These decisions led to schisms in the Church. Some Christians in Carthage thought that Cyprian was too strict; led by the presbyter Novatus, they broke away to form a rival church with a softer, more lenient discipline. The opposite happened in Rome, where the church took the same line as Carthage towards the problem of the lapsed. Some Roman Christians led by a presbyter called Novatian broke away from the Roman church, forming a new congregation with a far stricter discipline: they would never readmit any lapsed believer.
