Novatian argued against all but the strictest terms for readmission to the church of those who had fallen away during the persecutions. Disappointed by the election of a pope he regarded as too lax, Novatian was chosen by his party as a competing pope. This created a schism which endured until the fifth century, with small communities holding Novatianist beliefs even later. Novatian died as a martyr during persecutions under the Emperor Valerian. Novatian's African contemporary, Cyprian of Carthage, took a more moderate approach eventually characteristic of the entire church