Epistle XLVII.325    Oxford ed.: Ep. l. a.d. 251.

Cornelius to Cyprian, Concerning the Faction of Novatian with His Party.

Argument.—Cornelius Gives Cyprian an Account of the Faction of Novatian.326    [Oxford trans., p. 111. Elucidation VIII. and p. 319, supra.]

Cornelius to Cyprian his brother, greeting. That nothing might be wanting to the future punishment of this wretched man, when cast down by the powers of God, (on the expulsion by you of Maximus, and Longinus, and Machæus;) he has risen again; and, as I intimated in my former letter which I sent to you by Augendus the confessor, I think that Nicostratus, and Novatus, and Evaristus, and Primus, and Dionysius, have already come thither. Therefore let care be taken that it be made known to all our co-bishops and brethren, that Nicostratus is accused of many crimes, and that not only has he committed frauds and plunders on his secular patroness, whose affairs he managed; but, moreover (which is reserved to him for a perpetual punishment), he has abstracted no small deposits of the Church; that Evaristus has been the author of a schism; and that Zetus has been appointed bishop in his room, and his successor to the people over whom he had previously presided. But he contrived greater and worse things by his malice and insatiable wickedness than those which he was then always practising among his own people; so that you may know what kind of leaders and protectors that schismatic and heretic constantly had joined to his side. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily fare well.

EPISTOLA XLVIII. ANNO CHRISTI CCLI. EPISTOLA V. (Erasm. III, 12, Pamel. Rigalt. Baluz. XLVIII. Oxon. Lips. L. Paris. XVII, Coustant. col. 133; Galland. III, p. 336. Routh. Relig. scr. III, p. 5 et 18.)

0712B ARGUMENTUM.---Quales sint quos Novatianus Carthaginem legatos denuo misit.

CORNELIUS CYPRIANO FRATRI SALUTEM.

Ne quid minus ad poenam futuram hujus scelerati 0713A hominis deesset; prostratus virtutibus Dei, cum Maximus et Longinus et Machaeus inde fuissent expulsi, denuo resurrexit; et sicuti prioribus litteris tibi, quas per Augendum confessorem misi, significavi, puto Nicostratum et Novatum et Evaristum et Primum et Dionysium illo jam pervenisse. Invigiletur 0714A ergo ut omnibus coepiscopis nostris et fratribus innotescat , Nicostratum multorum criminum reum, et non solum patronae suae carnali, cujus rationes gessit, fraudes et rapinas fecisse, verum etiam quod est illi ad perpetuam poenam reservatum, ecclesiae deposita non modica abstulisse; Evaristum vero auctorem 0715A schismatis fuisse, et successorem plebi, cui ante praefuerat, Zetum in locum ejus episcopum esse constitutum. Majora vero et graviora hic designavit malitia et inexplebili pravitate sua , quam quae illic apud suos semper exercuit, ut scias quales duces et protectores iste schismaticus et haereticus lateri suo semper junctos habeat .