E07161: Eulogius of Alexandria wrote in Greek Five Books Against Novatus and On the Dispensation, which included a quotation/summary of a text recounting the arrest and interrogation of *Novatus (priest of Rome, S01442), describing him as a confessor. Written in Alexandria in 580/608; the work is lost, but summarised in the 9th century Bibliotheca of Photius.

Photius, Bibliotheca

182: Eulogius of Alexandria, Five Books Against Novatus and On the Dispensation

Summary:

After talking about Novatus and his story, Photius summarises the work of Eulogius. A sixth book (apparently an appendix to his 'Five Books') contained (perhaps in full quotation) a text called the Hypomnemata/Acta (Trial Record) of Novatus. The text is summarised as follows: Under Decius and Valerian, a certain ducenarius Perennius persecutes Christians in Rome and its environs. The bishop of Rome, Macedonius, and his nine presbyters are arrested and forced to sacrifice. One of them is Novatus, and only he refuses to apostatise. Eulogius probably quoted the dialogue between Perennius and Novatus, which the author (or Photius) described as silly. The text ended by reporting that, besides Novatus, the bishops of Aquileia, Marcellus and Alexander, and the bishop of Tiberis, Agamemnon, and other Christians refused to sacrifice. After the persecution, they lived in a house together, and refused to have communion with those who had lapsed. It also claimed that the bishops of Alexandria at the time recognised Novatus as the legitimate bishop of Rome. Photius reports that Eulogius refuted this text as falsified in the fifth book of his work.

Text: Henry 1959.
Summary: Efthymios Rizos.