9. When therefore we teach ours to blaspheme God that the Priscillianists may believe them theirs, let us see what evil themselves say when they therefore lie that we may believe them ours. They anathematize Priscillian, and detest him according to our mind; they say that the soul is a creature of God, not a part; they execrate the Priscillianists’ false martyrdoms; the catholic bishops by whom that heresy has been stripped, attacked, prostrated, they extol with great praises, and so forth. Behold, themselves speak truth when they lie: not that the very thing which is a lie can be true at the same time; but when in one thing they lie, in another they speak truth: for when, in saying they are of us, they lie, of the catholic faith they speak truth. And therefore they, that they may not be found out for Priscillianists, speak in lying manner the truth: but we, that we may find them out, not only speak lyingly, that we may be believed to belong to them; but we also speak false things which we know to belong to their error. Therefore as for them, when they wish to be thought of us, it is both false in part, and true in part, what they say; for it is false that they are of us, but true that the soul is not a part of God: but as for us, when we wish to be thought to belong to them, it is false, both the one and the other that we say, both that we are Priscillianists, and that the soul is a part of God. They, then, praise God, not blaspheme, when they conceal themselves; and when they do not so, but utter their own sentiments, they know not that they blaspheme. So that if they be converted to the catholic faith, they console themselves, because they can say what the Apostle said: who when among other things he had said, “I was before a blasphemer; but,” saith he, “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly.”10    1 Tim. i. 13 We on the contrary, in order that they may open themselves to us, if we utter this as if it were a just lie for deceiving and catching them, do assuredly both say that we belong to the blaspheming Priscillianists, and that they may believe us, do without excuse of ignorance blaspheme. For a catholic, who by blaspheming wishes to be thought a heretic, cannot say, “I did it ignorantly.”

9. Cum igitur blasphemare Deum doceamus nostros, ut eos Priscillianistae credant suos; videamus quid mali dicant ipsi, quando propterea mentiuntur, ut eos nostros esse credamus. Anathematizant Priscillianum, et ad nostrum arbitrium detestantur; dicunt animam creaturam Dei esse, non partem; exsecrantur Priscillianistarum falsa martyria; catholicos episcopos, a quibus illa haeresis nudata, oppugnata, prostrata est, magnis efferunt laudibus, et caetera hujusmodi. Ecce ipsi vera dicunt quando mentiuntur, non quo simul possit hoc ipsum verum esse quod mendacium est; sed in alio quando mentiuntur, in alio vera dicunt: quando enim nostros se esse mentiuntur, de fide catholica vera dicunt. Ac per hoc ipsi, ne Priscillianistae inveniantur, loquuntur mendaciter vera: nos autem, ut eos inveniamus, non solum mendaciter loquimur, ut ad illos pertinere credamur; sed etiam falsa loquimur, quae ad illorum errorem pertinere cognovimus. Itaque illi quando nostri putari volunt, et falsum est ex parte, et verum est ex parte quod dicunt; falsum est enim eos nostros esse, verum est autem animam partem Dei non esse: nos vero quando ad eos pertinere putari volumus, falsum est utrumque quod dicimus, et Priscillianistas nos esse, et animam partem Dei esse. Illi itaque Deum laudant, non blasphemant, quando se occultant; et 0525 quando se non occultant, sed sua proferunt, blasphemare se nesciunt. Ideo si ad fidem catholicam convertantur, consolantur semetipsos, quia possunt dicere quod Apostolus, qui cum inter caetera dixisset, Prius fui blasphemus; Misericordiam, inquit, consecutus sum, quia ignorans feci (I Tim. I, 13). Nos contra, ut se nobis aperiant, si hoc quasi justum mendacium fallendis eis capiendisque proferimus, profecto et ad blasphematores Priscillianistas pertinere nos dicimus, et ut nobis credant, sine excusatione ignorantiae blasphemamus. Neque enim catholicus, qui blasphemando vult haereticus credi, potest dicere, ignorans feci.