorite subject in the art
and drama of the East and the West. As the patron of and
bearer of gifts for children, he easily became the basis for
the modern Santa Claus or Father Christmas. His feast
day is December 6.
Further reading:Edward G. Clare, St. Nicholas: His
Legends and Iconography(Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1985);
Charles Jones, Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhat-
tan: Biography of a Legend (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1978).Nicolaism SeeNICOLAITISM.