those things that we said, in opposition to the opponents of the truth, Zoticus Otrenus also being present, who was our fellowpresbyter; this, indeed, I did not perform, but I promised writing` hither, and to send it as soon as possible, if the Lord permitted." Such, and other matters, he states in the beginning of his work, premising the cause of the mentioned heresy, as follows: "Their combination, therefore, and the recent heretical severance of theirs from the church, had for its origin the following cause:There is said to be a certain village of Mysia in Phrygia, called Ardaba. There, they say, one of those who was but a recent convert, Montanus by name, when Cratus was proconsul in Asia, in the excessive desire of his soul to take the lead, gave the adversary occasion against himself. So that he was carried away in spirit, and wrought up into a certain kind of frenzy and irregular ecstasy, raving, and speaking, and uttering strange things, and proclaiming what was contrary to the institutions that had prevailed in the church, as handed down and preserved in succession from the earliest times. But of those that happened then to be present, and to hear these spurious oracles, some being indignant, rebuked him as one under the influence of dæmons and the spirit of delusion, and who was only exciting disturbances among the multitude. These bore in mind the distinction and the warning given by our Lord, when he cautioned them to be vigilantly on their guard against false prophets. Others again, as if elated by the holy spirit, and the gift of grace, and not a little puffed up, and forgetting the distinction made by our Lord, challenged this insidious, flattering, and seducing spirit, being themselves captivated and seduced by him; so that they could no longer restrain him to keep silence. Thus, by an artifice, or rather by a certain crafty process, the devil having devised destruction against those that disobeyed the truth, and thus excessively honoured by them, secretly stimulated and fired their understandings, already wrapt in insensibility, and wandering away from the truth. For he excited two others, females, and filled them with the spirit of delusion, so that they also spake like the former, in a kind of extatic frenzy, out of all season, and in a manner strange and novel, whilst the spirit of evi ton

gratulated them, thus rejoicing and inflated by him, and continu ed to puff them up the more, by promises of great things. Sometimes pointedly and deservedly, directly condemning them that he might appear also disposed to reprove them. Those few that were deceived were Phrygians; but the same inflated spirit taught them to revile the whole church under heaven, because it gave neither access nor honour to this false spirit of prophecy. For when the faithful held frequent conversations in many places throughout Asia for this very purpose, and examined their novel doctrines, and pronounced them vain, and rejected them as heresy, then indeed they were expelled and prohibited from communion with the church." After relating these facts in the beginning of his work, and introducing the refutation of their error in the body of the work, he adds the following remarks in the second book, respecting their end: "Therefore," says he, "since they call us slayers of the prophets, because we did not promptly receive their talkative prophets, saying, 'these were those whom the Lord promised to send to the people."" Let them answer us in the name of God, O friends, which of these who began prating from Montanus and his women, is there that suffered persecution, or was slain by the evil doers? None. Not even one of them has been seized and crucified for the name (of Christ.) None at all. Not one of their women was ever scourged in the synagogues of the Jews, or stoned. No, never.

Montanus and Maximilla indeed, are said to have died another death than this, for at the instigation of that mischievous spirit, the report is, that both of them hung themselves, not indeed at the same time, but at the particular time of each one's death, as the general report is; and thus they died and terminated their life like the traitor Judas. Thus, also, the general opinion is, that Theodotus, one of the first that was carried away by their prophecy, as it was called, and who became a kind of patron of the delusion, as if he should at some time be taken up and received into the heavens, and who falling into trances, gave himself up to the spirit of deception, was finally tossed by him like a quoit in the air, and thus miserably perished. They say this happened as we have stated. But, my friend, we do not presume to know

anything certain of these matters, unless we had seen them. For perhaps both Montanus and Theodotus, and the abovementioned woman, may have died in this way, or they may not." He mentions also in the same book, that the holy bishops of that time attempted to refute the spirit in Maximilla, but were prevented by others who manifestly co-operated with the spirit. His statement is as follows: "And let not, as is said in the same work of Asterius Urbanus, let not the spirit of Maximilla say, 'I am chased like a wolf from the flock, I am no wolf. I am utterance, spirit, and power.' But let him show the power in the spirit effectually, and prove it. And let him by the spirit face those that were present at the time, to examine and argue with the babbling spirit, men who were eminent, and bishops of the church, Zoticus of Comana, Julian of Apamea, whose tongues the followers of Themison bridled and prevented them from refuting the false and seducing spirit."

In the same work, after stating other matters in refutation of the false predictions of Maximilla, he likewise indicates the time that he wrote this, and mentions also, her declarations in which she foretold that there would be wars and political convulsions. The falsity of which is evinced by him as follows: "And has not,” says he, "the falsehood of this been made obvious? For it is now more than thirteen years since the woman died, and neither has there been a partial nor a general war, but rather, by the mercy of God, continued peace to the Christians." This he writes in the second book. I shall also subjoin some extracts from the third book, in which he speaks as follows, against those who boasted that there were many of their number that had suffered martyrdom: "But," says he, "since they are at a loss what to reply to the refutation of their errors, they attempt to take refuge to their martyrs, saying they have many martyrs, and that this is one sure evidence of the power of that spirit which they call prophetical. But this, as it appears, is nothing the more true on that account. For some of the other heresies also have a vast number of martyrs, but neither do we the more on that account agree with them, nor acknowledge that they have truth on their side. Indeed, they who are called Marcionites,

say that they had vast numbers that were martyrs for Christ. But they do not confess Christ in truth." And a little after, he adds: "Hence, whenever those that are called martyrs by the church, on account of enduring martyrdom for the true faith, happen to fall in with those called martyrs of the Phrygian heresy, they always separate from them and undergo death, having no communion with them, because they do not assent to the spirit of Montanus and the women, and that all this is true, and happened in our own times at Apamea on the Menander, is manifest from those who suffered martrydom with Caius and Alexander of Eumenia."

CHAPTER XVII.

Of Miltiades and his works.

In the same work he also makes mention of the historian Miltiades, who also wrote a book against the same heresy. After quoting some passages from them, he adds: "As I found these statements in one of their works against another work written by our brother Alcibiades, in which he demonstrates the impropriety of a prophet's speaking in ecstasy. This work I have abridged." After stating other matters, he enumerates those who had prophesied under the New Testament. Among these he mentions one Ammias and Quadratus. "But the false prophet," says he, "is carried away by a vehement ecstasy, accompanied by want of all shame and fear. Beginning, indeed, with a designed ignorance, and terminating, as beforesaid, in involuntary madness. They will never be able to show that any of the Old or any of the New Testament, were thus violently agitated and carried away in spirit. Neither will they be able to boast that Agabus, or Judas, or Silas, or the daughters of Philip, or Ammias in Philadelphia, or Quadratus, or others that do not belong to them, ever acted in this way." Again, after a little, he says: "If after Quadratus and Ammias in Philadelphia, the women that followed Montanus succeeded in the gift of prophecy,

let them show us what women among them succeeded Montanus and his women. For the apostle shows that the gift of prophecy should be in all the church until the coming of the Lord, but they can by no means show any one at this time, the fourteenth year from the death of Maximilla." Thus far of this author. But

the Miltiades mentioned by him has left other monuments of his study in the holy Scriptures, both in the works that he wrote against the Greeks, and those against the Jews. Both treatises are composed in two separate volumes. He has, moreover, written a work against the philosophers of the age, in favour of the philosophy which he embraced.

CHAPTER XVIII

Apollonius also refutes the Phrygian heresy, and those whom he has mentioned.

BUT the heresy of the Phrygians, as it was called, still continuing to prevail in Phrygia, Apollonius undertook to refute it in a particular work which he wrote; on the one hand correcting their false predictions in reference to what they said, and on the other describing the life that those led who were its founders. Hear him in his own words respecting Montanus: "But who," says he, "is this new teacher? His works and his doctrines sufficiently show it. This is he that taught the dissolutions of marriage, he that imposed laws of fasting, that called Pepuza and Tymium, little places in Phrygia, a Jerusalem, in order to collect men from every quarter thither; who established exactors of money, and under the name of offerings, devised the artifice to procure presents; who provided salaries for those that preached his doctrine, that it might grow strong by gormandizing and gluttony." Thus far concerning Montanus; and further on he writes concerning his prophetesses: "We show, therefore," says he, "that these same leading prophetesses, as soon as they were filled with the spirit, abandoned their husbands. How then can they utter this falsehood, who call Prisca a virgin?" He afterwards proceeds