What is Novatianism?

The Novatians.

These are generally classed among the sects. It is difficult at this distance of time to get a clear idea of those to whom this name was given. About A.D. 250, Novatian, a presbyter of a church at Rome, broke away from the general body of Christians, holding that no one who lapsed into idolatry, during the reign of an emperor who enforced paganism, should again be received into communion, counting them to be apostates, such as are described in Hebrews 6:1-6. Some of the emperors, as we have seen, were much more severe than others, and under some it was possible for a man to hide his religion and serve the state; but when persecution arose he must give up the one or the other, and it was found that some could be pagan and Christian by turns, according to the aspect of affairs. There can be no doubt that some of these were not Christians and ought to have been denied communion. It is impossible now to tell whether Novatian did not press this too far, and allow no room for repentance.

After the persecution of Decius (A.D. 249-251) there were many cases for restoration. They were in general called "Lapsi," apostates, but they were classified thus: 1. "Sacrificati," those who had actually sacrificed to the gods, or the images of the emperor. 2. "Thurificati," those who had strewn incense on the heathen altars. 3. "Libellatici," those who, by money or favour, had obtained certificates from the magistrates as if they had obeyed the emperor. 4. "Traditores," those who delivered up the sacred books or church property. On the other hand, there were many who had suffered tortures, imprisonments, mutilations, working in the mines, etc. These, when they were restored to their homes, being extolled by their brethren, were apt to be proud of their faithfulness, and stood out in strong contrast with those who had fallen. Were the lapsed to be treated as though they had been faithful, or their apostasy to be thought little of? Novatian held that no one on earth had power to restore such.

Swayed by this fear, and forgetting the sufficiency that was to be found in Christ, some of them denied the faith, or were guilty of dissimulation, and thus evaded further persecution. Yet they became marked men by their more faithful brethren, and when they applied, as many of them did, for re-admission to church-fellowship, a warm controversy arose, and great differences of opinion prevailed. Some were for re-admitting the erring brother on the confession of his fault; others wanted more rigid discipline, and urged that re-admission should not be immediately granted; while some again, and these not a few, declared that the act was inexpiable, and refused to receive the backslider on any terms. The severer opinion was called the heresy of Novatian, after its author; and where its promoters were successful in gaining the ascendancy, the most painful results ensued: insomuch that many a true child of God, unable to obtain restoration to fellowship, was swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, and died of remorse.

At Rome matters were brought to an open rupture at the election of a bishop. Cornelius, a presbyter, was nominated but Novatian strongly opposed his election because he would admit those who had fallen. But his election was carried, and, a synod being called, Novatian was condemned. On this, seeing no remedy for the increase of corruptions in the professing body, he withdrew with many others, and was also elected bishop by some who held with him. They were the first class of Christians called Cathari (Puritans), but whether the name was adopted by themselves is not now known.

The Novatians continued as a separate body for some centuries. They abstained from much of the contention that arose in the church in after years, and were able to render help to others when they were persecuted. They contended that one of the essential marks of the true church was purity and separation from evil and they would admit none except these were re-baptised and those who lapsed into idolatry were never re-admitted, though they opposed them in no other way, and did not feel called upon to decide as to their true repentance. A charge afterwards brought against the Novatians was that they did not pay due reverence to the martyrs, nor value their relics. May not these Puritans have been such that many a true saint could unite with, and find in them a community of Christians separate from the growing evils, though they may have been too rigid in their discipline? Their enemies can bring little against them except their separation. In the council of A.D. 383 they subscribed the Nicean creed and were counted orthodox.

Tertullian and Cyprian first present themselves, and bring us back to the history of the dogma. The first, however, helps us but little as to the notion of the Church (all, as I have said, being occupied with their particular difficulties and the evils of the day). He gives no view of the Church. He once says, it is the house of God. But his great and incessantly repeated topic is the churches, not the Church; though he once says, they are one church. He dwells on the succession from the apostles, or apostolic men, securing the truth, asserting they are one in doctrine (he speaks of conferences in Greece maintaining this). When he speaks of passages in Ephesians which relate to the Church, it is only against Marcion; and uses them to shew the Creator was the supreme God, and that flesh was not despised. Some judge this treatise was after he left the body called the catholic Church in that day; as was probably another remarkable statement of his, that the authority of the Church alone had made the distinction between laymen and ordained persons; that all Christians are priests; and wherever two or three are gathered, even laymen, there is a church - they can celebrate the Lord's supper, and baptize. In sum, his teaching is the value of apostolic churches, as securing sound doctrine: it was merely a Roman legal reasoning against heretics.

52 Cyprian insists much on the unity of the Church; but it is in opposition to the schism of Novatus and Novatian. Hitherto unity had been assailed by heretics, and the defenders of catholicity had carefully denied their being of the Church, as they had not the faith which could be proved to be that of the apostles. A new thing now arose in the professing Church. Its corruption was so great (as, indeed, Cyprian himself testifies), that rigid discipline was insisted upon; and in default of it, as they judged it was called for, persons admitted to be orthodox separated from it, and the authority of the bishop was called in question. Hence Cyprian's idea of unity is simply local unity with the bishops; and of all bishops as being together one bishop, one episcopacy, he quotes the promise to Peter (Matt. 16:18). Bishops have all like honour and power; yet Christ begins from one, that the Church may be shewn to be one. The episcopate is one, of which a part is held by individuals as a part of the whole. The Church also is one, which grows out into a multitude. He compares it to light and the sun, to a tree and boughs; if one of them be broken off, it is lost or dies. Such is the Church of the Lord exclusively. Her light, her branches, extend far; but there is unity of light and of body. There is one Head, one origin, one body, one mother. ("De Unitate Ecclesiae," 106, seqq.) We are born of her, nourished by her milk, animated by her spirit; the spouse of Christ cannot be corrupted, she is incorrupt and chaste. He cannot have the rewards of Christ, who leaves the Church of Christ; he is a stranger, profane, an enemy. He cannot have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother. There is a great deal more to the same effect. He compares it to Noah's ark, Christ's vest, Rahab's house, the house where the paschal lamb was eaten. God makes men of one mind in a house. In God's house, the Church of Christ, men live in unanimity (see "Epistle to the Lapsed," 33:66). He again refers to Peter; thence, through the course and times and successions, the ordination of bishops and the principle of the Church has had its regular course; so that the Church should be founded on bishops (Ep. 49:93, 95). Cornelius, bishop of Rome, says, in the correspondence, there is one bishop in the Church; the catholic Church is shewn to be one, and cannot be split and divided. The tares are in the Church; we are not to leave, but to seek to be wheat; and he quotes 2 Timothy 2:20, vessels to dishonour, but says nothing of purging ourselves from them. The Lord alone, he says, can break the earthen ones. (On the confessor's return, Cyprian, Ep. 54:99-100.) They cannot be with Christ, who are not with His spouse and in the Church, referring to Ephesians 5:31. Still all refers to Novatus, who had separated because of loose discipline, as he judged, with the lapsed (96).

53 As the one Church is divided by Christ in the whole world into many members, so one episcopate is spread abroad by the concordant number of many bishops. Ep. 112 refers to the exhortation in Ephesians 4. The tares, he says, the apostles were not allowed of the Lord to discover; they pretend to separate (2 Tim. 2:20). They pretend to despise and throw away these wooden and earthen vessels, whereas it is only in the day of the Lord they will be burnt or broken with a rod of iron 168). The Church does not withdraw from Christ; and for Cyprian the Church is the people united to the priest, and the flock adhering to its pastor, even if the multitude go away-when, says he, thou oughtest to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if any are not with the bishop, they are not with the Church; since the Church, which is catholic, is one, not split or divided, but connected and joined by the glue of priests mutually adhering to one another. All this, it will be seen, is directed against Novatus at home, and Felicissimus who headed a party against him, and Novatian at Rome. He says, the Church cannot be corrupted; yet he declares, that, morally, bishops and all, it was thoroughly heathenish and worldly; so that the persecution of Decius was only a most gentle dealing of God with it: it cannot be corrupted, but it was full of tares and vessels to dishonour.

In A.D. 248 the bishop of Carthage died, and Cyprian was chosen to succeed him, but chiefly by the poor of the flock; others strongly opposed him, and maintained their opposition, even after his consecration. In the year 250, the emperor Decius began a persecution, principally against the bishops. It was thought that if the bishops could be got rid of, the people would easily be gained. Cyprian fled, defending this course as best he could, but this was taken as an occasion of opposing him. He returned in 251, but then, as we have seen, the question of the lapsi was being hotly discussed. Some at Carthage agreed with Novatian and chose another bishop others agreed with those who received all, and elected still another; Cyprian took a middle course, not refusing the restoration of all, nor admitting any without due repentance (or penance, as it was then called).