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| Chapter XLVI.
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Chapter XLVI.
There follow the times of
our own day, both difficult and dangerous. In these the churches have
been defiled with no ordinary evil, and all things thrown into
confusion. For then, for the first time, the infamous heresy of the
Gnostics was detected in Spain—a deadly385
| 385 “superstitio
exitiabilis”: the very words which Tacitus employs, when
speaking of Christianity itself (Annal. xv. 44). |
superstition which concealed itself under mystic386
| 386 “arcanis
occultata secretis”: it is impossible to say what is the exact
meaning of these words. | rites. The birthplace of that mischief
was the East, and specially Egypt, but from what beginnings it there
sprang up and increased is not easy to explain. Marcus was the first to
introduce it into Spain, having set out from Egypt, his birthplace
being Memphis. His pupils were a certain Agape, a woman of no mean
origin, and a rhetorician named Helpidius. By these again Priscillian
was instructed, a man of noble birth, of great riches, bold, restless,
eloquent, learned through much reading, very ready at debate and
discussion—in fact, altogether a happy man, if he had not ruined
an excellent intellect by wicked studies. Undoubtedly, there were to be
seen in him many admirable qualities both of mind and body. He was able
to spend much time in watchfulness, and to endure both hunger and
thirst; he had little desire for amassing wealth, and he was most
economical in the use of it. But at the same time he was a very vain
man, and was much more puffed up than he ought to have been with the
knowledge of mere earthly387
things:
moreover, it was believed that he had practised magical arts from his
boyhood. He, after having himself adopted the pernicious system
referred to, drew into its acceptance many persons of noble rank and
multitudes of the common people by the arts of persuasion and flattery
which he possessed. Besides this, women who were fond of novelties and
of unstable faith, as well as of a prurient curiosity in all things,
flocked to him in crowds. It increased this tendency that he exhibited,
a kind of humility in his countenance and manner, and thus excited in
all a greater honor and respect for himself. And now by degrees the
wasting disorder of that heresy388
had pervaded
the most of Spain, and even some of the bishops came under its
depraving influence. Among these, Instantius and Salvianus had taken up
the cause of Priscillian, not only by expressing their concurrence in
his views, but even by binding themselves to him with a kind of oath.
This went on until Hyginus, bishop of Cordova, who dwelt in the
vicinity, found out how matters stood, and reported the whole to
Ydacius, priest of Emerita. But he, by harassing Instantius and his
confederates without measure, and beyond what the occasion called for,
applied, as it were, a torch to the growing conflagration, so that he
rather exasperated than suppressed these evil men.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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