GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
THE ORIGIN OF
THE BAPTISTS
By
S. H. Ford
CHAPTER
XIII
Century Three
Novations
Donatus was
elected pastor of the Church at Carthage in the year 306. It was at
that great crisis in the conflict between Christianity and Paganism,
when the prestige and power of Constantine decided the religion of
the Roman empire, and crushed out all independence and spirituality
from those societies which were absorbed in the universal, or
Catholic Church. But years before the rise of the Donatists, a class
of men existed who had separated themselves from the worldly churches
around them, and had long stood on the same ground now occupied by
the Donatists. Similar in their principles, they were soon merged in
them, and received their name; but before that movement they were
known by other names, borrowed from the localities where they
withdrew from the dominant parties, or, from some distinguished
pastor among them.
We have found them before spread over
Italy, Greece, and Asia. Among other epithets they were called
Novatians. Some of these people were in Carthage up to the year 254,
one Florentius Papianus, who having maintained a good confession
under the pains of torture, stood in high authority as a martyr,
asserted that "he was at a loss to say what he would not part
with, sooner than enter into terms of fellowship with Cyprian, then
bishop of the Church at Carthage."
Neander
continues:
"Conventicles of this party, where the holy
supper was distributed, still remained open, as Cyprian himself gives
us to understand. Commodian, who wrote his Christian admonitions at a
somewhat later period, considered it needful to combat this
separatist tendency." (Neander, vol. I, p. 237).
So that
there were those in Africa long before the Donatists, who held the
same principles, separated from the majority, and contended for
independent and spiritual churches. But these were linked in the more
general separation, and were consequently lost in the great movement
which occurred in Italy in the early part of the third
century.
NOVATION was a presbyter at Rome. Of his learning and
piety there was no question. It has been said that he made a party to
gratify his ambition, and because he could not brook a rival. The
facts are these: He protested against the lax discipline of the
church in the city of Rome. He objected to Cornelius, its pastor;
and, with a minority of that church, withdrew, and formed a new
church, of which he was elected bishop. Neander says:
"According
to the accusations of passionate opponents, we must, indeed, suppose
that, in the outset, he was striving from motives of ambition after
the Episcopal dignity, and was thence induced to excite these
troubles, and throw himself at the head of a party. The accusations
of his opponents should not be suffered to embarrass us, for it is
the usual custom with the logical polemics to trace schisms to some
outward unhallowed motive.
"The contest at Rome, however,
had for its main-spring another individual altogether, one Novatus,
who belonged, originally, to the Separatists of Africa."
Neander
continues:
"He was the man whenever he might be at
Carthage or at Rome to become the moving spring of agitation,
although he placed some one else at the head, and caused everything
to move under the name of the latter." (Neander, p. 248).
"The
controversy with the Novatian party turned on two general points; one
relating to the principle of repentance; the other what constitutes
the idea of a true church. On the first point Novatian, doubtless,
went to extremes. But Novatus never advocated the absolute rejection
of every one that violated his baptismal vows.
"With
regard to the second main point of controversy, the idea of the
church, Novatian maintained that one of the essential marks of a true
church being purity and holiness, every church which neglected the
right exercise of church discipline, tolerated in its bosom, or
readmitted to its communion those guilty of gross sins, ceased, by
that very act, to be a true Christian Church. Novatian laid at the
basis of his theory the visible church as a pure and holy one."
(Neander, p. 248).
Such were the principles of the Separatists
of Carthage and Rome in the first great schism, church independence
and a spiritual church- membership.
At once the scattered
minorities, which had separated from the corrupt majorities, extended
fellowship to the independent Church of Novatian and Novatus. They
were expelled by the majority parties; but in almost every town and
city they flourished in independence, baptizing none but those who
gave evidence of renewed hearts, and rebaptizing all who came among
them from other organizations.
That all should be called
Novatians is easily accounted for. That they should be slandered and
vilified by the corruptors of Christianity, might have been expected.
But they spread through Europe, through Africa, and Asia. In the
mountains of Armenia they still lingered, till the name Donatists was
lost in Montenses and Paulicians. In the recesses of the Alps the
Novatians (called from the first Puritans) were persecuted as
Paterines and Waldenses. Up through the darkness we have traced their
crimsoned footprints. We have found them here, in the third century,
contending for a pure and independent church, baptized on a
profession of faith, and persecuted as Anabaptists. The people called
Novatians were Baptists. They may justly be termed another milestone
in our upward march. It will again be our inquiry: Where did the
Baptists come from?