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NovATus. A. D. 251. 83
suspected tliathcre is some mistake, or some inisrepresentation.
It is manifest, that during a large part of the Decian persecution,
and for some good m hile after the martyrdom of Fabian,
Novatus maintained his rank, and was in great repute
with his brethren the clergy of Rome. For the letter sent
to Cyprian in the name of the Roman clergy, and allowed''
by all to have been drawn up by Novatus, Avas not written
till about'' the end of August, 250 : and the anonymous
author of the tract against Novatus, joined with St. Cyprian's
works, says, ' that " Novatus, so long as he M'as in the church,
* bewailed the faults of other men as his own, bore the bur-
* dens of the brethren, as the apostle directs, and by his
* exhortations strengthened such as were weak in the faith.'
Possibly some retirement of Novatus is the foundation of this
charge. But every flight or retreat, in time of persecution,
is not really blamable ; though such things rarely escape
censure. There were other good and eminent men about
that time who did the same ; Cyprian in particular, avIio yet
afterwards had a glorious martyrdom. And Novatus's trea-
tise of Jewish meats was** actually written in some retired
place: and, as it is a letter, it appears farther from it, that
he was upon good terms with those to whom he writes, and
that he had written to them more than once, to comfort them,
since his retreat , where also he had received divers affec-
tionate letters from them, asking' his council and assistance.
* Nam in epistola sua ita posuerunt Additum est etiara, Novatiano tunc
scribente, et quod scripserat sua voce recitante, et presbytero Moyse, tunc adhuc
confessore, nunc jam martjTe, subscribente ; ut lapsis infirrais, et in exitu con-
stitutis, pax daretur. Quae literae per totuni raundum missae sunt, et in notitiani
ecclesiis omnibus et universis fratribus perlatae sunt. Cypr. ad Antonian. Ep.
55. [al. 52.] p. 102. Vid. etiam Pacian. Ep. 3. p. 310. D.
^ Mense Augusto exeunte clerus Romanus scnbit ad Cyprianum literas, &c.
Pearson. Ann. Cypr. A. 250. n. xvi. Conf. Pagi Crit. 250. n. xii.
* Unde igitur et tam sceleratus, et tam perditus, tarn discord iae furore vesa-
nus, extiterit iste Novatianus, invenire non possum ; qui semper in domo una,
id est, Christi ecclesia, proximorum delicta ut propria fleverit, onera fratrum ;
sicut apostolus hortatur, sustinuerit, lubricos in fide ccelesti allocutione conoboravit.
Anon, ad Novat. Hseret. p. 19. m. Oxon.
^ Etsi mihi, fratressanctis3imi,exoptatissimusdies ille,— quo literas vestras et
scripta suscipio (quid enim me aliud nunc faciat liberiorem ?) tamen non minus
egregium diem et inter eximios arbitror computandum, quo similes vobis
affectus debitae caritatis remittens, et ego ad vos compari voto literas scribo.
Nihil enim me, fratres sanctissimi, tantis constrictum vinculis tenet,-— quam ne
jacturam vobis quamdam per absentiam meam putetis illatam, cui remedium
connitor dare, dum elaboro vobis me prsesentem frequentibus Uteris exhibere.
Quamquam ergo et ofiicium debitum et cura suscepta et ipsa ministerii imposita
persona hanc a me hterarum scribendarum exposcunt necessitatem—Quam
vero sint perversi Jiidsei et ab intellectu suse legis alieni, duabus epistolis superioribus,
ut arbitror, plene ostendi. De Cib. Jud. cap. 1. p. 255—258. Ed
Jackson.
G 2