into being. "The sweet reasonableness" of the Gospel
was beclouded by speculation; the primitive holiness degenerated into a
sickly asceticism; for half-converted pagans, the early saints served in
the place of the old divinities; and human nature still remained capable
of most of the vices to which it had formerly been addicted.

Yet the ideal is never without its witnesses. Very early there arose
within the Church the movement known as Montanism, which endeavored to
reproduce the ancient purity by an exaggerated rigidity of discipline
and the early simplicity of the Church by a stern opposition to
ecclesiasticism. This movement carries an interest relative to our
subject, inasmuch as two women held a prominent place as its founders.
The three original prophets of the sect were Montanus, Priscilla, and
Maximilla. The former of the two women was so influential in the
movement that its adherents are frequently spoken of as Priscillianists.
The two women were ladies of noble birth who left their husbands in
order to attach themselves to Montanus. They believed themselves to be
the mediums of the divine Comforter promised by Christ. It was their
habit to fall into ecstasies, in which condition they would prophesy.
They claimed that their teaching was divinely inspired and consequently
infallible. According to them, all gross offenders were to be
excommunicated, and never afterward readmitted to the fold of the
Church. Celibacy was encouraged by them, all worldly amusements were to
be eschewed, and they greatly increased the number of the fasts.

Of Priscilla and Maximilla, Dr. McGiffert says: "They were regarded with
the most profound reverence by all Montanists. It was a characteristic
of this sect that they insisted upon the religious equality of men and
women; that they accorded just as high honor to the women as to the men,
and listened to their prophecies with the same reverence. The human
person was but an instrument of the Spirit, according to their view, and
hence a woman might be chosen by the Spirit as his instrument just as
well as a man, the ignorant as well as the learned. Tertullian, for
instance, cites, in support of his doctrine of the materiality of the
soul, a vision seen by one of the female members of his church, whom he
believed to be in the habit of receiving revelations from God."

These people were reactionaries; they rebelled against the spirit of
laxity, worldliness, and officialdom which was fas