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Montenses

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seems to have been a local name of the Donatists. St. Augustine says distinctly that in his time those heretics were called "Montenses" at Rome (Aug. Hier. 69). Epiphanius and Theodoret both associate the name, on the other hand, with the Novatians (Epiph. Hier. 59; Theodor. Haer.-fab. 3:5). In the early list of heresies which goes under the name of St. Jerome it is said that the Montenses were found chiefly at Rome, and that they were so named because they had concealed themselves in the hill-country during a time of persecution. This author speaks of them as distinct from the Donatists and Novatians, but as adopting the heresy of the one as to the rejection of penitents, and of the other as to rebaptism (Pseudo-Hieron. Indicul. de Haeres. 34). In one of the canons of the African code, which directs the mode of receiving a person into the Church when coming "de Donatistis vel de Montensibus," the two names seem to be used as synonymous.