NESTORIUS. 395 NETHERLANDS. In 428 Ncstoi'ius was sunmionod from Ids monastic rt'tircnu-nt near Antiocli to become Bi^liop of Constantinople, wliither his fame as an a.scelic and preaclier had ]iieti'de<l him. As patriarch, Nestorius immediately declared war upon all lieretics. and liegan persecutions against Arians, (^uartodccimanians, Macedonians, etc. The popular theology of Constantinople did not escape. A presbyter nametl Anastasius, preach- ing in the cathedral church one day. declared witJi energy. "Let no man call JIary 'ilother of God,' for Mary was only a woman, and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman." Nestorius hastened to support and reiterate the position his presbyter had taken, which was an open defiance of the Alexandrian party. A tierce controversy ensued. Cyril, supported by Coelestine, Bishop of Rome, published twelve anathemas against Nestorius, to which Nestorius replied in kind. The Emperor, Tlieodosius II., was obliged to convene a general council to settle the disturbance. It met at Ephesus in 4.31. (See EpiiE-si's, CouxciLS OF.) Its stormy proceedings were directed by Cyril, and Nestorius was con- demned. John of Antioch, who arrived late, en- tered an unavailing protest against this verdict. The writings of Nestorius were burned, by Im- perial order, and his followers were branded with the opprobrious name of Simonians. Nestorius was allowed to return to his old monastery near Antioch. where he passed four years. He was then banished to Arabia, and afterwards to Egj'pt, where he endured many hardships, and won the title of martyr among his followers. He wrote a defense of liis life and teaching, of which only a few fragments survive ( in the works of his opponents). We have a melancholj' picture of the closing years of his life in Evagrius's Eccle- siastical History, i. 7, which is evidently colored by the author's hostility. The place and date of his death are unknown. The Nestorians (q.v. ), although bearing his name, do not cherish his peculiar teaching. An illustration of Mono- physite detestation of his memory is found in the grim ceremony of the .Jacobites, who once a year assemble and cast stones upon the spot where his body is supposed to have been buried. Consult: .Smith and Vace, Dictionary of Chris- tian liiot/raphy. article "Nestorius;" Harnack, History of Doyma. vol. iv. (Eng. trans., Lon- don. 1808) ; Schair. History of the Christian Church, vol. iii. (3d ed.. New York, 1880) ; Du Bose, The Ecumenical Councils, ehs. 10 and 11 (2d ed., ib., 1897): Bright, The Age of the Fathers ( I.onilon. 100.3). NETH'ERLANDS, The; often called HoL- L.xn. The country forming, with the coastal region of Belgium, the lowest part of Europe. It is the western continuation of the low plain of North Germanv and lies between latitudes 50° 4.>' and .i.3° 30' N.. and longitudes 3° 22' and 7° 12' E. It is bounded on the west and north by the North Sea, on the east by Prussia, and on the south by Belgium. With an area of only 12,048 square miles, it is one of the smallest indcjiendent States of Europe. Its topograph)' has had a lead- ing part in shaping its history. The country is emphatically a maritime State. Half of its boundaries (46.5 miles) are formed by the sea, and no place in the kingdom is more than 120 miles from it. TorooRAPiiY. The northern part of the Nether- lands is indented by the Zuyder Zee, which repre- VOL. XIV.— 26. sents in part an ancient lake, the sea having l)roken through the intervening land in the thir- teenth century. There are many considerable islands along the coast, distributed in two groups. Utr the north coast are the Frisian Islands, com- prising Tcxel, Vlieland, Ter Schelling, Anieland, and others. In the .southwest are the numerous islands of the great Rhine-Jleuse-Scheldt Delta, among which are Voorne, Overllakkee, Schouwen Tholen, North Beveland, South Beveland, and Walcheren. The country is the llattest part of the Continent, mainl_y a region of monotonous stretches of plains, interrupted only by sand dunes and some other undulations and low hills, particularly in the .southeast. One-fourth of this region adjoining the sea front lies below the level of the sea, a considerable part of it in North and South Holland as much as 20 feet. Thirteen per cent, lies between sea level and 3 feet above the sea. The mean height of the entire kingdom is onl- 30 to 33 feet above the sea. Three features, the dunes, dikes, and polders, characterize the north and south belt nearest to the sea. The dunes stretching along the coast were formed by the winds and sea, which heaped up the ocean sands into rows of hills from 20 to 60 feet apart and from 35 to 200 feet high. Wherever they front the coast they are adequate protection against the sea. These sand ridges and hills are sparsely wooded, but are saved from disintegration by natural or cultivated growths of plants. Few parts of them are tilled, but the sandy regions behind them are carefully culti- vated. The dikes are gigantic artificial em- bankments of earth faced with stone or pro- tected by stakes. They guard the country against the sea at the places where there are no dunes. The largest is the Helder Dike. (See Heldeb.) There are also smaller dikes, as a precaution against floods, on the banks of the Rhine and other streams. Inside the line of dunes and dikes are great numbers of polders, which are areas of land inclosed by dikes that not only protect them from floods, but also render it possible to pump out the water from within the inclosure. The land thus won with enoriuous toil is exceedingly fertile and valuable. The lands reclaimed from the sea along the coast and the basins of the rivers in the south are the most industrial and populous parts of the Netherlands. Here are the richest pastures, where most of the tine breeds of Dutch cattle are reared and the dairy industry thrives. Back of these lowest lands and polders stretch the low plains strewn with the gravel and sand brought down from the north, with swellings of ground cau.sed by deeper accumulations of this material ; and in the east are many moors or bogs covered with moss and heather, many of which have been drained, the peat ctit away for fuel, and the land reclaimed for cultivation. The country is not quite destitute of important elevations, for there are hills in the extreme southeast, and to some extent in the central east. One of these ranges attains a height of 600 feet, and in the provinces of Drenthe, Gelderland, Overyssel, Utrecht, and Limburg are gravel hills from 150 to over 300 feet in elevation : near Limburg is the highest elevation in the kingdom (1055 feet). Hydroohapiiv. The numerous bogs and marshes testify to the imperfect drainage. There are many small streams, but no large rivers ex- cept in the south. These large rivers flow in the
