3 Drepan. 2 Theodos. c. 29. the orator Emperor. The proceedings at the trial having been laid A. D. 384. before the Emperor, he declared that Priscillian and his accomplices were worthy of death. Then it was that Ithacius perceived how odious he should make himself to the Bishops, c. 51. if he were present at the last proceedings against these criminals (for it was necessary to bring them once more to trial, in order to pronounce a definitive sentence) and he had done but too much already, having been present even when they were put to the torture'. Ithacius therefore withdrew, Pacati being afraid of drawing more odium upon himself, and the Paneg Emperor put in his place as accuser a man named Patricius, an advocate of the treasury. At his suit Priscillian was condemned to death, and, with him, two clerks named Felicissimus and Armenius, who had lately left the Church Catholic to become his followers. Latronianus, a layman, and Euchrotia' were likewise condemned; and all five were put to [Widow of death. The Bishop Instantius, who had been already con- and poet demned by the Councils of Saragoza and Bourdeaux, was Delphidius.] banished to Sylina, one of the Scilly Isles off the coast of [A. D. Britain. Proceedings were afterwards continued against other 380.] Priscillianists. Asarinus, and Aurelius a Deacon, were condemned to death. Tiberianus was sent to the beforementioned islands, and his estate confiscated. Tertullus, Potamius, and John were only banished into the Gauls for a time, as well because they were not of such consequence, as because they were more worthy of compassion, having accused themselves and their accomplices before they were put to the torture. Thus were the Priscillianists punished'. At the same time the people of Bourdeaux stoned ‘[ Pessimo exemplo. a woman to death, named Urbica3, for persisting in defending Sulp. 2.51.] the same impiety. Indeed the death of Priscillian was so far from extinguishing 386. p. 396. his heresy, that it rather increased and strengthened it. His followers, who already honoured him as a saint, went so far as to pay him the veneration of a martyr, and their most P The Patronus or advocatus, fisci, was an officer employed by each of the provincial governors to watch over the interests of the Emperor's exchequer (Cod. Theod. x. Tit. 15. Præf.) Maximus selected Patricius as accuser from the hope of enriching himself from the 3 5 Prosper, Chron. An. 6 [Ut martyrem colere cœperunt. possessions of the accused. Sev. Dial.3.65. Sulp. Sev. This is the first instance of the H. S. ii. 51. judicial execution of a heretic, and was p. 263.] universally condemned, more especially by St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. Sulp. Sev. Dial. III. c. 11-13; and St. Ambrose Ep. 24 and 26. Gieseler, l. c. A. D. 384. solemn oath was to swear by him. They carried his body, and the bodies of the rest who had been put to death, into Spain, and there solemnized their funerals. When St. Jerome composed his catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers, seven or Catal. scr. eight years after, he says', speaking of Priscillian, that he was Eccl. $121. to. iv. 2. p. put to death by the faction of Idacius and Ithacius, and that he 127. (scr. A. D. 392.) was accused by some of the heresy of the Gnostics, but that others defended him. Afterwards, however, on being better informed, he speaks of him positively as a heretic justly condemned. He tells us that Priscillian had written several adv. Pelag. short treatises, and speaks also of those of Matronianus [Ep. 43.scr. and Tiberianus, who were Spaniards, and of the same A. D. 415.] sect. Matronianus, who is thought to be the same as Latronianus, was a man of learning and a good poet. Tiberianus wrote an apology for his heresy, in a turgid and formal style, but being tired with his banishment in the Scilly Isles, he quitted the sect, but afterwards fell into another crime, by marrying his own daughter who had consecrated her virginity to God. 2 Ep. ad Ctesiph. c. 2. XXXI. Remon Symmachus. xvi. 10. Relatio • Ibid. bk. The Pagans, who were depressed by the laws of Gratian, strance of had their hopes raised at his death, under the weak administration of Valentinian and his mother. When Constantius3 Amm. lib. came to Rome in the year 357, he caused the altar of Victory to be removed out of the place where the Senate assembled; Sym. (post Julian' however set it up again, and Valentinian I. allowed it Ep. xvii. St. Amb.) to remain. Gratian caused it to be removed again, and con$ 7. Fleury, bk. fiscated the lands belonging to the temple, the revenues xiii.ch.44. appointed for the expense of sacrifices and the maintenance xv. ch. 3. of the priests, and the salaries of the vestal virgins, whose privileges he abolished; he even ordered that whatever afterRelat. Sym. wards was left by will to the temples, pontiffs, or vestals, should be paid into the treasury. The Pagan senators complained of this ordinance; they deputed to Gratian [Q. AureAmm. 27. lius] Symmachus who was esteemed the most eloquent man of his age, the son of another Symmachus, and Præfect of Prosopog. Rome under Valentinian I. in 365. The Pagan senators deputed Symmachus the son, in the name of the whole Amm. 22. c. 5. $ 3. c. 3. Gothof. Cod. Theod. to. vi. Four deputations were successively voted to the Emperor, to solicit the restoration of this altar. I. to Gratian, A. D. 382; II. to Valentinian, A. D. 384; III. to Theodosius, A. D. 388; IV. to Valentinian, A. D. 392. Senate; but the Christian senators', whose number was very A. D. 384. great, on their part also presented a petition, by which they St. Ambr. Ep. 17.$10. disavowed that of the Pagans, and they protested both in 2 [et quipublic and private, that they would not come to the Senate dem innumeri.] if the pretensions of the Pagans were admitted. Pope Damasus sent the petition of the Christian senators to St. Ambrose, in order to deliver it, as he did, to the Emperor Gratian, who took no notice of that of the Pagans, and would not so much as hear them. This happened about the year 382. After the death of Gratian, Symmachus was Præfect of Rome, under the consulate of Clearchus and Ricimer, i. e. in year 384. the 3 Ep. 54; et ubi supra. Symmachus caused a decree to be made in the name of the Senate in the form of a complaint, concerning all those rights of which the Pagans were deprived, and then, as being bound by his office to give an account of the events at Rome, he drew up a memorial, containing the same complaints, addressed according to the usual form, to the three Emperors, Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius; but it was really presented to none but Valentinian. In this3, Symmachus Relat. having recourse to all the artifices of rhetoric of which he Sym. lib.x. was master, says that he acts in two capacities, both as præfect and as deputy. He complains of the audience which had been denied him in his former deputation, and promises himself that the disorders of the former reign will now be remedied. He lays great stress on the name Victory, by which § 4, 5. the altar was called, as though the reality were inseparably joined with it; he insists on the antiquity and prevalence of the custom which had been abolished, and making use of the figure which the rhetoricians call prosopopœa, he § 9. makes Rome speak, and say, that she wished to retain the religion under which she had been blessed; that she was too old to change, and that it was doing her an injury to pretend to mend her in her old age. That he might not give offence § 10. to the Emperors, he endeavours to persuade them, that it is the same God who is adored under different names. He endeavours to touch their feelings of generosity, by shewing § 11, &c. how little the confiscations of which he complains will bring into their treasury, and he tries to terrify them by the public calamities which he ascribes to the contempt of the A. D. 394. ancient religion; in reference to this last argument he gives $ 14. a tragical detail of the famine with which Rome had been afflicted in the preceding year. And this is what the most able man of his time thought most solid to be urged in defence of Paganism. XXXII. Answer of St. Ambrose. St. Ambrose having received an account of this memorial, wrote immediately to the Emperor Valentinian, to prevent his being prepossessed by the Pagans. "Your subjects," he 'Epist. 17. says, "serve you, and you serve God, you ought at least to [Militant.] "prevent their serving false gods; whereas, to restore to the "false gods what has been so long confiscated, would be to give § 4. " them of your own. Those men complain of their losses who "have never spared our blood, and who have laid in ruins the "very buildings of the Churches; those men demand privileges, "who under Julian refused us the common liberty of speak§ 5. "ing and teaching. Surely you ought not rashly to annul "what your predecessors have ordained in respect of religion, "when what they have enacted in secular affairs is not § 6, 7. "lightly tampered with. Let none impose upon your youth. "If he is a Pagan who gives you this advice, let him leave 'you the liberty which you leave him; you force no one to "adore that which he does not approve, let him not put this § 8. " constraint upon you. If he calls himself a Christian; "suffer not yourself to be deceived by names, he is in reality a Pagan. To oblige Christian senators to swear before § 9. "this altar, would be no other than to raise a persecution "against them; nor think that this memorial represents the "sentiments of the Senate, for the memorialists are a few § 10. "Pagans who usurp the name of the Senate3. I beseech you [ Majore "therefore as a Bishop, and in the name of all the Bishops, who jam curia Christiano-"would have joined with me, if this news had not been so sudden and incredible, to ordain nothing in favour of this request. At least refer the matter to the Emperor Theodosius your father, whom you are accustomed to consult upon § 13, &c. "extraordinary occasions. Let a copy of the memorial which "has been sent to you be given me, that I may more fully answer it. If a different course is resolved on, we, the rum numero sit re ferta.] § 12. 66 Lardner thinks it improbable that the Christians were the majority of the Roman Senate when Symmachus presented his petition. Heathen Testimonics, vol. iv. p. 395. 66 'Bishops, cannot dissemble the matter; you may come to the A. D. 384. "Church, but you will find no Bishop there, or you will find "one who will resist you, and reject your offerings." He afterwards excuses Valentinian, his father, as having been § 16. ignorant that there was an altar at Rome in the Senate-house, and that sacrifices were offered upon it. St. Ambrose having afterwards received the copy of the memorial of Symmachus, wrote an answer to it, in which he Epist. 18. destroys all the false colouring of his oratory. He meets his prosopopoa by another, in which he makes Rome acknow- § 4—7. ledge that she does not owe her victories to the gods, whom she had in common with her enemies, but to the valour of her warriors; and he enumerates the misfortunes that befel her under the Emperors who were idolaters. As to the complaint which the Pagans made of losing their revenues and their privileges, he says: "Behold the manly endurance of Chris- § 11. "tians. We increased by ill treatment, by poverty, and by "punishment; they imagine that their ceremonies cannot "subsist without the support of gain. They cannot believe "that people preserve their virginity without being paid for "it. Hardly are there seven vestals; these are all who are "bound to preserve their chastity, and that only for a certain "time, by the inducement of a head-dress adorned with 'chaplets, a purple habit, the sumptuousness of carriages, "and a crowd of attendants, with great privileges and "revenues." To these he opposes the great number of § 12. Christian virgins, whose poverty and fasting, as well as their humble and austere life, might seem rather to deter them from embracing that profession than attract them to it. "They complain," he continues, "that salaries are not § 13. "given to their sacrificers, and to the officers of the temples "at the public expense; while for our part, on the contrary, the new laws deprive us even of private inherit"ances', of which the officers of the temples are not deprived. "Again, if a Priest would be exempt from the municipal' [onus t Referring to the law which forbade Ecclesiastics receiving bequests of widows, &c. Cod. Theod. xvi. 2. 20. A. D. 370. (a law remarkable as being addressed to Pope Damasus, and read in the churches of Rome.) This law was repealed by Marcian, A. D. 455. curiale.] |