Heresy of the special revelation,extended fasting, asceticism and eschatology "The Montanist"

Montanism ([1]Phrygian heresy)
Mentioned in Eusebius, Church History 5.3.4;5.14-18

Historical information

Dating primarily to the late second and early third centuries.
[2]The controversy spread by 177 to Rome.

Leading Teachers

[3]Montanus (170 AD). He was joined shortly thereafter by two prophetesses, Maximilla (2nd century) and Priscilla 92nd century). Tertullian (160-220))

Who contributed in the answering of the heresy

[4]Epiphanius, Panarion 48; Jerome, Letter 41.
[5]Hippolytus Syntagma (lost in its original form; but in substance in later writers),

Characteristic teachings

[6]Montanist prophets claimed direct ecstatic revelations from God to support their teachings on disciplinary questions, especially extended hours of fasting and asceticism, and on eschatology.
[7]It lived in expectation of the speedy outpouring of the holy Spirit (the Paraclete) on the Church, of which it saw the first manifestation in its own prophets and prophetesses.
[8]It was peculiar form of these utterances to which other Christians objected: this kind of ecstatic prophecy was not, like that of the biblical prophets, delivered in the third person, but was direct speech by the Spirit himself using the prophet’s mouth as his instrument. The content of the ‘New Prophecy’ was hostile to the Gnostic elimination of eschatological expectation and insisted on the literal resurrection of the flesh and the nearness of the Lord.     
[9]He (Montanus) began to proclaim to his fellow believers (the New Prophecy) that he was a prophet-that, indeed, he was the mouthpiece of that Spirit which the Lord had promised to the church as the one who would “teach…all things” and  “guide you into all truth.[10]     
[11]The problem was not that Montanus was a prophet, for prophecy had existed in the church since its beginnings, and there is no reason to think that it had died out in the last third of the second century. The problem was that this was a new prophecy. It was unfamiliar in its form(Montanus uttered the words, “Behold a man is as a lyre, and I fly over it like a plectrum,”[12]where the “I” can only refer to the spirit).                              
[13]The Montanist prophets also seem to have practiced “charismatic exegesis,” in which the text of the scripture was actually cited in their oracles in such a way as to include their eschatological key to the scriptures within the text.
One authentic late Montanist inscription substantiates Epiphanius’s charge (Haer.49) that the Montanists allowed female clergy.
In order to survive, Montanists may have developed their own peculiar form of regional bishops to ensure the institutional continuity of the sect.
Became famous after 208 by the joining of Tertullian of Carthage, when he included in Book 4 against Marcion , Montanist passages.
[14]Tertullian also condemned the current penitential disciple for its leniency.
In North Africa , Montanism has long fasts, prohibited second marriages and flight to avoid martyrdom, and specified the exact length of veils to be worn by women.
Montanist prophets also announced an eschatological vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, seen suspended over geographical Jerusalem.
[15]Montanus himself, who began prophesy wither in 172, or 156-7, proclaimed that the heavenly Jerusalem would soon descend near Pepuza in Phrygia.
Spiritual psalms, visions, and prayers also played a part in community life.

Decisions

Were excommunicated in a series of synods of churches in Asia Minor, the first such regional synods in Christian history as (Eusebius, H.E. 5.16.10.
[16]In Rome were excommunicated by bishop Eleutherus
[17]Also condemned by pope Zephyrinus (199-217).

Abbreviation

Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 2nd edition   (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)
EEC
Dictionary of the Christian Church edited by F.L. Cross & E.A. livingstone by Hendrickson Publishers. 1997 Oxford university Press.
DCC
A History of the Christian Church, 4th edition Williston Walker and Richard A. Norris, David W. lotz, Robert T. Handy
HCC




[1] After its place of origin and greatest support.
[2] EEC, P.779
[3] EEC, P.778
[4] EEC, p.779
[5] DCC, p.1108
[6] EEC, p.778
[7] DCC, p.1107
[8] EC, P.52
[9] HCC, p.69
[10] John 14:26, 16:13.
[11] HCC, p.69
[12] Stevenson, A New Eusebius, P.113
[13] EEC, P.778
[14] DCC, P.1108
[15] DCC, P.1107
[16] EEC, P. 779
[17] DCC, p.1108

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