147 – He refers to the Bishops Idacius and Ithacius, who had
induced Maximus to put Priscillian and others of his party
to death, in spite of the remonstrances of S. Martin,
who urged Maximus to be content with their having been
condemned by ecclesiastical sentence. Priscillian ‘had
adopted a strange compound of various errors,’ (Prof.
Bright Hist. p. 160.) chiefly Manichean. There is a full
account of Maximus’ dealings with them in Fleury, xviii.
29, 30. Newman’s Transl. vol. 1, p. 66–69. S. Ambrose in
Letter xxvi. condemns the conduct of these Bishops, and
the appeal to the civil sword in Ecclesiastical cases, in
still stronger terms.
148 – The Benedictine Editors consider him to be referring to
the Novatians.
149 – S. Ambrose’s Latin is ‘scribe hoc viros abdicatos.’ The
Vulg. has ‘scribe virum istum sterilem.’ The LXX. γράψον
τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον ἐκκήρυκτον.