Inasmuch as, lifted up with arrogance against these persons, Novatus, a presbyter of the church of the Romans—as though there were no longer any hope of salvation for them, not even if they should perform all things tending to a genuine conversion and a pure confession—became the originator of a heresy of those who, in the pride of their reasoning, declared themselves 「The Pure.」
On this account a very great synod was convened at Rome, of sixty bishops in number, and of still more presbyters and deacons; while in the remaining provinces the pastors throughout the regions deliberated separately concerning what ought to be done. A decree was established for all, that Novatus, together with those who had been lifted up with him, and those who chose to consent to the brother-hating and most inhuman opinion of the man, should be held as aliens to the Church; but that those of the brethren who had fallen into the calamity should be healed and tended with the medicines of repentance.
There came to us, then, letters of Cornelius, bishop of the Romans, to Fabius of the church of the Antiochenes, making plain the things concerning the Roman synod and what was decided by all those throughout Italy and Africa and the regions there; and others again, composed in the Latin tongue, of Cyprian and of those with him throughout Africa, by which it was shown that they too consented that the tried ones ought to obtain succour, and that with good reason the originator of the heresy ought to be made an outcast from the catholic Church, and likewise all who were being led away together with him.
To these was joined another letter of Cornelius concerning the things approved at the synod, and again another concerning the things done by Novatus, from which there is nothing to hinder our setting down some portions, that those here who meet with this writing may know the things concerning him.
Instructing Fabius, then, as to what manner of man Novatus had shown himself to be, Cornelius writes these very things: 「But that you may know that long ago this marvellous fellow had been reaching after the episcopate, and, hiding within himself this reckless desire of his, lay concealed, using as a cloak for his madness the fact that he had had the confessors with him from the beginning—this I wish to tell.」
「Maximus, a presbyter among us, and Urban, who twice reaped the most excellent glory from confession, and Sidonius, and Celerinus—a man who, having most steadfastly borne all tortures by the mercy of God, and by the strength of his faith having reinforced the weakness of the flesh, mightily conquered the adversary—these men, then, having understood him and detected the cunning and duplicity in him, and his perjuries and falsehoods, and his unsociableness and wolfish friendship, returned to the holy Church; and all his contrivances and wicked deeds, which he had long held secretly within himself, they declared in the presence of sufficient bishops, and likewise of presbyters and very many laymen, lamenting and repenting of the things in which, persuaded by the crafty and malicious beast, they had for a short time been separated from the Church.」
Then, after a few words, he says: 「Inconceivable, beloved brother, was the change and turn we beheld to have come over him in a short time. For this most illustrious man, who pledged with certain dreadful oaths that he in no way coveted the episcopate, suddenly appears as a bishop, as though flung into our midst by some piece of stage-machinery.」
「For this dogmatist, this defender of ecclesiastical knowledge, when he was attempting to wrest and snatch away the episcopate that had not been given him from above, chose for himself two companions who had despaired of their own salvation, that he might send them to a certain very small and least part of Italy, and from there might deceive by a fabricated device three bishops, rustic and most simple men, asserting and strongly maintaining that they must come quickly to Rome, so that, forsooth, every dissension whatsoever that had arisen might, with other bishops also acting as mediators, be resolved through them.」
「And these, when they had come—being, as we said before, men rather too simple regarding the contrivances and knaveries of wicked men—being shut up by certain men of like character appointed by him, at the tenth hour, drunken and surfeited, he compelled by force, through a kind of imaginary and futile laying-on of hands, to give him an episcopate which by ambush and knavery, though it did not belong to him, he lays claim to.」
「Of these, one, not long afterward, returned to the Church, lamenting and confessing his own sin; and we communicated with him as with a layman, all the people present interceding on his behalf. And as for the other bishops, we have ordained and sent successors into the places in which they were.」
「This avenger of the gospel, then, did not know that there ought to be one bishop in a catholic church, in which he was not ignorant—for how could he be?—that there are forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two exorcists and readers together with doorkeepers, and widows together with the afflicted above fifteen hundred, all of whom the grace and loving-kindness of the Master sustains.」
「Whom not even so great and so necessary a number in the Church—a number rich and multiplying through God's providence, together with a very great and innumerable people—recalled him and turned him back from that course; nay, the renunciation shamed him and recalled him to the Church.」
And again, after other matters, he adds these things to them: 「Come, then, let us next say by what deeds or by what conduct he was emboldened to lay claim to the episcopate. Was it because from the beginning he had been conversant in the Church, and had striven in many contests on her behalf, and had been in many and great dangers for the sake of godliness? But it is not so.」
「To him the occasion of believing was Satan, who came to him and dwelt in him a considerable time. Being helped by the exorcists, he fell into a grievous sickness, and, being thought all but on the point of dying, in the very bed on which he lay he received baptism by affusion—if indeed one ought to say that such a man received it.」
「Yet not even did he, on recovering from his sickness, obtain the rest of the things in which one ought to partake according to the canon of the Church, even to be sealed by the bishop. And not having obtained these, how could he have obtained the Holy Spirit?」
And again, after a few words, he says: 「The man who, through cowardice and love of life, at the time of the persecution denied that he was a presbyter! For when he was asked and entreated by the deacons that, coming out of the little chamber in which he had shut himself up, he might help the brethren as far as is lawful and as far as is possible for a presbyter to help brethren in need of succour, he was so far from obeying the deacons who entreated him that he even went off in vexation and departed; for he said he no longer wished to be a presbyter, being enamoured of another philosophy.」
And passing over a little, he again adds, saying: 「For this illustrious man forsook the Church of God, in which, on believing, he had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate by the favour of the bishop who laid his hand on him for the rank of the presbyterate; which bishop, though hindered by the whole clergy and by many laymen also—since it was not lawful that one who, on a bed by reason of sickness, had been baptized by affusion, as this man also was, should enter into any rank of the clergy—requested that it be permitted him to ordain this one man only.」
Then he adds yet another, the worst of the man's absurdities, saying thus: 「For when he has made the offerings, and is distributing to each his portion and handing it over, he compels the wretched men, instead of blessing, to swear, holding fast with both his hands the hands of him who has received, and not letting go until they swear and say these things—for I will use his own words: 『Swear to me by the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that you will never forsake me and turn to Cornelius.』」
「And the wretched man does not taste until he has first cursed himself; and instead of saying the 『Amen』 as he receives that bread, he says, 『I will not return to Cornelius.』」
And after other things he again says these: 「But know now that he has been stripped bare and made desolate, the brethren forsaking him day by day and returning to the Church. Whom also Moses, the blessed martyr, who lately among us bore a fine and admirable testimony, while he was still in the world, beholding his audacity and madness, made out of communion, together with the five presbyters who along with him had separated themselves from the Church.」
And at the end of the letter he has made a list of the bishops who came to Rome and condemned the folly of Novatus, indicating together both their names and the community over which each of them presided.
And of those who did not come to Rome, but consented by letters to the vote of the aforesaid bishops, he mentions both the appellations and the cities, whence each one wrote as he was setting out. These things, then, Cornelius wrote, making them plain to Fabius, bishop of Antioch.