Chapter XXIII: Julian and his Apostasy
Read it here or here.
1) Good quotes
This is rather a long anecdote about a bloke who became the Arian Patriarch of Alexandria, was martyred by the pagans, and became an Orthodox Christian saint. It is appealing for the general loely style of the writing, for its revealing snobbery about the sons of tradesmen aspirting to high office, and not least because of the punchline. George, from his parents or his education surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller’s shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite: and the patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology; and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified, by nature and education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c.; and the spiritual father of a great people condescended to practice the vile and pernicious arts of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget nor forgive the tax which he suggested on all the houses of the city; under an obsolete claim that the royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the Ptolemies and the Cæsars, the perpetual property of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone, “How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?” Under the reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent struggle that the civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian announced the downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel; and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. The fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter.
Alas, modern scholarship disagrees with the last sentence.
2) Summary
Julian attempts to restore the old paganism, and to downgrade Christianity to just one of a number of officially sanctioned faiths.
3) Points arising
i) Julian's faith
Gibbon's description of the new faith that Julian was actually trying to create is fascinating but also a bit frustrating; it really isn't very complete. The picture of Julian as a rather superstitious chap (we would say mystical these days, I think), who tended to appoint people based on how much he liked them, admits more flaws in his character than we saw in the previous chapter; the description of the attempts to merge philosophy with religious administration, however, seem to have a lot missing. Perhaps this is because I expect this sort of narrative to be illustrated with archaeological evidence as well as documentary accounts; it may also be, though one hates to admit it, that Gibbon is putting more substance into Julian's development of his regime during his very short reign than in fact actually was the case.
ii) The rebuilding of the Temple
Julian's attempt to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem is another fascinating anecdote: not completely clear whether Julian saw this as a present for the Jews, or as a centre of his own new cult (though one where Jews would be welcome, rather than banned from the city as they had been for almost three centuries). The description of Jerusalem is fascinating and detailed. But then what are we to make of the end of the project? "An earthquake, a whirlwind and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple are attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence." Even Gibbon wonders if this was "perhaps ... a preternatural event" which is a bit removed from his instinctive rationalism. I wonder what the modern take is.
3) Coming next
Chapter XXIV, Julian's death and the accession of Jovian. Read it here or here. I am travelling next weekend so this will probably be in two weeks' time.
1) Good quotes
This is rather a long anecdote about a bloke who became the Arian Patriarch of Alexandria, was martyred by the pagans, and became an Orthodox Christian saint. It is appealing for the general loely style of the writing, for its revealing snobbery about the sons of tradesmen aspirting to high office, and not least because of the punchline. George, from his parents or his education surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller’s shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite: and the patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology; and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified, by nature and education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c.; and the spiritual father of a great people condescended to practice the vile and pernicious arts of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget nor forgive the tax which he suggested on all the houses of the city; under an obsolete claim that the royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the Ptolemies and the Cæsars, the perpetual property of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone, “How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?” Under the reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent struggle that the civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian announced the downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel; and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. The fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter.
Alas, modern scholarship disagrees with the last sentence.
2) Summary
Julian attempts to restore the old paganism, and to downgrade Christianity to just one of a number of officially sanctioned faiths.
3) Points arising
i) Julian's faith
Gibbon's description of the new faith that Julian was actually trying to create is fascinating but also a bit frustrating; it really isn't very complete. The picture of Julian as a rather superstitious chap (we would say mystical these days, I think), who tended to appoint people based on how much he liked them, admits more flaws in his character than we saw in the previous chapter; the description of the attempts to merge philosophy with religious administration, however, seem to have a lot missing. Perhaps this is because I expect this sort of narrative to be illustrated with archaeological evidence as well as documentary accounts; it may also be, though one hates to admit it, that Gibbon is putting more substance into Julian's development of his regime during his very short reign than in fact actually was the case.
ii) The rebuilding of the Temple
Julian's attempt to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem is another fascinating anecdote: not completely clear whether Julian saw this as a present for the Jews, or as a centre of his own new cult (though one where Jews would be welcome, rather than banned from the city as they had been for almost three centuries). The description of Jerusalem is fascinating and detailed. But then what are we to make of the end of the project? "An earthquake, a whirlwind and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple are attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence." Even Gibbon wonders if this was "perhaps ... a preternatural event" which is a bit removed from his instinctive rationalism. I wonder what the modern take is.
3) Coming next
Chapter XXIV, Julian's death and the accession of Jovian. Read it here or here. I am travelling next weekend so this will probably be in two weeks' time.