Simon Ford: Confronting Cyprian: Anti-Rigorism in the Letters of Severus of Antioch and Philoxenus of Mabbug

The period between 475 and the mid-sixth century witnessed the flourishing of rigorist sentiments among the anti-Chalcedonian communities in the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. Although little direct evidence survives for the specific claims made by individual rigorists, the movement appears to have been unified in its demand for the re-baptism and re-ordination of converts from the Chalcedonian church. However, despite both the persistence and diverse popularity of rigorist sects, by the beginning of the sixth century, these demands for the repetition of the sacraments were firmly opposed by the members of the anti-Chalcedonian episcopate under the patriarch Severus of Antioch.Exploring this understudied debate within the anti-Chalcedonian movement, this paper will examine and compare the anti-rigorist positions adopted by Philoxenus of Mabbug and Severus of Antioch. In a series of letters written between 489 and 527, both men developed arguments against rigorist demands for re-ordination and re-baptism that were rooted in their understandings of the sacraments and the historical development of ecclesiastical law in the period after Nicaea. However, their shared framework and common thematic features notwithstanding, the anti-rigorist arguments of each diverge in significant ways, corresponding to the particular apologetic priorities and ecclesiological positions of their respective authors. By contrasting the approaches adopted by each this paper will, therefore, seek to develop a more nuanced picture of anti-Chalcedonian thought surrounding canon law, conversion, and the authority of the sacraments.