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ignominious class of the people. Such of these CHAP 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.

A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric t. The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this 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

* These laws which affected the clergy, may be found in the slight hints of Julian himself (Epist. lii.), in the vague declamations of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87.), and in the positive assertions of Sozomen (1. v. c. 5.).

† Inclemens. . . . perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian. xxii. 10. xxv. 5.

He prohiChristians from teach

bits the

ing schools.

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CHAP. that if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content them selves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the Galilæans *. 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 expence, 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 t. As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising generations to resort with freedom to the public schools, in a just confidence,

that

The edict itself, which is still extant among the epistles, of Julian (xlii.), may be compared with the loose invectives of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 96.) Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. t. vii. p. 1291–1294.) has collected the seeming differences of an cients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The Christians were directly forbid to teach, they were indirectly forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the schools of the Pagans.

+ Codex Theodos. 1. xiii. tit. iii. de medicis et professoribus, leg. 5. (published the 17th of June, received, at Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A. D. 363.) with Godefroy's Illustrations, tom. v. p. 31.

Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution, Sicut a majoribus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique propemodum. . . . officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30 Proæresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial favour of the emperor, Hieronym. in Chron. p. 185. Edit. Scaliger. Eunapius in Protresio, p. 126.

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that their tender minds would receive the im- CHAP. pressions of literature and idolatry. If the greatest. part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their own scruples, or by those of their pa-, rents, 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 Poly

theism *.

It was undoubtedly the wish and the design of Disgrace and oppres Julian to deprive the Christians of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge, and of power; but the Christians 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 t. Superior merit might deserve, and obtain, some extraorVOL. IV. dinary

I

They had recourse to the expedient of composing books for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris pro duced his Christian imitations of Homer (a sacred history in xxiv. books), Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozemen is satisfied, that they equalled, or excelled, the originals.

It was the instruction of Julian to his magistrates (Epist. vii.) προτιμασθαι μεν τοί τις θεοσεβεις και πανυ φημι δειν. Sozo men (1. v. c. 18.) and Socrates (1. iii. c. 13.) must be reduced to the standard of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 95.), not less prone to exaggeration, but more restrained by the actual knowledge of his contemporary readers.

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CHAP. dinary 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 *. 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.

→ † now bɛwv xa; diòs; zai un 3.8. Libanius, Orat. Parent. e. 88. p. 314.

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tyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as long CHAP. 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 *.

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 f. After the ground was cleared, the restitution

I 2

Greg. Nazian. Orat. iii. p. 74. 91, 92. Socrates, 1. iii: c. 14. Theodoret, 1. iii. c. 6. Some drawback may however be allowed for the violence of their zeal, not less partial than the zeal of Julian.

If we compare the gentle language of Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 60. p. 286.) with the passionate exclamations of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87.), we may find it difficult to persuade ourselves, that the two orators are really describing the same events.

They are to restore temples.

condemned

the Pagan