Editing Magnus Maximus (section)

===Administration===
Maximus made his capital at [[History of Trier#Roman Empire|Augusta Treverorum]] (Treves, [[Trier]]) in Gaul, and ruled Britain, Gaul, Spain and Africa. He issued coinage and a number of edicts reorganising Gaul's system of provinces. Some historians believe Maximus may have founded the office of the ''[[Comes Britanniarum]]'' as well, although it was probably Stilicho who created the permanent office.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craven |first=Maxwell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxayEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT167 |title=Magnus Maximus |date=2023 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-3981-1137-0 |pages=167}}</ref>

Maximus was a stern persecutor of [[heresy|heretics]]. It was on his orders that [[Priscillian]] and six companions were executed for [[Priscillianism|heresy]], although the actual civil charges laid by Maximus were for the practice of [[Magic in the Greco-Roman world|magic]]. Prominent churchmen such as [[Ambrose|St. Ambrose]] and [[St. Martin of Tours]] protested against this involvement of the secular power in doctrinal matters, but the executions were carried out nonetheless.<ref>A Momigliano, ''Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography'' (Oxford 1977) p. 113</ref> Maximus thereby not only established his credentials as an upholder of orthodoxy, but also strengthened his financial resources in the ensuing confiscations.<ref>K Cooper ed., ''Making Early Medieval Societies'' (2016) p. 34 and p. 44</ref> The [[Chronica Gallica of 452|''Gallic Chronicle'' of 452]] describes the Priscillianists as "Manichaeans", a different [[Gnostic]] heresy already condemned in Roman law under [[Diocletian]], and states that Magnus Maximus had them "caught and exterminated with the greatest zeal".<ref>{{cite book |last=Ames |first=Christine Cadwell |date=15 April 2015 |title=Medieval Heresies: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=45–46 |isbn=9781107023369}}</ref>

In a threatening letter addressed to Valentinian II, most likely composed between the spring of 384 and the summer of 387, Maximus complains of Valentinian's actions towards Ambrose and adherents of the Nicean Creed, writing: "Can it be that Your Serenity, venerable to me, thinks that a religion which has once taken root in the minds of men, which God himself has established, can be uprooted?" in response to "the disturbance and convulsion of Catholic law."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Omissi |first=Adrastos |date=May 2022 |title=Two letters of the usurper Magnus Maximus (Collectio Avellana 39 and 40) |url=https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/263793/ |journal=Classical Quarterly |language=en |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=391–415 |doi=10.1017/S000983882200043X |s2cid=253923880 |issn=0009-8388}}</ref>

Conversely, Maximus's edict of 387/388, which censured Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish [[synagogue]], was condemned by bishop [[Ambrose]], who said people exclaimed, "the emperor has become a Jew".<ref>Ambrose, Patrologia Latina, 16–17 (1845), nos. 40</ref>