nty years.

About this time a false teacher named Montanus made much noise in the
world. He was born in Phrygia, and seems to have been crazed in his
mind. He used to fall into fits, and while in them, he uttered ravings
which were taken for prophecies, or messages from heaven: and some
women who followed him also pretended to be prophetesses. These people
taught a very strict way of living, and thus many persons who wished to
lead holy lives were deceived into running after them. One of these was
Tertullian, of Carthage, in Africa, a very clever and learned man, who
had been converted from heathenism, and had written some books in
defence of the Gospel. But he was of a proud and impatient temper, and
did not rightly consider how our Lord Himself had said that there would
always be a mixture of evil with the good in His Church on earth (_St.
Matt._ xiii. 38, 48). And hence, when Montanus pretended to set up a new
church, in which there should be none but good and holy people,
Tertullian fell into the snare, and left the true Church to join the
Montanists (as the followers of Montanus were called). From that time he
wrote very bitterly against the Church; but he still continued to defend
the Gospel in his books against Jews and heathens, and all kinds of
false teachers, except Montanus. And when he was dead, his good deeds
were remembered more than his fall, so that, with all his faults, his
name has always been held in respect.

After more than twenty years of peace, there were cruel persecutions in
some places, under the reign of Severus. The most famous of the martyrs
who then suffered were Perpetua and her companions, who belonged to the
same country with Tertullian, and perhaps to his own city, Carthage.
Perpetua was a young married lady, and had a little baby only a few
weeks old. Her father was a heathen, but she herself had been converted,
and was a _catechumen_--which was the name given to converts who had not
yet been baptized, but where in a course of _catechising_, or training
for baptism. When Perpetua had been put into prison, her father went to
see her, in the hope that he might persuade her to give up her faith.
"Father," she said, "you see this vessel standing here; can you call it
by any other than its right name?" He answered, "No." "Neither," said
Perpetua, "can I call myself anything else than what I am--a Christian."
On hearing this, her father flew at her in such anger that it seemed as
if he woul