CHAPTER TWENTY -ONE MAGIC, WOMEN, AND HERESY IN THE LATE EMPIRE: THE CASE OF THE PRISCILLIANISTS Todd Breyfogle In the summer of 385, Priscillian, bishop of Avila, was executed in Trier by the imperial arm on charges of sorcery, nocturnal orgies, and praying naked. I The case of the Priscillianists is unusual on several counts. First, many of Priscillian's followers were wealthy aristocratic women. Second, Priscillian was an established and powerful bishop, whose road to execution was marked not by explicit accusations of magic but by allegations that he subscribed to Gnostic and Manichaean heresies. This essay looks anew at the Priscillianist affair in an effort to tease out the curious relation­ ships between magic, women, and heresy, and to ascertain what appeared magical to the fourth-century Christian mind. On the whole, modem scholarship has either not addressed the specific questions of magic or has treated magic as a legal device in the persecution of heresy.2 Heresy was not a capital crime, but magic was, prompting Gibbon's verdict that Priscillian was the first heretic to be executed by the state, 3 a judgment which has been frequently repeated. 4 More recent studies, however, have shown 1 I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. N. B. McLynn, who supervised my initial research on Priscillian, and to H. M D. Breyfogle, whose helpful sug~estions substantially improved the text. The topic of magic was all but neglected in the major studies by E.-Ch. Babut, Priscillien et le priscillienisme (Paris: H. Champion, 1909); J. Davids, De Orosio et Sancto Augustino Priscillianistarum Adversariis (The Hague: A. N. Govers, 1930); and A. d'Ah)s, Priscillien et I'Espagne Chretienne a Ia fin du !Ve siecle (Paris: G. Beauchesne, 1936). See B. Vollmann's summary of magic and astrology in Priscillianism in "Priscillianus," PWSup 14 (1974): 536-39. 3 Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York: Modem Library, n.d.), 1.973-75. 4 For example, W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: For­ tress, 1984), 670; P. Brown, "The Diffusion of Manichaeism in the Roman Empire," in Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 94; N. Q. King, The Emperor Theodosius and the Establish­ ment of Christianity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), 51; and A. Piganiol, L 'empire chretien: 325-395, 2d ed. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972), 228, 243-44. 436 CHAPTER TWENTY -ONE that the affair was not as simple as Gibbon suggests. It is now clear that Priscillian's teachings and practices, though often unusual, fell within the tolerated norms of ancient Christian orthodoxy.5 Thus, research has turned to sociological and anthropological theory for aid in explaining the accusations of magic and heresy which occa­ sioned Priscillian' s demise. 6 According to this latter approach, accusations of magic and Manichaeism functioned within a system of "community dynamics" as measures against those whom the community was unable to assimilate.7 The tools of anthropology have been a boon to historical re­ search. But in the case of the Priscillianists, at least, rigid applica­ tion of functionalist models has yielded two problems. First, it has led to the assumption that because the Priscillianists were accused of magic they must therefore have been marginal. Second, by focusing solely on conflicts of power, it has neglected the very real theological conflict, obscuring the Priscillianists' affinities with Manichaeism and Gnosticism. 8 That is to say, the functionalist approach has pre-empted the question of how Priscillianist prac­ tice and doctrine may actually have appeared magical and hereti­ cal to fourth-century observers. The accusations of heresy and magic against Priscillian cannot be fully accounted for as a conflict between "articulate" and "inarticulate" power.9 Priscillian was a well-educated urban aristo­ crat who with shrewd manipulation of the imperial power structure was able to frustrate his persecutor Ithacius at almost every tum.10 Priscillian was openly supported by at least five fellow bishops, and possibly counted as informal supporters such prominent ecclesias- S H. Chadwick, Priscil/ian of Avila: The Occult and the Charismatic in the Early Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), is a characteristically erudite and thorough account. I have not yet seen A. B. J. M Goosen, "Achtergronden van Priscillianus' Christelijke Ascese," (diss., Nijmegen, 1976). 6 Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 88-114, brings modem anthro­ pological theory to bear on his detailed assemblage of the historical evidence. The classic, groundbreaking application of modem anthropology to late antiq­ uity is, of course, Peter Brown, "Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of Christianity: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages" in Religion and Society, 119-146. 1 Van Dam, Leadership, 78-87, 102-03. 8 For these affinities see below and Babut, Priscil/ien, 253-63; Davids, De Orosio, 117-20, 141-5; d'Allis, Priscil/ien, 92-93; Chadwick, Priscil/ian, 94- 99, 194-98. 9 The terms are P. Brown's, "Sorcery," 124. 10 Sulpicius Severns, Chron. 11.46.3, 11.48.5-6 (CSEL 1), with A. Piganiol, L 'empire chretien, 254. .