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Novatian of Rome
Post-Apostolic Church
INTRO
Novatian was an overseer in Rome
and later in southern Italy. He wrote between AD 235-260.
LIFE
At a young age, Novatian was converted from
a deep belief in Stoicism. (This was a
Greek philosophical religion that taught that happiness comes through
intellectual perfection and virtuous living.)
Novatian was the first Christian writer from Rome to write in Latin.
During the severe persecution under Emperor
Decius, many Christians compromised and sacrificed or burned incense to Roman
gods. These was a division in the Roman
presbytery over how to handle these Christians when they wanted to return to
the church. Like Hippolytus a generation before, Novatian took a strict
stance, saying that the church should not endorse weak church discipline.
When the time came to appoint a new bishop
of Rome,
Cornelius--who was not strict in the practice of church discipline--was chosen
instead of Novatian who was the most likely candidate. In protest, Novatian and five other overseers left Rome and began a rival church to the Roman
church. Because of this, many bishops, such as Firmilian in Cappadocia
and Cyprian in Carthage, opposed Novatian, when beforehand, they had great respect
for him.
Novatian
was excommunicated from the church and began a new sect that sought to return
to more serious Christian practices. His followers called themselves
Purists while the mainstream church called them Novatianists. They quickly spread throughout the whole Roman Empire but dissipated around AD 400. Their beliefs were identical to the beliefs
of the mainstream church, except that they preached that those who compromised
by sacrificing or burning incense to the gods were not allowed back into the
church at all.
Novatian
has left us with many beautiful and powerful writings about God and the
church. His schism was a sad
ordeal. Because of it, most of the
writings about Novatian himself come from his opponents.
QUOTATIONS AGAINST NOVATIAN
An unknown opponent of Novatian wrote about
his life while he was still an overseer in Rome,
Novatian... always in one household--that is, [while he was in] the Church of Christ--would have mourned over the sins
of his neighbors as his own, he would have borne the burdens of his brethren as
the apostle exhorts,* and he would have strengthened the weak in the faith with
heavenly counsel. (Treatise Against the
Heretic Novatian. AD 255. ANF, 5.661.)
* See Gal 6:2.
Other
Pre-Nicene Christians, who were Novatian's opponents, wrote,
Disturbed by the wickedness of an
unlawful ordination made in opposition to the Universal Church,
we considered at once that they [the Novatianists] must be restrained from
communion with us. (Cyprian. AD 250.
ANF, vol 5, page 319.)
They [the Novatianists] are striving here [in Carthage] also to distract the members of Christ into
schismatic parties and to cut and tear the one body of the Universal Church. (Cyprian.
AD 250. ANF, vol 5, page 319.)
In spite of God's tradition, in spite of the combined
and everywhere-compacted unity of the Universal Church, [Novatian] is endeavoring
to make a human church and is sending his new apostles through very many
cities, that he may establish some new foundations of his own ordination. (Cyprian.
AD 250. ANF, vol 5, page 333.)
This quote from Cyprian
shows that Novatian did indeed begin a new church apart from the Universal Church he was once part of.
The Novatians re-baptize those whom
they entice from us. (Cyprian. AD 250.
ANF, vol 5, page 380.)
Beloved brethren, do not let the abrupt madness of that
treacherous heretic move or disturb us. Although he is placed
in such great guilt of dissension and schism and is separated from the Church,
he does not hold back from hurling in return his charges upon us with profane recklessness. For although he is now made unclean by
himself, defiled with the filth of profaneness, he contends that we are so. (Treatise against Novatian. AD 255.
ANF, vol 5, pages 657.)
We rightly reject Novatian, who has divided the Church
and drawn away some of the brethren to impiety and blasphemies. (Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria.
AD 260. ANF, vol 6, page 103.)
