Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/807

Rh M N M O N 777 church at large was given over to worldliness, that she had forsaken the old paths and entered on a way that must lead to destruction. The writings of Tertullian afford the clearest demonstration that what is called Mon tanism was a reaction against secularism in the church, and an effort to conserve the privileges of primitive Chris- tianity. At the same time, they show no less clearly that Montanism in Carthage was a very different thing from the Montanism of Montanus. Western Montanism, at the beginning of the 3d century, admitted the legitimacy of almost every point of the Catholic system. It allowed that the bishops were the successors of the apostles, that the Catholic rule of faith was a complete and authoritative exposition of Christianity, and that the New Testament was the supreme rule of the Christian life. How, then, one may well ask, was it possible to separate from the Catholic Church? On what ground could the separation be justi fied ? How could it be said that a new era of the Spirit had come in when the Spirit had already given all neces sary instructions in the Scriptures of the New Testament 1 And what claim could be thought to exceed the legitimate rights of the successors of the apostles 1 Montanus himself and his first disciples had been in quite a different position. I n his time there was no fixed, divinely-instituted congrega- tional organization, no canon of New Testament Scriptures, no anti-Gnostic theology, and no Catholic Church. There were simply certain communities of believers bound to gether by a common hope, and by a free organization, which might be modified to any required extent. When Montanus proposed to siimmon all true Christians to Pepuza, in order to live a holy life and prepare for the day of the Lord, there was nothing whatever to prevent the execution of his plan except the inertia and lukewarmness of Chris tendom. But this was not the case in the West at the beginning of the 3d century. At Rome and Carthage, and in all other places where sincere Montanists were found, they were confronted by the imposing edifice of the Catholic Church, and they had neither the courage nor the inclination to undermine her sacred foundations. This explains how the later Montanism never attained a posi tion of influence. In accepting, with slight reservations, the results of the development which the church had undergone during the fifty years from 160 to 210 it reduced itself to the level of a sect. For, if the stand point of the Catholic Church is once acknowledged, then Montanism is an innovation ; and if the canon of the New Testament is accepted the doctrine of a new era of the Spirit is heresy. Tertullian exhausted the resources of dialectic in the endeavour to define and vindicate the relation of the spiritualists to the &quot; psychic &quot; Christians ; but no one will say he has succeeded in clearing the Mon- tanistic position of its fundamental inconsistency. Of the later history of Montanism very little is known. But it is at least a significant fact that prophecy could not be resuscitated. Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla were always recognized as the inspired authorities. At rare intervals a vision might perhaps be vouchsafed to some Montanistic old woman, or a brother might now and then have a drearn that seemed to be of supernatural origin ; but the overmastering power of religious enthusiasm was a thing of which the Montanists knew as little as the Catho lics. Their discipline was attended with equally disap pointing results. In place of an intense moral earnestness binding itself by its own strict laws, we find in Tertullian a legal casuistry, a finical morality, from which no good could ever come. It was only in the land of its nativity that Montanism held its ground till the 4th century. It maintained itself there in a number of close communities, probably in places where no Catholic congregation had been formed ; and to these the Novatians at a later period attached themselves. In Carthage there existed down to the year 400 a sect called Tertullianists ; and in their comparatively late survival we have a striking testimony to the influence of the great Carthaginian teacher. On doctrinal questions there was no real difference between the Catholics and the Montanists. The early Montanists (the prophets themselves) used expressions which seem to indicate a Monarchian conception of the person of Christ. After the close of the 2d century we find two sections amongst the Western Montanists, just as amongst the Western Catholics, there were some who adopted the Logos-Christology, and others who remained Monarchians. Sources. The materials for the history of Montanism, although plentiful, are fragmentary, and require a good deal of critical sifting. They may be divided into four groups. (1) The utterances of Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla 1 are our most important sources, but unfortunately they consist of only twenty-one short sayings. (2) The works written by Tertullian after he became a Montanist furnish the most copious information, not, however, about the first stages of the movement, but only about its later phase, after the Catholic Church was established. (3) The oldest polemical works of the 2d century, extracts from which have been preserved, especially by Eusebius (Hist. Eccles., bk. v.), form the next group. These must be used with the utmost caution, because even the earliest orthodox writers give currency to many misconceptions and calumnies. (4) The later lists of heretics, and the casual notices of church fathers from the 3d to the 5th century, though not con taining much that is of value, yet contain a little. 2 Literature. RitschPs investigations, referred to above, super sede the older works of Tillemont, Wernsdorf, Mosheim, Walch, Neander, Baur, and Schwegler (Der Montanismus und die christ- liche Kirche des 2tcn Jahrhunderts, Tubingen, 1841 ). The later works, of which the best and most exhaustive is that of Bonwetsch, Die Geschichte des Montanismus, 1881, all follow the lines laid down by Ritschl. See also, Gottwald, De Montanismo Tcrtulliani, 1862 ; Reville, &quot;Tcrtullien etle Montanisme&quot;in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st November 1864 ; Stroelin, Essai sur le Montanismc, 1870 ; De Soyres, Montanism, and the Primitive Church, London, 1878 ; W. Cunningham, The Churches of Asia, London, 1880; Renan, &quot; Les Crises du Catholicisme Naissant&quot; in Rev. d. DcuxMondes, 15th Feb ruary 1881 ; Mbller, art. &quot;Montanismus&quot; in Herzog s Thcol. Realcncyklop., 2d ed. Special points of importance in the history of Montanism have been quite recently investigated by Lipsius, Over- beck, Weizsaeker (Thcol. Lit.-Zcitung, Nr. 4, 1882), and Harnack (Das Monchthum, seine Ideale und seine Geschichte, 2d ed., 1882, and Z. f. Kirchcng., iii. pp. 369-408). Weizsacker s short essays are extremely valuable, and have elucidated several important points hitherto overlooked. (A. HA.) MONTARGIS, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Loiret, France, lies 40 miles east-north-east of Orleans on the railway from Paris to Lyons. Traversed by the Loing, Montargis belongs to the basin of the Seine, but it communicates with the Loire by the Orleans and the Briare canals. It has a fine church (Ste Magdelaine), dating in part from the 12th century, a museum, and a public library ; and it still preserves portions of its once magnificent castle, which was capable of containing 6000 men, and, previous to the erection of Fontainebleau, was so favourite a residence of the royal family that it acquired the title of &quot; Berceau des Enfans de la France.&quot; Paper-making (introduced in the beginning of the 18th century) and several other considerable industries are carried on. The population of both commune and town was 9175 in 1876. Montargis (Mons Argi or Algi, M. Arginus, Monfargitim) was formerly the capital of the Gatinais (Pagus Vastinensis). Having passed in 1188 from the Courtenai family to Philip Augustus, it long formed part of the royal domain. In 1 528 Francis I. mortgaged town, castle, and forest (this last a tract of great value) to Renee d Este, daughter of Louis XII., the .famous Huguenot princess ; and in 1570 Charles IX. gave them in full property to her daughter Anne, through whom they descended to the dukes of Guise, but they were repurchased for the crown in 1612. Montargis was several times taken or attacked by the English in the 15th century, and is parti cularly proud of the successful defence it made in 1427. Both Charles VII. and Charles VIII. held court in the town ; it was the latter who set the famous Dog of Montargis to fight a duel with his master s murderer whom he had tracked and captured. 1 Collected by Miiiiter, and by Bouwetsch, Geschichte des Montan ismus, p. 197 sq. 2 On the sources, see Bonwetsch, pp. 16-55. XVI. 98