A widespread charismatic movement during the mid-2nd Cent, centered in Phrygia and led by Montanus and two women, Prisca and Maximilla.
Their 'inspired' utterances—cast in the first person as direct declaration by the Holy Spirit—were collected and deemed authoritative on all members of the movement. Additionally they claimed that the New Jerusalem, of which John had spoken in the Book of Revelation, would descend on a hill in Phrygia. For some time the movement attracted a large following, often with entire communities in Asia Minor converting to the sect, and attracted even leading men like Tertullian.
Just as strongly, the movement also attracted criticism. The main arguments against the movement, much like that leveled against the Charismatic Movement in the late 20th Cent, is that "the normal ministry of word and sacrament is in principle the point where the Spirit of God is encountered, not at emotional ecstasies which reject rationality and tradition" (Henry Chadwick), and that the canon is closed and the charismatic expressions of earlier times are coming to an end and no longer to be expected.
One of the sadder aspects of the differences between them, that tragically would be repeated in different forms in the modern church, was that, when they were persecuted and martyred in the same arena, they—though they claimed to worship the same Lord—avoided being killed and eaten by the same beast when they could.
©ALBERITH