NIHUS
76
NIHUS
ence to the head of the association was punishable
with death. The Government, in turn, enacted
stringent laws against secret societies and brought
hundreds before the tribunals. \ notable instance
w:is tlie trial, at St. Petersburg in October, 1877, of
VXi |)ersons: 94 went free, 3t) were sent to Siberia; the
others received light sentences. One of the acciused,
Myskin by name, who in addressing the judges had
characterized the procediire as "an abominable com-
edy", Wiis condenine<i to ten years of penal -servitude.
Another sen-sational trial (April, 1S7S) was that of
Vera Sassulio, who had attempted to murder General
Frepov, chief of police of St. I'etershurg. Her ac-
quittal was frantically apjilauded and she found a ref-
uge in Switzerland. Among the deeds of violence
committed by Nihilists may be mentioned the assassi-
nation of General Mezencev (4 .\ug., 1,S7S) and Prince
Krapotkin (lS7fl). These events were followed by new
repressive measures on the part of the Government
and by numerous executions. The Nihilists, however,
continued their work, held a congress at Lipeck in
1879, and (2t) Aug.) condemned Alexander II to death.
An attempt to wreck the train on which the Tsar was
returning to St . Petersburg proved abortive. Another
attack on his Ufe was made by Halturin, 5 Feb., 1880.
He was slain on 1 March, 1881, by a bomb, thrown by
Grineveckij. Six conspirators, among them Sofia
Perovskaja, were tried and executed. On 14 March,
the Zemlja i Volja society issued a proclamation incit-
ing the peasants to rise, while the Executive Committee
wrote to Alexander III denouncing the abuses of the
bureaucracy and demanding political amnesty, na-
tional representation, and civil liberty.
The reign of Alexander III was guided by the dic- tates of a reaction, due in great measure to the coun- sels of Constantine Pob6donoscev, procurator general of the Holy Synod. And Nihilism, which seemed to reach its apogee in the death of Alexander II, saw its ecUpse. Its theories were too radical to gain prose- lytes among the people. Its assaults were repeated; on 20 March, 1882, General Strglnikov was assassi- nated at Odessa; and Colonel Sude^kin on the 28th of December, 1883; in 1887, an attempt against the life of the tsar was unsuccessful; in 1890, a conspiracy against the tsar was discovered at Paris; but these crimes were the work of the revolution in Russia, rather than of the Nihilists. The crimes that reddened the soil of Russia with blood in constitutional times are due to the revolution of 1905-07. But the Ni- hilism, that, as a doctrinal system, proclaimed the destruction of the old Russia, to establish the founda- tions of a new Russia, may be said to have disap- peared ; it became fused with Anarchism and Sociahsm, and therefore, the history of the crimes that were mul- tiphed from 190.5 on are a chapter in the history of poUtical upheavals in Russia, and not in the history of Nihilism.
IsKANDER (the pseud, of Hebzen), Du d6veloppement des id^es rivolulionnaires en Russie (Paris, 1851); Schedo-Ferhoti, Eludes suT Va-cenir de la Russie (Berlin. 1867); Alex^i, Les nihilisles ou lea dames russes emancipies (London, 1867) ; Max Nettlau, Life of Michael Bakunin (3 vols., London); GIolovin, Der rus- sische Nihiliamus (Leipzig, 1880); Lavigne, Introd. d Vkist. du. nihiliame en Russie (Paris, 1880) ; Lubomirski, Le nihilisme en Rusiie (Paris, 1879) ; Armando, It nihilismo (Turin, 1879) ; Idem, Waaittder Nihitismusr (Leipzig, 1881); Gerbet^Karlowitsch, Die Atlentals-Periori in Ruasland (Heiltironn, 1881); Gally- BouTTEViLLE, Tzarisme et nihilisme (Paris, 1881): Leroy- Beauueu, L'empire des tzars el les russes, II (Paris. 1882), 544- 66; Stepniak (pseud.). La Russia soUerranea (Milan, 1882); Les nihilisles et la rSvolittion en Russie (Paris, 1882); Der Czaren- mord am IS. Marz 1881 (Dresden. 1882) ; Bouoard, Les nihi- lisles russes (Zurich, 1881) ; TauN. Gesch. der revotulionaren Bewe- gungen in Russland (Leipzig, 1883), tr. Polish (London, 1893), Russian (Moscow, 1905); Scherr, Die Nihilislen (Leipzig, 1885); Ieoorov, Aus den Mysterien des russ. Nihilismus (Leipzig, 1885) ; Stepniak, Le tzarisme et la rholution (Paris, 1866) ; Thomibov, Conspiraleurs et palriciens (Paris, 1887) ; Fr£d^, La Russie et le nihilisme (Paris, 1887); Oldenbebo, Der russ. Nihilismus von seinen Anfangen Ins zur Geoenwart (Leipzig, 1888); Milinkqv, La crise russe (Paris, 1907) ; Michelet, Essai sur I'hist. de Nicolas XT, et le debut de la rHolution russe (Paris, 1907); Schlesinger, Russland im XX. Jahrh. (Berlin, 1908); Istorja molodoi Rossii
[Hisloru of Young Russia] (Moscow, 1908); Rddolf Urba, Die
Revolution in liussland; (2 vols., Prague, 1906); Lognet and
Sli.uEH, Tcrroristes et policicrs (Paris, 1909); Buioe (The Past),
I-XII (Paris, 1908-9), review conducted by Boucerv, contains
documents bearing on the history of Nihilism.
A. Palmieki.
Nihus, Barthold, conv(Tt and controversialist, b. at Holtorf in Hanover, 7 February, 1,590 (according to other sources in 1,5S4 or 1589, at Wolpe in Bruns- wick); d. at Erfurt, 10 March, 10.57. He came from a poor Protestant family, obtained his early education at Verden and Goslar, and from lt)07 studied philoso- phy and medicine at the University of Helmstedt, where, on account of his poverty, he was the famulus of Cornelius Martini, professor of philosophy. Hav- ing become master of philosophy in 1612, his inclina- tions then led him to study Protestant theology. Con- tentions among the professors at Helmstedt made further stay there unpleasant, and when two students of noble family went in 1616 to the University of .Jena, he accompanied them as preceptor. Later he became instructor of the young princes of Saxe-Weimar, among whom was the subsequently famous Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. The inability of the Protestant theologians to agree upon vital questions caused him first to doubt and then to renounce Protestantism. He went to Cologne in 1622, and entered the House of Proselytes founded by the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross; in the same year he accepted the Catholic Faith and, after due preparation, was ordained priest. Chosen director of the House of Proselytes, and in 1627 provost of the nunnery of the Cistercians at Alt- haldensleben near Magdeburg, two years later he be- came abbot of the monastery of the Premonstraten- sians, from which he was expelled after the battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. He fled to Hildesheim where he became canon of the church of the Holy Cross, thence to Holland where he came into close relation with Ger- hard Johann Vossius. In 1645 Nihus was called to MUnster by the papal nuncio, Fabio Chigi (later Alex- ander VII), then in MUnster attending the Westpha- lian Peace Congress. A few years later he was in- duced to come to Mayenee by Johann Philip von Schonborn, Archbishop of Mayenee, at whose request he went to Ingolstadt in 1654 to obtain information regarding the Welt-Priester-Institut of Bartholomew Holzhauser, and to report, to the archbishop. Schon- born, in 1655, appointed him his suffragan bishop for Saxony and Thuringia, with residence in Erfurt, where he died.
After his conversion Nihus had sent to the Helm- stedt professors, Calixtus and Hornejus, a letter in which he presented his reasons for embracing Catho- licism; his chief motive was that the Church needs a living, supreme judge to exi^lain the Bible and to settle disputes and difficulties. Calixtus attacked him first in his lectures and later in his writings, whence origi- nated a bitter controversy between Nihus and the Helmstedt professors The most important of Nihus' numerous writings are: (1) "Ars nova, dicto S. Scrip- tura; unico lucrandi e Pontificiis plurimos in partes Lutheranorum, detecta non nihil et suggesta Theolo- gis Helmstetensibus, Georgio Calixto prajsertim et Conrado Hornejo" (Hildesheim, 1633); (2) "Apolo- geticus pro arte nova contra Andabatam Helmsteten- sem" (Cologne, 1640), in answer to the response of Calixtus to the first pamphlet : " Digressio de arte nova contra Nihusium"; (3) "Hypodigma, quo diluuntur nonnulla contra Catholicos disputata in Comelii Mar- tini tractatu de analysi logica" (Cologne, 1648). As- sisted by his friend Leo Allatius (q. v.) he devoted con- siderable time to researches pertaining to the "Com- munion" and the "Missa prasanctificatorum " of the Greeks, and also took charge of the editing and pub- lishing of several works of AUatius, some of which — as the "De Ecclesise occidentalis et orientalis perpe- tua consensione" (Cologne, 1648) and "Symmicta"
