The Teaching of Priscillian - 4 - His statement of belief.

Cristo Pantocrator on doorway of Lugo Cathedral

The "Creed" of Priscillian is outlined in the second of the Würzburg Tractates, paragraphs 45 to 65. This is introduced by the statement:-
 "Indeed as we received the faith, so we keep it and transmit it"  
  it continues:-
"believing in one God, . . and in one Lord Jesus Christ, . . . . who was born of the Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit, . . . . who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified . . . . . was buried, on the third day rose again,  . . . . ascended into the heavens, is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty, . . . . whence he will come and judge the living and the dead, . . . . we believe in the Holy Church, the Holy Spirit, the saving baptism,  . . . . we believe in the remission of sins,  . . . . we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, . . . .  " (1)

In the Tractate, this credal statement is interspersed with supporting Biblical verses. If this is genuinely the sum total of the Priscillianist belief, then we must say that it is completely orthodox in every respect!  Indeed the Tractate goes on to condemn unequivocally a wide range of contemporary heresies including the Arians (2), Patripassians (3), Photinus (4), the Ophites (5), the Novatians (6), and the Manichaeans (7).

However there is an underlying sense of an unorthodox belief. This is apparent in the consistent use of the title "Christ God" (Christus deus) and even "God Christ" (deus Christus) throughout the Tractates. The orthodox creed is taken to mean that there is one God with threefold power and that one is Christ. (8)
Chadwick says "It does not occur to Priscillian that there might be controversy in his own interpretation of the creed. . . . . The oneness of the Father in the son and of the Son in the Father means one God, 'transcent and immanent, enfolding and pervading'. . . ." (9)
The wording in the Priscillianist writings certainly show that they held a Monarchian view of the Godhead - an emphasis (over emphasis?) on the unity of God. In spite of his denunciation of the Patripassians in the first Tractate, Priscillian does not appear to be able to refute their doctrine. The proof texts he uses establish the unity of the Father and the Son, rather than explain why the Patripassians are wrong! (10)

In reading and trying to interpret Tractate II, it is necessary to keep reminding ourselves that Priscillian was writing to Bishop Damasus of Rome. In doing so he would presenting his beliefs as favourably as possible and in the recognised form of an 'Apologia'. In his interpretation of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, Priscillian seems unsure of his definitions. Remembering that Arianism was still a force and that Tractates I and II predate Augustine's definitions of the Trinity (11) we should perhaps not be surprised by this uncertainty. However it did give some grounds for the later condemnation of Priscillianists as heretics.



(1) For the full text see Marco Conti. Priscillian of Ávila,The Complete Works. Oxford University Press 2010 pp.71 - 72.
(2) The Arians regarded Christ as a created being. "There was a time when the Son was not".
(3) The Patripassians suggested that ". . . the Father himself descended into the virgin, was himself born of her, himself suffered; in fact that he himself was Jesus Christ"  Tertullian. Adv. Praxean.1. Quoted in Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church.
(4)  Photinus held a determinedly monothestic doctrine of God. The Logos for him was simply a mode of manifestation of the Father, a power or aspect of him, not in any serious sense distinct from him.
(5) Psuedo-Tertullian (possibly quoting Hippolytus c.220 A.D.) says of the Ophites:- "Christ did not exist in the flesh; that they extolled the serpent and preferred it to Christ; and that Christ imitated Moses' serpent's sacred power"  (Num 21:6-9) saying, "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14)" (Haer. 2:1). In addition, Eve is said to have believed the serpent, as if it had been God the Son.
(6) The Novatians held that lapsed Christians, who had not maintained their confession of faith under persecution, may not be received again into communion with the church, unless they repented and were re-baptised and that second marriages are unlawful.
(7) Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. It seems to have been based on Mesopotamian gnosticism. There is a long article in Wikipedia!
(8) See Conti. opp cit. p.73
(9) Chadwick. Priscillian of Ávila. p.89
(10) Conti. opp cit p.37
(11) The Quicunque Vult (Athanasian Creed) uses the terminology of Augustine's "On the Trinity" (published 415 AD)