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The Church Fathers · c. 197; survives in fragments

Against the Montanists

Apollonius

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What it is

An attack on the new prophecy that goes after its finances rather than its theology: Montanus paying salaries to preachers, Priscilla and Maximilla leaving their husbands, prophets who dye their hair, paint their eyelids, play dice, and lend at interest.

Why it lasted

The earliest surviving argument that a movement should be judged by the conduct of its leaders rather than the content of its claims — a test the church has reached for ever since.

Scripture it works from

Where to read it

Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.

These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.

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