Charismania -- The Origins of the Renewal, Part I: From the Phrygian Heresy to the Holiness Movement #2

Chapter One

Almost two thousand years ago, Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven after instructing his Apostles to await the time when they would “receive the power of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 1:8) at Pentecost. Of course, all Christians with even a modicum of formation are familiar with the story of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles at prayer, ten days after the Ascension. The Apostles, and subsequently many other disciples, received special gifts from God that empowered them to preach the Gospel to men of every nation, fomenting mass conversions to Christ, especially when Peter preached in Jerusalem, resulting in the reception of three thousand souls into the Church (Acts 2:14-41). 

Other chapters of this book will go into great detail concerning the true nature of the Charismatic Gifts, but those authentic gifts received by the first followers and ministers of Christ included speaking in tongues (languages), the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, and so on. These gifts bestowed by God equipped the Early Church to spread the Gospel quickly and efficiently to all nations, thereby giving them the tools necessary to fulfill the “Great Commission: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:19-20).

This early period in Church history was filled with both success and failure, orthodoxy and heresy. Many Christians were made by the preaching and manifestations of God’s power through the Apostles and disciples, and many great saints were made by the bloody martyrdom that became so common for the first Christians. We should also note that the defeat of Christians in the earthly sense — their death for Christ — was their gain and triumph in Heaven as they won a martyr’s crown and were numbered among the saints.

As early as the time of Saint Paul, we already hear that various heresies had arisen, which Paul said were permitted for a purpose: “For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19).

According to Paul, heresies would arise so that those who were “approved” — that is, truly of God — would manifest the truth of the Faith against the errors of the Devil. This is consistent with what has been seen throughout Church history, as we have seen numerous heresiarchs raised up from iniquity who have been crushed by the heroism and orthodoxy of great saints. We might call to mind the great heresy of Arianism, named after the heresiarch Arius, which denied the divinity of Christ. This heresy was so widespread that it is estimated that the vast majority of bishops were in favour of, or tacitly approved of this heresy. St. Jerome is often quoted as saying, “The whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian.” Of course, there arose Saint Athanasius who fought contra mundum — against the world — and persisted in his defence of the Trinity, even though he was excommunicated and exiled numerous times. To us today, he is known as Saint Athanasius the Great, and Arius is remembered as a devil, even if a clever devil. 

Many such examples from the annals of Church history could be used to make similar points.

Montanism, the Phrygian Heresy

About a century after the true Pentecost, there arose a false preacher who was babbling on about new revelations from the Holy Ghost. A man named Montanus began preaching a false doctrine about the Holy Ghost in the region of Phrygia, which is now considered part of modern-day Turkey — this gave rise to the error being known initially as the Phrygian Heresy, later referred to as Montanism.

Montanus had two principal female companions named Priscilla and Maximilla, who were alleged to be prophets along with him. According to the oldest sources¹, Montanus preached a “New Prophecy” that he claimed was given to him by the Holy Ghost. Some sources go so far as to claim that he believed himself to be the Holy Ghost incarnate, like Jesus Christ was the Son of God incarnate, but opinions differ on that detail. Regardless, the heresy centred around the notion that the Holy Ghost was revealing things to Montanus and his false prophets, and that these revelations and spiritual manifestations were demonstrated in extraordinary ways. 

Eusebius, perhaps the greatest historian of the Early Church, wrote about the affair thusly:

There is said to be a certain village called Ardabau in that part of Mysia, which borders upon Phrygia. There first, they say, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia, a recent convert, Montanus by name, through his unquenchable desire for leadership, gave the adversary opportunity against him. And he became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the Church handed down by tradition from the beginning.

Some of those who heard his spurious utterances at that time were indignant, and they rebuked him as one that was possessed, and that was under the control of a demon, and was led by a deceitful spirit, and was distracting the multitude; and they forbade him to talk, remembering the distinction drawn by the Lord and his warning to guard watchfully against the coming of false prophets. But others imagining themselves possessed of the Holy Spirit and of a prophetic gift, were elated and not a little puffed up; and forgetting the distinction of the Lord, they challenged the mad and insidious and seducing spirit, and were cheated and deceived by him. In consequence of this, he could no longer be held in check, so as to keep silence.

Thus by artifice, or rather by such a system of wicked craft, the devil, devising destruction for the disobedient, and being unworthily honored by them, secretly excited and inflamed their understandings which had already become estranged from the true faith. And he stirred up besides two women, and filled them with the false spirit, so that they talked wildly and unreasonably and strangely, like the person already mentioned. And the spirit pronounced them blessed as they rejoiced and gloried in him, and puffed them up by the magnitude of his promises. But sometimes he rebuked them openly in a wise and faithful manner, that he might seem to be a reprover. But those of the Phrygians that were deceived were few in number.²

This was in the wake of the Apostolic Age, in the second half of the second century, and thus the notion that some Christians could be manifesting special gifts from God to teach and preach was not a foreign concept. However, the manifestations of the Montanists were different from what we read about in the account of Pentecost and the letters of Saint Paul. The Montanists were said to have experienced intense ecstasies, which befell the adherents when the Holy Ghost allegedly communicated with and through them. 

Montanism fomented great emotionalism and sensationalism among its adherents, which produced great spiritual instability. Furthermore, the continual revelations were seemingly unending, and the result was chaos. The justification for the supposed new revelations was based on a belief that the Second Coming of Christ was at hand, and therefore Heaven was preparing the Church with information that was not required during the revelation of the New Testament. 

What is interesting is that the Phrygian Heresy was not a heresy in the sense that it denied any of the teachings of the Church in an explicit way, but was heretical in what it added to the Revelation of Christ. Also, followers of this sect demonstrated great moral uprightness in their practices and a significant commitment to asceticism, which they believed better represented the true Christian life found in the Gospel; we could say that they were in a sense “reformers” who believed they were living the Gospel more fully. They were in no way flippant about their beliefs, but that doesn’t change the fact they were simply wrong to hold them in the first place.

In fact, the great Early Church scholar Tertullian — an authority on many spiritual matters — defended the Montanists vigorously. Alas, his defence of Montanism led him to further strange and erroneous ideas as he aged, and therefore he is not considered a Church Father.

Eventually, the heresy grew in scope to the point where laymen and women were all called to participate in the “priesthood of all believers,” which seems to have been a perversion of Saint Peter’s call to Christians to participate spiritually in the priestly reality of the Church when he wrote: “Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). 

As a result, even women were called to a heretical type of “priesthood” where any person initiated into the heresy could perform functions otherwise restricted to priests, such as exorcisms and sacramental functions. This confusion of the sacerdotal office led to a belief that these supposed prophets spoke with “authority,” and those who did not listen to them were seen as “foolish” for ignoring the true presence of God in their midst.

The Phrygian Heresy was eventually condemned by the bishops of the region and by the Church, but it remained active in that region for some centuries. 

More could be said about this heresy, but a few main aspects should be considered:

1. Montanists believed that the Holy Ghost was moving in a special way in their time.

2. They demonstrated a faux “gift of tongues” that was categorized by strange speech during ecstatic moments.

3. There was a significant female-led component to the movement - this is unnatural for Catholicism, which is explicitly patriarchal.³

4. Constant “revelations” that were never approved by the Church were taken as Gospel truth, and the supposed “prophets” themselves had no real authority beyond their own claims of said authority that were based on their false revelations — circular reasoning at its finest.

5. Lay people performed priestly functions, even though they had no authority to do so.

6. Adherents of the movement demonstrated a “cultish” commitment due to their belief that God was using these supposed prophets as His instruments, and therefore they were, in many ways, impervious to argumentation contrary to their sect’s beliefs; you cannot argue against someone who is convinced he is speaking for God, or who is defending someone who claims to be speaking for God.

7. They believed themselves to be reestablishing a true “Apostolic” way of life, like the earliest Christians and lived in intentional communities committed to a way of life based on their erroneous beliefs.

Every one of these characteristics can be brought to bear against the theology and beliefs of the Renewal, as will become clear.

The Phrygian Heresy largely disappeared after it was condemned, but like all heresies, it was from the Devil, and the Devil never ceases to tempt Christians into heresies of all sorts. Some seventeen centuries later, Montanism reemerged under another name, this time outside of the Catholic Church.