Letter 40: Novatian's messengers arrived here, dear brother — Maximus the presbyter, Augendus the deacon, and two others,...

Novatian's messengers arrived here, dear brother — Maximus the presbyter, Augendus the deacon, and two others, Machaeus and Longinus. From the letters they carried, from their own words and testimony, we learned that Novatian has been ordained bishop — an unlawful ordination made in opposition to the Catholic Church. We were shaken by the wickedness of it. We immediately barred them from communion with us. In the meantime, having refuted and rejected the arguments they stubbornly pressed, I and several of my colleagues who had gathered here were waiting for our brothers Caldonius and Fortunatus — whom we had recently sent to you as representatives, and to the bishops who were present at your ordination — so that when they returned with the verified facts, the other side's wickedness could be crushed with fuller authority and clear proof. Then our colleagues Pompeius and Stephanus arrived as well, and provided us with solid evidence in keeping with their gravity and reliability. After their testimony, it was no longer necessary to give Novatian's representatives any further hearing. When those representatives burst into our assembly with hostile abuse and disruptive shouting, demanding that the accusations they claimed to carry be publicly examined — we responded that it was not consistent with the dignity of the Catholic Church, or with the discipline of the gospel, for Christ's flock to be contaminated by association with one whose ordination was profane and illegitimate. Novatian's claim to the episcopate is fraudulent. Cornelius was ordained first, lawfully, by the judgment of God and the consent of the clergy and people. Novatian's ordination came after, in opposition to it — an act of schism, not of succession. There is one Church, one altar, one episcopate. The attempt to set up a rival bishop is an attempt to fracture the body of Christ, and we will have no part in it.

Epistle 40