The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313
Montanus
fl. c. 165 – 180 (death unrecorded) · Christian convert of Phrygia · Founder of the New Prophecy (Montanism) · Phrygia
The Ante-Nicene Church
Who Montanus was
A Phrygian convert — a recent one, the sources stress — who around the 160s began to prophesy in ecstasy, speaking in the first person as the Paraclete, and with two prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, proclaimed the “New Prophecy”: rigorous fasting, a ban on remarriage and on flight in persecution, and the imminent descent of the New Jerusalem at Pepuza. The movement forced the great church to define the limits of ongoing prophecy and the closing of the apostolic age; an anonymous writer quoted by Eusebius answered it, and councils in Asia condemned it. Its most famous later convert was Tertullian himself. Included here as the church’s writers name him — the test-case of the Spirit’s voice after the apostles.
Common questions
When was Montanus active?
Montanus is dated fl. c. 165 – 180 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Montanus in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Montanus?
Montanus is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Anti-Montanist writer, Epiphanius of Salamis, Jerome of Stridon and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Montanus from?
The archive associates Montanus with Phrygia.
Who were Montanus’ contemporaries?
The archive links Montanus to 6 other figures, including Maximilla, Tertullian of Carthage, Claudius Apollinaris of Hierapolis and Miltiades the Apologist. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (4)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Anonymous, via Eusebius V.16
c. AD 193He became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the custom of the church handed down from the beginning.Anti-Montanist writer · V.16 · source text
Panarion 48 (the sect surveyed, his oracles quoted)
c. AD 375Letter 41 (to Marcella, against the Phrygian claims)
c. AD 385Compendium of Heretical Fables III.2
c. AD 453Connected in the archive
People
- Maximilla
- Tertullian of Carthage
- Claudius Apollinaris of Hierapolis
- Miltiades the Apologist
- Priscilla the Montanist
- Apollonius the Anti-Montanist
Events in this lifetime
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144
- AD 156 · The New Prophecy erupts, AD 156
- AD 177 · Persecution at Lyon and Vienne, AD 177
- AD 180 · The Scillitan martyrs, AD 180
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Montanus.
- 1Phrygiaprovince only