Priscillian Of Avila And Priscillianism

The inception of the Roman Catholic Church, which some believed was started by Jesus Christ himself as it is written in Matthew 16:18 "And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it," around the years 80 or 90 C.E. The church, at this time, was not concerned with Pagans as such. Paganism and witchcraft would not be determined as a heretical movement until 1320 C.E. but with anyone who challenged the churches authority and belief structure and doctrines. This leads us to the story of Priscillian of Avila, the first person in the history of Christianity to be murdered for heresy. Heresy is a term created by the church to describe any act that went against the churches doctrines and dogma. Anyone who held beliefs that contradicted the church were called heretics and heresy was a crime punishable by death.

Priscillian (died 385 C.E.) was a wealthy nobleman of Roman Hispania who promoted a strict form of Christian asceticism known as Priscillianism, which is a Christian belief system developed in the Iberian Peninsula in the 4th century. This system was derived from the Gnostic-Manichaean doctrines taught by Marcus, an Egyptian from Memphis that was later considered a heresy by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Marcus, a native of Memphis in Egypt came to Spain and taught Gnostic and Manichean theories. Two of Marcus' followers, the Spanish Lady Agape and the Rhetorician Helpidius converted Priscillian, a layman of great riches who was bold, restless, eloquent, learned through much reading, and very ready at debate and discussion. Through Priscillian's oratorical gifts and reputation for extreme asceticism he attracted a large following including two Bishops named Instantius and Salvianus. The new sect became an oath bound society attracting the attention of the Bishop Hyginus of Cordoba. Hyginus made his fears known to Hydatius, Bishop of Emerita and Ithacius of Ossonoba. The Bishops of Hispania and Aquitaine then held a synod at Zaragoza in 380 C.E. Though summoned, the Priscillianists refused to appear and the synod pronounced sentence of excommunication against the four leaders: Instantius, Salvianus, Helpidius, and Priscillian. Ithacius was chosen to enforce the synod's decrees but he failed to bring the heretics to terms. In defiance Priscillian was ordained to the priesthood and appointed Bishop of Avila in 380 C.E. Certain practices of his followers (such as meeting at country villas instead of attending church) were denounced at the council of Zaragoza in 380 C.E. Tensions between Priscillian and Bishops opposed to his views continued as well as political maneuvering by both sides. Around 385 c.e. Priscillian was charged with sorcery and executed by authority of the Emperor Magnus Maximus. The ascetic movement Priscillianism is named after him and continued in Hispania and Gaul until the late 6th century. Tractates by Priscillian and close followers, which had seemed lost, were discovered in 1885 C.E. and published in 1889 C.E. The principal and almost contemporary source for the career of Priscillian is the Gallic chronicler, Sulpicius Severus, who characterized him as noble, rich, and a layman who had devoted his life to study and was vain of his classical Pagan education. Priscillian was born around 340 C.E. into the nobility, possibly in Western Hispania, and was well educated. About 370 C.E. he initiated a movement in favor of asceticism. Priscillian advocated studying the bible but also apocryphal books. His followers who were won over by his eloquence and his severely ascetic example included Bishops: Instantius and Salvianus. According to Priscillian, apostles, prophets and "doctors" (Latin for teachers) are the divinely appointed orders of the church, pre-eminence being due the doctors among whom Priscillian reckoned himself. The "spiritual" comprehend and judge all things being "children of wisdom and light," and the distinction between flesh and spirit, dark and light. Moses and Christ and the "Prince of the world" and Christ are emphasized. In asceticism, Priscillian distinguished three degrees, though he did not deny hope of pardon to those who were unable to attain full perfection. The perfect in body, mind and spirit were celibate, or if married, continent. Certain practices of the Pricillianists are known through the condemnatory canons issued by the 580 C.E. synod. Things such as, receiving the Eucharist in the church but eating it at home or in the conventicle. Women joining with men during the time of prayer. Fasting even on Sunday. Meditating at home or in the mountains instead of attending church during Lent. According to Ana Maria C.M. Jorge, "Priscillian played the role of a catalyst among Lusitanian Christians and crystallized a variety of ascetic, monastic, and intellectual aspirations that were either fairly or even entirely, incompatible with Christianity as it was lived by the great majority of the Bishops of the day. His notable opponents in Hispania were: Hyginus - Bishop of Cordoba and Hydatius - Bishop of Merida. They accused Priscillian's teaching of being Gnostic in nature. Through his intolerant severit, Hydatius promoted rather than prevented the spread of the sect. Idatius convened a synod held at Zaragoza in 380 C.E. Ten Bishops were present at the synod from Spain and two from Aquitaine. Delphinus of Bordeaux and Phoebadus of Agen. Although neither Priscillian nor any of his followers attended he wrote, in reply, his third tract justifying the reading of apocryphal literature without denying that their contents were partly spurious. Neither Priscillian nor any of his disciples are mentioned in the decrees, the synod forbade certain practices. It forbade assumption of the title of doctor and forbade clerics from becoming monks on the motivation of a more perfect life. Women were not to be given the title of virgins until they reached the age of forty. Michael Kulikowski characterizes the concern at Zaragoza as the relationship between town and country and the authority of the urban episcopacy over religious practice in outlying rural areas. In the immediate aftermath of the synod, Priscillian was elected Bishop of Avila and was consecrated by Instantius and Salvianus. Priscillian was now a suffragen of Ithacius of Ossonoba, the metropolitan Bishop of Lusitania, whom he attempted to oust but who then obtained, from the Emperor Gratian, an edict against false Bishops and Manichees. This was a threat against the Priscillianists since the Roman Empire had banned Manichaeism long before it legalized Christianity. Consequently the three Bishops: Instantius, Salvianus, and Priscillian went, in person, to Rome but through the intervention of Macedonius, the Imperial Magister Officiorum and an enemy of Ambrose. They succeeded in procuring the withdrawal of Gratian's edict and an order for the arrest of Ithacius. Instantius and Priscillian, returning to Spain, regained their sees and churches. A sudden change occurred in 383 C.E. when the Governor of Britain, Magnus Maximus, rebelled against Gratian who marched against him, but was assassinated. Maximus was recognized as Emperor of Britain, Gaul and Spain and made Trier his residence. There Ithacius presented his case against Priscillian and Maximus ordered a synod convened at Bordeaux in 384 C.E. After this, the matter was transferred to the secular court at Treves. Ithacius and Hydatius of Merida both went there for the trial. Sulpicius Severus noted that Martin of Tours protested to the Emperor against the ruling which said that the accused who went to Treves should be imprisoned. Maximus, a Spaniard by birth, treated the matter not as one of ecclesiastical rivalry, but as one of morality and society. He is also said to have wished to enrich his treasury by confiscation of the property of the condemned. At Trier, Priscillian was tried by a secular court on criminal charges that included sorcery, a capital offense. Ithacius was his chief accuser. Priscillian was condemned and with six of his companions, beheaded in 385 C.E. Priscillian's execution is seen as the first example of secular justice intervening in an ecclesiastical matter. Pope Siricius, Ambrose of Milan and Martin of Tours protested against the execution, largely on the jurisdictional grounds that an ecclesiastical case should not be decided by a civil tribunal and worked to reduce the persecution. Pope Siricius censored not only Ithacius but the Emperor himself. On receiving information from Maximus, he excommunicated Ithacius and his associates. On an official visit to Trier, Ambrose refused to give any recognition to Ithacius, not wishing to have anything to do with Bishops who had sent heretics to their death. Before the trial, Martin had obtained from Maximus a promise not to apply a death penalty. After the execution, Martin broke off relations with the Bishop of Trier and all others associated with the inquiries and the trial and restored communion only when the Emperor promised to stop the persecution of the Priscillianists. Maximus was killed in his attempted invasion of Italy in 388 C.E. Under the new ruler, Ithacius and Hydatius were deposed and exiled. The remains of Priscillian were brought from Trier to Spain where he was honored as a martyr especially in the West of the country where Priscillianism did not die out until the second half of the 6th century. The heresy, not withstanding the severe measures taken against it, continued to spread in Gaul as well as in Hispania. A letter dated February 20, 405 C.E. from Pope Innocent the first to Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse opposed the Priscillianist's interpretation of the apocrypha. In 412 C.E. Lazarus, Bishop of Aix-en-Provence and Herod, Bishop of Arles were expelled from their sees on a charge of Manichaeism. Proculus, the metropolitan of Marseilles and the metropolitans of Vienne and Narbonensis Secunda were also followers of the rigorist tradition of Priscillian. Something was done for it's repression by a synod held by Turibius of Astorga in 446 C.E. and by that of Toledo in 447 C.E. as an openly professed creed it had to be declared heretical once more by the second synod of Braga in 563 C.E. a sign that Priscillianist asceticism was still strong long after his execution. The official church says, F.C. Conybeare, "had to respect the ascetic spirit to the extent of enjoining celibacy upon it's priests and recognizing or rather immuring such of the laity as desired to live out the old ascetic ideal but the official teaching of Rome would not allow it to be the ideal duty of every Christian." It is not always easy to separate the genuine assertions of Priscillian himself from those ascribed to him by his enemies nor from the later developments taken by groups who were labelled Priscillianist. The long prevalent estimation of Priscillian as a heretic and Manichaean rested upon Augustine, Turibius of Astorga, Leo the Great, and Orosius (who quotes a fragment of a letter of Priscillian's) although at the council of Toledo in 400 C.E. fifteen years after Priscillian's death, when his case was reviewed the most serious charge that could be brought was the error of language involved in a misrendering of the word "innascibilis" (unbegettable). Augustine criticized the Priscillianists whom he said were like the Manicheans in their habit of fasting on Sundays. Priscillianism continued in the North of Hispania and the South of Gaul. Priscillian was honored as a martyr especially in Gallaecia (modern Galacia and Northern Portugal) where his body was reverentially returned from Trier. Some writings by Priscillian were accounted orthodox and were not burned. For instance: he divided the Pauline epistles (including the epistle to the Hebrews) into a series of texts on their theological points and wrote an introduction to each section. These canons survived in a form edited by Peregrinus. They contain a strong call to life of personal piety and asceticism including celibacy and abstinence from meat and wine. The charismatic gifts of all believers are equally affirmed. Study of scripture is urged. Priscillian placed considerable weight on apocryphal books, not as being inspired, but as helpful in discerning truth and error. It was long thought that all the writings of the heretic himself had perished but in 1885 C.E. Georg Schepss discovered, at the University of Wurzburg, eleven genuine tracts published in the Vienna Corpus 1886 C.E. Though they bear Priscillian's name, four describing Priscillian's trial appear to have been written by a close follower. According to Raymond Brown's introduction of his edition "Epistle of John," the source of the "Comma Johanneum," a brief interpolation in the first Epistle of John known since the fourth century appears to be in Latin, "Liber Apologeticus" by: Priscillian. In 906 C.E. the Canon Episcopi, which is a collection of passages taken from Medieval Canon Law stated that belief in witchcraft is heresy. In 1233 C.E. Pope Gregory the 9th authorized the Roman Catholic Inquisition and in 1320 C.E. Pope John 22nd officially declared witchcraft and the old religion of the Pagans as a heretical movement and a hostile threat to Christianity. This would be the humble beginnings of the many years that became known as the burning times.