William Tabbernee - Exiled to Pepouza: Consorting Unwillingly with Heretical Montanists

In the mid-fourth century C.E., a number of prominent western bishops were exiled to Phrygia in Asia Minor by Constantius II.  These bishops included Hilary of Poitiers and Paulinus of Trier.  According to Hilary, Paulinus, through his exile, was forced from Christian society to be polluted from contact with heretics from “the den of Montanus and Priscilla” (In Constant. 1.11).  Perhaps Paulinus may have been exiled to Pepouza itself, the administrative and pilgrimage center of the Montanist movement.  Exile to Pepouza was certainly the lot of Aetius of Antioch, the early leader of Anomoean Arianism (Philostorgius, Hist. eccl. 4.8).  

The ancient site of Pepouza has recently been discovered, by an international team led by the author of this paper. The discovery included a rock-cut monastery, 1.2 kilometers west of the city.  This paper provides archaeological details of the monastery and discusses various possibilities regarding the origins of the monastery.  One of these possibilities is that, regardless of its later functions, the large rock-cut structure may have provided hospitality for exiles such as Aetius and, perhaps, Paulinus, forcing them, because of its geographical location, to have contact against their will with the Montanists who lived in Pepouza or who visited the city as Montanist pilgrims and whom they considered to be dangerous heretics.