Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/539

 NOVATIANS NOVATION 525 and by the treaty of Paris (1763) France re- nounced all future claim upon any of her for- mer possessions in North America. The same year Cape Breton and Prince Edward island were annexed to Nova Scotia, but the latter was separated from it in 1770. New Bruns- wick and Cape Breton were separated from Nova Scotia in 1784, but the latter was rean- nexed in 1819. After the close of the Ameri- can revolution large numbers of royalist refu- gees from the United States settled in Nova Scotia, and their descendants now form a large portion of the population. Eesponsible gov- ernment was introduced in 1848. In 1867 Nova Scotia became one of the original prov- inces of the Dominion of Canada. See "An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," by Thomas 0. Haliburton (Halifax, 1829) ; "History of Nova Scotia," &c., by R. M. Martin (London, 1837); "Geological Sur- vey of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton," by D. Honeyman (Halifax, 1864); "Acadian Geol- ogy," by J. W. Dawson (London, 1868) ; " Se- lections from the Public Documents of the Province of Nova Scotia," by Thomas B. Akins (Halifax, 1869) ; and " The Mineralogy of Nova Scotia," by Henry How (Halifax, 1869). NOVATIANS, a schismatical sect which origi- nated in the 3d century, so called from their founder Novatian (Novatianus). He was a priest at Rome, who by his learning and elo- quence won a high reputation. It has been inferred from uncertain data that he professed the stoic philosophy before becoming a Chris- tian; and he was distinguished after his bap- tism by his rigid ascetic life. He held that persons who had committed the more grievous sins, and especially those who had denied their faith during the Decian persecution, ought not to be received again into the church. One of the foremost defenders of the contrary opinion was the priest Cornelius, who in 250 succeeded Fabian in the see of Rome. Nova- tian, unable to prevent his election, withdrew from communion with him, was excommuni- cated by a council held at Rome in 251, and was almost immediately afterward set up as a rival bishop by his own party. He tried in vain to obtain fellowship with the great churches of Antioch, Alexandria, and Car- thage, but found his principal coadjutor in Novatus, a Carthaginian priest, known by his opposition to St. Cyprian. Though differing widely on the administration of public penance, they agreed in their notions about the consti- tution of the church. According to Novatian, the chief character of the true church is purity and holiness. Every church society that toler-: ates in its bosom or readmits to its communion persons who by gross sins have broken their baptismal vows, ceases by that very act to be a true Christian church. Hence the Novatians, considering themselves to be the only pure church, called themselves ol Kadapoi, " the pure." They also held that members are made impure by outward connection with the impure in the same communion, and that the ministerial powers transmitted in the hierarchy are lost by the same cause. The sect survived its founder about three centuries. NOVATION, a law term introduced recently into use by English and American lawyers, from the Roman civil law. It may be defined as the creation of a new debt or contract in substitu- tion for an old one. It differs from a mere re- newal, such as takes place when A renews a credit he has given B, or receives a new debt or obligation from B in payment of an old one. To a novation there are three parties. It takes place when A owes B, and C owes A, and A transfers to B in payment of his debt C's debt to him, A. The effect of this is, that A is no longer the debtor of B nor the creditor of C ; and B is no longer the creditor of A, but has become the creditor of C ; and C is no longer the debtor of A, but has become the debtor of B. In the civil law, the new contract of C to pay B, and the discharge of A's debt to B by the transfer of A's claim on C, would be re- garded as different forms of novation. By our law, however, it is one thing, and the whole transaction forms one novation. It is a uni- versal principle in the law of England and of this country, that a premise can "be enforced at law only when it is founded upon a consid- eration. This rule is applied to the case of novation ; the effect of it is, that the original liabilities must be extinguished and discharged by the novation, and their discharge is then a sufficient consideration for the new liabilities. Thus, C becomes the debtor of B by the above described novation; and when B claims the debt of C, the consideration on which the claim can be upheld is the fact that C's debt to A was discharged. So if B claims the debt from A, and A interposes his agreement to release him, that agreement is valid only because B has received C's debt to A by way of consideration for his release of A. Thus all the parts of this transaction are mutually connected and depen- dent. Hence, an order by a creditor to his debtor, directing him to pay the debt to some one to whom the creditor is indebted, operates as the substitution of a new debt for an old only when the order is accepted, and when the original creditor of him who drew the order has agreed to receive the accepted order in payment of his claim. This transaction may be oral only, none of the promises being in writing, because C, the original debtor of A, does not undertake to pay A's debt to B, inas- much as A's debt is entirely discharged by the novation; but C contracts a new debt to B. This therefore does not come under the pro- vision of the statute of frauds, requiring that the promise to pay the debt of another should be in writing. Hence, also, if after the trans- action is complete C wholly fails to pay B, B's claim against A does not revive, for the reason that A's debt to B was wholly discharged ; and this is reasonable, because C's debt to A was wholly discharged, and therefore A would have