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PRISICILLIAN AND GALLAECIA
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In the academic world,
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it has been a while since
the the Würzburg Treatise ,
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but he was not rehabilitated in society,
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very little is known about Priscillian.
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ANCIENT HISTORY PROFESSOR AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF OVIEDO AND ARCHAEOLOGIST
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He is linked to many things,
but without accuracy.
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That is why it is important
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00:02:00,467 --> 00:02:03,180
in an educational documentary,
done with rigor,
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00:02:03,341 --> 00:02:05,173
to work with the representatives
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of the research about this figure.
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Champion his figure but
on solid claims,
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based on the available documentation.
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We have to locate Priscillian
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in the 4th century
Roman province of Gallaeica,
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very big in that period.
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While researching it, we notice
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that is not only territorial
and geographical amplitude.
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Many important characters of the time
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are linked to this territory.
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It gained a lot of importance
in the Western Roman Empire
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of that period.
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Figures like Priscillian
were essential to the territory,
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not only to Gallaeica and Hispania,
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but to the entire Western Empire.
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These are the 4th and 5th centuries,
the end of the Roman Empire.
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PHD IN HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS
BY THE LUSÍADA UNIVERSITY (LISBON)
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It is a very rich period.
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I feel an affinity with the characters,
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with the history,
with what was happening,
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with that spiritual effervescence.
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It is the meeting between
the East and the West,
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which had started with Augustus,
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but now, it was being implemented
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quite strongly in the West.
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Even if the whole Western Roman structure,
administrative and political, remains
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it was already giving up
to that restlessness.
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I believe it was a restless time.
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We are in the Roman villa of La Olmeda,
in Palencia,
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a villa from the 4th century AD.
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It is a very important example,
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with 2000 square meters of mosaics,
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a very big, well preserved,
and musealized structure,
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in which, I believe, we can understand
and contextualize Priscillian.
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What we know about the early years
of Priscillian's life, is not much.
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We have accounts
by Sulpicius Severus,
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an Aquitanian chronicler,
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saying that he was from a rich family.
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There is no information
about when he was born,
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but we have the hypothesis
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that he was born in the middle
of the 4th century AD,
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around the year 345, 350.
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Why?
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Because he was named bishop
of Ávila in 381.
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and people became bishop when they were
around 30.
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00:04:57,510 --> 00:05:02,710
When Priscillian arrived at Ávila,
around the year 381,
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00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:01,640
ARCHAEOLOGIST. COUNCIL OF CASTILE AND LEÓN
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00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:08,700
he came across a city founded
around four centuries earlier,
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Obila , as it was called at the time,
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never became a city of the magnitude
of other Hispanian ones,
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like Emerita, Caesaraugusta,
or Hispalis...
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00:05:19,230 --> 00:05:24,290
however, it was a kind of
valuable administrative center,
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00:05:24,450 --> 00:05:28,540
a referent in an area
where there were no cities like that,
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and Priscillian arrives
in the 4th century.
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With all certainty, Priscillian was here.
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Not in this one, but the one
previous to it,
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which would have been a bigger
or smaller temple.
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Priscillian was made bishop of Ávila
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and several conflicts between Priscillians
and his opponents at the Church occur.
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In the end, his opponents take the problem
to the administration,
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and they get the emperor Gratian
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BUST OF GRATIAN
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to issue a rescript in which Priscillians
were expelled from their sees.
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This is when Priscillians
decide to travel to Rome.
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First, they stopped in Bordeaux,
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HYPOTHETICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF PRISCILLIAN'S TRIP TO ROME
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looking for support from bishops
from the Council of Saragossa
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and that could, before they met
with Pope Damasus,
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give support, even ideological.
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00:06:18,670 --> 00:06:20,670
They are expelled from Bordeaux,
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went to the region of Elusa as well,
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and then travelled to Italy.
They cross Gaul,
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reached Italy and went to Milan
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to meet with the bishop Ambrose.
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Ambrose refuses to see them,
and they decide to go to Rome.
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00:06:35,723 --> 00:06:37,390
AMBROSE OF MILAN
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to meet with the Pope himself.
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But he does not welcome them either.
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00:06:41,030 --> 00:06:43,790
Sulpicius and Instancio,
another bishop,
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POPE DAMASUS
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decide to go back to Hispania.
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Before that, they stop again in Milan
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and they bribed a member
of the administration
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magister officiorum Macedonius,
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and they are able to get the rescript
issued by emperor Gratian annulled.
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00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:38,830
Through the study of the sources,
the spread of Priscilianism,
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the chronology, the geography,
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of the findings that we will discover
in the places we will go to
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we can, with certain limitation,
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link Priscillian or Priscillianism
with them.
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00:07:59,260 --> 00:08:03,660
We are in the valley of the Mera river,
a tributary of the Minho.
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00:08:00,890 --> 00:08:05,210
PHD IN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
BY THE AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF MADRID
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00:08:04,250 --> 00:08:07,570
It's a territory with incredible
archaeological richness.
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00:08:07,730 --> 00:08:10,860
From my point of view,
this is a funerary monument
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from Ancient Rome,
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reused in the last phases
of the transition.
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It was a kind of crypt
of the church above it.
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The quality of its paintings
caught people's attention.
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Evidently, with anxiety to dig it up
and found out more.
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What happened to it?
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00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,480
A paradox: The more we digged and
the more data we had, the less we knew.
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A lot of theories came up,
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maybe a Roman temple, a lyceum...
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It was even said that
it could be a worship to Priscillian.
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PICTURE OF THE DISCOVERY
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GROUND PLAN OF SANTA EULALIA
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This idea appears in the 70s,
with Celestino Fernández de la Vega,
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who found a parallel
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00:08:54,890 --> 00:09:00,870
between this monument
and another important one in Nicaea.
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This is one is more important
that the one in Nicaea, bigger,
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almost double the volume.
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Who was important in Galicia at the time?
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Priscillian, so he is buried here.
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The arguments are not good,
they don't have much basis
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We are here because this is a key location
of the research about Priscilian.
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Priscillian was one of those men
with an education,
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with great wealth and properties,
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he studied rhetoric, probably in Bordeaux,
in the Roman Empire of the time.
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When he studies the Bible,
he becomes a notorious biblical exegete.
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He's a Christian that wants to live
his faith authentically,
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PATROLOGY PROFESSOR. THEOLOGY FACULTY
OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF ARGENTINA
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clashing with some customs
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with which Christianity
was looser, let's say.
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Here, in the 19th century, a marble disc
with a Christian inscription
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was located, it became known
in the academic world.
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The inscription allows us to link it
with Prisicillian and Priscillianism.
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It's a marble disc,
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the original is
at the Lugo Diocesan Museum,
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with an inscription in Latin:
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"Aurum vile tibi est,"
gold is bad for you,
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"argenti pondera cedant,"
as it is silver,
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"plus est quod propria felicitate nites",
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It is better that you shine
through your own happiness.
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It's a ascetic message,
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which links it to Priscillianism.
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The Priscillianists, and Priscillian,
were the ascetics of the time.
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00:11:16,370 --> 00:11:19,340
They met far from the episcopal power
and the cities.
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In the Council of Saragossa
it was stated that they did so.
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Priscillian is a fundamental character
in Galician culture.
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THEOLOGIST AND PHILOSOPHER
PRISCILLIAN EXPERT
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Maybe at the grass-roots level Priscillian
is less known than Rosalia de Castro,
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Ramón Cabanillas, Curros Enriquez,
or Pondal,
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but Priscillian is a fundamental
character.
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00:12:31,100 --> 00:12:33,440
In fact, Otero Pedrayo even said that
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he was the most important figure of
Galician culture, that is saying a lot.
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Castelao was fascinated
by the figure of Priscillian.
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This is portrayed in what everybody knows,
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the procession in Alba de Gloria
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which Priscillian leads.
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We have fresher news about him
than other more known characters,
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and so, this myth has a historical basis
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and a link with Galicia.
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That's why Castelao said he was
"the mystic soul of Galicia".
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Evidently, I cannot guarantee
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00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,510
that Compostela was built
above Priscillian's tomb.
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Against the other hypotheses,
which are many,
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I defend this one
as the most possible one.
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00:13:21,780 --> 00:13:23,780
He had a very frenetic life,
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00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:27,840
we are talking 380, Council of Saragossa,
381, he's named bishop,
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00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,600
then he had some conflicts in Mérida,
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00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:32,760
travels to Rome in 382,
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comes back in 383,
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and in 384, at the Council of Bordeaux,
he is judged.
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He chooses civil jurisdiction,
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PROFESSOR OF ROMAN LAW
UNIVERSITY OF VIGO
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he makes a provocatio ad principem .
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That is, he doesn't want or recognize
ecclesiastical jurisdiction
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and chooses the civil one.
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He believed that, as he had
a similar experience in the past,
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and that went well,
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in this case, it would go well.
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Ah! But the emperor is a different one,
he is a usurper who needs support.
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00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:05,090
Magnus Maximus is a usurper
who overthrows emperor Gratian
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00:14:02,670 --> 00:14:06,050
BUST OF MAGNUS MAXIMUS
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00:14:05,250 --> 00:14:07,470
and becomes the usurper emperor
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00:14:07,630 --> 00:14:09,950
of the Western Empire.
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00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:13,430
This is an key moment that changes
the political game.
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00:14:13,590 --> 00:14:17,020
He needs support from civilians,
he has it from the army.
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00:14:17,450 --> 00:14:23,740
He has to be known by his strength,
by his example to civilians.
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00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:22,670
COIN WITH MAGNUS MAXIMUS
REPRESENTED AS DEFENDER OF CHRISTIANITY.
191
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:27,330
Further, Priscillian will be convicted,
and he wasn't poor,
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00:14:27,490 --> 00:14:29,490
neither were his followers,
193
00:14:29,650 --> 00:14:33,050
and the seizure of their assets
would be personal,
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00:14:33,210 --> 00:14:35,990
from Priscillian and his followers
to the emperor.
195
00:14:36,070 --> 00:14:41,470
The crime that Prisicillian confessed
during his trials,
196
00:14:38,390 --> 00:14:42,310
PROFESSOR IN ANCIENT HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA
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00:14:41,670 --> 00:14:45,290
as it is stated in the sources,
under torture, it must be said,
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00:14:45,450 --> 00:14:46,790
despite being nobilis ;
199
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,300
was maleficium , harmful magic.
200
00:14:50,670 --> 00:14:55,880
They are taken to Trier,
and there, after two trials,
201
00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,520
PORTA NIGRA - TRIER
202
00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:59,530
he is tortured, confesses,
and ends up being beheaded
203
00:14:59,690 --> 00:15:02,060
alongside seven of his followers,
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00:15:02,220 --> 00:15:05,230
named by Sulpicius Severus.
They were probably more.
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00:15:05,390 --> 00:15:07,760
Therefore, the legality,
206
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:12,770
the formality,
the materialization of this conflict
207
00:15:12,930 --> 00:15:15,030
from a legal point of view,
208
00:15:15,190 --> 00:15:16,930
was completely legitimate.
209
00:15:17,550 --> 00:15:22,380
But, in reality, the consideration
of the Priscillian doctrine
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00:15:22,540 --> 00:15:24,020
and its followers,
211
00:15:24,180 --> 00:15:26,680
as heresy, as maleficium ,
212
00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:30,640
was a lot more aggravated
than it should have.
213
00:15:30,857 --> 00:15:36,016
It cannot be forgotten that Priscilian,
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00:15:34,177 --> 00:15:37,916
(ANCIENT HISTORY PROFESSOR.
SAARLAND UNIVERSITY)
215
00:15:36,177 --> 00:15:39,443
at least about certain aspects,
216
00:15:39,603 --> 00:15:47,703
thought just like his episcopal
adversaries did,
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00:15:47,863 --> 00:15:53,156
those who were responsible
for his sentence and execution.
218
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,510
One may think that when you behead
the leaders of a movement,
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00:15:58,670 --> 00:16:03,130
it's going to disappear,
but the contrary happened here.
220
00:16:03,290 --> 00:16:06,530
Hydatius, a 5th century chronicler
from Gallaecia,
221
00:16:06,830 --> 00:16:10,750
says that after the beheading
of Priscillian
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00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:13,530
the movement spread out, invaded,
223
00:16:13,690 --> 00:16:17,100
he uses the term invasit ,
224
00:16:17,260 --> 00:16:19,240
invaded the entire Gallaecia.
225
00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,700
We're in the Os Martores chapel,
in the Valga municipality.
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00:16:58,860 --> 00:17:02,500
In the year 1972,
the Monsignor Guerra Campos,
227
00:17:00,287 --> 00:17:07,154
MONSIGNOR JOSÉ GUERRA CAMPOS
228
00:17:02,830 --> 00:17:06,240
who did a study on the tomb
of the apostle James,
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00:17:07,310 --> 00:17:15,000
proposed this as the possible burial place
of Priscillian and some of his followers.
230
00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:19,060
His theory was that this place name,
Os Martores,
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00:17:19,550 --> 00:17:24,410
didn't exist in the entire
Galician geography
232
00:17:24,570 --> 00:17:29,889
and that it was very similar to the name
Priscillian and his followers
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00:17:30,050 --> 00:17:32,950
were known after their death:
The Martyrs of Trier
234
00:17:33,110 --> 00:17:36,100
We are in Valga, close to Caldas de Reis,
235
00:17:36,260 --> 00:17:37,630
former Aquis Celenis,
236
00:17:37,790 --> 00:17:41,190
where we know there were
Priscillianist bishops.
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00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:49,660
The main members of the Church
and main theorists of Christianity,
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00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:52,846
repeat this ideological tradition
of saying that
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Priscillian was a heretic, a Manichean,
an heir to Zoroaster, said Jerome.
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This tradition was kept alive
because this was the pushed image.
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In the 1880s,
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HISTORY PROFESSOR EMERITUS
SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
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00:18:03,863 --> 00:18:07,656
a group of manuscripts were discovered
in Würzburg, Germany,
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called "The Würzburg Tractates".
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00:18:10,476 --> 00:18:14,968
These are writings which some were written
directly by the hand of Priscillian,
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and some directly by the hand
of his followers.
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00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,339
On a theological level,
these writings
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ANCIENT CHRISTIAN LITERATURE PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF PADUA
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00:18:20,500 --> 00:18:24,808
give us an image,
maybe not a completely orthodox one,
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of the postconstantinopolitan theology
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00:18:29,852 --> 00:18:31,852
after the year 381.
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00:18:32,212 --> 00:18:36,648
But it is a Christology,
a strongly unitarian theology,
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strongly focused on God's unity,
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and against the difference between people.
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00:18:43,328 --> 00:18:46,915
Priscillian was indeed considered
a heretic,
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I.R.E.R. HISTORIAN
SORBONNE UNIVERSITY
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00:18:47,075 --> 00:18:50,119
even a heresiarch,
the leader of a heresy.
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00:18:50,893 --> 00:18:55,613
I have been studying this man
and his work for 25 years,
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I believe the accusations
of gnosticism or manichaeism
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are heresiological ones,
that is,
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they respond to a distortion
of the information
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00:19:13,053 --> 00:19:16,506
but they are also the result
of a misunderstanding
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00:19:16,666 --> 00:19:20,266
between the different sides
of that moment
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00:19:20,426 --> 00:19:23,326
and that will have
a deep effect in things.
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00:19:23,486 --> 00:19:27,766
For the first time,
we could read what he truly said,
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what they truly said.
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00:19:30,327 --> 00:19:33,766
And at least in that first phase
that I am talking about,
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you will not find heresy,
you can see a tendency
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00:19:39,877 --> 00:19:42,186
but you will not find material heresy.
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00:19:42,346 --> 00:19:45,146
He is not a gnostic,
he is not a maniquean,
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he is not a heretic, etc...
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00:19:51,100 --> 00:19:53,600
In reality, after Priscillian's death,
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heresy, spread by his initiative,
not only was it not repressed,
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but it became stronger
and spread even more.
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00:20:01,180 --> 00:20:04,280
His followers,
who worshipped him as a saint before,
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00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:06,720
started to do so as a martyr.
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We are in Marialba de la Ribera,
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00:20:26,370 --> 00:20:28,950
a district of the Council of Villaturiel,
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close to the city of León,
near the Astur-Roman city of Lancia.
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Right now, we're in the apse of
the Paleochristian Basilica of Marialba.
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One of the thesis about Priscillian's
burial place
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is precisely this fascinating
and fantastic place.
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00:20:47,460 --> 00:20:50,560
It's believed that
it was an 18-meter-tall building,
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with a central nave, its baptistery,
an atrium...
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It was of great importance
in the 4th century.
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00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,080
GROUND PLAN OF THE MARIALBA BASILICA
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It must have been someone really important
to be in the apse
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORKS IN MARIALBA
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of practically the first Christian church,
let's call it that way, in this region.
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We're in the entrails of the ancient city
of Asturica Augusta,
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which was one of the main cities
of Gallaecia.
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00:21:34,770 --> 00:21:36,930
Specifically, we're in the slave pit,
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a cryptoportico
from the High Roman Empire,
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00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:45,210
used to hold some of
the city forum structures.
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00:21:45,370 --> 00:21:49,890
In the discourse, debate, research,
about where Priscillian is buried.
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this is one of the possible destinies
of Priscillian's relics.
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I defend the theory
that Priscillian of Avila
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could be buried in Asturica Augusta.
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This was the see of Simposio and Dictinio,
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the heirs of the movement,
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00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,550
who could be interested in bringing
Priscillian's remains back here.
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00:22:39,540 --> 00:22:43,390
We're in one of the most spectacular
archaeological sites in Galicia.
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This site was classified as a hillfort,
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but in latter research,
it was said that these circular structures
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00:22:52,870 --> 00:22:55,980
could be part of an Iron Age shrine.
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00:22:56,410 --> 00:23:00,260
An author, Michael Koch,
published a book in 2019
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in which he said that
some of the shrines found here,
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SHRINES WITH CROSS-SHAPED ELEMENTS
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had a symbology, cruciforms,
an iconography,
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that could be linked
with the presence of Christianity
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and above all, with Priscillianism.
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He says that the destruction
of this shrine could be linked
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with the persecution
of the Priscillianists.
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00:23:31,310 --> 00:23:36,210
The situation ends up
stabilizing for Priscillianists,
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00:23:36,370 --> 00:23:42,300
and they are able to fight this convulsive
and complex period for the movement,
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00:23:42,460 --> 00:23:45,870
and establish themselves
and get strength again.
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00:23:46,030 --> 00:23:50,830
Priscillianism is going to be preserved
specially among the people,
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not in the episcopal hierarchy,
but among the people.
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00:23:52,060 --> 00:23:58,980
KNOWN ANTIPRISCILLIANISTS
BY WRITTEN SOURCES (379-651)
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We've recovered news about Priscillianism
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00:23:57,620 --> 00:23:59,710
as far as the year 651.
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We have a epistle of
the bishop of Zaragoza, Braulio,
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00:24:04,300 --> 00:24:06,630
who writes to Fructuosus,
bishop of Braga,
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00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:09,410
warning him of Priscillian's heresy
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00:24:09,570 --> 00:24:13,470
which had been present in the region,
in Gallaecia, until recently.
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00:24:13,630 --> 00:24:18,200
Even important and famous people,
like Paulo Orosio,
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00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:21,870
had been infected,
always using degrading terminology,
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00:24:22,030 --> 00:24:26,040
had been infected
by the Priscillian doctrine.
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00:25:17,283 --> 00:25:20,270
Why should Priscillian be rehabilitated?
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00:25:20,430 --> 00:25:23,790
I think justice demands it.
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00:25:23,950 --> 00:25:27,190
Priscillian deserves great respect,
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00:25:27,350 --> 00:25:29,350
respect as a historical character.
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00:25:29,512 --> 00:25:33,391
Rehabilitate... that is a question that I,
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00:25:33,551 --> 00:25:38,551
as a historian, cannot answer.
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Priscillian is a fundamental figure
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00:25:42,313 --> 00:25:44,566
that allow us to better understand
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00:25:44,726 --> 00:25:47,359
the historical and cultural context
and climate
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00:25:47,519 --> 00:25:49,519
of Christianity.
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00:25:49,670 --> 00:25:54,390
We should seek the contrary
of what happened,
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the unity of the Church.
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He could be the example of someone
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00:25:58,450 --> 00:26:00,750
with a curiosity to know his truth,
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which today doesn't make sense.
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00:26:03,070 --> 00:26:08,800
He awarded women the possibility,
within the Holy Order,
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00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,790
to be even deaconesses.
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00:26:11,958 --> 00:26:15,211
Priscilian's story, his persecution,
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00:26:15,458 --> 00:26:19,137
the fact that the Priscillianists
were expropriated and exiled
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deeply impacted me,
because it made me relive
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00:26:22,636 --> 00:26:26,769
my ancestors' story.
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I remember a journalist
of a newspaper of A Corunna
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asking me "are you a Priscilianist?"
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and I told him "I've never been asked that
but I could say that I am"
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A thrilling character,
who leaves me yearning to know more
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about what he could have done here.