IDAZIO (Hydatius). - Bishop of Merida, d. before 392. One of the most zealous opponents of Priscillian and his followers. He brought the accusation against the heretic before Pope Damasus I and at the Synod of Saragossa (4 Oct. 380), at which he proposed a “commonitory” for Christian life, against the peculiar practices of the Priscillianists. In 382 he obtained from Emperor Gratian a rescript against the “Manichaeans and pseudo-bishops.”
I. himself was entrusted with the task of seeking out the guilty and denouncing them to the administrative authorities. He finally accused Priscillian of magic and Manichaeism, thereby causing his condemnation, pronounced in 385 by the usurper Maximus. Priscillian’s adherents stirred up a violent agitation against I., who in 388 voluntarily resigned the episcopate.