NOYON
147
NUBIA
did not exist in the monastery of St. Paehomius as a
general institution; but from the fifth century at least
it has been the rule for the Coptic monks to pass
through a novitiate of three years. (See the "Cop-
tic Ordinal " in the Bodleian Library of Oxford ; Evetts
in "Revue de I'Orient chretien", II, 1906, pp. 65,
140.) This term of three years was required also in
Persia in the sixth century (Labouret, "LeChristia-
nisme en Per.se", p. 80). Justinian, in approving this,
says that he borrowed it from the rules of the saints,
"Sancimus ergo, sacras sequentes regulas" (Novella
V, "de monachis", c. 2, preface and § I). Many West- em orders, notably that of St. Benedict, were content with one year. St. Gregory the Great in his letter to Fortunatus, Bishop of Naples (bk. X, Letter 24, in Migne, "P. L.", LXXVII, col. 1082-7) required two years. Many orders of canons left the time to the discre- tion of the abbot. Common law did not prescribe any term of novitiate and this omission led to the frequent shortening, and occasionally to the entire abolition of the preparatory probation. Innocent III ["C. Apostolicum", 16, "de regularibus" (III, 31)] directs that the novitiate shall be dispensed with only in ex- ceptional circumstances, and forbids the Mendicant Orders to make their profession within one year. Finally the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, c. xv, "de regularibus") makes a year's novitiate an indispensa- ble condition of valid profession. In the East, since the fourth or fifth century, the novices of Palestine, Egypt, and Tabenna have been accustomed to give up their secular dress, and put on the habit given them by the community. This habit is distinguished from that of the professed by the absence of the cuculla or cowl. Those of St. Basil kept their habits. This practice, sanctioned by Justinian (Novella, V, c. 2), was also that of St. Benedict and the Benedictines, but the contrary use has for a long time past prevailed. (See Profession; Postul.\nt; Nuns.)
Classical authors: St. Thomas, Summa theologica, II-II, Q. clxxx, a. 2-7 and Q. clsxxix; P.isserini, De hominum statibui. III, commenting on St, Thomas, I. c; SUAREZ, De Religione, tract. VII, bk. IV-VI; Laymann, Theologia moralis, De statu religioso, c. vi; ScHMALZGRtJEBER in bk. Ill Decr., XXXI, XXXII; in bk. IV, t.
VI, n. 38—42; Schmier, JurUprudentia canonico-civilis, bk.III.t. I, pt. I, c. iii, s. 2 ; Pellizarius, Manuute Regularium, tr. 2 ; Rotarius. Theol. mor. Regularium, t. I, bk. I, II; Martene, De antiquia mo- nachorumritibus; lDF,M,Commentarius in Teg, S. Benedicti; Thomas- BiNi, Vetus etNova Eccleaia disciplina, 1. 1, bk. Ill, etc. More recent writers — Angelus a SS. Corde, Manuale juris comviunis regu- larium et specialis Carmelitorum discalceatorum, t. I (Ghent, Is99) ; Bachofen, Compendium juris regularium (New York, 1903); Bovix, De iure regularium. t, I (Paris, 1857); Battandier, Guide canonique pour lea constitutions des instituts d veeuz simples (4th ed., Paris. 1908); Bastien. Directoire canonique d Fusage des con- gregations d voBux simples (2nd ed., Maredsous, 1911); Heim- BUCHER, Die Orden und Congregationen der katholischen Kirche (Paderborn, 1907) ; Ladeuze, Etude sur le cenobitisme Pakhomien pendant le IV' siicle et la premiire moitie du V' (Louvain, 1898); NiLLES, De Ubertate clericorum religionem ingrediendi (Innsbruck, 1886); Piat, Pralectiones iuris regularis, t. I (Tournai, 1898); ScHiEwiETZ, Vorgesch. des Monchtums oder das Ascetentum der die. ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten; Das egyptische Monchtum im nerten Jahrhundert in Archivfiir Kirchenrecht (Mainz), LXXVIII, aq. (separately published, 1904) ; Taunton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906); Vermeersch, De religiosis institutis et personis, I (2nd ed., Bruges, 1907); Idem, Supplementa et Monumenta. II (4th ed., Bruges, 1910); Idem in Periodica de Religiosia et Mis- sionariis (Bruges, 1905); Wernz, Jus decretalium. III (Roma,
1901)- A. Vermbersch.
Noyon. See Beauvais, Diocese of.
Nubia, in North-eastern Africa, extending from Sennar south to beyond Khartoum and including the Egyptian Sudan. The southern section includes Sennar with Dschesireh-el Dschesire (Island of Isl- ands), the ancient Meroe; the western, Bahr el Abiad, Kordofan, and Darfur; the eastern. Tarka; the cen- tral, Dongola; and the northern, Nubia proper. The various tribes belong to the Ethiopian or Berber fam- ily, intermixed with Arabians; in the south negroes preponderate. Nubia embraces 335^97 square miles and contains 1,000,000 inhabitants; Dongola, Berber, Khartoum, Fashoda, Sennar, Fassuglo, 75,042 square miles with 2,500,000 inhabitants; Taka, 7766 square
miles with 1,000,000 inhabitants; Kordofan, 35,069
square miles with 300,000 inhabitants; Darfur, 106,-
070 square miles with 4,000,000 inhabitants; Shegga,
85,017 square miles wuth 1,400,000 inhabitants. The
chief cities are: Khartoum, at the junction of the White
and Blue Niles, founded in 1823 and the starting-point
of all scientific and missionary expeditions, destroyed
in 1885 by the Mahdi, rebuilt in 1898; Omdurman, on
the Abiad, founded by the Mahdi; Sennar, capital of
Southern Nubia; Kassala, capital of Taka. On the
Nile are Berber, Abu-Hammed, Old Dongola, and New
Dongola, capital of central Nubia; in Nubia proper,
Derr, Wadi Haifa, and Assuan ; in Kordofan, El-Obeid;
in Darfur, El Fasho. Formerly the port of Nubia was
Suakin on the Red Sea; from 1906 it has been Port
Sudan. Nubia is administered by the Viceroy of
Egypt.
History. — Nubia is said to be derived from the Egyptian Nuh (gold), as the Egyptians obtained most of their gold there. In the Bible it is called Cush. Egypt sought repeatedly to extend its southern bound- aries, and during the eighteenth dynasty reached Wadi Haifa. A temple was built at Napata (near the Fourth Cataract) by Amenophis III, and Rameses II w'aged successful war with the Ethiopians. After this there arose in Napata near the sacred mountain Gebel Barkal an independent theocratic state; the re- mains of many of its temples are still to be seen. Dur- ing the twenty-third dynasty the Nubians shook off the Egyptian yoke, and even conquered Egypt (750 B. c); three Nubian kings ruled the united territory (732-668). Psametich I (664-10) drove out the Nu- bians, and Meroe replaced Napata, which maintained its sovereignty over Nubia until destroyed by the native king Ergamenes during the reign of Ptol- emy Philadelphus (285-47). During Roman rule, the Nubians attempted to gain the Thebaid, but Petro- nius in 25 b. c. conquered Napata and forced Queen Candace to make a treaty of peace. In the third century after Christ marauding incursions of Nubian tribes called the Blemmyer forced Diocletian to sum- mon the Nobatee from El Charge in the Nile valley as confederates of the empire. Nevertheless Prima, Phcenicon, Chiris, Taphis, and Talmis yielded. In the fourth and fifth centuries the Thebaid was so often devastated that Emperor Marcian was forced to con- clude an unfavourable peace in 451. Christianity, brought probably by the hermits and monks of the Thebaid, began to spread through the country. The various accounts of this event are confusing; Pliny and Mela give the name of Ethiopia to all the countries in this region, including Ab3'ssinia, while ecclesiastical writers speak of an Ethiopian Church, but give no ac- count of the conversion of individual lands. Chris- tianity was not yet well established, when about the middle of the sixth century under the protection of the empress Theodora, the Alexandrian priest Julian in- troduced Monophysitism. Its adherents called them- selves Copts. The Nobataean kings Silko and Eirpa- nomos accepted Christianity in this form, and the Monophysite patriarch Theodosius, Bishop Theodore of Philae, and Longinus, Julian's successor, put the new doctrine on a firm basis. In 580 Longinus baptized the King of the Alodse. The final victory of the Mono- physites was secured by their union with the Arabs, soon to be masters of Egypt.
In 640 Amr Ben el-Asi'S, the commander-in-chief of the Arabs, conquered Egypt and ended Byzan- tine supremacy. The Melchite (Catholic) patriarch, George of Alexandria, fled to Constantinople and his see remained vacant for over a hundred years. The Copts secured peace only by becoming confederates of the enemy, and in return received nearly all the Catho- lic churches; their patriarch alone exercised jurisdic- tion over the entire territory. According to the Ara- bian Makrizi, as related by Ibn Selim, when the Nubians requested bishops they received from Alex-
