Montanism

Oversimplified

• A rigorist prophetic movement of the late 2nd century, founded by Montanus, claiming fresh revelations of the Spirit and stricter discipline than the Church.
• Rejected by the Church for setting private "new prophecy" above the apostolic Tradition — Tertullian's later home.

Summary

Montanism (the "New Prophecy") arose in Phrygia c. 165, when Montanus and the prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla claimed ecstatic revelations of the Paraclete announcing a new, stricter age of the Spirit — heightened fasting, forbidden remarriage, eagerness for martyrdom, and an imminent New Jerusalem. Tertullian joined it late in life.[^1]

Why the Church rejected it

The issue was authority: Montanism set ongoing ecstatic prophecy above the settled apostolic Tradition and the bishops who guard it. Orthodoxy affirms the Spirit's continuing life in the Church, but tested by, not overriding, the handed-down faith (1 John 4.1). It is an early case of the perennial claim to bypass the Church by direct inspiration. See Sacred Tradition, Tertullian, The Holy Spirit.

[^1]: Eusebius, Church History V; and Tertullian's later (Montanist) writings.