|
IT was from these motives that Julian recalled from exile a all
Christians who, during the reign of Constantius, had been banished
on account of their religious sentiments, and restored to them their
property that had been confiscated by law. He charged the people not
to commit any act of injustice against the Christians, not to insult
them, and not to constrain them to offer sacrifice unwillingly. He
commanded that if they should of their own accord desire to draw near
the altars, they were first to appease the wrath of the demons, whom
the pagans regard as capable of averting evil, and to purify themselves
by the customary course of expiations. He deprived the clergy,
however, of the immunities, honors, and provisions which Constantine
had conferred; repealed the laws which had been enacted in their
favor, and reinforced their statute liabilities. He even compelled
the virgins and widows, who, on account of their poverty, were
reckoned among the clergy, to refund the provision which had been
assigned them from public sources. For when Constantine adjusted the
temporal concerns of the Church, he devoted a sufficient portion of
the taxes raised upon every city, to the support of the clergy
everywhere; and to ensure the stability of this arrangement he enacted
a law which has continued in force from the death of Julian to the
present day. They say these transactions were very cruel and
rigorous, as appears by the receipts given by the receivers of the
money to those from whom it had been extorted, and which were designed
to show that the property received in accordance with the law of
Constantine had been refunded.
Nothing, however, could diminish the enmity of the ruler against
religion. In the intensity of his hatred against the faith, he seized
every opportunity to ruin the Church. He deprived it of its
property, votives, and sacred vessels, and condemned those who had
demolished temples during the reign of Constantine and Constantius,
to rebuild them, or to defray the expenses of their reerection. On
this ground, since they were unable to pay the sums and also on account
of the inquisition for sacred money, many of the priests, clergy, and
the other Christians were cruelly tortured and cast into prison.
It may be concluded from what has been said, that if Julian shed less
blood than preceding persecutors of the Church, and that if he devised
fewer punishments for the torture of the body, yet that he was severer
in other respects; for he appears as inflicting evil upon it in every
way, except that he recalled the priests who had been condemned to
banishment by the Emperor Constantius; but it is said he issued this
order in their behalf, not out of mercy, but that through contention
among themselves, the churches might be involved in fraternal strife,
and might fail of her own rights, or because he wanted to asperse
Constantius; for he supposed that he could render the dead monarch
odious to almost all his subjects, by favoring the pagans who were of
the same sentiments as himself, and by showing compassion to those who
had suffered for Christ, as having been treated unjustly. He
expelled the eunuchs from the palaces, because the late emperor had
been well affected towards them. He condemned Eusebius, the governor
of the imperial court, to death, from a suspicion he entertained that
it was at his suggestion that Gallus his brother had been slain. He
recalled Aetius, the leader of the Eunomian heresy, from the region
whither Constantius had banished him, who had been otherwise suspected
on account of his intimacy with Gallus; and to him Julian sent
letters full of benignity, and furnished him with public conveyances.
For a similar reason he condemned Eleusius, bishop of Cyzicus,
under the heaviest penalty, to rebuild, within two months, and at his
own expense, a church belonging to the Novatians which he had
destroyed under Constantius. Many other things might be found which
he did from hatred to his predecessor, either himself effecting these
or permitting others to accomplish them.
|
|