5 - Montanism Part 2: Pepuza and Tymion

Summary

Smallpox came to the Roman world in 165, brought by Lucius Verus’ retreating army. In twenty years it reduced the population by about 25 per cent. New leaders took Montanism forward: Themiso, Miltiades, Theodotus. Great Church figures organized opposition. In Rome, Bishop Victor (189–199) may have been behind the decision that Montanist teaching was unacceptable. In Africa, Perpetua and the others martyred with her in 203 may have had a pro-Montanist catechism teacher. But even if the African situation was ambiguous, in Asia a critical mass built up in Great Church circles against Montanism. At Temenothyrae (Uşak) in Phrygia, however, some early third-century gravestones of clergy survive. Ammion, a woman presbyter, is commemorated, as are Bishops Artemidorus and Diogas. Loukios and Asclepiades may also have been clergy. The sites of Tymion and Pepuza were identified near Uşak in 2000. These clergy buried at Uşak must have known the early Montanists at Pepuza, Stephen Mitchell observes, arguing that the Uşak clergy were anti-Montanist. But the fact that one of the Uşak clergy was a woman points in the opposite direction, implying that they were on the Montanist side.