ANONYMOUS TREATISE AGAINST THE HERETIC NOVATIAN. INTR OD UC TOR Y NO TICE. HE writerof thefollowingtreatisewas undoubtedly a contemporaryof Cyprian,and wroteintheearly partof thereignofValerian[254-256],duringan intervalof peace to the church. This much may be collectedfrom the factthat he names one, and only one, persecutionafterthatof Decius— namely,thatof Gallus and Volnsianus— and speaks of thosewho had lapsedunder the former,as having been stedfastand victoriousin the latter.1 He isgenerallybelievedto have been an African,and Tille- mont isonly withheldfrom attributingthe work to Cyprian himselfby what he judges to be a differenceof style. But although from the exordium it may be concluded that the writerwas a bishop,yet,from his manifest uncertaintyas to the fittingway to treatthosewho had lapsed,it isevident that Cyprian cannot have been the author; for thatprelate, when the persecutionof Gallus and Volusianus was just threatening,had already decided upon receivingto com munion the penitentswho had yieldedto temptationunder Decius.* Ceillier3 saysthatthistreatisewas writtenabout the year 255, while Novatian was stillalive,4and when the schism of Felicissimuswas allbut extinct. Erasmus firstpublished it among the known works of Cyprian in the year 1520. 1Ch.vi.p.435. sEpistles,vol.i.p.155. 8 Hist.Gen.desAuteurs,torn.iii.ch.i.art.4,sect.2,n.4. 4 Ch.i.p.431. 420