A popular Christian movement derived from Montanus of Phrygia (AD c.170) and two women, Prisca and Maximilla, whose ecstatic prophecies and literal expectation of the imminent end of the age won a wide following of churches in Asia Minor. These features and its austere ethical and spiritual ideals were opposed by the Catholic Church, which defended the importance of the institutional ministry and apostolic tradition.
Montanism was an early Christian sectarian movement of the mid-2nd century A.D., named after its founder Montanus. Although the orthodox mainstream Christian church prevailed against Montanism within a few generations, labeling it a heresy, the sect persisted in some isolated places into the 8th century. The most widely known Montanist was undoubtedly Tertullian, who was the foremost Latin church writer before he converted to Montanism.
History
Shortly after Montanus' conversion to Christianity, he began travelling among the rural settlements of Asia Minor, preaching and testifying. Montanus was accompanied by two women, Prisca, sometimes called Priscilla, and Maximilla, who also purported to be the embodiments of the Holy Spirit that moved and inspired them.
Some believe that the movement may have been inspired by Montanus' reading of the Gospel of John— "I will send you the advocate [paraclete], the spirit of truth" (Heine 1987, 1989; But there was real doubt at Rome, and Pope Eleutherus even wrote letters in support of Montanism, although he later recalled them (Tertullian, "Adversus Praxean" c.1, Trevett 58-59).
Prisca claimed that Christ had appeared to her in female form.
The most widely known defender of Montanists was undoubtedly Tertullian, onetime champion of orthodox belief, who believed that the new prophecy was genuine and began to fall out of step with what he began to call "the church of a lot of bishops" (On Modesty).
Although the orthodox Christian church prevailed against Montanism within a few generations, inscriptions in the Tembris valley of northern Phrygia, dated between 249 and 279, openly proclaim their allegiance to Montanism.
A letter of Jerome to Marcella, written in 385, refutes the claims of Montanists that had been troubling her .
A group of "Tertullianists" continued to exist at Carthage. The anonymous author of Praedestinatus (v.1 c.86 ) records that a preacher came to Rome in 388 where he made many converts and obtained the use of a church for his congregation on the grounds that the martyrs to whom it was dedicated had been Montanists.
In the sixth century, at the orders of the emperor Justinian, John of Ephesus led an expedition to Pepuza to destroy the Montanist shrine there, which was based around the tombs of Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla.
The sect persisted into the eighth century.
Some modern writers have suggested that some of its emphasis on direct, ecstatic personal presence of the Holy Spirit bears resemblance to all forms of Pentecostalism.
Differences between Montanism and orthodox Christianity
The beliefs of Montanism contrasted with orthodox Christianity in the following ways:
The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles. The view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, also in contrast to the orthodox Christian view that contrition could lead to a sinner's restoration to the church. The prophets of Montanism did not speak as messengers of God: "Thus saith the Lord," but rather described themselves as possessed by God, and spoke in his person. This possession by a spirit, which spoke while the prophet was incapable of resisting, is described by the spirit of Montanus: "Behold the man is like a lyre, and I dart like the plectrum. A stronger emphasis on the avoidance of sin and church discipline than in orthodox Christianity. (Trevett 1996:202)Jerome and other church leaders claimed that the Montanists of their own day held the belief that the Trinity consisted of only a single person, similar to Sabellianism, as opposed to the orthodox view that the Trinity is one God of three persons which Tertullian also had held.
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