ouerthrowe to cause them to betraye theyr confession, but that they stoode lyke glorious martyrs vnto the ende. Ciprian.

MarginaliaCyprianus lib. de mortalitate.The same Cyprianus also in an other booke De mortalitate, reciteth a notable story of one of his owne colleges and felowpriest: who being oppressed with weakenes, & greatly afrayd with death drawing at hande, desired leaue to depart, & to be discharged. MarginaliaA notable voyce of God to a priest of Carthage.As he was thus entreating, & almost now dying, ther appeared by hym a yong man, of an honorable and of reuerend maiestie, of a tall stature, and comelye behauiour, so bright and cleare to behold, that scarce mās carnal eyes was able to beare the beholding of hym, but that he was able so to do, which was now readye to depart this world. To whom this yong man speaking with a certaine indignacion of mynde and voyce, thus sayd: Pati timetis, exire non vultis, quid faciam vobis?  

To suffer ye dare not, to go out ye wil not, what would ye me to do vnto you?

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MarginaliaThe occasion and rysyng vp of Nouatus heresy.Vpon the occasion of these and suche other, whyche were a great number, that fel, and did renounce, as is aforesayd, in this persecution of Decius, rose vp fyrst þ^e quarel & heresy of Nouatus,  

who in these dayes made a great disturbance in the church, holding this opinion that they, which once renoūced the faith, and for feare of tormentes had offered incense to the idoles, although they repented therfore, yet coulde not afterward be recōciled, nor admitted to the church of Christ. This Nouatus being first priest vnder Cyprian at Carthage, afterward by stryrring vp discord and factions, began to disturbe the byshopricke of Cyprian, to apoynt there a Deacon called Felicissimus, against the bishops mynde or knowledge, also to allure and seperate certayn of the brethren from the bishop, al which Ciprian, lib. 2. epist. 8. doth wel declare. After this the said Nouatus going to Rome, kept there the like styrre with Cornelius (as the same Cornelius in Eusebius. lib. 6. cap. 43. MarginaliaCornelis epist. ad Fabium, ex Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 43.doth testifye) setting him selfe vp as bishop of Rome against Cornelius, which was the lawful bishop of Rome before. The which to bring to passe, he vsed this practise: first he had allured to hym to bee hys adherentes three or foure of good men and holy confessours, which had suffered before great tormentes for their confession, whose names were Maximus, Vrbanus, Sydonius, and Celerinus. After this he entised three simple bishops about the coastes of Italye to repayre to Rome, vnder pretence to make an end of certayne controuersies then in hande. This done, he caused the same, whether by making thē dronke, or by other crafty counsaile, to lay their handes vpon him, and to make him bishop, and so dyd. Wherefore the one of those three bishops hardlye was receiued to the communion, by the great intercession of his people: the other. ij. by discipline of the church, were displaced frō their bishopricks, and other possessed with their roumes. Thus then were there two bishops together in one church of Rome, Nouatus and Cornelius, whiche was vnsemelye, and contrarye to the discipline of the church. And hereupō riseth the true cause and meaning of S. Ciprian, wryting in hys epistles so muche of one bishop, and of the vnity to be kept in ecclesiasticall regiment, as appeareth, lib. 4, epist. 2. De simplicit. prælat. itē. lib, 3. epist. 11. &c. And in like sorte writeth also Cornelius himself of one byshop, saying: Itaq̀ vindex ille euangelij ignorauit vnū esse debere episcopum in catholica ecclesia, c&.   MarginaliaThe meaning of Cyprian opened, writīg of one Byshop onely to gouerne in a catholick church falsly wrasted of the Papysts for the papacy.
Ex Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43.That is, he knew not þ^t there ought to be one byshop in a catholike church, &c. This by the way, not out of the way I trust, I haue touched briefelye to detecte or refute the cauiling wrastling of þ^e papistes, which falselye applye these places of Cyprian & Cornelius to maintayne the Popes supreme maistership alone ouer the whole vniuersall church of Christ in all places. When their meaning is otherwise, how þ^t euery one catholick church or diocesse ought to haue one Bishop ouer it, notthat the whole worlde ought to be subiecte to the domination of hym onely that is Byshop of Rome. Now to the story agayne. Nouatus being thus Byshop tooke not a little vpon him, going about by all meanes to defeate Cornelius, and to allure the people frō hym. In so much that (as in the foresayd booke of Eusebius appeareth) whē Nouatus came to the distributing of the offeringes, and shoulde geue euery man hys part, he compelled the simple persons euery man to sweare, before they should receaue of the benediction, and of the collectes or oblations, holdyng both theyr hands in his, and holding them so longe, speaking these wordes vnto them: (Sweare to me by the bodye and bloude of our Lorde Iesu Christ, that thou wilte not leaue me and goe to Cornelius,) till that they swearing vnto hym, in steede of Amen, to be sayd at the receauing of the * Marginalia* Note here the sacramēt of the body to be called bread.
Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 43.
Niceph. lib. 6 cap. 3.bread, shoulde aunswere, I will not returne to Cornelius, &c. Thys storye being written in Eusebius, also contayned in Nicephorus, although not in the same order of wordes, yet in effecte drawen out of hym, doth declare in plaine wordes in both the authors (who so will marke the same) that the sacrament of the body of Christ, is termed with þ^e plaine name of bread, after the consecration.

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MarginaliaMaximus,
Vrbanus,
Sidonius,
Celerinus.
Confessours.
Ex Cipr. lib. 3 epist. 3.It followeth more in the story, that Maximus, Vrbanus, Sidonius, & Celerinus before mencioned, perceiuing at lēgth þ^e crafty dissimulation & arrogācie of Nouatus, left hym, and with great repentaunce returned againe to the church, and were reconciled to Cornelius, as they themselues writyng to Cyprian, and Cyprian likewise writyng to them an epistle gratulatorie doth declare. Lib. 3. epist. 3. and Cornelius also in hys epistle to Fabius witnesseth þ^e same. In this epistle þ^e said Cornelius moreouer writeth of one MarginaliaMoses,
Martyr.Moses a worthye Martyr, which once being a folower also of Nouatus, after perceauing hys wickednesse forsooke hym, and dyd excommunicate hym. Of hym Cyprian also maketh mention, and calleth hym a blessed confessour. Lib. 2. epi. 4. Damasus in hys pontificall sayeth, that he was apprehended with Maximus and Nicostratus aboue mencioned, and was put with them in prison, where he ended hys lyfe. And thus much of Nouatus, against whom, as Eusebius testifieth, MarginaliaA Synode at Rome.
An. 255.a Synode was holden at Rome of. lx. sondrye Byshops in the tyme of Cornelius, and vnder the reigne of Decius. an. 255. wherby it may be supposed that þ^e heate of the persecution at that time was somewhat calmed.

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MarginaliaCornelius bishop of Rome, and Martyr.After Fabianus (or as Zonaras calleth hym Flauianus) next succeded into the Byshoprike of Rome Cornelius whom Cyprian noteth to be a worthye Byshop, and for hys greate vertue and maydenlye continencye muche commendable, chosen to that roome, not so much of hys owne consent, as of the full agrement both of the clergie men, and also of the people. MarginaliaCornelius bishop of Rome, and Martyr.Hierome addeth also that he was a man of greate eloquence, wherby it may appeare those. ij. epistles decretall, which go in his name not to be hys, both for the rudenes of the barbarous and grose stile, and also for the matter therein conteined, nothyng tasting of that tyme, nor of that age nor doinges then of the church. MarginaliaA censure of the decretall epistles of Cornelius.Wherof in the fyrst he writeth to all ministers and brethren of the church, concernyng the lifting vp of the bodyes and bones of Peter and Paule, De cathecumbis, and transposed to Vaticanum, at the instance of a certayne deuoute woman named Lucina, hauing no greate argument or cause to write therof vnto the churches, but onely that he in that letter doth desire them to praye vnto the Lorde, that through þ^e intercessiō of those Apostolicall sainctes, theyr sinnes might be forgeuē them. &c. In the second epistle writing to Ruffus a bishop of þ^e east church, he decreeth & ordaineth þ^t no othe ought to be requyred or exacted of any hed or chief bishop, for any cause, or by any power. Also þ^t in no cause of priests or ministers ought to be handled in any straūge or foren court, wythout his precinct,

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