Novatian

Novatian was a scholar and theologian working in Rome around 200–258, the first to write Christian theology in Latin rather than Greek. When persecution drove some believers to renounce their faith, then seek readmission, the question of penance cracked the church open. In 251 three bishops consecrated him pope in opposition to Cornelius, whose willingness to welcome the lapsed back Novatian found too soft. He held that certain sins severed you from the church permanently. Rome excommunicated him shortly after, but the rigorist movement he sparked — Novatianism — persisted as a separate church…