Novatian Schism

…Lucius opposed and condemned the Novatian Schism, a rigorist movement against penitent apostates, inspired by the antipope Novatian. Lucius’s martyrdom in the Valerian persecution is unproven. He was succeeded by St. Stephen I.

…the theologian and schismatic pope Novatian at Rome in 251, the final consensus held that the power to bind and loose (compare Matthew 16:18–19), to excommunicate and absolve, was vested in bishops and presbyters by their ordination.

But in 251 Novatian’s schism at Rome diverted interest away from speculative theology to juridical questions about the membership of the church and the validity of sacraments. Differences of opinion over similar issues in the 4th century led to a schism between Rome and the churches of North…

The Novatians broke fellowship with Christians who had offered sacrifices to pagan gods during the persecutions by the Roman emperor Decius in 250 ce. In the early 4th century the Donatists, Christians in North Africa who prided themselves as the church of the martyrs, refused to…

…in Latin and inspired the Novatian Schism—a break from the Christian church by rigorists who condemned apostasy. (His name was certainly Novatianus—not Novatus, as given by the Greeks.)