Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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MONTANISM

A heretical movement in the second century, which professed belief in a new Church of the Spirit. Its members considered themselves specially gifted by the Holy Spirit as prophets of Christ's second coming. The substance of their doctrine was that the Holy Spirit was now supplementing the revelation of Christ, with consequent displacement of the bishops and even the Pope. The new "outpouring of the Spirit" traveled all over the Catholic world and won over the great Tertullian (160-220). Montanism was first condemned by a series of Asiatic synods and also, after some hesitation, by Pope Zephyrinus about A.D. 202.