5. Decline of the System

gift and to effect a peaceable understanding, writing both to the churches in Asia Minor and to Eleutherus at Rome. Nevertheless, the latter (or possibly Victor) seems to have decided adversely to Montanism; yet the slow exclusion of the sect from the Catholic Church is clear from the fact that about 192 the church at Ancyra was filled with the new prophecy, while forty years after the appearance of Montanus Apollonius had to battle against his teachings, and about 200 Serapion of Antioch had to demonstrate the untenability of Montanistic doctrines. About 230 the Synod of Iconium refused to recognize Montanistic baptism; yet they themselves declared that the Christian faith had arisen with them, and in the eyes of outsiders they were the "Christians of the ancient faith." The Montanists deviated from the Catholic Church in several other respects. They reckoned Easter by the sun and celebrated it on the eighth before the ides of April or on the following Sunday; women might be deacons (on the basis of I Tim. iii. 11), or even priests and deacons (appealing to Gal. iii. 28); they had either three or four seasons of fasting; their doctrine of eight heavens and their accounts of the tortures of the damned point to the use of apocalyptic writings among them. Beginning with the reign of Constantine imperial edicts were issued against them, though these were at first dead letters, at least in Phrygia and its vicinity. Finally, however, Montanism could preserve its existence only in secret. [It is reported that in 550 John of Ephesus had the remains of Montanus and three prophetesses exhumed and burned (J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis,.

6. Western Montanism; Tertullian

Though primarily a phenomenon of the Church of Asia Minor, Montanism spread to the West with a suppression of its ecstatic features and emphasis on its ethical requirements. In Rome it was represented by Proclus, who de bated with Caius between 200 and 215. But the great Montanist of the West was Tertullian (q.v.). Led on by its moral earnestness, and predisposed against any conformity with the world, Tertullian saw in the new prophecy the divine seal of his endeavors. In his Passio Perpetum Montanistic tendencies may .already be recognized, and are more strongly expressed in his De corona and De fuga. As a Montanist he was the protagonist of the Church against Gnosticism; and in his De ecstasi he definitely, defended the Montanistic revelations, polemizing in part directly against Apollonius. Tertullian's final, though gradual, break with the Church seems to have resulted primarily from its opposition to Callixtus, exemplified in his indignant rejection, in the De pudicitia, of the declaration of the pontiff re garding the return to the Church of those guilty of carnal sins, since Tertullian affirmed that only the Spirit in the "pneumatic" could decide in matters of discipline. In his De monogamia and De jejunio he combated the. Catholics as harshly as the " psy chics " for their rejection of the things of the Spirit. How ineffectual was the suppression of all revelations by the rejection of Montanism is evident from the case of Cyprian. The followers of Tertullian were won back to .the Church by Augustine, al though an attempt was made to found a Tertul lianistic community at Rome (Praedestinatus, Her., lxxxvi.).

(N. Bonwetsch.)

Bibliography: The prophetic utterances of the founders of Montanism are collected in F. Münter, Efata et oracula Montaniatarum, Copenhagen, 1829; in G. N. Bonwetsch, Die Geschichte des Montanismus, Erlangen, 1881; and in A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchriatenthums, Leipsic, 1884. Further sources are: the Montanistic writings of Tertullian (Erg. transl. in ANP, vol. iii.); Iren&-us, Har, III., xi. 9, IV., xxxiii. 6-7; Epiphanius, Horn xlvill.-xlix.; and the passages in Eusebius named in the text. The beet single work is that of Bonwetsch, named above. Consult further: C. W. F. Welch, Historie der Ketzereien, i . 611-666, Leipsic, 1762; A. Schwegler, Der Montanismus, Tübingen, 1841; A. Short, The Heresies of Montanus, P elapius, etc., Oxford, 1846; A., Hilgenfeld,. Gloesolatie in der alter Kirche, pp., 115 sqq., Leipsic,1850; A. Ritschl, Entetehung der allkatholischen Kirche, pp. 402550, Bonn, 1857; A. Reville, in Nouvelle revue de th&logie, 1858, and in Revue des deux mondee, Nov., 1864; F. C. Baur, Geschichte der christlicken Kirche, i. 235-245, 288-295, Leipsic, 1863; E. Strohlin,. Essai our Is montaniante. Strasburg, 1870; J. de Soyres, Montanism and the Primitive Church, Cambridge, 1878; W. Cunningham, The Churches of Asia, London, 1880; W. Belck, Geschichte des Montanismus, Leipsic, 1883; H. Weinel, Die Wirkungen des Geistes und der Geister im nachapoetoliechen Z eitalter, Freiburg, 1899; E. C. Selwyn, The Christian Prophets and the Prophetical Apocalypse, London, 1900; Harnack, Dogma, vols., i.-iii.; idem, Litteratur, ii. 363 sqq.; idem, Expansion of Christianity, 2 vols., London, 1904-05; Neander, Christian Church, i. 206, 808-527, 715, et pasaim; Schaff, Christian Church, ii. chap, x.; DCB,.iii. 935-945; KL, vii. 252-268; and the literature under Tertullian.