says: “But God alone, you Novatians will say, can gran. the pardon of sins. That is true : but what he does by his ministers, is done by his own power. What did he say to his Apostles? What you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and what you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. And why this, if sinners might be bound only, and not loosed ? But, perhaps, the Apostles alone had this power? Then they alone, it must be said, had power to baptise ; to confer the holy Spirit; and to purify the gentiles from their sins: for, in the same place, where he gives them power to administer the sacrament of Baptism, he also gives them the power to loose sinners. Either then these two powers were peculiarly reserved to the Apostles, or they are both continued to their Successors; and, therefore, since it is certain, that the power of giving Baptism and Unction is descended to the Bishops, to them has likewise come the power of binding and of loosing." Ep. 1. ad Sympron. Bibl. PP. Max. T. iv. p. 306, 307.
In another letter, having stated, that the doctrine of the Novatians is contained in this proposition that, after Baptism, penance is not allowed, because the Church cannot forgive mortal sin; and that by receiving sinners, she destroys herself—he asks: “ Who is it that proposes this doctrine? Is it Moses; or Paul; or Christ ?-No: it is Novatian. And who is this Novatian? Is he a man pure and blameless, who has never forsaken the Church; who was lawfully ordained Bishop, and, in the ordinary course, succeeded in the place of a Bishop deceased? What do you mean, you will tell me? It suffices, that he has thus taught. But when did he thus teach? Was it immediately after the Passion of Christ? No; it was nearly three hundred years
