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he promises, and a commentary on the Hexaemeron is also attributed to him. 5.13.9 This Apelles, at any rate, committed countless impieties against the law of Moses, blaspheming the divine words in numerous treatises and making no small effort for their refutation, so it seemed, and their overthrow. So much, then, for these matters. 5.14.1 But the enemy of the Church of God, being a hater of the good to the highest degree and a lover of wickedness, leaving no method of plotting against men untried, was active in causing strange heresies to spring up again against the Church. Of whom some, like venomous serpents, were creeping about in Asia and Phrygia, boasting in Montanus as the Paraclete, and in his women, Priscilla and Maximilla, as having been prophetesses of Montanus. Others flourished in Rome, whose leader was Florinus, who had fallen from the presbytery of the church, and Blastus with him, held fast by a similar fall. Who also, drawing away many of the church, led them over to their own will, the one attempting to introduce novelties of his own concerning the truth. Against the so-called Phrygian heresy, therefore, the power that champions the truth raised up in Hierapolis a strong and invincible weapon in Apolinarius, of whom my account has made mention before, and with him many other learned men of that time, from whom a very abundant subject for history has also been left to us. 5.16.2 At any rate, beginning his treatise against them, one of the aforementioned men first indicates that he had proceeded against them with unwritten refutations; at least he prefaces in this manner: 5.16.3 "For a very long and sufficient time, beloved Abercius Marcellus, having been urged by you to compose some treatise against the heresy of those called Miltiades', I have been somewhat hesitant until now, not from an inability to refute the falsehood and bear witness to the truth, but from fear and caution lest I should seem to some to be adding a new article or precept to the word of the new covenant of the gospel, to which it is not possible for one who has chosen to live according to the gospel itself either to add or to take away. 5.16.4 But having recently been in Ancyra in Galatia, and finding the local church abuzz with this new, not, as they say, prophecy, but rather, as will be shown, false prophecy, as far as was possible, the Lord granting, we discoursed for several days in the church both about these very persons and about each of the things proposed by them, so that the church rejoiced and was strengthened in the truth, and those from the opposite side were for the present repulsed, and the adversaries were grieved. 5.16.5 Therefore, when the local presbyters requested that we leave behind some record of what had been said against those who are opposed to the word of truth, our fellow-presbyter Zoticus of Otrous also being present, we did not do this, but we promised that, having written it here, the Lord willing, we would send it to them with haste." 5.16.6 Having said these things and others following them at the beginning of his work, as he proceeds he relates the cause of the aforementioned heresy in this manner: "The beginning of them, then, and the recent heresy of the schism from the Church had such a cause. 5.16.7 There is said to be a certain village in Mysia bordering Phrygia, called Ardabau by name. There they say that one of the recent converts, Montanus by name, during the proconsulship of Gratus in Asia, in an immoderate desire of his soul for pre-eminence, gave access to himself to the adversary, and was carried away by the spirit, and suddenly falling into a sort of possession and ecstasy, he began to rave and to speak and to utter strange things, prophesying, so he claimed, contrary to the custom of the Church which had been handed down by tradition and succession from the beginning. 5.16.8 But of those who at that time were present to hear the spurious utterances, some, as if he were possessed and demonized and in a spirit of error, and the

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ἐπαγγέλλεται, φέρεται δὲ τοῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς τὴν ἑξαήμερον ὑπόμνημα. 5.13.9 ὅ γέ τοι Ἀπελλῆς οὗτος μυρία κατὰ τοῦ Μωυσέως ἠσέβησεν νόμου, διὰ πλειόνων συγγραμμάτων τοὺς θείους βλασφημήσας λόγους εἰς ἔλεγχόν τε, ὥς γε δὴ ἐδόκει, καὶ ἀνατροπὴν αὐτῶν οὐ μικρὰν πεποιημένος σπουδήν. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν περὶ τούτων· 5.14.1 μισόκαλός γε μὴν ἐς τὰ μάλιστα καὶ φιλοπόνηρος ὢν ὁ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ θεοῦ πολέμιος μηδένα τε μηδαμῶς τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπολιπὼν ἐπιβουλῆς τρόπον, αἱρέσεις ξένας αὖθις ἐπιφύεσθαι κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐνήργει· ὧν οἳ μὲν ἰοβόλων δίκην ἑρπετῶν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ Φρυγίας εἷρπον, τὸν μὲν δὴ παράκλητον Μοντανόν, τὰς δ' ἐξ αὐτοῦ γυναῖκας, Πρίσκιλλαν καὶ Μαξίμιλλαν, ὡς ἂν τοῦ Μοντανοῦ προφήτιδας γεγονυίας αὐχοῦντες· οἳ δ' ἐπὶ Ῥώμης ἤκμαζον, ὧν ἡγεῖτο Φλωρῖνος πρεσβυτερίου τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀποπεσών, Βλάστος τε σὺν τούτῳ, παραπλησίῳ πτώματι κατεσχημένος· οἳ καὶ πλείους τῆς ἐκκλησίας περιέλκοντες ἐπὶ τὸ σφῶν ὑπῆγον βούλημα, θάτερος ἰδίως περὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν νεωτερίζειν πειρώμενος. Πρὸς μὲν οὖν τὴν λεγομένην κατὰ Φρύγας αἵρεσιν ὅπλον ἰσχυρὸν καὶ ἀκαταγώνιστον ἐπὶ τῆς Ἱεραπόλεως τὸν Ἀπολινάριον, οὗ καὶ πρόσθεν μνήμην ὁ λόγος πεποίητο, ἄλλους τε σὺν αὐτῷ πλείους τῶν τηνικάδε λογίων ἀνδρῶν ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ὑπέρμαχος ἀνίστη δύναμις, ἐξ ὧν καὶ ἡμῖν ἱστορίας πλείστη τις ὑπόθεσις καταλέλειπται. 5.16.2 ἀρχόμενος γοῦν τῆς κατ' αὐτῶν γραφῆς, τῶν εἰρημένων δή τις πρῶτον ἐπισημαίνεται ὡς καὶ ἀγράφοις τοῖς κατ' αὐτῶν ἐπεξέλθοι ἐλέγχοις· προοιμιάζεται γοῦν τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον· 5.16.3 «ἐκ πλείστου ὅσου καὶ ἱκανωτάτου χρόνου, ἀγαπητὲ Ἀυίρκιε Μάρκελλε, ἐπιταχθεὶς ὑπὸ σοῦ συγγράψαι τινὰ λόγον εἰς τὴν τῶν κατὰ Μιλτιάδην λεγομένων αἵρεσιν, ἐφεκτικώτερόν πως μέχρι νῦν διεκείμην, οὐκ ἀπορίᾳ τοῦ δύνασθαι ἐλέγχειν μὲν τὸ ψεῦδος, μαρτυρεῖν δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, δεδιὼς δὲ καὶ ἐξευλαβούμενος μή πῃ δόξω τισὶν ἐπισυγγράφειν ἢ ἐπιδιατάσσεσθαι τῷ τῆς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καινῆς διαθήκης λόγῳ, ᾧ μήτε προσθεῖναι μήτε ἀφελεῖν δυνατὸν τῷ κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον αὐτὸ πολιτεύεσθαι προῃρημένῳ. 5.16.4 προσφάτως δὲ γενόμενος ἐν Ἀγκύρᾳ τῆς Γαλατίας καὶ καταλαβὼν τὴν κατὰ τόπον ἐκκλησίαν ὑπὸ τῆς νέας ταύτης, οὐχ, ὡς αὐτοί φασιν, προφητείας, πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον, ὡς δειχθήσεται, ψευδοπροφητείας διατεθρυλημένην, καθ' ὅσον δυνατόν, τοῦ κυρίου παρασχόντος, περὶ αὐτῶν τε τούτων καὶ τῶν προτεινομένων ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἕκαστά τε διελέχθημεν ἡμέραις πλείοσιν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ὡς τὴν μὲν ἐκκλησίαν ἀγαλλιαθῆναι καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐπιρρωσθῆναι, τοὺς δ' ἐξ ἐναντίας πρὸς τὸ παρὸν ἀποκρουσθῆναι καὶ τοὺς ἀντιθέτους λυπηθῆναι. 5.16.5 ἀξιούντων οὖν τῶν κατὰ τόπον πρεσβυτέρων ὅπως τῶν λεχθέντων κατὰ τῶν ἀντιδιατιθεμένων τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγῳ ὑπόμνημά τι καταλείπωμεν, παρόντος καὶ τοῦ συμπρεσβυτέρου ἡμῶν Ζωτικοῦ τοῦ Ὀτρηνοῦ, τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἐπράξαμεν, ἐπηγγειλάμεθα δέ, ἐνθάδε γράψαντες, τοῦ κυρίου διδόντος, διὰ σπουδῆς πέμψειν αὐτοῖς». 5.16.6 ταῦτα καὶ ἑξῆς τούτοις ἕτερα κατ' ἀρχὰς εἰπὼν τοῦ λόγου, τὸν αἴτιον τῆς δηλουμένης αἱρέσεως προϊὼν τοῦτον ἀνιστορεῖ τὸν τρόπον· «ἡ τοίνυν ἔνστασις αὐτῶν καὶ πρόσφατος τοῦ ἀποσχίσματος αἵρεσις πρὸς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν αἰτίαν ἔσχε τοιαύτην. 5.16.7 κώμη τις εἶναι λέγεται ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὴν Φρυγίαν Μυσίᾳ, καλουμένη Ἀρδαβαῦ τοὔνομα· ἔνθα φασί τινα τῶν νεοπίστων πρώτως, Μοντανὸν τοὔνομα, κατὰ Γρᾶτον Ἀσίας ἀνθύπατον, ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ ψυχῆς ἀμέτρῳ φιλοπρωτείας δόντα πάροδον εἰς ἑαυτὸν τῷ ἀντικειμένῳ πνευματοφορηθῆναί τε καὶ αἰφνιδίως ἐν κατοχῇ τινι καὶ παρεκστάσει γενόμενον ἐνθουσιᾶν ἄρξασθαί τε λαλεῖν καὶ ξενοφωνεῖν, παρὰ τὸ κατὰ παράδοσιν καὶ κατὰ διαδοχὴν ἄνωθεν τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἔθος δῆθεν προφητεύοντα. 5.16.8 τῶν δὲ κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἐν τῇ τῶν νόθων ἐκφωνημάτων ἀκροάσει γενομένων οἳ μὲν ὡς ἐπὶ ἐνεργουμένῳ καὶ δαιμονῶντι καὶ ἐν πλάνης πνεύματι ὑπάρχοντι καὶ τοὺς