III. His writings.
As an author, Cyprian is far less original, fertile and vigorous than Tertullian, but is clearer, more moderate, and more elegant and rhetorical in his style. He wrote independently only on the doctrines of the church, the priesthood, and sacrifice.
(1.) His most important works relate to practical questions on church government and discipline. Among these is his tract on the Unity of the Church (A. D. 251), that "magna charta" of the old catholic high-church spirit, the commanding importance of which we have already considered. Then eighty-one Epistles, [1557] 558 some very long, to various bishops, to the clergy and the churches of Africa and of Rome, to the confessors, to the lapsed, &c.; comprising also some letters from others in reply, as from Cornelius of Rome and Firmilian of Caesarea. They give us a very graphic picture of his pastoral labors, and of the whole church life of that day. To the same class belongs also his treatise: De Lapsis (A. D. 250) against loose penitential discipline.
(2.) Besides these he wrote a series of moral works, On the Grace of God (246); On the Lord's Prayer (252); On Mortality (252); against worldly-mindedness and pride of dress in consecrated virgins (De Habitu Virginum); a glowing call to Martyrdom; an exhortation to liberality (De Opere el Eleemosynis, between 254 and 256), with a touch of the "opus operatum" doctrine; and two beautiful tracts written during his controversy with pope Stephanus: De Bono Patienti, and De Zelo et Livore (about 256), in which he exhorts the excited minds to patience and moderation.
(3.) Least important are his two apologetic works, the product of his Christian pupilage. One is directed against heathenism (de Idolorum Vanitate), and is borrowed in great part, often verbally, from Tertullian and Minucius Felix. The other, against Judaism (Testimonia adversus Judaeos), also contains no new thoughts, but furnishes a careful collection of Scriptural proofs of the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus.
Note.--Among the pseudo-Cyprianic writings is a homily against dice-playing and all games of chance (Adversus Aleatores, in Hartel's ed. III. 92-103), which has been recently vindicated for Bishop Victor of Rome (190-202), an African by birth and an exclusive high churchman. It is written in the tone of a papal encyclical and in rustic Latin. See Harnack: Der pseudo-cyprian. Tractat De Aleatoribus, Leipzig 1888. Ph. Schaff: The Oldest Papal Encyclical, in The Independent, N. York, Feb. 28, 1889.
[1552] Catal. c. 67: "Cyprianus Afer primum gloriose rhetoricam docuit."
[1553] Pontius, in his Vita, a very unsatisfactory sketch, prefixed to the editions of the works of Cyprian, places this act of renunciation (MaTt. 19:21) before his baptism."inter fidei prima rudimenta." Cyprian's gardens, however, together with a villa, were afterwards restored to him, "Dei indulgentia," that is, very probably, through the liberality of his Christian friends.
[1554] De Gratia Dei, ad Donatum, c. 3, 4.
[1555] "Undae genitalis auxilio," which refers of course to baptism.
[1556] "Da magistrum!" So Jerome relates in his notice on Tertullian, Cat. c. 53, on the testimony of an old man, who had heard it in his youth from the "notarius beati Cypriani." As to the time, Cyprian might have personally known Tertullian, who lived at least till the year 220 or 230.
[1557] The order of them varies in different editions occasioning frequent confusion in citation.
§ 200. Novatian.
Comp. §58, p. 196 sq. and §183, p. 773.
(I.) Novatiani, Presbyteri Romani, Opera quae exstant omnia. Ed. by Gagnaeus (Par. 1545, in the works of Tertullian); Gelenius (Bas. 1550 and 1562); Pamelius (Par. 1598); Gallandi (Tom III.); Edw. Welchman (Oxf. 1724); J. Jackson (Lond. 1728, the best ed.); Migne (in "Patrol. Lat." Tom. III. col. 861-970). Migne's ed. includes the dissertation of Lumper and the Commentary of Gallandi.
English translation by R. E. Wallis in Clark's "Ante-Nicene Library," vol. II. (1869), p. 297-395; Comp. vol. I. 85 sqq.
(II.) Euseb.: H. E. VI. 43, 44, 45. Hieron.: De Vir. ill. 66 and 70; Ep. 36 ad Damas.; Apol. adv. Ruf. II. 19. Socrates: H. E. IV. 28. The Epistles Of Cyprian and Cornelius referring to the schism of Novatian (Cypr. Ep. 44, 45, 49, 52, 55, 59, 60, 68, 69, 73). Epiphanius: Haer. 59; Socrates: H. E IV. 28. Theodor.: Haer. Fab. III. 5. Photius Biblioth. 182, 208, 280.
(III.) Walch: Ketzerhistorie II. 185-288. Schoenemann: Biblioth. Hist. Lit. Patr. Latinorum, I. 135-142. Lumper: Dissert. de Vita, Scriptis, et doctrina Nov., in Migne's ed. III. 861-884. Neander, I. 237-248, and 687 (Am ed.) Caspari: Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols, III. 428-430, 437-439. Jos. Langen (Old Cath.): Gesch. der röm. Kirche (Bonn 1881), p. 289-314. Harnack; Novatian in Herzog2 X. (1882), p. 652-670. Also the works on Cyprian, especially Fechtrup. See Lit. § 199. On Novatian's doctrine of the trinity and the person of Christ see Dorner's Entwicklungsgesch. der L. v. d. Pers. Christi (1851), I. 601-604. (Dem Tertulliannahe stehend, von ihm abhängig, aber auch ihn verflachend ist Novatian.")
Novatian, the second Roman anti-Pope (Hippolytus being probably the first), orthodox in doctrine, but schismatic in discipline, and in both respects closely resembling Hippolytus and Tertullian, flourished in the middle of the third century and became the founder of a sect called after his name. [1558] 559 He was a man of unblemished, though austere character, considerable biblical and philosophical learning, speculative talent, and eloquence. [1559] 560 He is moreover, next to Victor and Minucius Felix, the first Roman divine who used the Latin Language, and used it with skill. We may infer that at his time the Latin had become or was fast becoming the ruling language of the Roman church, especially in correspondence with North Africa and the West; yet both Novatian and his rival Cornelius addressed the Eastern bishops in Greek. The epitaphs of five Roman bishops of the third century, Urbanus, Anteros, Fabianus, Lucius, and Eutychianus (between 223 and 283), in the cemetery of Callistus are Greek, but the epitaph of Cornelius (251-253) who probably belonged to the noble Roman family of that name, is Latin ("Cornelius Martyr E. R. X.") [1560] 561
At that time the Roman congregation numbered forty presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, besides exorcists, readers and janitors, and an "innumerable multitude of the people," which may have amounted perhaps to about 50,000 members. [1561] 562
We know nothing of the time and place of the birth and death of Novatian. He was probably an Italian. The later account of his Phrygian origin deserves no credit, and may have arisen from the fact that he had many followers in Phrygia, where they united with the Montanists. He was converted in adult age, and received only clinical baptism by sprinkling on the sick bed without subsequent episcopal confirmation, but was nevertheless ordained to the priesthood and rose to the highest rank in the Roman clergy. He conducted the official correspondence of the Roman see during the vacancy from the martyrdom of Fabian, January 21, 250, till the election of Cornelius, March, 251. In his letter to Cyprian, written in the name of "the presbyters and deacons abiding at Rome," [1562] 563 he refers the question of the restoration of the lapsed to a future council, but shows his own preference for a strict discipline, as most necessary in peace and in persecution, and as "the rudder of safety in the tempest." [1563] 564
He may have aspired to the papal chair to which he seemed to have the best claim. But after the Decian persecution had ceased his rival Cornelius, unknown before, was elected by a majority of the clergy and favored the lenient discipline towards the Fallen which his predecessors Callistus and Zephyrinus had exercised, and against which Hippolytus had so strongly protested twenty or thirty years before. Novatian was elected anti-Pope by a minority and consecrated by three Italian bishops. [1564] 565 He was excommunicated by a Roman council, and Cornelius denounced him in official letters as "a deceitful, cunning and savage beast." Both parties appealed to foreign churches. Fabian of Antioch sympathized with Novatian, but Dionysius of Alexandria, and especially Cyprian who in the mean time had relaxed his former rigor and who hated schism like the very pest, supported Cornelius, and the lax and more charitable system of discipline, together with worldly conformity triumphed in the Catholic church. Nevertheless the Novatian schism spread East and West and maintained its severe discipline and orthodox creed in spite of imperial persecution down to the sixth century. Novatian died a martyr according to the tradition of his followers. The controversy turned on the extent of the power of the Keys and the claims of justice to the purity of the church and of mercy towards the fallen. The charitable view prevailed by the aid of the principle that out of the church there is no salvation.
Novatian was a fruitful author. Jerome ascribes to him works On the Passover; On the Sabbath; On Circumcision; On the Priest (De Sacerdote); On Prayer; On the Jewish Meats; On Perseverance; [1565] 566 On Attilus (a martyr of Pergamus); and "On the Trinity."
Two of these books are preserved. The most important is his Liber de Trinitate (31 chs.), composed a.d. 256. It has sometimes been ascribed to Tertullian or Cyprian. Jerome calls it a "great work," and an extract from an unknown work of Tertullian on the same subject. Novatian agrees essentially with Tertullian's subordination trinitarianism. He ably vindicates the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, strives to reconcile the divine threeness with unity, and refutes the Monarchians, especially the Sabellians by biblical and philosophical arguments.
In his Epistola de Cibus Judaicis (7 chapters) written to his flock from a place of retirement during persecution, he tries to prove by allegorical interpretation, that the Mosaic laws on food are no longer binding upon Christians, and that Christ has substituted temperance and abstinence for the prohibition of unclean animals, with the exception of meat offered to idols, which is forbidden by the Apostolic council (Acts 15).
[1558] Novatiani, in the East also Katharoi, which is equivalent to Puritans.
[1559] Jerome calls him and Tertullian eloquentissimi viri (Ad Dam. Ep. 36). Eusebius speaks unfavorably of him on account of bis severe discipline, which seemed to deny mercy to poor sinners.
[1560] On the subject of the official language of the Roman Church, see especially the learned and conclusive investigations of Caspari, l.c. III. 430 sqq., and the inscriptions in De Rossi, Rom. sotter. I. 277 sqq., 293, and II. 76 sqq. Also Harnack: D. Pseudo-Cyprian. Tractat D Aleatoribus, 1888. Cornelius was not buried officially by the Roman Church, but by private members of the same.
[1561] See the letter of Cornelius to Fabius, preserved by Euseb. VI. 33.
[1562] Ep. XXX. of Cyprian (Oxf. and Hartel's edd.). English version in "Ante-Nic. Libr., " Cyprian's works, I. 85-92. That this letter was written by Novatian, appears from Cyprian's Ep. LV. (ad Antonianum) cap. 4, where Cyprian quotes a passage from the same, and then adds "Additum est etiam Novatiano tunc scribente," etc.
[1563] Ch. 2. Comp. also ch. 3, where he says: "Far be it from the Roman Church to slacken her vigor with so profane a facility, and to loosen the nerves of her severity by overthrowing the majesty of faith; so that when the wrecks of your ruined brethren are not only lying, but are falling around, remedies of a too hasty kind, and certainly not likely to avail, should be afforded for Communion; and by a false mercy, new wounds should be impressed on the old wounds of their transgression; so that even repentance should be snatched from there wretched beings, to their greater overthrow." And in ch. 7: "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father and before his angels. For God, as He is merciful, so He exacts obedience to his precepts, and indeed carefully exacts it; and as be invites to the banquet, so the man that hath not a wedding garment be binds hands and feet, and casts him out beyond the assembly of the saints. He has prepared heaven but he has also prepared hell. He has prepared places of refreshment, but he has also prepared eternal punishment. He has prepared the light that none can approach unto, but he has also prepared the vast and eternal gloom of perpetual night." At the close be favors an exception in case of impending death of the penitent lapsed, to whom cautious help should be administered, "that neither ungodly men should praise our smooth facility, nor truly penitent men accuse our severity as cruel." This letter relieves Novatian of the reproach of being chiefly influenced in his schism by personal motives, as Pope Cornelius (Euseb. VI. 43), and Roman historians maintain (also Harnack, in Herzog X. 661).