A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop.

 1. While I was meditating and impatiently tossing in my mind what I ought to do concerning those pitiable brethren who, wounded, not of their own will

 2. Why, therefore, shouldst thou be lifted up with vain things? Thou wilt gain loss rather than profit. Why, from the very fact that thou art become p

 3. And I, beloved brethren,—as I not heedlessly meditate these things, and not in harmony with human wisdom, but as it is permitted to our minds by th

 4. Let us now take the second character also of the dove sent forth from the ark, that is to say, in the time of the deluge, when all the abysses brok

 5. That ark bore the figure of the Church, as we have said above, which was stricken hither and thither to such a degree by the tumultuous waters. The

 6. Moreover, that that dove could not find rest for her feet, as we have said above, this signified the footsteps of those who deny that is, those, w

 7. Behold how glorious, how dear to the Lord, are the people whom these schismatics do not shrink from calling “wood, hay, stubble ” the equals of who

 8. We will answer them as to that utterance of the Lord, which they ill understand, and ill explain to themselves. For that He says, “Whosoever shall

 9. What sort of folly is thine, Novatian, only to read what tends to the destruction of salvation, and to pass by what tends to mercy, when Scripture

 10. Thus we have heard that the Lord is of great compassion. Let us hear what the Holy Spirit testifies by David: “If his children forsake my law, and

 11. Moreover, this is proved in the Gospel, where is described that woman who was a sinner, who came to the house of a certain Pharisee whither the Lo

 12. And now blush if thou canst, Novatian cease to deceive the unwary with thy impious arguments cease to frighten them with the subtlety of one par

 13. I beseech thee, hast thou not read, “Boast not, and speak not loftily, and let not arrogancy proceed out of your mouth: for the Lord lifteth the p

 14. O impious and wicked as thou art, thou heretic Novatian! who after so many and great crimes which in past times thou hadst known to be voluntarily

 15. Who is it that says these things?  Certainly He who, having left the ninety and nine sheep, went to seek that one which had wandered from His floc

 16. Let us then arouse ourselves as much as we can, beloved brethren and breaking away from the slumber of indolence and security, let us be watchful

 17. Like things to these also says Daniel:  “I beheld a throne placed, and the Ancient of days sat upon it, and His clothing was as it were snow, and

 18. Let us, then, with the whole strength of our faith, give praise to God let us give our full confession, since the powers of heaven rejoice over o

13. I beseech thee, hast thou not read, “Boast not, and speak not loftily, and let not arrogancy proceed out of your mouth: for the Lord lifteth the poor from the earth; He raiseth up the beggar from the dunghill, and maketh him to sit with the mighty ones of the people?”41    1 Sam. ii. 3–8. Hast thou not read, that “the Lord resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble?”42    Jas. iv. 6.  Hast thou not read, “Whoso exalteth himself shall be humbled?”43    Matt. xxiii. 12. Hast thou not read, that “God destroys the remembrance of the proud, and does not forsake the memory of the lowly?” Hast thou not read, that “with what judgment a man shall judge he must be judged?”44    Matt. vii. 2.  Hast thou not read, that “he who hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes?”45    1 John ii. 11. Whence, then, this Novatian has become both so wicked and so lost, so mad with rage of discord, I cannot discover, since he always in one household—that is, the Church of Christ—would have bewailed the sins of his neighbours as his own;46    This refers to Novatian’s letter in the name of the Roman people. (See p. 308. Compare p. 320, note 6.] would have borne the burthens of his brethren, as the apostle exhorts; would have strengthened the faltering in the faith with heavenly counsel.  But now, from the time when he began to practise that heresy of Cain which only delights in slaying, he does not even of late spare himself. But if he had read that “the righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day on which he shall have erred, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not harm him from the day in which he shall have been converted,”47    Ezek. xxxiii. 12. he would long ago have repented in ashes, who is always opposed to penitents; who labours more readily in the destruction of those things which are built and standing, than in the building up of those which are prostrate; who has once more made heathens of many most wretched brethren of ours, terrified by his false oppositions, by saying that the repentance of the lapsed is vain, and cannot avail them for salvation, although the Scripture cries aloud and says, “Remember whence thou hast fallen, and repent, or else I will come to thee except thou repent.”48    Rev. ii. 5. And indeed, writing to the seven churches, rebuking each one of them with its own crimes and sins, it said, Repent. To whom but to them, doubtless, whom He had redeemed at the great price of His blood?

1214A XIII. Oro, non legisti: Nolite gloriari, et nolite loqui excelsa, et ne exeat magniloquentia ex ore vestro; quoniam erigit a terra pauperem, a sterquilino erigit inopem, et sedere eum facit cum potentibus populi (I Reg. II, 3, 8)? Non legisti: Quia Dominus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam (Jac. IV, 6; I Pet. V, 5)? Non legisti: Qui se exaltat, humiliabitur (Matth. XXIII, 12; Luc. XIV, 11; XVIII, 14)? Non legisti: Quia Deus perdit memoriam superborum, et non relinquit memoriam humilium (Psal. IX, 7, 11)? Non legisti: Quia quo judicio quis judicaverit, eum judicari necesse est (Matth. VII, 2)? Non legisti: Quia qui odit fratrem suum, in tenebris est, et in tenebris ambulat; et non scit quo eat, quia tenebrae excaecaverunt oculos ejus (I Joan. II, 11)? Unde igitur et tam sceleratus, 1214B et tam perditus, tam discordiae furore vesanus exstiterit iste Novatianus, invenire non possum; qui semper in domo una, id est, Christi Ecclesia, proximorum delicta ut propria fleverit; onera fratrum, sicut Apostolus hortatur (Gal. VI, 2), sustinuerit; lubricos in fide coelesti allocutione corroboraverit. At nunc ex quo Cainam illam haeresim, quae non nisi tantum occidere gestit, exercere coepit; nec sibi novissime parcit. Caeterumsi legisset quia justitia justi non liberabit eum in die qua erraverit, et iniquitas impii non nocebit ei ex qua die conversus fuerit (Ezech. XXXIII, 12), jam olim in cinere poeniteret, ille qui semper poenitentibus adversatur: qui in ruina facilius aedificatorum stantium operantur, quam in structione jacentium ruinarum; qui multos ex fratribus nostris 1214C miserrimos falsis suis adversationibus perterritos, iterum fecit ethnicos, dicendo quod poenitentia lapsorum sit vana, nec possit eis proficere ad salutem; clamante Scriptura et dicente: Memento unde excideris, et age poenitentiam; si quo minus, veniam tibi, nisi poenitentiam egeris (Apoc. II, 5). Et quidem ad septem ecclesias scribens, singulis sua quoque facinora et delicta ingerens: Poenitemini, dicebat. Quibus, nisi illis, scilicet, quo pretio magno sui sanguinis redemerat?