mid-2nd c. – early 3rd c.

Montanism (the "New Prophecy", the "Phrygian heresy")

The Phrygian presbyter Montanus, together with the prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla, proclaimed that the age of the promised Paraclete had come. The Paraclete, they said, was speaking through them, and the end of the world was near.

The movement demanded strict asceticism: celibacy or single marriage, severe fasting, a ban on fleeing persecution. It exalted voluntary martyrdom and charismatic gifts. Otherwise the Montanists broadly accepted the church's rule of faith.

The Church mostly rejected them not for prophecy as such. The reason was their claim that the decisive age of the Spirit began not with Christ and Pentecost but with Montanus.

The movement spread quickly from Phrygia to Rome and North Africa. There Tertullian joined it (c. 207) for its moral strictness. It lasted at least half a century.