Paul of Samosata - Aftermath

Aftermath

Canon 19 of the First Council of Nicaea dealt with the Paulianists:

Concerning the Paulianists who have flown for refuge to the Catholic Church, it has been decreed that they must by all means be rebaptized; and if any of them who in past time have been numbered among their clergy should be found blameless and without reproach, let them be rebaptized and ordained by the Bishop of the Catholic Church; but if the examination should discover them to be unfit, they ought to be deposed. Likewise in the case of their deaconesses, and generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their clergy, let the same form be observed. And we mean by deaconesses such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity.

Athanasius of Alexandria explained that despite the fact that the followers of Paul of Samosata baptised in the name of the Trinity, they did not make it in the orthodox sense, making their baptism invalid. The Paulianists seemed to have disappeared soon after the council, although the Paulicianists, a 7th century dualistic sect, were often misidentified as being one and the same.