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 NOVATIAN

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NOVATIAN

or improper; but there are severe expressions in the letters. It seems that Novatian got into some trouble during the persecution, since Cornehus says that St. Moses, the martyr (d. 250), seeing the boldness of Novatian, separated him from communion, together with the five priests who had been associated with him.

At the beginning of 2.51 the persecution relaxed, and St. Cornelius was elected pope in March, "when the chair of Fabian, that is the place of Peter, was vacant", with the consent of nearly all the clergy, of the peo- ple, and of the bishops present (Cyprian, Ep. Iv, 8-9). Some days later Novatian set himself up as a rival pope. Cornelius tells us Novatian suffered an ex- traordinary and sudden change; for he had taken a tremendous oath that he would never attempt to be- come bishop. But now he sent two of his party to summon three bishops from a distant corner of Italy, telling them they must come to Rome in haste, in or- der that a division might be healed by their mediation and that of other bishops. These simple men were constrained to confer the episcopal order upon him at the tenth hour of the day. One of these returned to the church bewailing and confessing his sin, "and we despatched" says Cornelius, "successors of the other two bishops to the places whence they came, after or- daining them." To ensure the loyalty of his support- ers Novatian forced them, when receiving Holy Com- munion, to swear by the Blood and the Body of Christ that they would not go over to Cornelius.

Cornelius and Novatian sent messengers to the dif- ferent Churches to announce their respective claims. From St. Cyprian's correspondence we know of the careful investigation made by the Council of Carthage, with the result that Cornelius was supported by the whole African episcopate. St. Dionysius of Alexan- dria also took his side, and these influential adhesions soon made his position secure. But for a time the whole Church was torn by the question of the rival popes. We have few details. St. Cyprian writes that Novatian "assumed the primacy" (Ep. Ixix, 8), and sent out his new apostles to many cities to set new foundations for his new establishment; and, though there were already in all provinces and cities bishops of venerable age, of pure faith, of tried virtue, who had been proscribed in the persecution, he dared to create other false bishops over their heads (Ep. Iv, 24) thus claiming the right of substituting bishops by his own authority as Cornelius did in the case just men- tioned. There could be no more startling proof of the importance of the Roman See than this sudden revela- tion of an episode of the third century: the whole Church convulsed by the claim of an antipope; the recognized impossibility of a bishop being a Catholic and legitimate pastor if he is on the side of the wrong pope ; the uncontested claim of both rivals to consecrate a new bishop in any place (at all events, in the West) where the existing bishop resisted their authority. Later, in the same way, in a letter to Pope Stephen, St. Cyprian urges him to appoint (so he seems to im- ply) a new bishop at Aries, where the bishop had become a Novatianist. St. Dionysius of Alexandria wrote to Pope Stephen that all the Churches in the East and beyond, which had been split in two, were now united, and that all their prelates were now re- joicing exceedingly in this unexpected peace — in Anti- och, Ca?sarea of Palestine, Jerusalem, Tyre, Laodicea of Syria, Tarsus and all the Churches of Cilicia, Cae- sarea and all Cappadocia, the Syrias and Arabia (which depended for alms on the Roman Church), Mesopotamia, Pontus and Bithynia, "and all the Churches everywhere", so far did the Roman schism cause its effects to be felt. Meanwhile, before the end of 251, Cornelius had assembled a council of sixty bishops (probably all from Italy or the neighbouring islands), in which Novatian was excommunicated. Other bishops who were not present added their sig-

natures, and the entire list was sent to Antioch and doubtless to all the other principal Churches.

It is not surprising that a man of such talents as Novatian should have been conscious of his superior- ity to Cornelius, or that he should have found priests to assist his ambitious views. His mainstay was in the confessors yet in prison, Maximus, Urbanus, Nic- ostratus, and others. Dionysius and Cyprian wrote to remonstrate with them, and they returned to the Church. A prime mover on Novatian's side was the Carthaginian priest Novatus, who had favoured laxity at Carthage out of opposition to his bishop. In St. Cyprian's earlier letters about Novatian (xliv-xlviii, 1), there is not a word about any heresy, the whole ques- tion being as to the legitimate occupant of the place of Peter. In Ep. H, the words "schismatico immo haeretico furore" refer to the wickedness of opposing the true bishop. The same is true of " hajretica; pravi- tatis nocens factio" with Ep. liii. In Ep. hv, Cyp- rian found it neces,sary to send his book "De lapsis" to Rome, so that the question of the lapsed was al- ready prominent, but Ep. Iv is the earliest in which the "Novatian heresy" as such is argued against. The letters of the Roman confessors (Ep. liii) and Cor- nelius (xhx, 1) to Cyprian do not mention it, though the latter speaks in general terms of Novatian as a schismatic or a heretic; nor does the pope mention heresy in his abuse of Novatian in the letter to Fabius of Antioch (Eusebius, VI, xliii), from which so much has been quoted above. It is equally clear that the letters sent out by Novatian were not concerned with the lapsi, but were "letters full of calumnies and male- dictions sent in large numbers, which threw nearly all the Churches into disorder" (Cornelius, Ep. xlix). The first of those sent to Carthage consisted appar- ently of "bitter accusations" against Cornelius, and St. Cyprian thought it so disgraceful that he did not read it to the council (Ep. xlv, 2). The messengers from Rome to the Carthaginian Council broke out into similar attacks (Ep. xliv). It is necessary to notice this point, because it is so frequently overlooked by historians, who represent the sudden but short-lived disturbance throughout the Catholic Church caused by Novatian's ordination to have been a division be- tween bishops on the subject of his heresy. Yet it is obvious enough that the question could not present it- self: "Which is preferable, the doctrine of Cornelius or that of Novatian?" If Novatian were ever so or- thodox, the first matter was to examine whether his ordination was legitimate or not, and whether his accusations against Cornelius were false or true. An admirable reply addressed to him by St. Dionysius of Alexandria has been preserved (Eusebius, VI, xlv) : "Dionysius to his brother Novatian, greeting. If it was against your will, as you say, that you were led, you will prove it by retiring of your free will. For you ought to have suffered anything rather than divide the Church of God; and to be martyred rather than cause a schism would have been no less glorious than to be martyred rather than commit idolatry, nay in my opinion it would have been a yet greater act; for in the one case one is a martyr for one's own soul alone, in the other for the whole Church". Here again there is no question of heresy.

But yet within a couple of months Novatian was called a heretic, not only by Cyprian but throughout the Church, for his severe views about the restoration of those who had lapsed in the persecution. He held that idolatry was an unpardonable sin, and that the Church had no right to restore to communion any who had fallen into it. They might repent and be ad- mitted to a lifelong penance, but their forgiveness must be left to God; it could not be pronounced in this world. Such harsh sentiments were not alto- gether a novelty. TertuUian had resisted the forgive- ness of adultery by Pope Callistus as an innovation. Hippolytus was equally inclined to severity. In vari-