The pope was in a precarious position. He initially defended Athanasius, but severe imperial pressure was brought upon him to sign the condemnation. He was bribed with cash, but he threw it into the street.50 Because he refused to sign, Liberius was seized in the middle of the night by imperial officials and sent to Thrace, while one of his deacons, Felix, was installed as an antipope. In exile, Liberius was threatened with death. After two years of overwhelming imperial pressure, he signed a condemnation of Athanasius that rejected both the words homoousios and homoiousios.51 After his signature, Liberius was allowed to return to Rome, where the people, who were likely unaware the pontiff had given in to the emperor, greeted him warmly. Constantius II’s persecution of the Church brought a scathing written rebuke from Athanasius, who compared the emperor to other nefarious enemies of the Church, such as Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus, Herod, and Pilate. Athanasius considered Constantius II a tool of Satan and a precursor of the Antichrist. Constantius II did not appreciate the criticism. He sent imperial troops to once more depose and exile the orthodox defender of Nicaea. An unqualified man, known as George the Pork Dealer, was made bishop of Alexandria, but the people rejected him and longed for the return of their saintly bishop. It would be another six years before Athanasius returned to his episcopal see in 362. Unfortunately, this hero of the Church was exiled twice more but returned home before he passed to his eternal reward in 373.
The Arian crisis continued to plague the Church after the death of the great defender of orthodoxy. Saint Basil the Great’s brother, Gregory of Nyssa, remarked, “Whenever you went to the money changer, to the butcher’s shop, or to the thermal baths, people asked you whether the Father is greater than the Son, or whether the Son proceeded from nothing!”52 A century later, Saint Jerome, commenting on the Arian crisis, wrote, “the whole world groaned when, to its astonishment, it discovered that it was Arian … the little ship of the apostles was in peril.”53 The speed and widespread acceptance of Arianism was impressive. The Church was actively engaged in the Arian crisis for nearly fifty years, and its effects lasted for three centuries before finally being checked by heroic bishops, monks, and laity.
The Apostate Emperor
Julian was an angry child. His father, Julius, the half-brother of Constantine, had been murdered upon the emperor’s death, along with one of his sons (Julian’s half-brother), by Christian members of the imperial household; another half-brother was executed later in 354. Julian blamed the deaths of his family members on these Christians and later said, “There are no wild beasts so hostile to mankind as are most Christians in their hatred for each other.”54 Sadly, the violent actions of Christians in Julian’s early life produced bitter fruit and persecution for the Church. Julian was baptized, but his family adhered to the Arian heresy, which clouded his understanding of the Catholic faith. After the death of his father, Julian was educated in Greek literature by a pagan tutor, who acted as a father figure for the impressionable young boy. Julian grew fond of pagan authors; at the age of twenty, he “embrace[d] paganism with enthusiasm.”55
Julian’s political career began in 355 when Constantius II appointed him caesar of the west. He also married Constantius’s sister, Helena, the same year. Julian proved to be an effective administrator, streamlining bureaucracy and reducing taxes. He illustrated his military prowess by retaking Cologne in 356 from the barbarians and defeating a 35,000-man Alemanni army with only 13,000 troops at the Battle of Strasbourg in 357. The Persians were causing trouble in the eastern provinces, so Constantius launched a military campaign. The emperor, concerned about Julian’s successes, feared that the caesar might become too powerful. Constantius ordered Julian’s western legions to move east to fight the Persians. The intention of the emperor was obvious, as there were troops closer to the eastern provinces who were better rested than Julian’s legions in Germania. Julian’s men did not appreciate the emperor’s punitive orders, and rebelled by proclaiming Julian emperor. They made plans to march on Constantinople in order to install Julian as emperor, but before they reached the capital city, news arrived that Constantius II had died on November 3, 361. Julian was thirty years old and now reigned as Roman emperor. Julian’s reign lasted a brief eighteen months, but in that short period of time he left his mark on imperial and ecclesiastical history.
Julian’s singular focus after becoming emperor was the persecution of the Catholic Church, which he both hated and feared. He tried to nullify his baptism by engaging in the initiation rite for the cult of Cybele, an Anatolian goddess, which required bathing in bull’s blood.56 Julian even wrote a book attacking the Faith entitled Against the Galilaeans, in which he opined that the Christian faith was nothing more than a “fabrication [and] a fiction of men, composed by wickedness.”57 He desired to return to the ancient ways of Rome and embraced paganism with a fury. He stopped shaving and grew a beard in the tradition of the ancient Greeks, although it prompted the creation of the nickname “goat” from his subjects.58 He wore pagan philosopher clothing, instead of traditional Roman attire, ordered the rebuilding of dismantled pagan temples, and brought back public sacrifices to the pagan deities. The emperor passed several anti-Christian edicts, including one that required referring to Christians as “Galilaeans” — his favorite pejorative for the believers in Christ. His persecution of the Church involved a three-pronged strategy: the reorganization of paganism, the marginalization of Catholics, and an alliance with the Jews.
Julian’s plan to restore paganism revolved around making it like the Catholic Church. He composed standard prayer books for use in pagan temples throughout the Empire and engaged in charitable works, such as founding homes for single mothers, establishing pagan prison ministries, and even created a pagan military chaplaincy.59 But “the thing he planned to revive had never existed” — there had never been a hierarchically structured corporate body in paganism like the Church.60 The emperor believed that if he made paganism like the Catholic Church, people would return to the pagan cults; but he failed to understand that the Faith was more than just an external organization promoting charitable works.
The second element of Julian’s strategy was to marginalize Catholics in Roman society. He stopped promotions of Catholic soldiers and refused to appoint any Catholic as provincial governor or magistrate. Catholics were also banned from practicing law. In June 362, the emperor issued an edict forbidding Catholics from teaching rhetoric, grammar, and philosophy in schools. The short-term goal was to force ambitious Christians to allow pagans to educate their children.61 Julian hoped that, in the long-term, the edict would prevent educated people from remaining or becoming Catholic, which would stagnate the Church and eventually cause her demise. This edict was problematic for Catholic parents; education was critical for advancement in Roman society. Thankfully, the edict did not have the intended effect, as its enforcement did not last long.
Finally, Julian believed he could neutralize the Church by entering into an alliance with the Jews. He wrote letters to Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, exhorting them to begin training a new class of priests, since he intended to rebuild the Temple and reinstate animal sacrifices.62 Julian thought that a rebuilt Temple would nullify Christ’s prophecy concerning the destruction of the Holy City and lessen the credibility of the Catholic faith. He financed construction efforts to rebuild the Temple, but the work did not progress due to sudden, unnatural events. The Roman soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330–390) recorded that soon after construction began an earthquake damaged the site. When the work continued, mysterious balls of fire burst from the foundation and burned the workmen.63 The damage to the foundation and the fiery death of several workers permanently halted construction.
Julian’s persecution of the Church, which included the torture and exile of bishops and execution of Christians in Syria, produced the opposite effect he had hoped to achieve. Persecution strengthened the Church and the resolve of Christians, counteracting the emperor’s longed-for