Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part I

The Religion Of Julian.—Universal Toleration.—He Attempts To
Restore And Reform The Pagan Worship—To Rebuild The Temple Of
Jerusalem—His Artful Persecution Of The Christians.—Mutual Zeal
And Injustice.

The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of Julian;
and the enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the
real and apparent magnitude of his faults. Our partial ignorance
may represent him as a philosophic monarch, who studied 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 Athanasius. A more accurate view of the character and conduct
of Julian will remove this favorable prepossession for a prince
who did not escape the general contagion of the times. We enjoy
the singular 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 historian, the impartial spectator 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 writings express the uniform tenor 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;
1 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 2 of Gregory Nazianzen.
3 The interesting 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.

1 (return) [ 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. Orat. vii. p. 212. The
variety and copiousness of the Greek tongue seem inadequate to
the fervor of his devotion.]

2 (return) [ The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm,
and more vanity, addresses his discourse to heaven and earth, to
men and angels, to the living and the dead; and above all, to the
great Constantius, 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.]

3 (return) [ 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.]

The cause of his strange and fatal apostasy 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, 4 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 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 5 on the nephews of
Constantine. 6 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. 7 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 labor of Gallus and Julian. 8 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 voluntary
hardships of the ascetic life. 9 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 controversy. 10 The fierce contests of
the Eastern 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 favorable 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 young
princes were directed to compose declamations on the subject of
the prevailing controversies, Julian always declared himself the
advocate of Paganism; under the specious excuse that, in the
defence of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be
more advantageously exercised and displayed.

4 (return) [ 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.]

5 (return) [ Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He labored to effect that
holy mark in the blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium. Baron. Annal.
Eccles. A. D. 361, No. 3, 4.]

6 (return) [ 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.]

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

8 (return) [ The share of the work which had been allotted to
Gallus, was prosecuted with vigor 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.]

9 (return) [ The _philosopher_ (Fragment, p. 288,) ridicules the
iron chains, &c, of these solitary fanatics, (see Tillemont, Mém.
Eccles. tom. ix. p. 661, 632,) who had forgot that man is by
nature a gentle and social animal. The _Pagan_ supposes, that
because they had renounced the gods, they were possessed and
tormented by evil dæmons.]

10 (return) [ See Julian apud Cyril, l. vi. p. 206, l. viii. p.
253, 262. “You persecute,” says he, “those heretics who do not
mourn the dead man precisely in the way which you approve.” He
shows himself a tolerable theologian; but he maintains that the
Christian Trinity is not derived from the doctrine of Paul, of
Jesus, or of Moses.]

As soon as Gallus was invested with the honors of the purple,
Julian was permitted to breathe the air of freedom, of
literature, and of Paganism. 11 The crowd of sophists, who were
attracted by the taste and liberality of their royal pupil, had
formed a strict alliance between the learning and the religion of
Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of being admired as the
original productions of human genius, were seriously ascribed to
the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the muses. The deities of
Olympus, as they are painted by the immortal bard, imprint
themselves on the minds which are the least addicted to
superstitious credulity. Our familiar knowledge of their names
and characters, their forms and attributes, _seems_ to bestow on
those airy beings a real and substantial existence; and the
pleasing enchantment produces an imperfect and momentary assent
of the imagination to those fables, which are the most repugnant
to our reason and experience. In the age of Julian, every
circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the illusion; the
magnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the works of those
artists who had expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the
divine conceptions of the poet; the pomp of festivals and
sacrifices; the successful arts of divination; the popular
traditions of oracles and prodigies; and the ancient practice of
two thousand years. The weakness of polytheism was, in some
measure, excused by the moderation of its claims; and the
devotion of the Pagans was not incompatible with the most
licentious scepticism. 12 Instead of an indivisible and regular
system, which occupies the whole extent of the believing mind,
the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a thousand loose and
flexible parts, and the servant of the gods was at liberty to
define the degree and measure of his religious faith. The creed
which Julian adopted for his own use was of the largest
dimensions; and, by strange contradiction, he disdained the
salutary yoke of the gospel, whilst he made a voluntary offering
of his reason on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One of the
orations of Julian is consecrated to the honor of Cybele, the
mother of the gods, who required from her effeminate priests the
bloody sacrifice, so rashly performed by the madness of the
Phrygian boy. The pious emperor condescends to relate, without a
blush, and without a smile, the voyage of the goddess from the
shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tyber, and the stupendous
miracle, which convinced the senate and people of Rome that the
lump of clay, which their ambassadors had transported over the
seas, was endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine power. 13
For the truth of this prodigy he appeals to the public monuments
of the city; and censures, with some acrimony, the sickly and
affected taste of those men, who impertinently derided the sacred
traditions of their ancestors. 14

11 (return) [ 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.]

12 (return) [ A modern philosopher has ingeniously compared the
different operation of theism and polytheism, with regard to the
doubt or conviction which they produce in the human mind. See
Hume’s Essays vol. ii. p. 444- 457, in 8vo. edit. 1777.]

13 (return) [ The Idæan mother landed in Italy about the end of
the second Punic war. The miracle of Claudia, either virgin or
matron, who cleared her fame by disgracing the graver modesty of
the Roman Indies, is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Their
evidence is collected by Drakenborch, (ad Silium Italicum, xvii.
33;) but we may observe that Livy (xxix. 14) slides over the
transaction with discreet ambiguity.]

14 (return) [ I cannot refrain from transcribing the emphatical
words of Julian: Orat. v. p. 161. Julian likewise declares his
firm belief in the ancilia, the holy shields, which dropped from
heaven on the Quirinal hill; and pities the strange blindness of
the Christians, who preferred the cross to these celestial
trophies. Apud Cyril. l. vi. p. 194.]

But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced, and warmly
encouraged, the superstition of the people, reserved for himself
the privilege of a liberal interpretation; and silently withdrew
from the foot of the altars into the sanctuary of the temple. The
extravagance of the Grecian mythology proclaimed, with a clear
and audible voice, that the pious inquirer, instead of being
scandalized or satisfied with the literal sense, should
diligently explore the occult wisdom, which had been disguised,
by the prudence of antiquity, under the mask of folly and of
fable. 15 The philosophers of the Platonic school, 16 Plotinus,
Porphyry, and the divine Iamblichus, were admired as the most
skilful masters of this allegorical science, which labored to
soften and harmonize the deformed features of Paganism. Julian
himself, who was directed in the mysterious pursuit by Ædesius,
the venerable successor of Iamblichus, aspired to the possession
of a treasure, which he esteemed, if we may credit his solemn
asseverations, far above the empire of the world. 17 It was
indeed a treasure, which derived its value only from opinion; and
every artist who flattered himself that he had extracted the
precious ore from the surrounding dross, claimed an equal right
of stamping the name and figure the most agreeable to his
peculiar fancy. The fable of Atys and Cybele had been already
explained by Porphyry; but his labors served only to animate the
pious industry of Julian, who invented and published his own
allegory of that ancient and mystic tale. This freedom of
interpretation, which might gratify the pride of the Platonists,
exposed the vanity of their art. Without a tedious detail, the
modern reader could not form a just idea of the strange
allusions, the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the
impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal
the system of the universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology
were variously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty
to select the most convenient circumstances; and as they
translated an arbitrary cipher, they could extract from _any_
fable _any_ sense which was adapted to their favorite system of
religion and philosophy. The lascivious form of a naked Venus was
tortured into the discovery of some moral precept, or some
physical truth; and the castration of Atys explained the
revolution of the sun between the tropics, or the separation of
the human soul from vice and error. 18

15 (return) [ See the principles of allegory, in Julian, (Orat.
vii. p. 216, 222.) His reasoning is less absurd than that of some
modern theologians, who assert that an extravagant or
contradictory doctrine must be divine; since no man alive could
have thought of inventing it.]

16 (return) [ Eunapius has made these sophists the subject of a
partial and fanatical history; and the learned Brucker (Hist.
Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 217-303) has employed much labor to
illustrate their obscure lives and incomprehensible doctrines.]

17 (return) [ Julian, Orat. vii p 222. He swears with the most
fervent and enthusiastic devotion; and trembles, lest he should
betray too much of these holy mysteries, which the profane might
deride with an impious Sardonic laugh.]

18 (return) [ See the fifth oration of Julian. But all the
allegories which ever issued from the Platonic school are not
worth the short poem of Catullus on the same extraordinary
subject. The transition of Atys, from the wildest enthusiasm to
sober, pathetic complaint, for his irretrievable loss, must
inspire a man with pity, a eunuch with despair.]

The theological system of Julian appears to have contained the
sublime and important principles of natural religion. But as the
faith, which is not founded on revelation, must remain destitute
of any firm assurance, the disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed
into the habits of vulgar superstition; and the popular and
philosophic notion of the Deity seems to have been confounded in
the practice, the writings, and even in the mind of Julian. 19
The pious emperor acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of
the universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections of an
infinite nature, invisible to the eyes and inaccessible to the
understanding, of feeble mortals. The Supreme God had created, or
rather, in the Platonic language, had generated, the gradual
succession of dependent spirits, of gods, of dæmons, of heroes,
and of men; and every being which derived its existence
immediately from the First Cause, received the inherent gift of
immortality. That so precious an advantage might not be lavished
upon unworthy objects, the Creator had intrusted to the skill and
power of the inferior gods the office of forming the human body,
and of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the
vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct of these
divine ministers he delegated the temporal government of this
lower world; but their imperfect administration is not exempt
from discord or error. The earth and its inhabitants are divided
among them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva, of Mercury or
Venus, may be distinctly traced in the laws and manners of their
peculiar votaries. As long as our immortal souls are confined in
a mortal prison, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to
solicit the favor, and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of
heaven; whose pride is gratified by the devotion of mankind; and
whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive some nourishment
from the fumes of sacrifice. 20 The inferior gods might sometimes
condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples,
which were dedicated to their honor. They might occasionally
visit the earth, but the heavens were the proper throne and
symbol of their glory. The invariable order of the sun, moon, and
stars, was hastily admitted by Julian, as a proof of their
_eternal_ duration; and their eternity was a sufficient evidence
that they were the workmanship, not of an inferior deity, but of
the Omnipotent King. In the system of Platonists, the visible was
a type of the invisible world. The celestial bodies, as they were
informed by a divine spirit, might be considered as the objects
the most worthy of religious worship. The Sun, whose genial
influence pervades and sustains the universe, justly claimed the
adoration of mankind, as the bright representative of the Logos,
the lively, the rational, the beneficent image of the
intellectual Father. 21

19 (return) [ The true religion of Julian may be deduced from the
Cæsars, p. 308, with Spanheim’s notes and illustrations, from the
fragments in Cyril, l. ii. p. 57, 58, and especially from the
theological oration in Solem Regem, p. 130-158, addressed in the
confidence of friendship, to the præfect Sallust.]

20 (return) [ Julian adopts this gross conception by ascribing to
his favorite Marcus Antoninus, (Cæsares, p. 333.) The Stoics and
Platonists hesitated between the analogy of bodies and the purity
of spirits; yet the gravest philosophers inclined to the
whimsical fancy of Aristophanes and Lucian, that an unbelieving
age might starve the immortal gods. See Observations de Spanheim,
p. 284, 444, &c.]

21 (return) [ Julian. Epist. li. In another place, (apud Cyril.
l. ii. p. 69,) he calls the Sun God, and the throne of God.
Julian believed the Platonician Trinity; and only blames the
Christians for preferring a mortal to an immortal _Logos_.]

In every age, the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied by
the strong illusions of enthusiasm, and the mimic arts of
imposture. If, in the time of Julian, these arts had been
practised only by the pagan priests, for the support of an
expiring cause, some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to the
interest and habits of the sacerdotal character. But it may
appear a subject of surprise and scandal, that the philosophers
themselves should have contributed to abuse the superstitious
credulity of mankind, 22 and that the Grecian mysteries should
have been supported by the magic or theurgy of the modern
Platonists. They arrogantly pretended to control the order of
nature, to explore the secrets of futurity, to command the
service of the inferior dæmons, to enjoy the view and
conversation of the superior gods, and by disengaging the soul
from her material bands, to reunite that immortal particle with
the Infinite and Divine Spirit.

22 (return) [ The sophists of Eunapias perform as many miracles
as the saints of the desert; and the only circumstance in their
favor is, that they are of a less gloomy complexion. Instead of
devils with horns and tails, Iamblichus evoked the genii of love,
Eros and Anteros, from two adjacent fountains. Two beautiful boys
issued from the water, fondly embraced him as their father, and
retired at his command, p. 26, 27.]

The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted the
philosophers with the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the
situation of their young proselyte, might be productive of the
most important consequences. 23 Julian imbibed the first
rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the mouth of Ædesius,
who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecuted school.
But as the declining strength of that venerable sage was unequal
to the ardor, the diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil,
two of his most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius,
supplied, at his own desire, the place of their aged master.
These philosophers seem to have prepared and distributed their
respective parts; and they artfully contrived, by dark hints and
affected disputes, to excite the impatient hopes of the
_aspirant_, till they delivered him into the hands of their
associate, Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of the
Theurgic science. By his hands, Julian was secretly initiated at
Ephesus, in the twentieth year of his age. His residence at
Athens confirmed this unnatural alliance of philosophy and
superstition.

He obtained the privilege of a solemn initiation into the
mysteries of Eleusis, which, amidst the general decay of the
Grecian worship, still retained some vestiges of their primæval
sanctity; and such was the zeal of Julian, that he afterwards
invited the Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole
purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the
great work of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were
performed in the depth of caverns, and in the silence of the
night, and as the inviolable secret of the mysteries was
preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I shall not presume
to describe the horrid sounds, and fiery apparitions, which were
presented to the senses, or the imagination, of the credulous
aspirant, 24 till the visions of comfort and knowledge broke upon
him in a blaze of celestial light. 25 In the caverns of Ephesus
and Eleusis, the mind of Julian was penetrated with sincere,
deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he might sometimes
exhibit the vicissitudes of pious fraud and hypocrisy, which may
be observed, or at least suspected, in the characters of the most
conscientious fanatics. From that moment he consecrated his life
to the service of the gods; and while the occupations of war, of
government, and of study, seemed to claim the whole measure of
his time, a stated portion of the hours of the night was
invariably reserved for the exercise of private devotion. The
temperance which adorned the severe manners of the soldier and
the philosopher was connected with some strict and frivolous
rules of religious abstinence; and it was in honor of Pan or
Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian, on particular days,
denied himself the use of some particular food, which might have
been offensive to his tutelar deities. By these voluntary fasts,
he prepared his senses and his understanding for the frequent and
familiar visits with which he was honored by the celestial
powers. Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian himself, we
may learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that he
lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and goddesses;
that they descended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of their
favorite hero; that they gently interrupted his slumbers by
touching his hand or his hair; that they warned him of every
impending danger, and conducted him, by their infallible wisdom,
in every action of his life; and that he had acquired such an
intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to
distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the
form of Apollo from the figure of Hercules. 26 These sleeping or
waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence and
fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the level of an
Egyptian monk. But the useless lives of Antony or Pachomius were
consumed in these vain occupations. Julian could break from the
dream of superstition to arm himself for battle; and after
vanquishing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmly retired
into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws of an
empire, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pursuits of
literature and philosophy.

23 (return) [ The dexterous management of these sophists, who
played their credulous pupil into each other’s hands, is fairly
told by Eunapius (p. 69- 79) with unsuspecting simplicity. The
Abbé de la Bleterie understands, and neatly describes, the whole
comedy, (Vie de Julian, p. 61-67.)]

24 (return) [ When Julian, in a momentary panic, made the sign of
the cross the dæmons instantly disappeared, (Greg. Naz. Orat.
iii. p. 71.) Gregory supposes that they were frightened, but the
priests declared that they were indignant. The reader, according
to the measure of his faith, will determine this profound
question.]

25 (return) [ A dark and distant view of the terrors and joys of
initiation is shown by Dion Chrysostom, Themistius, Proclus, and
Stobæus. The learned author of the Divine Legation has exhibited
their words, (vol. i. p. 239, 247, 248, 280, edit. 1765,) which
he dexterously or forcibly applies to his own hypothesis.]

26 (return) [ Julian’s modesty confined him to obscure and
occasional hints: but Libanius expiates with pleasure on the
facts and visions of the religious hero. (Legat. ad Julian. p.
157, and Orat. Parental. c. lxxxiii. p. 309, 310.)]

The important secret of the apostasy of Julian was intrusted to
the fidelity of the _initiated_, with whom he was united by the
sacred ties of friendship and religion. 27 The pleasing rumor was
cautiously circulated among the adherents of the ancient worship;
and his future greatness became the object of the hopes, the
prayers, and the predictions of the Pagans, in every province of
the empire. From the zeal and virtues of their royal proselyte,
they fondly expected the cure of every evil, and the restoration
of every blessing; and instead of disapproving of the ardor of
their pious wishes, Julian ingenuously confessed, that he was
ambitious to attain a situation in which he might be useful to
his country and to his religion. But this religion was viewed
with a hostile eye by the successor of Constantine, whose
capricious passions altercately saved and threatened the life of
Julian. The arts of magic and divination were strictly prohibited
under a despotic government, which condescended to fear them; and
if the Pagans were reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their
superstition, the rank of Julian would have excepted him from the
general toleration. The apostate soon became the presumptive heir
of the monarchy, and his death could alone have appeased the just
apprehensions of the Christians. 28 But the young prince, who
aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consulted
his safety by dissembling his religion; and the easy temper of
polytheism permitted him to join in the public worship of a sect
which he inwardly despised. Libanius has considered the hypocrisy
of his friend as a subject, not of censure, but of praise. “As
the statues of the gods,” says that orator, “which have been
defiled with filth, are again placed in a magnificent temple, so
the beauty of truth was seated in the mind of Julian, after it
had been purified from the errors and follies of his education.
His sentiments were changed; but as it would have been dangerous
to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct still continued the
same. Very different from the ass in Æsop, who disguised himself
with a lion’s hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himself under
the skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of
reason, to obey the laws of prudence and necessity.” 29 The
dissimulation of Julian lasted about ten years, from his secret
initiation at Ephesus to the beginning of the civil war; when he
declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ and of
Constantius. This state of constraint might contribute to
strengthen his devotion; and as soon as he had satisfied the
obligation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at the assemblies
of the Christians, Julian returned, with the impatience of a
lover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the domestic
chapels of Jupiter and Mercury. But as every act of dissimulation
must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of
Christianity increased the aversion of Julian for a religion
which oppressed the freedom of his mind, and compelled him to
hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human
nature, sincerity and courage.

27 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. x. p. 233, 234. Gallus
had some reason to suspect the secret apostasy of his brother;
and in a letter, which may be received as genuine, he exhorts
Julian to adhere to the religion of their _ancestors;_ an
argument which, as it should seem, was not yet perfectly ripe.
See Julian, Op. p. 454, and Hist. de Jovien tom ii. p. 141.]

28 (return) [ Gregory, (iii. p. 50,) with inhuman zeal, censures
Constantius for paring the infant apostate. His French translator
(p. 265) cautiously observes, that such expressions must not be
prises à la lettre.]

29 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parental. c ix. p. 233.]