Paulicians

What did they believe?

1. They strongly despised the Roman hierarchy.

2. only one grade of ministry.

3. Rejected infant baptism.

4. They taught that thirty was the age for immersion during which ordinance the Holy Spirit was received.

5. Repentance was also a sacrament.

 

A highly independent Christian sect which arose in the heart of the Eastern church about A.D. 750. They are frequently interpreted as either "early Protestants" or "radical oriental dualists," neither view giving the entire truth. They were the most influential sect of their time, but their formative force on later reform parties is problematical. Though much maligned in contemporary polemical literature, they are seen in the ancient Paulician work, The Key of Truth, translated by F.C. Conybeare in 1898, as a true reform party.

 

They were anti-Romanists, repudiating Mariolatry, intercession of saints, and the use of relics and images. They strongly despised the Roman hierarchy, having themselves only one grade of ministry. In rejecting infant baptism they taught that thirty was the age for immersion during which ordinance the Holy Spirit was received. Repentance was also a sacrament and the Agape was practiced with the sacrament of "the body and the blood."

 

In Christology they were adoptionists but not docetics, as often thought. They valued the Pauline writings very highly but made use of other NT and OT books in The Key of Truth.      

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