NOVATES
214
NOVELS
adversary, slioitld continue at the head of the Honiish Church, he himself would most assuredly be rejected and expelled from it. It was therefore necessary for him either to seek another asylum, or to cause Cornelius to be deposed from the bishopric, or, lastly, to establish a new Church in which he would find shelter. He there- fore, more for his own safety than for the honor of Xo- vatian, prevailed b)' his eloquence on the Roman confess- ors, i. e. on that portion of the Church which possessed the greatest influence and efficiency, to place themselves in opposition to Cornelius; a thing which Novatian either could not or would not attempt. Says Cyprian {Epist. xlix, p. 65) : " Novate illinc a vobis recedente, id est, procella et turbine recedente, ex parte illic quies facta est, et gloriosi ac boni confessores, qui de ecclesia illo iiicitante discesserant, posteaquam ille ab iirbe dis- cessit, ad ecclesiam reverterunt." The same man, and not Novatian, who was a quiet man, though austere and rigid, induced a portion of the peojile at Kome to aban- don Cornelius. Says Cyprian : '• Similia et paria Koma; molitus est, qua; Carthagine, a clcro portionem plebis avellens, fraternitatis bene sibi coharentis et se invicem diligentis concordiam scindens." He also persuaded No- vatian, a timid man, and perhaps hesitating, to allow himself to be created bishop : '• Qui istic (at Carthage) ad versus ecclesiam diaconum fecerat, illic (at Home) episcopum fecit ;'" i. e. he ceased not to urge Novatian and his friends, until he prevailed with the latter to elect a bishop, and with the former to take upon him that office. He likewise consented to be despatched to Africa, with others, by the new bishop ; and, thus em- powered, he established at Carthage and other places bishops adhering to the Novatian party. Everj-thing was planned and executed b}' the active Novatus, and nothing or but little by Novatian. "These acts," says Mosheim, "were criminal, and they indicate a tur- bulent spirit thirsting for revenge, and more solicitous for victory and self-advancement than for either truth or tranquillity. All the ecclesiastical historians add this to his other crimes, that at Rome he approved opinions directly opposite to those which he maintained in Afri- ca ; whence they conclude that he showed his malignity by this whiffling and inconsistent course. At Carthage, say they, he was mild and lenient to the lapsed, and thought they ought, especiallj' such of them as present- ed certificates of peace, to be kindly received, and be admitted to the Church and to the Lord's Supper, with- out undergoing penance; and this was intended to vex Cyprian. But at Rome, with Novatian, he excluded the lapsed forever from the Church ; and was austere and uncompassionate in order to overthrow Cornelius. Cyprian, however, the most bitter of Novatus's enemies, enumerates all his faults, real or fictitious, in a long cat- alogue ; but he does not mention this. Such silence in his enemy is alone sufficient, it would seem, to clear his memory from this charge. Cyprian likewise touches on the opinion which, after the example of Novatian, he maintained at Rome ; but he does not add that while in Africa he held a different and opposite opinion, which he would doubtless not have omitted if Novatian could be justly charged with the inconsistency. With an af- fectation of wit, Cyprian says: 'Damnare nunc audet sacrificantium manus (i. e. he denies that persons who have sacrificed with their hands should be received again into the Church), cum sit ipso nocentior pedibus (i. e. when he had himself been more guilty with his feet: very bad taste!), (piibus filius qui nascebatur oc- cisus est.' Novatus was reported to have kicked his pregnant wife in her abdomen. Cyprian would have used other language if Novatus had been chargeable with changing his opinions respecting the lapsed. He would have said: 'Damnare nunc audet sacrificantium manus, quum pedes eorum antea osculatus sit' (he now dares condemn the hands of sacrificcrs, wliereas before he kissed their feet). Tliis comparison would have more force and more truth. The learned have no other reason for believing that Novatus at Rome condemned the
lapsed, whom in Africa he patronized, except their per- suasion that he was one of the five presbyters who de- serted Cyprian at Carthage; for Cyprian complains of them that they were too indulgent towards the lapsed."
Nova Zembla (Russ. Nowaja Zemlju, "New Land"), the name given to a chain of islands lying in the Arctic Ocean (lat. between TO^* 30' and 7G°"30' N., and long, between b'P and 66^ E.), and included within the government of Archangel. Length of the chain, 470 miles; average breadth, 50 miles. The most south- ern island is specially called Nova Zembla ; of the oth- ers, the principal are IMatthew's Land and LUtke's Land. They were discovered in 1553, and are wild, rocky, and desolate — the vegetation being chiefly moss, lichens, and a few shrubs. The highest point in the chain is 3475 feet above the level of the sea. Mean tempera- ture in summer, at the southern extremity, 35.51^; in winter, 3.21°. Nova Zembla has no permanent inhab- itants; but, as the coasts swarm with whales and wal- ruses, and the interior with bears, reindeers, and foxes, they arc periodically frequented by fishermen and hunt- ers.— Chambers.