Contrast of S. Cyprian and Novatian. 333 desire of conquering. The filthy boar also, and the infuriated tigress, what else do they desire but to conquer, rather than to please? 11. “I have leisure," you write, and therefore art thou well pleased with contention. But to me, fully occupied in Catholic business, your letters were delivered after about thirty days; resumed, after forty more. 12. You say that I am angry. God forbid. I believe that I am roused; like the bee who sometimes defends her honey with her sting. But reconsider the letters on either side. You will soon see whether it be with stings or with flowers that we join issue on paper. The Apostle indeed speaks of some similar persons, whose mouths must be stopped'. But listen, we engage with thee, as doves, with the mouth rather than with the teeth. 13. Oh! would it were true that thou sayest thou wouldest be taught! at once, with my own hands would I give thee the very anointing of the Holy Spirit. Dost thou love me? I have not harmed thee, this I know. But then couldest thou love me, if thou didst not hold things contrary; then wouldest thou approach my work with kindly feelings. 14. Dost thou marvel that the Epistles of Cyprian please me? And how should they not, the Epistles of a blessed Martyr and a Catholic Priest? Dost thou force Novatian upon me? I hear that he was a philosopher' of the world; it is not then much wonder to me that he fell away from the Church of the Living God. I know that he deserted the root of the ancient law, the fountain of the ancient people; envying Cornelius, lending himself to the phrenzy of Novatus, made Bishop without legitimate consecration, and therefore not even made, by the letter of those men, who pretended they were Confessors, who rent asunder the limbs of their one mother. These points, brother, I will prove to you in letters, by the confession of your own friends. Thus this philosopher of thine, seeking to establish his own wisdom, as Rom. the Apostle saith, was not made subject to the wisdom of 1 Cor. 1, God, since by its wisdom the world knoweth not the wisdom 21. 10, 3. II. 15. 334 Nov.no martyr, nor would suffering out of the Church make one. b S. PAC. of God. For whereas thou supposest that Novatian suffered first, and subjoinest that Cyprian said, " My adversary hath preceded me"," see how clear the answer I can make. Novatian never endured martyrdom; nor was that ever heard or read from the words of the most blessed Cyprian. Thou hast his Epistles in which he mentions Cornelius Bishop of 1 Rome the City', of whom Novatian was then envious, as resisting the hostile princes, often a confessor, often harassed; as made the leader of many Confessors, of many Martyrs also, and as receiving a most glorious crown with many others, whilst Novatian was still alive, and even free from all anxiety. For he had left the Church of Christ for this very reason, that he might not have to bear the toils of Confessorship. First, stung by envy, he could not endure the Episcopate of Cornelius; then, with the mockery of those letters of a few, he had bound himself to Novatus. All this concerning Novatian you may learn from the letters of Cyprian. 1 Cor. 13, 2. 3. 15. But, moreover, although Novatian did endure some suffering, yet was he not also slain. And although he was slain, yet was he not crowned. Why not? He was without the peace of the Church, without the bounds of concord, without the pale of that mother, of whom he ought to be a part who is a Martyr. Hear the Apostle, And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. But Cyprian suffered, in concord with all, in the common peace of all, amid a company of Confessors; and, having often been a Confessor in reiterated persecutions, and harassed with many a torment, had at last given him to drink of the cup of salvation. This was to be crowned! Wherefore let Novatian have his Epistles to himself, to himself his haughtiness, to A spurious account of a confession, or contest (anos), also called a martyrdom, of Novatian is mentioned by Eulogius ap. Phot. Cod. 182. 208.280. The Novatians set much store by it; Eulogius says, that "it was of the extremest vulgarity in language, thought, and composition;" and a bad fiction (nanóxλarros). It consisted chiefly of a long and foolish dialogue between Novatian and a Ducenarian, and did not even pretend that N. "endured p. 111. n. m. Pride of Novatian; humility is innocence. 335 himself his pride, by which, whilst he is lifted up on high, he is dashed down to pieces, whilst he spares no one, he is himself cast out. 16. Lo! the man, who by an inexorable religion closes the way of salvation against his brethren! Lo! the man, who is confident that he beareth the fand, and is purging the garner of the Lord! Take pity on thyself, brother Sympronian, lest Novatian deceive thee under this mask, as though he were therefore to be thought the more righteous, because he despised others in comparison of himself. Audacity often feigns itself confidence; and the false image of a good conscience flatters even desperate sinners. Whereas contrariwise all humility is innocence, even that of the debtor, even that of the sinner, even that which softeneth its soul with the sinner. Blot me, I pray Thee, says Moses, out of Exod. Thy book which Thou hast written; and this, that sinners 32, 32. might not perish. For I could wish, saith the Apostle, that Rom. 9, myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Both then pray for sinners; and yet neither Moses nor Paul offend God on this account. Is Novatian better than they? a corrector of Prophets? a teacher of Apostles? Is he now seen with Christ, as was this Mat. 17, same Moses? Is he now carried up, as was Paul, into the 2 Cor. third heaven? Is he alone to be now heard, and all others 12. neglected? This would have been a sufficient answer to return to your letter. 17. But as you argue to some extent against doing penance, or for doing it before Baptism; and have filled your page with many chapters of examples from his treatise, I will, though more than is called for, answer each point. I will not hold back the substance of the truer faith. And as thou hast deigned to enjoin on me to hear thee at great length, do thou in return afford a kind requital to our treatise. The Lord perhaps will vouchsafe, that we, who have patiently yielded ourselves to thy enquiries, may gather some fruit from thy patience also. The Lord vouchsafe to guard and protect thee for ever, and make thee to live a Christian and a Catholic, and to agree with us! Amen. a palam ferre V. others, paleam auferre. e quæ animam suam cum peccatore blanditur. 3. 3. 336 Lateness of Novatian doctrine a testimony against it. S. PAC. EPISTLE III. AGAINST THE TREATISE OF THE NOVATIANS. Pacian the Bishop to Sympronian his brother, greeting. 1. THE whole treatise of the Novatians, which you have III.1.2. addressed to me thronged with propositions on all sides, amounts to this, brother Sympronian: That there is no room for repentance after Baptism that the Church cannot remit mortal sin; that by the receiving of sinners she herself perishes. Illustrious honour! Singular authority! Great constancy! To reject the guilty; to flee the touch of sinners; to have so little confidence in her own innocence! Exod. 32, 32. Rom. 9, 3. 2. Who is the assertor of this doctrine, brother, Moses, or Paul, or Christ? But Moses wishes to be wiped out of the book for the sake of blasphemers; and Paul to be accursed for his brethren; and the Lord Himself willeth to suffer for the unrighteous. None of these, you will say. Who then, I ask? It was the ordinance of Novatian. Some spotless and pure man, I suppose, who was no follower of Novatus, who never deserted the Church, who was made Bishop by Bishops, who was consecrated according to the received rites, who obtained the Episcopal Chair in the Church when duly vacant? What is that to thee? thou wilt say. I answer, Novatian taught this doctrine. But, at least, when did he teach it, brother, or at what period? Immediately after the Passion of the Lord? After the reign of Decius, that is, nearly three hundred years after the Passion of the Lord. And what then did he? Did he follow Prophets, as the Cataphrygians? some Philumene', as Apelles? or received he himself so great authority? Spake he with tongues? Did he prophesy? Could he raise the dead? For some one of these powers he ought to have had who was to bring in a Gospel with new laws. Although the Apostle crieth even or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal.1,8. against this, Though we, Heresy disputatious, the Church unarguing, as secure. 337 3. Novatian, you will say, discerned this; but Christ taught it. Was there no one of discernment from the Advent of Christ even to the reign of Decius? Again, since Decius, has every Bishop been weary of his office? all others relaxed men, choosing rather to join themselves with the lost, to perish with the miserable, to be wounded through the wounds of others? Novatian vindicateth, righteousness is set free; Novatian guideth, every error is corrected. 4. "But come," you will say, "let our conflict be carried on with examples, and let us contend with reasoning." But I so far am safe. Contented with the line of the Church itself, with the peace of the ancient congregation, I have learnt no desire of discord, I have sought no arguments for contest. Thou, having been separated from the rest of the body, and divided from thy mother, that thou mayest give account of thy deed, art an assiduous searcher into the inmost recesses of books; every thing which is hidden, you molest; and whatever is at rest, you disturb. Our Fathers, unrequired, entered into no dispute; our very unanxiousness sought no arms; every advance of your party is guarded. I then know not what Novatian did, of what Novatian was guilty, what the swelling pride of Evaristus, what the report of Nicostratus. Despising your weapons, I know them not; yet, beware, how thou engage with unarmed truth. Let us await, however, what thou mayest object, what thou hast to say. Will truth be able to hold its ground though unarmed, or innocence unskilled? reno V. 5. You set forth, and rightly indeed, that "the Church is a people born again1 of water and the Holy Spirit, free from renatum for denying the Name of Christ, the temple and house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth; a Holy Virgin of chastest vatum. feelings, the spouse of Christ, of His Bones and His Flesh, 1Tim.3, not having spot, or wrinkle, holding the laws of the Gospels Eph. 5, entire." Who of us denies this? But we add moreover that 27. the Church is the queen in a vesture of gold, wrought about Ps. 45, with divers colours; the fruitful vine on the walls of the Ps. 128, House of the Lord; the mother of virgins without number; 3. in enforcing discipline. "Omnis Episcopus impatiens." This sense would come more directly from the reading of the Vat. "O. Episcopatus imp." "Is Ꮓ 15. 10. Cant. 6, every one weary of the Episcopal 8. 9. office?" but the "omnes alii," which follows, rather implies that as a more definite antecedent than "omnis" alone. |