Section 227
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196 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. those things that we said, in opposition to the opponents of th< truth, Zoticus Otrenus also being present, who was our fellow presbyter ; this, indeed, I did not perform, but I promised writing hither, and to send it as soon as possible, if the Lord permitted.' Such, and other matters, he states in the beginning of his work premising the cause of the mentioned heresy, as follows: "Thei] combination, therefore, and the recent heretical severance of theirs from the church, had for its origin the following cause :— There is said to be a certain village of Mysia in Phrygia, callec Ardaba. There, they say, one of those who was but a recem convert, Montanus by name, when Cratus was proconsul ir Asia, in the excessive desire of his soul to take the lead, gave the adversary occasion against himself. So that he was carriec away in spirit, and wrought up into a certain kind of frenzy anc irregular ecstasy, raving, and speaking, and uttering strange things, and proclaiming what was contrary to the institutions that had prevailed in the church, as handed down and preservec in succession from the earliest times. But of those that hap pened then to be present, and to hear these spurious oracles, some being indignant, rebuked him as one under the influence of daemons and the spirit of delusion, and who was only exciting disturbances among the multitude. These bore in mind the distinction and the warning given by our Lord, when he cau tioned them to be vigilantly on their guard against false prophets Others again, as if elated by the holy spirit, and the gift of grace and not a little puffed up, and forgetting the distinction made bj our Lord, challenged this insidious, flattering, and seducing spirit being themselves captivated and seduced by him ; so that thei could no longer restrain him to keep silence. Thus, by an ar tifice, or rather by a certain crafty process, the devil having devised destruction against those that disobeyed the truth, am thus excessively honoured by them, secretly stimulated and fire< their understandings, already wrapt in insensibility, and wander ing away from the truth. For he excited two others, females and filled them with the spirit of delusion, so that they also spafo like the former, in a kind of extatic frenzy, out of all season and in a manner strange and novel, whilst the spirit of evi ton