Novatian

Few details are known as to his life. He was a man of learning and had been trained in literary composition. Pope Cornelius, in a letter to Fabius of Antioch, states that a catechumen called Novatian was possessed by Satan for a whole season. "A deep and settled melancholy had fastened on his mind; and the Christians who knew him said that an evil spirit had got possession of him, and that if he would profess Christ the evil spirit would go out of him; so, from a hope of recovering his health, he professed Christianity." The story told by Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria, that Novatian was an archdeacon of Rome consecrated a priest by the pope in order to prevent his succeeding to the papacy, is contradicted by Cornelius and is based on a later state of affairs in which Roman deacons were statesmen rather than religious ministers. Saint Cyprian of Carthage later accused Novatian of striking his pregnant wife in the stomach and causing an abortion. ==Decian persecution==

On 20 January 250, during the Decian persecution, Pope Fabian was martyred and the persecution was so fierce that it proved impossible to elect a successor, with the papal seat remaining vacant for a year. During this period the church was governed by several priests, including Novatian. In a letter the following year, Cornelius speaks of his rival whose cowardice and love of his own life made him deny to the persecutors that he was a priest and refuse to comfort his brothers in danger. The deacons urged him to come out of hiding, but he told them that he was in love with another philosophy and thus did not want to be a priest any longer. The anonymous work Ad Novatianum (XIII) states that Novatian, "so long as he was in the one house, that is in Christ's Church, bewailed the sins of his neighbours as if they were his own, bore the burdens of the brethren, as the Apostle exhorts, and strengthened with consolation the backsliding in heavenly faith". Arguing that idolatry was an unforgivable sin and that the church had no right to readmit lapsed members to communion, Novatian argued that the church could admit the penitent to penitence-for-life, but only God could grant forgiveness. Such a position was not completely new, as Tertullian had criticised Pope Callixtus I's introduction of pardons for adultery. Even Saint Hippolytus was inclined towards severity, and laws were promulgated in many places and at various times to punish determined sinners with excommunication ending at the hour of death or even refusing them communion in the hour of death. According to Cyprian, the gravity of this position was not in its cruelty or injustice but in the negation of the church's power in such cases to give absolution. Cyprian (Letter LXXV) conceded that Novatian affirmed the baptismal question: "Do you believe in the remission of sins and in the life eternal, through the Holy Church?" However, because Novatian refused to recognize Cornelius as the rightful successor to Peter's throne, Cyprian argued that Novatian was a schismatic; and to Cyprian, who had to contend with a comparably lenient faction in Carthage, schismatics who compromised the unity of the Church were worse than apostates. ==Papal candidacy and excommunication==

In March 251, with the emperor Decius's death, the persecution began to subside and the Roman community seized the opportunity to nominate a successor to Fabian. Although Novatian was the pre-eminent theologian in Rome, and had a hand in running the Church after the death of Fabian, the moderate Roman aristocrat Cornelius was elected. Those who supported a more rigorist position had Novatian consecrated bishop and refused to recognize Cornelius as Bishop of Rome. Novatian died in 258, probably during Valerian's persecutions, in the same year as his opponent Cyprian. ==Works==

• The Trinity, The Spectacle, Jewish Foods, In Praise of Purity, Letters, (translated by Russell J. DeSimone) Catholic University of America Press (1974). • The treatise on actors warns Christians not to go to the theatre or the circus. • The treatise on Jewish foods tells Christians they are not bound by Jewish dietary laws but cautions them against eating meat from animals slaughtered during religious rituals and later sold in butcher shops. ==See also==