'Urban, Sidonius, Macarius and most of their adherents had 'rejoined the main body of the Church'.'

A rumour had been rife of this return from the Novatianist camp. Cornelius was characteristically the last person to credit it. At some gathering of presbyters, attended by five bishops but not by Cornelius, Urban and Sidonius appeared to express on the part of Maximus and his party a desire for reunion. Some feeling of distrust decided the clergy to decline to treat with representatives, and a large body of Novatianists agreed to attend. The main ground of ill-will against them was the calumnious nature of the circular letters issued so widely and effectively in their name. They disclaimed the responsibility and even the knowledge of these. Nothing had been further from their thoughts than 'an abandonment of the Church. They had been led to 'question simply the title of Cornelius.' Their accusation against themselves was the sanction which they had given to the new ordination. It was not in human nature that they should escape without some invective. They however pressed for pardon without needless humiliation.

Nothing further could be determined without the bishop. Upon a second day he convened a full presbytery with the five bishops. Individual opinions were pronounced and re

1 The date of this must have been before the Roman Council (see p. 163), since otherwise they would have been excommunicated, which it does not appear that they were, and posterior to the Carthaginian Council, since Cyprian makes no allusion to it as sitting, in his letters to or about the confessors, and he read the account of their return (Ep. 51. 1) to the Church, not the bishops. It must also have been directly after Novatian's second embassy, described in the same bundle of letters from Cornelius; for Novatus was on that embassy, and Cyprian

says they returned to the Church upon his departure from Rome.

This date disposes of Ritschl's belief that Novatus himself appeared before the Council. The auditis eis which he quotes from Ep. 45. 4 refers to the first embassy of which Novatus was not a member.

2 Rettberg, who is always assuming intrigues, relates how Cyprian took advantage of Novatus' coming to Carthage to press them to leave Novatian, and succeeded. The notion is simply negatived by possibilities of time.

corded'. The confessors, who again appeared, took the same dignified ground as before. Allowances must be made on both sides. They listened to an exhortation to sincerity. But they simply asked to be received back again without penance or disgrace. They had been imposed upon. Facts had 'been misrepresented to them. They had never intended to 'set up a second bishop. The essential unity of the episcopate 'was clear to them as to others. They had wished for one 'true bishop, and they had not, until undeceived, recognised 'such an one in Cornelius.' Charity and policy alike forbade harshness towards such sufferers and such penitents; the laity impulsively embraced them, they wept for joy, they broke out into loud thanksgivings. The presbyters opened their circle and took Maximus back to his old place near the

1 Sententias...quas et subjectas leges: Ep. 49. 2, verbatim, I believe, like those of the VIIth Council, A.D). 256.

2 'Omnibus invicem remissis.' 'Desiderantes...ut exhiberent,' singular construction unless hortabamur, or some such word, has slipped out, Ep. 49. 2.

3 I can assign no other force to their requests 'ut ea quæ ante fuerant gesta in oblivionem cederent nullaque eorum mentio haberetur proinde atque si nihil esset vel commissum vel dictum,' &c. taken in conjunction with Ep. 49. 2, Cornelius' statement, 'omnia ante gesta remisimus Deo,' and the point which the confessors made of it in Ep. 53 'omnibus rebus prætermissis et judicio Dei servatis.'

4 See de Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, vol. 1. pp. 295, 6, Tav. xix. 5, vol. II. p. 184. Though the name is common, yet it is scarcely likely that another unknown Maximus, also a presbyter, should have found a place, with his name in Greek and in lettering of that age, in the catacomb chapel of, and so close to the side of, the bishop Cornelius, whom the influence of this Maximus so largely contributed to establish. The statement that he was martyred under Valerian, Baron. ad Nov. 19, Baluze ap. Routh, R. S. III. p. 39, is answered by Tillemont, t. III. The Depositio Martirum (Mommsen, op. cit. p. 632) has this entry, Mense Julio vi. Id. Et in Maximi [sc. cœemeterio]

bishop, from whom death itself was no more to part him for ever. The laymen of the schism were desired at once to resume full communion'.

This generous treatment probably justified the expectations of Cornelius and made recantation easier to others.

The temperate firmness and the serene joy of Cyprian's remonstrance and congratulation to the confessors on their secession and their return place the 46th and 54th letters among the most delicate specimens of the collection, and are alone enough to give Cyprian a foremost rank among wise and loving saints. Nor was Dionysius' behindhand in greeting their returning steps. But to Cyprian the return was more than a glad reunion-more than an incident of the Gospel of Peace. It was a conclusive evidence of the truth of his theory. This error being gone,' he exclaims, 'light 'is shed in all hearts: it is demonstrated that the Catholic 'Church is One, and admits neither schism nor division. 'Separation has no note of permanence3.'

III.

Continued action against Novatianism—Roman Council of
A.D. 251, Antiochene of A.D. 252.

The winding up of the Carthaginian Council brought us (as we saw) to the June (scarcely the July) of A.D. 251*, nor A.D. 251. can any long intervals have elapsed before the Roman bishop

Silani. Hunc Silanum martirem Novati furati sunt.' There is no cemetery of Maximus. Did the Novatianists attempt to claim him still?

The Nicene Council similarly received Novatianist presbyters back to their full rank and the Collation of Carthage (411) the Donatists.

Euseb. vi. 46 mentions his two

letters, τοῖς αὐτοῖς τούτοις μεταθεμένοις
ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.

3 Ep. 51 ad fin.

4 See p. 159.

5 The date October given by Pearson (Annal. Cypr. A.D. 251, xiii.) and adopted by Fechtrup (p. 139) again depends on the radical mistake as to the time of Cornelius' election. Out

with a Council of sixty others from Italy and with many presbyters and deacons, accepted and promulgated the same decisions, and excommunicated Novatian on account of his inhumane doctrines.

The right direction of Roman and Italian opinion was (as we have seen) aided by the powerful sympathy of Dionysius. He had followed up his bracing advice to Novatian1 and his reply to Cornelius by a letter, singularly called 'diaconal',' addressed to the Romans themselves through Hippolytus'; a second direct to them on peace and likewise on repentance—that is, on the Restoration of the Lapsed; one to the Confessors, while still adherents of Novatian', and two more after their return.

It seems to require more knowledge than we possess to enable us to decide whether the Hippolytus, through whom the first letter to the Romans was transmitted, was the great 'Elder' and philosopher, whose episcopal work though not

of this synod, called by Jerome (who treats it as almost one with the Carthaginian) 'Synodus Romana Italica Africana' (Lib. de Vir. Illustr. c. 66), Labbe, I. pp. 865-868, misled by Baronius, has made three. Cf. Zonaras xii. 20, ed. Dindorf, III. pp. 134, 135.

1 Eus. H. E. vi. 45.

2 See Note at end of this Section.

3 Eus. Η. Ε. vi. 46 ἑξῆς ταύτῃ καὶ ἑτέρα τις ἐπιστολὴ τοῖς ἐν 'Ρώμῃ τοῦ Διονυσίου φέρεται διακονικὴ διὰ Ιππολύτου. τοῖς αὐτοῖς δὲ ἄλλην, κ.τ.λ. Jerome, de Viris Illustr. 69 'Dionysius...in Cypriani et Africanæ synodi dogma consentiens (v. p. 356 infr.) de hæreticis rebaptizandis ad diversos plurimas misit Epistulas, quæ usque hodie exstant, et ad Fabium, Antiochenæ urbis episcopum, scripsit de pænitentia, et ad Romanos per Hippolytum alteram, &c.' Jerome (op. cit.

61) knew Eusebius' list of Hippolytus' writings and had 'found' (repperi) many more of those which Eusebius (vi. 22) said were to be found (evpois år). Both name the πρὸς Μαρκίωνα and the πρὸς ἁπάσας τὰς αἱρέσεις adversus omnes hæreses.'

4 Eus. Η. Ε. vi. 46 ...ἔτι δὲ τῇ τοῦ Νουάτου συμφερομένοις γνώμη.

Mai, Classicorum Auctt. e Vat. Codd. editorum t. X. 1838, p. 484, has a fragment of Dionysius which, from its peculiar touches on 'Peace,' indicating a context on that topic, I rather ascribe to this letter named by Eusebius than to one of the three treatises 'on Penitence' named by Jerome, to which Mai refers it (viz. ad Fabium Antioch., ad Laodicenses, ad Armenios). Jerome, de Vir. Ill. 69.

5 See Bp. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. I., S. Clement of Rome, vol. 11., P. 435, ed. 1890.

ascertained by Eusebius, or, more strangely, by Jerome', lay among the nationalities' in the Port of Rome. If this were possible the idea is historically attractive. For though there is no colour for attributing to him actual Novatianism, yet his former attitude towards two predecessors of Cornelius,-with whom he 'was at daggers drawn2,' and whom he so relentlessly depicts,-gave ground enough for his being thought not unlikely to take the Puritan side, as afterwards he was believed to have done. That position had been a right but very fierce resistance to a low tone of doctrine and morals. Neither side in Rome would now be prompt to appeal to him, charged as they stood the one with laxity, the other with irregularity; while he, at his great age, with his profound study of the working of sects, was the very man through whom the great Alexandrine would naturally approach the Romans. Nor would any policy be so likely to secure his cooperation, which was of serious consequence, with the Council. It bears the singular title of 'A Diaconic Epistle through Hippolytus to them in Rome.'

Cyprian approved the mingled severity and moderation of the language of the Roman Council, and letters of assent came in from many Italian bishops who had not attended it. Next, in pursuance of its resolutions, (if it had not been rather a subject of the programme",) a bishop Trofimus,

1 Eus. H. E. vi. 20 ...Ἱππόλυτος, ἑτέ ρας που καὶ αὐτὸς προεστὼς ἐκκλησίας. Jer. de Virr. Ill. 61 'cujusdam ecclesiæ episcopus, nomen quippe urbis scire non potui.' See Lightfoot, op. cit., p. 434.

* 'At daggers drawn with the heads of the Roman Church.' Id. p. 412.

* Prudentius, Peristeph. xi. 19 'Invenio Hippolytum, qui quondam schisma Novati Presbyter attigerat, nostra sequenda negans.' Cf. vv. 28 ff.

Lightfoot, op. cit., pp. 328, 424, has shewn that Prudentius' account of the Novatianism of Hippolytus comes from

the Inscription by Damasus, while Damasus cautiously states that he proceeds only on popular belief. Hippolytus fertur premerent cum jussa tyranni Presbyter in scisma semper mansisse Novati....Hæc audita refert Damasus probat omnia Christus.' De Rossi, Inscrr. Chrr. Urb. Rom. II. p. 82.

On Chronological and other Difficulties see Note at end of Section.

5 It seems to me, though I do not know that the allusion has been noticed, that the words 'tractatu cum collegis plurimis habito susceptus est Trofimus'