Apollonius

Apollonius, a man of great talent, wrote a notable and lengthy volume against Montanus, Prisca and Maximilla. In it he asserts that Montanus and his mad prophetesses died by hanging, and he says many other things, among them the following about Prisca and Maximilla: “If they deny that they have accepted gifts, let them admit that those who do accept them are not prophets, and I will prove by a thousand witnesses that they have received gifts. For it is by other fruits that prophets are shown to be prophets indeed. Tell me, does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet paint her eyelids? Is a prophet adorned with fine clothes and precious stones? Does a prophet play at dice and gaming boards? Does he lend money at interest? Let them answer whether this ought to be allowed or not. It will be my task to prove that they do these things.” In the same book he says that he wrote the work in the fortieth year after the heresy of the Cataphrygians began. Tertullian added a seventh book, aimed especially at Apollonius, to the six volumes he wrote On Ecstasy against the church, and in it he tries to defend everything that Apollonius had refuted. Apollonius flourished in the reigns of Commodus and Severus. [a]