Rigorists

Those holding the ideal that the church is a congregation of saved people seperated from sin.  Conversely, Laxists are those who see the church as the instrument of salvation as a kind of hospital for sick souls.1

Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Novatian represent the Rigorist view; Callistus and Cyprian reject this definition of the church.2

1Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005, 145.

2Ibid.

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