Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 1415
According to Priscillian, bishop of Avila, his adversary and accuser, Bishop Hydatius of Merida shortly after the First Council of Saragossa in AD 380, was indicted by his own presbyter with ecclesiastical decrees. Priscillian of Avila, Tractate II (Book to Bishop Damasus of Rome), AD 381 or 382.
Tractatus II
 
Priscillian tells of an unjust accusation brought aginst him by Bishop Hydatius of Merida that led to the Council of Saragossa in 380. It did not condemn Priscillian and his followers but they are still being accused of heresy. He confesses his faith and states that it is orthodox, that he is not Manichaean, and that he believes, was baptized and elected to the priesthood according to the faith in the Trinity.
 
In hac ergo ueritate fidei et in hac simplicitate uiuentibus nobis a Caesaraugustana synhodo Hydatius redit, nihil contra nos referens, quippe quos et ipse in eclesiis nostris secum etiam communicantes demiserat et quos nemo nec absentes quidem praesumpta accusatione damnauerat. Sed ut sciat corona uenerabilitatis tuae, unde excandescentiae eius dolor, unde debaccans toto orbe etiam in eclesias furor fuerit: reuersus e synhodo et in media eclesia sedens reus a presbytero suo actis ecclesiasticis petitur; datur etiam post dies paruos in eclesiis nostris a quibusdam libellus et deteriora quam prius a praesbytero obiecta fuerant obponuntur; segregant se de clericis ipsius plurimi, profitentes non nisi purgato sacerdoti se communicaturos.
 
Priscillian quotesthe  letters he sent to the bishops Hyginus and Symposius and relates the further events of the conflict.
 
(ed. Schepss 1889: 39)
Tractate II
 
Priscillian give account on the unjust accusation of the Bishop Hydatius of Merida that led to the Council of Saragossa in 380 that did not condemn Priscillian and his followers, but they are still being accused of heresy. He confesses his faith and states that it is orthodox, that he is not Manichaean, and that he believes, was baptized and elected to the priesthood according to the faith in the Trinity.
 
Therefore, while we lived in this truth of faith and integrity, Hydatius came back from the Synod of Saragossa without bringing back anything against us, whom he himself had dismissed after our discussions with him in our churches, and whom nobody had condemned with any assumed accusation even during our absence. But in order that the crown of your venerability may know whence the impetus of his eruption of anger came, whence his fury raving all over the world and even against the churches, [I say that], after returning from the synod, while he was sitting in the middle of the church, he was publicly indicted by his own presbyter with ecclesiastical decrees; after a few days a document was given by some in our churches, and charges more serious than those which had been previously presented by the presbyter were put forward; many separated from his clerics, declaring that they would have associated only with an absolved priest.
 
Priscillian quotes the letters he sent to the bishops Hyginus and Symposius and relates the further events of the conflict.
 
(trans. Conti 2010: 75; summary M. Szada)

Discussion:

The council of Saragossa in 380 censured excessive ascetism associated with Priscillian and his followers but did not directly condemn them. Shortly after the council, Priscillian became even the bishop. Therefore, Bishop Hydatius of Merida, their main adversary, appealed to the emperor Gratian and received from him the rescript "against the false bishops and Manichaeans", directed against Priscillian. Priscillian, for his part, went to Italy to look for support in Milan, and when he found none, he went to Rome. For this occasion, he composed the formal petition (libellus) in order to prove his orthodoxy. For a detailed analysis of the Liber ad Damasum see (van Waarden 2014).

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Saragossa
  • Avila
  • Merida

About the source:

Author: Priscillian of Avila
Title: Tractate II, Book to Bishop Damasus, Priscilliani Liber ad Damasum Episcopum, Liber ad Damasum Episcopum, Würzburg tractates
Origin: Avila (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Priscillianist
Priscillian was a Spanish nobleman who initiated the ascetic movement in the 370s in Iberian Peninsula. Later he became the bishop of Avila (in 381). His movement was criticized and accused of heresy (especially Manichaeism) by some members of the official hierarchy, and the case of "Priscillianists" was discussed at the council of Saragossa in AD 380. In AD 385 Priscillian was accused of sorcery and sentenced to death by the emperor Maximinus. For the detailed history of the Priscillianist controversy see Chadwick 1976 and Burrus 1995.
 
In 1886 Georg Schepss discovered a manuscript in the university library in Wuerzburg with the corpus of anonymous texts, eleven "tractates" (thus the collection is also known as "the Wuerzburg tractates") which he ascribed to Priscillian. Later this attribution has been contested by Morin (1913) who saw in them rather the work of Instantius, the disciple of Priscillian. Vollman (1974: 555-558) attributed hesitantly Tractate I to Priscillian or Instantius, the rest to two other Priscillianist writers, and dismissed Tractate VIII as not Priscillianist, and considered Tractate XI to be a liturgical prayer. Chadwick (1976: 63-70) retained the attribution of Schepss, and most recently Conti (2010: 14-16) ascribed tractates I-III and XI (in fact, a prayer) to Priscillian, and the rest, a set of Lenten homilies, to two other Priscillianist writers.
Edition:
G. Schepss ed., Priscilliani quae supersunt, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 18, Prague, Vienne, Leipzig 1889.
 
M. Conti ed. and trans., Priscillian of Avila, Complete works, Oxford 2010
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.
M. Conti, Priscillian of Avila: the complete works, Oxford ; New York 2010.
G. Morin, "Pro Instantio, contre l’attribution a Priscillien des opuscules du manuscrit de Wurzburg”, Revue bénédictine 30 (1913), 153–173.
J. van Waarden, "Priscillian of Avila's Liber ad Damasum and the Inability to Handle a Conflict”, [in :] Violence in Late Antiquity, ed. A.C. Geljon, R. Roukema, Leiden, Boston 2014, 132–150.
B. Vollman, "Priscillianus”, [in :] Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Supplement, v. 14, Stuttgart 1974, 485–559.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
Described by a title - Clericus
    Conflict
    Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
    Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
    Legal practice
    Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1415, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1415