538 EVIDENCE OF [CH. XXIII. The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the prejudices, of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and candid history of his own times, the extraor dinary obstacles which interrupted the restoration of the the whole siege of Jerusalem, from April to August, a season in which no rain falls in that country, they supplied water for its eleven hundred thousand inhabitants, to whose wants the fountain of Siloah was an inadequate stream. Even before the Babylonian captivity, as well as after the return of the Jews, these excavations served not only for their magazines of oil, wine and corn, but also as safe receptacles for the treasures of the temple. Many incidents, related by Josephus, prove their extent. When it was evident that Jerusalem could no longer hold out against Titus, the rebel chieftains placed their last hope on these subterranean retreats (υπονόμους, υπογαία, διώρυχας) and resolved to conceal themselves there, till the departure of the Romans, after the destruction of the city. The greater part of them had not time to execute their scheme; but one among them, Simon, the son of Gioras, taking with him a supply of provisions and tools for mining the rock, found a refuge in that asylum for himself and some of his comrades. He continued there, till Titus had returned to Rome. Then, compelled by hunger, he suddenly came forth, on the spot, where the temple had stood and in the midst of the Roman guards. He was seized and conveyed to Rome in triumph. From his having made his appearance, it was suspected, that there were others in the same place of concealment, and on exploring its depths many more were discovered. (Josephus De Bell. Jud. 1.7, c. 2.) It is probable, that most of these excavations were made in the time of Solomon, when such underground workings were common; any other date can scarcely be assigned to them. When the Jews returned from exile they were too poor to engage in such undertakings; and though Herod, when he rebuilt the temple, ordered some, it is impossible that they could all be dug out in the short time allowed for completing the operation. (Josephus Ant. Jud. 15. 2. 7.) Some were sewers and drains; in others were concealed the immense treasures, which Crassus plundered 120 years before the Jewish war, and which were, no doubt, afterwards replaced. The temple was destroyed in the year 70 of our æra. Julian's attempt to restore it, and the fact recorded by Ammi. anus, occurred in 363. Nearly three hundred years had intervened, during which these vaults, closed up by rubbish, must have been filled with inflammable air. It is now a well known fact, that, when any subterranean cavities which have been long shut up are re-opened, either the torches taken into them are extinguished and the bearers at first are seized with fainting fits and then soon expire; or, if the air be imflammable, first a small blaze flickers round the lamp, then it spreads and increases, till it fills the whole space and an explosion follows, fatal to all within its reach. As the workmen, employed by Julian, cleared away the ruins, they disclosed these passages beneath the fallen temple. Endeavouring to penetrate into them by torchlight, sudden flames drove them back, explosions were heard and at every renewed attempt to enter, the phænomena were repeated. Another nearly similar event is related by Josephus, which corroborates this A.D. 363.] AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS. 539 temple of Jerusalem. "Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged, with vigour and diligence, the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned." Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any singular accident of nature would assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian world; and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle.* solution of the mystery. King Herod, having heard, that a great treasure was buried in the tomb of David, went down into it, one night, with a few attendants, in whom he could confide. In the outer vault he found some jewels and robes; but when he attempted to penetrate into an inner chamber, which for a long time had been unopened, they were repelled by flames, which killed two of those who were with him. (Ant. Jud. 16. 7. 1.) As no miracle can be alleged here, this fact may be considered to prove the truth of what is narrated by Ammianus Marcellinus and other contemporary writers.-GUIZOT.] [In his translation of this note, Dean Milman condemns M. Guizot's extraordinary translation of muri introrsus sinuati by enfoncemens." The reverend editor seems however to have misunderstood his predecessor, who did not then use the French word, in the sense of hollowings or excavations, but in that of inward bendings or indentations; and it must be taken in conjunction with its companion "saillies;" then "walls full of salient points and inward bendings," is perhaps the best translation of the Latin phrase, which the French language could afford. M. Guizot has done good service, by bringing to bear, on a strange and misunderstood event, information, not pos sessed in Gibbon's time. It should teach us, in all such cases, a double lesson of tolerant forbearance, as well for the sceptical who deny, as for the credulous who mistake. Bishop Warburton, too devoutly believed that no future age could be better informed than his own; and piously denounced every one as "an unbeliever," who did not admit, that when the nature and causes of an occurrence are unknown to them, "it is absurd and a wretched evasion, to suppose it ■ natural event." (Warburton's Julian, pp. 277. 284.)—ED.] Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian critics, presumes to 510 JULIAN'S CONTEMPT [CH. XXIIL The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to maintain the freedom of religious worship, without distinguishing, whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was imbittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound, whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honourable appellation of GALILEANS.* He declared, that by the folly of the Galileans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to men, and odious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a public edict, that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favour and friendship, while the other was entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedient people. According to a principle, pregnant with mischief and oppression, the empe ror transferred, to the pontiffs of his own religion, the management of the liberal allowances from the public doubt the truth of this famous miracle. (Jewish and heathen Testimonies, vol. iv, p. 47-71.) The silence of Jerome would lead to a auspicion, that the same story which was celebrated at a distance, might be despised on the spot. * Greg. Naz. Orat. 3, p. 81. And this law was confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton has justly observed, (p. 35) that the Platonists believed in the mysterious virtue of words; and Julian's dislike for the name of Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from contempt. Fragment. Julian. p. 288. He derides the μορία Γαλιλαίων, (epist. 7,) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as to wish, (epist. 42,) ἄκοντας ἰᾶσθαι. * Οὐ γάρ μοι θέμις ἐστὶ κομιζέμεν ἢ ἐλεαίρειν These two lines, which Julian has changed and perverted in the true spirit of a bigot, (epist. 49,) are taken from the speech of Æolus, when he refuses to grant Ulysses a fresh supply of winds. (Odyss. 10. 73.) Libanius (Orat. l'arent. c. 59, p. 286,) attempts to justify this partial A.D. 363] OF THE CHRISTIANS. 511 revenue, which had been granted to the church by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system of clerical honours and immunities, which had been constructed with so much art and labour, was levelled to the ground; the hopes of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigour of the laws; and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with the last and most ignominious class of the people. Such of these regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics, were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the sacerdotal order, must be confined to those priests who profess the religion of the state. But the will of the legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was the object of the insidious policy of Julian, to deprive the Christians of all the temporal honours and advantages which rendered them respectable in the eyes of the world.* A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric. The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this partial and oppressive measure might command, during his lifetime, the silence of slaves and the applause of flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be indifferently applied to the language and the religion of the GREEKS: he contemptuously observes, that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith. are unfit to claim or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly contends, that if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the Galileans. In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of the youth was intrusted to masters of behaviour, by an apology, in which persecution peeps through the mask of candour. * These laws, which affected the clergy, may be found in the slight hints of Julian himself, (epist 52) in the vague declamations of Gregory, (Orat. 3, p. 86, 7,) and in the positive assertions of Sozomen (1. 5, c. 5). + Inclemens perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian. 22, 10. 25, 5. The edict itself, which is still extant among the epistles of Julian, (42) may be compared with the loose invectives of Gregory. (Orat. 3, p. 96.) Tillemont (Mém. Eccles, tom. vii, p. 1291-1294,) has collected the seeming differences of ancients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The Christians were 542 REIRESSION OF CHRISTIAN TEACHERS. [CH. XXIIL grammar and rhetoric; who were elected by the magistrates, maintained at the public expense, and distinguished by many lucrative and honourable privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have included the physicians, and professors of all the liberal arts; and the emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the candidates, was autho rized by the laws to corrupt, or to punish, the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. As soon as the resignation of the more obstinatet teachers had established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the public schools, in a just confidence, that their tender minds would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. If the greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their own scruples, or by those of their parents, from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at the same time, relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian had reason to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would relapse into its primæval simplicity, and that the theologians, who possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own principles, or of exposing the various follies of Polytheism.‡ directly forbidden to teach, they were indirectly forbidden to learn; since they would not frequent the schools of the Pagans. * Cod. Theod. 1.13, tit. 3, de medicis et professoribus, leg. 5. (published the 17th of June, receivedat Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A.D. 363,) with Godefroy's Illustrations, tom. v,- p. 31. +Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution, Sicut a majoribus nostris compertum habemus omnes ubique propemodum... officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, 7. 30. Proæresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial favour of the emperor. Hieronym. in Chron. p. 185. edit. Scaliger. Eunapius in Proæresio, p. 126. They had recourse to the expedient of composing books for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris produced his Christian Imitations of Homer (a sacred history in twenty-four books), Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozomen is satisfied, that they equalled or excelled the originals. [It is now a useless question to argue, but it is a fair, and might be a pleasing subject to speculate upon, what would have been the effect of Julian's measures on Christianity, had his life been prolonged? By depressing the hierarchy, which was his first object, he would have raised the laity. The usurped power and insolent dictation of the former would have been overthrown; but the latter would have been emancipated from the stern control, beneath which their energies were sinking into torpor and decay. The revival of |