Montanus, a celebrated heresiarch of the early Christian Church, the supposed founder of a sect named after him Montani^s (q. v.), was a Phrygian by birth, and, according to Eusebius {/fist. Eccles. x, 16). made his first public appearance about A.D. 170, in the vil- lage of Ardabar, on the confines of Phrygia and ^lysia, of which place he is believed to have been a native (comp., however, the bishop of Lincoln's [ Kaye] Tertul- lian, J). 13 sq.). He was brought up in heathenism, but ajipearsto have embraced Christianity (about 170) with all the fanatical enthusiasm for which his countrymen were noted. Neander endeavors to explain his diar- •acter and tendencies on the supposition of his possess- ing an essentially Phrygian temperament, and the little we know concerning him renders this highly probable. The frenzy, the paroxysms, the fierce Ix-lief in the su- pernatural, that marked the old IMm-gian priests of Cy- bele and Bacchus, are repeated unoer less savage, but not less abnormal conditions, in the ecstasies, somnam- bulism, and passion for self-immolation of the Mouta-
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nists. According to some of the ancient writers, Mon- Unus was believed by his followers to be the Para- clete, or Holy Spirit, But this is an exaggeration, for he, falling into somnambulistic ecstasies, came sim- ply to consider himself the inspired organ of the Para- clete, the Helper and Comforter promised by Christ in these last times of distress. He, however, certainly claimed divine inspiration for himself and his associ- ates. They delivered their prophecies in an ecstasy, and their example seems to have introduced into the Church the practice of appealing to visions in favor of opinions and actions, of which practice Cyprian and others availed themselves to a great extent (comp. Mid- dleton, Free Inquiry, p. 98, etc.). His principal asso- ciates were two pro]ilietesses, named Prisca, or Priscilla, and Maximilla. The doctrines which Montanus, if he taught at all as a leader of a sect, disseminated are now clearly seen to have been in general agreement with those of the Church catholic of the 2d centurj-, and the fact that Tertullian at one time became the most bril- liant exponent of the jNIontanists would go far to con- firm such a position. But the austerity of manner, the strictness of discipline, and the doctrine of a permanent extraordinary influence of the Paraclete, manifesting itself by prophetic ecstasies and visions, opened wide the door to all manner of fanatical extravagances, and brought reproach upon the name of founder and sect alike. Ecclesiastical writers of succeeding centuries have in consequence brought more or less reproach upon the name of Montanus by accusations of immoral- ity and crime, and he is even said to have ended his days violently. But there is no authority for such statements, if we may believe Schwegler, Der Mon- tanismus u. die christliche Kirche des zweiten Juhrh. (Tub. 1841, 8vo). He insists upon it that "there is nothing of historical value in the life of this man at our command" (p. 242), and believes that "the person Mon- tanus is of no significance in the examination and elu- cidation of what is known as Montanism,'" and would go even so far as to "doubt the historical existence of this apocryphal character" (p. 243). There is certainly ground for such a position in the fact that in their ear- liest days the Jlontanists were never spoken of under that name, but were generally called, especially bj' Ter- tullian and Eusebius, after the name of the country in which they originated, Catajyhrygiam, or after the name of the place to which they assigned special sanctitj', Pe- jmzians (comp. Epiphan. Hcer. xlviii, 14). Bishop Kaye, in his Tertullian (p. 28 sq.), takes it for granted that J\lcntanus was a historical character, and awards to him the dignity of founder of the Montanists. The learned bishop even believes, depending upon Tertullian's work, " that the effusions of Montanus and his female associ- ates had been committed to writing," and that " Tertul- lian, believing that Montanus was commissioned to complete the Christian revelation, could not deem him inferior to the apostles, by whom it was only obscurely and imperfectly developed." See references to the ar- ticle ^lONTANISTS. (.J, H. W.)
Montanus, Benedict Arias. See Arl\s.
Montanus of Toledo, a noted Spanish prelate of the early Christian Church, flourished in the 6th cen- tury. But little is known of his personal historj'. He succeeded Celsus in the see of Toledo A.D. 531 ; he pre- sided at the council held in Toledo, and died in the year 540. There are two letters of his extant, one to the brethren of Palantia, and the other to Theodorius, bishop of Palantia.— Clarke, Sacred Lit. ii, 306.
Montanye, Thojias B., a Baptist minister, was born in New York in 1769. He began preaching when quite young, and was in 1788 ordained pastor of the Baptist society in Warwick, N. Y., where he remained tnitil 1801, when he accepted a call from the Church in Southampton, Bucks County, Pa., which situation he held until his death, Sept. 27, 1829. He was a truly popular preacher, and on accoimt of his talents and piety
his services came to be much sought after for ordina- tions, councils, and especially religious anniversaries, yet none of his works have been published. — Sprague, A nnals, vi, 265.