Chapter L.
Thus, then, all whom the
process embraced were brought before the king. The bishops Ydacius and
Ithacius followed as accusers; and I would by no means blame their zeal
in overthrowing heretics, if they had not contended for victory with
greater keenness than was fitting. And my feeling indeed is, that the
accusers were as distasteful to me as the accused. I certainly hold
that Ithacius had no worth or holiness about him. For he was a bold,
loquacious, impudent, and extravagant man; excessively devoted to the
pleasures of sensuality. He proceeded even to such a pitch of folly as
to charge all those men, however holy, who either took delight in
reading, or made it their object to vie with each other in the practice
of fasting, with being friends or disciples of Priscillian. The
miserable wretch even ventured publicly to bring forward a disgraceful
charge of heresy against Martin, who was at that time a bishop, and a
man clearly worthy of being compared to the Apostles. For Martin, being
then settled at Treves, did not cease to importune Ithacius, that he
should give up his accusations, or to implore Maximus that he should
not shed the blood of the unhappy persons in question. He maintained
that it was quite sufficient punishment that, having been declared
heretics by a sentence of the bishops, they should have been expelled
from the churches; and that it was, besides, a foul and unheard-of
indignity, that a secular ruler should be judge in an ecclesiastical
cause. And, in fact, as long as Martin survived, the trial was put off;
while, when he was about to leave this world, he, by his remarkable
influence, obtained a promise from Maximus, that no cruel measure would
be resolved on with respect to the guilty persons. But subsequently,
the emperor being led astray by Magnus and Rufus, and turned from the
milder course which Martin had counseled, entrusted the case to the
prefect Evodius, a man of stern and severe character. He tried
Priscillian in two assemblies, and convicted him of evil conduct. In
fact, Priscillian did not deny that he had given himself up to lewd
doctrines; had been accustomed to hold, by night, gatherings of vile
women, and to pray in a state of nudity. Accordingly, Evodius
pronounced him guilty, and sent him back to prison, until he had time
to consult the emperor. The matter, then, in all its details, was
reported to the palace, and the emperor decreed that Priscillian and
his friends should be put to death.
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