Priscillian Appeals to the Emperor

It was not the will to resist that failed Ithacius, but the power. The heretics had won over Voluentius, the proconsul, with bribes, and so made their own position secure. What is more, these men put Ithacius on trial as a disturber of the churches. After a fierce prosecution he was ordered to be carried off as a prisoner, and he fled in terror into Gaul, where he went to Gregory the prefect. When Gregory learned what had happened, he ordered those who had caused these disturbances to be brought before him, and he sent the emperor a report on everything that had taken place, so as to shut every door of flattery or bribery against the heretics. But it was done in vain, because there, through the lawlessness and power of a few, everything was for sale. [a]

So the heretics, by their schemes, gave Macedonius a large sum of money and arranged that, by imperial authority, the hearing of the case was taken from the prefect and handed to the imperial deputy in Spain. By that time Spain no longer had a proconsul as its ruler. Officials were sent by the master of the offices to bring Ithacius, who was then living at Trier, back to Spain. But he cleverly escaped them, and afterward, defended by the bishop Pritannius, he defied them. About this time, too, a faint rumor had spread that Maximus had seized imperial power in Britain and would shortly invade Gaul. So Ithacius decided, although his affairs were in a precarious state, to wait for the new emperor to arrive, and in the meantime to take no step himself.

So when Maximus entered Trier as victor, Ithacius poured out to him pleas full of ill will, and accusations against Priscillian and his associates. Moved by these statements, the emperor sent letters to the prefect of Gaul and to the imperial deputy in Spain, ordering that all whom that disgraceful heresy had touched should be brought to a synod at Bordeaux. So Instantius and Priscillian were escorted there. Instantius was told to plead his case, and when he was found unable to clear himself, he was declared unworthy of the office of bishop. But Priscillian, to avoid being heard by the bishops, appealed to the emperor. And this was allowed through the lack of resolve on the part of our own people. They ought either to have passed sentence even on a man who refused to accept it, or, if they themselves were regarded as suspect, to have kept the hearing for other bishops. They should not have handed over to the emperor a case involving such obvious offenses.