A. D. 361.] PERSECUTION BY JULIAN. 209 menaces would have been fully executed, had not death intervened. It was not from any feeling of compassion towards the Christians that he treated them at first with greater humanity than had been evinced by former persecutors, but because he had discovered that the Pagans had derived no advantage from their cruelty, while Christianity had been honoured by the fortitude of those who died in defence of the faith. It was simply from envy of their glory, that instead of employing fire and the sword against them like former persecutors, and instead of casting them into the sea, or burying them alive, in order to compel them to renounce their sentiments, he had recourse to argument and persuasion, and sought by these means to seduce them to Paganism; and he expected to gain his ends more easily by abandoning all violent measures, and by the manifestation of unexpected benevolence. It is said that on one occasion, when he was sacrificing in the temple of Fortune at Constantinople, Maris, bishop of Chalcedon, presented himself before him, and publicly rebuked him as an irreligious man, an atheist, and an apostate. Julian had nothing in return to reproach him with except his blindness, for his sight was impaired by old age, and he was led by a child. According to his usual custom of uttering blasphemies against Christ, Julian afterwards added, in derision, "The Galilean, thy God, will not cure thee." Maris replied, "I thank God for my blindness, since it prevents me from beholding one who has apostatized from religion." Julian passed on without giving a reply; for he considered that Paganism would be advanced by the exhibition of greater lenity and mildness towards Christians than could in ordinary circumstances be expected. CHAP. V.-JULIAN RESTORES LIBERTY TO THE CHRISTIANS, IN HIS It was from these motives that Julian recalled from exile all Christians who, during the reign of Constantius, had been banished on account of their religious sentiments, and restored to them their property that had been confiscated. He charged the people not to commit any act of injustice against the Christians, not to insult them, and not to constrain them to offer sa1 Concerning this Maris, see Socrates, Eccl. Hist. iii. 12. [SOZOMEN.] P crifice. He commanded that if they should, of their own accord, desire to draw near the altars, they were first to appease the wrath of the demons, whom the Pagans regard as capable of averting evil, and to purify themselves by the customary course of expiations. He deprived the clergy of the immunities, honours, and revenues which Constantine had conferred ;1 repealed the laws which had been enacted in their favour, and re-enforced their civil liabilities. He even compelled the virgins and widows, who, on account of their poverty, were reckoned among the clergy, to refund the provision which had been assigned them from public sources. For, when Constantine adjusted the temporal concerns of the church, he devoted a portion of the taxes raised upon every city to the support of the clergy; and, to insure the stability of this arrangement, he enacted a law which has continued in force from the death of Julian to the present day. These exactions were very cruel and rigorous, as appears by the receipts given by the receivers of the money to those from whom it had been extorted, and which were designed to show that the property received in accordance with the law of Constantine had been refunded. Nothing, however, could diminish the enmity of the emperor against religion. In his hatred against the faith, he seized every opportunity to ruin the church. He deprived it of its property, ornaments, and sacred vessels, and condemned those who had demolished temples during the reign of Constantine and Constantius, to rebuild them, or to defray the expenses of their re-erection. On this ground, and because they were unable to pay the sums, many of the bishops, clergy, and other Christians, were cruelly tortured and cast into prison.2 It may be concluded from what has been said, that if Julian shed less blood than preceding persecutors, and that if he devised fewer punishments for the torture of the body, yet that he was equally averse to the church, and equally intent upon injuring it. He certainly recalled the priests who had been banished by Constantius, but he was actuated by the desire of introducing division into the church, and of See Eusebius, Life of Constantine, ii. 36-41. 2 Valesius remarks that they were tortured and imprisoned, not only on this account, but also because they would not deliver up the sacred vessels presented by Constantine to their churches. RETURN OF ATHANASIUS TO HIS CHURCH. 211 increasing the existing disputes. He also contemplated the condemnation of Constantius, whose memory he thought to render odious to all his subjects by favouring the Pagans who were of the same sentiments as himself, and by showing compassion to those Christians who had been unjustly persecuted during the preceding reign. He expelled the eunuchs from the court, because the late emperor had been well-affected towards them. He condemned Eusebius, the governor of the palace, to death, from a suspicion he entertained that it was at his suggestion that Gallus his brother had been slain. He recalled Aetius from the region whither Constantius had banished him on account of suspicions which had been excited against him by the friendship formerly existing between him and Gallus; and to him Julian sent letters full of benignity, and furnished him with public conveyances to expedite his return. For a similar reason he condemned Eleusius, bishop of Cyzicus, under heavy penalties, to rebuild, within two months, and at his own expense, a church belonging to the Novatians which he had destroyed. Many other things might be mentioned which he did himself, or which, from hatred to his predecessor, he permitted to be done. CHAP. VI.-ATHANASIUS, AFTER HAVING BEEN SEVEN YEARS CONCEALED IN THE HOUSE OF A HOLY VIRGIN, RE-APPEARS IN PUBLIC, AND ENTERS THE CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA. AT this period, Athanasius, who had long remained in concealment, having heard of the death of Constantius, appeared by night in the church at Alexandria. His unexpected appearance excited the greatest astonishment. He had escaped falling into the hands of the governor of Egypt, who, at the command of the emperor, and at the request of the friends of George, had formed plans to arrest him, and had concealed himself in the house of a holy virgin, in Alexandria. It is said that she was endowed with such extraordinary beauty, that those who beheld her regarded her as a phenomenon of nature, and that men of gravity and reflection kept aloof from her, for fear of giving rise to slander, or of exciting disadvantageous reports. She possessed in the flower of youth such modesty and such wisdom as would have conferred ner. beauty on an individual who had not received that gift from nature. For it is not true, as some assert, that, "as is the body, so is the soul." On the contrary, the body is the index of the mind, and by it our thoughts and affections are reflected and indicated. This is a truth admitted by all who have accurately investigated the subject. It is related that Athanasius sought refuge in the house of this holy virgin by the revelation of God, who designed to save him in this manWhen I reflect on the result which ensued, I cannot doubt but that all the events were directed by Providence. The friends and relatives of Athanasius would thus have been preserved from danger had search been made for him among them, and had they been compelled to swear that he was not concealed with them. There was nothing to excite suspicion of a bishop being concealed in the house of so lovely a virgin. However, she had the courage to receive him, and sufficient prudence to preserve his life. She alone ministered to him and supplied him with what nature requires. She washed his feet, brought him food, provided him with the books he wanted, and acted so prudently that, during the whole time1 of his residence with her, none of the inhabitants of Alexandria suspected the place of his retreat.2 CHAP. VII.-VIOLENT DEATH OF GEORGE, THE RESULT OF CERTAIN OCCURRENCES IN THE TEMPLE OF MITHRA. LETTER OF JULIAN ON THE SUBJECT. AFTER Athanasius had escaped all danger, and thus presented himself suddenly in the church, no one knew whence he came. The people of Alexandria, however, rejoiced at his return, and restored his churches to him. The Arians, being thus expelled from the churches, were compelled to hold their assemblies in private houses, under the guidance of Lucius, who had succeeded George as their bishop. George had been slain a short time previously: for when the magistrates had announced to the public the decease of Constantius, and the 1 Athanasius was in retreat for six or seven years; but Valesius is of opinion that he spent them in the retirement of some Egyptian monastery. 2 The same story is related by Nicephorus, vi. 10. Valesius thinks the remarks of Sozomen here beneath the dignity of an ecclesiastical historian. A. D. 361.] MURDER OF GEORGE. 213 accession of Julian, the Pagans of Alexandria rose up in sedition. They attacked George with such violence that it was expected he would have been torn to pieces; but they merely, for the time being, committed him to prison. The following day, however, they repaired early in the morning to the prison, killed him, flung the corpse upon a camel, and after exposing it to every insult during the day, burnt it at nightfall. I am not ignorant that the Arians assert that George received this cruel treatment from the followers of Athanasius; but it seems to me more probable that the perpetrators of these deeds were the Pagans; for they had more cause than any other body of men to hate him, on account of his having destroyed their temples and their gods, and having, moreover, prohibited them from sacrificing, or performing the other rites of their religion according to the custom of their fathers. Besides, the extraordinary influence he had acquired over the emperor rendered him an object of popular odium; for the people, who generally look with suspicion on those in power, regarded him with uncontrollable aversion. A calamity had also taken place at a spot called Mithra.' It was originally a desert, and Constantius had bestowed it on the church of Alexandria. George having given orders to clear the ground, in order to erect a house of prayer, an adytum was discovered during the process of digging. In it were idols, and instruments formerly used in Pagan ceremonies, which were of a very strange and ludicrous appearance. The Christians caused them to be publicly exhibited, in order to humiliate the Pagans ; but this affront was more than the Pagans could bear, and they rushed to attack the Christians, after arming themselves with swords, stones, and whatever weapon came first to hand. They slew many of the Christians, and, in derision of their religion, crucified others. This led to the abandonment of the work that had been commenced by the Christians, and to the murder of George by the Pagans, as soon as they had heard of the accession of Julian. This fact is admitted by Julian himself, which would not have been the case had it not been fully established; for he would rather have thrown the blame of the murder on the Christians, whoever they were,2 than on the 1 Comp. Socrates, Eccl. Hist. iii. 2. 2 dlovodnπOTE. He means whether they were of the orthodox or heretical party. |