Editing Priscillian (section)

==Continued Priscillianism==
The heresy, notwithstanding the severe measures taken against it, continued to spread in Gaul as well as in Hispania. A letter dated 20 February 405, from [[Pope Innocent I]] to Exuperius, bishop of [[Toulouse|Tolosa]], opposed the Priscillianists’ interpretation of the Apocrypha.{{sfn|Jorge|2006}} 

In 412, Lazarus, [[bishop of Aix-en-Provence]], and Herod, bishop of [[Arelate]], were expelled from their sees on a charge of Manichaeism. Proculus, the metropolitan of [[Massilia]], and the metropolitans of [[Vienna]] and [[Gallia Narbonensis|Gallia Narbonensis Secunda]] were also followers of the rigorist tradition of Priscillian.                                                                                                                                                                                     Something was done for its repression by a synod held by Turibius of [[Asturica]] in 446, and by that of [[Toletum]] in 447; as an openly professed creed it had to be declared heretical once more by the second synod of [[Bracara Augusta]] in 563, a sign that Priscillianist asceticism was still strong long after his execution. "The official church," says [[F. C. Conybeare]], "had to respect the [[ascetic]] spirit to the extent of enjoining [[clerical celibacy|celibacy]] upon its priests, and of recognizing, or rather immuring, such of the laity as desired to live out the old ascetic ideal."

It is not always easy to separate the genuine assertions of Priscillian himself from those ascribed to him by his enemies, nor from the later developments taken by groups who were labelled Priscillianist. The long prevalent estimation of Priscillian as a heretic and [[Manichaean]] rested upon [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]], [[Turibius of Astorga]], [[Pope Leo I|Pope Leo I, the Great]], and [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]] (who quotes a fragment of a letter of Priscillian's), although at the Council of Toledo in 400, fifteen years after Priscillian's death, when his case was reviewed, the most serious charge that could be brought was the error of language involved in a misrendering of the word ''innascibilis'' ("unbegettable").{{sfn|Grieve|1911|p=361}} Augustine criticized the Priscillianists, who he said were like the Manicheans in their habit of fasting on Sundays.{{cn|date=June 2023}}

Priscillianism continued in the north of Hispania and the south of Gaul. Priscillian was honored as a martyr, especially in [[Gallaecia]] (modern [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] and [[Norte, Portugal|northern]] [[Portugal]]), where his headless body was reverentially returned from Augusta Treverorum and allegedly became rediscovered and revered in the 9th century as [[Saint James the Great]].{{sfn|Chadwick|1976|p=233}}