the Church--and
this is no dishonour to him--still involved an inconsistency which, in
the fourth century, was destined to produce a very serious crisis in the
Donatist struggle.[243] The view, however--which Cyprian never openly
expressed, and which was merely the natural inference from his
theory--that the Catholic Church, though the "one dove" ("una columba"),
is in truth not coincident with the number of the elect, was clearly
recognised and frankly expressed by Origen before him. Origen plainly
distinguished between spiritual and fleshly members of the Church; and
spoke of such as only belong to her outwardly, but are not Christians.
As these are finally overpowered by the gates of hell, Origen does not
hesitate to class them as merely seeming members of the Church.
Conversely, he contemplates the possibility of a person being expelled
from her fellowship and yet remaining a member in the eyes of God.[244]
Nevertheless he by no means attained to clearness on the point, in which
case, moreover, he would have been the first to do so; nor did he give
an impulse to further reflection on the problem. Besides, speculations
were of no use here. The Church with her priests, her holy books, and
gifts of grace, that is, the moderate secularisation of Christendom
corrected by the means of grace, was absolutely needed in order to
prevent a complete lapse into immorality.[245]

But a minority struggled against this Church, not with speculations, but
by demanding adherence to the old practice with regard to lapsed
members. Under the leadership of the Roman presbyter, Novatian, this
section formed a coalition in the Empire that opposed the Catholic
confederation.[246] Their adherence to the old system of Church
discipline involved a reaction against the secularising process, which
did not seem to be tempered by the spiritual powers of the bishops.
Novatian's conception of the Church, of ecclesiastical absolution and
the rights of the priests, and in short, his notion of the power of the
keys is different from that of his opponents. This is clear from a
variety of considerations. For he (with his followers) assigned to the
Church the right and duty of expelling gross sinners once for all;[247]
he denied her the authority to absolve idolaters, but left these to the
forgiveness of God who alone has the power of pardoning sins committed
against himself; and he asserted: "non est pax illi ab episcopo
necessaria habituro gloriae suae