| Doctrine of the Montanists |
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 Montanus preached no false
doctrines. He ordered a few fasts and abstinences; the latter were strict xerophagioe, but only for two weeks in
the year, and even then the Saturdays and Sundays did not count (Tertullian, "De jej.", xv). Not only
was virginity strongly recommended, but second marriages were disapproved. Chastity was declared by Priscilla to
be a preparation for ecstasy: "The holy [chaste] minister knows how to minister holiness. For those
who purify their hearts see visions, and also hear manifest voices" (Tertullian, "Exhort." X,
in one MS.). Martyrdom was valued so highly that flight from persecution was disapproved, and so was the buying off of punishment. "You are made an outlaw?" said Montanus, "it is good for you. For he who is not outlawed among men is outlawed in the Lord. Be not confounded. It is justice which hales you in public. Why are you confounded, when you are sowing praise? Power comes, when you are stared at by men." And again: "Do not desire to depart this life in beds, in miscarriages, in soft fevers, but in martyrdoms, that He who suffered for you may be glorified" (Tertullian, "De fuga", ix; cf. "De anima", lv). (Excerpted from H. Leclercq, transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII, Copyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton Company.) |
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