Montanism

One convert, two prophetesses, one village

It all began at Ardabau, an obscure hamlet on the borders of Mysia and Phrygia, in what is now central Turkey.^[7] Montanus, a recent convert to Christianity, fell into a trance there and prophesied. Saint Jerome reports that he had previously been a priest of Cybele, the Great Goddess of orgiastic rites — but the information, late in date, looks like a polemical invention meant to explain his ecstasies by his pagan past, and honesty requires receiving it with reserve.^[8]

The gift proved contagious: two women of his circle, Prisca — also called Priscilla, and Quintilla by Epiphanius — and Maximilla prophesied in their turn.^[9] It was said that Prisca, married, had left her husband; the rumour, unverifiable, at least says much about the scandal that two women's voices set ringing through a still wholly patriarchal Church.^[10] Their headquarters settled in another Phrygian village, Pepuza, flanked by Tymion: there, they announced, the Jerusalem from above would come down from heaven.^[11]

Christians were not lacking in that countryside: the inquiry of Pliny the Younger in Bithynia, as early as 112, had already found crowds of Christians out in the villages, and archaeology has recovered early Christian inscriptions at Otrus, Hierapolis, Pepuza itself (from 260), Eumenea and Trajanopolis.^[12] When the wonders of Ardabau broke out, crowds flocked to Pepuza — and with them, contradiction: the bishops of Asia opened an examination.

156 or 172? The quarrel over dates

The dating of the first outbreak has divided historians for a century, and the article must lay it out rather than smooth it over.^[13] Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Chronicle, places the beginning in the eleventh or twelfth year of Marcus Aurelius, that is around 172.^[14] But that year leaves too little time: in 177, the Church of Lyons was already writing to the pope about a powerful sect, and Maximilla died around 179 after a long activity.^[15]

Thus Zahn, Harnack, Duchesne and most moderns follow Saint Epiphanius (Panarion, XLVIII, 1) instead: the sect was born "about the nineteenth year of Antoninus Pius", that is 156 or 157.^[16] A cross-check supports it: Eusebius (V, 16, 7) places the beginning under the proconsulate of Gratus in Asia — an unknown name, in which Zahn proposes reading Quadratus, attested in 155, the very year of Polycarp's martyrdom.^[17] As for the anonymous polemicist quoted by Eusebius, he writes more than thirteen years after Maximilla's death, in the full peace of Commodus (180–192), hence around January 193 at the latest — which moves the prophetess's death back to the end of 179, shortly before Marcus Aurelius, pushing the beginnings further back still.^[18]

|| High date (Epiphanius, the moderns) | Low date (Eusebius' Chronicle) | ||---|---|---| || Beginning at Ardabau | Around 156–157 | Around 172 | || Argument | Already a powerful sect in 177; Maximilla dead around 179 | Authority of the Eusebian Chronicle | || Defenders | Zahn, Harnack, Duchesne | Völter, Voigt | || Supporting point | Proconsulate of Quadratus in 155 | Eleventh year of Marcus Aurelius |

Phrygia, land of enthusiasm

Nothing can be understood without the soil. Phrygia is the land of Cybele, of the begging priests who gashed themselves in bloody trances, of vibrant crowds and near gods.^[19] Whole villages there are already Christian — under Diocletian still, the Acts of Theodotus will depict the village of Malus, near Ancyra, as entirely Christian — and the local Christianity, fervent and popular, offers ideal soil for wonders.^[20] Montanism did not fall from the pagan sky onto an old and cold Church: it was born in the midst of one of the liveliest Christianities of the Empire, which explains its strength and the gravity of the crisis.

Ecstasy against the tradition of the prophets

The oldest hostile witness — the anonymous writer of 193 preserved by Eusebius — describes the method thus: the prophet first appears lost in terror, then comes a quiet without fear; after emptying his mind by a studied vacancy, he is seized by an uncontrollable frenzy.^[21] Above all, the new prophets do not speak as envoys — "Thus says the Lord" — but possessed, in the divine first person.^[22]

"I am the Father, the Word and the Paraclete." — Montanus, quoted by Didymus the Blind, On the Trinity, III, 41^[23]

"I am the Lord God Almighty descended into man. Neither angel nor ambassador, but I, the Lord, the Father, am come." — Montanus, quoted by Saint Epiphanius, Panarion, XLVIII, 11^[24]

"Behold man as a lyre, and I swoop upon him as the plectrum. Man sleeps, and I watch." — The Spirit of Montanus, quoted by Saint Epiphanius, Panarion, XLVIII, 4^[25]

And Maximilla:

"Hear not me, but hear Christ. Driven from among the sheep as a wolf — that is, as a false prophet — I am no wolf: I am word, spirit and power." — Maximilla, quoted by Saint Epiphanius, Panarion, XLVIII, 11^[26]

The Catholic criterion: spirits subject to the prophets

Faced with these voices, the Church does not deny prophecy — it judges it. The Catholic writer Miltiades composed a treatise with an eloquent title: How a Prophet Must Not Speak in Ecstasy.^[27] The argument rests on three points: the prophets of the Old Testament and those of the New — Silas, Agabus, the daughters of the deacon Philip — spoke in the Spirit, as messengers, never as will-less puppets; the lately known prophets of Asia, Quadratus of Athens and Ammia of Philadelphia, whose successors the Montanists claimed to be, had shown nothing of the kind; and Scripture decides: "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets".^[28]

"The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." — Saint Paul, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 14:32^[29]

The Montanists answered with Scripture itself: God sent an ecstasy upon Adam (Genesis 2:21), the psalmist says "I said in my ecstasy" (Psalm 115:2), Peter receives an ecstasy at Joppa (Acts 10:10). The argument proved ecstasy, the Catholics replied, not that it was the proper state for prophesying — and above all, the new prophets ended by deciding otherwise: their prophecy would be of a higher order than the old, above the apostles and even above the teaching of Christ, for the promise of the Paraclete (John 14:16) was not aimed at the apostles but at the age to come.^[30]

The great voices: Prisca, Maximilla, Montanus

Prisca binds chastity to vision: "the holy minister knows how to minister holiness; for those who purify their heart see visions and, head thrown back, hear manifest voices, salutary as much as secret" (Tertullian, Exhortation to Chastity, X).^[31] Asleep at Pepuza, she tells, Christ came to her in the form of a woman, in shining garments, slept at her side, infused wisdom into her and revealed to her "that this place is holy, and that here the Jerusalem from above comes down" — the mystical foundation of the sanctuary, with "mysteries" celebrated in public.^[32] By the time of Epiphanius (375–376), Pepuza is no more than a desert, the village gone.^[33]

Montanus, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Montanists"), presented himself as the plenipotentiary envoy of the end — the one who chooses, reveals and interprets this labour, this promise and this covenant — but the encyclopedia does not indicate the patristic work from which this saying would come.^[34] Maximilla, who outlives the other two, prophesies continual wars after her death, then: "After me there will be no more prophetess, but the end."^[35] Yet the anonymous writer of 193 notes it with terrible irony: thirteen years after her death, no war, neither general nor local, has taken place — Christians instead enjoy a lasting peace.^[36]

Fasts, chastity, martyrdom: the rigorist triptych

At first, the Paraclete orders only a few fasts and abstinences: xerophagies — dry diets — strict but limited to two weeks a year, Saturdays and Sundays excluded (Tertullian, On Fasting, 15).^[37] Virginity is strongly recommended, as always in the Church, and second marriages reprobated — Tertullian will make it an absolute law.^[38] Martyrdom is exalted so high that fleeing persecution or buying one's way out of it becomes a fault.^[39]

"They outlaw you? It is good for you: he who is not outlawed among men is outlawed in the Lord. Have no shame: it is justice that drags you in public." — Montanus, quoted by Tertullian, On Flight in Persecution, 9^[40]

"Do not desire to leave this life in beds, in miscarriages, in soft fevers, but in martyrdoms, so that He who suffered for you may be glorified." — Montanus, quoted by Tertullian, On Flight, 9^[41]

Tertullian sums up the watchword: "those who receive the Paraclete know neither how to flee persecution nor how to bribe their way out of it" (On Flight, 14) — although he is unable to quote any formal prohibition by Montanus himself.^[42] At this stage, concludes the Catholic historian, the most that can be said of these sentences is a slight tendency to extravagance: nothing heretical in doctrine, everything in excess of fervour.^[43]

The three founders, in brief

|| Montanus | Prisca (Priscilla) | Maximilla | ||---|---|---|---| || Role | The first prophet, voice of the Father | The mystic seer of Pepuza | The survivor, voice of Christ | || Key oracle | "I am the Father, the Word and the Paraclete" | The woman-Christ at Pepuza: "here the Jerusalem from above comes down" | "After me, no more prophetess, but the end" | || End | Dead before 179 — an uncertain account speaks of hanging | Dead before Maximilla | Dead around the end of 179 |

When the bishops wanted to exorcise

The Church of Asia does not stand idle. Holy persons attempt to exorcise Maximilla at Pepuza — among them the bishops Zoticus of Cumana and Julian of Apamea — but Themison prevents them (Eusebius, V, 16, 17 and 18, 12).^[44] The same Themison, called a confessor, had according to the anonymous writer bought himself out before the persecutor; he nevertheless publishes a "catholic letter, in imitation of the Apostle" to support his party.^[45] Another companion of Maximilla, a so-called martyr named Alexander: the prophetess did not know, says the anonymous writer, that her man had been condemned by the proconsul Aemilius Frontinus at Ephesus not for the Name but for theft — and he appeals to the public archives of Asia.^[46] Of a leader named Alcibiades, nothing is known.^[47]

The prophets, it was charged, received gifts under colour of offerings, Montanus kept salaried preachers, the prophetesses painted their faces, darkened their eyelids with antimony, wore jewels and played at dice.^[48] Today's Catholic historian, like the one of 1911, must say it: these charges may be false, the ordinary stuff of ancient polemic.^[49] The decisive point was not moral but theological in any case: the manner of prophesying, denounced as contrary to custom and tradition.^[50]

The anonymous writer himself admits the fragility of his worst stories: Montanus and Maximilla are said to have hanged themselves, Themison to have been carried into the air by a demon then dashed down — an "uncertain report", he confesses.^[51] The method is exemplary: even the ancient controversy distinguished the certain from the doubtful, and the article can do no less.

Quintillians, Artotyrites and nicknames

After the death of the three founders, extravagances redoubled — and one must distinguish, with Epiphanius, the New Prophecy of the origins from the sister sects claiming its name.^[52] Epiphanius thus isolates Pepuzians or Quintillians — from Quintilla, another name for Prisca: thanksgivings to Eve for eating the fruit of knowledge, ritual sleeps at Pepuza to see Christ, seven virgins in white entering with lamps to prophesy to the people until tears flow, women bishops and priests in honour of Eve, a sacrament of bread and cheese — hence the nickname Artotyrites.^[53] Praedestinatus assures that these Pepuzians did not really differ from the other Montanists, except that they despised whoever did not dwell in the "new Jerusalem".^[54]

There also ran the atrocious tale of the baby pierced with brazen pins whose blood served to knead sacrificial cakes — the dead child held for a martyr, the survivor for a high priest.^[55] "Pure invention", rules the historian — and Tertullian himself had refuted it in his On Ecstasy.^[56] There remains the nickname with which Epiphanius dubs the sect: Tascodrugites, from two Phrygian words meaning peg and nose — because, it is said, they pray with finger on nose to look recollected and pious (Panarion, XLVIII, 14).^[57]

|| Primitive Montanism (2nd century) | Late drifts (3rd–4th centuries) | ||---|---|---| || Doctrine | No doctrine of its own — one Spirit, one near end | Sabellian slippings, eight heavens, baptism of the dead | || Discipline | Brief fasts, recommended chastity, exalted martyrdom | Triple Lent, door shut to almost every sinner | || Government | Itinerant prophets, Pepuza a centre of expectation | Women bishops, cenones and patriarchs above the bishops | || Status of the accounts | Oracles quoted by friends and foes | Atrocious tales refuted by the Montanists themselves |

Among the earliest known synods

From the very first days, the counter-attack takes shape. Apollinaris, successor of Saint Papias on the see of Hierapolis, writes against Montanus; Eusebius knows his letter because Serapion of Antioch (around 191–212) joined it to his own letter to the Christians of Caria and Pontus.^[58] Apollinaris reports the oath of Aelius Publius Julius of Debeltum in Thrace: the blessed Sotas of Anchialus had wanted to cast the demon out of Prisca, but "the hypocrites" would not allow it — Sotas being dead, none could contradict him.^[59]

Above all, "the faithful of Asia assembled in several places, examined the new prophecies, declared them profane and condemned the heresy, so that its followers were cast out of the Church and of her communion".^[60] These Asian assemblies rank among the very first synods known: excommunication struck first the prophets themselves, then, even before Maximilla's death in 179, severity became the common rule.^[61] The anonymous writer of 193 finds the Church of Ancyra wholly troubled by the new prophecy — a sign that entire Churches had gone over.^[62]

The file of the adversaries: Miltiades, Apollonius, Asterius

Three names carry the learned controversy. Miltiades, already cited, settles the question of discernment. Apollonius, writing forty years after the emergence of the sect — hence around 196 — delivers the most documented indictment, to which Tertullian would answer with the seventh book of his On Ecstasy.^[63] And a certain Asterius Urbanus compiled a collection of the prophecies (Eusebius, V, 16, 17) — those countless books (bibloi apeiroi) of which the Philosophumena (VIII, 19) keep the memory, and of which not one has reached us: we know the Montanist voice only through the mouth of its enemies, Tertullian excepted.^[64]

Lyons 177: the martyrs write to the pope

In 177, the Churches of Lyons and Vienne address to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia their famous account of the martyrdoms. Eusebius specifies that they joined to it letters written in prison by the martyrs themselves on the Montanist question, sent by the hand of Irenaeus to Pope Eleutherus.^[65] Their opinion, says Eusebius, was prudent and most orthodox: most likely, they disapproved of the prophets without demanding extreme measures against their followers.^[66]

The Montanists were not denied their martyrs — the answer was that all heretics have them, and Marcionites in particular; and there were cited as counter-example the true martyrs Gaius and Alexander of Eumenea, who had refused to commune with fellow-sufferers won over to the new prophecy (anonymous, V, 16, 27).^[67] The Acts of Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice — the last throwing herself into the fire — martyrs of Thyatira under Marcus Aurelius (around 161–169), might betray a Montanist influence upon otherwise venerable martyrs.^[68]

A pope nearly approved

At Rome, a 2nd-century pope — more probably Eleutherus than Victor, according to the historian — showed himself inclined to approve the new prophecies: Tertullian relates that Praxeas dissuaded him (Against Praxeas, 1).^[69] The Roman defender of the cause was called Proclus (or Proculus), held in great veneration by Tertullian.^[70] A public disputation set him against Gaius, a Churchman, in the presence of Pope Zephyrinus (around 202–203): Eusebius, delighted to find Gaius there rejecting the Johannine Apocalypse attributed to Cerinthus, calls him a man of the Church (II, 25, 6).^[71]

But Gaius was the worse of the two: we know from the commentary on the Apocalypse by Bar Salibi, a 12th-century Syriac author, that he rejected the Gospel and Epistles of John along with the Apocalypse, attributing them all to Cerinthus.^[72] It was against him that Hippolytus wrote his Chapters against Gaius and his Defence of the Gospel and Apocalypse of John; Epiphanius used them for his fifty-first heresy and, the sect having no name, invented that of Alogi — at once "the unreasonable" and "those who reject the Logos".^[73] Irony of history: it was by fighting the Montanists on Johannine ground that Gaius came to amputate Scripture almost as much as they did. Another turncoat, Aeschines, separated from Proclus around 200, taught that "the Father is the Son" — a Noetus- or Sabellius-type modalism, with no necessary connection to Montanus.^[74]

Irenaeus: do not drive grace away with the false prophets

Saint Irenaeus, who received the Montanist file from Lyons, aims at Gaius without naming him (Against Heresies, III, 11, 9):

"Others, to destroy the gift of the Spirit poured out upon the human race in the last days according to the good pleasure of the Father, do not admit the form corresponding to the Gospel of John, in which the Lord promised to send the Paraclete; they reject the Gospel together with the prophetic Spirit. Unhappy, truly: rather than have false prophets, they drive from the Church the grace of prophecy — like those who, to avoid hypocrites, withdraw from communion with their very brethren." — Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III, 11, 9^[75]

Catholic discernment holds both ends: no credulity before unsubmissive ecstasy, no dryness that, on pretext of false prophets, would dry up the charisms. It is the balance Rome, after its hesitation, ended by keeping.

Carthage, 202–207: an excessive nature meets the Paraclete

Tertullian is the most famous of the Montanists — and the only one whose works we possess.^[76] Born around 150–155, become a Christian around 190–195, this excessive spirit adopts Montanist teaching as soon as he knows it, around 202–203; his writings then grow ever more bitter against the Catholic Church, from which he separates definitively around 207; he dies around 223.^[77]

His first Montanist work was a defence of the new prophecy in six books, the On Ecstasy — probably in Greek — enlarged by a seventh book against Apollonius: the whole is lost, save one sentence preserved by Praedestinatus (XXVI), capital for understanding what Tertullian retained of Montanism: "In this alone do we differ: we do not receive second marriage, and we do not refuse Montanus' prophecy of the future judgment."^[78] He turns Montanus' recommendations — flee second marriages, flee flight — into an absolute law, denies the Church the power to forgive certain sins, imposes the new fasts: Catholics become the Psychics — carnal, gluttonous and remarried haters of fasting — against the spirituals of the Paraclete.^[79]

"In this alone do we differ: we do not receive second marriage, and we do not refuse Montanus' prophecy of the future judgment." — Tertullian, On Ecstasy, sentence preserved by Praedestinatus, XXVI^[80]

Tertullian, notes the historian, exaggerated the points that pleased him and cared little for the rest: never the idea of a pilgrimage to Pepuza, with whose feasts he is content to share in spirit.^[81] His following cannot have been numerous — but the Acts of Perpetua and Felicity would reflect, according to several, that Carthaginian moment when Montanist teaching aroused sympathy and interest without yet making schism.^[82]

The Tertullianists, from Augustine to Theodosius

A Tertullianist sect outlives its master; its remains were reconciled to the Church by Saint Augustine (On Heresies, 86).^[83] Around 392–394, an African woman, Octaviana, wife of Hesperius, favourite of the duke Arbogastes and of the usurper Maximus, brings to Rome a Tertullianist priest who raved like one possessed; he obtains the use of the church of Saints Processus and Martinianus, on the Aurelian Way — then Theodosius expels him, and nothing more was heard of him or of Octaviana.^[84]

What the sect became: Jerome's picture in 384

In 384, Saint Jerome (Letter 41) describes the Montanism of his day: Sabellians on the Trinity, forbidding second marriages, keeping three Lents "as if three Saviours had suffered", with above the bishops cenones — a probably Phrygian word — and above the cenones patriarchs at Pepuza, and the door of the Church shut to almost every sin.^[85] He adds their great claim: God, having been unable to save the world either through Moses and the Prophets or through Christ Himself, is said to have sent down the Spirit upon Montanus, Prisca and Maximilla with a fullness that Saint Paul himself did not have (1 Corinthians 13:9) — the tale of the bleeding baby, Jerome for his part refuses to believe.^[86]

There were further reports: baptism of the dead (Philaster, XLVIII and XLIX), Easter on 6 April or the Sunday following (Sozomen), eight heavens and eight degrees of damnation (Germanus of Constantinople).^[87] Origen hesitated whether to hold them for schismatics or heretics; Saint Basil marvels that Dionysius of Alexandria admitted the validity of their baptism (Letter 182).^[88]

The law of the Church: rebaptising converts

The heaviest disciplinary sentence comes from the text known as canon 7 of Constantinople I (381) — a canon handed down by the Latin tradition and whose authenticity is disputed: the Montanists — here called Phrygians — are ranked with the Eunomians and Sabellians among those received as pagans, that is by a new baptism, while Arians, Macedonians and Novatianists are received by chrismation alone.^[89] The Christian emperors, from Constantine onwards, issue law upon law against them — laws hardly enforced in Phrygia, notes Sozomen (II, 32), where the sect remains at home.^[90] Little by little it becomes a small secret sect; in 561, the bones of Montanus were dug up; in the 6th century, the movement dies out.^[91]

Three refusals, one fidelity

The file examined, the verdict holds in three refusals. First refusal: a prophecy that judges the Church. The ancient Church believes in charisms — Irenaeus reminds Gaius of it — but it receives a prophetic word only submissive: "do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good".^[92] Montanus reverses the order: it is no longer the prophecy that is examined, it is the Church that it examines — and condemns.^[93]

Second refusal: a Paraclete who completes Christ. The promise of John 14:16 was aimed at the apostles, not at a coming age; Revelation is closed with Christ and the apostles. The Catechism will say it with the neatness of the Fathers: so-called private revelations "do not belong to the deposit of faith" and their role is not "to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation".^[94]

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 7:15^[95]

Third refusal: a holiness that excommunicates sinners. Shutting the Church's door to almost every sin contradicts Him who ate with publicans and entrusts the last judgment to a discipline before the Judgment. On this point, Montanist rigorism already announces, half a century ahead, the schism of the pure that Novatianism will carry to Rome.^[96]

And the objection: did the Church stifle the Spirit?

The objection deserves to be taken seriously — 19th-century Protestant scholars, Ritschl, then Harnack and Bonwetsch, saw in it a worldly Church stifling primitive fervour: old-school believers, protesting in the Gospel's name against a Church secularised by its success, are said to have thrown themselves into a movement of enthusiasm born in a remote province.^[97] Seductive, the theory "rests on imagination alone", answers the Catholic historian: no fact supports it — the pieces of the file show on the contrary a fervent Church of Asia, discerning martyrs, an Irenaeus defending charisms at the same time as he refuses insubmission.^[98] The Church did not stifle the Spirit: it refused to lock Him inside an uncontrollable trance and inside a calendar of the end of the world — twice refuted, in 179 then in 193, by the facts themselves.^[99]

Pepuza, a desert in Epiphanius' time, had remained lost for sixteen centuries. In 2000, an international team discovers in the Ulubey canyon the site of ancient Pepuza together with an inscription mentioning Tymion, under the direction of William Tabbernee (Tulsa); Peter Lampe (Heidelberg) has designed and directed since 2001 the annual excavation campaigns, which unearthed Tymion — at Sükraniye — and several unknown settlements, the best candidates to date for the two holy centres of ancient Montanism.^[100] Their results were published in 2008: Pepouza and Tymion. The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate (De Gruyter).^[101] The "Jerusalem from above" had an earthly address — it can now be visited.

For the modern study of the file, two landmarks: in French, the classic monograph of Pierre de Labriolle, La Crise montaniste (Paris, Leroux, 1913); in English, the inquiry of Christine Trevett, Montanism: Gender, Authority and the New Prophecy (Cambridge, 1996), which renewed the reading of the prophetesses' role.^[102][103]

• The Heresies of the Early Centuries
• Gnosticism
• Marcionism
• Novatianism