XXIII.

and his various writings express the uniform te. CHAP. nor 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; 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 of Gregory Nazianzen. The interest

t

I shall transcribe some of his own expressions from a short religious discourse which the imperial pontiff composed to censure the bold impiety of a cynic.—Αλλ' όμως ουτω δη τι τους θεους πεφρίκα, και φίλω, και σεβω, και άζομαι, και πανθ' απλως τα τοιαυτα πάσχω, ωσπεραντις και ένα προς αγαθους δεσποτας, προς διδασκαλους, προς πατέρας, προς κηδεμόνας. Orat. vii. p. 212. The variety and copiousness of the Greek tongue seems inadequate to the fervour of his devotion.

The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm, and more ›vanity, addresses his discourse to heaven and earth, to men and angels,

to

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CHAP. ing nature of the events which were crowded into the short reign of this active emperor, deserve a just and circumstantial narrative. His motives, 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 educa

tion and

apostacy

The cause of his strange and fatal apostacy, 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," 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

to the living and the dead; and, above all, to the great Constantius, (EL TIC alonσie, an odd pagan expression). He concludes with a bold assurance, that he has erected a monument not less durable, and much more portable, than the columns of Hercules. See Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii, p. 50? iv, p. 134.

See this long invective, which has been injudiciously divided into two orations in Gregory's Works, tom. i. p. 49-134; Paris, 1630. It was published by Gregory and his friend Basil (iv. p. 133), about six months after the death of Julian, when his remains had been carried to Tarsus, (iv. p. 120); but while Jovian was still on the throne, (iii. p. 54; iv. p. 117). I have derived much assistance from a French version and remarks printed at Lyons 1735.

d Nicomediæ ab Eusebio educatus Episcopo, quem genere longius contingebat, (Ammian. xxii. 9). Julian never expresses any gratitude towards that Arian prelate; but he celebrates his preceptor, the eunuch Mardonius, and describes his mode of education, which inspired his pupil with a passionate admiration for the genius, and perhaps the religion, of Homer. Misopogon, p. 351, 352.

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 on the nephews of Constantine. 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. 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 Cæsarea, was erected, or at least was undertaken, by the joint labour of Gallus and Julian." 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 volun

eGreg. Naz. iii, p. 70. He laboured to efface that holy mark in the blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 361, No. 3, 4.

f Julian himself (Epist. li, p. 454) assures the Alexandrians that he had been a Christian (he must mean a sincere one) till the twentieth year of his age.

See his Christian, and even ecclesiastical education, in Gregory, (iii, p. 58); Socrates, (1. iii, c. 1), and Sozomen, (l. v, c. 2). He escaped very narrowly from being a bishop, and perhaps a saint.

The share of the work which had been allotted to Gallus, was prosecuted with vigour and success; but the earth obstinately rejected and subverted the structures which were imposed by the sacrilegious hand of Julian. Greg. iii, p. 59, 60, 61. Such a partial earthquake, attested by many living spectators, would form one of the clearest miracles in ecclesiastical story

VOL. IV.

F

XXII.

CHAP. tary hardships of the ascetic life.' 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 contro

i The philosopher (Fragment, p. 288) ridicules the iron chains, &c. of these solitary fanatics, (see Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. tom. ix, p. 661, 662), who had forgot that man is by nature a gentle and social animal ανθρωπε φύσει πολιτικες ζων και ήμερα. The pagan sup. poses, that because they had renounced the gods, they were possessed and tormented by evil dæmons.

XXIII.

versy.* The fierce contests of the eastern CHAP. 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 Whenever the young princes were directed to compose declamations on the subject of the prevailing controversies, Julian always declared himself the advocate of pa→ ganism, under the specious excuse that, in the defence of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be more advantageously exercised and displayed.

braces the

of pagau

As soon as Gallus was invested with the ho- He emnours of the purple, Julian was permitted to mythology breath the air of freedom, of literature, and of ism." paganism.' The crowd of sophists, who were attracted by the taste and liberality of their royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the

* See Julian aput Cyril. 1. vi, p. 206; 1. viii, p. 253, 292,— 'You persecute," says he, "those heretics who do not mourn the "dead man precisely in the way which you approve." He shews himself a tolerable theologian; but he maintains that the Christian Trinity is not derived from the doctrine of Paul, of Jesus, or of Moses.

I Libanius, Orat. Parentalis, c. 9, 10, p. 232, &c. Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii, p. 61. Eunap. Vit. Sophist. in Maximo, p 68, 69, 70, edit. Commelin.