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NovATUs. A. D. 251. 101
New Testament; the notice taken of them by ^ Ba.sil,ff Gregory
Nazianzen; the accounts given of them by Socrates and 8ozomen
in tlieir ecclesiastical histories, are proofs of their beingnumerous,
and in most parts of the world, in the fourth and
fifth centuries. Not to insist now particularly on'' Philaster,'
Epiphanius,'' Augustine,' Theodoret, who hav^e written professedly
of heretics and their opinions. St. Jerom likewise
frequently confutes the Novatians in his commentaries, and
in his epistles. Among the epistles of Isidore of Pelusium,
who nourished about the year 412, there are two against
the Novatians. And that they subsisted in some parts after
this, appears from the books" of Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria,
written against them not long before the end of the
sixth century.
The vast extent of this sect is manifest from the names of
the authors who have mentioned them, or written against
them, and from the several parts of the Roman empire in
which they Mere found. And" Socrates mentions one Mark,
bishop of the Novatians in Scythia, who was present at Constantinople
with Paul in his last sickness, Avho died in the
year 4^39.
The Novatians had among them some men of note and
eminence. Not to say any thing more of Acesius, already
mentioned,? Socrates and'i Sozomen have celebrated Eutychian
as a worker of miracles ; a man of this sect in the time
of Constantine, who lived a solitary life upon the mountain
Olympus in Bithynia.
Agelius succeeded Acesius as bishop of the Novatian people
at Constantinople : he enjoyed that honour, as"^ it seems,
near fifty years, dying" in the sixth year of the reign of Theodosius,
that is, the year of Christ, 384. Socrates says of
him, ' that^ he lived an apostolical life: he Avent bare-foot,
' and More but one coat, according to the precept in the
' gospel.' Sozomen ' Mrites of this bishop exactly to the same
purpose, only in different Mords : as before shown, he saved
himself by flight in the Arian persecution under Constantius :
he M as banished by Valens, but obtained a speedy release at
the intercession of Marcian. Though Agelius, as both
these ecclesiastical historians assure us, was a very pious
f Basil, ad Amphil. Can. i. Ep. 188. p. 268. A. Bened.
8 Gr. Naz. Orat. 39. p. 635. 636. " Philast. Haer. 82.
' Epiph. Haer. 59. p. 493, &c. '' Aug, de Hser. cap. 38.
' Theod. Haer. Fab. 1. iii. cap. 5. " Isid. 1. i. Ep. 338, 339.
" Ap. Phot. cod. 208. p. 528. cod. 280. p. 1597. ° L. vii. cap.
46. p. 390. P Socrat. 1. i. cap. 13. i Sozom. 1. i. cap. 14.
' Vid. Socrat. 1. v. cap. 12. in. et cap. 21. in. ' Socr. 1. iv. cap. 9.
' Sozora. 1. vi. cap. 9.