c. 150–175

Montanism: The "New Prophecy" and the Age of the Paraclete

The Phrygian prophet Montanus, with the prophetesses Prisca (Priscilla) and Maximilla, declared that Jesus' promise of the Comforter (John 14:26) had been fulfilled: the last and highest stage of revelation had arrived – the age of the Paraclete, speaking through Montanus about the imminent end of the world. The prophecies were uttered in ecstasy, and their content was above all moral: strict fasts, restrictions on remarriage, martyrdom without flight from persecution, refusal to forgive grave sins after baptism. According to Tertullian, who embraced the "new prophecy" around 200, the Comforter established a new discipline, not a new doctrine. The church rejected the movement, among other reasons because it endangered the finality of revelation in Christ.