SAINT CORNELIUS—A.D. 251

 

 Like many of his predecessors. Saint Cornerlius was a Roman priest; he was the son of Castinus, or Calixtus, of the noble family of the Octavii, or of the Cornelii. Many authors include him among the regular canons. Cornelius, against his own will, was created pontiff A.D. 251, more than a year after the death of Saint Fabian, and he refused the sovereign dignity with an exemplary and humble generosity. Sixteen bishops, as well as the clergy and the people, were present at that election. He ordered that only those who could prove themselves professors of the true faith could put a cleric to his oath. An oath should be taken while fasting, and no one could be sworn at an earlier age than fourteen years.

Notwithstanding the persecution which raged so violently during the time of Saint Cornelius, there were at that time in Rome, as appears in a letter given by Eusebius, forty-six priests, who superintended the like number of parishes, seven deacons, seven subdescons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two exorcists, readers, and ostiaries, fifteen hundred widows, very many poor persons, and Christian cenobites; all these were properly supported by the Church. Besides these, there was an immense number of Christians. Tertullian, consequently, is justified in saying in his Apology that if, in his time, the Christians had migrated from the Roman Empire to other countries, their absence would have produced a sort of solitude.

In a Roman council, composed of sixty bishops, Cornelius excommunicated the antipope Novatian, a Roman priest, a pagan by birth, a Christian in appearance, and heretic from despair. All Novatian's sectaries were included in that excommunication. It was then taught that the Church could not receive into her bosom the fallen or relapsed, nor pardon their offence. The name of caduci was given to those who from fear of torture abandoned the doctrines of Christianity. The caduci were subdivided nto several distinct classes. Some were called sacrificati, because they had sacrificed to the idols; others, thurificati because they had offered incense in the pagan Sacrifices; others were called idolatri, because they recurred to the worship of the false gods; and others, again, libellatici because, becoming renegades to the Catholic faith, they paid money to redeem themselves from the penalty of being ignminiously led to the pagan altars, and on payment of the money were furnished by the magistrates with a libellus, or written certificate of protection. Of the libellatici there were several different classes. Among the caduci there was also a class called traditori (traitors), because, obeying the edicts of the tyrants, they gave up to the pagan judges some of the sacred vessels, or the books of prayer, or church ornaments, or were still more heinously guilty in furnishing the pagans with the names of the faithful. The schism of the Donati its had ts origin in the excommunications pronounced against bishops suspected of being traditori.

Among the bishops of that time, whether faithful or heretical, there were some who demanded that the caduci should be received again into communion without the enforcement of penance; while others maintained that they should not be received to penance itself, but should be rejected. Felicissimus a priest of Carthage, was for a time at the head of the relaxed party: and Novatian defended the rigorists, a kind of Jansenists of that time. This was in reality to deprive on the one hand those unfortunates of all trust in repentance, and to take from the Church, on the other hand, the divine faculty of pardoning. Cornelius, like a wise and moderate father, endeavored to reconcile the stern laws of discipline with the gentler promptings of compassion. He held out to penitent caduci the hand of mercy for the alleviation of their pain; but he would not allow of their return into the bosom of the Church until they had substantially proved the truth of their penitence by submitting to the wholesome severity of penance. Finally, he would not allow the complete rehabilitation of repentant caduci until they had complied with everything formally ordered by the Church, except when such were in danger of death. It is a touching spectacle, calculated to convert even the most hardened heart, to behold the inexhaustible tenderness of the Church towards the dying, and that disarmed hand which falls without smiting. A wise severity no longer interposes between the culprit and his judges; the priest, who until then has had so much power, no longer speaks with the same sternness, because the Master of both culprit and priest is about to speak, and because in the depths of our souls that Master has placed a certain disposition to that mixture of attrition and contrition which most frequently becomes a frank contrition, that is to say, a horror of sin caused by the love of God. whose goodness is so great that the sinner no longer fears the penalties whih God's justice has ordained.

The decision of the pontiff was confirmed by that council of sixty bishops of whih we have spoken, all approving of the excommunication of Novatian. In fact, to maintain that an apostasy is in some sort a matter of indifference, and that, immediately after having apostatized, a person may present himself just as one who had remained a faithful Christian, is to be wanting alike in courage, in faith, and in dignity. On the other hand, to maintain that, because an error has been committed, one should be forever reputed a pagan, and driven forth like some unclean creature, is to act with a harshness which Christianity should shrink from. These two opposite opinions equally fell under condemnation. Those who maintained them were no longer recognized as Christians, and the malignant men who advised so many evils became isolated and execrated by the Church and by humanity.

For some time the Christians had been permitted to breathe freely; but a pestilence having broken out, it was attributed to the disdain which Christians had manifested towards the false gods. Cornelius was too eminent a person not to be proscribed. He was exiled to Centum Cellae (now Civita Vecchia), where he found that crown of martyrdom which he desired. He merited it, says Saint Cyprian, for he had defied the fury of the tyrants in daring to accept a title which in these times was in itself equivalent to a sentence of death. A holy purity and a singular self-control and firmness characterized Saint Cornelius.

In two ordinations he created seven or eight bishops, one or four priests, and two or four deacons. He governed the Church one year, three months, and ten days. It was in that inconsiderable space of time that he achieved so much of good.

Fleury, speakmg of the acts of Saint Corneous, says: "A council assembled at Rome, and, consisting of sixty bishops, condemned Novatian, his schism, and his cruel doctrine, which refused communion to those who had fallen, however penitent they should become."

From Civita Vecchia the body of Saint Cornelius was translated to the cemetery of Calixtus, and afterwards placed in the Church of St. Mary in Trastevere.

The Holy See was vacant during one month and five days.

 

SAINT LUCIUS I—A.D. 252