СНАР. distant countries of the East; and their piety CHAP. 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 t; 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 at 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 shewed 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 le gions. Such miracles, as seemed necessary to The itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem, was compo sed in the year 333, for the use of pilgrims; among whom Jerom (tom. i. p. 126.) mentions the Britons and the Indians. The causes of this superstitious fashion are discussed in the learned and judicious preface of Wesseling (Itin. p. 537-545. + Cicero (de Finibus, v. 1.) has beautifully expressed the common sense of mankind. Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 326. No. 42-50.) and. Tulemont (Mém. Eccles. ter. vii. p. 8-16.) are the histo rians XXIII. CHAP. 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 *. It might perhaps haye 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 rians and champions of the miraculous invention of the cross, under the reign of Constantine. Their oldest witnesses are Paulinus, Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Ambrose, and perhaps Cyril of Jerusalem. The silence of Eusebius, and the Bourdeaux pilgrim, which satisfies those who think, perplexes those who believe. See Jortin's sensible remarks, yol. ii. P. 238-248. *This multiplication is asserted by Paulinus (epist. xxxvii. see Dupin, Biblioth. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 149.), who seems to have improved a rhetorical flourish of Cyril into a real fact. The same supernatural privilege must have been communicated to the Virgin's milk (Erasini Opera, tom. i. p. 778. Lug. Bat. 1703. in Colloq. de Perigrinat. Religionis ergo), saints' heads, &c. and other relics, which were repeated in so many different churches. XXIII. were filled with the incessant tumult of business CHAP. and pleasure, but that every species of vice, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, murder, was familiar to the inhabitants of the holy city f. 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. Julian atrebuild the tempts to temple. The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore the ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem §. As the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric X of the Mosaic law, the imperial sophist would Jerom (tom. i. p. 103.), who resided in the neighbouring village of Bethlem, describes the vices of Jerusalem from his personal experience. + Gregor. Nyssen, apud Wesseling, p. 539. The whole epistle, which coudemas either the use or the abuse of religi ous pilgrimage, is painful to the Catholic divines, while it is dear and familiar to our Protestant polemics. But He renounced his orthodox ordination, officiated as a deacon, and was re-ordained by the hands of the Arians. Cyril afterwards changed with the times, and prudently con formed to the Nicene faith. Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. tom. viii.), who treats his memory with tenderness and respect, has thrown his virtues into the text, and his faults into the notes, in decent obscurity, at the end of the volume. Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare. Ammian. xxiii. 1. The temple of Jerusalem had been famous even among the Gentiles. They had many temples in each city (at Sichem five, at Gaza eight, at Rome four hundred and twenty-four); but the wealth and religion of the Jewish nation was centered in one spot, XXIII. CHAP. have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy, and the truth of revelation *. 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 t. The local and national deity of the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist, who desired only to multiply the number of the gods ; 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 §. These considerations might influence his designs; but the prospect of an immediate and important advantage, The secret intentions of Julian are revealed by the late bishop of Gloucester, the learned and dogmatic Warburton; who, with the authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives and conduct of the Supreme Being. The discourse entitled Julian (2d edition, London 1751), is strongly marked with all the peculiarities which are imputed to the Warbur tonian school. I shelter myself behind Maimonides, Marsham, Spencer, Le Clerc, Warburton, &c. who have fairly derided the fears, the folly, and the falsehood of some superstitious divines. See Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 25, &c. Julian (Fragment, p. 295.) respectfully styles him ɛyas Eos, and mentions him elsewhere (epist. Ixiii.) with still higher reverence. He doubly condemns the Christians: for believing and for renouncing the religion of the Jews. Their Deity was a true, but not the only, God. Apud Cyril. 1. ix. p. 305, 306. § 1 Kings, viii. 63. 2 Chron. vii. 5. Joseph. Antiquitat. Judaic. I. viii. c. 4. p. 431. edit. Havercamp. As the blood and smoke of so many hecatombs might be inconvenient, Lightfoot, the Christian rabbi, removes them by a miracle. Le Clerc Cad loca) is bold enough to suspect the fidelity of the numbers. XXII vantage, would not suffer the impatient monarch CHAP. 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*. 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. of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the Jews, from all the provinces of the empire, assembled on the holy mountain of Julian, epist. xxix. xxx. La Bleterie has neglected to translate the second of these epistles. |