punishment Of heretics in this period, a- it i> the first III the history of Christianity, the propriety of violent measures againsl heresy was thenceforth vindicated
even by the be-t fathers of the Church (see "ii ibis
point Augustine's position as marked out by Neander, Ch. Hist. ii. 217 Bq.; Schaff, Ch. Hist. ii. lit. l 15), and Boon none but the persecuted parties wire heard to pro- tesl againsl religious persecution. We need hardly add that in due time the Church ot Rome, with I.e.. the Great a- it - tir-t and clearest representative, became the advocate and executioner of the death penalty for heresy. See Heresy; Inquisition; Romanism.
After the death ol Maximus. the emperor Then lo- sius ordered a synod to be held in 389, to settle the dif- ficulties that had arisen among the bishops of Caul,
PRISON
599
PRISON
Spain, and Italy on account of Ithacius. The latter and bishop Idacius were deposed by that assembly. But the disputes which had been called up by them con- tinued in some parts of Spain, fostered especially l>y the Priscillianists, who were still numerous. In the year 400 the sect appears in a decaying condition. At the synod held in that year at Toledo, several Priscil- lianist bishops, among others Symphosius and Dictin- nius, returned to the Church. The latter wrote a work entitled the Scales, in which the principles of the Pris- cillianists are expounded, but as he was an apostate he can hardly be regarded as a safe expositor of Pris- cillianism. The sect revived in the middle of the 5th century, especially in Gallicia. The active ex- ertions of bishop Turibius, of Astorga, succeeded in extinguishing it gradually. He punished and impris- oned heretics, etc., but he was also busy in their instruc- tion, both orally and by his writings. The same bishop sent to Leo the Great a refutation of Priscillianism, which Leo honored with an answer, praising his zeal and recommending the holding of a Spanish synod, which was consequently convened in Gallicia in 448. Leo's letter is important for the refutation of Priscil- lianism contained in it. Among the most noteworthy literary attacks upon Priscillianism in the first half of the 5th century, we may mention here, besides, Ad Paulina. Orosium contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas (411) ; Contra mt ndacium, addressed to Consentius (420) ; and in part the 190th Epistle (alias Ep. 157), to the bishop Optatus, on the origin of the soul (418), and two other letters, in which he refutes erroneous views on the nat- ure of the soul, the limitation of future punishments, and the lawfulness of fraud for supposed good purposes. The Priscillianists, notwithstanding the severest meas- ures inaugurated against them and the polemics that were written against them, continued to exist, and at all times during the medieval period we find their traces under various names and forms, especially in the north of Spain, Languedoc (France), and Northern Italy. The Synod of Braga, in 5G3, condemned several Priseil- lian errors, about which we owe to this assembly most interesting information. See Sulp. Severus, Hist. Sa- cra, ii, 46-51; Dial, iii, 11 sq. ; Orosius Commonito- rium de Errore PrisciUianistarum, etc.; Leonis Magni Ep. 15, ad Turibium; Walch, Ketzerhistorie, iii, 378 sq.; Alex. Natalis, Hist. Eccles. ; Fleury, Hist, Pedes. ; Van Fries, Dissertatio Critica de Priscill. (Ultraj. 1745) ; Ltibkert, De Hceresi Priscill. (Havn. 1840) ; Mander- nach, Gesch. des Priscillianismus (Treves, 1851); Hefele, Conciliengesch. i, 719; ii, 27 sq. ; iii, 13 sq.; Milman, Lat. Christianity, i, 276-78; Puscy, Hist, of the Coun- cils A.D. 51-381 (1875) ; Alzog. Kirehengesch. i, 372 sq. ; Neander, Ch. Hist, ii, 710, 718. (J. H. W.)
Prison is represented in the A. V. by the following Heb. and Gr. words: 1. "l^OX, Aramaic for 1":x, "a chain," is joined with T^S. and rendered a prison (Sept. oIkoq CEffjUuiv ; Vulg. career). 2. X^2, fctt^Sl, and X"^>2, with r^a (Sept. otiooc (pvXaKtjc; Jer. xxxvii, 15). 3. !"l2firi"5, from TjS^, "turn," or "twist," the stocks (xx. 2). 4. l-na^a and xn-J-2 ; fvXaicr] ; career (Ge- senius, Thesaur. p. 879). 5. 13Qw ; cW/uunjoioi' ; career. 6. "TES572; (pvXaKt); eustodia ; also intens. FHaiBO; A. V. "hard." 7. "isi?; cmgustia; rcnrsivtD- aiQ (Gesenius, p. 1059). 8. rYip-flgB (Isa. lxi. 1). more properly written in one word ; avafiXtipic ; aper- tio (Gesenius, p. 1121). 9. ^T^TS; b)({iph)fia ; career: properly a tower. 10. FnjJBryJVS ; oticia fivkoivoe, ; domus carceris. I"i?2 is also sometimes il prison" in the A. V., as Gen. xxxix, 20. 11. pS^X; KarappaKTrje ; career ; probably " the stocks" (as in the A. Y.) or some such instrument of confinement ; perhaps understood by the Sept. as a sewer or underground passage. 12. In the N. T. StafiojTi'ipiov, o'iKiifia, r//p/jff(c, usually (pvXaKrj.
In Egypt it is plain both that special places were used as prisons, and that they were under the custody of a military officer (Gen. xl, 3 ; xlii, 17). During the wandering in the desert we read on two occasions of confinement " in ward" (Lev. xxiv, 12 ; Numb, xv, 34) ; but as imprisonment was not directed by the law, so we hear of none till the time of the kings, when the prison appears as an appendage to the palace, or a spe- cial part of it (1 Kings xxii, 27). Later still it is dis- tinctly described as being in the king's house (Jer. xxxii. 2 : xxxvii. 21 ; Neh. iii, 25). This was the case also at Babylon (2 Kings xxv, 27). But private houses were sometimes used as places of confinement (Jer. xxxvii, 15), probably much as Chardin describes Per- sian prisons in his day, viz. houses kept by private spec- ulators for prisoners to be maintained there at their own cost (Vog. vi, 100). Public prisons other than these, though in use by the Canaanitish nations (Judg. xvi, 21, 25), were unknown in Judaea previous to the cap- tivity. Under the Herods we bear again of royal pris- ons attached to the palace, or in royal fortresses (Luke iii, 20; Acts xii, 4, 10; Josephus, Ant. xviii, 5, 2; Ma- cha?rus). By the Komans Antonia was used as a prison at Jerusalem (Acts xxiii, 10), and at Cwsarea the pra> torium of Herod (ver. 35). The sacerdotal authorities also had a prison under the superintendence of special officers, 8iafio(pv\aicte, (Acts v, 18-23 ; viii, 3 ; xxvi, 10). The royal prisons in those days were doubtless managed after the Roman fashion, and chains, fetters, and stocks were used as means of confinement (see xvi, 24, and Job xiii, 27). One of the readiest places for confinement was a dry, or partially dry, well or pit (see Gen. xxxvii, 24, and Jer. xxxviii, 6-11) ; but the usual place appears, in the time of Jeremiah, and in general, to have been accessible to visitors (Jer. xxxvi, 5 ; Matt, xi, 2; xxv, 36, 39; Acts xxiv, 23).— Smith. From the instance of the Mamertine Prison at Rome (q. v.), in which the apostle Paul (q. v.) is said to have been con- fined, many have rashly assumed that the Uoman prisons generally were subterranean ; but at Thessalonica at least, even " the inner prison" (Acts xvi, 24) seems to have been on the ground -floor ("doors," ver. 26; " sprang in," ver. 29). See Dungeon.