MONTANISM

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MONTANISM
BY AMANDA PHILLIPS JIM O'SULLAVIN
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THE HISTORY OF MONTANISM

• Montanism was one of the oldest and most
  dangerous phenomena in the history of the church.
  
• It started in the village of Ardabau near Mysia
  in Phrygia, in the second half of the second
  century (172 AD)

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Montanus

• A man named Montanus founded Montanism. Before
  his conversion to Christianity, he apparently was
  a priest of the Oriental ecstatic cult of Cybele,
  the mother goddess of fertility. He appeared at
  Ardabau, a small village in Phrygia, in 172.
• He fell into a trance and began "prophesy under
  the influence of the Spirit".

• Claiming to be the voice of the Holy Spirit, he
  announced the fulfillment of the New Testament
  promise of the Pentecost and the imminent Second
  Coming of Christ. He was soon joined by two young
  women, Prisca (or Priscilla) and Maximilla, who
  left their husbands and also began to prophesize.
  

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The Rise of Montanism

• We are told that Montanus claimed to be a prophet
  and spoke in a kind of possession or ecstasy.
• He held that the relation between a prophet and
  the Divine Being Who inspired him was the same as
  between a musical instrument and he who played
  upon it consequently the inspired words of a
  prophet were not to be regarded as those of the
  human speaker.

• According to Epiphanius he says, "I have come,
  not an angel or ambassador, but God the Father."
• It is clear that Montanus here did not speak in
  his own name, but uttered words which he supposed
  God to have put into his mouth and if he spoke
  similarly in the name of the Paraclete it does
  not follow that he claimed to be the Paraclete.

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• His prophesying were soon outdone by two female
  disciples, Prisca or Priscilla and Maximilla, who
  fell into strange ecstasies, delivering in them
  what Montanus and his followers regarded as
  divine prophecies.
• They had been married, left their husbands, were
  given by Montanus the rank of virgins in the
  church, and were widely reverenced as
  prophetesses.

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• The church party looked on the Montanists as
  wilfully despising our Lord's warning to beware
  of false prophets, and as being in consequence
  deluded by Satan, in whose power they placed
  themselves by accepting as divine teachers women
  possessed by evil spirits.

• The Montanists looked on the church leaders as
  men who did despite to the Spirit of God by
  offering the indignity of exorcism to those whom
  He had chosen as His organs for communicating
  with the church.

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• The heresy spread throughout Asia Minor and
  northern Africa.
• He taught his followers that second marriages
  were acts of adultery that must be avoided,
  enforced strict fasts, taught of non-forgiveness
  to those who fell in great sins, and despised
  arts and science.
• His heresy threatened the Church to a degree so
  grave that the Holy Fathers raged a brutal war
  against it, and called for local councils to
  excommunicate it.

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• Because this heresy was characterized with
  prejudice and strictness, it brought Montanus
  many enthusiastic followers. Montanus later
  dedicated many people to carry on his charismatic
  work the most famous among those were the
  prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla, and the
  prophets Alexipias and Theodotus.

• ( Theodotus )

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Theodotus

• Theodotus was the bishop of Cyrus.
• The city was founded by Cyrus king of the
  Persians.
• He is said to have written many works.
• In one of his works, he opposed the ideas of
  Eutyches the presbyter and Dioscorus bishop of
  Alexandria.
• They claimed that the Lord did not maintain human
  flesh.
• Theodotus argued stating that the Lord did in
  fact maintain human flesh from the maternal
  substance of His virgin mother.

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• Montanism continued spreading until it reached
  Leon in the time of Elvuthreius Bishop of Rome
  (172 - 189). It is also mentioned that Montanism
  became very powerful in Ankara, the capital of
  Galatia.
• Inscriptions have shown that many towns in Asia
  minor were almost completely converted to
  Montanism.

• Before 190 the heresy had already reached
  Antioch, forcing its Bishop Serapion to send a
  letter to the hierarchs Kryxus and Pontius
  containing signatures of various bishops in the
  Church excommunicating Montanism.
• The Canon of Moratori mentions Montanism among
  heresies and rejects its teachings and writings.
• The heresy reached Rome probably in the year 200,
  and many discussions were held with its
  followers.

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Problems.

• Montanism considered their prophecies to be the
  last gifts.
• They believed that the final judgment, the
  Parousia, and the millennial reign of Christ were
  about to happen.
• At first the Bishop of Rome (Victor) at that
  time, accepted the movement to be true.
• Somewhere between 160 and 165 AD two bishops from
  Phrygia, Zoticus and Julian, traveled to Pepuza
  to examine Maximillas prophecies.
• When they arrived the Montanists silenced anyone
  who knew anything about Montanism or of
  Maximillas prophecies.
• Zoticus and Julian brought this to the attention
  of Apollinarius.
• Apollinarius disputed with all of the Montanists
  and successfully refuted them.
• Shortly after there was a synod held under
  Apollinarius on the subject of Montanism.
• They stated their problems with the Montanists to
  be their defiant behavior and their lack of
  knowledge of theology.

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More Problems

• In spite of the sensation it created and the
  discussion it caused, the movement remained for a
  long time within the pale of the Church but as
  it grew in strength, penetrating from Asia Minor
  into Thrace, it naturally roused a stronger
  opposition, and, in several places, synods were
  convened against it.
• Some persons considered it to have been caused by
  a demon, and employed exorcism against it.
• Others attacked it in a literary way.
• Gradually the very contrast to it developed, - a
  party which rejected all Christian prophecy, and
  even denied the authenticity of the Gospel
  according to John on account of the Paraclete
  therein promised.

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Tertullian

• Many of Tertullians writings were said to
  defend the new prophecy.
• Apollonius knew of this book and responded by
  making his own.

• Montanists began to generate their own
  literature.
• Tertullian was said to own a book containing
  oracles from Montanus.
• Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author,
  and the first to write Christian Latin
  literature.
• He also was a notable early Christian apologist
  and anti-heretical writer.

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• In the end, the bishops prevailed over the
  prophets.
• Although in the beginning Montanism was a popular
  movement, it soon died out and became considered
  as a marginal movement.
• After the first half of the second century it
  became much less of a threat to the Church.

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• Montanists were criticized for preferring their
  prophets and holding them above Christ, the
  Apostles, and every gift, and for not
  investigating the teachings they receive.
• There were no differences between Montanists and
  Orthodox Christians on creation and Christ.
• Their error lies in relying on their prophets'
  words rather than the Gospels, and enforcing new
  practices that disagree with tradition.
• Montanists receive the Holy Bible in all, the
  resurrection of the dead, and the Trinity but
  they mislead in their teachings on gifts.

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• In 398 an edict was called to burn all of the
  Montanists.
• This edict was called The Edict of Arcadius.
• All of the books got ruined except for those
  written by Tertullian.

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• The oldest reference to Montanism is in the
  "Ecclesiastical History" by Eusebius of Caesarea.
  
• The writer quotes from one of the early Fathers
  that the prophecies of Maximilla never came true,
  even thirteen years after her death.
• It states that that just because Montanism has
  martyrs does not mean that they hold the truth,
  because even heretics have their own martyrs.
• One of the greatest arguments between Montanists
  and the Church in Asia Minor was whether a real
  prophet prophesies in a state of hallucination
  and frenzy.

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• This movement's rather controversial theological
  views stir until this day many violent
  discussions among the different churches.
• Many rational Orthodox theologians and believers
  accuse it of corrupting the true Christian faith
  and contradicting the traditions inherited from
  the Apostles and early Fathers.
• Not to mention that many "Christian" sects are
  using the practices it introduces to pull the
  simple-minded into their ideas, and to gather as
  many people as possible, in an age where humanity
  is sinking in the "latitudinarism" of modern
  religion, and the rise of individual faith and
  naive personal beliefs in opposition to the faith
  of the Church and its saints throughout the ages.
  

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Sources

• http//books.google.com/books?idLUxZCW6hxoICpgP
  A81lpgPA81dqmaximilla'spropheciessourceweb
  otswGX4l_rh0Dsige9oC14RAWzKTsfcKK_mzfn4aakshl
  ensaXoibook_resultresnum1ctresultPPA82,M1
  
• http//www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.toc.html?ter
  mmontanus

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THE END.