[435:1] The Ophites carried this feeling so far as to maintain that the serpent which deceived Eve was no other than the divine Aeon Sophia, or Wisdom, who thus weakened the power of Ialdabaoth, or the Demiurge.
[435:2] See Mosheim, "De Caussis Suppositorum Librorum inter Christianos Saeculi Primi et Secundi." "Dissert, ad Hist. Eccl. Pertin." vol. i. 221.
[437:1] His great text was Rev. xx. 6, 7. Hence some now began to dispute the authority of the Apocalypse.
[437:2] Others, who do not appear to have been connected with Montanus, but who lived about the same time, held the same views on the subject of marriage. Thus, Athenagoras says—"A second marriage is by us esteemed a specious adultery."—Apology, § 33.
[437:3] "Nam idem (Praxeas) tunc Episcopum Romanum, agnoscentem jam prophetias Montani, Priseae, Maximillae, et ex ea agnitione pacem ecclesiis Asiae et Phrygiae inferentem, falsa de ipsis prophetis et ecclesiis eorum adseverando et praecessorum ejus auctoritates defendendo coegit et litteras pacis revocare jam emissas et a proposito recipiendorum charismatum concessare."—Tertullian, Adv. Praxean., c. i.
[438:1] Euseb. v. 16.
[438:2] It would appear, however, that it maintained a lingering existence for several centuries. Even Justinian, about A.D. 530, enacts laws against the Montanists or Tertullianists.
[438:3] Isaiah xlv. 5, 7.
[439:1] Augustin, "Contra Epist. Fundamenti," c. 13.
[439:2] On the ground that their oil is the food of light! Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," p. 249.