The Execution of Priscillian and the Long Quarrel

But Ithacius saw how much ill will it would stir up against him among the bishops if he also stood out as accuser at the final trial on a capital charge, for the trial had to be held again. So he withdrew from the prosecution. His cunning in doing this was useless, however, since the harm had already been done. Well, Maximus then appointed as accuser a certain Patricius, an advocate attached to the treasury. With him as prosecutor, Priscillian was condemned to death, and with him Felicissimus and Armenius, who, while they were clergy, had lately taken up Priscillian’s cause and broken away from the catholics. Latronianus and Euchrotia were also beheaded. Instantius, who, as we said above, had been condemned by the bishops, was deported to the island of Sylina, which lies beyond Britain. [a]

Then proceedings were brought against the rest in the trials that followed. Asarivus and Aurelius the deacon were condemned to be beheaded, while Tiberianus was stripped of his property and banished to the island of Sylina. Tertullus, Potamius and Joannes, as persons of less importance who deserved some mercy, because before the trial they had confessed both about themselves and about their associates, were sentenced to banishment in Gaul for a time. In this way men utterly unworthy of the light of day were either put to death or punished with exile, so that they might serve as a terrible example to others.

At first Ithacius had defended what he had done by his right to appeal to the courts and by the public good. But harassed by attacks, and in the end overcome, he threw the blame for it on those by whose direction and advice he had accomplished it. Yet he was the only one of them all who was driven out of the office of bishop. For Hydatius, though less guilty, had resigned his bishopric of his own accord. That was wisely and respectfully done, had he not afterward spoiled its credit by trying to win back the position he had lost.

Well, after Priscillian’s death the heresy that had burst out with him as its author was not only not suppressed; it gained strength and spread more widely. For his followers, who had earlier honored him as a saint, now began to revere him as a martyr. The bodies of those who had been put to death were carried to Spain, and their funerals were held with great pomp. Indeed, swearing by Priscillian came to be thought the highest act of religion.

But between them and our own people an unending war of quarrels has been kept up. And that conflict, after being carried on for fifteen years with dreadful dissension, could not by any means be brought to rest. And now everything was seen to be disturbed and thrown into confusion by discord, above all the discord of the bishops, while everything was corrupted by them through their hatred, partiality, fear, faithlessness, envy, factiousness, lust, greed, pride, sleepiness and inactivity. In a word, a great many were striving with mad plans and stubborn wills against a few who gave wise counsel, while in the meantime the people of God and all the best people on earth were exposed to mockery and insult.