lover of his country, and that he deferved the CHAP. empire of the world 5. 85 Ductor fortiffimus armis; Conditor et legum celeberrimus; ore manûque Prudent Apotheofis, 450, &c. The conscioufnefs of a generous fentiment feems to have raised the XXII. CHAP. Religion CHA P. XXIII. The Religion of Julian.-Univerfal Toleration. He attempts to restore and reform the Pagan Worship -to rebuild the Temple of Jerufalem.-His artful Perfecution of the Chriftians.-Mutual Zeal and Injustice. TH HE character of Apoftate has injured the reputation of Julian; and the enthusiasm which clouded his virtues, has exaggerated the of Julian. real and apparent magnitude of his faults. Our partial ignorance may reprefent him as a philofophic monarch, who ftudied 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 Athanafius. A more accurate view of the character and conduct of Julian, will remove this favourable prepoffeffion for a prince who did not escape the general contagion of the times. We enjoy the fingular 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 hiftorian, the impartial fpectator 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 7 XXIII. various writings exprefs the uniform tenor of his CHAP. religious fentiments, which policy would have prompted him to diffemble rather than to affect. A devout and fincere attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome, conftituted the ruling paffion of Julian'; the powers of an enlightened understanding were betrayed and corrupted by the influence of fuperftitious 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 ftate of irreconcileable hoftility with a very numerous party of his fubjects; and he was fometimes tempted, by the defire of victory, or the fhame of a repulfe, to violate the laws of prudence, and even of juftice. The triumph of the party, which he deferted and oppofed, has fixed a ftain of infamy on the name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apoftate has been overwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the fignal was given by the fonorous trumpet of Gregory Nazianzen 3. The inte I fhall tranfcribe fome of his own expreffions from a fhort religious difcourfe which the Imperial pontiff compofed to cenfure the bold impiety of a Cynic : Αλλ' όμως έτω δη τι τες θεάς πέφρικα, και φιλώ, και σεβω, και αζομαι, και πανθ' απλώς τα τοιαύτα πάσχω, οτητες αν τις και όλα προς αγαθες δέσποτας, προς διδασακλες, προς πατέρας, προς κηδεμόνας. Orat. vii. p. 212. The variety and copioufness of the Greek tongue feems inadequate to the fervour of his devotion. 1 The orator, with fome eloquence, much enthusiasm, and more vanity, addreffes his difcourfe to heaven and earth, to men and an gels, 4 XXIII. CHAP. refting nature of the events which were crowded into the short reign of this active emperor, de ferve a juft and circumftantial narrative. His motives, his counfels, and his actions, as far as they are connected with the history of religion, will be the fubject of the prefent chapter. His edu- The caufe of his ftrange and fatal apoftacy, apoftacy. 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 Conftantius, the ideas of flavery and of religion, were foon affociated in a youthful imagination, which was fufceptible of the most lively impreffions. The care of his infancy was entrusted to Eufebius, bishop of Nicomedia 4, who was related to him on the fide of his mother ; and till Julian reached the twentieth year of his age, he received from his Christian preceptors, gels, to the living and the dead; and above all, to the great Conftantius ( Onsis, an odd Pagan expreffion). He concludes with a bold affurance, that he has erected a monument not lefs durable, and much more portable, than the columns of Hercules. See Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 50 iv. p. 134. 3 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 Bafil (iv. p. 133.), about fix months after the death of Julian, when his remains had been carried to Tarfus (iv. p. 120.); but while Jovian was still on the throne (iii. p. 54. iv. p. 117.). I have derived much affistance from a French verfion and remarks, printed at Lyons 1735. 4 Nicomediæ ab Eufebio educatus Epifcopo, quem genere longius contingebat. (Ammian. xxii. 9.) Julian never expreffes any gratitude towards that Arian prelate; but he celebrates his preceptor, the eunuch Mardonius, and describes his mode of educa tion, which inspired his pupil with a passionate admiration for the genius, and perhaps the religion, of Homer. Mifopogon, p. 351, -352. the XXIII. the education not of a hero, but of a faint. The CHAP. emperor, lefs jealous of a heavenly, than of an earthly crown, contented himself with the imperfect character of a catechumen, while he bestowed the advantages of baptifm on the nephews of Conftantine". They were even admitted to the inferior offices of the ecclefiaftical order; and Julian publicly read the Holy Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia. The study of religion, which they affiduously cultivated, appeared to produce the faireft fruits of faith and devotion'. They prayed, they fafted, they dif tributed alms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs of the martyrs; and the fplendid monument of St. Mamas, at Cæfarea, was erected, or at leaft was undertaken, by the joint labour of Gallus and Julian 3. They respectfully converfed with the bishops who were eminent for fuperior fancity, and folicited the benediction of the monks and hermits, who had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary hard 5 Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He laboured to efface that holy mark in the blood, perhaps, of a Taurobolium. Baron. Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 361. N°. 3, 4. 6 Julian himself (Epift. li. p. 454.) affures the Alexandrians that he had been a Christian (he must mean a fincere one) till the twentieth year of his age. 7 See his Christian, and even ecclefiaftical education, in Gregory (iii. p. 38.), Socrates (1. iii. c. i.), and Sozomen, (1 v. c. 2.). He efcaped very narrowly from being a bishop, and perhaps a faint. 8 The fhare of the work which had been allotted to Gallus, was prosecuted with vigour and fuccefs; but the earth obftinately rejected and fubverted the structures which were imposed by the facrilegious hand of Julian. Greg. iii. p. 59, 60, 61. Such a partial earthquake, attefted by many living fpectators, would form one of the cleareft miracles in ecclefiaftical ftory. VOL. IV. F ships |