t taking hold of the
Church. Their prophesying women were simply a revival of what had been
common in Apostolic times, when the daughters of Philip were
prophetesses. But order had been evolved in the ecclesia. In fact, out
of the numerous forms of evangelical activity that existed in the
original unsettled condition of the Church, three orders had been
established, in none of which were women represented. Moreover, the
female friends of Montanus seem to have been rather unconvincing in
regard to their prophecies. Maximilla declared that after her there
would be no other prophet, intimating that the end of the world was
about to take place, a prediction as common among such enthusiasts as it
is hazardous in its nature. She also prophesied that wars and anarchy
were near at hand, which, as an anonymous writer quoted by Eusebius
found no difficulty in showing, was clearly false. With a jubilation
which, under the circumstances, was not unwarranted, he cries: "It is
to-day more than thirteen years since the woman died, and there has been
neither a partial nor general war in the world; but rather, through the
mercy of God, continued peace even to the Christians." From this time,
any attempt, on the part of women or men, to revive the gift of prophecy
after the apostolic manner was always classed with heresy, schism, and
other works of the devil, which it was the duty of the faithful
zealously to cast out.

During the many and long intermissions during which the Christians were
not persecuted, the Church steadily grew in prominence and in social
standing. Before the time of Diocletian, large and handsome edifices had
been erected in many places for the use of Christian worship. The
doctrines therein taught were no longer unknown to the rulers and chief
men of paganism; the faith was no longer the possession almost solely of
bondservants and the lowly. Among its conquests were men and women of
high position; even the imperial family was now and again strongly
suspected of contributing friends to the new religion. Prisca and
Valeria, the wife and daughter of Diocletian, were certainly
catechumens, though they sacrificed to the heathen deities when the
emperor gave his edict for persecution. The world was not to see a Roman
empress playing the tragic part of a martyr to Christianity.

Of the time immediately preceding the persecution of Diocletian,
Eusebius says: "It is beyond our ability to describe in a suitable
manner the