Against the so-called heresy of the Phrygians, Apollonius also, an ecclesiastical writer, while it was still flourishing at that time in Phrygia, set up a refutation, and composed a treatise of his own against them, correcting in detail the prophecies current among them as being false, and convicting the life of the founders of the heresy, showing what manner of men they had been. Hear him, then, speaking in these very words concerning Montanus:
「But who this recent teacher is, his works and his teaching show. This is he who taught the dissolution of marriages; who legislated fastings; who named Pepuza and Tymion Jerusalem (these are little towns of Phrygia), wishing to gather there people from everywhere; who appointed collectors of money; who under the name of offerings contrived the taking of gifts; who furnished salaries to those who proclaimed his word, that through gluttony the teaching of the word might be strengthened.」
And this is what he says concerning Montanus. And concerning his prophetesses, going on further down, he writes thus: 「We show, then, that these very first prophetesses, from the time they were filled with the spirit, abandoned their husbands. How then did they lie, calling Priscilla a virgin?」 Then he adds, saying:
「Does Scripture seem to you to forbid a prophet to receive gifts and money? When, therefore, I see the prophetess having received gold and silver and costly garments, how shall I not turn away from her?」
And again, going on further down, he says this concerning a certain one of their confessors: 「Furthermore, there is also Themiso, who clothed himself in plausible covetousness, who did not bear the sign of confession, but laid aside his bonds by a quantity of money. Though for this he ought to have been humble-minded, he boasted as a martyr, and dared, in imitation of the apostle, to compose a kind of catholic epistle, to instruct those who had believed better than he, and to contend with the words of empty babbling, and to blaspheme against the Lord and the apostles and the holy church.」
And concerning others again, who were honoured among them as martyrs, he writes thus: 「But that we may not speak of many, let the prophetess tell us the case of Alexander, who calls himself a martyr, with whom she feasts, to whom many also do reverence; whose robberies and the other crimes for which he has been punished it is not for us to tell, but the record-office holds them.」
「Who, then, forgives whose sins? Does the prophet forgive the robberies of the martyr, or the martyr the covetousness of the prophet? For though the Lord said, ‘Acquire neither gold nor silver nor two tunics,’ these have transgressed in the very opposite way, in the acquiring of these forbidden things. For we shall show that those called among them prophets and martyrs make money not only from the rich but also from the poor and orphans and widows.」
「And if they have confidence, let them stand upon this, and let them define their position on these matters, so that, if they are convicted, they may at least cease henceforth from transgressing. For the fruits of the prophet must be tested, since from the fruit the tree is known.」
「But that the facts about Alexander may be known to those who wish, he was judged by Aemilius Frontinus the proconsul at Ephesus—not for the Name, but for the robberies which he had dared to commit, being already a transgressor. Then, falsely appealing to the name of the Lord, he was released, having deceived the faithful there; and his own community, from which he came, did not receive him, because he was a robber. And those who wish to learn the facts about him have the public archive of Asia.」
「This man, with whom the prophet consorted for many years, the prophet does not know; and we, by exposing him, expose also through him the very nature of the prophet. We are able to demonstrate the like in the case of many; and if they are bold, let them submit to the test.」
And again, in another part of his work, concerning the prophets in whom they boast, he adds these words: 「If they deny that their prophets received gifts, let them confess this much: that if they are convicted of having received them, they are not prophets; and we will furnish countless proofs of these things. But it is necessary that all the fruits of a prophet be tested. Tell me, does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet paint his eyes with stibium? Does a prophet love adornment? Does a prophet play at tables and dice? Does a prophet lend money at interest? Let them confess whether these things are permitted or not, and I will show that they have gone on among them.」
This same writer relates, in the same treatise, that it was the fortieth year, up to the writing of his treatise, since Montanus had undertaken his pretended prophecy.
And again he says that Zoticus, whom the former writer also mentioned, when Maximilla was pretending to prophesy at Pepuza, stood by and tried to refute the spirit working in her, but was prevented by those who held her views. He mentions also a certain Thraseas, one of the martyrs of that time.
Moreover, he says that, as from tradition, the Saviour commanded his apostles not to depart from Jerusalem for twelve years. He makes use also of testimonies from the Revelation of John, and relates that a dead man was raised by divine power through John himself at Ephesus. And he says certain other things, by which he abundantly and most fully set straight the error of the aforesaid heresy. So much also from Apollonius.