than five bishops, at least four of whom were cut down by
persecution: of these Cornelius and Stephen, by far the most
distinguished, were interred in the cemetery of Callistus.

There is still extant the fragment of a letter written by Cornelius
furnishing a curious statistical account of the strength of the Roman
Church at this period. [355:3] According to this excellent authority it
contained forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons,
forty-two acolyths, fifty-two others who were either exorcists, readers,
or door-keepers, and upwards of fifteen hundred besides, who were in
indigent circumstances, and of whom widows constituted a large
proportion. All these poor persons were maintained by the liberality of
their fellow-worshippers. Rome, as we have seen, was the birthplace of
prelacy; and other ecclesiastical organisms unknown to the New Testament
may also be traced to the same locality, for here we read for the first
time of such officials as the acolyths. [355:4] We may infer from the
details supplied by the letter of Cornelius, that there were now
fourteen congregations [355:5] of the faithful in the great city; and
its Christian population has been estimated at about fifty thousand. No
wonder that the chief pastor of such a multitude of zealous disciples
all residing in his capital, awakened the jealousy of a suspicious
Emperor.

A schism, which continued for generations to exert an unhappy influence,
commenced in the metropolis during the short episcopate of Cornelius.
The leader of this secession was Novatian, a man of blameless character,
[356:1] and a presbyter of the Roman Church. In the Decian persecution
many had been terrified into temporary conformity to paganism; and this
austere ecclesiastic maintained, that persons who had so sadly
compromised themselves, should, on no account whatever, be re-admitted
to communion. When he found that he could not prevail upon his brethren
to adopt this unrelenting discipline, he permitted himself to be
ordained bishop in opposition to Cornelius; and became the founder of a
separate society, known as the sect of the Novatians. As he denied the
validity of the ordinance previously administered, he rebaptized his
converts, and exhibited otherwise a miserably contracted spirit; but
many sympathised with him in his views, and Novatian bishops were soon
established in various parts of the Empire.

Immediately after the rise of this sect, a controversy relativ