by Kater Moggin

In November 2003, Kater Moggin posted to alt.religion.gnostic a sharp survey of the blood-libel accusations leveled against the Montanists — one of the major heretical movements of early Christianity, whose followers included Tertullian.

The Montanists (also known as the Cataphrygians or Pepuzians) were a charismatic, prophetic movement originating in Phrygia in the second century, centered on the prophecies of Montanus and his two prophetesses Maximilla and Priscilla. Their insistence on continuing direct revelation, rigorous asceticism, and expectation of the imminent New Jerusalem brought them into conflict with emerging orthodoxy.

Moggin collects and places side by side the accusations of Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Salamis, Augustine of Hippo, and (in footnote) Pseudo-Jerome and Philastrius — noting that each of them, despite being classified as saints, attributed ritual infanticide or blood-drinking to the sect. He closes with Jerome's own cautionary note that such accusations "may well be false."

Seriously. Did Tertullian eat babies? I'm asking because he was one of the Montanists, and a couple or three Christian saints — saints! — report baby-eating was a habit among those folks. Here's some details.

In the Catechesis, Cyril of Jerusalem says that Montanus served up diced children at his feasts:

Abominate the Cataphrygians and also Montanus, their ringleader in evil, and his two prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla. This man, who was out of his mind and truly mad (for otherwise he would not have said such things), dared to say that he himself was the Holy Spirit. He was a miserable creature, sunk in all impurity and wantonness; I can only hint at his corruption, out of respect for the women here present.

When he had seized upon Pepusa, a tiny village in Phrygia and falsely named it Jerusalem, on the pretext of their so-called mysteries, he cut the throats of wretched little children and chopped them into pieces for their unholy banquets; because of this, until rather recent times, we were suspected of these crimes; for the Montanists were also called, falsely, it is true, by the common name of Christians; Montanus, I repeat, went so far as to call himself the Holy Spirit, though he was a monster of impiety and cruelty, and subject to inexorable condemnation.

— Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 16.8.

Gotta wonder what impurities Cyril didn't speak about from respect for his female listeners. If baby-eating is merely the hint he diplomatically drops, then lord knows what else the Montanists did, according to him.

Epiphanius records a variation: drinking babies' blood as opposed to eating their flesh.

They say that a shocking, wicked thing is done in this sect — or in its sister sect, the one called the sect of the Quintillianists or Priscillianists, and Pepuzians. At a certain festival they pierce a child — just a little baby — all over its body with bronze needles and get its blood for sacrifice, if you please.

— Epiphanius, Panarion 48.14.5–6.

He goes on to say he's offering accurate facts, not making false charges.

Referring to the Cataphrygians — yet another name for the Montanists — Augustine writes:

They are reported to have gruesome sacraments, for they are said to confect their eucharist from the blood of a year-old infant which they squeeze from tiny punctures all over its body; they mix with wheat and make bread from it. If the child dies, he is regarded by them as a martyr, but if he lives, he is regarded as a great priest.

— Augustine, The Heresies 26.

A footnote tells me that the same accusation also turns up in Pseudo-Jerome, Indiculus 32.20, and apparently Philastrius — another saint! — makes it in his heresiological tract, too.

Of course that doesn't mean it's true. The blood-libel is a standard charge, and it's been tossed around in all directions. As Jerome says, "Accusations of blood-shedding may well be false" (Epistle 41 — he still considers the Montanists to be faithless blasphemers). But if so, then those saints were telling tales.

Colophon

Written by Kater Moggin and posted to alt.religion.gnostic, November 2003. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

Kater Moggin was a longstanding scholarly presence on alt.religion.gnostic, known for rigorous engagement with primary sources and a combative intellectual style. The post collects the blood-libel accusations against the Montanists from three church fathers: Cyril of Jerusalem (313–386 CE), Catechesis 16.8; Epiphanius of Salamis (310–403 CE), Panarion 48.14.5–6; and Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE), The Heresies 26. All three are ancient texts in the public domain. The blood-libel — the charge of ritual child-killing — is one of the most persistent slanders in the history of religion, used against Jews, early Christians themselves, and here against Christian heretics. Moggin's dry observation that Jerome, who despised the Montanists, nonetheless cautioned that "accusations of blood-shedding may well be false," is a precise summary of the evidential situation.

Montanism (also called the New Prophecy) was founded by Montanus in Phrygia c. 156–172 CE. Tertullian of Carthage (c. 155–240 CE) is the most famous Montanist. The movement survived in isolated communities until at least the ninth century.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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