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Against the so-called Phrygian heresy, the power which always
contends for the truth raised up a strong and invincible weapon,
Apolinarius of Hierapolis, whom we have mentioned before, and with
him many other men of ability, by whom abundant material for our
history has been left. A certain one of these, in the beginning of
his work against them, first intimates that he had contended with them
in oral controversies. He commences his work in this manner:
"Having for a very long and sufficient time, O beloved Avircius
Marcellus, been urged by you to write a treatise against the heresy of
those who are called after Miltiades, I have hesitated till the
present time, not through lack of ability to refute the falsehood or
bear testimony for the truth, but from fear and apprehension that I
might seem to some to be making additions to the doctrines or precepts
of the Gospel of the New Testament, which it is impossible for one
who has chosen to live according to the Gospel, either to increase or
to diminish. But being recently in Ancyra in Galatia, I found the
church there greatly agitated by this novelty, not prophecy, as they
call it, but rather false prophecy, as will be shown. Therefore, to
the best of our ability, with the Lord's help, we disputed in the
church many days concerning these and other matters separately brought
forward by them, so that the church rejoiced and was strengthened in
the truth, and those of the opposite side were for the time
confounded, and the adversaries were grieved. The presbyters in the
place, our fellow-presbyter Zoticus of Otrous also being present,
requested us to leave a record of what had been said against the
opposers of the truth. We did not do this, but we promised to write
it out as soon as the Lord permitted us, and to send it to them
speedily."
Having said this with other things, in the beginning of his work, he
proceeds to state the cause of the above-mentioned heresy as follows:
"Their opposition and their recent heresy which has separated them
from the Church arose on the following account. There is said to be a
certain village called Ardabau in that part of Mysia, which borders
upon Phrygia. There first, they say, when Gratus was proconsul of
Asia, a recent convert, Montanus by name, through his unquenchable
desire for@ leadership, gave the adversary opportunity against him.
And he 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 constant custom of the Church
handed down by tradition from the beginning. Some of those who heard
his spurious utterances at that time were indignant, and they rebuked
him as one that was possessed, and that was under the control of a
demon, and was led by a deceitful spirit, and was distracting the
multitude; and they forbade him to talk, remembering the distinction
drawn by the Lord and his warning to guard watchfully against the
coming of false prophets? But others imagining themselves possessed of
the Holy Spirit and of a prophetic gift, were elated and not a little
puffed up; and forgetting the distinction of the Lord, they
challenged the mad and insidious and seducing spirit, and were cheated
and deceived by him. In consequence of this, he could no longer be
held in check, so as to keep silence. Thus by artifice, or rather by
such a system of wicked craft, the devil, devising destruction for the
disobedient, and being unworthily honored by them, secretly excited
and inflamed their understandings which had already become estranged
from the true faith. And he stirred up besides two women, and filled
them with the false spirit, so that they talked wildly and unreasonably
and strangely, like the person already mentioned. And the spirit
pronounced them blessed as they rejoiced and gloried in him, and puffed
them up by the magnitude of his promises. But sometimes he rebuked
them openly in a wise and faithful manner, that he might seem to be a
reprover. But those of the Phrygians that were deceived were few in
number.
"And the arrogant spirit taught them to revile the entire universal
Church under heaven, because the spirit of false prophecy received
neither honor from it nor entrance into it. For the faithful in Asia
met often in many places throughout Asia to consider this matter, and
examined the novel utterances and pronounced them profane, and rejected
the heresy, and thus these persons were expelled from the Church and
debarred from communion." Having related these things at the outset,
and continued the refutation of their delusion through his entire work,
in the second book he speaks as follows of their end: "Since,
therefore, they called us slayers of the prophets because we did not
receive their loquacious prophets, who, they say, are those that the
Lord promised to send to the people, let them answer as in God's
presence: Who is there, O friends, of these who began to talk,
from Montanus and the women down, that was persecuted by the Jews,
or slain by lawless men ? None. Or has any of them been seized and
crucified for the Name ? Truly not. Or has one of these women ever
been scourged in the synagogues of the Jews, or stoned ? No; never
anywhere. But by another kind of death Montanus and Maximilla are
said to have died. For the report is that, incited by the spirit of
frenzy, they both hung themselves; not at the same time, but at the
time which common report gives for the death of each. And thus they
died, and ended their lives like the traitor Judas. So also, as
general report says, that remarkable person, the first steward, as it
were, of their so-called prophecy, one Theodotus, who, as if at
sometime taken up and received into heaven, fell into trances, and
entrusted himself to the deceitful spirit, was pitched like a quoit,
and died miserably? They say that these things happened in this
manner. But as we did not see them, O friend, we do not pretend to
know. Perhaps in such a manner, perhaps not, Montanus and
Theodotus and the above-mentioned woman died." He says again in the
same book that the holy bishops of that time attempted to refute the
spirit in Maximilla, but were prevented by others who plainly
co-operated with the spirit. He writes as follows: "And let not
the spirit, in the same work of Asterius Urbanus, say through
Maximilla, ' I am driven away from the sheep like a wolf. I am not
a wolf. I am word and spirit and power.' But let him show clearly
and prove the power in the spirit. And by the spirit let him compel
those to confess him who were then present for the purpose of proving
and reasoning with the talkative spirit, those eminent men and
bishops, Zoticus, from the village Comana and Julian, from
Apamea, whose mouths the followers of Themiso muzzled, refusing to
per-knit the false and seductive spirit to be refuted by them."
Again in the same work, after saying other things in refutation of the
false prophecies of Maximilla, he indicates the time when he wrote
these accounts, and mentions her predictions in which she prophesied
wars and anarchy. Their falsehood he censures in the following
manner: "And has not this been shown clearly to be false ? For it
is to-day more than thirteen years since the woman died, and there has
been neither a partial nor general war in the world; but rather,
through the mercy of God, continued peace even to the Christians."
These things are taken from the second book. I will add also short
extracts from the third book, in which he speaks thus against! their
boasts that many of them had suffered, martyrdom: "When therefore
they are at a loss, being refuted in all that they say, they try to
take refuge in their martyrs, alleging that they have many martyrs,
and that this is sure evidence of the, power of the so-called
prophetic spirit that is with them. But this, as it appears, is
entirely fallacious. For some of the heresies have a great many
martyrs; but surely we shall not on that account agree with them or
confess that they hold the truth. And first, indeed, those called
Marcionites, from the heresy of Marcion, say that they have a
multitude of martyrs for Christ; yet they do not confess Christ
himself in truth."A little farther on he continues: "When those
called to martyrdom from the Church for the truth of the faith have met
with any of the so-called martyrs of the Phrygian heresy, they have
separated from them, and died without any fellowship with them,
because they did not wish to give their assent to the spirit of
Montanus and the women. And that this is true and took place in our
own time in Apamea on the Maeander, among those who suffered
martyrdom with Gaius and Alexander of Eumenia, is well known."
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