I. THE NOVATIAN PERIOD
---- About 200 Years -----
A. Some Pastors And Churches Stood Firm In The Faith.
1. From the very rise of these corruptions there were numbers of pious pastors and elders who from the beginning opposed them and raised their warning voices against them.
2. Numerous churches in Italy, Greece, Asia, and Northern Africa heeded their warning and held themselves distant from all these innovations of men in the affairs of religion, and they preserved the purity of their communion.
3. The churches of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage now (A.D. 240) began to be great centers of religious power, and had, to a surprising extent, changed the form of government. 4. Instead of the old government of democracy, they had become to be monarchies; and the purity and simplicity of the primitive churches were given up for worldly pride and superstition. 5. Even in those churches where so much corruption had crept in, there were still many godly men.
B. The Effect Of The Roman Emperors On The Christians.
1. From the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, in A.D. 210, till the reign of Decius, in A.D. 249, Christians were allowed a great deal of religious liberty.
2. There were nine emperors that ruled over the Roman Empire during this time; some of them were more tolerant, some were less.
3. This forty-year toleration greatly increased the number of professors, especially in these worldly churches; and multitudes flocked into the church from wrong motives.
4. "When Decius came to the throne, in A.D. 249, he required, by edict, all persons in the empire to conform to pagan worship." 5. This edict tore apart the churches; hundreds apostatized, and many were martyred.
6. When this trial abated after two years, many apostates applied to the church for restoration, and the lovers of popularity were ready immediately to accept them.
C. Robinson's "Ecclesiastical Researches (Novatian)
There was an elder in the church at Rome at this time named "Novatian," aman of marked piety and learning. Mr. Robinson, in his "Ecclesiastical Researches," says of him: "He was . . . a man of extensive learning." His address was eloquent and insinuating, and his morals were irreproachable. Novation strongly opposed the admission of such as had accepted the pagan worship and blasphemed the name of Jesus to escape suffering during the times of persecution. Mr. Robinson gives the following account of the division in the church at Rome: "Christians, within the space of a very few years, were caressed by one emperor and persecuted by another. In seasons of prosperity many persons rushed into the church for base purposes; in times of adversities they denied the faith and reverted again to idolatry. When the squall was over, away they came again to the church, with all their vices, to deprave others by their examples. The bishops, fond of proselytes, encouraged all this, and transferred the attention of Christians from the old confederacy for virtue to vain show at Easter and other Jewish ceremonies - adulterated too, with paganism. On the death of Bishop Fabian, Cornelius, a brother elder and a violent partisan for taking in the multitude, was put in nomination. Novation opposed him; but as Cornelius carried his election and Novatian saw no prospect of reformation, but, on the contrary, a tide of immorality pouring into the church, he withdrew, and a great many withdrew with him. Cornelius, irritated by Cyprian, who was just in the same condition through the remonstrance of virtuous men at Carthage, and who was exasperated beyond measure with one of his own elders, named 'Novatus,' who had quitted Carthage and gone to Rome to espouse the cause of Novatian, called a council and got a sentence of excommunication passed against Novatian. In the end Novatian formed (constituted) a church, and was elected bishop. Great numbers followed his example; all over the empire Puritan churches were constituted and flourished through the succeeding two hundred years. Afterwards, when penal laws obliged them to lurk in corners and worship God in private, they were distinguished by a variety of names, and a succession of them continued till the Reformation." Mr. Robinson again remarks: "They say Novatian was the first antipope; yet there was at that time no pope in the modern sense of the word 'pope.' They call Novatian the 'author of the heresy of Puritanism;' yet they know that Tertullian had quitted the church nearly fifty years before for the same reason; and Privatus, who was an old man in the time of Novatian, had, with several more, repeatedly remonstrated against the alterations taking place; and as they could get no redress, they had dissented and formed separate congregations. They tax Novatian with being the parent of an innumerable multitude of congregations of Puritans all over the empire, yet he had no other influence over any than what his good example gave him. People everywhere saw the same cause of complaint, and groaned for relief; and when one man made a stand for virtue, the crises had arrived. People saw the propriety of the cure and applied the same means to their own relief." (See Robinson's "Ecclesiastical Researches," page 126; Jones, page 181). It is plain to be seen from what Mr. Robinson and others have recorded that Novatian took the stand he did to preserve the purity of the church, and it is very evident that he had the side of the pure and virtuous. It may be truly said that an unbearable corruption forced this division; and as to Novatian's being the first antipope, it is clearly evident from all the records of those times that at that time there had never been a pope of the modern type, nor was there one for about one hundred and fifty years afterwards. "Novatian," observes Orchard, "with every considerate person, was disgusted with the hasty admission of such apostates to communion and with the conduct of pastors who were concerned about numbers rather than purity of communion," (Page 53). Novatian's example was indorsed by all those churches in Greece, Italy and Africa that had abandoned all church relation with the church at Rome from the introduction of its corruptions.
D. Orchard (On Novatian)
"The churches during this early period," says Orchard, "were strictly Baptist in their practice and constitution. These early interests stood perfectly free of Rome, and at after periods refused its communion," (Page 51). All those churches that had separated themselves from the church at Rome and those who withdrew from the Cornelius party were at this time and for hundreds of years afterwards called "Novatianists." This division occurred in A.D. 251, and marks a distinct period in the history of the Lord’s Church. The churches now which stood aloof from the corruptions of the popular element and indorsed the move of Novatian were nicknamed "Novatianists." They were also called the "Cathari" - the pure.
E. Mosheim (On Novatian)
"They considered," says Mosheim, "the Christian church as a society where virtue and innocence reigned universally and none of whose members, from their entrance into it, had defiled themselves with any enormous crimes; and, in consequence, they looked upon every society which readmitted heinous offenders to its communion as unworthy of the title of a true Christian church. For that reason, also, they assumed the title 'Cathari' - i.e., the pure; and, what showed a still more extravagant degree of vanity and arrogance, they obliged such as came over to them from the general body of Christians to submit to be baptized a second time as a necessary preparation for entering into their society," (Volume I, page 96). This statement comes from one of the greatest opponent of the Baptists; but it is all the better for that, as he speaks in opposition to them, yet shows their purity of order and identifies them with their humble, faithful brethren in all ages.