As a critic of the film Gladiator observed, Maximus seems a bit of an over the-top name even for a Roman emperor. Yet someone called Maximus was indeed a Roman emperor (if not the only one) of his day, and like the (fictional) Russell Crowe character, Magnus Maximus was a Spaniard who was popular with his troops. In 383, he was proclaimed emperor in Britain by his legions, defeated the western emperor Gratian in Paris, crossed the Alps, but eventually surrendered to Theodosius the ‘Great’ in 388, who promptly executed him (Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the western and eastern parts of the empire).
From our modern perspective, Maximus in himself seems a figure of little historical significance, being simply one of a series of military commanders who fought for control of the Roman empire in the 4th century. but he does have a remarkable claim to fame – or at least infamy – in that he was the first Christian ruler to execute a Christian for his beliefs. The Christian he executed was another Spaniard, an ascetic intellectual called Priscillian, described by his near-contemporary Sulpicius Severus, the biographer of St Martin of Tours, as ’a man of noble birth, of great riches, bold, restless, eloquent, learned through much reading, very ready at debate and discussion’ (Catholic Encyclopedia translation).
Priscillan had many admirers and became Bishop of Avila, but also had many theological (and more clearly orthodox) enemies. Prompted by the persecution of his followers, Priscillian appealed to Maximus at Trier for imperial protection but ended up accused by a civil court of sorcery. St Martin of Tours was so shocked by the vehemence of the language used against Priscillian and the Priscillians, as his followers were now called, that he also appealed to Maximus, calling on him not to shed the blood of the accused. But after Martin left the city, and Priscillian was found guilty, he and several followers were beheaded on the direct orders of Maximus, who seems to have had it in for the unorthodox, possibly as a means of currying favour with the Church. Priscillan and the others were the first Christians ever to be executed by Christians.
The executions were quickly condemned by the Pope and by Bishop Ambrose of Milan; and when in 400, the Council of Toledo re-examined the case, they found little of substance against him, and several leading Priscillians, including two bishops, were reconciled to the Church.
What Happened Next
Maximus, despite his efforts for the Church, was soon forgotten after his execution in 388, though his descendants are quite interesting: one presumed great-grandson, Petronius Maximus, was very briefly emperor before being stoned to death in 455, and his daughter may have been married to the British king Vortigern, according to the Pillar of Eliseg in Denbighshire.
Priscillian was clearly a very gifted man. A definitive account of his beliefs has long been problematic: as with many subsequent ‘heretics’ we now know his beliefs primarily from his persecutors (Priscillian’s earliest writings were, astonishingly. rediscovered in 1885). Despite the anxious efforts at reconciliation on the part of the Church in his day, it seems probable that at least some of his beliefs derive from distinctly heterodox Manichaean or Gnostic traditions (Gnostics saw the creation as a flawed, even evil work, rather than, as the orthodox required, the beneficent creation of a loving God). The most notable ex-Manichaean of the day was Augustine, but it seems there were many inside and out of the church who regarded themselves as orthodox but sympathised with the inspirational asceticism of men such as Priscillian (and women too: Priscillian’s followers included many women, who were regarded as equals within the movement, a feature also of many Gnostic groups).
Priscillian continued to be venerated by many Christians in Spain, particularly in Galicia, a cause of great concern to Leo I (see 452: Pope Leo I persuades Attila the Hun not to attack Rome). His body was brought back from Trier, and it has been suggested that the human remains discovered at Santiago de Compostela in the 8th century are in fact Priscillian’s, and not those of St James. Gnosticism – in the form of Catharism – was to resurface centuries later in Provence, and was suppressed by the Church with great ferocity during the Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1255. But by then, the world had got used to the spectacle of Christians slaughtering Christians.