A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Palmer, from whom this account is abridged, takes, as notes of the Church, what the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan, Creed gives, as the Church’s attributes, “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.”

NOVATIANS. A Christian sect, which sprang up in the third century; occasioned by the jealousy which Novatian, a priest of Rome, conceived upon seeing Cornelius raised to the episcopate of the Roman Church, to which he himself aspired. Enraged at the disappointment, he endeavoured to blacken the character of Cornelius, by charging him with a criminal lenity towards those who had apostatized during the persecution of Decius. He maintained, that such persons ought indeed to be exhorted to repentance, but never to be absolved by the Church, reserving their absolution to God alone, who had the power and authority to remit sins. Hence he was led to deny, in general, that the Church had the power of remitting mortal sins, upon the offender’s repentance. And at last he went so far as to deny that apostates could ever hope for pardon even from God himself: a doctrine which so terrified some of those who had lapsed and repented, that, in despair, they quite abjured Christianity, and returned to Paganism.

The followers of Novatian added to this original heresy of their master another, which was the unlawfulness of second marriages; against which they were as severe as against apostates; denying communion for ever to such persons as married a second time after baptism, and treating widows who married again as adulteresses.

As these heretics pretended that the Church was corrupted by the communion it granted to sinners, it is no wonder they rebaptized those they gained over to their sect. In baptizing, they used the received forms of the Church, and had the same belief concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name they baptized. St. Cyprian rejected their baptism, as he did that of all heretics; but it was admitted by the eighth canon of the Council of Nice.

The Novatians put on the external appearance of great piety and purity; and though they did not refuse the title of Novatians, they assumed the proud appellation of Catharii, that is, the Pure, or Puritans; and like the Pharisees among the Jews, they would not suffer other men to come near them, lest their purity should be defiled thereby.

The schism which Novatian had formed in the Roman Church was not confined to Rome, nor to Italy, nor even to the West. It made its way into the East, and subsisted a long time at Alexandria, in several provinces of Asia, at Constantinople, in Scythia, and in Africa. The Novatians abounded particularly in Phrygia and Paphlagonia. Constantine seems to have favoured them a little by a law of the year 326; which preserves to them their churches and burying-places, provided they never belonged to the Catholic Church. But in a famous edict about the year 331, he sets them at the head of the most detestable of all heretics, forbidding them to hold public or private assemblies, confiscating their oratories or churches, and condemning their leaders to banishment. It is pretended this edict had not the designed effect as to the Novatians, by means of Acesius their bishop, who resided at Constantinople, and was in great esteem with the emperor, on account of his virtuous and irreproachable life. The Novatian sect was entirely extinct, or at least reduced to a very inconsiderable party, about the middle of the fifth century.

NOVEMBER, FIFTH OF. (See Forms of Prayer.)

NOVICES, in countries where monachism prevails, are those persons who are candidates, or probationers, for a religious life. The time of their probation is called the Noviciate; after which, if their behaviour is approved, they are professed, that is, admitted into the order, and allowed to make the vows, wear the habit, &c.

The novices among the Jesuits are disciplined in a very peculiar manner. To make them the better understand the nature and extent of the obedience they owe to their superiors, they have certain emblematical pictures in their chambers or studies. For example: in the middle of the canvass is a boy stooping down with a piece of timber on his shoulders, with this motto, fortiter, upon it. He has a harp in his hand, to intimate the cheerfulness of his submission. On the right hand is a little dog in a rising posture, to show that the novice is to obey with despatch and expedition. His breast is open, to show that his superiors have his heart as well as his limbs at their service. His mouth is represented shut, to show that there must be no grumbling or contesting the point with his superiors; and his ears are stopped, to intimate that he must submit to orders however unacceptable to that sense.

If a novice breaks through any part of this submission, he has a penance enjoined him according to the nature of his misbehaviour. For instance, if he discovers a haughty disposition, he is ordered to go into the infirmary and perform the coarsest offices to the sick and decrepit. If he refuses to do as he is bid, or murmurs at it, he is brought into the refectory at dinner or supper time, and obliged to confess his fault upon his knees before all the company.