Montanism

Montanism was a Christian apocalyptic movement that arose in the 2d century. It took its name from Montanus, a Phrygian, who, shortly after his baptism as a Christian (156 or 172 AD), claimed to have received a revelation from the Holy Spirit to the effect that he, as representative prophet of the Spirit, would lead the Christian church into its final stage.

Aided by two women, Maximilla and Priscilla (or Prisca), Montanus founded a sect of enthusiasts who preached the imminent end of the world, austere morality, and severe penitential discipline. They forbade second marriages, denied the divine nature of the church, and refused forgiveness for sins that persons committed after baptism. Montanus called for less church hierarchy and more charismatic prophecy. He regarded a life of seclusion and contempt of the world as the only true Christian ideal.

The Montanists seem to have sought renewal of the church from within through a rebirth of the religious enthusiasm that had marked Christian beginnings. By the 3d century, however, they had established separate communities in which women and men were admitted to presbyterate and episcopacy. Tertullian became one of the movement's adherents.

As a spiritual and charismatic movement, Montanism posed a threat to the emerging church hierarchy. Despite a series of condemnations and continued opposition from orthodox Christian writers, however, Montanism did not disappear until about the 6th century.

Agnes Cunningham

Bibliography
J Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (1971); H Von Campenhausen, Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power (1969).

Montanism

A prophetic movement that broke out in Phrygia in Roman Asia Minor (Turkey) around 172. It attracted a wide following, chiefly in the East, but won its most distinguished adherent in Tertullian. After a period of uncertainty, especially at Rome, it was condemned by synods of bishops in Asia and elsewhere. A residual sect persisted in Phrygia for some centuries.

The main associates of Montanus, who was a recent convert and held no church office, were the prophetesses Prisca (Priscilla) and Maximilla. What they called "the New Prophecy" was basically a summons to prepare for the return of Christ by heeding the voice of the Paraclete speaking, often in the first person, through his prophetic mouthpieces. They claimed to stand in the line of Christian prophecy well attested in Asia, e.g., by John of Revelation, but their ecstatic manner of utterance was (falsely) alleged to run counter to the tradition of Israelite and Christian prophecy. They also incurred the hostility of church leaders by the women's unusual prominence, a boldness that seemed to court martyrdom, their confident predictions of the imminent consummation (shown in time to be false by their nonfulfillment), the hallowing of obscure Phrygian villages like Pepuza as harbingers of the new Jerusalem, and their stern asceticism which disrupted marriages, protracted fasting, and allowed only a dry diet (xerophagy). Nothing strictly heretical could be charged against Montanism. Any link with monarchianism was accidental.

Although none of its catholic opponents doubted the continuance of prophecy in the church, Montanism erupted at a time when consolidation of catholic order and conformity to apostolic tradition preoccupied the bishops. The prophet's extravagant pretensions, while not intended to displace the emergent NT of Christian Scripture, were felt to threaten both episcopal and scriptural authority. Recognition of the Paraclete in the New Prophecy was their touchstone of authenticity.

Tertullian, whose religious rigorism graduated naturally to the New Prophecy, neglected some of the more eccentric features of the Phrygian movement, stressing the development of ethics inculcated by the Spirit in fulfillment of Christ's promises in John 14 - 16. The "greater things" to come from the Paraclete were the more demanding standards of discipline required of spiritual Christians, such as the denial of remarriage to the widowed and of postbaptismal forgiveness for serious sins. The contemporary African Passion of Perpetua similarly exalted recent happenings, especially fearless martyrdoms, as evidence of the superabundant grace of the Spirit decreed for the last days. As Tertullian put it, if the devil's ingenuity escalates daily, why should God's work have ceased advancing to new heights? The New Prophecy seemed almost to claim for itself a special place in salvation history.

D F Wright

Bibliography
H von Campenhausen, Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries, and The Formation of the Christian Bible; D Powell, "Tertullianists and Cataphrygians," VC 29; D F Wright, "Why Were the Montanists Condemned?" Them 2.