The first publication of the Complete Works of Priscillian to include facing page translation, systematic commentaries, and the spurious texts. Marco Conti sets the writings of this famous fourth century 'heretic' in historical context and establishes their importance for scholarly research in a detailed introduction.

Ancient Christianity had an ambivalent stance toward violence. Jesus had instructed his disciples to love their enemies, and in the first centuries Christians were proud of this lofty teaching and tried to apply it to their persecutors and to competing religious groups. Yet at the same time they testify to their virulent verbal criticism of Jews, heretics and pagans, who could not accept the Christian exclusiveness. After emperor Constantine had turned to Christianity, Christians acquired the opportunity to use violence toward competing groups and pagans, even though they were instructed to love them personally and Jewish-Christian relationships flourished at grass root level. General analyses and case studies demonstrate that the fashionable distinction between intolerant monotheism and tolerant polytheism must be qualified.

PILGRIMAGE TO HERESY is a tale of intrigue which asks disturbing questions about the nature of faith and pilgrimage. The Catholic Church would rather you didn't learn the answers! Trier, Gaul, 385 C.E.Priscillian of Avila: A wealthy former Senator, a charismatic bishop with a huge following in his native Galicia, argues for his life against his accusers, two powerful Spanish bishops who win the ready ear of the new Emperor, Maximus. Priscillian and his entourage are accused of witchcraft and heresy.Yet his message is one of celibacy, simplicity, and gentleness. Is he guilty? For centuries, it has been claimed that St. James is buried in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain-the Holy Grail of pilgrims for over 1200 years. But what if he is not? What if the occupant is none other than Priscillian, a man whose Gnostic message threatened to undo the power of the newly formed Roman church?The Camino de Santiago, Spain, 2000 C.E.Miranda has left her untenured position at the University of Toronto to go on a 800 kilometers hike in the north of Spain. On her second day walking in the Pyrenees, she meets Kieran, a lapsed candidate for the priesthood, who is translating a book written in Latin: a book he shouldn't have! The next day, Kieran is missing, and so is his translation. A religious injustice ... Two love stories: one doomed from the start ... And a mystery ... perhaps

"As the psalms are a microcosm of the Old Testament, so the Expositions of the Psalms can be seen as a microcosm of Augustinian thought. In the Book of Psalms are to be found the history of the people of Israel, the theology and spirituality of the Old Covenant, and a treasury of human experience expressed in prayer and poetry. So too does the work of expounding the psalms recapitulate and focus the experiences of Augustine's personal life, his theological reflections and his pastoral concerns as Bishop of Hippo."--Publisher's website.

Rescued from being a lost book, this history's last manuscript lay deep within the Vatican Archives, this classic historical text is now, for the first time, being published for the modern reader. Sulpicius Severus is best known for his biography of St. Martin of Tours and his Sacred History (also known as the Chronicle.) Sacred History is a brief history of the world from the beginning to his own time and in the latter portions focuses on the Priscillianist heresy that disordered his home province of Aquitaina which is in modern day France, as well as the Arian controversy. Severus prefers a purely historical interpretation of the scriptures in reaction to the gnostic philosophy that entrenched his region that reduced the sacred history to mere allegory. The Sacred History is written in classic style, such as what is found in Tacitus, and is intended to introduce lovers of history to the histories of the Bible.