see Aube, Les Chretiens dans
l'empire Romain de la fin des Antonins, 1881, p. 237 ff.: "Chretiens
intransigeants et Chretiens opportunistes") was expressly claimed by
Novatian (Cypr., ep. 44. 3: "si Novatiani se adsertores evangelii et
Christi esse confitentur"; 46. 2: "nec putetis, sic vos evangelium
Christi adserere"). Cornelius in Eusebius, H. E. VI. 43. II calls
Novatian: [Greek: ho ekdiketes tou euangeliou]. This is exceedingly
instructive, and all the more so when we note that, even as far back as
the end of the second century, it was not the "evangelical," but the
lax, who declared the claims of the Gospel to be satisfied if they kept
God in their hearts, but otherwise lived in entire conformity with the
world. See Tertullian, de spec. 1; de paenit. 5: "Sed aiunt quidam, satis
deum habere, si corde et animo suspiciatur, licet actu minus fiat;
itaque se salvo metu et fide peccare, hoc est salva castitate matrimonia
violare etc.": de ieiun. 2: "Et scimus, quales sint carnalium commodorum
suasoriae, quam facile dicatur: Opus est de totis praecordiis credam,
diligam deum et proximum tanquam me. In his enim duobus praeceptis tota
lex pendet et prophetae, non in pulmonum et intestinorum meorum
inanitate." The Valentinian Heracleon was similarly understood, see
above Vol. I. p. 262.]

[Footnote 249: Tertullian (de pud. 22) had already protested vigorously
against such injustice.]

[Footnote 250: From Socrates' Ecclesiastical History we can form a good
idea of the state of the Novatian communities in Constantinople and Asia
Minor. On the later history of the Catharist Church see my article
"Novatian," l.c., 667 ff. The most remarkable feature of this history is
the amalgamation of Novatian's adherents in Asia Minor with the
Montanists and the absence of distinction between their manner of life
and that of the Catholics. In the 4th century of course the Novatians
were nevertheless very bitterly attacked.]

[Footnote 251: This indeed was disputed by Hippolytus and Origen.]

[Footnote 252: This last conclusion was come to after painful scruples,
particularly in the East--as we may learn from the 6th and 7th books of
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. For a time the majority of the
Oriental bishops adopted an attitude favourable to Novatian and
unfavourable to Cornelius and Cyprian. Then they espoused the cause of
the latter, though without adopting the milder discipline in all cases
(see the canons of Ancyra and Neocaesa