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 committed in the Church, and before thou thyself wast an apostate in the family of God, hadst certainly taught that these might be abolished from memory if well-doing followed; according to the faith of the Scripture which says, “But if the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed, and will do righteousness, he shall live in eternal life, and shall not die in his wickedness.”49    Ezek. xviii. 21. For the sins which he has committed shall be abolished from memory by the good deeds which succeed. Thou reconsiderest now, whether the wounds of the lapsed who have fallen, stripped bare by the devil, ought to be cured; dashed down, as they are, by the “violence of the flood which the serpent sent forth from his mouth after the woman.”50    Rev. xii. 15. But “What shall I say?” says the apostle. “Do I praise you? In this I praise you not; that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.”51    1 Cor. xi. 17. For where there are “rivalries and dissensions among you, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?”52    1 Cor. iii. 3. Nor indeed ought we to wonder why this Novatian should dare now to practise such wicked, such severe things against the person of the lapsed, since we have previous examples of this kind of prevarication. Saul, that once good53    1 Sam. ix. 2. man, besides other things, is subsequently overthrown by envy, and strives to do everything that is harsh and hostile against David. That Judas, who was chosen among the apostles, who was always of one mind and faithful in the house of God, himself subsequently betrayed God.54    [A misconception of Judas, who seems to have been hypocritical from the first. John vi. 64.]

And indeed the Lord had foretold that many should come as ravening wolves in the skins of sheep. Who are those ravening wolves but such as conspire with treacherous intent to waste the flock of Christ? As we read it written in Zechariah: “Lo, I raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit that which is turned away, and will eat the flesh of the chosen, and tear their claws in pieces.”55    Zech. xi. 16.  Similarly also in Ezekiel he rebukes shepherds of this kind, to wit, robbers and butchers (I will speak as he had thought56    This parenthesis is unintelligible. [i.e., not shepherds, but “butchers,” in the prophet’s thought, who speaks as follows, etc.]), saying, “O shepherds, wherefore do ye drink the milk, and eat up the curdled milk, and have brought that which is strong to nothing, and have not visited the weak, have not healed the halting, and have not recalled the wandering, and have permitted my people to wander among thorns and briers? For these things, says the Lord, lo, I will come against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep of their hands; and I will drive them away, that they may not feed my sheep; and my sheep shall no more be for them to devour, and I will seek them out as a shepherd his flock in the day in which there shall be darkness and cloud. Thus I will seek out my sheep, and I will seek them out in every place wherever they are scattered; and I will seek out what had perished, and I will recall what had wandered, and what had halted I will heal, and what is weak I will watch over; and I will feed my sheep with judgment.”57    Ezek. xxxiv.

XIV. O te impium scelestumque, haeretice Novatiane, qui post tot et tanta in Ecclesia, a quibusdam retro voluntarie commissa crimina, quae et tu ipse in domo Dei priusquam apostata esse cognoveras; et haec posse aboleri de memoria, succedente bono, 1214D utique docueras, secundum fidem Scripturae dicentis: Quia si conversus fuerit facinorosus ab omnibus facinoribus suis quae commisit, et justitiam fecerit, vita aeterna vivet, et non morietur in facinore suo (Ezech. 1215A XVIII, 21). (Delicta enim quae commisit, abolebuntur de memoria succedentibus bonis factis.) Tu hodie retractas, an debeant lapsorum curari vulnera, qui nudati a diabolo ceciderunt, violentia aquae, quam suo ore serpens emisit post mulierem (Apoc. XII, 15). Sed quid dicam? ait Apostolus: Laudo vos? In hoc non laudo: quia non in melius, sed in pejus venistis (I Cor. XI, 12-17). Ubi enim sunt aemulationes et dissensiones in vobis, nonne carnales estis, et secundum hominem ambulatis (I Cor. III, 3)? Nec nos quidem mirari oportet, cur iste Novatianus tam nefanda, tam gravia in personam lapsorum exercere nunc audeat: quandoquidem habemus exempla praevaricationis hujus 1215B praecedentia. Saul ille bonus (I Reg. IX, 2, XVIII, seqq.), praeter caetera, postea livore evertitur, et contra David omnia adversa et inimica agere molitur. Judas ille inter Apostolos electus (Matth. X, 4; XXVI, 15), qui semper in domo Dei unanimis et fidelis (Psal. LIV, 15), ipse postmodum Deum tradidit.

Praedixerat quidem et Dominus multos esse venturos sub pellibus ovium, rapaces lupos (Matth. VII, 15). Qui sunt isti rapaces lupi, nisi sensu subdolo conspirantes ad infestandum gregem Christi? sicut legimus apud Zachariam positum: Ecce ego suscito pastorem in terra, qui quod aversum est, non visitabit, et carnes electorum manducabit, et talos illorum torquebit (Zach. XI, 16). Similiter et per Ezechielem increpat hujusmodi pastores, scilicet praedones et 1215C laniones (dicam ut aestimaverat) dicens: O pastores, quare lac ebibitis, et coagulatum comeditis, et forte ad nihilum perduxistis, et infirmum non visitastis, claudicantem non curastis, et errantem non revocastis, et permisistis populum meum errare inter spinas et tribulos? Propterea haec dicit Dominus: Ecce ego veniam adversus pastores, et exquiram oves meas de manibus illorum, et repellam eos ut non pascant oves meas, et non erunt eis amplius oves meae in devorationem: et exquiram eas sicut pastor gregem suum in die qua fuerit caligo et nebula: sic exquiram oves meas, et exquiram eas in omni loco quocumque dispersae sunt: et quod perierat, requiram: et quod erraverat, revocabo: et quod claudicaverat, curabo: et quod infirmum est, custodiam: et pascam oves meas cum judicio (Ezech. XXXIV, 1215D 3, 4, 10, 11, 16).