CHAPTER XXIII. THE WEST IN THE LAST YEARS OF DAMASUS. THE sudden success of Maximus and the tragical death of Gratian must have filled the minds of Western churchmen, in the early autumn of 383, with consternation and anxiety. Justina trembled, as well she might, for the safety of her boy, on whom had thus descended the undivided burden of legitimate sovereignty at a moment which seemed fraught with peril to the whole imperial house. Valentinian II. was twelve years old when he lost his elder brother. The Empress-mother-who had formerly prejudiced Valentinian I. against Martin, had set herself to thwart Ambrose, when about three years previously he resolved on securing a Catholic bishop for the see of Sirmium, and after failing in this attempt had laid "numberless plots" against him-felt that, in this crisis, all dislike for the archbishop of Milan must yield to the imperious necessity of procuring his support for her son's cause. She led the young Emperor into his presence, and presented him to be embraced by Ambrose, who, writing eleven years later, thus apostrophizes Valentinian: "I clasped thee in my arms, when thy mother Justina's hands presented thee to me.” At Justina's request, he undertook a journey to Treves, in order to negotiate something like a treaty between the victorious usurper of the Northern sovereignty and the endangered Italian court. The winter was coming on, but he did not hesitate; he repaired to the headquarters of Maximus, and was there detained until early in 384, in order that Maximus might learn, before dismissing him, what terms had been made by Count Victor, whom he had sent to Milan before the arrival of Ambrose and who met Ambrose near Mentz. Those terms were not all that Maximus had expected; the young Emperor would not, said Victor, come to visit Maximus, but would make peace with him on condition of being left undisturbed in the dominion of Italy, Africa, and Western Illyricum, while Maximus should be acknowledged as sovereign of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. Thus the court of Milan was saved; the firm tone taken by Ambrose contributed, doubtless, to this result, by inducing Maximus to accept a compromise which kept him out of Italy; and he would be impressed by the austere refusal of the bishop of Milan to communicate with him in those days of his early triumph. In him Ambrose could not but see the virtual destroyer of Gratian; and it must have cost Theodosius much to treat with Maximus on terms which recognised his Transalpine sovereignty. We may The usurper thus legitimatised in the eyes of all subjects of the empire found himself called upon, very early in his reign, to take cognisance of the Priscillianist controversy. remember that Gratian had been induced by his home minister Macedonius to rescind his edict against Priscillian and Instantius, and to permit their return to Spain. "They then," says Sulpicius, "without any contest resumed possession of their churches." And they procured the powerful support of the proconsul Volventius; in reliance on which, they thought it a good opportunity for avenging themselves on Ithacius, and accused him of "disturbing the churches:" he was actually condemned to death, but contrived to escape to Gaul, and invoked the aid of the prætorian prefect Gregory, who thereupon ordered the arrest of Priscillian and laid the case before Gratian. But Macedonius, it is said, received a large sum of money from Priscillian and his friends, and in consideration of it obtained an imperial order, removing the judicial cognisance of the business from the prefect, and placing it in the hands of the vice-prefect, or "vicar," who had lately superseded the proconsul in Spain. This magistrate's name was Marinianus. Further, Macedonius sent officials to arrest Ithacius, who was then staying at Treves. But the bishop, although, in Sulpicius's opinion, a shallow, foolish, and inconsistent person, succeeded in baffling this attempt, and afterwards found a protector in Brito or Britannius, who then held the see of Treves, and had sat in the Roman Council of the preceding year 382. While he was in this critical position, the capital of the Gallic prefecture was startled by the tidings of the revolt of Maximus. He had been declared Emperor in Britain; he would come over speedily into Gaul; it was evident that Gratian's troops would desert him; there was a near prospect of a new reign, and Maximus might choose to reverse the ecclesiastical policy of Gratian. As soon, then, as Maximus established himself in Treves, Ithacius came boldly forward, and urgently petitioned him against the Priscillianists. The new Emperor listened, and at once gave orders to the prefect of Gaul and to the "vicar" of Spain to send all who were “ tainted” with Priscillianism for trial before a Council at Bordeaux. This Council met accordingly, in 384 or 385. Instantius was tried first. We can easily imagine the accusations which would be poured forth against the new heretics. They are unfit to be treated as Christians, not to say as bishops. They do indeed speak of the Trinity, but it is in the sense of Sabellianism; of Christ, but theirs is the Christ of Photinus, who is said to have had no existence before He was born of the Virgin-nay, rather, altogether a Docetic Christ, for they do not believe in the reality of His bodily existence, and that explains their obstinate fasting on the anniversary of the Lord's birth and on the weekly commemoration of His resurrection. Penetrate further into their odious mysteries, and you find that they derive the soul of man from the very essence of God; they have adopted from Manicheans the dream of an evil principle arising out of darkness, and of emanations from the kingdom of light, which, being in fact so many souls, have vowed in God's presence to combat the dark powers, and descending to earth have been enclosed by those powers in bodies, the several parts of which are under the control of the signs of the zodiac, or 'stars of destiny.' It is for the deliverance of these souls that the Christ is imagined to have come; they will, according to the sect, be delivered in the end, by His help, from all dark influences: this is the Priscillianist salvation! These men will tell us that they believe all the Canonical Scriptures. Yes, but they explain them away by perverse allegorizings; and they rely also on some contemptible apocrypha, which seem to be of Manichean origin. They may put on the semblance of grave austerity; but their hostility to marriage goes the whole length of trying to separate what God has joined, and there are suspicions, or more than suspicions, of impure practices among them—there was, in this very region of Aquitania, a scandal against Priscillian's conduct when he passed through it on his way to Rome. They add magic to their other offences; and then, to sum up, you cannot trust their disclaimers; they will abjure anything, dissemble anything; their principle is contained in one vile verse 'Jura, perjura; secretum prodere noli!' Let the Council do justice to the Church, and confirm the judgment of the Council of Saragossa: these men are not ordinary heretics, they are positively antichristian, and pestilent to morality and public order; and Bishop Delphinus, by his conduct in repelling them from this city three years back, has shown his sense of their guilt and set this synod a good example." Such would be something like the charge. The imputation of magic was idle, and that of dissolute conduct, as Neander says, is, " to say the least, not sufficiently authenticated;" but the rest of the allegations were true, and Instantius made but a poor defence, which was followed by sentence of his deposition from the episcopate. Priscillian would not plead at all: "to avoid being heard by the bishops, he appealed "-using doubtless the old technical word "provoco "to the Emperor. The Council allowed his appeal: Sulpicius severely blames their weakness, and says that they should "either have proceeded to pass sentence, or, if they suspected, i.e. mistrusted, themselves, should have reserved the hearing for other bishops, and not permitted guilt so manifest to be brought by appeal before the Emperor." The opinion of the historian is in conformity with the twelfth canon of the Dedication Council of 341, which, says Bingham, was "conformable to the received discipline of the ancient Church." Priscillian was following the precedent of those African schismatics who had appealed from the Council of Arles to Constantine-an appeal which Constantine himself called shameless, although it related to facts, which, it would be said, had been wrongly represented, and although, to leave them without excuse, he consented to hear the cause. The appeal of Athanasius from the Council of Tyre to Constantine presupposed the gross and patent injustice which had deprived that assembly of all its moral weight, and also referred to the fact that the so-called Council at Tyre had been from the outset not purely an ecclesiastical synod, having been presided over by a Count under orders from the Emperor. Probably the Spanish bishop would say, in his appeal, that he could expect no justice at Bordeaux. Thus the Priscillianists were brought-fatally for themselvesto Treves; and Ithacius and Idacius followed them. It is at this point of the story that Sulpicius gives signal proof of his honesty and fair-mindedness: "To state my own opinion, I like the accusers as little as the accused. Certainly I am positive that Ithacius had nothing like a real interest in the matter, no real conscientiousness;" and then, after sketching his character as VOL. I. 2 H talkative, audacious, impudent, fond of expense, excessively selfindulgent, he tells us that this inquisitor into heretical pravity was so foolish and headlong in his judgments of character as to set down all studious or strict-living persons, or all who were diligent in fasting, as so many Priscillianists. The "audacity" of Ithacius in this direction was exhibited against Sulpicius's special hero; and it is not without the deepest interest that we can read of the relations between the prosecutors in this great appeal-case and St. Martin. He had occasion to visit Treves, in order to solicit the clemency of Maximus for some persons who, apparently, had incurred peril by the revolution, as being adherents of Gratian. But, in contrast with the servility of some bishops who came to present like requests, the bishop of Tours spoke as "commanding rather than petitioning." This demeanour, which Tillemont calls "holy pride," was impressive; and Maximus frequently invited Martin to his table. He declined, out of respect for Gratian's memory; he could not sit at the table of one who had caused his prince's death. Maximus condescended to explain. The sovereignty had been forced on him: God appeared to have declared on his behalf by an unexpected victory; and none of his adversaries had been slain, by his command, save in open fight. At last the bishop departed from the rigorous position which he had at first taken up as to Maximus's conduct, and consented to come to the imperial table: he was seated on a small chair, close to Maximus, while his attendant presbyter was ranked with the prefect Evodius, and with two powerful "counts," the Emperor's brother and uncle. Halfway through the feast, a bowl of wine was, as usual, handed to Maximus; he ordered it to be passed on first to Martin, expecting, says Sulpicius, that it would be returned to him by the bishop with his own hand. But Martin, after drinking, quietly and as a matter of course passed it to "his presbyter," as being of higher dignity than any secular prince. Maximus, who had a good deal of religious sentiment, was not only astonished, but pleased, or, at any rate, thought fit to appear pleased, at this extremely downright expression of the ecclesiastical conception of society, even in the presence of the power of this world: an expression which no other bishop had ventured on even at the tables of ordinary judges. He often sent for Martin in order to hear him talk; and the Saint spoke of nothing but religion, duty, heavenly blessedness, while the Empress hung on his words, and at last insisted on waiting on |
