Election and the Vacant See
The persecution of the Emperor Decius, which began in January 250, ordered all citizens to perform religious sacrifices under pain of death. In its course Cornelius's predecessor, Fabian, was martyred, and the Roman see remained vacant for roughly fourteen months.
Cornelius was a Roman by birth. During a temporary pause in the persecution he was elected bishop by an assembly of bishops, according to one account against his own will and as a moderate alternative to more rigorous candidates. His surviving letters are written in a colloquial rather than a classical Latin, which some scholars have read as a sign of humble origins in contrast to the philosophically educated Novatian.
The Lapsi Controversy and the Schism of Novatian
The central question of Cornelius's episcopate concerned the lapsi — those who had denied Christ during the Decian persecution. The Roman priest Novatian maintained the rigorist view that apostates could never be readmitted to the Church. Cornelius, together with St. Cyprian of Carthage, held instead that the fallen could be reconciled through repentance demonstrated by a period of penance.
Novatian's supporters had him consecrated as a rival bishop of Rome, establishing what came to be regarded as an antipope. Cornelius retained the support of Cyprian and the African Church, of Dionysius of Alexandria, and of most Eastern bishops. A synod of sixty Italian bishops formally acknowledged Cornelius's legitimacy and excommunicated Novatian and his followers, establishing that lapsed Christians could be re-admitted only after doing penance.
The Roman Church of His Day
Cornelius's correspondence gives a rare picture of the organization of the Roman Church in the mid-third century. It records forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two ostiarii (doorkeepers), and more than fifteen hundred widows and persons in distress supported by the Church. From these figures scholars have estimated a Christian population of roughly fifty thousand in Rome during his papacy.
Exile, Death, and Legacy
When persecution resumed under the Emperor Trebonianus Gallus, Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae (modern Civitavecchia). The Liberian catalogue attributes his death there to the hardships of banishment; later sources report that he was beheaded. He died in June 253 and was succeeded by Lucius I.
He was buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus, in the cemetery adjoining the chapel of the popes. His feast is kept on September 16, the earlier date of September 14 being recorded by Jerome.
Relics & Shrines
Cornelius was entombed in the Catacomb of Callixtus at Rome. In the medieval period relics attributed to him were dispersed to Germany; Kornelimünster Abbey, near Aachen, claimed to possess his head.
