Montanism and Early Christian Heresies: A Theological Analysis

Introduction: Montanism and Its Core Impulses

Like many early heresies, Montanism has not left behind much in the way of written testimony. Only one Montanist writer, Tertullian, has works that survive, and it is primarily in his writing that the statements of the Montanist movement's founders — Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilia — survive in quotation. Gonzáles notes that, among many differing interpretations of Montanism, one view sees them as something like "an early Pentecostal group." It is clear from accounts of Montanism that it emphasized the Holy Spirit, including manifestations of glossolalia, in ways that parallel contemporary Pentecostals. But overall, Montanus seems to have combined several contradictory impulses into his schismatic movement.

The first impulse hinged upon greater involvement of women in ministry: the heresy of Montanus is seldom mentioned without reference to "those demented women Prisca and Maximilia," as Saint Jerome calls them in his letter to Marcella refuting the Montanist heresy. The second impulse was toward a greater asceticism. The third was a millenarian belief — similar to Pentecostalism — that Montanus was living in the end times, and a dispensationalist conviction that those end times were governed directly by the Holy Spirit. Each of these separate aspects of the Montanist heresy merits independent examination in order to arrive at a fuller understanding and summary judgment of the movement's thought.

Twenty-first-century readers might be tempted to see, anachronistically, a hint of modern feminism in the centrality of Prisca (or Priscilla) and Maximilia to the Montanist movement. This is presumably due to the idea that their role among the Montanists was analogous to that of contemporary women undertaking a more central position within church hierarchy in terms of preaching, evangelizing, or the ministry. But this reading overlooks entirely what was heretical about the Montanists in this respect: Prisca and Maximilia were not ministers but prophetesses. The heretical nature of their role was not due to the fact that they were women aiming at a greater active role in church life — it was heretical by its similarity to pagan priestesses, such as the Oracle at Delphi.

Female Prophecy and the Shadow of Paganism

Indeed, a standard charge against the Montanists is that their beliefs carried more than a whiff of paganism. Opponents of Montanus claimed that he had been a castrated devotee of the mystery cult of the goddess Cybele before approaching his own version of Christianity. The appeal of Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilia to believers in the early centuries must have depended in part on the similarity of their Pentecostal ravings to the statements made by countless pagan sibyls and oracles.

Saint Jerome notes that the Montanists offered scriptural justification for their prophetesses, pointing to "passages in which our Saviour promises that He will go to the Father, and that He will send the Paraclete." Jerome dismisses their interpretation, however, noting that "the Acts of the Apostles inform us both for what time the promises were made, and at what time they were actually fulfilled." In other words, Montanism surely did not strike the early church fathers as any form of feminism — that would be an anachronistic designation in any case. Rather, the emphasis on female participation must have resembled a dangerous backsliding toward paganism. There is, after all, a reason why the Sermon on the Mount contains a warning about false prophets.

Nonetheless, it is possible to imagine a church community faced with constant outbursts of strange belief at such a time — this is, after all, one reason why church hierarchy emerged. Tertullian claims that the Montanist prophetesses had at some point received official endorsement. In his letter Against Praxeas, Tertullian writes:

"For after the Bishop of Rome had acknowledged the prophetic gifts of Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla, and, in consequence of the acknowledgment, had bestowed his peace on the churches of Asia and Phrygia, he, by importunately urging false accusations against the prophets themselves and their churches, and insisting on the authority of the bishop's predecessors in the see, compelled him to recall the pacific letter which he had issued, as well as to desist from his purpose of acknowledging the said gifts."

This passage suggests an emergent church hierarchy attempting to contain an evangelical movement built on the personal charisma of two women issuing prophecies. Perhaps their early prophecies were sufficiently remarkable to attract initial church attention, but the withdrawal of episcopal endorsement was most likely driven by the rapid growth of the Montanist movement and its peculiar emphasis on female prophets claiming to speak directly from inspiration by the Holy Spirit.

The second impulse within Montanism was an aggressive asceticism, with a heightened emphasis on celibacy for all members of the church. It can be hypothesized that this aspect of Montanism may have derived in part from the first: given the central role of Prisca and Maximilia in the social movement, it would have been necessary to deny any suggestion of sexual license or libertinage within the Montanist community in Phrygia. It is worth recalling that, during the years when the Montanist heresy was active, Christians were by no means immune to the charge of being sexual libertines.

Asceticism and the Problem of Perception

The First Apology of Saint Justin Martyr notes that this was one of the difficulties faced by heretical sects of the period — their wild excesses permitted critics to tar all Christians with the same brush. In reference to the Marcionites, Justin Martyr writes:

"All who take their opinions from these men, are, as we before said, called Christians; just as also those who do not agree with the philosophers in their doctrines, have yet in common with them the name of philosophers given to them. And whether they perpetrate those fabulous and shameful deeds — the upsetting of the lamp, and promiscuous intercourse, and eating human flesh — we know not; but we do know that they are neither persecuted nor put to death by you, at least on account of their opinions."

It is noteworthy that Tertullian, the chief extant Montanist writer, devotes considerable attention to the refutation of Marcionism, which resembles Manichaeanism or Zoroastrianism in its emphasis on a second, coeternal deity of evil. Tertullian is also greatly concerned with allegations of sexual license against Christian sects: it is he who records "the vile calumny about Onocoetes," which circulated in North Africa, hinting that the Christian God had sanctioned outrageous sexual acts.

The Montanist community was especially susceptible to this type of libel. The inclusion of women as prophetesses, and the possible status of Montanus as a castrated pagan priest before his conversion, suggested a millenarian community in which men and women shared close quarters. Being a eunuch may prevent fathering children, but it does not preclude committing sexual acts altogether. Additionally, pagan priests and priestesses often participated in ritual sexuality, not unlike what is described in Genesis 38:15–24. This is also the period when Origen reportedly castrated himself, based on a reading of Matthew 19:12, the better to attain a state of Christian chastity.

In some sense, the extreme Montanist doctrine of ascetic removal from all sexuality — which Saint Jerome finds in contradiction with various scriptural injunctions — may be understood as a case of protesting too much. Given the prominent role played by women in the movement and the rumors of pagan priesthood surrounding Montanus himself, the excess of chastity identified by Jerome may well have been a reaction to outsiders' perceptions of what the Montanists might be doing within their Phrygian community.