d loose did not become clear
to the latter himself. This was because, in regard to the idea of the
Church, he partly overlooked the inferences from his own view and to
some extent even directly repudiated them. An attempt to lay down a
principle for judging the case is found in ep. 69. 7: "We and the
schismatics have neither the same law of the creed nor the same
interrogation, for when they say: 'you believe in the remission of sins
and eternal life through the holy Church,' they speak falsely" ("non est
una nobis et schismaticis symboli lex neque eadem interrogatio; nam cum
dicunt, credis in remissionem peccatorum et vitam aeternam per sanctam
ecclesiam, mentiuntur"). Nor did Dionysius of Alexandria, who
endeavoured to accumulate reproaches against Novatian, succeed in
forming any effective accusation (Euseb., H. E. VII. 8). Pseudo-Cyprian
had just as little success (ad Novatianum).

It was not till the subsequent period, when the Catholic Church had
resolutely pursued the path she had entered, that the difference in
principle manifested itself with unmistakable plainness. The historical
estimate of the contrast must vary in proportion as one contemplates the
demands of primitive Christianity or the requirements of the time. The
Novatian confederation undoubtedly preserved a valuable remnant of the
old tradition. The idea that the Church, as a fellowship of salvation,
must also be the fellowship of saints ([Greek: Katharoi]) corresponds to
the ideas of the earliest period. The followers of Novatian did not
entirely identify the political and religious attributes of the Church;
they neither transformed the gifts of salvation into means of education,
nor confused the reality with the possibility of redemption; and they
did not completely lower the requirements for a holy life. But on the
other hand, in view of the minimum insisted upon, the claim _that they
were the really evangelical party and that they fulfilled the law of
Christ_[248] was a presumption. The one step taken to avert the
secularising of the Church, exclusion of the lapsed, was certainly,
considering the actual circumstances immediately following a great
apostasy, a measure of radical importance; but, estimated by the Gospel
and in fact simply by the demands of the Montanists fifty years before,
it was remarkably insignificant. These Catharists did indeed go the
length of expelling _all_ so-called mortal sinners, because it was too
crying an injustice to