PRISCILLIANISTS

In Ecclesiastical History, heretics of the 4th century; so named from Priscillian, bishop of Atila in Spain, who was put to death in a. d. 382 by Maximus, tyrant of Gaul, for heresy, on the accusation of another bishop, Ithacius: one of the earliest instances of persecution to death for that offence. The opinions of Priscillian and his followers are said to have been Manic hae an; but it is remarkable that Sulp. Severus, himself sufficiently zealous against their doctrines, admits that their persecutor Ithacius was a man of disreputable character, and that purity and austerity of manners were often sufficient with him to ground an accusation of Priscillianism. This affords a curious parallel with the history of the 12th and 13th centuries, when accusations of Manicheism were liberally brought against sectaries whose avowed tenets extended only to the reformation of ecclesiastical matters and denial of the church's authority. (See Mosheirn, cent. iv. part 2.) [s. 993]