The religion of Julian.—Universal Toleration.—He attempts to restore and reform the Pagan Worship—to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem.—His artful persecution of the Christians.—Mutual zeal and injustice
Religion of Julian
The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of
Julian; and the enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has
exaggerated the real and apparent magnitude of his faults.
Our partial ignorance may represent him as a philosophic
monarch, who studied to protect, with an equal hand, the
religious factions of the empire, and to allay the
theological fever which had inflamed the minds of the people
from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile of Athanasius. A
more accurate view of the character and conduct of Julian
will remove this favourable prepossession for a prince who
did not escape the general contagion of the times. We enjoy
the singular advantage of comparing the pictures which have
been delineated by his fondest admirers and his implacable
enemies. The actions of Julian are faithfully related by a
judicious and candid historian, the impartial spectator of
his life and death. The unanimous evidence of his
contemporaries is confirmed by the public and private
declarations of the emperor himself; and his various
writings express the uniform tenor of his religious
sentiments, which policy would have prompted him to
dissemble rather than to affect. A devout and sincere
attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome constituted the
ruling passion of Julian; (1) the powers of an enlightened understanding were betrayed and corrupted by the influence of superstitious prejudice; and the phantoms which existed
only in the mind of the emperor had a real and pernicious
effect on the government of the empire. The vehement zeal of
the Christians, who despised the worship, and overturned the
altars, of those fabulous deities, engaged their votary in a
state of irreconcilable hostility with a very numerous party
of his subjects; and he was sometimes tempted, by the desire
of victory or the shame of a repulse, to violate the laws of
prudence, and even of justice. The triumph of the party
which he deserted and opposed has fixed a stain of infamy on
the name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate has been
overwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the
signal was given by the sonorous trumpet (2) of Gregory
Nazianzen.(3) The interesting nature of the events which were
crowded into the short reign of this active emperor deserves
a just and circumstantial narrative. His motive, his
counsels, and his actions, as far as they are connected with
the history of religion, will be the subject of the present
chapter.
His education and apostacy
The cause of his strange and fatal apostasy may be derived
from the early period of his life when he was left an orphan
in the hands of the murderers of his family. The names of
Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and of
religion, were soon associated in a youthful imagination,
which was susceptible of the most lively impressions. The
care of his infancy was intrusted to Eusebius, bishop of
Nicomedia,(4) who was related to him on the side of his
mother; and till Julian reached the twentieth year of his
age, he received from his Christian preceptors the education
not of a hero but of a saint. The emperor, less jealous of a
heavenly than of an earthly crown, contented himself with
the imperfect character of a catechumen, while he bestowed
the advantages of baptism(5) on the nephews of Constantine.(6)
They were even admitted to the inferior offices of the
ecclesiastical order; and Julian publicly read the Holy
Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia. The study of
religion, which they assiduously cultivated, appeared to
produce the fairest fruits of faith and devotion.(7) They
prayed, they fasted, they distributed alms to the poor,
gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs of the
martyrs; and the splendid monument of St. Mamas, at
Caesarea, was erected, or at least was undertaken, by the
joint labour of Gallus and Julian. (8) They respectfully
conversed with the bishops who were eminent for superior
sanctity, and solicited the benediction of the monks and
hermits who had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary
hardships of the ascetic life.(9) As the two princes advanced
towards the years of manhood, they discovered, in their
religious sentiments, the difference of their characters.
The dull and obstinate understanding of Gallus embraced,
with implicit zeal, the doctrines of Christianity, which
never influenced his conduct, or moderated his passions. The
mild disposition of the younger brother was less repugnant
to the precepts of the Gospel; and his active curiosity
might have been gratified by a theological system which
explains the mysterious essence of the Deity, and opens the
boundless prospect of invisible and future worlds. But the
independent spirit of Julian refused to yield the passive
and unresisting obedience which was required, in the name of
religion, by the haughty ministers of the church. Their
speculative opinions were imposed as positive laws, and
guarded by the terrors of eternal punishments; but while
they prescribed the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the
words, and the actions of the young prince; whilst they
silenced his objections, and severely checked the freedom of
his inquiries, they secretly provoked his impatient genius
to disclaim the authority of his ecclesiastical guides. He
was educated in the lesser Asia, amidst the scandals of the
Arian controversy.(10) The fierce contests of the Eastern
bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds, and the
profane motives which appeared to actuate their conduct,
insensibly strengthened the prejudice of Julian that they
neither understood nor believed the religion for which they
so fiercely contended. Instead of listening to the proofs of
Christianity with that favourable attention which adds
weight to the most respectable evidence, he heard with
suspicion, and disputed with obstinacy and acuteness, the
doctrines for which he already entertained an invincible
aversion. Whenever the young princes were directed to
compose declamations on the subject of the prevailing
controversies, Julian always declared himself the advocate
of Paganism, under the specious excuse that, in the defence
of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be
more advantageously exercised and displayed.
He embraces the mythology of paganism
As soon as Gallus was invested with the honours of the
purple, Julian was permitted to breathe the air of freedom,
of literature, and of Paganism.(11) The crowd of sophists who
were attracted by the taste and liberality of their royal
pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the learning and
the religion of Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of
being admired as the original productions of human genius,
were seriously ascribed to the heavenly inspiration of
Apollo and the muses. The deities of Olympus, as they are
painted by the immortal bard, imprint themselves on the
minds which are the least addicted to superstitious
credulity. Our familiar knowledge of their names and
characters, their forms and attributes, 'seems' to bestow on
those airy beings a real and substantial existence; and the
pleasing enchantment produces an imperfect and momentary
assent of the imagination to those fables which are the most
repugnant to our reason and experience. In the age of Julian
every circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the
illusion—the magnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the
works of those artists who had expressed, in painting or in
sculpture, the divine conceptions of the poet; the pomp of
festivals and sacrifices; the successful arts of divination;
the popular traditions of oracles and prodigies; and the
ancient practice of two thousand years. The weakness of
polytheism was, in some measure, excused by the moderation
of its claims; and the devotion of the Pagans was not
incompatible with the most licentious scepticism.(12) Instead
of an indivisible and regular system, which occupies the
whole extent of the believing mind, the mythology of the
Greeks was composed of a thousand loose and flexible parts,
and the servant of the gods was at liberty to define the
degree and measure of his religious faith. The creed which
Julian adopted for his own use was of the largest
dimensions; and, by a strange contradiction, he disdained
the salutary yoke of the Gospel, whilst he made a voluntary
offering of his reason on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo.
One of the orations of Julian is consecrated to the honour
of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who required from her
effeminate priests the bloody sacrifice so rashly performed
by the madness of the Phrygian boy. The pious emperor
condescends to relate, without a blush and without a smile,
the voyage of the goddess from the shores of Pergamus to the
mouth of the Tiber; and the stupendous miracle which
convinced the senate and people of Rome that the lump of
clay which their ambassadors had transported over the seas
was endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine power.(13)
For the truth of this prodigy he appeals to the public
monuments of the city; and censures, with some acrimony, the
sickly and affected taste of those men who impertinently
derided the sacred traditions of their ancestors.(14)
The allegories
But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced, and
warmly encouraged, the superstition of the people, reserved
for himself the privilege of a liberal interpretation, and
silently withdrew from the foot of the altars into the
sanctuary of the temple. The extravagance of the Grecian
mythology proclaimed, with a clear and audible voice, that
the pious inquirer, instead of being scandalised or
satisfied with the literal sense, should diligently explore
the occult wisdom, which had been disguised, by the prudence
of antiquity, under the mask of folly and of fable.(15) The
philosophers of the Platonic school,(16) Plotinus, Porphyry,
and the divine Iamblichus, were admired as the most skilful
masters of this allegorical science, which laboured to
soften and harmonise the deformed features of Paganism.
Julian himself, who was directed in the mysterious pursuit
by Aedesius, the venerable successor of Iamblichus, aspired
to the possession of a treasure which he esteemed, if we may
credit his solemn asseverations, far above the empire of the
world.(17) It was indeed a treasure which derived its value
only from opinion; and every artist who flattered himself
that he had extracted the precious ore from the surrounding
dross claimed an equal right of stamping the name and figure
the most agreeable to his peculiar fancy. The fable of Atys
and Cybele had been already explained by Porphyry; but his
labours served only to animate the pious industry of Julian,
who invented and published his own allegory of that ancient
and mystic tale. This freedom of interpretation, which might
gratify the pride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of
their art. Without a tedious detail the modern reader could
not form a just idea of the strange allusions, the forced
etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the impenetrable
obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal the system
of the universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology were
variously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty
to select the most convenient circumstances; and as they
translated an arbitrary cipher, they could extract from any
fable any sense which was adapted to their favourite system
of religion and philosophy. The lascivious form of a naked
Venus was tortured into the discovery of some moral precept,
or some physical truth; and the castration of Atys explained
the revolution of the sun between the tropics, or the
separation of the human soul from vice and error.(18)
Theological system of Julian
The theological system of Julian appears to have contained
the sublime and important principles of natural religion.
But as the faith which is not founded on revelation must
remain destitute of any firm assurance, the disciple of
Plato imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgar
superstition; and the popular and philosophic notion of the
Deity seems to have been confounded in the practice, the
writings, and even in the mind of Julian. (19) The pious
emperor acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of the
universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections of an
infinite nature, invisible to the eyes and inaccessible to
the understanding of feeble mortals. The Supreme God had
created, or rather, in the Platonic language, had generated,
the gradual succession of dependent spirits, of gods, of
daemons, of heroes, and of men; and every being which
derived its existence immediately from the First Cause
received the inherent gift of immortality. That so precious
an advantage might not be lavished upon unworthy objects,
the Creator had intrusted to the skill and power of the
inferior gods the office of forming the human body, and of
arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the
vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct of these
divine ministers he delegated the temporal government of
this lower world; but their imperfect administration is not
exempt from discord or error. The earth and its inhabitants
are divided among them, and the characters of Mars or
Minerva, of Mercury or Venus, may be distinctly traced in
the laws and manners of their peculiar votaries. As long as
our immortal souls are confined in a mortal prison, it is
our interest, as well as our duty, to solicit the favour,
and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of heaven; whose
pride is gratified by the devotion of mankind, and whose
grosser parts may be supposed to derive some nourishment
from the fumes of sacrifice. (20) The inferior gods might sometimes condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples, which were dedicated to their honour. They
might occasionally visit the earth, but the heavens were the
proper throne and symbol of their glory. The invariable
order of the sun, moon, and stars was hastily admitted by
Julian as a proof of their eternal duration; and their
eternity was a sufficient evidence that they were the workmanship, not of an inferior deity, but of the Omnipotent King. In the system of the Platonists the visible was a type of the invisible world. The celestial bodies, as they were informed by a divine spirit, might be considered as the
objects the most worthy of religious worship. The SUN, whose
genial influence pervades and sustains the universe, justly
claimed the adoration of mankind, as the bright
representative of the LOGOS, the lively, the rational, the
beneficent image of the intellectual Father. (21)
Fanaticism of the philosophers
In every age the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied
by the strong illusions of enthusiasm and the mimic arts of
imposture. If, in the time of Julian, these arts had been
practised only by the Pagan priests, for the support of an
expiring cause, some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to
the interest and habits of the sacerdotal character. But it
may appear a subject of surprise and scandal that the
philosophers themselves should have contributed to abuse the
superstitious credulity of mankind,(22) and that the Grecian
mysteries should have been supported by the magic or theurgy
of the modern Platonists. They arrogantly pretended to
control the order of nature, to explore the secrets of
futurity, to command the service of the inferior daemons, to
enjoy the view and conversation of the superior gods, and,
by disengaging the soul from her material bands, to reunite
that immortal particle with the Infinite and Divine Spirit.
Initiation and fanaticism of Julian
The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted the
philosophers with the hopes of an easy conquest, which, from
the situation of their young proselyte, might be productive
of the most important consequences. (23) Julian imbibed the
first rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the mouth of
Aedesius, who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and
persecuted school. But as the declining strength of that
venerable sage was unequal to the ardour, the diligence, the
rapid conception of his pupil, two of his most learned
disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius, supplied, at his own
desire, the place of their aged master. These philosophers
seem to have prepared and distributed their respective
parts; and they artfully contrived, by dark hints and
affected disputes, to excite the impatient hopes of the
aspirant till they delivered him into the hands of their
associate, Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of
the Theurgic science. By his hands Julian was secretly
initiated at Ephesus, in the twentieth year of his age. His
residence at Athens confirmed this unnatural alliance of
philosophy and superstition. He obtained the privilege of a
solemn initiation into the mysteries of Eleusis, which,
amidst the general decay of the Grecian worship, still
retained some vestiges of their primeval sanctity; and such
was the zeal of Julian that he afterwards invited the
Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole
purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the
great work of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were
performed in the depth of caverns and in the silence of the
night, and as the inviolable secret of the mysteries was
preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I shall not
presume to describe the horrid sounds and fiery apparitions
which were presented to the senses or the imagination of the
credulous aspirant,(24) till the visions of comfort and
knowledge broke upon him in a blaze of celestial light.(25)
In the caverns of Ephesus and Eleusis the mind of Julian was
penetrated with sincere, deep, and unalterable enthusiasm;
though he might sometimes exhibit the vicissitudes of pious
fraud and hypocrisy which may be observed, or at least
suspected, in the characters of the most conscientious
fanatics. From that moment he consecrated his life to the
service of the gods; and while the occupations of war, of
government, and of study seemed to claim the whole measure
of his time, a stated portion of the hours of the night was
invariably reserved for the exercise of private devotion.
The temperance which adorned the severe manners of the
soldier and the philosopher was connected with some strict
and frivolous rules of religious abstinence; and it was in
honour of Pan or Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian, on
particular days, denied himself the use of some particular
food, which might have been offensive to his tutelar
deities. By these voluntary fasts he prepared his senses and
his understanding for the frequent and familiar visits with
which he was honoured by the celestial powers.
Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian himself, we may
learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that he
lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and
goddesses; that they descended upon earth to enjoy the
conversation of their favourite hero; that they gently
interrupted his slumbers by touching his hand or his hair;
that they warned him of every impending danger, and
conducted him, by their infallible wisdom, in every action
of his life; and that he had acquired such an intimate
knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish
the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of
Apollo from the figure of Hercules. (26) These sleeping or
waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence and
fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the level of
an Egyptian monk. But the useless lives of Antony or
Pachomius were consumed in these vain occupations. Julian
could break from the dream of superstition to arm himself
for battle; and after vanquishing in the field the enemies
of Rome, he calmly retired into his tent, to dictate the
wise and salutary laws of an empire, or to indulge his
genius in the elegant pursuits of literature and philosophy.
His religious dissimulation.
The important secret of the apostasy of Julian was intrusted
to the fidelity of the initiated, with whom he was united by
the sacred ties of friendship and religion.(27) The pleasing
rumour was cautiously circulated among the adherents of the
ancient worship; and his future greatness became the object
of the hopes, the prayers, and the predictions of the Pagans
in every province of the empire. From the zeal and virtues
of their royal proselyte they fondly expected the cure of
every evil and the restoration of every blessing; and
instead of disapproving of the ardour of their pious wishes,
Julian ingenuously confessed that he was ambitious to attain
a situation in which he might be useful to his country and
to his religion. But this religion was viewed with an
hostile eye by the successor of Constantine, whose
capricious passions alternately saved and threatened the
life of Julian. The arts of magic and divination were
strictly prohibited under a despotic government which
condescended to fear them; and if the Pagans were
reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their superstition,
the rank of Julian would have excepted him from the general
toleration. The apostate soon became the presumptive heir of
the monarchy, and his death could alone have appeased the
just apprehensions of the Christians. (28) But the young
prince, who aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a
martyr, consulted his safety by dissembling his religion;
and the easy temper of polytheism permitted him to join in
the public worship of a sect which he inwardly despised.
Libanius has considered the hypocrisy of his friend as a
subject, not of censure, but of praise.
"As the statues of the gods," says that orator, "which have been defiled with filth are again placed in a magnificent temple, so the beauty of truth was seated in the mind of Julian after it had been purified from the errors and follies of his education. His sentiments were changed; but as it would have been dangerous to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct still continued the same. Very different from the ass in Aesop, who disguised himself with a lion's hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himself under the skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of reason, to obey the laws of prudence and necessity." (29)
The dissimulation of Julian lasted above ten years, from his secret initiation at Ephesus to the beginning of the civil war; when he declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ and of Constantius. This state of constraint might contribute to strengthen his devotion; and as soon as he had satisfied the obligation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at the assemblies of the Christians, Julian returned, with the impatience of a lover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the domestic chapels of Jupiter and Mercury. But as every act of dissimulation must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity increased the aversion of Julian for a religion which oppressed the freedom of his mind, and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human nature — sincerity and courage.
He writes against Christianity.
The inclination of Julian might prefer the gods of Homer and
of the Scipios to the new faith which his uncle had
established in the Roman empire, and in which he himself had
been sanctified by the sacrament of baptism. But, as a
philosopher, it was incumbent on him to justify his dissent
from Christianity, which was supported by the number of its
converts, by the chain of prophecy, the splendour of
miracles, and the weight of evidence. The elaborate work(30) which he composed amidst the preparations of the Persian war contained the substance of those arguments which he had long revolved in his mind. Some fragments have been transcribed
and preserved by his adversary, the vehement Cyril of
Alexandria;(31) and they exhibit a very singular mixture of wit and learning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The elegance of the style and the rank of the author recommended his
writings to the public attention;(32) and in the impious list
of the enemies of Christianity the celebrated name of
Porphyry was effaced by the superior merit or reputation of
Julian. The minds of the faithful were either seduced, or
scandalised, or alarmed; and the Pagans, who sometimes
presumed to engage in the unequal dispute, derived, from the
popular work of their Imperial missionary, an inexhaustible
supply of fallacious objections. But in the assiduous
prosecution of these theological studies the emperor of the
Romans imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions of a
polemic divine. He contracted an irrevocable obligation to
maintain and propagate his religious opinions; and whilst he
secretly applauded the strength and dexterity with which he
wielded the weapons of controversy, he was tempted to
distrust the sincerity, or to despise the understandings, of
his antagonists, who could obstinately resist the force of
reason and eloquence.
Universal toleration
The Christians, who beheld with horror and indignation the
apostasy of Julian, had much more to fear from his power
than from his arguments. The Pagans, who were conscious of
his fervent zeal, expected, perhaps with impatience, that
the flames of persecution should be immediately kindled
against the enemies of the gods; and that the ingenious
malice of Julian would invent some cruel refinements of
death and torture which had been unknown to the rude and
inexperienced fury of his predecessors. But the hopes, as
well as the fears, of the religious factions were apparently
disappointed by the prudent humanity of a prince(33) who was
careful of his own fame, of the public peace, and of the
rights of mankind. Instructed by history and reflection,
Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may
sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor
fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind. The
reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of he altar; but
the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of
the hand. Religious obstinacy is hardened and exasperated by
oppression; and, as soon as the persecution subsides, those
who have yielded are restored as penitents, and those who
have resisted are honoured as saints and martys. If Julian
adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and his
colleagues, he was sensible that he should stain his memory
with the name of tyrant, and add new glories to the Catholic
church, which had derived strength and increase from the
severity of the Pagan magistrates. Actuated by these
motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an
unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict
which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He
extended to all he inhabitants of the Roman world the
benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only
hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive
them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom
they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and
heretics. The Pagans received a gracious permission, or
rather an express order, to open ALL their temples;(34) and
they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws and
arbitrary vexations which they had sustained under the reign
of Constanine and of his sons. At the same time, the bishops
and clergy who had been banished by the Arian monarch were
recalled from exile, and restored to their respective
churches; the Donatists, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the
Punomians, and those who, with a more prosperous fortune,
adhered to the doctrine of the council of Nice. Julian, who
understood and derided their theological disputes, invited
to the palace the leaders of the hostile sects, that he
might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their furious
encounters. The clamour of controversy sometimes provoked
the emperor to exclaim, "Hear me! the Franks have heard me,
and the Alemanni"; but he soon discovered that he was now engaged with more obstinate and implacable enemies; and though he exerted the powers of oratory to persuade them to live in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied, before he dismissed them from his presence, that he had nothing to dread from the union of the Christians. The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this affected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine divisions of the church; and the insidious design of undermining the foundations of Christianity was inseparably connected with the zeal which Julian professed to restore the ancient religion of the empire.(35)
Zeal and devotion of Julian in the restoration of paganism.
As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to
the custom of his predecessors, the character of supreme
pontiff; not only as the most honourable title of Imperial
greatness, but as a sacred and important office, the duties
of which he was resolved to execute with pious diligence. As
the business of the state prevented the emperor from joining
every day in the public devotion of his subjects, he
dedicated a domestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun;
his gardens were filled with statues and altars of the gods;
and each apartment of the palace displayed the appearance of
a magnificent temple. Every morning he saluted the parent of
light with a sacrifice; the blood of another victim was shed
at the moment when the Sun sunk below the horizon; and the
Moon, the Stars, and the Genii of the night received their
respective and seasonable honours from the indefatigable
devotion of Julian. On solemn festivals he regularly visited
the temple of the god or goddess to whom the day was
peculiarly consecrated, and endeavoured to excite the
religion of the magistrates and people by the example of his
own zeal. Instead of maintaining the lofty state of a
monarch, distinguished by the splendour of his purple, and
encompassed by the golden shields of his guards, Julian
solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices
which contributed to the worship of the gods. Amidst the
sacred but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior
ministers, and of female dancers, who were dedicated to the
service of the temple, it was the business of the emperor to
bring the wood, to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to
slaughter the victim, and, thrusting his bloody hands into
the bowels of the expiring animal, to draw forth the heart
or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill of an
haruspex, the imaginary signs of future events. The wisest
of the Pagans censured this extravagant superstition, which
affected to despise the restraints of prudence and decency.
Under the reign of a prince who practised the rigid maxims
of economy, the expense of religious worship consumed a very
large portion of the revenue; a constant supply of the
scarcest and most beautiful birds was transported from
distant climates, to bleed on the altars of the gods, an
hundred oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian on one and
the same day; and it soon became a popular jest, that, if he
should return with conquest from the Persian war, the breed
of horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yet this
expense may appear inconsiderable, when it is compared with
the splendid presents which were offered, either by the hand
or by the order of the emperor, to all the celebrated places
of devotion in the Roman world; and with the sums allotted
to repair and decorate the ancient temples, which had
suffered the silent decay of time, or the recent injuries of
Christian rapine. Encouraged by the example, the
exhortations, the liberality of their pious sovereign, the
cities and families resumed the practice of their neglected
ceremonies.
"Every part of the world," exclaims Libanius, with devout transport, "displayed the triumph of religion, and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priests and prophets, without fear and without danger. The sound of prayer and of music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains, and the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for their joyous votaries." (36)
Reformation of Paganism
But the genius and power of Julian were unequal to the
enterprise of restoring a religion which was destitute of
theological principles, of moral precepts, and of
ecclesiastical discipline; which rapidly hastened to decay
and dissolution, and was not susceptible of any solid or
consistent reformation. The jurisdiction of the supreme
pontiff, more especially after that office had been united
with the Imperial dignity, comprehended the whole extent of
the Roman empire. Julian named for his vicars, in the
several provinces, the priests and philosophers, whom he
esteemed the best qualified to cooperate in the execution of
his great design; and his pastoral letters,(37) if we may use
that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his
wishes and intentions. He directs that in every city the
sacerdotal order should be composed, without any distinction
of birth or fortune, of those persons who were the most
conspicuous for their love of the gods and of men.
"If they are guilty," continues he, "of any scandalous offence, they should be censured or degraded by the superior pontiff; but as long as they retain their rank, they are entitled to the respect of the magistrates and people. Their humility may be shown in the plainness of their domestic garb; their dignity, in the pomp of holy vestments. When they are summoned in their turn to officiate before the altar, they ought not, during the appointed number of days, to depart from the precincts of the temple; nor should a single day be suffered to elapse without the prayers and the sacrifice which they are obliged to offer for the prosperity of the state and of individuals. The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity both of mind and body; and even when they are dismissed from the temple to the occupations of common life, it is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of their fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never be seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation should be chaste, his diet temperate, his friends of honourable reputation; and if he sometimes visits the Forum or the Palace, he should appear only as the advocate of those who have vainly solicited either justice or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity of his profession. Licentious tales, or comedies, or satires, must be banished from his library, which ought solely to consist of historical and philosophical writings; of history, which is founded in truth, and of philosophy, which is connected with religion. The impious opinions of the Epicureans and sceptics deserve his abhorrence and contempt; (38) but he should diligently study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato, and of the Stoics, which unanimously teach that there are gods; that the world is governed by their providence; that their goodness is the source of every temporal blessing; and that they have prepared for the human soul a future state of reward or punishment."
The Imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive language, the duties of benevolence and hospitality; exhorts his inferior clergy to recommend the universal practice of those virtues; promises to assist their indigence from the public treasury; and declares his resolution of establishing hospitals in every city, where the poor should be received without any invidious distinction of country or of religion. Julian beheld with envy the wise and humane regulations of the church; and he very frankly confessed his intention to deprive the Christians of the applause, as well as advantage, which they had acquired by the exclusive practice of charity and beneficence.(39) The same spirit of imitation might dispose the emperor to adopt several ecclesiastical institutions, the use and importance of which were approved by the success of his enemies. But if these imaginary plans of reformation had been realised, the forced and imperfect copy would have been less beneficial to Paganism than honourable to Christianity.(40) The Gentiles, who peaceably followed the customs of their ancestors, were rather surprised than pleased with the introduction of foreign manners; and, in the short period of his reign, Julian had frequent occasions to complain of the want of fervour of his own party.(41)
The Philosophers
The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace the friends
of Jupiter as his personal friends and brethren; and though
he partially overlooked the merit of Christian constancy, he
admired and rewarded the noble perseverance those Gentiles
who had preferred the favour of the gods to that of the
emperor.(42) If they cultivated the literature as well as the
religion of the Greeks, they acquired an additional claim to
the friendship of Julian, who ranked the Muses in the number
of his tutelar deities. In the religion which he had
adopted, piety and learning were almost synonymous;(43) and a
crowd of poets, of rhetoricians, and of philosophers,
hastened to the Imperial court to occupy the vacant places
of the bishops who had seduced the credulity of Constantius.
His successor esteemed the ties of common initiation as far
more sacred than those of consanguinity; he chose his
favourites among the sages who were deeply skilled in the
occult sciences of magic and divination, and every impostor
who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity was assured
of enjoying the present hour in honour and affluence.(44)
Among the philosophers, Maximus obtained the most eminent
rank in the friendship of his royal disciple, who
communicated, with unreserved confidence, his actions, his
sentiments, and his religious designs, during the anxious
suspense of the civil war. (45) As soon as Julian had taken
possession of the palace of Constantinople, he despatched an
honourable and pressing invitation to Maximus, who then
resided at Sardes in Lydia, with Chrysanthius, the associate
of his art and studies. The prudent and superstitious
Chrysanthius refused to undertake a journey which showed
itself, according to the rules of divination, with the most
threatening and malignant aspect; but his companion, whose
fanaticism was of a bolder cast, persisted in his
interrogations till he had extorted from the gods a seeming
consent to his own wishes and those of the emperor. The
journey of Maximus through the cities of Asia displayed the
triumph of philosophic vanity, and the magistrates vied with
each other in the honourable reception which they prepared
for the friend of their sovereign. Julian was pronouncing an
oration before the senate when he was informed of the
arrival of Maximus. The emperor immediately interrupted his
discourse, advanced to meet him, and, after a tender
embrace, conducted him by the hand into the midst of the
assembly, where he publicly acknowledged the benefits which
he had derived from the instructions of the philosopher.
Maximus,(46) who soon acquired the confidence, and influenced
the councils, of Julian, was insensibly corrupted by the
temptations of a court. His dress became more splendid, his
demeanour more lofty, and he was exposed, under a succeeding
reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means by which the
disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the short duration of
his favour, a very scandalous proportion of wealth. Of the
other philosophers and sophists who were invited to the
Imperial residence by the choice of Julian, or by the
success of Maximus, few were able to preserve their
innocence or their reputation. (47) The liberal gifts of
money, lands, and houses were insufficient to satiate their
rapacious avarice, and the indignation of the people was
justly excited by the remembrance of their abject poverty
and disinterested professions. The penetration of Julian
could not always be deceived, but he was unwilling to
despise the characters of those men whose talents deserved
his esteem; he desired to escape the double reproach of
imprudence and inconstancy, and he was apprehensive of
degrading, in the eyes of the profane, the honour of letters
and of religion.(48)
Conversions
The favour of Julian was almost equally divided between the
Pagans who had firmly adhered to the worship of their
ancestors, and the Christians who prudently embraced the
religion of their sovereign. The acquisition of new
proselytes(49) gratified the ruling passions of his soul,
superstition and vanity; and he was heard to declare, with
the enthusiasm of a missionary, that if he could render each
individual richer than Midas, and every city greater than
Babylon, he should not esteem himself the benefactor of
mankind unless, at the same time, he could reclaim his
subjects from their impious revolt against the immortal
gods.(50) A prince, who had studied human nature, and who
possessed the treasures of the Roman empire, could adapt his
arguments, his promises, and his rewards to every order of
Christians;(51) and the merit of a seasonable conversion was
allowed to supply the defects of a candidate, or even to
expiate the guilt of a criminal. As the army is the most
forcible engine of absolute power, Julian applied himself,
with peculiar diligence, to corrupt the religion of his
troops, without whose hearty concurrence every measure must
be dangerous and unsuccessful, and the natural temper of
soldiers made this conquest as easy as it was important. The
legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith, as well as
to the fortunes, of their victorious leader; and even before
the death of Constantius, he had the satisfaction of
announcing to his friends that they assisted, with fervent
devotion and voracious appetite, at the sacrifices, which
were repeatedly offered in his camp, of whole hecatombs of
fat oxen.(52) The armies of the East, which had been trained
under the standard of the cross and of Constantius, required
a more artful and expensive mode of persuasion. On the days
of solemn and public festivals the emperor received the
homage, and rewarded the merit, of the troops. His throne of
state was encircled with the military ensigns of Rome and
the republic; the holy name of Christ was erased from the
Labarum; and the symbols of war, of majesty, and of Pagan
superstition were so dexterously blended that the faithful
subject incurred the guilt of idolatry when he respectfully
saluted the person or image of his sovereign. The soldiers
passed successively in review, and each of them, before he
received from the hand of Julian a liberal donative,
proportioned to his rank and services, was required to cast
a few grains of incense into the flame which burnt upon the
altar. Some Christian confessors might resist, and others
might repent; but the far greater number, allured by the
prospect of gold and awed by the presence of the emperor,
contracted the criminal engagement, and their future
perseverance in the worship of the gods was enforced by
every consideration of duty and of interest. By the frequent
repetition of these arts, and at the expense of sums which
would have purchased the service of half the nations of
Scythia, Julian gradually acquired for his troops the
imaginary protection of the gods, and for himself the firm
and effectual support of the Roman legions.(53) It is indeed
more than probable that the restoration and encouragement of
Paganism revealed a multitude of pretended Christians, who,
from motives of temporal advantage, had acquiesced in the
religion of the former reign, and who afterwards returned,
with the same flexibility of conscience, to the faith which
was professed by the successors of Julian.
The Jews
While the devout monarch incessantly laboured to restore and
propagate the religion of his ancestors, he embraced the
extraordinary design of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem.
In a public epistle (54) to the nation or community of the
Jews dispersed through the provinces, he pities their
misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their
constancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and
expresses a pious hope that, after his return from the
Persian war, he may be permitted to pay his grateful vows to
the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. The blind
superstition and abject slavery of those unfortunate exiles
must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor, but they
deserved the friendship of Julian by their implacable hatred
of the Christian name. The barren synagogue abhorred and
envied the fecundity of the rebellious church; the power of
the Jews was not equal to their malice, but their gravest
rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate,(55) and
their seditious clamours had often awakened the indolence of
the Pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine, the
Jews became the subjects of their revolted children, nor was
it long before they experienced the bitterness of domestic
tyranny. The civil immunities which had been granted or
confirmed by Severus were gradually repealed by the
Christian princes; and a rash tumult, excited by the Jews of
Palestine,(56) seemed to justify the lucrative modes of
oppression which were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of
the court of Constantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was
still permitted to exercise a precarious jurisdiction, held
his residence at Tiberias,(57) and the neighbouring cities of
Palestine were filled with the remains of a people who
fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of
Hadrian was renewed and enforced, and they viewed from afar
the walls the holy city, which were profaned in their eyes
by the triumph of the cross and the devotion the Christians.
(58)
Jerusalem
In the midst of a rocky and barren country the walls of
Jerusalem(59) enclosed the two mountains of Sion and Acra
within an oval figure of about three English miles.(60)
Towards the south, the upper town and the fortress of David
were erected on the lofty ascent of Mount Sion; on the north
side, the buildings of the lower town covered the spacious
summit of Mount Acra; and a part of the hill, distinguished
by the name Of Moriah, and levelled by human industry, was
crowned with the stately temple of the Jewish nation. After
the final destruction of the temple by the arms of Titus and
Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over the consecrated
ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion was
deserted, and the vacant space of the lower city was filled
with the public and private edifices of the Aelian colony,
which spread themselves over the adjacent hill of Calvary.
The holy places were polluted with monuments of idolatry,
and, either from design or accident, a chapel was dedicated
to Venus on the spot which had been sanctified by the death
and resurrection of Christ. (61) Almost three hundred years
after those stupendous events, the profane chapel of Venus
was demolished by the order of Constantine, and the removal
of the earth and stones revealed the holy sepulchre to the
eyes of mankind. A magnificent church was erected on that
mystic ground by the first Christian emperor, and the
effects of his pious munificence were extended to every spot
which had been consecrated by the footsteps of patriarchs,
of prophets, and of the Son of God.(62)
Pilgrimages
The passionate desire of contemplating the original
monuments of their redemption attracted to Jerusalem a
successive crowd of pilgrims from the shores of the Atlantic
Ocean and the most distant countries of the East:(63) and
their piety was authorised by the example of the empress
Helena, who appears to have united the credulity of age with
the warm feelings of a recent conversion. Sages and heroes,
who have visited the memorable scenes of ancient wisdom or
glory, have confessed the inspiration of the genius of the
place;(64) and the Christian who knelt before the holy
sepulchre ascribed his lively faith and his fervent devotion
to the more immediate influence of the Divine Spirit. The
zeal, perhaps the avarice, of the clergy of Jerusalem
cherished and multiplied these beneficial visits. They
fixed, by unquestionable tradition, the scene of each
memorable event. They exhibited the instruments which had
been used in the passion of Christ; the nails and the lance
that had pierced his hands, his feet, and his side; the
crown of thorns that was planted on his head; the pillar at
which he was scourged and, above all, they showed the cross
on which he suffered, and which was dug out of the earth in
the reign of those princes who inserted the symbol of
Christianity in the banners of the Roman legions.(65) Such
miracles as seemed necessary to account for its
extraordinary preservation and seasonable discovery were
gradually propagated without opposition. The custody of the
true cross, which on Easter Sunday was solemnly exposed to
the people, was intrusted to the bishop of Jerusalem; and he
alone might gratify the curious devotion of the pilgrims by
the gift of small pieces, which they enchased in gold or
gems, and carried away in triumph to their respective
countries. But as this gainful branch of commerce must soon
have been annihilated, it was found convenient to suppose
that the marvellous wood possessed a secret power of
vegetation, and that its substance, though continually
diminished, still remained entire and unimpaired. (66) It
might perhaps have been expected that the influence of the
place and the belief of a perpetual miracle should have
produced some salutary effects on the morals, as well as on
the faith, of the people. Yet the most respectable of the
ecclesiastical writers have been obliged to confess, not
only that the streets of Jerusalem were filled with the
incessant tumult of business and pleasure,(67) but that every
species of vice—adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning,
murder was familiar to the inhabitants of the holy city.(68)
The wealth and pre-eminence of the church of Jerusalem
excited the ambition of Arian as well as orthodox candidates
and the virtues of Cyril, who since his death has been
honoured with the title of Saint, were displayed in the
exercise, rather than in the acquisition, of his episcopal
dignity.(69)
Julian attempts to rebuild the temple.
The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to
restore the ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem.(70) As
the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of
everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the
whole fabric of the Mosaic law, the Imperial sophist would
have converted the success of his undertaking into a
specious argument against the faith of prophecy and the
truth of revelation.(71) He was displeased with the spiritual
worship of the synagogue; but he approved the institutions
of Moses, who had not disdained to adopt many of the rites
and ceremonies of Egypt.(72) The local and national deity of
the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist who desired
only to multiply the number of the gods;(73) and such was the
appetite of Julian for bloody sacrifice, that his emulation
might be excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered at
the feast of the dedication twenty-two thousand oxen and one
hundred and twenty thousand sheep.(74) These considerations
might influence his designs; but the prospect of an
immediate and important advantage would not suffer the
impatient monarch to expect the remote and uncertain event
of the Persian war. He resolved to erect, without delay, on
the commanding eminence of Moriah, a stately temple, which
might eclipse the splendour of the church of the
Resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary; to establish
an order of priests, whose interested zeal would detect the
arts and resist the ambition of their Christian rivals; and
to invite a numerous colony of Jews, whose stern fanaticism
would be always prepared to second, and even to anticipate,
the hostile measures of the Pagan government. Among the
friends of the emperor (if the names of emperor and of
friend are not incompatible) the first place was assigned,
by Julian himself, to the virtuous and learned Alypius.(75) The humanity of Alypius was tempered by severe justice and manly fortitude; and while he exercised his abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in his
poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of the odes
of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian communicated,
without reserve, his most careless levities and his most
serious counsels, received an extraordinary commission to
restore, in its pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem;
and the diligence of Alypius required and obtained the
strenuous support of the governor of Palestine. At the call
of their great deliverer, the Jews from all the provinces of
the empire assembled on the holy mountain of their fathers;
and their insolent triumph alarmed and exasperated the
Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of rebuilding
the temple has in every age been the ruling passion of the
children of Israel. In this propitious moment the men forgot
their avarice, and the women their delicacy; spades and
pick-axes of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich,
and the rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and
purple. Every purse was opened in liberal contributions,
every hand claimed a share in the pious labour; and the
commands of a great monarch were executed by the enthusiasm
of a whole people.(76)
The enterprise is defeated,
Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and
enthusiasm were unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish
temple, which is now covered by a Mahometan mosque,(77) still
continued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin and
desolation. Perhaps the absence and death of the emperor,
and the new maxims of a Christian reign, might explain the
interruption of an arduous work, which was attempted only in
the last six months of the life of Julian. (78) But the
Christians entertained a natural and pious expectation that
in this memorable contest the honour of religion would be
vindicated by some signal miracle. An earthquake, a
whirlwind and a fiery eruption, which overturned and
scattered the new foundations of the temple are attested,
with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence.(79) This public event is described by Ambrose,(80) bishop of Milan, in an epistle to the emperor Theodosius, which must provoke the severe animadversion of the Jews; by the eloquent Chrysostom, (81) who might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his congregation at Antioch; Perhaps by a preternatural event and by Gregory Nazianzen,(82) who published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the same year. The last of these writers has boldly declared that this preternatural event was not disputed by the infidels; and his assertion, strange as it may seem, is confirmed by the unexceptionable
testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. (83) The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues without adopting the prejudices of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and candid history of his own times, the extraordinary obstacles
which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem.
"Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigour and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and, the victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned."
Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis any singular accident of nature would assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian world; and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle.(84)
Partiality of Julian
The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected
with the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still
continued to maintain the freedom of religious worship,
without distinguishing whether this universal toleration
proceeded from his justice or his clemency. He affected to
pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the most
important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded
by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the
sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic
wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it
issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible
that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer,
he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less
honourable appellation of GALILEANS.(85) He declared that, by the folly of the Galileans, whom he describes as a sect of
fanatics, contemptible to men and odious to the Gods, the
empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction; and he
insinuates in a public edict that a frantic patient might
sometimes be cured by salutary violence.(86) An ungenerous
distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of
Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious
sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favour and
friendship, while the other was entitled only to the common
benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedient
people.(87) According to a principle pregnant with mischief
and oppression, the emperor transferred to the pontiffs of
his own religion the management of the liberal allowances
from the public revenue which had been granted to the church
by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system
of clerical honours and immunities, which had been
constructed with so much art and labour, was levelled to he
ground; the hopes of testamentary donations were intercepted
by the rigour of the laws; and the priests of the Christian
sect were confounded with the last and most ignominious
class of the people. Such of these regulations as appeared
necessary to check the ambition and avarice of the
ecclesiastics were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of
an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy
has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the
sacerdotal order, must be confined to those priests who
profess the religion of the state. But the will of the
legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion; and it
was the object of the insidious policy of Julian to deprive
the Christians of all the temporal honours and advantages
which rendered them respectable in the eyes of the world.(88)
He prohibits the Christians from teaching schools.
A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law
which prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of
grammar and rhetoric. (89) The motives alleged by the emperor
to justify his partial and oppressive measure might command,
during his lifetime, the silence of slaves and the applause
of flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word
which might be indifferently applied to the language and the
religion of the GREEKS: he contemptuously observes that the
men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim
or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly
contends that, if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and
Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with
expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the
Galileans.(90) In all the cities of the Roman world the
education of the youth was intrusted to masters of grammar
and rhetoric, who were elected by the magistrates,
maintained at the public expense, and distinguished by many
lucrative and honourable privileges. The edict of Julian
appears to have included the physicians, and professors of
all the liberal arts; and the emperor, who reserved to
himself the approbation of the candidates, was authorised by
the laws to corrupt, or to punish, the religious constancy
of the most learned of the Christians.(91) As soon as the
resignation of the more obstinate (92) teachers had
established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists,
Julian invited the rising generation to resort with freedom
to the public schools, in a just confidence that their
tender minds would receive the impressions of literature and
idolatry. If the greatest part of the Christian youth should
be deterred by their own scruples, or by those of their
parents, from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction,
they must, at the same time, relinquish the benefits of a
liberal education. Julian had reason to expect that, in the
space of a few years, the church would relapse into its
primeval simplicity, and that the theologians, who possessed
an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age,
would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant
fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own
principles, or of exposing the various follies of
Polytheism.(93)
Disgrace and oppression of the Christians.
It was undoubtedly the wish and the design of Julian to
deprive the Christians of the advantages of wealth, of
knowledge, and of power; but the injustice of excluding them
from all offices of trust and profit seems to have been the
result of his general policy, rather than the immediate
consequence of any positive law. (94) Superior merit might
deserve and obtain some extraordinary exceptions; but the
greater part of the Christian officers were gradually
removed from their employments in the state, the army, and
the provinces. The hopes of future candidates were
extinguished by the declared partiality of a prince who
maliciously reminded them that it was unlawful for a
Christian to use the sword, either of justice or of war, and
who studiously guarded the camp and the tribunals with the
ensigns of idolatry. The powers of government were intrusted
to the Pagans, who professed an ardent zeal for the religion
of their ancestors; and as the choice of the emperor was
often directed by the rules of divination, the favourites
whom he preferred as the most agreeable to the gods did not
always obtain the approbation of mankind. (95) Under the
administration of their enemies, the Christians had much to
suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper of Julian was
averse to cruelty; and the care of his reputation, which was
exposed to the eyes of the universe, restrained the
philosophic monarch from violating the laws of justice and
toleration which he himself had so recently established. But
the provincial ministers of his authority were placed in a
less conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary
power, they consulted the wishes, rather than the commands,
of their sovereign; and ventured to exercise a secret and
vexatious tyranny against the sectaries on whom they were
not permitted to confer the honours of martyrdom. The
emperor, who dissembled as long as possible his knowledge of
the injustice that was exercised in his name, expressed his
real sense of the conduct of his officers by gentle reproofs
and substantial rewards.(96)
They are condemned to restore the Pagan temples.
The most effectual instrument of oppression with which they
were armed was the law that obliged the Christians to make
full and ample satisfaction for the temples which they had
destroyed under the preceding reign. The zeal of the
triumphant church had not always expected the sanction of
the public authority; and the bishops, who were secure of
impunity, had often marched at the head of their
congregations to attack and demolish the fortresses of the
prince of darkness. The consecrated lands, which had
increased the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy,
were clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these
lands, and on the ruins of Pagan superstition, the
Christians had frequently erected their own religious
edifices: and as it was necessary to remove the church
before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice and piety of
the emperor were applauded by one party, while the other
deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence.(97) After
the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately
structures which had been levelled with the dust, and of the
precious ornaments which had been converted to Christian
uses, swelled into a very large account of damages and debt.
The authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the
inclination to discharge this accumulated demand: and the
impartial wisdom of a legislator would have been displayed
in balancing the adverse claims and complaints by an
equitable and temperate arbitration. But the whole empire,
and particularly the East, was thrown into confusion by the
rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan magistrates, inflamed
by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous privilege of the
Roman law, which substitutes, in the place of his inadequate
property, the person of the insolvent debtor. Under the
preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa,(98) had laboured
in the conversion of his people with arms more effectual
than those of persuasion. (99) The magistrates required the
full value of a temple which had been destroyed by his
intolerant zeal; but as they were satisfied of his poverty,
they desired only to bend his inflexible spirit to the
promise of the slightest compensation. They apprehended the
aged prelate, they inhumanly scourged him, they tore his
beard; and his naked body, anointed with honey, was
suspended, in a net, between heaven and earth, and exposed
to the stings of insects and the rays of a Syrian sun.(100)
From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to glory in
his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his
persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and
dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph. The
Arians celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the
Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance; (101) and the
Pagans, who might be susceptible of shame or remorse, were
deterred from the repetition of such unavailing cruelty.(102)
Julian spared his life: but if the bishop of Arethusa had
saved the infancy of Julian,(103) posterity will condemn the
ingratitude, instead of praising the clemency, of the
emperor.
The temple and sacred grove of Daphne
At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Macedonian
kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most
elegant places of devotion in the Pagan world. (104) A
magnificent temple rose in honour of the god of light; and
his colossal figure (105) almost filled the capacious
sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and gems, and
adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity was
represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his
hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he
supplicated the venerable mother to give to his arms the
cold and beauteous DAPHNE: for the spot was ennobled by
fiction; and the fancy of the Syrian poets had transported
the amorous tale from the banks of the Peneus to those of
the Orontes. The ancient rites of Greece were imitated by
the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of prophecy, which
rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic oracle,
flowed from the Castalian fountain of Daphne.(106) In the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege,
(107) which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games
were celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of
thirty thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the
public pleasures.(108) The perpetual resort of pilgrims and
spectators insensibly formed, in the neighbourhood of the
temple, the stately and populous village of Daphne, which
emulated the splendour, without acquiring the title, of a
provincial city. The temple and the village were deeply
bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses, which
reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed
in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A
thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every
hill, preserved the verdure of the earth and the temperature
of the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds
and aromatic odours; and the peaceful grove was consecrated
to health and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth
pursued, like Apollo, the object of his desires; and the
blushing maid was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the
folly of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the
philosopher wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual
paradise;(109) where pleasure, assuming the character of
religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly
virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages to
enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the
privileges of the holy ground were enlarged by the
munificence of succeeding emperors; and every generation
added new ornaments to the splendour of the temple.(110)
Neglect and profanation of Daphne
When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to
adore the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the
highest pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively
imagination anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of
libations, and of incense; a long procession of youths and
virgins, clothed in white robes, the symbol of their
innocence; and the tumultuous concourse of an innumerable
people. But the zeal of Antioch was diverted, since the
reign of Christianity, into a different channel. Instead of
hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the tribes of a wealthy
city to their tutelar deity, the emperor complains that he
found only a single goose, provided at the expense of a
priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this decayed
temple.(111) The altar was deserted, the oracle had been
reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the
introduction of Christian and funeral rites. After Babylas
(112) (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the
persecution of Decius) had rested near a century in his
grave, his body, by the order of the Caesar Gallus, was
transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne. A
magnificent church was erected over his remains; a portion
of the sacred lands was usurped for the maintenance of the
clergy, and for the burial of the Christians of Antioch, who
were ambitious of lying at the feet of their bishop; and the
priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted and
indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to
restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas
was demolished, and new buildings were added to the
mouldering edifice which had been raised by the piety of
Syrian kings. But the first and most serious care of Julian
was to deliver his oppressed deity from the odious presence
of the dead and living Christians, who had so effectually
suppressed the voice of fraud or enthusiasm.(113)
Removal of the dead bodies, and conflagration of the temple.
The scene
of infection was purified, according to the forms of ancient
rituals, the bodies were decently removed; and the ministers
of the church were permitted to convey the remains of St.
Babylas to their former habitation within the walls of
Antioch. The modest behaviour which might have assuaged the
jealousy of an hostile government, was neglected on this
occasion by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car that
transported the relics of Babylas was followed, and
accompanied, and received, by an innumerable multitude, who
chanted, with thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David
the most expressive of their contempt for idols and
idolaters. The return of the saint was a triumph; and the
triumph was an insult on the religion of the emperor, who
exerted his pride to dissemble his resentment. During the
night which terminated this indiscreet procession the temple
of Daphne was in flames; the statue of Apollo was consumed;
and the walls of the edifice were left a naked and awful
monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch asserted, with religious confidence, that the powerful intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof: but as Julian was reduced to the alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose, without
hesitation, without evidence, but with some colour of probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the Galileans.(114) Julian shuts the cathederal of Antioch Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved, might have justified the retaliation, which was immediately executed by the order of Julian, of shutting the doors, and confiscating the wealth, of the cathedral of Antioch. To discover the criminals who were guilty of the tumult, of the fire, or of secreting the riches of the church, several ecclesiastics were tortured;(115) and a presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was beheaded by the sentence of the count of the East. But this hasty act was blamed by the emperor, who lamented, with real or affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution.(116)
The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the frown of their sovereign; but when the father of his country declares himself the leader of a faction, the licence of popular fury cannot easily be restrained, nor consistently punished. Julian, in a public composition, applauds the devotion and loyalty of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the Galileans; and faintly complains that they had revenged the injuries of the gods with less moderation than he should have recommended.(117) This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the ecclesiastical narratives—that in the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Caesarea, Heliopolis, etc., the Pagans abused, without prudence or remorse, the moment of their prosperity; that the unhappy objects of their cruelty were released from torture only by death; that, as their mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and the distaff's of enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian priests and virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean animals of the city. (118) Such scenes of religious madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture of human nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the victims, and the splendour of the capital of Egypt.
George of Cappadocia
George,(119) from his parents or his education, surnamed the
Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's
shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself
by the talents of a parasite; and the patrons whom he
assiduously flattered procured for their worthless dependent
a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with
bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He
accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and
corruption; but his malversations were so notorious, that
George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice.
After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his
fortune at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real
or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love,
or the ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable
library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology;(120)
and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of
Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the
new archbishop was that of a barbarian conqueror; and each
moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The
Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a
tyrant, qualified by nature and education to exercise the
office of persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial
hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. oppresses Alexandria and Egypt. The
primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty
station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and
servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were
impoverished by the unjust and almost universal monopoly,
which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, etc.:
and the spiritual father of a great people condescended to
practice the vile and pernicious arts of an informer. The
Alexandrians could never forget, nor forgive, the tax which
he suggested on all the houses of the city, under an
obsolete claim that the royal founder had conveyed to his
successors, the Ptolemies and the Caesars, the perpetual
property of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered
with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout
avarice, and the rich temples of Alexandria were either
pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who exclaimed
in a loud and threatening tone, "How long will these
sepulchres be permitted to stand?" Under the reign of
Constantius he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the
justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent
struggle that the civil and military powers of the state
could restore his authority, and gratify his revenge. The
messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of
Julian announced the downfall of the archbishop.A.D. 361, November 30. George, with two of his obsequious ministers, count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged
in chains to the public prison. [He is massacred by the people, December 24.] At the end of twenty-four days the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired
under their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the
archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph
through the streets on the back of a camel; and the
inactivity of the Athanasian party (121) was esteemed a
shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of
these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and the
popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to
disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept
the future honours of these martyrs, who had been punished,
like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion.
(122) The fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions
ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop
obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius
was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming
conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into
the bosom of the Catholic church.(123) The odious stranger,
disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the
mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero;(124). [and worshipped as a saint and martyr] and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed(125) into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter. (126)
About the same time that Julian was informed of the tumult of Alexandria he received intelligence from Edessa that the proud and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of the Valentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without expecting the slow forms of justice, the exasperated prince directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edessa,(127) by which he confiscated the whole property of the church: the money was distributed among the soldiers; the lands were added to the domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated by the most ungenerous irony.
"I show myself," says Julian, "the true friend of the Galileans. Their admirable law has promised the kingdom of heaven to the poor, and they will advance with more diligence in the paths of virtue and salvation when they are relieved by my assistance from the load of temporal possessions. Take care," pursued the monarch, in a more serious tone, "take care how you provoke my patience and humanity. If these disorders continue, I will revenge on the magistrates the crimes of the people; and you will have reason to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword."
The tumults of Alexandria were doubtless of a more bloody and dangerous nature: but a Christian bishop had fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public epistle of Julian affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of his administration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness; and he laments that, on this occasion, they should have departed from the gentle and generous manners which attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely censures the offence which they had committed against the laws of justice and humanity; but he recapitulates, with visible complacency, the intolerable provocations which they had so long endured from the impious tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian admits the principle that a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolence of the people; yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander, and of Serapis their tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious pardon to the guilty city, for which he again feels the affection of a brother. (128)
Restoration of Athanius, A.D. 362, February 21.
After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided, Athanasius, amidst the public
acclamations, seated himself on the throne from whence his
unworthy competitor had been precipitated: and as the zeal
of the archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise
of his authority tended not to inflame, but to reconcile,
the minds of the people. His pastoral labours were not
confined to the narrow limits of Egypt. The state of the
Christian world was present to his active and capacious
mind; and the age, the merit, the reputation of Athanasius,
enabled him to assume, in a moment of danger, the office of
Ecclesiastical Dictator. (129) Three years were not yet
elapsed since the majority of the bishops of the West had,
ignorantly or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession of
Rimini. They repented, they believed, but they dreaded the
unseasonable rigour of their orthodox brethren; and if their
pride was stronger than their faith, they might throw
themselves into the arms of the Arians, to escape the
indignity of a public penance, which must degrade them to
the condition of obscure laymen. At the same time the
domestic differences concerning the union and distinction of
the divine persons were agitated with some heat among the
catholic doctors; and the progress of this metaphysical
controversy seemed to threaten a public and lasting division
of the Greek and Latin churches. By the wisdom of a select
synod, to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave the
authority of a general council, the bishops who had unwarily
deviated into error were admitted to the communion of the
church, on the easy condition of subscribing the Nicene
Creed, without any formal acknowledgment of their past
fault, or any minute definition of their scholastic
opinions. The advice of the primate of Egypt had already
prepared the clergy of Gaul and Spain, of Italy and Greece,
for the reception of this salutary measure; and,
notwithstanding the opposition of some ardent spirits,(130)
the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and harmony
of the Christians.(131)
He is persecuted and expelled by Julian, A.D. 362, October 23.
The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved
the season of tranquillity before it was interrupted by the
hostile edicts of the emperor.(132) Julian, who despised the
Christians, honoured Athanasius with his sincere and
peculiar hatred. For his sake alone he introduced an
arbitrary distinction, repugnant at least to the spirit of
his former declarations. He maintained that the Galileans
whom he had recalled from exile were not restored, by that
general indulgence, to the possession of their respective
churches; and he expressed his astonishment that a criminal,
who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgement of the
emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the laws, and
insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria,
without expecting the orders of his sovereign. As a
punishment for the imaginary offence, he again banished
Athanasius from the city; and he was pleased to suppose that
this act of justice would be highly agreeable to his pious
subjects. The pressing solicitations of the people soon
convinced him that the majority of the Alexandrians were
Christians; and that the greatest part of the Christians
were firmly attached to the cause of their oppressed
primate. But the knowledge of their sentiments, instead of
persuading him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend
to all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The zeal
of the multitude rendered Julian still more inexorable: he
was alarmed by the danger of leaving at the head of the
tumultuous city a daring and popular leader; and the
language of his resentment discovers the opinion which he
entertained of the courage and abilities of Athanasius. The
execution of the sentence was still delayed by the caution
or negligence of Ecdicius, praefect of Egypt, who was at
length awakened from his lethargy by a severe reprimand.
"Though you neglect," says Julian, "to write to me on any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform me of your conduct towards Athanasius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions have been long since communicated to you. I swear by the great Serapis, that unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius has departed from Alexandria, nay, from Egypt, the officers of your government shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You know my temper: I am slow to condemn, but I am still slower to forgive."
This epistle was enforced by a short postscript written with the emperor's own hand.
"The contempt that is shown for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation. There is nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear, with more pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt. The abominable wretch! Under my reign, the baptism of several Grecian ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his persecutions." (133)
The death of Athanasius was not expressly commanded; but the praefect of Egypt understood that it was safer for him to exceed than to neglect the orders of an irritated master. The archbishop prudently retired to the monasteries of the Desert, eluded with his usual dexterity, the snares of the enemy; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince who, in words of formidable import, had declared his wish that the whole venom of the Galilean school were contained in the single person of Athanasius.(134)
Zeal and imprudence of the Christians.
I have endeavoured faithfully to represent the artful system
by which Julian proposed to obtain the effects, without
incurring the guilt of reproach, of persecution. But if the
deadly spirit of fanaticism perverted the heart and
understanding of a virtuous prince, it must, at the same
time, be confessed, that the real suffering of the
Christians were inflamed and magnified by human passions and
religious enthusiasm. The meekness and resignation which
had distinguished the primitive disciples of the Gospel was
the object of the applause, rather than of the imitation, of
their successors. The Christians, who had now possessed
above forty years the civil and ecclesiastical government of
the empire, had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity,
(135) and the habit of believing that the saints alone were
entitled to reign over the earth. As soon as the enmity of
Julian deprived the clergy of the privileges which had been
conferred by the favour of Constantine, they complained of
the most cruel oppression; and the free toleration of
idolaters and heretics was a subject of grief and scandal to
the orthodox party. (136) The acts of violence, which were no
longer countenanced by the magistrates, were still committed
by the zeal of the people. At Pessinus the altar of Cybele
was overturned almost in the presence of the emperor, and in
the city of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, the temple of Fortune,
the sole place of worship which had been left to the Pagans,
was destroyed by the rage of a popular tumult. On these
occasions, a Prince who felt for the honour of the gods was
not disposed to interrupt the course of justice; and his
mind was still more deeply exasperated when he found that
the fanatics, who had deserved and suffered the punishment
of incendiaries, were rewarded with the honours of
martyrdom.(137) The Christian subjects of Julian were assured
of the hostile designs of their sovereign; and, to their
jealous apprehension, every circumstance of his government
might afford some rounds of discontent and suspicion. In the
ordinary administration of the laws, the Christians, who
formed so large a part of the people, must frequently be
condemned; but their indulgent brethren, without examining
the merits of the cause, presumed their innocence, allowed
their claims, and imputed the severity of their judge to the
partial malice of religious persecution.(138) These present
hardships, intolerable as they might appear, were
represented as a slight prelude of the impending calamities.
The Christians considered Julian as a cruel and crafty
tyrant, who suspended the execution of his revenge till he
should return victorious from the Persian war. They expected
that, as soon as he had triumphed over the foreign enemies
of Rome, he would lay aside the irksome mask of
dissimulation; that the amphitheatres would stream with the
blood of hermits and bishops; and that the Christians who
still persevered in the profession of the faith would be
deprived of the common benefits of nature and society.(139)
Every calumny(140) that could wound the reputation of the
Apostate was credulously embraced by the fears and hatred of
his adversaries; and their indiscreet clamours provoked the
temper of a sovereign whom it was their duty to respect, and
their interest to flatter. They still protested that prayers
and tears were their only weapons against the impious
tyrant, whose head they devoted to the justice of offended
Heaven. But they insinuated, with sullen resolution, that
their submission was no longer the effect of weakness; and
that, in the imperfect state of human virtue, the patience
which is founded on principle may be exhausted by
persecution. It is impossible to determine how far the zeal
of Julian would have prevailed over his good sense and
humanity; but, if we seriously reflect on the strength and
spirit of the church, we shall be convinced that, before the
emperor could have extinguished the religion of Christ, he
must have involved his country in the horrors of a civil
war.(141)
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