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NovATus. A. D. 251. 87
against the Novatians, speaks of a book^ they had among
them, called the Martyrdom of Novatus. But he treats it
as a forgery, and shows it was false and fabulous. According
to his account it was* a trifling- thing, a little book of a
few pages. It may be questioned then whether there be a
sufticient evidence remaining to satisfy us that Novatus died
a martyr : though it may be reckoned probable from the
common opinion of his followers, and from the forecited
passage of the treatise concerning Jewish meats, written in
a place of retreat or banishment, that he was a confessor.
Nor does Pacian deny this, but seems to grant as much.
II. Novatus is generally reckoned a schismatic and a
heretic. Cornelius, in his letters to Cyprian, gives him" both
these hard names : and Cyprian likeM'ise speaks ^ in the same
manner. What was his schism we have seen ; what was his
heresy is not quite so clear. St. Jerom, as before cited, says
Novatus was against receiving apostates, though they repented.
And undoubtedly that was his opinion, but perhaps
not the whole of it ; for, as this dispute had its rise upon
occasion of the great numbers of persons who had lapsed
some way or other in the Decian persecution, Novatus seems
to have extended his severe doctrine to all such ; not only
apostates, or those who had actually sacrificed, but to others
also, who had been guilty of any slip or fault at that time.
Eusebius says that'"^ Novatus excluded those from all
hopes of salvation who had lapsed in time of persecution,
though they gave signs of a sincere conversion and repentance
: but Socrates says, his^ opinion v.'as, that they
who had sacrificed in the persecution should not be received
to communion : they should be exhorted to repent ; but
their pardon should be referred to God, who is able and has a
right to forgive sins. And this is the principle of the Novatians;
which y Cyprian ridicules and exposes, and Am-
^ Eulog. Contr. Novat. Libr. vi. ap. Phot. Cod. 208. p. 530. et Cod. 280. p.
1621. ^ KaKOTrXaTov t( kui aSiararov ypafifiaTioiov. lb. p. 1621. m,
" Et scias quales duces et protectores iste schismaticiis et hnereticus lateri suo
seniper junctos habeat. Cornel, ap. Cyprian. Ep. 50. [al. 48.] p. 94. Vid. et ep.
49. p. 92. " Posteaquam vos de carcere prodeunles schismaticus el
haereticus error excepit. Cypr. Ep. 54. p. 99. Vid. supra, not." p. 85.
" —ug jxijKtr sariQ avroig (jwrijpiag tXTTi^oQ, fitj S' ti Tcavra ra hq evi^po-
^rjv yvijmav km KaGapav t^ofioXoyrjaiv eTriTiXoiev. Eus. L. vi. cap. 43. init.
" M); 0£;^£(T3at thq nziTtQvKOTaq tig ra fivrrjpia' nXXa TrporpeTTtiv fiev avTsg
eig [itrai'oiav, ri)v Se avyxi^piimv i—irptTnu' Qtijt, t(ij Ivvajxtvtj} Kai i^aaiav
EXOvri ffvy^Mptiv ujxapT^jiaTa. Socr. L. iv. cap. 28. p. 245. B.
y Atque O frustrandse tratemitatis irrLsio ! O miseromm lamentantiuni caduca
deceptio ! hortari ad satisfactionis poenitentiam, et subtrahere de satisfactione
medicinara ; dicere fratribiis nostris, Plange, et lachrymas funde, et diebus et