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126 Credibility of the Gospel History.
but there hare
unless the person in dispute was so named :
been many called Novatus : as Junius Gallio, Seneca's elder
brother, born at Corduba in Spain, whose original name was
M. Aniiaeus Novatus. Beside the presbyter of Carthage
under Cyprian, there was at that time a bishop in Africa
named Novatus, who was present at the council of Carthage
in 256. Vid. Cypr. Tr. p. 230. Novatus, a bishop, was
present at the council of I\Iilevi, in Africa, in the year 416.
Vid. Augustin. Ep. 176. [al. 92,] The same Novatus, or
another bishop of that name, is afterwards mentioned by
Angustine, in a letter written about the year 429. A Sanctis
fratribus et coepiscopis meis Urbano et Novato, qualis sis
vir et quantus accepi. Aug. Ep. 229. [al. 262]. A letter
of Augustine written in 405, is sent to one Novatus, supposed
to be the same Novatus, bishop of Sitifi, who was present at
the conference at Carthage, in 411. A^id. Aug. Ep. 84. [al.
242.] et August. Vit. a Benedictin. concinnat. 1. vi. cap. 6.
n. 4. et Collat. Carthag. n. 143. et 204. There was formerly
a place at Rome called Thermoe Novati : from whom so called,
I do not enquire. Yit. Montfauc. Diar. Ital. cap. 14. p. 203.
There is likewise a writer of this name whose work indeed
I never saw ; but it is to be found in divers curious libraries
this is the title. Novatus Catholicusde Humilitaieet Obedientia.
Vit. Montf. Bib. MSS. T. i. p. 46, 67, 1373.'' This
consideration alone is sufficient to render it probable that
the person of whom we are speaking was called Novatus
for it is not likely he should have a name by which no other
man was ever called.
5. Some learned moderns seem to have supposed that the
name of the person v. as Novatus. I guess that Beausobre
and L'Enfant were of this opinion, because they write his
name in French No vat : as may be seen in a passage formerly
quoted, p. 11 7. note '\ In Du Fresno's Latin translation of the
Paschal Chronicle, the name Novatus is preserved, p. 271. D.
272. A Paris. 1688. And I am apt to think it will be found,
(though this single instance only now offers itself to me,)
that several learned moderns have kept the name Novatus
in their Latin tianslations of Greek writers.
ObJ. I can tjiink of but one objection of moment, which
is, that this person's name is always written Novatian by St.
Cyprian ; and it must be owned that this is a considerable
difficulty: nevertheless, I think it ought not to prevail
against so much evidence as we have seen on the other side.
° So I wrote in the first edition : but the book is easy enough to be found.
It is in Bib. PP. Maxima, T. v. p. 1082, 1083, where it makes little more than
one folio page. It is also in Bib. PP. Morel!. Paris, 1644, T. ii. p. 75, &c
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