The Date of the Outbreak of Montanism

G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville

doi:10.1017/S0022046900068044

The Date of the Outbreak of Montanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville

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In the last century the school of Tübingen held that Montanism is only a name invented by historians to describe certain currents of thought in the second century and later. But although the evidence for the movement is not so full as one might like, there is no more reason to doubt its historicity than most other contemporary movements or even persons. It is not easy to get rid of the later legal prescriptions of the Theodosian and Justinian Codes; while Aelius Publius Julius, bishop of Devultum in Thrace, expressed himself in no uncertain fashion: ‘As God in heaven liveth, I swear that the blessed Solus of Anchialus wished to cast out Priscilla's demon, and the hypocrites would not allow it.’ The Montanists were real enough to him.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1954 , pp. 7 - 15

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900068044 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1954

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References

^{page 7 note 1} E.g. Schwegler, Der Montanismus.

^{page 7 note 2} XVI. v. 34, 40, 48, 57, 59, 65, x. 24; I. v. 18–21.

^{page 7 note 3} Apud Eus., H.E., v.19. §3. See also v, 16. §2, §4.

^{page 7 note 4} H.E., iv. 27. §1.

^{page 7 note 5} See McConnell, F. J., John Wesley, 1939, 71 ffGoogle Scholar. and Wesley's Journal, ed. Curnock, N., 1910, i. 472 ffGoogle Scholar.; J. A. Froude, History of England in the 18th Century, ii. 558. See also Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1819 edition, note 1, pp. 312–23.

^{page 7 note 6} Art. ‘Montanus’ in D.C.B., iii. 937; Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History, trans. H. J. Lawlor and J. E. L. Oulton, ii. 181.

^{page 8 note 1} Eusebius, Chronica, ed. J. K. Fotheringham, 287–8, Eusebius, H.E., v. Preface, 1; v.§§3, 4: B. J. Kidd, History of the Early Church, i. 250; C.A.H., xii. 518.

^{page 8 note 2} H.E., v. 3, 4. The italics are mine.

^{page 8 note 3} Eus., Chronica, loc. cit.

^{page 8 note 4} H.E., iv. 27. §1.

^{page 8 note 5} Irenaeus had been sent there—H.E., v. 4. §§1, 2.

^{page 8 note 6} La Crise Montaniste, 570. (Henceforward referred to as Crise.)

^{page 8 note 7} Eus., H.E., iv. 26. §§1, 2.

^{page 8 note 8} I.e. Antoninus Pius.

^{page 8 note 9} μετ might, however, refer to the last work on the roll.

^{page 9 note 1} Liebenam, , Fasti Consulares Imperii Romani, Bonn 1909, 108Google Scholar.

^{page 9 note 2} P. de Labriolle, Crise, 571.

^{page 9 note 3} Eus., H.E., iv. 8. §3.

^{page 9 note 4} Ibid. 12. §1., quoting Justin, Apol. I. 1. i.

^{page 9 note 5} See text in Fotheringham's edition.

^{page 9 note 6} Loc. cit. 3, lines 13, 14.

^{page 9 note 7} Eus., H.E., iv. 27. §1; v. 3, 4.

^{page 9 note 8} Pan. xlviii. 1.

^{page 9 note 9} Fotheringham, loc. cit.

^{page 9 note 10} Fotheringham, loc. cit.

^{page 9 note 11} Eus., H.E., iv. 10–12, based on Iren. iii. 3. §3, 4. §2; i. 24, 25. §1; Justin, i Apol., 1–26.

^{page 10 note 1} Chronica, Fotheringham, p. 284, lines 10–12, says a.d. 141. [But see Ehrhardt, in this Journal, iv (1953), 1–12.—Ed.]

^{page 10 note 2} De praescr. haer., xxx.

^{page 10 note 3} It is possible that the present First Apology was re-edited and issued again with the Second in 155: see Lawlor and Oulton, op. cit., ii. 140, where it is argued that 152 is the more likely date, and on other grounds Harnack Chronology, i. 274 ff.

^{page 10 note 4} Fotheringham, op. cit.; H.E., iv. 29. §3, quoted from Iren., i. 26. §1.

^{page 10 note 5} Epiph., Pan. xlvi.

^{page 10 note 6} Act. Mart. Iust. i., et passim.

^{page 10 note 7} Lawlor and Oulton, op. cit., ii. 125.

^{page 10 note 8} Owen, Acta Martyrum, 47.

^{page 10 note 9} Epiph., Pan., xlvi. 1.

^{page 11 note 1} Iren. i. 26. §i ap. Eus., H.E., iv. 29. §3.

^{page 11 note 2} On schools and lectureships in the early Church, see G. L. Prestige, Fathers and Heretics, 1940, 53 ff.

^{page 11 note 3} Pan., xlviii. 2.

^{page 11 note 4} From de Labriolle, Crise, 574.

^{page 11 note 5} Pan., xlviii. 2.

^{page 11 note 6} Pan., li. 33.

^{page 11 note 7} A reference to Rev. xxii. 19.

^{page 11 note 8} Rev. ii. 18.

^{page 11 note 9} καἰ τν καθεξῇς.

^{page 12 note 1} πι νενκοντα κα τρισν ἕτεσιν. This is the reading of all texts.

^{page 12 note 2} Pan., li. 29. The 42nd year of Augustus, reckoning from the death of Julius Caesar.

^{page 12 note 3} Pan., li. 26.

^{page 12 note 4} Pan., li. 27.

^{page 12 note 5} Petavius and others, followed by de Labriolle, Crise, 576.

^{page 12 note 6} Calder, Philadelphia and Montanism, 38, 46; Holl, K., Epiphanius Werke, Band II, Leipzig 1922, 307Google Scholar.

Holl also introduces two words into the text to improve his argument that the passage refers to 112 years before Epiphanius wrote: νν δ δι τν χριστν ν τῷ χρνῷ τοτῷ, μετ χρνον ριβ τν, ἕστιν (κει) κκλησα κα αὕξει, (εἰ) κα λλοι τινς κεῖσε τυγχνουσι.

^{page 12 note 7} But if one permits oneself liberties with texts of this sort, however brilliant the emendation, there is no point at which the process need stop. I reject for the same reason Lipsius's emendation discussed by de Labriolle, Crise, 577–8; Calder, op. cit., 38.

^{page 12 note 8} The following references do not bear serious discussion: Theodore of Heracleia, Com. in evang. Ioh. xiv. 17—‘post ducentos et triginta annos ab apostolica gratia transactos’. Placing the descent of the Holy Ghost in 30, this gives 260. Chronicon Paschale gives the consulate of Mamertinus and Rufus (182; Liebenam, op. cit., 25), or six years after the Lyonnese persecution; Prosper of Aquitaine, c. 433–55. De Labriolle, Les Sources de l'histoire du Montanisme, 205, gives the consulate of Cathegius and Clarus, (or 170; Liebenam, 24), a possible date, but by too late a writer to be of value. Geo. Cedrenus (11th or 12th century) Synopsis, (P.G., cxxi. 481) places it in the sole reign of Commodus. Of the names of the proconsuls mentioned in the various accounts, Gratus—Anon. ap. Eus., H.E., v. 16. §7—is quite unknown, nor is it possible to date Aemilius Frontinus, of Ephesus (v. 18, §9.). C.I.L., iii. 1995 gives an inscription found at Abensburg in Germany with the name L. Aemilius Fron[t…] but it is uncertain whether the name should be Fronto or Frontinus. This also applies to C.I.L., xiii 1679, found near the Pont de Nemours at Lyons, with the same name, which is dated after 146.

^{page 13 note 1} Eus., H.E., v. 16.3.

^{page 13 note 2} P.G., cxv. 1211 ff. The standard edition is Nissen, Th., S. Abercii Vita, Leipzig 1912Google Scholar, which gives a bibliography up to this date.

^{page 13 note 3} Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii. 720–9, nos. 657, 656. See also pp. 679 ff., 709 ff., 788 f.; Lawlor and Oulton, op. cit., ii. 171–2; and de Labriolle, Crise, 581–4.

^{page 13 note 4} ap. Eus., H.E., v. 16. §3.

^{page 13 note 5} Ibid. v. 16. 19. It is an approximate date—cf. v. 17.4.

^{page 13 note 6} Kidd, op. cit., i. 252, based on Dio Cassius, Epit. LXXII. iv. 7 and Hippolytus, Ref. omn. haer., ix. 12.

^{page 13 note 7} Crise, 580–1.

^{page 13 note 8} ap. Eus., H.E., v. 16. §§13, 19.

^{page 13 note 9} Ibid., v. 18. §12.

^{page 13 note 10} ap. Eus., H.E., v. 18. §§4, 6 ff.

^{page 13 note 11} Ibid. 5.

^{page 13 note 12} Ibid. 11.

^{page 14 note 1} Quoted by de Labriolle, Crise, 585–6.

^{page 14 note 2} Crise, 587.

^{page 14 note 3} Montanism and the Primitive Church, 1869, 29.

^{page 14 note 4} Crise, 587.

^{page 15 note 1} St. Athanasius, Vita St. Antonii. (P.G. xxvi.)

^{page 15 note 2} νεπιστος—Anon. ap. Eus., H.E., v. 16. §7.

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