the notice of common observers, they should not have been hid from papal omniscience. There were eight Synods held in this century on Church affairs. The principal subjects, which engrossed their attention, referred to the Easter Festival, which then had no fixed time of celebration in the Church at large; the Heresy of Montanus, and the rebaptizing of Heretics. No other information than this appears to be extant respecting them. Among the most eminent writers, who flourished in it, were JUSTIN MARTYR, IRENEUS, and TERTULLIAN. THE NOVATIAN AGE, OR THIRD CENTURY. CHAPTER IV. SECT OF THE NOVATIANS. THE schism caused by Novatian prevailed in the Christian Church during the entire of the third century. Although not chargeable with corrupting the doctrines of the Gospel, the followers of this Schismatic were culpable in exercising an unnecessary severity of discipline, as it gave rise to the most deplorable divisions among the early Christians. To such a length did he carry his austerity and rigour, that he not only rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance, but even refused to receive into Communion those, who had lapsed in the time of the Decian Persecution; at the same time, that he did not exclude them from the possibility of salvation! From the high idea, which both himself and his adherents entertained, that the Society, to which they belonged, constituted a true Christian Church; they were led to assume the title of CATHARI:-a term at once expressive of the purity, and innocence of their lives. But the height of their vanity consisted in their obliging such Christians as wished to enter into a fellowship with them, to present themselves a second time at the Baptismal Font, as an indispensable requisite for their admission to the privileges of the Gospel! The professors of Christianity were exposed, in this century, likewise, to the fiercest storms of Persecution. They endured the fifth under Septimius Severus, A. D. 202: the sixth under Maximin, A. D. 235: the seventh under Decius, A. D. 249: the eighth under Valerian, A. D. 257 and the ninth under Aurelian, A. D. 273. Notwithstanding the severe trials to which their Imperial Tyrants subjected them, a host of illustrious Martyrs, like their predecessors in the two preceding centuries, testified with their blood to the truth, as it is in Jesus. INFALLIBILITY.-About the middle of the third century, the rebaptization of heretics formed the subject of dispute between STEPHEN, Bishop of Rome, and CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage. Stephen forbad the repetition of the rite of Baptism although performed by heretics. Now, as the heretics of that period only Baptized in the name of the FATHER, and sometimes not even in His name; must not his Infallibility have forsaken him, where he pronounced such C Baptism valid, in opposition to the express Word of God, as in Matthew xxviii. 19; which commands the Apostles to Baptize all nations, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? The Christian Writers in this century were Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Cyprian; and the principal subjects of Controversy, which during the course of it, agitated the Christian Church, related to Origen's allegorical method of interpreting Scripture; the Millenium, and the Baptism of Heretics. The most formidable opponents of Christianity, both in this and the Gnostic Age, were Tacitus, Pliny junior, Suetonius, Celsus, M. Antoninus, Lucian, Ulpian and Porphyry. The Councils held in it amounted to eighteen. Of these, the principal ones were celebrated at ALEXANDRIA:-against Origen; AFRICA:-against Novatus, a Schismatic; CARTHAGE :—against those, who lapsed in time of persecution, and on the dispute maintained by S. Cyprian with the Bishop of Rome; and at ROME-against Novatian, and other Schis matics. THE ARIAN AGE, OR FOURTH CENTURY. CHAPTER V. THE FIRST GENERAL COUNCIL OF NICE, A. D. 325. THE Diocletian Persecution, which is regarded as the tenth, though the last, was the severest ordeal, which the Christians had to undergo. There was no species of torture, which was not inflicted on them. To die by the sword was considered an alleviation of punishment, compared to crucifixion, burning, impalement, and flaying alive the ordinary modes of destroying the unhappy victims of the tyrant's hatred. Their sufferings, however, terminated on the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity; since, with this providential event, a new order of things sprung up, which infused life, health, and happiness into God's Household. Ecclesiastical Assemblies now followed each other in quick succession: at Sinuessa, Cirtha, Alexandria, Elvira or Eliberis, Carthage, Rome, and Arles. The discussions, which took place on those solemn occasions, are so far interest |