In the turbulent mid-third century, when persecution, doctrinal tension, and disciplinary controversy shook the Church of Rome, Novatian emerged as a paradoxical figure—orthodox in creed yet uncompromising to the point of schism. A man of moral austerity, intellectual vigor, and rhetorical power, he stood as the second known anti-Pope, opposing not the faith itself but the perceived laxity of its discipline. His name would mark a rigorist movement that endured for centuries, preserving an unbending moral code even as it stood outside the communion it sought to purify.
Sources and Editions
The extant works of Novatian (Novatiani, Presbyteri Romani, Opera quae exstant omnia) were first printed by Gagnaeus (Paris, 1545, within the works of Tertullian), followed by Gelenius (Basel, 1550 and 1562), Pamelius (Paris, 1598), and Gallandi (Tom. III). Edward Welchman’s Oxford edition (1724) and J. Jackson’s London edition (1728) provided critical refinements, with Jackson’s considered the best. Migne’s Patrologia Latina (Tom. III, cols. 861–970) includes both Lumper’s dissertation and Gallandi’s commentary. An English translation by R. E. Wallis appears in the Edinburgh Ante-Nicene Library (vol. II, 1869).
Ancient sources are rich in detail: Eusebius (H. E. VI. 43–45), Jerome (De Viris Illustribus 66, 70; Ep. 36), Socrates (H. E. IV. 28), the epistles of Cyprian and Cornelius, Epiphanius (Haer. 59), Theodoret (Haer. Fab. III. 5), and Photius (Biblioth. 182, 208, 280). Later studies include Walch’s Ketzerhistorie II, Lumper’s dissertation (in Migne), Neander, Caspari, Langen, and Harnack, as well as the works on Cyprian by Fechtrup and others.
Life and Historical Setting
Novatian—Roman presbyter, theologian, and eventual schismatic—flourished in the middle of the third century. Like Hippolytus before him, he was fully orthodox in doctrine yet broke from the Roman see over matters of discipline. His character was austere yet unblemished, his learning considerable in both Scripture and philosophy, his eloquence polished. Alongside Victor and Minucius Felix, he was among the first Roman theologians to write in Latin with skill, though Greek remained in use: both he and his rival Cornelius corresponded with Eastern bishops in Greek.
The Roman Church of his day was a large and complex body: forty presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, and various minor orders served what may have been fifty thousand believers. Greek inscriptions still adorned the tombs of earlier bishops, though Cornelius’ epitaph was in Latin—evidence that the shift toward Latin dominance in the West was underway.
Conversion and Rise
Little is known of Novatian’s birth or death; he was likely Italian. Accounts of a Phrygian origin are unreliable, likely arising from the later strength of his movement in Phrygia, where it mingled with Montanism. Converted as an adult, he received clinical baptism on a sickbed—by sprinkling rather than immersion—and, unusually, without subsequent episcopal confirmation. Nonetheless, he was ordained priest and rose high among the Roman clergy, entrusted with official correspondence during the see’s vacancy after Pope Fabian’s martyrdom (January 250) until Cornelius’ election (March 251).
In a letter to Cyprian, written in the name of the Roman presbyters and deacons, Novatian deferred the issue of restoring the lapsed to a future council, yet revealed his preference for a rigorist policy—calling strict discipline “the rudder of safety in the tempest.” His rhetoric was vivid: to loosen severity would be to “snatch repentance” from the fallen and to offer “false mercy” that deepens the wound of sin. Yet he allowed, in extremis, reconciliation for the dying penitent.
The Schism
When the Decian persecution eased, Cornelius—previously obscure—was elected pope by a majority, favoring leniency toward the lapsed. This policy continued that of earlier bishops Callistus and Zephyrinus, which Hippolytus had opposed. A minority, supporting stricter discipline, elected Novatian as anti-Pope, consecrated by three Italian bishops. A Roman synod excommunicated him, and Cornelius denounced him in stark terms as “a deceitful, cunning and savage beast.” Appeals went abroad: Fabian of Antioch sided with Novatian, but Dionysius of Alexandria and Cyprian of Carthage—who by then had moderated his own rigorism and abhorred schism—backed Cornelius.
The lenient policy triumphed in the Catholic Church, but the Novatianist movement spread through East and West, enduring into the sixth century. Its members called themselves Catharoi (“Pure Ones”) and held firmly to both an orthodox creed and an uncompromising moral standard. Tradition among them held that Novatian died a martyr.
Theological and Disciplinary Principles
The dispute with Cornelius concerned the scope of the “power of the keys” and the balance between justice and mercy in restoring those who had denied Christ under persecution. Novatian feared that easy absolution would corrupt the Church’s holiness; Cornelius and his supporters feared that permanent exclusion would extinguish hope. The Catholic maxim “outside the Church there is no salvation” was invoked on the side of leniency, shaping the Church’s ultimate course.
Writings
Jerome attributes to Novatian treatises On the Passover, On the Sabbath, On Circumcision, On the Priest (De Sacerdote), On Prayer, On the Jewish Meats, On Perseverance (De Instantia), On Attilus (a martyr of Pergamum), and On the Trinity. Two survive:
1. De Trinitate (31 chapters), written c. 256, sometimes misattributed to Tertullian or Cyprian. Jerome praised it as a “great work.” Following Tertullian’s subordinationist framework, it affirms Christ’s divinity, upholds the personhood of the Spirit, and refutes Monarchianism—especially Sabellianism—by scriptural and philosophical argument.
2. Epistola de Cibis Judaicis (7 chapters), written in retirement during persecution, interprets Mosaic food laws allegorically as moral precepts for Christians, replacing ritual distinctions with the ethical virtues of temperance and abstinence. Meat offered to idols remains forbidden, in line with the Apostolic Council of Acts 15.
Legacy
Novatian’s name became synonymous with rigorism in the ancient Church. His followers maintained an orthodox Christology while insisting that grave post-baptismal sins—especially idolatry—were beyond the Church’s power to absolve. Though their movement was eventually suppressed, their existence testified to a perennial tension in Christian history: the struggle to preserve the Church’s holiness without extinguishing the reach of her mercy.
