NOVATIAN. A 110man presbyt(9r of the third century, noted chiefly for the tc which he gave his name. According to a late account, he was born in Phrygia, but it is more probable that he was a native of the West. Ile was converted in mature life, during, an illness, and received only 'clinical' baptism (an incom plete form of the rite, sometime: administered to the sick). which was afterwards eharged against him as a canonical defect, yet did not hinder his ordination to the priesthood. Dnring the vacancy in the Roman See caused by the Decian persecution (250-251). when the pres byters directed the affairs of the Church. Nova thin quickly• assumed the leadership among them. II was he who wrote two of the letters addressed by the Roman clergy to Cypriau. In the discus sion about the lapsed (i.e. apostates in the per sceution), Novat ion insisted upon exelnding them from fellowship. in opposition to the milder discipline advocated by the newly eb‘ete41 Bishop, Cornelius. Many of the clergy sympathizing with Novatian, he was put forward as rival bishop, whereupon he was prononneed sehismatic by a Roman synod. and excommunicated (2511. This action, however, foiled to cheek the move ment he had inaugurated. The Novatianists, or Cathari, as they were called (i.e. the pure), dis played increasing strength, antl churches of their order sprang up all the way from Spain to Asia Minor. In Africa they were especially They flourished for a long time, and traces of them are found as late as the seventh century. Of Novatian's end little is known. .\ late ac count (by Socrates, fifth century) says that he died a martyr in the reign of Valerian (254 e.260).
The difference between Novatianists and Catho lics related to the theory of the Church. Roth parties agreed that the Church was 'holy,' as asserted in the creed, but the Novathinists in terpreted this to mean a holy membership, to be maintained by strict discipline, tvliih• the Catholics believed the Church was holy because of its sacraments, especially' penance, by tvhich holiness, if lost through sin, might be restored. The issue was similar to that raised by Montanus and 11ippolytus (qq.v.), and it appeared again in the fourth century in the l)onatist controversy. (See IJ0NATISTS.) The Novatianists pushed their theory to its limit by insisting that even Catho lics entering their communion should first be re baptized.
Novatian's most important surviving work is On the Trinity. The tract entitled Jewish heats relates to ceremonial questions. Some of the treatises formerly attributed to Cyprian are probably the work of Novatian, e.g. 'onccrning Ames, the tra/ac of Modesty, and the Praise of Martyrdom. The anonymous treatise Against Noratian is held by Ifarnack to be front the Roman Bishop Sixtus II. (257-58). Consult: Aligne, Patrol. Lat., vol. iii.; Thu Anlc-Xiccne Fathers, ed. by Roberts and Donaldson, vest. v. (New York. 1896) ; Harnack, Gcsehichtc der altchristlichen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1893) ; id.. History of Dogma, vol. ii. (London, 1896) ; Ben son, Cyprian (ib., 1897).