Note 153 — PHOTIUS BIBLIOTHECA OR MYRIOBIBLON⁠[6]

The founder of the sect was Montanus of Phrygia (latter half of the second century). He was a priest of Cybele, subsequently converted to Christianity and a teacher at Rome. According to his followers, he was the Paraclete or Holy Spirit promised by Christ. Amongst other things they distinguished two classes of sins, those unto death and those not unto death; denied the validity of second marriages; did not baptize in the name of the Trinity, but in memory of Christ’s death for mankind; despised the old prophets as possessed by evil spirits; and favoured a highly ascetic life. “All the ascetic, rigorous, and chiliastic elements of the Church combined in Montanism.”