The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy. Transformation of the Classical Heritage, 24.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Schutzumschlag leicht berieben, Bleistiftanmerkungen auf Vorsatz, sonst gut und sauber / dust jacket slightly rubbed, pencil annotations on endpapers, otherwise good and clean. - Priscillian was a well-educated ascetic teacher with a large following who became bishop of Avila in the early 380s A.D. Circa 385, he was executed by the usurping emperor Maximus, a civil rather than ecclesiastical authority, on grounds of magical and obscene practices. This study takes up issues of gender and authority in late ancient Christianity that are well illustrated by the conflict surrounding the figure of Priscillian. This fresh interpretation of the Priscillianist controversy traces the gradual escalation of charges against Priscillian from the earliest emergence of opposition to his asceticism at the Council of Saragossa, through the subsequent accusations of Manichaeism and sorcery that led to the execution of Priscillian and several followers, to the vigorous reinterpretations of Priscillian as a heretic or gnostic made in the aftermath of his execution and the suppression of his movement. The social and religious flux of the late fourth century engendered three factors that crucially shaped the Priscillianist controversy and its disputed issues of gender and authority: a divergence between �public� and �private� constructions of Christian community; a conflict between �accommodating� and �alienated� stances toward political institutions and secular affairs; and the evolution of new techniques for the definition and enforcement of a monolithic �orthodoxy.� The resonance of these contested issues and divergent perspectives throughout the Latinspeaking West is indicated by the reception of Priscillian (both personally and textually) in such central urban contexts as Rome, Milan, and Bordeaux, as well as in ascetic communities from Gaul to Palestine. / CONTENTS Preface Introduction 1 "A STRANGE MAN": OPPOSITION EMERGES AT THE COUNCIL OF SARAGOSSA 2 "MANICHAEAN": CHARGE AND COUNTERCHARGE IN PRISCILLIAN'S TRACTATES 3 "SORCERER": ALLIANCES, ENMITIES, AND THE DEATH OF PRISCILLIAN 4 "PRISCILLIANIST": HERESY INQUISITIONS AT TOLEDO AND TARRAGONA 5 "GNOSTIC": PRISCILLIAN REINTERPRETED BY SULPICIUS SEVERUS AND JEROME Conclusions Notes Selected Bibliography Index. ISBN 9780520089976