Novationists in the first four councils

[Anastasios Hudson]

Dear in Christ,

I am in a conversation with someone who claims that Novationists sat at the first four councils and were recognized as bishops. He cited a book called something like "The History of the Councils called by Roman Emperors" as proof. Now given that Nicea canon 8 speaks of how to receive Novationists into the Church and that they are received as bishops only if there is no Orthodox bishop in the area (i.e. a primitive theory that grace is only given upon reception to schismatics and then only as the Church deems fit) I doubt this is true but not being near an adequate library at this time, can anyone tell me if they have seen this book (I didn't find it on google) and have they ever heard this argument before? It does not make sense to me in any case.

Anastasios

[Kosta]

Its true that the Novatians were present at Nicea. They were recieved as being orthodox theologically, but in schism. This is because Novatus work on the Trinity in 250a.d. was completely Orthodox and upheld the belief that Christ is one essence with the Father. Basically stacked the deck against Arius.
From what I understand the emperor St Constantine invited the Novatian bishop from Constantinople Acesius to the council, where he agreed upon the Orthodoxy of the nicene creed and the paschalion calculation but refused to unite with the catholic orthodox church. (Constantine didnt take that well)


The question comes down to whether they left as they came? The bishop arrived as a schismatic but did he leave as a heretic?

[Michael Stickles]

Anastasios,

The book your acquaintance cited is probably "A History of the Councils of the Church: From the Original Documents" by Karl Joseph von Hefele, (c) 1871. Volume I (http://books.google.com/books?id=ifECAAAAQAAJ) contains all the things that Kosta mentioned in the chapters on the Council of Nicea (325 AD). On pages 413-414 is said "Amongst the Novatian bishops who took part in the Synod, we must especially mention Acesius, bishop of this sect at Constantinople, whom the Emperor Constantine held in great esteem on account of the austerity of his life, and had in consequence invited him to the Synod." He is the only Novatian bishop the book mentions at Nicea. Also, the discussion of Canon 8 states that Novatian clergy are to be kept as members of the clergy, but are to be of lower rank than Catholic (i.e., orthodox) clergy. When there is an existing bishop, "... the Novatian bishop must take the position of a simple priest, unless the Catholic bishop thinks it well to allow him the honor of the episcopal title (but without any jurisdiction)." (pg 413).

On the other hand, Volume III (http://books.google.com/books?id=jPECAAAAQAAJ) mentions canon 9 of the Second Synod of Arles (c. 443 or 452 AD), "A Novatian must not be received, unless he has shown a spirit of penitence and has condemned his error". So apparently some things changed in the intervening century-and-a-bit.

The links above, by the way, are to scanned copies of translations of these volumes on Google books. They can also be downloaded since they are in the public domain. An HTML version of all five volumes of the work can be found at GodRules.net (http://www.godrules.net/library/hefele/hefele.htm), though there are a few typos in the text and the Greek quotations do not render properly.

In Christ,
Mike