Nicetas, Pectoratus

Nicetas, Pectoratus (ὁ στηθατός '), an Eastern ascetic, noted as a Church writer, was, at the time when patriarch Michael Caerularius (q.v.) separated from the Romish Church, a monk in the convent of Studium, near Constantinople. He is mentioned as a pupil of abbot Simeon of St. Mamas. An enemy of the Latins, he sided at once with the patriarchs, and wrote on the custom of fasting on the Sabbath and on the marriage of priests. In 1054 came the Romish ambassadors, and at their head cardinal Humbert and archdeacon Frederick. The cardinal and Nicetas held a conference in the convent of Studium, which ended the emperor also interfering in the matter by a retraction on the part of Nicetas of all he had said, a condemnation of the enemies of Rome, and submission to the burning of his works. This is mentioned only by Latin writers (comp. Canis. Lectt. antiquae, iii, pt. i, p. 325, and Vibertus in Vita s. Leonis, 2:5; Lea, Hist. of Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 199, note i; and the review of the Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, in Hauck, Theoloy. Jahresbericht, 1867 2:252), but such things occurred so often in the Greek Church that there is no reason to doubt its truth; besides, it did not oblige Nicetas to foreswear forever his attachment to the Greek Church. Among his works at present extant, the principal is Liber adv. Latinos de Azymis, de Sabbatorum jejuniis et nuptiis Sacerdotum, Latine apud Canis. I. c. p. 308, ed. Basnage (cum refutatione Humberti, comp. Allat. De Missa praesanctific. § 2, 16; De purgator, p. 870). This book has been recently brought out in the Bibl. Eccles. vol. i (Leips. 1866, 8vo), and is entitled Περὶ τῶν ἀζύμων. A copy of this work in Greek is preserved in the imperial library at Vienna. As will be' noticed from a preceding article, some critics ascribe its authorship to Nicetas Nicaeanus (q.v.). Among the other writings of Nicetas, we notice Carmena lambicum in Simeonemjuniorem Greece, in Allat. De Simeon, p. 168: — Tractatus de anima, in fragments in Allat. De synodo Photian. cap. 14: — Capita ascetica, capita de sanctis patribus, contra blasphemam Armeniorum haeresim, de processione Sp. S., de caelesti hierarchia, de paradiso terrestri, epistolae, etc., mentioned in Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. ed. Harl. 7:753, 754. See Allat. De perp. consens. 2:9, § 6; Cave, Hist. Lit. 2:136; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. 24:219; Neander, Ch. Hist. 3:583; Herzog, Real- Encyklopadie, 10:323; and Hauck as above noticed.