E07160: Eulogius of Alexandria wrote in Greek Five Books Against Novatus and On the Dispensation, which reported that the Novatians of Alexandria refused to venerate the relics of the martyrs. 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

After talking about Novatus and his story, Photius summarises the work, which includes the following treatise:

Ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖς τέσσαρσι λόγοις κατὰ τῆς αἱρέσεως κοινῶς τοῦ Ναυάτου ἀγωνίζεται ὁ συγγραφεύς, γραφικοῖς αὐτὸν αἰκιζόμενος ῥήμασιν. Ἐν δὲ τῷ πέμπτῳ ἰδίως περὶ τοῦ δεῖν τιμᾶν τὰ τῶν μαρτύρων λείψανα ἐπαγωνίζεται, ὃ μὴ ἀνέχεσθαι πράττειν φησὶ τοὺς ἀνὰ τὴν Ἀλεξανδρείαν διασπαρέντας Ναυατιανούς, εἴτε τούτων μόνων καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην νόσον προσνενοσηκότων, εἴτε κοινῶς τῆς αἱρέσεως τοῦτο διαπρεσβευούσης.

'Now, in the first four books, the author fights generally against the heresy of Novatus, assailing him with scriptural quotations. In the fifth, he argues in particular for the necessity of honouring the relics of the martyrs, which, he says, the Novatians of Alexandria refused to do, either because they alone had contracted this additional malady, or because the whole sect was holding this view.'

Text: Henry 1959.
Summary and translation: Efthymios Rizos.