They are honoured by their Followers as Saints and Martyrs.
But these Severities served only to increase the Evil which they were employed to cure. The Bodies of Priscillian and of those who had suffered with him, were conveyed by their Friends and Adherents into Spain, and there interred with great Pomp and Solemnity;|Many embrace their
Doctrine.| their Names were added to those of other Saints and Martyrs, their Firmness and Constancy extolled, and their Doctrine embraced by such Numbers of Proselytes, that it spread in a short time over all the Provinces between the Pyrenees and the Ocean[[1256]]. Symphosius, Metropolitan of Galicia, whom, after the Death of Priscillian, they looked upon as the chief Man and Head of their Sect, took care to fill all the vacant Sees in that Province with Bishops of his own Communion. Dictinius, whom he raised among the rest to that Dignity, is supposed by St. Austin[[1257]] to have been the Author of a Book, famous in those Times, styled Libra, or, the Pound[[N25]]. |Two of their leading
Men renounce their
Errors;| However, both he and Symphosius were afterwards convinced of their Errors; and, desiring thereupon to be reconciled with the Church, they undertook a Journey to Milan, in order to engage St. Ambrose, Bishop of that City, in their Favour. He received them with the greatest Marks of Kindness and Affection; and being satisfied with the Terms of Reconciliation, which they themselves proposed, and promised to observe, he writ in their Behalf to the Bishops of Spain, who, at his Request, admitted them to their Communion[[1258]][[N26]].
[N25]. It was so called because it contained Twelve Questions, as the Roman Pound did Twelve Ounces. In that Piece the Author endeavoured to prove, from the Practice of the Patriarchs, of the Prophets, Apostles, Angels, and of Christ himself, that a Lye could be no Crime, when uttered to conceal our Religion[[1]].
[1]. Id. ib. c. 2, & 18.
[N26]. That these two Bishops should have applied to St. Ambrose, and not to Syricius, is what Baronius cannot brook; and therefore to bring in, right or wrong, the Bishop of Rome, he quotes a Passage of the Council of Toledo, where the Fathers of that Assembly, speaking of the Letter which St. Ambrose had written in favour of Symphosius and Dictinius, adds the following Words in a Parenthesis; Which Things were likewise suggested by Pope Syricius, of holy Memory[[1]]. But as these Words have no manner of Connection with the rest, it is manifest they have been foisted in on Purpose to bring Syricius upon the Stage; and were we to admit them as genuine, we could only conclude from thence, that Syricius too had written to the Bishops of Spain in behalf of Symphosius and Dictinius. Baronius indeed goes a great way farther; for he infers from the above-mentioned Words, that St. Ambrose acted by the Advice and Direction of Syricius; and from thence by a second Inference, which could occur to none but himself, that both Ambrose, and Simplicius, who succeeded him in the See of Milan, were the Pope’s Legates[[2]]. It is by such far-fetched Inferences and Deductions that he endeavours, throughout his voluminous Performance, to mislead his unwary Readers into a Belief of the Pope’s Supremacy.
[1]. Concil. t. 2. p. 1230.
[2]. Bar. ad ann. 405. n. 54.