THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
that the latter did not regard a reconciliation with the majority as hopeless, but rather that he had been forced into an attitude of opposition. All goes to show that an accommodation as to theory might have been reached but for the irreconcilable antagonism of the two dominant personalities.
It was fortunate for the cause of Cornelius that in
the same spring of 251 Cyprian found it necessary,
on account of the declared schism of Felicissimus, to
yield so far as to admit the possibility
4. Success of the restoration of the lapsed, which
of the settled the question which side he Catholic should take in the Roman controversy,
Party. though his support of Cornelius was not hearty. A few African bishops were even more cautious, but the great majority took the side of Cornelius at a synod in Rome attended (according to Eusebius) by sixty bishops. This gathering excommunicated Novatian and proclaimed the " medicine of penance " for all the lapsed. Novatian attempted by encyclical letters and personal embassies to win support for his cause and to discredit Cornelius. In Carthage Cyprian did not even allow the envoys a public hearing; but in the East they had a less discouraging reception from Fabius of Antioch and a number of synods. In May a large synod was held at Carthage, at which Cyprian and his followers secured the adoption of a via media (cf. Epist., lv.). Absolute right to restoration was still conceded only to the dying among the lapsed; but it was admitted that the long and thorough penance laid upon them might dispose the divine mercy to forgiveness and make it possible for them to attain an earthly reconciliation. A more important advance was the sharp distinction between libellatici and sacrificati, allowing absolution before death to the former, and thus approaching fairly close to the position of the Roman synod under Cornelius. In the same spring a zealous leader of the schismatical party at Carthage, Novatus, came to Rome and threw himself into the cause of Novatian; Cyprian even makes him responsible for the schism, but this is surely an exaggeration. The close alliance between Cornelius and Cyprian thus gained a further motive. Before the end of 251 Cornelius was able to announce to his African brother that the glorious confessors Maximus and his associates had returned to the unity of the Church (Moses had already died in prison). This was a severe blow to the cause of Novatian; but he did not give up the fight. Cornelius notifies Cyprian (Epist., 1.) that a second embassy is on its way to Carthage, including Novatus. They succeeded in establishing a schismatic community there, as bishop of which another Maximus was chosen. The Catholic party issued victorious from its conflicts with both its antagonists, but only at the cost of considerable concessions. In Epist. lvi. Cyprian declares himself personally ready to receive the lapsed after three years' penance, but refers the actual decision to a provincial synod. This, which met in May, 253, decided (under the pressure of another imminent persecution, that of Gallus) to grant restoration at once to all the penitent lapsi. The persecution did not amount to much, after all; but it was used to give a good many the opportunity to justify their restora-
tion by confession in the face of it, and to give Cornelius, on account of his banishment, the influential position of a confessor. Nothing more is heard of Novatian himself in the official correspondence. Throughout the decade 250-260 a number of bishops still refused to agree to the laxer practise, and some of them (e.g. Marcianus of Aries) supported Novatian without leaving the Church. In the East the death of Fabius of Antioch was timely for the Catholic cause. In the largely attended synod of Antioch where some bishops strongly favored the strict practise and recognized Novatian as a bishop, the milder view prevailed; and by the end of 253 most, if not all, of the eastern churches had returned to unity — though the danger of schism extended through Egypt, Armenia, Pontus, Bithynia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Syria, and Arabia, as far as Mesopotamia. In Rome it appears that Stephen had taken a somewhat severer attitude, in order to win back the schismatics; he was still refusing absolution to the most extreme cases of apostasy, allowing the offenders to continue doing penance with no definite promise of restoration. His successor Sixtus, however, granted them reconciliation in 257, calling forth a new and violent attack from Novatian and his party, to which he replied in his treatise Ad Novatianum.
III. The Theoretical Basis of the Schism: At the beginning of the controversy (250-251) there was no question of the case of death nor of the sacrificati, still less of the effect of due penance. Both parties agreed that apostasy did not necessarily involve eternal damnation, but that even a sacrificatus might win the divine pardon. The con- 1. Catholic flict thus narrows down to a question
Position as to the justifiable extent and efficacy
as to the of the Church's power of the keys.
Lapsed. Cyprian furnished the theory for the dominant party, although it was carried to its full extent only in the West, and even there not until after Augustine. For a time men were content with the general statements that schism was to be avoided at all hazards; that Scripture enjoined charity and mercy; that the Church ought not to abandon the lapsi to the world and to heresy and schism; that the admission of succor in danger of death had its logical consequences, since many who were supposed to-be dying recovered; that the Church, by allowing the lapsed to reinstate themselves through confession of the faith, showed that it regarded them as not wholly dead members. It was further alleged that it was unjust to require penance without holding out the possibility of absolution. Against the charge of laxity, appeal was made to the rigid investigation of individual cases, to the distinction between the treatment of libellatici and sacrificati, to the long period of penance, to the refusal of absolution to those who waited for the approach of death to begin it. These motives, however, are not for Cyprian the decisive ones. He places the greatest emphasis upon the doctrine that salvation is only for those who die in communion with the Church, and that thus they must be lost who are finally and forever excluded from it. If the Church has the power of binding in the last instance, while its absolution is only a condition sine