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ER 137
Herenas, bishop of an unknown city in Spain, refuses to condemn Priscillian because his clergy venerates him as a martyr. Council condemns Priscillianist bishops and their clergy and expels them from priesthood. Acts of the Council of Toledo (Iberian Peninsula), AD 400.
Herenas clericos suos sequi maluerat, qui sponte, nec interrogati Priscillianum catholicum sanctumque martyrem clamassent atque ipse usque ad finem catholicum esse dixisset, persecutionem ab episcopis passum; quo dicto omnes sanctos, iam plurimos quiescentes, aliquos in hac luce durantes, suo iudicio deduxerit in reatum. Hunc cum omnibus tam suis clericis quam diversis episcopis, hoc est Donato, Acurio, Aemilio, qui ab eorum professione recedentes, maluissent sequi consortium perditorum decernimus a sacerdotio submovendum, quem constaret etiam de reliquis verbis suis convictum per tres episcopos, multos quoque presbyteros sive diaconos cum periurio esse mentitum.
 
(ed. Vives 1963: 31-32)
Herenas prefered  to follow his clerics who of their own free will, without being asked, proclaimed Priscillian a Catholic and saint martyr and they said he was a Catholic up to his death and was persecuted by the bishops. Saying this he accused by his decision the saints, many of them already dead and some still living in this world. We decree that Herenas with all his clerics, as well as the other bishops, that is Donatus, Acurius, Aemilius, who abandoned their faith and prefered to join the fellowship of the damned, shall be expelled from the priesthood. It is known that Herenas has been supported in his words by those three bishops, and also many presbyters and deacons made a false oath.
 
(trans. by M. Szada)
 
 

Discussion:

For the discussion about the event see Burrus 1995: 107.

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Toledo

About the source:

Title: Council of Toledo I, Concilium Toletanum I
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The section is a part of the Transcript of the Professions Held in the Council of Toledo against the Sect of Priscillian, which has been transmitted in the manuscript tradition separate from canonical collection of Hispana (Chadwick 1976: 179-181; Burrus 1995: 104-105).
Edition:
Edition:
G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez, eds., La colección canónica Hispana, v. 4 Concilios Galos. Concilios Hispanos: primera parte, Madrid 1984.
J. Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.
 
 
Bibliography:
V. Burrus, The making of a heretic: gender, authority, and the Priscillianist controversy, Berkeley 1995.
H. Chadwick, Priscillian of Avila: the occult and the charismatic in the early church, Oxford 1976.
R. Van Dam, Leadership and community in late antique Gaul, Berkeley, Calif. 1992.
A. Weckwerth, Das erste Konzil von Toledo: philologischer und kirchenhistorischer Kommentar zur Constitutio concilii, Münster, Westfalen 2004.

Categories:

Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Priscillianist
    Public law - Ecclesiastical
      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
        Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
          Administration of justice - Demotion
            Devotion - Veneration of saints and relics
              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER137, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=137
              Record by: Marta Szada
              last edited: 2017-04-21 15:57:45
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