PRISCILLIAN (Lat. Priseillianus) ( ?-3S5). A Spanish Christian of prominence, who, while still a layman. started a reform movement with the view of deepening religious life and en couraging asceticism. He afterwards entered holy orders and was made Bishop of Avila, in Central Spain. His theology diverged from or thodoxy at some points. and in the end he was charged with holding Gnostic. Manichxan, and other heresies, although he himself disavowed the opinions of Manes. He seems. however, to have held peculiar views respecting the influ ence of the heavenly bodies upon men. Be be lieved that the Church still possessed the gift of prophecy, and he gathered his followers into private assemblies, which lent color to the charge of sectarianism. later brought against him. A council at Saragossa (380) reproved the ascetic and separatist tendencies of the day, although without mentioning Priseillian by name, and a controversy ensued. His views were soon carried
over into the Gallie Church. and within eight or ten years of its first appearance the party included several bishops and a large number of the clergy, In the course of the controversy Priscillian appealed to l'ope Damasus (e.382), and further appeals to the Emperor were made by both parties. After Priscillian had protested against the jurisdiction of a synod convened at Bordeaux (384), he was tried before a civil tribunal, condemned for sorcery, and put to death. along with six others, by the Emperor's command. The Priscillianists continued for some time longer in a state of schism, and are found even as late as the sixth century. The literary remains of Priscillian are published in the Corpus Seriptorum Beelesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xviii. (Vienna, 1889).