[De Trinitate]
Novatian (d. ca. 258 AD) was a learned Roman presbyter and early Latin theologian, renowned for his treatise De Trinitate, but condemned by the Church for his schismatic rigorism. Trained in classical literature and Christian doctrine, he rose to prominence during the mid-third century. Amidst the Decian persecution (c. 250), Novatian took a hardline stance against the readmission of the “lapsed”—those who had denied Christ under threat of death. He taught that the Church had no authority to absolve such grave sin, reserving forgiveness solely to God’s final judgment. This denial of post-baptismal absolution became the heart of what was later deemed the “Novatianist heresy.” When Cornelius was elected bishop of Rome in 251, Novatian, opposing the Church's leniency, allowed himself to be consecrated antipope by three rural bishops. Though doctrinally orthodox in his Trinitarian theology—affirming the full divinity of Christ and rejecting modalism—his refusal to submit to the Church’s sacramental authority led to his excommunication. His sect, the Novatianists, endured for centuries, promoting a purist ecclesiology and harsh penitential discipline. Despite his schism, Novatian’s De Trinitate remains a monument of early Latin theology. It defends the eternal Sonship and divinity of Christ against modalist errors, though his subordinationist language at times lacks the precision of later Nicene orthodoxy. Still, his theology was not condemned—his ecclesiastical separatism was. Thus, Novatian stands as a cautionary figure: a defender of doctrinal truth, yet one who fractured the unity of the Church in pursuit of rigor.
Table of Contents:
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The treatise of Novatian concerning the Trinity is divided into one and thirty chapters. First, he expoundeth upon those words of the rule of truth, or of faith (which we call the Creed), which bid us to believe in God the Father and Lord Almighty, the most perfect creator of all things, from chapter 1 unto 8, wherein, among other divine attributes, he affirmeth immensity, eternity, unity, goodness, immutability, immortality, spirituality, partly by reason, partly by the Holy Scriptures; and addeth that neither passions nor members can be ascribed unto God, and that these are declared in Scripture only in a manner of speaking after the passions of man concerning God. From chapter 9 unto 28, he proceedeth to expound at large those words of our Creed which commend unto us faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our God. He proveth by the authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Covenant that Christ, promised in the Old Testament, is true man and true God; in chapter 18, he refuteth the error of the Sabellians, and confirmeth the distinction of the Father and the Son by the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and then answereth the objections of this heresiarch and others. He treateth of faith in the Holy Spirit in chapter 18, saying: Furthermore, the authority of faith admonisheth us, after the Father and the Son, to believe also in the Holy Spirit: whose operations he rehearseth from the Scriptures and approveth. Then he endeavoureth to join the unity of God with that which hath been disputed before, and at last presenteth a summary of the things set forth.
The rule of truth requireth that first of all we believe in God the Father and Lord Almighty, that is, the most perfect maker of all things, who hath suspended the heavens on high, hath established the earth by her weight beneath, hath poured forth the seas with their liquid moisture, and hath ordered all these things, each with their proper and fitting instruments, both adorned and full. For in the firmament of heaven He set the shining orbs of the sun, and filled the bright globe of the moon with monthly increases for the comfort of the night, and kindled the rays of the stars with various twinklings of light: and He willed that all these should go about the whole circuit of the world in their appointed courses, to make for mankind days, months, years, signs, seasons, and benefits. Also upon the earth He raised up the highest mountains to the summit, cast down the valleys to the depths, spread out the plains evenly, and usefully appointed herds of animals for the diverse services of men. He also strengthened the oaks of the woods for the future use of men, brought forth fruits for food, opened the mouths of the fountains, and poured them into rivers that should flow. After these things, that He might also provide for the delights of the eyes, He clothed all things with the various colours of flowers for the pleasure of them that behold. Also in the sea itself, though it was wonderful both in magnitude and usefulness, He fashioned creatures of many kinds, some of moderate size, some of vast bodies, testifying to the ingenuity of the Maker by the variety of His creation. Not content with these, lest perchance the roaring and rushing of the waters should occupy another element to the loss of human possessors, He shut up the seas with shores: so that when the foaming wave and the billow from the deep bosom should come, it should return again into itself, and not exceed the appointed bounds, keeping the prescribed laws: that man might the more observe the divine laws, since even the elements observed them. After these things, He also set man over the world, and that made after the image of God: to whom He imparted mind and reason and foresight, that he might imitate God: and though the beginnings of his body were earthly, yet the substance was inspired by a heavenly and divine breath: and when He had given all things into his service, He willed that he alone should be free. And lest the freedom given should fall into peril, He laid down a command, whereby man was taught that there was no evil in the fruit of the tree, but that it would come to pass if, perchance, from the will of man, in contempt of the law given, he should be forewarned. For he was to be free, lest the image of God should unbecomingly serve: and a law was to be added, lest unbridled freedom should break forth even to contempt of the Giver: that he might consequently receive worthy rewards and merited punishments, having now his own, which he might will to move in either direction by the motion of his mind: whence mortality, by envy, returned upon himself; who, though he might have escaped it by obedience, incurred it by hastening, from perverse counsel, to be as God: whose punishment, nevertheless, He tempered with indulgence, while He cursed not so much himself as his labours upon the earth. For that which is required cometh not from ignorance, but showeth the hope of man for the future in Christ, both of discovery and of salvation: and that he is kept from touching the tree of life, descendeth not from malignant envy, but lest, living forever, unless Christ should first forgive sins, he should carry with him into punishment his ever-immortal offence. Although also in the parts above, that is, above the firmament itself, which are not now visible to our eyes, He had first established Angels, ordered spiritual Powers, set Thrones and Powers over them, and created many other immense spaces of the heavens, and infinite works of mysteries, so that this vast world, though immense, might appear rather as the latest work of God in corporeal things than the only one. For those things which lie beneath the earth are not themselves void of ordered and arranged powers. For there is a place whither the souls of the just and of the unjust are led, feeling the foretastes of the future judgment: that the overflowing greatnesses of His works in all parts might not seem to be shut up within the capacious, though vast, bosom of this world, as we have said, but that we might also think of them beneath the depths and heights of the world itself; and thus, considering the magnitude of the works, we might worthily admire the artificer of so great a mass.
Above all these things, He Himself, containing all things, leaving nothing void outside Himself, hath left no place for a superior God, as some think. Since He Himself hath included all things in the bosom of perfect greatness and power, ever intent upon His own work, and going through all things, and moving all things, and quickening all things, and beholding all things, and so linking together the discordant materials of all the elements into harmony, that out of diverse elements one world is so consolidated by that firm bond, that it can be dissolved by no force, unless He alone who made it should command it to be dissolved, for the sake of greater things to be bestowed upon us. For we read that He containeth all things: and therefore there could be nothing outside Him: since, having no beginning at all, consequently He feeleth no end: unless perchance, which God forbid, He began to be at some time, and is not above all things, but since He began to be after something, He is beneath that which was before Him, found less in power, since He is denoted as later even in time itself. For this cause, therefore, He is always immense, because nothing is greater than He; always eternal, because nothing is more ancient than He. For that which is without beginning can be preceded by none, since it hath no time. Therefore He is immortal, not failing to the issue of consummation. And since whatever is without beginning is without law, He excludeth the mode of time, since He feeleth Himself debtor to none. Concerning Him, therefore, and concerning those things which are of Himself and in Him, neither can the mind of man conceive what they are, how great they are, and what they are like, nor doth the eloquence of human discourse set forth a power of speech equal to His majesty. For to conceive and to speak of His majesty, all eloquence is with reason dumb, and every mind is insufficient: for He is greater than mind itself, nor can it be conceived how great He is, lest if He could be conceived, He should be less than the human mind which could conceive Him. He is greater also than all language, nor can He be declared: lest if He could be declared, He should be less than human language, which, when it is declared, could both compass and gather Him. For whatever shall be thought of Him will be less than Himself: and whatever shall be declared will be less than He when compared with Him. For we may in some degree feel Him in silence; but as He is, we cannot set Him forth in speech. For if thou shalt call Him Light, thou shalt speak rather of His creature than of Himself; thou shalt not express Him: if thou shalt call Him Power, thou shalt speak rather of His might than of Himself, and shalt have declared it: if thou shalt call Him Majesty, thou shalt have described rather His honour than Himself. And why do I make a long matter by going through each thing? I will explain the whole at once. Whatever in any respect thou shalt refer to Him, thou shalt have explained rather some thing and power of His than Himself. For what canst thou worthily either say or feel concerning Him who is greater than all discourses and senses? Except that in one way (and how we can do this, how we understand, how it is permitted to understand) we shall apprehend with the mind what God is, if we shall think that He is that which cannot be understood, neither what it is, nor how great, nor what like, nor can it even come into thought itself. For if the sharpness of our eyes groweth dull at the aspect of the sun, so that the gaze cannot look upon the orb itself, overcome by the brightness of the rays that meet it: the sharpness of the mind suffereth the same in all thought concerning God; and the more it is strained to contemplate God, the more it is blinded by the light of its own thought. For what wilt thou worthily say of Him (that I may repeat) who is more sublime than all sublimity, and higher than all height, and deeper than all depth, and clearer than all light, and brighter than all brightness, more splendid than all splendour, stronger than all strength, more powerful than all power, more beautiful than all beauty, truer than all truth, and stronger than all fortitude, greater than all majesty, more potent than all potency, richer than all riches, more prudent than all prudence, kinder than all kindness, better than all goodness, juster than all justice, more clement than all clemency? For all kinds of virtues must needs be less, by that very fact, than He who is both God and Parent of all virtues: so that it may truly be said that God is that which is such that nothing can be compared to Him. For He is above all that can be said. For He is a certain mind generating and filling all things, which, without any beginning or end of time, ruleth by the highest and perfect reason the naturally connected causes of things for the utility of all.
This, therefore, we acknowledge and know to be God, the creator of all things: Lord, by reason of His power, and Parent, by reason of His institution: Him, I say, who spake, and all things were made; He commanded, and all things came forth; of whom it is written, Thou hast made all things in wisdom; of whom Moses said, God is in heaven above and in the earth beneath; who, according to Isaiah, hath measured the heaven with a span, the earth with the hollow of His hand: who looketh upon the earth, and maketh it tremble; who holdeth the circle of the earth, and those that dwell therein as locusts; who hath weighed the mountains in a balance, and the woods in a pair of scales; that is, by the certain examination of the divine arrangement: and lest the magnitude, lying unequally, should easily fall into ruin, if it were not balanced with equal weights, He hath moderated this burden of the earthly mass with equity. Who saith by the Prophet, I am God, and there is none besides me. Who referreth by the same Prophet, For I will not give my majesty to another; that He might exclude all heathens and heretics with their figments, proving that God is not He who is made by the hand of the artificer, nor He who is feigned by the wit of the heretic. For He is not God for whom an artificer is sought that He may be. Who also added by the Prophet, The heaven is my throne, but the earth is the footstool of my feet: what house will ye build me, or what is the place of my rest? that He might show that since the world doth not contain Him, much less doth a temple contain Him: and He referreth these things not to His own boasting, but to our knowledge. For He desireth not from us the glory of His magnitude, but willeth to confer upon us, as a father, religious wisdom. Who, moreover, willing to draw our savage minds, swollen and rough with rustic fierceness, to gentleness, saith, And upon whom shall my Spirit rest, but upon the humble and quiet, and him that trembleth at my words? that He might teach that God can in some measure be known, how great He is, while through the Spirit bestowed, He learneth to fear Him. Who likewise, willing to come more into our knowledge, exciting our minds to His worship, said, I am the Lord, who made the light and created the darkness; that we might not think that Nature, I know not what, was the artificer of these alternations by which nights and days are regulated, but might rather acknowledge God, which was truer, as the creator. Whom, since we cannot see with the sight of our eyes, we learn from the magnitude of His works and from His power and majesty: For the invisible things of Him, saith the Apostle Paul, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; that the human mind, learning hidden things from manifest things, from the greatness of the works which it seeth, might with the eyes of the mind consider the greatness of the artificer. Concerning whom the same Apostle, But to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory. For He hath escaped the contemplation of the eyes, who hath surpassed the greatness of thought: For of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things. For all things are by His command, that they may be from Him: and are ordered by His word, that they may be through Him: and all things return to His judgment; that while they are in Him, awaiting liberty when corruption is laid aside, they may seem to be recalled to Him.
Whom alone the Lord rightly pronounceth good: of whose goodness the whole world is witness, which He would not have instituted unless He had been good. For if all things were very good; consequently and deservedly both the good things that are instituted prove a good institutor: and those which are from a good institutor cannot be other than good: whence every evil is far from God. For it cannot be that He who claimeth to Himself the name of the perfect Parent and Judge should be the initiator or artificer of any evil work: especially since He is the avenger and judge of every evil work; because evil doth not otherwise occur to man, except he had departed from the good God. But this very thing is denoted in man: not because it was necessary, but because he himself so willed. Whence it plainly appeared what evil was, and, lest envy should seem to be in God, from whom evil had its origin, it was shown. This, therefore, is always like unto Himself, nor doth He ever turn or change Himself into any forms: lest by change He should also appear to be mortal. For the change of conversion is comprehended as a portion of a certain death. Therefore, neither doth any addition of any part or honour come to Him, lest anything should seem to have been wanting to the perfect: nor is any detriment wrought in Him, lest the step of mortality should seem to have been received: but what He is, that He always is; and who He is, He is always Himself; and as He is, He is always such. For increases show a beginning, and detriments prove death and destruction, and therefore: I am God, saith He, and I am not changed, holding His state always, since that which is not born cannot be changed. For whatever that can be in Him which is God must always be; that He may always be God, preserving Himself by His own powers. And therefore He saith, I am that I am. For that which is, hath this name because it always holdeth the same quality of itself. For change taketh away that name which is: for whatever is at any time changed is shown to be mortal, by the very fact that it is changed. For it ceaseth to be what it was, and consequently beginneth to be what it was not: therefore deservedly His state remaineth always in God, since without detriment of change, He is always like and equal to Himself. For that which is not born cannot be changed: for those things only come into change which are made or which are begotten; while those things which sometime were not, learn to be by being born, and therefore by being born to be changed. But those things which have neither birth nor maker have excluded change from themselves, since they have no beginning, which is the cause of change: therefore He is pronounced one, since He hath no equal: for God, whatever can be God, must needs be the highest. But whatever is highest must needs be so, that it is without an equal. And therefore He must needs be alone and one, to whom nothing can be compared, since He hath no equal. Since neither can there be two infinites; as the nature of things itself dictateth. But that is infinite which hath neither beginning at all nor end. For whatever hath occupied the whole excludeth the beginning of another. Since if it doth not contain all that is, whatever it is; while it is found within that by which it is contained, being found less than that by which it is contained, it will cease to be God, reduced into the power of another, in whose greatness, being less, it shall have been included: and therefore that which contained will now begin to be God rather. Whence it is effected that neither can the proper name of God be declared, since it cannot be conceived. For that is contained in a name, whatever also is comprehended from the condition of its nature. For a name is a signification of that thing which could be comprehended from the name. But when that concerning which we treat is such that it cannot worthily be gathered even by the understandings themselves; how shall it be pronounced by the word of appellation worthily, which, since it is beyond understanding, must needs be also above the signification of appellation? So that deservedly when God addeth and preferreth His name from certain reasons and occasions, we know that not so much the legitimate property of appellation is declared as a certain signification is appointed; to which while men have recourse, they seem able to obtain the mercy of God through it. Therefore He is both immortal and incorruptible, feeling neither detriments at all nor end. For because He is incorruptible, therefore He is immortal; and because He is immortal, certainly He is also incorruptible; both being mutually involved in each other and in themselves by a mutual connection, and produced to the state of eternity by a vicarious concatenation, and immortality descending from incorruption, and incorruption coming from immortality.
And though we read of His wraths, and hold certain indignations described, and acknowledge hatreds related, yet we do not understand these to be referred to the examples of human vices. For all these things, though they can corrupt man, cannot at all vitiate the divine power. For these passions are deservedly said to be in men; in God they will not deservedly be judged. For man can be corrupted by these, because he can be corrupted: God cannot be corrupted by these, because He cannot be corrupted. These things, therefore, have their force which they exercise; but where a passible matter precedeth, not where an impassible substance precedeth. For that God is angry cometh not from His vice; but He doth it for the remedy of us. For He is indulgent, even when He threateneth: while by these things men are recalled to right things. For to those to whom reason is wanting for an honest life, fear is necessary, that they who have forsaken reason may at least be moved by terror. And therefore all these, whether wraths of God, or hatreds, or whatever are of this kind, while they are brought forth for our medicine (as the thing teacheth), came from counsel, not from vice: nor do they descend from frailty; wherefore also they cannot avail to corrupt God. For the diversity of the matters in us from which we are, is wont to excite in us the corrupting discord of wrath; which in God cannot be, either from nature or from vice: since He is not understood to be constructed from corporeal concretions. For He is simple, and without any corporeal concretion, whatever that is, wholly, which He alone knoweth Himself to be; since He is called a Spirit. And therefore these things which in men are vicious and corrupting, since they arise from the corruptibility of the body itself and of matter, cannot exercise the force of corruptibility in God: since, as we have said, they came not from vice, but from reason.