The Novatianist controversy presages the later and more severe Donatist controversy that would rend Christendom in north Africa in two. Although at their core these two movements were predicated on similar reasoning, their histories proved different overall. Novatianism was a smaller movement and eventually ran its course, dying out within a century or two, unlike the Donatist controversy, which resulted in a definitive, permanent fracture of the north African Church which never was resolved, but rendered moot by the Islamic conquest in the 7th century.
This “heretical” movement is named for Novatian, a Roman priest about whom very little is known who and hadn’t been notable prior to the persecution of the Emperor Decius. In 250 CE, Decius had ordered the entire Empire to pledge fealty to him, personally. Everyone in the Empire had to make a sacrifice of incense to the Roman civic gods and to himself, and had to produce certification signed by multiple witnesses that this had been done.
For some — in particular, Christians and Jews — this was an offensive command. They would not burn incense before statues of deities or the Emperor. It amounted to worship of deities other than their own God, which they wouldn’t do. Jews, who followed their own national/ethnic religion, had traditionally been exempted from such requirements under Roman law, and this was true for Decius’ edict as well. Christians, though, had no such exemption.
Some Christians objected pubicly and were punished, to the point of execution, for refusing to obey. But many did as ordered, often rationalizing doing so as a meaningless deed since they didn’t believe in the Roman gods nor did they consider the Emperor a deity. Still others simply fled to the hinterlands and avoided either having to follow the edict or prosecution for failing to do so. And as in so many other similar cases, there were pockets of the Empire in which local officials didn’t happen to enforce it very rigidly, or at all.
Decius’ edict ended with his death a bit over a year after he’d issued it. But although brief, it had caused some damage. Among those who’d lost their lives to it was Fabian, bishop of Rome (aka the Pope). It was at this point, while Decius was still alive and his edict still in force, that Novatian emerged from obscurity.
For reasons not well understood, he became the spokesman, within the central Roman Empire, of a position that any Christian who’d performed the sacrifice required by Decius — that is, lapsi or “lapsed” Christians — couldn’t return to the Church. Sacrificing to other deities was unpardonable and they could not be allowed back. God might forgive them, but the Church couldn’t.
Another Roman priest named Cornelius, allied with Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, argued the opposite: That the lapsi could be allowed back in after an appropriate period of penance. The ongoing persecution and the presence of Emperor Decius in Rome made it difficult for clerics in Italy to choose a new Pope, so the office was vacant for over a year. At least one serious, respected papal contender died during this time.
Once the clergy were able to select a new Pope, Cornelius had won out. How this happened is not known. It would seem odd, in light of later reports that his rival Novatian had been widely respected within the Church of central Italy. It’s been suggested that Cornelius’ aristocratic pedigree helped him in this respect … which is as good an explanation as any.
Despite this, Novatian — with the help of his own supporting faction, which was substantial — claimed the title of bishop of Rome, and thus the papacy. A regional synod held in 251 at Carthage (no doubt under the guidance of his associate, the bishop Cyprian) declared Cornelius the sole Bishop of Rome and excommunicated not only Novatian but all of his followers who’d objected to lapsi being allowed back into the Church. Other eastern patriarchs agreed with this decision, as did a subsequent synod in Rome in 252. Novatian found himself on the outside looking in, even though at one point he’d apparently had enough support to have become Pope.
The effect of these resulting synods — in Carthage, in Rome, and elsewhere — was that Novatian had been condemned along with his movement and its core principle that the lapsi could not return to the Church. Ultimately the Church had spoken, and Novatian was overruled. However, there were limits to that ruling.
Despite the larger Church having ruled rather definitively against Novatian, his position didn’t die out. It persisted, as did Novatian himself persist in claiming to be the rightful Pope. He was effectively an antipope and is counted as such in Church history.
To be clear, Novatian had scriptural support for his doctrine. It was found (among other places) in the epistle to the Hebrews:
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. (Heb 6:4-8)
Novatian and his followers also called upon support from other sources which are no longer considered canonical but at the time were nevertheless widely respected, e.g. the Shepherd of Hermas:
For the Lord has sworn by His glory, in regard to His elect, that if any one of them sin after a certain day which has been fixed, he shall not be saved. For the repentance of the righteous has limits. (2nd vision, ch. 2)
Neither Cornelius nor Novatian long survived this conflict. Both were martyred; Cornelius sometime in 253 and Novatian a few years later, as late as 258. While he lived, Novatian continued to claim he was the rightful Pope. Despite being marked by the overall Church hierarchy as a schismatic, Novatian remained influential and his movement survived him. A successor from within his own movement was appointed to succeed him as Pope (or rather, as antipope), and that continued for a few generations. There was also something of a Novatianist hierarchy of separate bishops and priests.
Not all the Novatianist antipopes or other clergy are known to history, but one Novatianist antipope was named Heraclius; he attempted to set aside the elevation of Pope Eusebius in 310. The conflict between Eusebius and Heraclius over which of them was the rightful Pope caused enough disruption within Rome to capture the attention of Emperor Maxentius, who exiled both clerics to Sicily. Eusebius reportedly died shortly after that; nothing more was heard of Heraclius, likely because he also died soon after.
This left the office of bishop of Rome vacant for yet another year or so, until Miltiades was elevated to the position. At this point the contention over the papacy had died down a bit, given that Diocletian’s persecution had ended and his successors (including the aforementioned Maxentius) treated Christianity with a gentler hand. This imperial trend culminated in Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius issuing the Edict of Milan two years later that formally declared tolerance for Christianity throughout the Empire.
Of course, that edict opened the way for the similar Donatist controversy to erupt in northern Africa, triggering yet another, more catastrophic, rift within Christianity. That controversy, though, concerned only the status of lapsed clergy, whereas Novatianism dealt with all lapsed Christians, both lay and clerical.
At this point, the Novatianist movement continued for several more generations, but by this time it was very much a minority view within Italy. It also was increasingly eclipsed by the Donatist and Militian schisms, to which the Church overall paid greater attention. Given that the question of how to handle lapsed Christians was rendered moot by the Edict of Milan, Novatianism’s central teaching became less relevant within Christendom. The movement didn’t die out, but it acquired additional puritanical trappings.
The principle originally held by Novatian survived him for centuries at the margins of Christianity, even if his movement drifted out of history and morphed or merged into other movements. St Augustine comments on Novatianists in his own time, so their movement remained distinct within Christianity even by the turn of the 5th century.
Later Christians (including a few prior to Augustine’s time) remarking on Novatianists suggest they blended with either (or both) Montanists or Donatists.
Quotation from the Epistle to the Hebrews taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation.
Quotation from Shepherd of Hermas is from the Roberts-Donaldson translation, courtesy of Early Christian Writings.
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