Pope Cornelius

Cornelius
Birth name	Cornelius
Papacy began	March 6 or March 13, 251
Papacy ended	June 253
Predecessor	Fabian
Successor	Lucius I
Born	??? ???
Died	June 253 Civita Vecchia, Italy

Styles of Pope Cornelius
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Saint

Pope Cornelius was pope from his election on 6 or 13 March, 251 to his martyrdom in June 253.

Papacy

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Cornelius was a Roman by birth, and his father's name was Castinus. His predecessor, Fabian, was died, probably in prison, under the persecution by Emperor Decius on January 20, 250. By the beginning of March, 251, however, the persecution slackened, owing to the absence of the emperor, against whom two rivals had arisen.

Decius had targeted leaders of the Roman church, and the seat of the Roman bishop had thus remained vacant for more than a year. Now, under conditions of at least temporary safety, Cornelius was elected pope on either March, 3 or 13 of 250.

The Novatian schism

His election, however, was a contentious one. Ever since the appearance of the first antipope, the future Saint Hippolytus, the Roman church suffered from serious internal divisions over the issue how to deal with serious post-baptismal sins. The recent persecution brought this issue again to the fore, especially as pertained to the sin of apostasy, as those who had compromised their faith in order to save their lives now sought readmission to church.

Cornelius' election was therefore opposed by Novatian, who maintained the view that not even the bishops could grant remission for grave sins such as apostasy, murder, adultery. He held that these could only be remitted at the Last Judgment. Cornelius on the contrary believed that bishops could grant remission for these grave sins.

According to the contemporary writings of Cyprian of Carthage, Cornelius was elected the consent of nearly all the clergy, the people, and of the bishops present (Cyprian, Ep. lv, 8-9). However, this testimony should not be accepted at face value, since Notatian succeeded in having himself elected as well by his own constituency, which included at least three bishops, who consecrated him as pope as well. A man of significant learning who had acted either as archdeacon or secretary for the Roman church, Novatian's schism proved to be a long-lasting one which established congregations in many parts of the empire, and with which not only Cornelius, but several succeeding popes had to contend.

Cyprian reports that 16 bishops were involved in Cornelius election and that Cornelius, out of humility initially resisted their decision. Nevetheless: "by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the vote of the people then present, by the consent of aged priests and of good men, at a time when no one had been made before him, when the place of Fabian, that is the place of Peter, and the step of the sacerdotal chair were vacant." (Cyprian, Ep. lv, 24)

Cornelius and Novatian both sent messengers to churches throughout the empire to announce their respective claims. Cornelius' papacy was supported by a synod at Carthage, and Dionysius of Alexandria also took his side. However Cyprian admits that Novatian "assumed the primacy" (Ep. lxix, 8) with some degree of success, sending out his disciples to many cities to set new foundations for his new establishment. He was able command the loyalty of numerous church congregations with both priests and bishops to lead them (Ep. lv, 24). Both rival popes consecrates new bishops where the existing bishop was loyal to their opponent. Among the churches which were known to have developed rival congregations during Cornelius' time were Antioch, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Tyre, Laodicea of Syria, Tarsus, and virtually all of the the churches of Cilicia, Cappadocia, the Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Pontus and Bithynia.

Meanwhile, before the end of 251, Cornelius assembled a council of 60 bishops from Italy or the neighboring islands, in which Novatian was excommunicated. Other bishops who were not present added their signatures, and the entire list of those denouncing Novatian was sent to the principal churches throughout the empire.

Other activities

Portions of three letters from Cornelius were were preserved by the fourth century church historian Eusebius of Caeasria (Church History VI.43). In these writings, Cornelius details the faults in Novatian's election and conduct with considerable bitterness. The letters also provide important historical information about the Roman church itself. Cornelius claimed that under his administration there were 46 priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and various other functionaries. Hew also claimed that the church cared for over 1,500 widows and other persons in distress. On the basis of these figures, some historians have estimated the size of the Roman church at this time to be as large as 50,000, while others believe this figure is much too large.

Two of Cornelius' Cyprian have also come down to us, together with nine from Cyprian to the pope, thus making Cornelius' papacy one of the most well documented in the early chruch. The correspondence with Cyrpian indicate that the pope followed Carthage's lead in sanctioning the relatively mild measures proposed by Cyprian, accepted the decision of the Carthaginian council of 251 to restore to communion those who had turned away from the faith during the Decian persecution.

The letters of Cornelius, to the extent that their original language can be known from existing copies, seem to have been written the colloquial "vulgar-Latin" of the day, while those of Cyprian are in more classical style. The issue of erudition may have proved an advantage to Novatian, who was known as both a philosopher and orator.

At the beginning of 252 a new persecution suddenly broke out. Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellæ (Civita Vecchia). There were no defections among the Roman Christians; all were confessors. The pope "led his brethren in confession", writes Cyprian (Ep. lx, ad Corn.), with a manifest reference to the confession of St. Peter. "With one heart and one voice the whole Roman Church confessed. Then was seen, dearest Brother, that faith which the blessed Apostle praised in you (Romans 1:8); even then he foresaw in spirit your glorious fortitude and firm strength." In June Cornelius died a martyr, as St. Cyprian repeatedly calls him. The Liberian catalogue has ibi cum gloriâ dormicionem accepit, and this may mean that he died of the rigours of his banishment, though later accounts say that he was beheaded. St. Jerome says that Cornelius and Cyprian suffered on the same day in different years, and his careless statement has been generally followed. The feast of St. Cyprian was in fact kept at Rome at the tomb of Cornelius, for the fourth century "Depositio Martirum" has "XVIII kl octob Cypriani Africæ Romæ celebratur in Callisti". St. Cornelius was not buried in the chapel of the popes, but in an adjoining catacomb, perhaps that of a branch of the noble Cornelii. His inscription is in Latin: CORNELIUS* MARTYR* whereas those of Fabian and Lucius are in Greek (Northcote and Brownlow, "Roma sotteranea", I, vi). His feast is kept with that of St. Cyprian on 14 September, possibly the day of his translation from Centumcellæ to the catacombs.

Novatian fled Rome, but his followers organized into Novatianism, a sect considered heretical by the rest of Christianity. After serving two years, under the emperor Trebonianus Gallus, he was exiled to Civita Vecchia, where he died in June 253.

Veneration

In the Roman Catholic Church, he is commemorated along with Cyprian in a memorial on 16 September.

In iconography, Cornelius’ attribute was the horn (in reference to the Latin origin of his name –from “cornu,” “horn”). This could be either a battle horn or cow's horn.

Some of his relics were taken to Germany during the Middle Ages; his head was claimed by Kornelimünster Abbey near Aachen. In the Rhineland, he was also a patron saint of lovers. A legend associated with Cornelius tells of a young artist who was commissioned to decorate the Corneliuskapelle in the Selikum quarter of Neuss. The daughter of a local townsman fell in love with the artist, but her father forbade the marriage, remarking that he would only consent if the pope did as well. Miraculously, the statue of Cornelius leaned forward from the altar and blessed the pair, and the two lovers were thus married.

Cornelius, along with Quirinus of Neuss, Hubertus and Anthony the Great, was venerated as one of the Four Holy Marshals in the Rhineland during the late Middle Ages.

He was also a patron saint of farmers and of cattle, and was invoked against epilepsy, cramps, afflictions associated with the nerves and ears.

A legend told at Carnac states that its stones were once pagan soldiers who had been turned into stone by Cornelius, who was fleeing from them.

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Fabian	Bishop of Rome Pope 251–253	Succeeded by: Lucius I

External links

• "Pope Cornelius" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Letters of Pope Cornelius I

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