Novatians, or Novatianists, is the name of a powerful Christian sect, a sort of dissenters from the Church of Rome, who owe their origin to Novatian (q. v.). They have been misrepresented in many re- spects by devoted Romanists and other extreme High- Churchmen for their doctrinal views. There is no good reason for such a ^•iew, as will be apparent to any one inquiring carefully and discriminately into the char- acter of Novatian himself, and those who were promi- nently associated in disseminating the peculiar views they held regarding the lapsed. There docs not now re- main to us, unfortunately, from any original authority, a detailed account of the rise and progress of this sect. Its history must be gathered from unsj'stematic notices in Cyprian's epistles; from some few epistles of
particular bishops and doctors of the Roman, African, and Eastern churches extant among Cyprian's works; from the remains of some tracts and epistles of Diony- sius of Alexandria preserved by Eusebius; from Pa- cian's epistles; from Ambrose's treatise. Be Panitentia; from a few conciliar determinations; from the occa- sional notes of Socrates and Sozomen ; and from state- ments of particular points of doctrine or history by Je- rome, Augustine, and Basil. By far the greater part of the reports, therefore, are untrustworthy, for they come from opponents, and consequently in this chapter of Church history there is likely to be much more distor- tion, by reason of the prepossession of the historian, than in other chapters.
In the article Novatian we have indicated that the distinguishing tenet of the sect was that no one who after baptism had fallen away from the faith by the commission of great sins, or through dread of persecu- tion, could, however sincere his contrition, be again re- ceived into the bosom of the Church, a doctrine ground- ed upon the utterance of Paul: '-It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenl}' gift, ... if they shall fall a^vay, to renew them again unto repentance" (Heb. vi, 4-6). The No- vatians, however, did not deny that a person falling into any sin, how grievous soever, might obtain pardon by repentance; for they themselves recommended re- pentance in the strongest terms; their doctrine simply was that the Church had it not in its power to receive sinners into its communion, as having no way of remit- ting sins but by baptism, which, once received, could not be repeated.
In close connection with this tenet was another, that they could not look upon a Church as anything short of an assembly of unoffending persons; persons who, since they first entered the Church, had not defiled themselves with any sin which could expose them to eternal death ; and this error obliged them to regard all associations of Christians that allowed great offenders to return to their communion (that is, the greatest part of the Christian commonwealth) as unworthy of the name of true churches, and as destitute of the Holy Spirit; thus arrogating to themselves alone the appellation of a genuine and pure Church. And this thej' ventured publicly to proclaim ; for they assumed to themselves the name of KaBapoi (the Pure}, thereby obviously stig- matizing all other Christians as impure and defiled; and, like the Pharisees among the Jews, they would not suffer other men to come near them, lest their own pu- rity should be thereby defiled ; and they rebaptized the Christians who came over to them, thereby signifying that the baptisms of the churches from which they dif- fered were a vain and empty ceremony. In baptiz- ing, however, they used the received forms of the Church, and had the same belief concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name they baptized. Cyprian rejected their baptism, as he did that of all heretics; but it was admitted by the eighth canon of the Council of Nice. The Novatians also held the un- lawfulness of second marriages, against which they were as severe as against apostates, denying communion for- ever to such persons as married a second time, after baptism, and treating widows who married again as adulteresses. They are also said to have had other dis- agreements with the Church as it was then constituted, but the assertion is based upon no certain support, and is probably altogether untrue.
In examining Novatianism, it is necessary to take into account, if it be heretic in tendency bj' declaring against the Church-membership of the lapsed, first, who were meant by the lapsed ; and, secondly, whether the lapsed were excluded simply from Christian fellowship by membership, or also from heaven and eternal salvation. As to the first question, it may be stated that the contest between Cornelius and Novatian, in its origin, related solely to those who had fallen away in the Decian per- secution. Yet it is no less certain that Novatian, as
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