Novatian

Novatian (b. circa 200), the first anti-Pope, was an heresiarch of Montanist or ultra-ascetic views. The place of his birth is unknown. He was converted from paganism after a severe mental conflict, and ordained priest by Fabian, Bishop of Rome. During the Decian persecution he opposed the readmission of the lapsed into the Church, and was led by the difference of their views on this question to oppose Cornelius, Fabian's successor (251). He was himself consecrated Bishop of Rome by some of the party who seceded with him and who became known as Novatians, though the title they gave themselves was Cathari ("the pure"). This sect was still in existence at the close of the 6th century. Nova Zembla (Russian, Novaya Zemlya, "New Land"), a prolongation of the Ural Mountains, consisting of two islands in the Arctic Ocean between the Kara Sea on the E. and Barentz Sea on the W. Their united length is 600 miles and their average width 60 miles; they are of nearly the same size, and are separated by a. narrow channel called the Matochkin Shar. Between Nova Zembla and Vaygach Island, off the mainland, is Kara Strait, 30 miles in width. The ice is in large measure dispersed by a current which flows on in continuation of the Gulf Stream, striking Nova Zembla on the N.W. The fauna and flora are very limited, and there are no settled inhabitants, but a permanent Russian fishing station was established about 1877.