History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

bishops.

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 He was excommunicated by a Roman council, and Cornelius denounced him in

official letters as "a deceitful, cunning and savage beast." Both parties appealed to foreign churches.

Fabian of Antioch sympathized with Novatian, but Dionysius of Alexandria, and especially Cyprian

who in the mean time had relaxed his former rigor and who hated schism like the very pest, supported

Cornelius, and the lax and more charitable system of discipline, together with worldly conformity

triumphed in the Catholic church. Nevertheless the Novatian schism spread East and West and

maintained its severe discipline and orthodox creed in spite of imperial persecution down to the

sixth century. Novatian died a martyr according to the tradition of his followers. The controversy

turned on the extent of the power of the Keys and the claims of justice to the purity of the church

and of mercy towards the fallen. The charitable view prevailed by the aid of the principle that out

of the church there is no salvation.

Novatian was a fruitful author. Jerome ascribes to him works On the Passover; On the

Sabbath; On Circumcision; On the Priest (De Sacerdote); On Prayer; On the Jewish Meats; On

Perseverance;

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 On Attilus (a martyr of Pergamus); and "On the Trinity."

Two of these books are preserved. The most important is his Liber de Trinitate (31 chs.),

composed a.d. 256. It has sometimes been ascribed to Tertullian or Cyprian. Jerome calls it a "great

work," and an extract from an unknown work of Tertullian on the same subject. Novatian agrees

essentially with Tertullian’s subordination trinitarianism. He ably vindicates the divinity of Christ

and of the Holy Spirit, strives to reconcile the divine threeness with unity, and refutes the

Monarchians, especially the Sabellians by biblical and philosophical arguments.

In his Epistola de Cibus Judaicis (7 chapters) written to his flock from a place of retirement

during persecution, he tries to prove by allegorical interpretation, that the Mosaic laws on food are

no longer binding upon Christians, and that Christ has substituted temperance and abstinence for

the prohibition of unclean animals, with the exception of meat offered to idols, which is forbidden

by the Apostolic council (Acts 15).

§ 201. Commodian.

(I.) Commodianus: Instructiones adversus Gentium Deos pro Christiana Disciplina, and Carmen

Apologeticum adversus Judaeos et Gentes. The Instructiones were discovered by Sirmond, and

first edited by Rigault at Toul, 1650; more recently by Fr. Oehler in Gersdorf’s "Biblioth. P.

Lat.," vol. XVIII., Lips. 1847 (p. 133–194,) and by Migne." Patrol." vol. V. col. 201–262.

The second work was discovered and published by Card. Pitra in the "Spicilegium Solesmense,"

Tom. I. Par. 1852, p. 21–49 and Excurs. 537–543, and with new emendations of the corrupt

text in Tom. IV. (1858), p. 222–224; and better by Rönsch in the "Zeitschrift für hist. Theol."

for 1872.

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"Ex exigna et vilissima Italiae parte." See Jaffé Regesta Pontif. Rom. p. 7. Cornelius, in his letter to Fabian (Euseb. VI. 43),

describes these three bishops as contemptible ignoramuses, who were intoxicated when they ordained Novatian "by a shadowy

and empty imposition of hands."

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De Instantia, probably in persecution, not in prayer. See Caspari, p. 428, note 284 versus Lardner and Lumper, who explain

it of Perseverance in prayer: but this was no doubt treated in De Oratione, for which, however, the Vatican Cod. reads De

Ordinatione.

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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Both poems were edited together by E. Ludwig: Commodiani Carmina, Lips. 1877 and 1878; and

by B. Dombart, Vienna.

English translation of the first poem (but in prose) by R. E. Wallis in Clark’s "Ante-Nicene Library,"

vol. III. (1870, pp. 434–474.

(II.) Dodwell: Dissert. de aetate Commod. Prolegg. in Migne, V. 189–200. Alzog: Patrol. 340–342.

J. L. Jacobi in Schneider’s "

Zeitschrift für christl. Wissenschaft und christl. Leben

" for 1853, pp. 203–209. Ad.

Ebert, in an appendix to his essay on Tertullian’s relation to Minucius Felix, Leipz. 1868, pp.

69–102; in his 

Gesch. er christl. lat. Lit.,

 I. 86–93; also his art. in Herzog2 III. 325 sq. Leimbach, in an

Easter Programme on Commodian’s Carmen apol. adv. Gentes et Judaeos, Schmalkalden, 1871

(he clears up many points). Hermann Rönsch, in the "

Zeitschrift für historische Theologie

" for 1872, No.

2, pp. 163–302 (he presents a revised Latin text with philological explanations). Young in Smith

and Wace, I. 610–611.

Commodian was probably a clergyman in North Africa.

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567 He was converted from

heathenism by the study of the Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament.

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568

 He wrote about

the middle of the third century two works in the style of vulgar African latinity, in uncouth

versification and barbarian hexameter, without regard to quantity and hiatus. They are poetically

and theologically worthless, but not unimportant for the history of practical Christianity, and reveal

under a rude dress with many superstitious notions, an humble and fervent Christian heart.

Commodian was a Patripassian in christology and a Chiliast in eschatology. Hence he is assigned

by Pope Gelasius to the apocryphal writers. His vulgar African latinity is a landmark in the history

of the Latin language and poetry in the transition to the Romance literature of the middle ages.

The first poem is entitled "Instructions for the Christian Life," written about a.d. 240 or

earlier.

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 It is intended to convert heathens and Jews, and gives also exhortations to catechumens,

believers, and penitents. The poem has over twelve hundred verses and is divided into eighty

strophes, each of which is an acrostic, the initial letters of the lines composing the title or subject

of the section. The first 45 strophes are apologetic, and aimed at the heathen, the remaining 35 are

parenetic and addressed to Christians. The first part exhorts unbelievers to repent in view of the

impending end of the world, and gives prominence to chiliastic ideas about Antichrist, the return

of the Twelve Tribes, the first resurrection, the millennium, and the last judgment. The second part

exhorts catechumens and various classes of Christians. The last acrostic which again reminds the

reader of the end of the world, is entitled "Nomen Gazaei,"

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 and, if read backwards, gives the

name of the author: Commodianus mendicus Christi.

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In the MSS. of the second poem be is called a bishop. Commodian gives no indication of his clerical status, but it may be

fairly inferred from his learning. In the last section of his second poem lie calls himself Gazaeus. Ebert understands this

geographically, from the city of Gaza in Syria. But in this case he would have written in Greek or in Syriac. The older interpretation

is preferable, from Gaza (

γάζα), treasure, or gazophylacium (γαζοφυλάκιον)treasury, which indicates either his possession of

the treasure of saving truth or his dependence for support on the treasury of the church.

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Ebert suggests that he was a Jewish proselyte; but in the introduction to the first poem he says that he formerly worshipped

the gods (deos vanos), which he believed to be demons, like most of the patristic writers.

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The author upbraids the Gentiles for persevering in unbelief after Christianity had existed for 200 years (VI. 2). Ebert dates

the Instructions back as far as 239. Alzog puts it down much later.

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See above p. 854. Note 1

1570

The last five lines are (see Migne V. Col. 261, 262):

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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