Julian the apostate against the Christians. The Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in schools and began new repressions against Christians. Julian the Apostate. History of brief reign

They quarreled among themselves, but generally kept to the paganism of their father's policy. In 353, the Arian Constantius managed to restore autocracy, but to control Gaul, where the Germans constantly broke through, he appointed himself an assistant in the person of his cousin, Caesar Juliana, who shortly before the death of Constantius himself was proclaimed emperor by his troops. Julian marked his administration of Gaul with brilliant victories over the Germanic tribes (Franks and Allemans), but having become emperor (361-363), he directed all his efforts to the restoration of paganism. Brought up against his own will in the new faith, he hurried to leave it, having received the name for this falling away. Renegade(Apostate). From early youth, Julian was passionately engaged in Greek philosophy and literature and learned from these studies deep devotion to Hellenism. He had good pagan teachers (among them an Athenian orator Libanius), who raised him in the spirit of the Neoplatonic school, which was influenced by some Christian ideas and set as its task reform paganism.

Imbued with the ideas of the new religious philosophy of paganism, Julian was hostile to Christianity, seeing in it something dangerous for the entire Hellenic culture and for the Roman state. Without undertaking direct persecution of Christians, which would run counter to his idealistic mood, Julian tried, however, to return paganism to its former position, restored closed churches, made official sacrifices, appointed pagans to public positions, deprived Christians of the right to teach, encouraged the Arians against the Orthodox and various polemical writings against the new faith. But the emperor's efforts could not be crowned with success, because paganism has lost all vitality. True, the romantically minded emperor wanted to breathe a new spirit into him, but, in essence, all the efforts of both himself and his like-minded people led to one thing - to borrowing in Christianity itself principles for the renewal of paganism. Neoplatonism, which from the very beginning was imbued with the spirit of syncretism, had already worked out its own pagan theological system, which the pagans wanted to oppose to Christianity, and Julian was now fussing about turning the priests into mentors of morality: he even wanted to give them a common organization similar to the Christian clergy. Among his attempts to recreate paganism, Julian was forced to take campaign against the Persians during which he was killed. His last words are said to have been: "You have won, Galilean!"

Literature: Chadwick; Kartashev; Meyendorff, Introduction; Schmemann, Historical Path; Previte Orton; Jones; Walker; Bolotov; Kovalev S.I. History of Rome. L., 1986.

Despite all the significant victories of Christianity, it must be remembered that paganism was still quite alive in the Empire. By the middle of the IV century. pagans made up about half of the total population. But the main phenomenon was dual faith, when many, having formally adopted Christianity, kept pagan customs and beliefs at the everyday level.

Constantine himself remained pontifex maximus until his death. Only his sons refused this title. They banned public sacrifices, a number of pagan temples were destroyed. In 357, Constantius ordered the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate, which, however, provoked protests from some of the senators. However, the general movement was the evolution from paganism to Christianity. This process was interrupted by Emperor Julian, nicknamed the Apostate.

As a result of the massacre organized by the army after the death of Constantine, only two of the emperor's nephews, Gallus and Julian, survived. Probably, the childhood trauma inflicted by the killers of his father, uncles and brothers remained forever in the soul of Julian. In addition, all his childhood he lived in fear of death.

Nevertheless, Julian received an excellent education, both Christian and classical. He knew Homer and other Greek classics very well. In adolescence, while living in Cappadocia, he became interested in theology, was baptized and made a reader in the Church. This shows that he was not prepared for government positions, and he himself did not aspire to them. His main mentor was Eusebius of Nicomedia, he was taught theology and philosophy by the Arian Aetius.

At the age of 18, Julian wished to learn more about paganism, and not only from books, but also from the living experience of communication. As a result of a series of new meetings and discoveries, he began to get involved in mystical cults. In 350-351 years. in Ephesus, the local Neoplatonist-charlatan Maxim took him around pagan temples and seduced him with miracles: he pronounced the necessary spell - and the statue of Hecate in the temple began to smile, the torches in her hand suddenly flashed, etc.

Then Julian went to study at the famous University of Athens, where the future Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian. Later they remembered Julian as a closed and unsociable young man.

Back in 351, Julian secretly left Christianity and took initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. In the same year, his brother Gallus was appointed Caesar in Antioch, but his reign was so bloody that in 354 Constantius recalled him and executed him. Naturally, Julian had reason to fear for his life.

However, in 355, Constantius summoned Julian from Athens to Italy, married him to his sister, and appointed him Caesar of Gaul and Britain. Julian made Lutetia (Paris) his residence, from where he successfully repelled the attacks of the Germans from the trans-Rhein lands and won the love of the army and the population with military courage and wisdom of government.

In 360, Constantius, sensing the growing influence of Julian, called him to him. He, knowing the fate of his brother, hesitated. The soldiers, who passionately loved their Caesar, proclaimed him August. Constantius, of course, did not recognize this. Preparations began for a civil war, but in 361 Constantius died unexpectedly of a fever, having been baptized on his deathbed, and Julian suddenly became an autocratic ruler.

Julian's accession to the throne had immediate consequences for the Church. As early as Epiphany 360, he took part in divine services in the Gallic churches. Perhaps he did not want to quarrel with the Christians in view of the upcoming war with Constantius, or perhaps it was a sign of courtesy for his Christian wife Helena, who died childless in the same year. In 361, Julian openly proclaimed himself a pagan and an opponent of Christianity. He knew Christianity from the inside and therefore was convinced that the worst weapon against him would be persecution, which made martyrs out of the "Galileans". Much more effective is to make fun of them and leave them to themselves to fight among themselves. He learned with great satisfaction that as soon as the news of the death of Constantius reached Alexandria, a mob of pagans literally tore apart the Arian bishop George, who had insulted the temple of the genius of the city. Julian mildly chided the Alexandrians for lynching, but showed much more interest in acquiring rare books from George's library.

So, Julian began a new policy: proclaiming universal tolerance, he set the goal of restoring and opening all pagan temples. Of course, many Christians reacted with militant rejection to the revival of paganism and the restoration of temples, and as a result, when the temple of Daphne in Antioch burned down due to the carelessness of the worshipers, Julian blamed the Christians for this and ordered the city cathedral to be closed as a response. Clashes between Julian and Eastern Christians added new martyrs to the church calendar.

In 363, Julian, planning a campaign against the Persians, following the example of Alexander the Great, whose soul, as he believed, moved into his body, decided to enlist the support of the Jews, because. in the areas through which the route of his campaign passed, the Jewish population lived quite densely. Julian proposed to organize Jewish self-government in Palestine, headed by a patriarch, and to restore the temple in Jerusalem. In fact, Julian could not stand Jews, but even more Christians, and he knew that the restoration of the Temple would be a very painful blow for Christians.

Temple construction projects were halted by an earthquake, and then no one got around to it. However, the willingness of the Jews to cooperate with the Apostate had the most backfire for them. This was remembered, superimposed on the memory of early persecutions, and, coupled with several other events, served as one of the factors that shaped medieval anti-Semitism.

To encourage paganism, Julian forbade the admission of Christians to high civil and military positions. On the other hand, he instructed those who had fallen away from the Church to be encouraged in every way, and many nominal Christians immediately took advantage of this chance to get promoted. Julian forbade Christians to teach Greek literature (i.e., to be teachers in general), thereby minimizing the possibility of a secular Christian education. Julian motivated this ban by saying that it is unethical for Christians to teach the works of pagans if they do not believe in the myths about the gods. Even many pagans felt that this was already too much. In response to this prohibition, Apollinaris of Laodicea published the Pentateuch, transcribed in Homeric hexameter, and the New Testament, written in the form of a Platonic dialogue.

Julian, meanwhile, traveled to the cities of the Hellenistic East (where Christians were in the majority) and preached enlightened paganism, arranged gigantic sacrifices, on which he himself slaughtered animals. He did it with a fervor and enthusiasm unbecoming to his rank. As a result, he became more and more a laughingstock. He complained that the province of Cappadocia had become so Christianized that the small group of pagans that still remained there did not even know how to properly offer a sacrifice. In one Mesopotamian town, where he stopped, the pagan curia were so eager to show him their zeal in the faith that they literally suffocated the whole city with clouds of sacrificial smoke. Julian noted bitterly that their ritual, too, was organized unprofessionally and monstrously tasteless.

Julian was an intellectual-idealist. Having finished with daytime state affairs, he romantically immersed himself in evening or even night classes with classical writers, had conversations with professors of philosophy, and participated in the mysteries. Julian turned his intellectual invention of the resurrection of the dead (paganism) into the idea of ​​​​creating a new syncretic religion of the sun god (not without the influence of the pharaoh-reformer Amenhotep, who lived 14 centuries before the birth of Christ). Julian took his title of pontifex maximus very seriously.

But for the fight against Christianity, he could take only his own as a model. The Greco-Roman religion, as a rule (with rare exceptions), did not know a real professional priesthood, and even more so - a real organized and centralized hierarchy. The priests were elected officials who did not have special education and the necessary training. In the religion he created, Julian tried to create a pagan hierarchy modeled on the Christian one. At the head of the cult he placed the apostate bishop Pigasius. Another friend of his, Sallust, compiled a short catechism of the dogmas of paganism.

The high priests appointed by Julian were to play the role of Christian metropolitans. They had the right to oversee the priests and could dismiss unfit members of the hierarchy from office. Priests were to be elected not from rich and noble citizens, but from among staunch fighters for paganism, mostly philosophers. Priests had to meet high moral standards, do charity work and even preach regularly. Julian often addressed them with messages about morality. For example, he wrote: "You never see a Jew begging, and the wicked Galileans support not only their poor, but also ours." In his opinion, the ministers of the pagan cult should have been equal in generosity with the Jews and Christians. Like Christian priests, priests were forbidden to attend indecent spectacles, theaters, taverns, work in dubious jobs and read frivolous books. Inside the temples, the priests were supposed to have full power. Like the Christian custom, the priests were to forbid high officials to enter the temples accompanied by their guards and remind them that inside the shrine they were nothing more than private citizens. General statutes of pagan worship were introduced.

Julian himself made sacrifices daily. Before every important decision, he consulted the augurs and priests, a very considerable number of whom accompanied him everywhere; however, he himself became very well versed in the intestines and entrails of animals. The number of his victims was so great that the price of meat in some areas dropped significantly.

However, the pagans themselves were very cool about the ardor of Julian and laughed at his faith in everything. For intellectuals, he was too superstitious and too religious, and for the common people, his whole system seemed like an abstruse intellectual invention. The priests, accustomed to a free life, did not like the obligations that he imposed on them.

Julian felt this and became more and more desperate. He did not understand the reasons for such a rejection of his lofty ideas and attributed it to "the madness of the Nazarenes that corrupts everything from within." It was then that the first signs of persecution of Christians began. Julian decided to prove to everyone the power of the old gods by his Persian campaign, which he carried out on the instructions of augurs and priests and neglecting military common sense. In a skirmish on June 26, 363, Julian received three wounds: in the arm, chest and liver. The last wound was fatal. According to some reports, the wounds were inflicted by a soldier of his own army, something offended by him. According to other rumors, Julian's death was actually suicide: realizing that the position of his army was hopeless, he sought death in battle and threw himself on the enemy's spear. Of all his contemporaries, only his friend, the famous orator Livanius, reports that he was killed by a Christian, but he admits that this is only an assumption. The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus writes of Julian's death as a tragic accident caused by negligence. One of Julian's bodyguards assured that the emperor was killed by an envious evil spirit. The information regarding Julian's last words is also contradictory. A contemporary source reports that the emperor, having collected his blood in a handful, threw it into the sun with the words to his god: "Be satisfied!" Around 450, Theodoret of Cyrrhus recorded that before his death, Julian exclaimed: "You have won, Galilean!"

Disliking the ridicule of the Antiochians, Julian asked to be buried in Tarsus. All the futility of his efforts to revive paganism was revealed in the fact that immediately after his death, the army proclaimed the aged general Jovian, a Nicene Christian, as emperor.

However, time changes everything, and the voice of the apostate emperor became more audible after his death: his letters and writings were very widely distributed. More than fifty years after the death of Julian, St. Cyril of Alexandria found it necessary to write a lengthy response to Julian's treatise Against the Galileans. In the memory of the pagans, Julian remained an ideal hero, nicknamed "blessed." In his farewell speech, delivered at the end of 365, Livanius claimed that Julian had been elevated to the divine rank in heaven and that the faithful pagans praying to him were already receiving help and support.

Abram Borisovich Ranovich.

ANTIQUE CRITICS OF CHRISTIANITY.

EMPEROR JULIAN AGAINST CHRISTIANS.

BOOK FIRST.

It seems right to me to state before all people the arguments that convinced me that the insidious teaching of the Galileans is a fiction of people, maliciously invented. Containing nothing divine in itself, using the childish, unreasonable part of the soul prone to fiction, it gave the appearance of truth to wonderful inventions.

Having set out to give an analysis of all the dogmas that they are taught, I want to say beforehand that readers, if they wish to object to me, should, as in a court, not raise any extraneous questions and not come up with accusations on their part before they are not justified in the accusations leveled against them. For in this way they will be able to better and more reliably defend their case if they want to bring a claim against us, but they should not put forward counterclaims, defending themselves against the claims brought by us.

It is necessary to find out briefly where and how the concept of God came to us, then to compare what the Greeks and Jews say about the divine, and after that again to ask these "neither Hellenes nor Jews", belonging to the Galilean sense, for what reason they preferred our teaching and, moreover, why they do not remain faithful to that teaching (Judaism), but abandoned it and went their own way. Recognizing that there is nothing good and nothing serious either among us Hellenes, or in the teachings of the Jews received from Moses, they learned from both of them (only) what stuck to these peoples, like some kind of kers. Kera in Greek mythology - female demons, the embodiment of the fate of man; Keras are assigned to a person from the moment of his birth and relentlessly follow him until death, which they themselves predetermine. From the Jews they learned impiety, which springs from frivolity; from us, a bad and empty way of life, which springs from our laziness and vulgarity, and this they were pleased to call the highest piety.

That the concept of God in man is not acquired by teaching, but inherent in him by nature, is proved by the fact that in all people, and in particular in public life, in every person and in every nation, there is a craving for the divine. We all believe in something divine without any preparation, although it is not easy for everyone to understand it clearly, and it is impossible for someone who knows to explain it to everyone ... Along with this common concept for all people, there is one more thing: we are all somehow spontaneously attached to such a degree to heaven and to the gods that appear on it, that even if someone honors another god besides these, he will certainly give him a dwelling in heaven; he does not remove him from the earth, but, having seated the king of the universe, as it were, in the most honorable place in the world, he thinks that he looks down on earthly affairs from above. Is it necessary in this case to call Hellenes and Jews as witnesses? There is no one who does not stretch out his hands to heaven when he prays or swears by a god or gods; in general, when a person has a thought about the divine, he rushes to heaven. And this is quite natural. Believing that the celestial does not diminish in the least, does not deviate and is not subjected to any of the tests inherent in the disordered (earthly world), but that its movement is harmonious, the order is harmonious, that the light of the moon is strictly determined, that the rising and setting of the sun is fixed once and for all set dates - people naturally thought that the sky is God and the throne of God. In fact, nothing is added to the sky and nothing is taken away from it, it is not subject to change from change or displacement; therefore it knows neither death nor birth; being by nature immortal and incorruptible, it is free from any stain. Being, as we see, eternal and ever moving, it either contains our better and more divine soul - in the same way, in my opinion, as our body contains our soul - and therefore circles around the great creator; or, having received movement from the god himself, it rotates in an infinite circle in continuous and eternal motion.

The Hellenes invented incredible, monstrous myths about the gods. They said that Kronos ate his children and then regurgitated them back; they talk about incestuous marriages: Zeus combined with his mother and, having given birth to children from her, married his own daughter, or rather, did not even marry, but simply, having combined with her, transferred her to another. Further - the myth of how Dionysus was torn to pieces and how then his members were again glued together. Greek myths tell about it. Compare with this the Jewish teaching about the garden that God planted, about the creation of Adam, and then about the creation of a wife for him. Their God says: “It is not good for a man to be alone; let us create for him a helper fit for him”; and in general she turned out to be not his helper at all, but was the reason that both he and she herself were thrown out of paradise. This is, of course, completely ridiculous. Is it conceivable that God does not know that the helper he creates will serve the one who receives it not for good, but for evil? And in what language did the serpent speak to Eve? Is it on a human? How do such things differ from the myths invented by the Hellenes? And the fact that God forbade the people he created the knowledge of good and evil, is this not the height of absurdity? After all, what could be more stupid than not being able to distinguish between good and evil? After all, such a person, obviously, will not avoid the bad and strive for the good. And most importantly - God forbade man to use reason; for it is clear even to a fool that the distinction between good and evil is a matter of reason. Thus, the serpent is rather a benefactor than a destroyer of the human race. In addition, God must be recognized as envious; in fact, when he saw that a man had gained reason, so that he would not taste, as God says, from the tree of life, he expelled him from paradise, so bluntly declaring: “Behold, Adam became like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now perhaps he will stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” (And the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden.) So, as far as I understand, all this, unless it contains a secret meaning, is full of cruel blasphemy against God. Ignorance that the one who was created as a helper will become the cause of the fall, the prohibition to know good and evil - and after all, only this is what the human mind should strive for - and besides, there is also a jealous fear that a person, having eaten from the tree of life, does not turn into immortal - there is too much envy and jealousy in this.

If we compare the ideas that everyone considers true, and those traditions that we have had from our fathers from time immemorial, then our mythology does not know the special creator of this world. About the gods that were before the creation of the world, Moses says nothing at all, and even about the essence of angels, he did not dare to say anything; he often says in many places that they praise God, but whether they were born from him, whether they were created by one god, but assigned to praise another, or in some other way, nothing is indicated. He talks about how heaven and earth and everything on earth were arranged: some things, according to him, were created by the order of God, like light and firmament; others God created, like the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon; others existed before, but were hidden until he separated them, as, as far as I remember, water and land. At the same time, Moses did not dare to say anything about the origin or creation of the spirit; he only says, "And the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water"; and whether he is primordial or begotten - he does not explain this at all.

Here, if you like, let's compare Plato's statement with this. Let's see what he says about the creator and what words he ascribes to him when creating the world, and thus let's compare the cosmogony of Plato and Moses. Thus, it will become clear that the “idolater” Plato is better and more worthy of God, or the one about whom the scripture says that “the Lord spoke face to face with him.” Num. 12:8.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the abyss, and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light, which is good. And God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. And God said: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters." And God called the firmament heaven. And God said: “Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let dry land appear”; and it became so. And God said: “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass, and fruitful trees.” And God said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to shine on the earth." And God placed them in the firmament of heaven to rule day and night.”

At the same time, Moses does not say that the abyss, darkness and water were created by God. But since he speaks of light, that he appeared at the command of God, then he should somehow have said something about darkness, and about the abyss, and about water. And he does not say anything at all about their origin, although he often mentions them. Moreover, he does not mention either the origin or the creation of the angels, or how they were deceived, but speaks only of the material, concerning heaven and earth; thus, according to Moses, God did not create anything incorporeal, but only ordered the matter that existed before. After all, the words “the earth was waterless and empty” mean nothing more than the fact that his liquid and solid matter is matter, and he deduces God only as its organizer.

But listen to what Plato says about the world. “Indeed, the whole sky, or the cosmos - let's call it differently, as it seems more acceptable - has always existed, having no beginning, or did it arise, had a certain beginning? The world has a beginning. For it is accessible to sight and touch, and possesses corporeality. And all this is something sensual; the sensual, perceived by the mind and sensation, arises and is mortal ... So, according to correct reasoning, this world must be recognized as a living being, animated and rational, which in fact was born according to the providence of God.

Let's compare only one detail: what kind of speech God makes in Moses and what kind in Plato.

“And God said: “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man, in the image of God he created him; He created them male and female and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over all the animals and over all the earth.”

Listen now to the speech that Plato attributes to the creator of the universe:

“Gods of gods, everything to which I am the creator and father will be indestructible, this is my will. In essence, everything connected is destructible, but what is beautiful, harmoniously coordinated and well organized, it would be a sin to want to destroy. Therefore, since you were created, you do not possess immortality and complete indestructibility, however, you will not perish and will not receive death as your inheritance, since my will is even higher than those fetters and stronger than those properties by which you were limited when you arose. Now take a look at the instructions I'm giving you. There are three more kinds of mortals, but not born; if they did not exist, the sky would be imperfect, for then it would not contain all kinds of living beings. But, if I create them and they receive life from me, they will become equal to the gods. Therefore, in order for the mortal to exist, and for this universe to be truly everything, engage yourself in the creation of living beings in accordance with your nature, imitating my power, by which I created you. At the same time, since they are supposed to have something of immortality, the divine principle that guides their desire to follow justice and you, I will sow this in them, I will deliver and transfer to them. And you will give everything else; joining a mortal to the immortal, refine and produce living creatures, grow them, giving them food, and restore the perishing again.

And so that you do not think that this is a fantasy, I will explain it to you. Plato calls the visible sun, moon, stars and sky gods, but they are the likeness of invisible ones. The sun visible to our eyes is a likeness of the intelligible and invisible; again, the moon that appears to our eyes and each of the luminaries are likenesses of the intelligible. These are the intelligible, invisible gods, who are in them and with them and were born by the creator himself and originated from him, Plato knows. That is why the creator says: “gods, that is, invisible, gods” - obviously, visible ones. Their common creator is the one who arranged the sky, earth, sea and stars and gave birth to their prototypes in the intelligible world. So, see how wise Plato's further reasoning is. “There are still,” he says, “three kinds of mortals”—obviously, humans, animals, and plants; for each species has its own laws. "If,- says any of them descended from me, it is absolutely necessary that he be immortal. Indeed, both for the intelligible gods and for the visible world, the reason for their immortality is that they are born by the creator. “After all, what is immortal,” he says, “is of necessity given to them from the creator” - we are talking about a rational soul, “the rest, mortal, you add to the immortal.” Thus, it is clear that the creator gods, having taken the creative power from their father, gave birth on earth to that mortal that is in animals. Indeed, if there were to be no difference between heaven and man, and even, I swear by Zeus, between heaven and reptiles or fish swimming in the sea, then they would have to have one creator: but since there is a big difference between the immortal and mortal, which becomes neither more nor less, then the cause must be one for one and another for another.

So, since Moses, obviously, did not make out everything related to the proper creator of this world, let's compare the opinion of the Jews and our ancestors about nations.

Moses says that the creator of the world chose the Jewish people, cares only about him, only thinks about him, he gave his care to him alone; he does not remember the rest of the peoples, no matter how they lived and what gods they worshiped; one can only assume that he allowed them to use the sun and moon. But more on that below.

While I will show that he himself (Moses) calls him the god only of Israel and Judea, and the Jews - the chosen ones, the same is said by the prophets who were after him, and Jesus of Nazareth, and even surpassed all the charlatans who ever and anywhere lived and deceivers Paul. Let us listen to their speeches, and first of all to Moses: “And he said to Pharaoh: Israel is my firstborn. I told you: let my people go, that they may serve me. You didn't want to let him go." Exodus 4:23; quotations from the Bible are given everywhere by Julian inaccurately, but true in meaning. And a little further: “And he said to him: The god of the Jews has appeared to us. We would like to go into the wilderness for a three-day journey to offer sacrifice to the Lord our God.” And below again in this way: “The Lord God of the Jews sent me to you to say: let my people go, so that they may serve me in the wilderness” ... Ex., 5:3; 7:16. Here, in the fragments that have come down to us, there is a gap; there is no presentation of the statement of the prophets and Jesus about the chosenness of the Jewish people. And that God from the very beginning cared only about the Jews and that this was his favorite site, not only Moses and Jesus say, but, obviously, Paul too. As the polyps change color according to the rocks, so he changes his doctrine of God according to the occasion; then he insists that only the Jews are the lot of God, then he, urging the Hellenes to join him, says: “God is not only the god of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles; and, of course, the Gentiles.” Romans 3:39. It is appropriate, therefore, to ask Paul: if he was the god not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, why did he send the Jews abundant prophetic grace, and Moses, and the anointing, and the prophets, and the law, and miracles, and wonderful myths? You hear them cry, "Man has eaten the bread of the angels." Ps. 78:25. In the end, he sent Jesus to them, but to us - neither a prophet, nor an anointing, nor a teacher, nor a messenger of the forthcoming later, and we once had mercy from him. So, for tens of thousands, or, if you like, thousands of years, he did not pay attention to the fact that all people, being in such ignorance, worship, as you put it, idols, everything from east to west and from north to south, with the exception of a small a tribe that has lived even for less than 2000 years in a corner of Palestine. If he is the god of all of us and the creator of everything, why did he not pay attention to us? One therefore has to think that the god of the Jews is not really the creator of the whole world and does not rule over the universe, but that he is limited, as I said, and he must be supposed to have limited power, along with other gods. And after that, we will still listen to you, what did you or someone from your root imagine to the subtlety of the god of the universe? Is it all particulars? "God is jealous!" And why is he jealous and exacts from the children for the sins of the fathers? Now look again, what do we have to say about this? Ours say that the Creator is the common father and lord of everything, and other peoples are distributed by him among the gods of peoples and cities, and each manages his share, as he is peculiar to. But in the father everything is perfect and everything is one, and the partial deities each have a different power: Ares is in charge of the military affairs of the peoples, Athena is in charge of military affairs associated with wisdom, Hermes is affairs that require intelligence and enterprise, and, in accordance with the nature of this or that god, are controlled by them the nations follow them. And if experience does not confirm our ideas, we admit that our theory is fiction and lacks credibility, and we will praise yours. If, on the other hand, experience from time immemorial confirms what we say, and there is nothing coherent anywhere in your reasoning, why do you cling to your claims to advantage? Let me be told why the Celts and Germans are brave, the Hellenes and Romans are usually courteous and humane, being at the same time adamant and warlike, the Egyptians are a more intelligent and artistic people, the Syrians are non-belligerent, pampered and at the same time smart, hot, frivolous and understanding people. If one does not see any reason for such a difference between peoples and asserts that it is rather a matter of chance, then how can one believe in such a case that Providence governs the world? If anyone thinks that there is some reason here, then let him, for the sake of the creator himself, speak and explain to me. As for the laws, it is clear that people created them in accordance with their nature: those who absorbed the most philanthropy in themselves created laws that are socially useful and humane, and (laws) wild and inhuman - those in whom the opposite character was strengthened. The legislators, by their rules, added very little to natural inclinations and customs. After all, the Scythians did not approve of Anacharsis, who introduced the Bacchic cult; and among the Western peoples, with few exceptions, you will not find people inclined and capable of studying philosophy, geometry, etc., although the power of the Romans has been established there for so many years; the most talented of them achieve the ability to speak the language and make speeches, but they are not involved in any other sciences. According to Herodotus, the Scythians killed their sage Anacharsis (VI century BC), who, having visited Greece, decided to introduce Hellenic mysteries among the Scythians. This is the stability of natural character traits. Why do peoples have differences in customs and laws?

Moses gives an absolutely fabulous reason for the difference in languages. He says that the sons of men gathered together and wanted to build a city, and in it a great tower; but God said that we must go down and confuse their languages. And so that they don’t think that I’m slandering, let’s read in a row what is said in the books of Moses: and let us make a monument to ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the Lord said, Behold, there is one people, and one language for all; and this is what they began to do, and now there will be no difficulty for them in anything that they would think to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there so that one does not understand the other. And the Lord scattered them over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city and the tower.” So you want us to believe such things, but you do not believe what Homer says about the Aloads, that they intended to heap three mountains one on top of the other in order to take the sky by storm. Odyssey. And I say that this is just as fabulous as that. But you, recognizing the first, on what grounds, for God's sake, do you reject Homer's tale? And I don’t think it’s worth talking about the ignorance of these people: even if all people on the whole earth had one language and one speech, they would not be able to build a tower reaching the sky, even if they used the whole earth for a brick: for it would take an infinite number of earth-sized bricks to reach the orbit of the moon. If we assume that all people have gathered, that they have one language, that they have turned the whole earth into brick and hewn stones, then when could the tower reach the sky, even if people, lining up in single file, stretched it thinner than a needle?

And now, accepting such an obvious fable as the truth, attributing to God that he was afraid that people would encroach on him, and for this he descended and confused their languages, after that you still dare to boast that you knew God!

Let us return once again to the story of how God mixed languages. Moses gives the reason for this - God was afraid that people would not do something against him, making heaven accessible to themselves if they spoke the same language and were able to come to an agreement. But how the thing happened, he does not indicate, but only says that God came down to earth for this; obviously, from above, without descending to the ground, he could not do this. As for the difference in manners and customs, neither Moses nor anyone else explained this. But the difference in national customs and laws among people in general is greater than the difference in language. Who, for example, from the Hellenes will say that you can get along with a sister, daughter or mother? And among the Persians it is considered permissible. Do I need to list them all in detail, to mention the love of freedom and the rebelliousness of the Germans, how meek and submissive the Syrians, Persians, Parthians, and in general all the eastern and southern peoples who are subject to a despotic monarchy? But if these more important and valuable properties are created without divine providence, why do we bother in vain and worship someone who does not provide for anything? Does he have the right to our respect who cares neither about the way of life, nor about mores, nor about customs, nor about the establishment of a lawful order and statehood?

Decidedly not. You see to what absurdity this reasoning leads. Everything good that is observed in a person is guided by the soul, and the body follows it. Therefore, if God neglected our spiritual qualities, and did not take care of our material equipment, did not send us teachers and legislators, as Jews, according to Moses and subsequent prophets, then why should we bless him?

But God also gave us those gods that you do not know, and good patrons, not worse than that, who has been revered since ancient times by the Jews, the patron of Judea, which he alone got to take care of, as Moses and his followers say about this until our time. And if we consider that the real creator of the world is the one whom the Jews revere, then we understand him even better, and he gave us greater benefits than them, both spiritual and external, we will talk about them later, and sent us legislators no worse, if not better, than Moses.

As we have already said, if the differences in laws and customs were created not by the national god of each people, not by the angel and demon under his command, and not by the special property of souls to obey and submit to the best, then let me be shown who else and how gave birth This. For this, it is not enough to say: “God spoke, and it happened”; it is also necessary that the nature of creation does not contradict the orders of God. Let me explain what I said: God ordered that the fire, having appeared, stretched up, and the earth - down; But is it not necessary that the fire be light and the earth heavy in order for this order of God to be fulfilled? The same is true of other phenomena... the same is true of the divine. The reason is that the human race is subject to death and decay; it is natural, therefore, that his deeds are changeable and can change in different directions. But God is eternal, and his orders must also be so. As such, they are either the nature of beings, or they are in agreement with nature; for nature cannot oppose the command of God, nor can it contradict him. Therefore, even if God commanded that languages ​​be confused and become dissonant, or gave the same order regarding the social system of peoples, then he achieved this fulfillment not only by his command, and not only by this did he create discord among us. For this, it was necessary that in the peoples who were to be different, different natural properties. You can be convinced of this if you look at how much the Germans and Scythians differ from the Libyans and Ethiopians: is this really the result of a simple command, and climate and local conditions did not come to the aid of god to form this or that skin color? Yes, and Moses knew this - and hid it; for he ascribes the confusion of languages ​​to more than one god; he says that God did not come down alone, with him, of course, not one, but several; Moses does not say who they are, but it is obvious that he meant those close to God. In the Bible, God speaks plural: “let's get down”, “mix”. If, therefore, not only the Lord came down to confuse languages, but also those who accompanied him, then it is obvious that the confusing of morals is not the work of one god, but that, in all probability, those who mixed with him also participated in creating this divergence. languages.

Why did I, not wanting to talk about it, say so much? To show that if we consider the proper creator of the universe to be the one whom Moses announced, then we have a better opinion about him, considering him the universal ruler of everything and recognizing, in addition, the national gods, subordinate to him, who are, as it were, the governors of the king, and all of them perform their task differently. And we do not put him in the position of a rival of the gods he has set. And even if he, having singled out some separate god, entrusted him with the leadership of the universe, then it is still better for us to obey and know the god of the universe, even without knowing that, that is, that lower god, to whom the supreme god entrusted the management of the world ) who got the management of the smallest share.

Surprise is worthy of the law of Moses, his famous Decalogue: "Do not steal, do not kill, do not bear false witness." However, let us write out all the commandments in his own words, as they are written, according to him, by God himself:

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt”; (Ex. 20:2 ff) then the second commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods besides me; do not make yourself an idol”; the reason for this is also indicated: “because I am the Lord your God, a jealous god, punishing children for the guilt of the fathers up to the third generation.” "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." "Remember the Sabbath Day." "Honor thy father and mother." "Do not commit adultery." "Thou shalt not kill." "Don't steal." "Thou shalt not bear false witness." "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor."

Is there any people who would not consider it necessary to keep all these commandments, with the exception of "do not worship other gods" and "remember the Sabbath day"? Everywhere punishments for violation of them are established - in some places they are more severe, in others they are the same as those established by Moses, in some places they are softer.

But the commandment "do not worship other gods" contains a considerable slander against God. “For God is jealous,” he says; and in another place he repeats: "our God is a consuming fire." Deut. 4:24. What if a person is jealous and envious, you blame him, and when God turns out to be jealous, you glorify it? And is it commendable to erect such an obvious slander against God? For if he is jealous, it means that all the gods are worshiped and all other peoples worship the gods against his will. So why did he not resist, being so jealous and not wanting to be revered by other gods, but only him? Well, or he was not able to, or he initially did not want to interfere with the cult of other gods? The first suggestion, that he was unable to do so, is impious; the second is consistent with our view. Cast aside, therefore, this nonsense, and do not bring such blasphemy upon yourselves. After all, if he does not want anyone to be worshiped, why do you worship his illegitimate son, whom he never recognized and did not consider his own? I can easily prove it; you threw it to him, not knowing where... As can be seen from the remarks of Cyril of Alexandria, in the missing lines, Julian said that Christians borrowed the myth of the son of God from Greek mythology. ...Nowhere does God show himself angry, indignant, angry or swearing, he does not change his mind so easily... ...as Moses says about Phinehas. If anyone has read the book of Numbers, he knows what I mean. After Phinehas, having caught the worshiper of Baal Pegor along with the woman who had seduced him, killed them with his own hand, inflicting a very painful and shameful wound on them, he says that he pierced the woman through the womb, (Num., 25: 5-8) - the god He says to him: “Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, he was jealous for me among them, and I did not destroy the children of Israel in my jealousy.” Numbers” 25:11.

What could be more insignificant than the reason for which God was angry, according to what the author incorrectly writes about him? What could be more senseless (this fury of God) if ten, or fifteen people, or, say, a hundred - not a thousand in fact - but, let's say, even a thousand, dare to violate one of the laws established by God? Was it really necessary for six hundred thousand to die because of one thousand? According to biblical data, the Jews numbered 600,000 in the desert; in the text to which Julian refers, it is said that God wanted to destroy all the Jews, and while Phinehas calmed his fury, he managed to destroy 24,000. than thousands perish with one scoundrel... Here Julian, according to Cyril, adds a lengthy argument that the creator of heaven and earth should not show a temper so ferocious that he often has a desire to destroy the entire race of Israel. If his anger against one of the heroes and an insignificant demon turned out to be unbearable for entire countries and cities, then who could resist if he were angry with demons, angels or people? It is worth comparing it with the meekness of Lycurgus, the gentleness of Solon, or with the mercy and impartiality of the Romans in relation to criminals. Lycurgus is the legendary legislator of ancient Sparta. Solon is one of the largest politicians Ancient Greece, poet and legislator; in 594 BC, he reformed the Athenian political system. And how much better our views are than those preached by Moses can be seen from the following. Our philosophers tell us to imitate the gods as far as possible, and this imitation consists in the contemplation of beings. And that passions are alien to this contemplation, that it consists in peace of mind, is clear without words. Namely, since we are in peace of mind, striving to contemplate what is, we become like God. And what is the imitation of God praised by the Jews? “Phineas,” he says, “turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, being jealous for me among them.” It turns out that God stopped being angry when he found a man who shared his anger and annoyance. Moses speaks of God in many places in his writings.

And that God cared not only about the Jews, but also about all peoples and did not give the Jews anything important, great, but to us - much better and excellent, you can see from the following. The Egyptians have the right to say, since they can count many names of wise men, that they received many by succession from Hermes - I mean that Hermes who visited Egypt for the third time; the Chaldeans and Assyrians, from Oanness and Belus, and the Hellenes, thousands, beginning with Chiron; from the latter all mystics and theologians are descended; and the Jews think that only their wise men should be glorified... “Then,” Cyril writes, “he ridicules David and Samson and says that they were not at all so strong in battles, that they are significantly inferior in strength to the Hellenic and Egyptian heroes, and the size of their kingdom was scarcely limited to Judah.” This refers to the so-called Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice the greatest), identified with the Egyptian god Thoth; the cult of this deity had mystical features; followers of the Hermetic sacraments preached the doctrine of the Logos, which influenced Christian theology. Oannes, or Ea, is one of the main gods of the ancient Babylonian religion, the lord of the water element. Bel, or Marduk, is originally a deity of Babylon; later became the supreme god, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus. Chiron - a mythical creature, a centaur (half-man, half-horse); according to Greek myth, he was Achilles' tutor and healer.

Did he give you the beginning of knowledge and philosophical education? And what did it mean? The science of celestial phenomena was developed among the Hellenes, and the first observations were made among the barbarians in Babylon. geometry reached high development, which arose from the delimitation of lands in Egypt. Arithmetic, which was initiated by the Phoenician merchants, became a model of science among the Hellenes. The Greeks combined these three disciplines with musical rhythm, connecting astronomy with geometry, and to both of them applying the science of numbers and their harmony. So they set the laws musical art, having discovered the most correct or very close to them laws of harmony, delighting the ear.

Is it necessary to list separately all the people and all the achievements? Is it necessary to name such people as Plato, Socrates, Aristides, Cimon, Thales, Lycurgus, Agesilaus, Archidamus, or, better, a number of philosophers, generals, builders, legislators? It can be seen that even the most bad and dishonest of leaders were much more gentle towards the offenders than Moses was towards the innocent. Which kingdom should I (first of all) talk about? Whether to speak of Perseus, or of Aeacus, or of Minos of Crete, who cleared the sea of ​​pirates, expelling and pushing the barbarians to Syria and Sicily, having advanced on both sides of his borders, he took possession not only of the islands, but also of the coastal countries. Perseus, Aeacus, Minos and Rhadamanthus are the heroes of Greek mythology. The last three were considered judges in the underworld. Having shared with his brother Rhadamanthus not the land, but concerns about people, he issued the laws that Zeus taught him, and left his brother to perform judicial duties ... Here Cyril missed a lot, setting it out briefly: about Hellenic history; he talks about Dardane, who was born from Zeus and the daughter of Atlas Electra, about how he founded Dardania, and after his death began to reign next to Zeus. Having brought to an end in his spirit the empty chatter about Dardanus, he proceeds to the flight of Aeneas, his departure from Troy to the Italic tribes, then he mentions Romulus and Remus, how Rome was founded. And when many wars arose after its founding, it prevailed everywhere, always won; having grown greatly due to this, Rome needed more durable security; then Zeus gave him the wisest Numa, that same beautiful Numa who spent time in deserted groves, communicating with God in pure thoughts about him ... Numa Pompilius is the second legendary Roman king, to whom legend attributed the establishment of a number of religious institutions on the advice of the nymph Egeria, visiting the king in a secluded grove. He established most of the priestly laws. Thus, Zeus gave these laws to the city, people temperate and inspired, through the Sibyl and other soothsayers who were at that time, in their native language. And the shield that fell from the sky and the head found in the hill - from where, apparently, the place of residence of the great Zeus got its name - should we attribute these things to gifts of the first or second rank? According to Roman tradition, during the reign of Numa, a shield fell from the sky, which was deposited with the priests and served as the shrine-protector (palladium) of Rome. Another legend tells that, while digging the Capitol Hill, the workers found a miraculously preserved head (caput in Latin), and from here the Capitol supposedly got its name. And now, you miserable people, while we keep the weapon that fell from the sky, which was sent to us by the great Zeus or father Ares in the form of not a verbal, but a material pledge that he will constantly protect our city, you refuse to worship him and honor him , but worship the tree of the cross, making its sign on the forehead and carving it on the dwellings. Ares - Greek god of war - Roman Mars. Shouldn't you hate the intelligent among your followers and pity the stupid ones because they have come to such a fall and, turning away from the eternal gods, turned to the Jewish corpse? I omit the mysteries of the mother of the gods, and I respect Mary. Marius (156-86 BC), a Roman general, was an ardent admirer of the Phrygian Great Mother Cybele, to whom Julian dedicated a special eulogy. See: Plutarch. Mariy, 17-18, The inspiration sent by the gods rarely descends, on a few people, not every person can receive it and not at all times. Therefore also among the Jews (prophecy) ceased, and even among the Egyptians it did not survive; apparently, and natural oracles (silenced) under the influence of time. Therefore, our lord and father Zeus, so that we would not be completely deprived of communion with the gods, gave us the opportunity to observe through sacred actions, so that we would receive appropriate help as needed.

I almost forgot the greatest gift of Helios and Zeus; but it was right to save it for the end. This gift is not only ours; he, I think, we have in common with the Hellenes, kindred to us. I mean that Zeus in the intelligible world gave birth to Asclepius, and on earth manifested him through the life-giving power of Helios. The latter, having made his way from heaven to earth, appeared in human form in Epidaurus; from there, advancing further, he stretched out his gracious right hand over all the earth; he came to Pergamon, to Ionia, to Tarentum, and finally to Rome; then he went to Kos, from there to Aegi; then to all places on land and sea. In all these cities there were sanctuaries of Asclepius, famous for miraculous healings of the sick. He does not visit each of us individually; however, it corrects souls that are prone to error and heals bodily ailments.

What kind of gifts of their god can the Jews boast that you have defected from us and follow them? If you had kept to their teaching, you would not have been utterly unhappy; you would be worse than before when you were with us, but still your situation would be tolerable and bearable. Under cruel, harsh, and largely savage and barbaric laws, instead of our gentle and philanthropic ones, you would be worse in other respects, but your cult would be purer and more blameless. And now you, like leeches, sucked out the spoiled blood from there, and left the purer one for them. But Jesus, who deceived the worst of you, became famous thirty too years old and did nothing memorable in his whole life, except that healing the blind and lame and conjuring the demoniac in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany are great feats. The piety of the Jews, as far as it exists, you do not want to know; but you imitate their wrath and severity, (like them) destroy temples and altars and killed not only those of ours who remain faithful to the religion of the fathers, but also heretics belonging to your own error who do not mourn for the corpse in the same way as you . However, you are more likely to do this on your own initiative, for neither Jesus nor Paul anywhere gave you such an order for the reason that they did not hope that you would ever receive such power. They were pleased if they managed to deceive the maids and slaves, and through them, women and men such as Cornelius and Sergius. Allusion to the Acts of the Apostles (ch. 10, 13). If there is even one of the prominent people of that time among them - I mean the reign of Tiberius or Claudius - then consider that I lied about everything.

I don’t know where the inspiration came from when I spoke and said that “why did our gods not please you, that you went over to the Jews?”. Is it not because the gods of Rome gave power, but the Jews were only given freedom for a short time, but always made them slaves and strangers? Look at Abraham: was he not a stranger in a foreign land? Wasn't Jacob a slave first to the Syrians, then to the Philistines, and in his old age to the Egyptians? Does not Moses say that he will lead them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, with an outstretched hand? Having settled in Palestine, they changed their fate no more firmly than, as observers say, a chameleon - skin color, either submitting to their judges, or being in slavery to strangers. And when they founded their kingdom - we will not say yet how it was; after all, God did not give them royal power of his own free will, as the scripture says; they forced him, and he warned them that their royal power would be bad, (1 Sam., 8:11) - the only thing is that they lived and worked on their land for more than three hundred years. And then they were subordinated first to the Assyrians, then to the Medes, after that to the Persians, and finally now to us. And the Jesus you preach was a subject of the Caesars. If you don't believe me, I'll prove it later. However, it is better to say now.

You say that he, along with his father and mother, was included in the census of Quirinius. But what good did his birth give his relatives? This, they say, is because they did not want to obey him. How so? Did this hard-hearted and hard-hearted people obey Moses? And Jesus, commanding the winds, walking on the sea and casting out demons, creating heaven and earth - in fact, not one of the disciples dared to say this about him, only John alone, and that is unclear and indistinct, but let's assume that it is said so - failed to change their predisposition for the sake of saving his friends and relatives! We will talk about this a little later, when we proceed to a detailed analysis of the gospel absurd explanations and slyness. Now answer me the following: what is better - to be constantly free and rule over most of the land and sea for two thousand years, or to be a slave and live according to someone else's orders? There is no shameless person who would prefer the latter. Is winning a war worse than losing? There is no such fool who would think so. And if this is so, then name me among the Jews one such commander as Alexander, as Caesar. You don't have that. Actually, I swear by the gods, I understand that I offend these men (by comparing them with Jews), but I mentioned them because they are known. Most of them do not know worse people; but even of these, each individually is worth more than all the Jewish figures put together.

And in regard to civil law, the nature of the court, the government of cities, beauty... the progress of science, the development of the liberal arts, aren't the Jews miserable barbarians? True, the malicious Eusebius asserts that the Jews had verses, and is conceited that they possessed logic, the name of which he knows only by hearsay from the Hellenes. Did the Jews have a medical school, like the Hellenes had the school of Hippocrates and others? Eusebia. Rgaer. ev. XI, 5, 7; “and they had poetic works as, for example, the great song of Moses and the psalm of David 119, written in the so-called heroic meter by the Greeks. Is it possible to compare the "wisest" Solomon with the Hellenes Phocylides, Theognis or Isocrates? Phocylides was a Greek poet and moralist. 6th century BC Theognid - Greek poet of the second half of the VI century. BC, the author of philosophical elegies, in which he acts as the ideologist of the aristocracy in its struggle with the demos. If you compare the parables of Solomon with the sayings of Isocrates, you will see, I am sure that the son of Theodore is higher than the “wisest” king. But, they say, he was skilled in worship. But what? Did not this Solomon worship our gods, led, as they say, into a deceit by his wife? What a great virtue! What depth of wisdom! He could not rise above pleasure, and the words of the woman seduced him. But if a woman could deceive him, then do not call him wise. If you are sure that he is wise, then you should not think that he was deceived by his wife, but that he, on the basis of his own judgment and understanding, and by virtue of the instructions he received from God, began to worship other gods. After all, envy and jealousy do not reach even the best people, the more they are unusual for angels and gods. But you are attached to the lower forces, which can unmistakably be called demons; they have ambition and vanity, and the gods have nothing of the kind.

Why are you adhering to Hellenic science, since reading your writings is enough for you? After all, it would be more necessary to keep people from this than from eating meat offered to idols; for from the latter, as Paul says, the one who eats does not receive harm, but you, wise men, affirm that the conscience of the one who sees his brother eating meat sacrificed to idols will be offended. Rom. 14:20: 1 Cor. 8:7 f. But after all, thanks to our science, every one of you who has noble inclinations turns away from his wickedness; who has retained even a drop of talent, the sooner he renounces your impious religion. Therefore, it is more important to keep people away from the sciences than from sacrificial meat. But you yourself, it seems to me, know that the difference between your writings and ours in terms of knowledge is not in your favor, that no one can become a decent person from your writings, but from ours a person becomes better than himself, even if he he was incompetent in every way. And whoever is talented by nature and, moreover, has received education from us, in reality becomes for people a gift from the gods, a person who kindled the torch of knowledge, improving the political system ... as a commander, he defeats many enemies in heroic campaigns on land and at sea ... "After that," Cyril writes, "he ridicules the sacred and divinely inspired Scripture for being written in Hebrew."

This can be proved exactly: gather all your children and make them study the scripture; and if, growing up and becoming men, they prove to be anything more worthy than slaves, then say that I am a talker and a madman. You are so pathetic and unreasonable that you consider divine teaching, from which no one becomes either smarter, or braver, or more steadfast; but that by which courage, intelligence, and justice can be acquired, you give to Satan and to those who worship Satan.

Asclepius heals our body, the Muses, along with Asclepius, Apollo and Hermes the skilled, our souls, Ares and Enio help us in the war, and all this is led by the virgin, motherless Athena, along with Zeus. Ares and Enio correspond to Roman Mars and Bellona, ​​Athena to Minerva. Athena is called “motherless” (ametor), since, according to Greek mythology, she was born from the head of Zeus and had no mother. And see if we are not superior to you in every respect - in arts, wisdom and understanding; whether we are talking about consumer goods or imitative art for the sake of beauty - like sculpture and painting, about the art of government, about the healing art of Asclepius, whose sanctuaries are found everywhere on earth - God gives us all this as an inheritance forever. When I was ill, Asclepius cured me myself, indicating the medicine; Zeus is the witness. Thus, if we, having devoted ourselves to the spirit of apostasy, are in a better position both mentally and physically and materially, why did you leave our religion and stick to that one?

Why do you not remain faithful to the teachings of the Jews and do not keep the law that God gave them, but by rejecting the law of the fathers and surrendering to those whom the prophets proclaimed, you have gone further from them than our supporters? In fact, if you look closely at your teaching, then your impious faith is made up of Jewish insolence and pagan indifference and baseness. From both you borrowed not the best, but the worst, and made a lining of vices.

The Jews have well-established cult customs, shrines and thousands of prohibitions necessary in the life and calling of the priests. The legislator forbade the worship of all gods, and ordered to serve only one, the one whose “part is Jacob, and Israel is a hereditary inheritance”; (Deut., 32:9) but he not only said this, but as if he added: "Do not slander the gods." Exodus 22:28; in Russian translation instead of "gods" - "judges". But his shameless and insolent followers, wishing to destroy all reverence among the crowd, decided to add (the obligation) to blaspheme them to the commandment “not to serve” (foreign gods), and only this you extracted from there: otherwise you have nothing in common with them. Thus, from the new teaching of the Jews, you appropriated the custom of blaspheming the gods we revere, and from our religion, you, having cast aside reverence for any higher being and devotion to the laws of the fathers, borrowed only permission to eat everything like garden greens. In truth, you are proud that you have developed what we have low. This, it seems to me, quite naturally happens to all peoples; you decided to adapt your religion to the way of life of a different kind of people - merchants, publicans, dancers and panders.

That such are not only the present, but also those who from the very beginning received the teaching from Paul, is evident from what Paul testifies in his epistles to them. I think he was not so shameless as to make such heavy reproaches in letters to them, not knowing (that they deserved them); even if he lavished praises of this magnitude on them, he would have to blush, even if they were even deserved, and if they were false, then he would incur upon himself the accusation of base flattery and slavish obsequiousness. But here is what Paul writes to his listeners about themselves: “Do not be deceived: neither idolaters, nor fornicators, nor depraved, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor predators shall inherit the kingdom of God. And you know, brethren, that you were like that too; but washed, but sanctified in the name of Jesus

Christ." 1 Cor. 6:9 f. As you see, he says that they were like that, but they were sanctified and washed; obviously, abundant water is able to wash and purify, penetrating to the very soul. Well, baptism does not wash away leprosy from a leper, does not wash away lichen, or warts, or gout, or dysentery, or dropsy, or paronychia, or minor or major bodily injury, but it destroys adultery, robbery, and in general all the iniquities of the soul? .. Further, Cyril sets out in his own words: “caught in the net of the faith of Christ for the sake of knowing the true God and serving him, he equates them with slaves who ... unable to withstand the yoke of slavery, recognized it as good to flee, because if they are deceived in their hope, will not be worse than it was.”

Christians say that they are different from the Jews of today, but that they are the true Israelites, in agreement with the prophets, and that they follow Moses and the prophets who followed him in Judea most of all; let us see where they most agree with the prophets. We must begin with Moses, who, they say, foretold the future birth of Jesus. But Moses not once, not twice, not three, but many times prescribes to honor only one god, whom he names everywhere, and another god nowhere. He names angels, lords, and, of course, many gods, but he considers the first to be exceptional and does not allow either like or unlike him, as you thought up. If you have anywhere on this score even one saying of Moses, you are invited to bring it. As for the words “the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; obey him”, then it does not speak of the one born of Mary at all. Julian here quotes the Acts of the Apostles (ch. 3), where in turn the author quotes Deuteronomy (18:18). But even if you agree with you to please you, then after all (Moses) says that he will be like him, and not God, that he will be a prophet like him, from among people, and not from God. As for the words “the scepter will not depart from Judah and the guide from his thighs” (Gen. 49:10), then here we are not talking about Jesus, but about the kingdom of David, which actually ended with King Zedeki. Here in the scripture it is said somehow ambiguously: “until the one who is due to him comes”, and you changed it into “until the one who is due to him comes”. The Hebrew text says: “until he comes” - “schiloh”; in the translation of "70 interpreters" (Septuaginta), the incomprehensible word "schiloh" was translated as "befitting to him" - "schelo". Other translators have gone further and spoofed this passage so that a hint of Jesus could be seen here. That all this has nothing to do with Jesus is clear; for he is not of the tribe of Judah; for he was born, according to you, not of Joseph, but of the Holy Spirit. But you, compiling the genealogy of Joseph, deduce him from Judas, and even then you did not manage to come up with it skillfully: Matthew and Luke expose each other, diverging among themselves in his genealogy. However, since this is what we intend to cover in detail in the second book, we will bypass it for now. But we will agree with you that he is a ruler from Judas, (but then) he is not a god and not from God, as you say, and (it cannot be) “through him everything began to be and without him nothing began to be” . This refers to the Gospel of John (8:42): "I came from God." But, (you will say), it says in the book of Numbers, "A star rises from Jacob, and a man from Israel"; that this refers to David and his descendants is evident; for David was the son of Jesse. Num. 24:17; apparently, in the copy that Julian had, instead of "Israel" was written "Jesse": this explains his further reference to David, the son of Jesse. So, if you are trying to convince on the basis of these (scriptural texts), then extract and present at least one statement, as I have given many of them. And that (Moses) recognized only one god, the God of Israel, he speaks of this in Deuteronomy: “That you may know that the Lord your God is a god, there is no other besides him.” Deut 4:35. And further on: “And consider in your heart that the Lord is God, in heaven above and on earth below, there is none other than him”; (Deut. 4:39) and again:

“Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one”, (Deut. 6:4) and again: “See that I am I and there is no god but me”. Deut. 32:39. Thus, Moses states that there is only one single god. But maybe these will say, "And we don't say there are two or three." But I'll show that that's what they claim, and I'll refer to John who says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. You see, it is said: “It was with God”; whether we are talking about the one born of Mary or about someone else, - I will immediately answer Fotin, - it makes no difference; (on this matter) I leave it to you to argue among yourselves. Fotin is a heresiarch who rejected the birth of Jesus as a god from a woman's womb. Julian's letter to him has been preserved. But what (the evangelist) says "with God" and "in the beginning" - this must be certified. Well, how does it fit in with the teachings of Moses?

But this, they say, agrees with Isaiah, for Isaiah says, "Behold the virgin shall bear in her womb and bear a son." Isaiah 7:14. Let us suppose that God is really spoken of here, although it does not at all refer to God: after all, she was not a virgin, but a married woman, and before becoming pregnant, she was united with her husband. The Hebrew text says "almah", which means a young woman, not a virgin. Let us suppose that she was a virgin; but it does not say that a god will be born from her. And you do not stop calling Mary the Mother of God, although (Isaiah) does not say that the one born of a virgin will be “the only begotten son of God”, “begotten before every creature”; can anyone show in the speeches of the prophets what John said: “Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made”? And what we prove, you can all hear from the prophets in a row: “O Lord our God, save us, except you, we don’t know anyone.” Isaiah 26:13. In the prophets, King Ezekiah prays: “Lord God of Israel, who sits on the cherubim! you are the only god." Is. 37:16. After all, there is no room for the second. But if, in your opinion, the logos is a god from God, descended from the nature of the father, on what basis do you call the virgin the Mother of God? How could she, being human, give birth to a god? In addition, you dared to say that she gave birth to a savior, while God clearly says: “I am, and there is no one but me, the savior.” Deut. 32:39 (approximate quote).

And that Moses called the angels gods, can be seen from the following words: “And the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they are beautiful, took for themselves a wife, which one chose”, and a little lower: “And after the sons of God began to enter to the daughters of men, and they began to bear them. These are strong, glorious people from ancient times.” Gen. 6:2, 4. It is quite obvious that we are talking about angels, and there is no need to bring extraneous evidence here, since this follows from the message that not people, but giants were born from them; it is clear that if he believed that their fathers were people, and not beings of a higher order with special powers, he would not say that they gave birth to giants; I think he here expressed the idea that the giants came from the mixing of the mortal with the immortals. And now, naming many sons of God, and not people, but angels, would he not tell people about the only begotten word of God, or the son of God, or whatever you call him there, if he knew about him? That he did not consider this something great, (is evident from the fact that) he says about Israel: “Israel, my son, my firstborn”; (Ex. 4:22) but why didn't Moses say this about Jesus? He taught about one God and about his many sons, among whom the peoples were divided, but from the very beginning he did not know the firstborn son of God, or the word of God, or another, falsely invented by you later, and obviously did not teach about him. You obeyed Moses and other prophets. But here Moses often and much says in this way: “fear the Lord thy God, and serve him alone”; (Ex. 4:22) how does the gospel convey about Jesus that he prescribes: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit” (Matt. 28:19) if they wanted to serve him ? And you, thinking in accordance with this, at the same time deify along with the father and the son ...

There is a significant omission, as Cyril renders Julian's text in his own words: “He says that Christian laws do not agree with the laws of Moses, that Christians do not want to live according to the customs of the Jews, although they adopted the customs of the Hellenes. Both of them live according to the same customs, with the exception of two or three at the most - that they do not recognize other gods and the so-called sacrifices for divination by the liver. But what of it, since everything else they have in common with the Hellenes is unchanged? Circumcision is very important to the Jews. It is performed, he says, by the temple priesthood of the Egyptians, as well as by the Chaldeans and Saracens, but without borrowing (from the Jews). In the same way, he says, they honored sacrifices as first-fruits, burnt offerings, sin-offerings, offerings, and, in his opinion, honorable, cleansing and sanctifying sacrifices. He thinks that the hierophant Moses performed sacrifices to unclean and disgusting demons, and, what is still more outrageous, the legislator, he says, left it to the priests, so that we can convict him of making laws contrary to his own practice. But if, as he says, we see that he prescribes the offering of prescribed sacrifices also to dangerous demons, then how does he turn us away from evil and, rather, does not lead us directly to this road?

Listen again to what he says about the demons: “Let him take two goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer a calf as a sin offering for himself, and cleanse himself and his house. And he will take two goats and set them before the face of the Lord at the entrance of the tabernacle of testimony. And Aaron shall cast lots on both goats, one lot from the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat," in order, he says, to send him away for release and send him into the wilderness. Lev. 16:5 ff.; in the Hebrew text of the Bible, it is not about the “scapegoat”, as in the translations, but about the “goat Hazael”, that is, the goat sacrificed to the spirit of the desert to the goat-god (Azael); the editors of the Hebrew text were also shocked by such a neighborhood for Yahweh and replaced "Azael" with the less ear-piercing, albeit meaningless, "Azazel". That's the way a scapegoat is sent away. And about the second goat, he says: “And he will kill the goat as a sin offering for the people before the Lord, and bring his blood into the curtain, and sprinkle the blood on the foundation of the altar, and cleanse the sanctuary from the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and from their transgressions in all their sins.” Lev. 16:15. From what has been said, it is clear how Moses knew the methods of sacrifice. And that he did not consider them unclean, as you do, you can see from his following words: “If anyone, having uncleanness on himself, eats the meat of the Lord’s sacrifice, then his soul will be cut off from his people.” Lev. 7:20. This is how Moses himself is careful about eating sacrificial meat. It is necessary to recall the above, about which we all said this. Why, then, having fallen away from us, do you not keep the Jewish law and remain faithful to the precepts of Moses? “But,” one of you will say, looking expressively, “after all, even the Jews do not make sacrifices!” But I will smash this blind man to smithereens: firstly, you do not observe other laws adopted by the Jews; secondly, the Jews in hiding places offer sacrifices and now still eat sacrificial meat and pray before offering the sacrifice, and give the right shoulder blade to the priests instead of the first grain, and, having lost the temple, or, as they usually say, the shrine, they strive to offer the first grain from the sacrificial animals to the god . And you, who invented new sacrifices, why don't you make sacrifices? You don't need Jerusalem, do you? However, I am already telling you too much, it escaped me, although at first I wanted to show that the Jews agree with the pagans, except that they believe in only one god. This point is their peculiarity, and it is alien to us; but everything else seems to be the same with them as with us - temples, sacred sites, altars, purifications, various protective rites; in all this they differ from us either not at all, or very little. .. “We are making, according to him, a mistake in relation to both faiths, since, on the one hand, we do not allow polytheism, and on the other hand, we recognize not one god, according to the law, but three instead of one” (Kirill) .

Why are you not pure in regard to food like the Jews, but say that everything can be eaten like garden vegetables: you believed Peter, who is said to have said:

"What God has cleansed, you do not call unclean." The Acts of the Apostles (10) tell that the Apostle Peter, being in the tanner's house and being hungry, "fell into a frenzy" and saw "a linen and ... in it all kinds of four-footed earthly animals, reptiles and birds of the air. And there was a voice to him: "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." Where is the evidence that in ancient times God considered it unclean, and now he made it clean? Moses points out, regarding four-footed animals, that all cattle, which, as he says, have cloven hooves and a deep cut on their hooves, and which chews the cud, is clean, and those who do not have this are unclean. So, if the pig in Peter's vision got the ability to chew the cud, then you have to believe him. Truly a miracle if, after the vision of Peter, she acquired this property. If he lied that he had this vision, or, in your words, a “revelation” from the tanner, then how did you believe so soon in such a case? Did Moses command you something difficult, forbidding you to eat, besides pork, also birds and fish, having received an indication from God that they, like those, are outcast and unclean? However, why do I go on about this for so long when you can see (directly) whether (the law of Moses) has any power (among Christians)? After all, they say that God added a second law to the former one; that one was written for the occasion for a limited time, and then a new one appeared because that one was limited to the time and place of Moses. I will clearly show that they are not telling the truth, and I will cite from the books of Moses not only ten, but thousands of testimonies, where he calls the law eternal. Listen first from the book of Exodus: “And let this day be remembered to you and celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; celebrate it as an eternal ordinance... and on the very first day destroy the leaven in your houses”... Ex., 12:14-15; further in the text there is a gap - apparently, Julian cited other quotations from the Bible to prove the eternity of the law. I have omitted many things which, by their numbers, have given me the right to say that Moses considered the law to be eternal. But you show me where it says something similar to Paul's bold statement that "the end of the law is Christ"? Rom. 10:4. Where did God proclaim to the Jews another law besides the existing one? Nowhere is this, and there are not even amendments to the existing law. Listen again to Moses: “Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it. Keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today” (Deut. 4:2) and, “Cursed is everyone who is not faithful to everything.” This refers to Deuteronomy (27:26). And you not only considered it a trifle to subtract or add to what is written in the law, but recognized it as a manifestation of special courage and greatness of the soul to completely transcend the law, meaning not the truth, but an easy opportunity to attract everyone to yourself ... “Here he mentions the message of the holy apostles ... to Gentile converts. “It is pleasing,” they wrote, “to the holy spirit and us not to place any more burden on you, except for this necessary: ​​to abstain from idolatry, fornication and strangled and blood.” He denounces this and says that it "was not pleasing to the holy spirit" to break the law of Moses. In addition, this aristocrat mocks the holy apostles, especially Peter, and says that he is a hypocrite and that Paul rebuked him, that he tries to live either according to the customs of the Hellenes, or according to the customs of the Jews ”(Cyril).

You are so untalented that you do not even observe the rules taught to you by the apostles. At the same time, the later ones remake them in the direction of deterioration and deepening of wickedness. Neither Paul, nor Luke, nor Matthew, nor Mark dared to call Jesus a god. But the honored John, noticing that already a large number of people in many cities of Hellas and Italy had contracted this disease, and also, I think, having heard that the graves of Peter and Paul were beginning to be revered, was the first to dare to say (that Jesus is a god). Having said a little about John the Baptist, he again returns to the Logos proclaimed by him and says: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us”; (John, 1:14) but how - he hesitated to say. Nowhere does he mention either Jesus or Christ, and while he is talking about the word, he creeps in little by little, imperceptibly, suggesting that John the Baptist gave such a witness about Jesus Christ that he is the one who should be recognized as a god-word. However, what John says here about Jesus Christ, I do not argue against this, although some apostates believe that Jesus Christ and the Logos proclaimed by John are different persons. In reality, this is not so. For whomever he calls the god-word, he is recognized by John the Baptist as Jesus Christ. But look how carefully and gradually he brings an unholy ending to his drama, he is such a clever deceiver that he again evades and adds: “No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten son, who is in the bosom of the father, he revealed. John 1:18. So this is, or what, the god-word, made flesh, this “only-begotten son, existing in the bowels of the father?” If he, then you saw God somewhere, for he "dwelt with you" and you saw his glory; why do you say that no one has ever seen God? After all, you have seen, if not God the Father, then God the Word. If the “only-begotten son” is one thing, and the god-word is another, as I heard from some of your adherents, then it turns out that John did not dare (to call Jesus a god).

But this evil started from John. And how much more did you come up with, adding fresh corpses to the old corpse! That is, the cult of saints was added to the veneration of the corpse of Jesus. Is it possible to adequately evaluate this abomination? You have filled everything with graves and tombs, although nowhere does it say that you should wallow on the graves and take care of them. You, in your depravity, have reached the point that you do not find it necessary in this matter to reckon with the words of at least Jesus of Nazareth; listen to what he says about the graves: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that you are like tombs that have been burnt; from the outside the coffin looks beautiful, but inside it is full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of uncleanness.” Matthew 2 3:27. So, if Jesus says that the tombs are full of uncleanness, how do you invoke God on them?... Pass. According to Cyril, Julian "adds to this that when one of the disciples said, 'Let me first go and bury my father,' Jesus said, 'Follow me and let the dead bury their dead.' In this state of affairs, in the name of what are you lying on the graves? Do you want to know the reasons? I will not answer this, but the prophet Isaiah: "On the graves and in the crypts they sleep for the sake of prophetic dreams." Isaiah 65:4. (In the Russian synodal translation: “sits in coffins and spends the night in caves.”) Notice how ancient the Jews have this magical action - to sleep on graves for the sake of dreams. It is clear that the apostles, after the death of the teacher, practiced and from the very beginning passed on this custom to you, the new believers; they were more skillful than you in magic and publicly showed their successors the factory of this magic and abomination.

What God cursed from the very beginning through Moses and the prophets, you are fulfilling, but you refuse to bring sacrifices to the altar and slaughter them. “Now,” they say, “fire does not come down (from heaven), as under Moses, to burn the sacrifices.” Under Moses, this happened only once, and again - after a long time under Elijah the Thesbite. That both Moses and, before him, Patriarch Abraham consider it necessary to get the fire from outside, and I will briefly prove ... “There are references to the story of Isaac, etc.” (Kirill). But not only that; When the sons of Adam brought the first grain to God, “the Lord looked down,” says the Bible, “on Abel and on his gift, but on Cain and on his gift he did not look. Cain was very upset and drooped his face. And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you upset? and why did you droop your face? If you bring good and choose wrong, you will not sin.” Gen. 4:4 ff. Art. 7 is distorted in the Hebrew and Greek text and translated arbitrarily in the Russian editions. The version cited by Julian is, as can be seen from what follows, a free version proposed by the commentator. Do you want to know what their gifts were? “And it was after a few days that Cain brought a gift from the fruits of the earth to the Lord. And Abel also brought of his firstborn sheep and of their fat.” Truly, it was not the sacrifice, but the choice that God condemned when he said to Cain: “If you bring good, but choose the wrong one, will you not sin?” This was explained to me by a very knowledgeable bishop. But he first deceived himself, and then others, because when I began to ask in what sense the choice was reprehensible, he had nothing to say and nothing to show off in front of me. Seeing that he was confused, I told him: “God rebuked exactly what you are talking about. The good will of both was the same, because both of them understood that it was necessary to offer sacrifices to God. But one of them made a good choice, the other did not hit the target. Why and how? On earth there is animate and inanimate, and for God, as a living and giver of life, the living is more valuable than the inanimate, since it participates in life and is connected with the soul. Therefore, God was pleased with the one who offered the perfect sacrifice.”

Well, let's go back to them. Why don't you circumcise? “Paul,” they say, “said circumcision of the heart, not of the flesh, was commanded, and that was to Abraham. The text at this point is obviously corrupted. Only he did not speak according to the flesh, and one must believe what he and Peter proclaimed in their righteous speeches. Hear again how (scripture) says that circumcision according to the flesh was given to Abraham as a covenant and as a sign:

“This is the covenant that God must keep between me and you, between your offspring throughout your generations; circumcise your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between me and you, and between me and your offspring”... Gen. 17:10 ff. “To this,” Cyril writes, “he adds that Christ himself said that the law must be kept, saying in one place: “I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill,” and in another place again: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and will teach people so, he will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. After (Christ) unambiguously prescribed that the law must be kept, and threatened with punishment for the violation of even one commandment, what excuse can you think up for yourself, having violated all the commandments together? Either Jesus is telling a lie, or you are lying everywhere and in everything and your keepers of the law. “Circumcision will be on your body,” says (Moses); distorting it, they say, "We are circumcised in heart." Of course, because among you there is not a single villain, not a single villain: to such an extent you are “circumcised in heart”. “We cannot keep unleavened bread and celebrate the Passover,” they say, “for for our sake Christ was once sacrificed.” Perfectly. But did he forbid eating unleavened bread? I swear by the gods that I am one of those who are not going to perform their ceremonies with the Jews, but I always honor the god Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who, being Chaldeans, belonging to the family of priests and worshipers, learned circumcision while living among the Egyptians, and they began to worship a god who, being great and mighty, was favorable to me and to those who honor him, like Abraham, but do not look at you. For you do not imitate Abraham, you do not erect altars to the god, you do not build altars to him, and you do not honor him with sacred rites, as he did. Abraham always made sacrifices, as we do, and often used divination by the planets. This, perhaps, is also a Hellenic custom. He was more into birdwatching. Yes, and as a manager of the house, he had a fortuneteller. If any of you does not believe (me), I will point out exactly what Moses said about this: “After these events, the word of the Lord to Abraham in a night vision was this: do not be afraid, Abraham, I am your shield; Your reward will be very great! And Abraham said: Master, what will You give me? because I remain childless, and Masek, the son of a homegrown woman, inherits me. And this was the word of the Lord to him: this one will not be your heir, but the one who comes from you will be your heir. And he brought him out and said to him, Look at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them. And he said: such will be your offspring. And Abraham believed God, and He imputed it to him for righteousness. Gen. 15:1 ff. Tell me in this case, why did the foreshadowing angel or god bring him out and show the stars? Didn't he, staying in the house, know how many sparkling stars are always visible at night? But I think he wanted to show him the wandering stars, in order to cite as an obvious confirmation of what he said, the imperious favorable sentence of the sky. And so that no one suspects that this interpretation of mine is strained, I certify this by quoting the words that follow; further it is written: “And he said to him: I am the God who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for a possession. He said: Sovereign Lord, why should I know that I will own it? And He said to him, take me a three-year-old bird, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young dove. And he took them all for himself, and cut them in half, and laid one part against the other; only he did not cut the birds. And birds of prey descended on the cut parts, but Abraham drove them away. Gen. 15:7 f. You see that the prediction of an angel or a god is supported by bird fortune-telling, and not at random, as in your case, and fortune-telling is performed with sacrifices. “In any case, he himself,” he says, was informed by the voices of the birds that he would sit on royal throne". And (the meaning of what) says (scripture) - that the arrival of birds confirmed the promise - Abraham understood, having received confirmation, for faith without truth seemed (to him) some kind of absurdity and stupidity. And the truth cannot be seen on the basis of empty words, but it is necessary that the words be accompanied by a clear sign that would confirm that the prediction will be fulfilled in the future. You still have one more reason for neglecting (the law) in this matter - that you cannot offer sacrifices, having lost Jerusalem; but after all, Ilya offered a sacrifice on Carmel, and not in the holy city ...

Thematic table of contents (Ideological reflections)

These days they write a lot about Patriarch Kirill. In addition, Christianity is also criticized. But it is still strange that this religion has become a world religion. This seems obvious and inevitable today, but it was not always so.
In this regard, I remembered Julian the Apostate. He tried to turn the wheel back, but nothing came of it. But Constantine the Great, only 19 years before his birth, adopted a law on freedom of religion, which meant nothing more than the legalization of Christianity.
"Julian the Apostate (332-363), full name Flavius ​​Claudius Julian, Roman emperor. Julian is the son of Julius Constantius, half-brother of Constantine the Great. Constantine's nephew Julian was a possible contender for the throne. His father and other relatives were killed. Emperor Constantius II was suspicious of Julian, in 345, together with his half-brother Constantius Gallus, he was exiled to Macellus (Cappadocia). In 350, Constantius appointed Gallus as Caesar, i.e. junior co-ruler, in the East, but in 354 Gallus was deposed and executed. The intrigues of Constantius' entourage forced Julian to constantly fear for his life, but he was patronized by Empress Eusebia, and in 355 Julian was summoned to the capital to marry the emperor's sister Helen and appoint him Caesar. After his marriage, Julian was immediately sent to Gaul. The war was fought mainly in the territory of modern Alsace and along the banks of the Rhine. Julian retook Colonia Agrippina (modern Cologne), cleared Germania Inferior from the invaders, and the next year attacked the Alemanni in their own territory and advanced as far as Mogontiak (modern Mainz). In 360, Constantius, who intended to launch a campaign in the East, demanded from Julian the elite units of the Gallic army. Initially, Julian took a wait-and-see attitude, but since Constantius insisted on his own, the legionnaires proclaimed Julian Augustus. Julian's proposals for an amicable agreement, Constantius rejected, made peace with Persia and returned to Antioch. Civil War seemed inevitable. Julian decided to preempt the enemy and in 361 he himself moved to the East, but in November the news came that Constantius had died, appointing him his successor.
Julian was emperor for only 20 months. In domestic politics Julian sought to respect the rule of law and limit the power of corrupt court cliques. He went down in history primarily with his attempt to restore paganism. The philosophy of Julian is the cult of the Sun within the framework of mystical Neoplatonism. Julian highly valued the philanthropic stream in Christianity and hoped to enrich his reformed paganism with it. He did not subject Christians to severe persecution, but he deprived them of imperial patronage and forbade them to teach in the field of liberal arts.
However, generally speaking, Julian's apostasy remained his own business, since he did not find support in the circles of the Roman aristocracy.
In addition, Julian patronized the Jews and tried to restore the Jewish community in Palestine. He even set about rebuilding the Temple (perhaps in defiance of Christianity).
Julian soon began preparations for a campaign against the Persians. At the beginning of 363, with a very significant force, he set out from Antioch to the Carrhae, and then moved down the Euphrates. In one of the battles, Julian died, possibly from a spear thrown by his own warrior (it must be understood, a Christian). Julian did not have time to appoint a successor, and Jovian, a Christian of moderate views, was elected in his place. The attempt to plant paganism artificially failed, and soon, under Theodosius the Great, it was officially banned.
Julian is also known as a writer. From the treatise “Against the Galileans” (as Julian called Christians) in 3 books, only fragments have been preserved in the writings of Cyril of Alexandria, who argued with him (I book is almost completely restored). Julian's philosophical and religious treatises To the King of the Sun and To the Mother of the Gods, compiled in the form of speeches, are distinguished by great penetration and depth of feeling. He also wrote a short dialogue "On the Caesars", where, in the style of Lucian, with considerable wit and malice, he attacks some of his predecessors on the throne, and Constantine the Great especially gets it. Misopogon ("The Bearded Hater") is highly ironic, being Julian's answer to the inhabitants of Antioch (mostly Christians), who ridiculed his "philosophical" beard. Julian here criticizes himself for asceticism and piety, and extols the Antiochians for their effeminacy, luxury and licentiousness. (Dictionary "Akademik")
Here are excerpts from some of his writings. (F.I. Uspensky. "History of the Byzantine Empire").

From a letter to the inhabitants of Vostra dated August 1, 362, which ordered the expulsion of their bishop: “It would seem to me that representatives of the Galilean religion should have more gratitude for me than for my predecessor. For under him, many of them were exiled, persecuted, and imprisoned, and even many so-called heretics were killed, it is in Samosata, Cyzicus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia and Galatia, and in many other regions, whole villages were destroyed to the ground. In my reign, on the contrary: the expelled were returned from exile, deprived of their property, they received everything back according to our law. And yet, they reach such rage and madness that, in irritation, they use all kinds of means to create confusion among the people, resisting the gods and disobeying our humane laws. We do not allow any of them to be brought to the altars against their will and proclaim loudly that whoever wishes to participate with us in ablutions and sacrifices must first offer a cleansing and propitiatory sacrifice to the gods.
“We need to convince people by word and teaching, and not by scourges and not insults, and not by corporal punishment. Again and again, I recommend that the adherents of true worship of God do not inflict any offense on the people of Galilee and do not allow themselves either violence or insults towards them. One should pity more than hate people who err in matters of the greatest importance. The greatest of blessings is, of course, reverence for God, and, on the contrary, impiety is the greatest of evils. They punish themselves enough by the fact that, turning away from the gods, they seek help from the corpses of the dead.

When Christians complained about the unfair trial and confiscation of property, he replied: “Your law says: whoever wants to take your shirt, give him your outer garment; without property it is easier for you to go to the kingdom of heaven.”

Christians complained about their removal from their positions of authority, and the emperor mockingly said: "The law forbids you to use the sword, you should endure injustice to please God"!
As a general measure against Christians, which aroused a reproach to Julian even among his admirers and deeply affected the interests of Christians, the edict must be recognized, which forbade Christian professors from teaching in schools. Here is how Julian resonates in relation to the motives of this order: “Correct teaching does not consist in coherent speech and beautiful words but in the fact that the teacher has a sound disposition of thoughts and has the right ideas about good and evil, about noble and shameful things. Whoever thinks one thing and inspires his listeners with another, sins as much against pedagogy as against honesty ... Indeed, according to the views of Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Isocrates and Lysias, the gods are not creators any knowledge? Did they not consider themselves priests, some of Hermes, others of the Muses? I would find it absurd that those who explain these writers should allow themselves to reject the gods they revere.
I do not demand that they change their views before the audience, but I leave them free to choose: either not to teach what they do not consider serious, or, if they wish to continue teaching, they must first of all convince the audience by their own example that Homer, Hesiod and others whom they interpret, and whom they accuse of wickedness and error in relation to the gods, are in fact not so. If they hold on to and benefit from the writings that belong to those writers, then it is clear that by this they show themselves so greedy for profit that they are ready for anything for a few drachmas. Until now, there have been many good reasons not to visit the temples of the gods, and the fear hanging over all heads justified the secrecy in relation to the true thoughts of the gods. Since the gods have given us freedom, it seems to me unworthy to teach people what is not considered healthy. But if the teachers consider as wise those writers whom they explain, let them try to imitate their feelings towards the gods. If, however, they are of the opinion that the highly revered gods are false, let them go to the churches of the Galileans to explain Matthew and Luke. This is the law for bosses and teachers. Every young man who wants to learn will not be hindered. For it is not considered reasonable to divert young men from a better path, who are not yet well aware of which road to follow, and to lead them against their will, out of fear, to the path that their fathers walked. Although it would be fair to treat them against their will, as they do to madmen, we give indulgence to all who are in this disease. For, in my opinion, the devoid of reason should be taught, and not subjected to punishment.

Widely read in the books of Holy Scripture, he used his knowledge very skillfully in the literary struggle. In a work that has not come down to us (“Against the Christians”), he gives an evil satire on some places of the Old and New Testaments.
Julian compares the biblical teaching about the world with the pagan one, compares Moses with Plato and, by the way, is ironic about the story of the creation of the world. “God said: “It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a helpmate.” And, meanwhile, this assistant not only does not help him in anything, but even deceives and becomes the reason for depriving the ancestors of paradise life. Is it likely that God does not know that the creature that is given to help a person will become for him a source of disasters, and not joys? And what language did the serpent speak to Eve, and how does this fable differ from Greek myths? And the prohibition to distinguish between good and evil - isn't it the height of absurdity? God allegedly forbade man the highest, which is the essence and main quality of man - the use of reason. Is it not an essential property of the mind to distinguish evil from good?
No less venomously Julian scoffs at the story about the structure of the tower and about the confusion of languages. “Why,” he says, “can this story be given more faith than the Homeric story of the giants Aloads (Otas and Ephialtes), who piled three mountains one on top of the other in order to reach heaven?” Turning to dissensions in the Christian environment and to the intolerance of Christians towards heretics, Julian sends the Christians the following reproach: “You destroy temples and altars, you strangle not only those who remain faithful to the cult of their fathers, but also those from your environment who, like you say, infected with heresy, and who, unlike you, adore that dead man. But neither Jesus nor Paul left you instructions in this regard, and this is because they did not think that you would have such power. They were content to seduce maidservants and slaves, and through them women and men like Cornelius and Sergius (Acts X, 13). Show me that in the reign of Tiberius or Claudius at least one decent person converted to their faith, and then consider me a vulgar liar.

Biography

Path to power

In 344 Julian and his brother Gallus were ordered to live in the castle of Macellum near Caesarea in Cappadocia. Although living conditions corresponded to the high position of young people, Julian complains about the lack of society, the constant restrictions on freedom and secret supervision. Probably, the beginnings of Julian's enmity towards the Christian faith should be attributed to this period. The brothers remained in this position for about 6 years. Meanwhile, the childless Constantius was very concerned about the idea of ​​a successor, since from the direct offspring of Constantius Chlorus, only two cousins ​​​​of Constantius, Gallus and Julian, remained alive after persecution, the emperor in 350 decided to call Gallus to power. Summoning him from the castle of Macellum, Constantius gave him the title of Caesar and appointed him governor of Antioch. But Gallus was unable to cope with the new situation and made many mistakes, arousing suspicions of infidelity to the emperor against himself. Gallus was summoned by Constantius to justify himself and was killed on the way in 354. The question of the succession of power again came up. At the insistence of Empress Eusebia, who acted in this regard contrary to the plans of the court party, Constantius decided to return Julian to the position to which he had birthrights.

Julian's school reform dealt the most sensitive blow to Christianity. The first decree concerns the appointment of professors in the main cities of the empire. Candidates should be elected by the cities, but for approval they are presented at the discretion of the emperor, so the latter could not approve any professor that he disliked. In former times, the appointment of professors was the responsibility of the city. Much more important was the second decree, preserved in the letters of Julian. “Everyone,” says the decree, “who is going to teach something, must be of good behavior and not have a direction in their soul that is inconsistent with the state.” Under the direction of the state, of course, one must understand the traditional direction of the emperor himself. The decree considers it absurd that those who explain Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Herodotus and other ancient writers themselves reject the gods revered by these writers. Thus, Julian forbade Christians from teaching rhetoric and grammar unless they moved on to the worship of the gods. Indirectly, Christians were also forbidden to study, since they could not (morally) attend pagan schools.

In the summer of 362, Julian undertook a journey to the eastern provinces and arrived at Antioch, where the population was Christian. Julian's stay in Antioch is important in the sense that it made him convinced of the difficulty, even the impossibility of the restoration of paganism undertaken by him. The capital of Syria remained completely cold to the sympathies of the emperor who was visiting her. Julian recounted the story of his visit in his satirical essay " Misopogon, or Beard Hater". The conflict escalated after the fire of the temple in Daphne, in which Christians were suspected. Angry, Julian ordered the closure of the main Antiochian church as punishment, which was also plundered and desecrated. Similar facts happened in other cities. Christians, in turn, smashed the images of the gods. Some representatives of the church suffered a martyr's death.

Campaign in Persia and the death of Julian

Julian considered the main foreign policy task to be the fight against Sasanian Iran, where Shahanshah Shapur II the Great (Long-armed, or Long Shoulders) (-) ruled at that time. The campaign in Persia (spring - summer) was at first very successful: the Roman legions reached the capital of Persia, Ctesiphon, but ended in disaster and the death of Julian.

Two novels by Valery Bryusov are devoted to the reign of Julian: "The Altar of Victory" and "Jupiter Defeated" (unfinished).

Julian the Apostate appears in Henry Fielding's short story "Journey to the Underworld and Other Things".

Bibliography

Julian's writings

In the original language:

• Juliani imperatoris quae supersunt. Rec. F. C. Hertlein. T.1-2. Lipsiae, 1875-1876.

In English:

• Wright, W.C., The Works of the Emperor Julian, Loeb Classical Library , Harvard University Press, 1913/1980, 3 Volumes, at Internet Archive
  • , No. 13. Speeches 1-5.
  • , No. 29. Speeches 6-8. Letters to Themistius, the Senate and the Athenian people, to the priest. Caesars. Misopogon.
  • , No. 157. Letters. Epigrams. against the Galileans. Fragments.

In French:

• L'empereur Julien. Œuvres completes trad. Jean Bidez, Les Belles Letters, Paris
  • t. I, 1ère partie: Discours de Julien César (Discours I-IV), Texte établi et traduit par Joseph Bidez, édition 1963, réédition 2003, XXVIII, 431 p.: Éloge de l'empereur Constance, Éloge de l'impératrice Eusébie, Les actions de l'empereur ou De la Royauté, Sur de le départ de Salluste, Au Sénat et au peuple d'Athènes
  • Tome I, 2ème partie: Lettres et fragments, Texte établi et traduit par Joseph Bidez, édition 1924, réédition 2003, XXIV, 445 p.
  • t. II, 1ère partie: Discours de Julien l’Empereur (Discours VI-IX), Texte établi et traduit par Gabriel Rochefort, édition 1963, réédition 2003, 314 p. : A Thémistius, Contre Hiérocleios le Cynique, Sur la mere des dieux, Contre les cyniques ignorants
  • t. II, 2e partie: Discours de Julien l'Empereur (Discours X-XII), Texte établi et traduit par Christian Lacombrade, edition 1964, edition 2003, 332 p. : Les Césars, Sur Helios-Roi, Le Misopogon,

In Russian:

• Julian. Kesari, or emperors, at a solemn dinner at Romulus, where all the gods are. St. Petersburg, 1820.
• Julian. Speech to the Antiochians, or Misapogon (enemy of the beard). / Per. A. N. Kirillova. Nizhyn, 1913.
• Julian. Against Christians. / Per. A. B. Ranovich. // Ranovich A. B. Primary sources on the history of early Christianity. Ancient Critics of Christianity. (BATL). M., Politizdat. 1990. 480 pp. 396-435.
• Julian. To the council and people of Athens. / Per. M. E. Grabar-Passek. // Monuments of late antique oratory and epistolary art. M.-L., Science. 1964. / Responsible. ed. M. E. Grabar-Passek. 236 p. pp. 41-49.
• Emperor Julian. Letters. / Per. D. E. Furman, ed. A. Ch. Kozarzhevsky. // VDI. 1970. No. 1-3.
• Emperor Julian. Works. / Per. T. G. Sidasha. St. Petersburg, Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University. 2007. 428 pp. (To the King of the Sun. Hymn to the Mother of the Gods. Fragment of a letter to the priest. To the ignorant cynics. To Heraclius the cynic. Antiochians, or the Bradon-hater. Letter to the Nile ... Message to the inhabitants of Edessa. Praise to Queen Eusebia. Message to the Senate and the people of Athens. Epistle to Themistius the philosopher. Consolation addressed to himself in connection with the departure of Sallust. Letter to Evagrius. About Pegasius)

ancient sources

Julian's contemporaries:

• Claudius Mamertin. Panegyric.
• Libanius. Correspondence.
• Libanius. Funeral word for Julian. / Per. E. Rabinovich. // Speakers of Greece. M., HL. 1985. 496 pp. 354-413.
• Gregory of Nazianzus. The first accusatory word on Tsar Julian. The second accusatory word on Tsar Julian. // Gregory the Theologian. Collection of creations. In 2 vols. T.1. pp. 78-174.
• Mar Afrem Nisibinsky. Julian cycle. / Per. with Sir. A. Muraviev. M., 2006.
• Jerome. Continuation of the "Chronicle" of Eusebius. P. 322-325.
• Ammianus Marcellinus. "Roman History". Books XV-XXV. (repeatedly published in the 1990-2000s)
• Eunapius. History, passages 9-29 // Byzantine Historians. Ryazan, 2003. S. 82-100.
• Eunapius. Lives of Philosophers and Sophists. // Roman historians of the IV century. M., 1997.

• Cyril of Alexandria. against Julian.
• Socrates Scholastic. Church history. Book 3.
• Sozomen. Church history. Book. 5. Book. 6. Chap. 1-2.
• Theodoret of Kirsky. Church history. Book. 3.
• Zosim. New story.
• Theophan the Byzantine. Chronicle, years 5853-5855. Ryazan, 2005, pp. 47-53.
• George Amartol(Books of temporary and figurative George Monk. Series "Monuments of religious and philosophical thought Ancient Russia". In 2 vols. T.1. Part 1. M., 2006. S. 552-560).

Alexander Kravchuk. Gallery of Roman Emperors. In 2 vols. T. 2. M., 2011. S. 185-257.

Research

• Gibbon E. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 3
• Benoit-Mechain J. Julian the Apostate, or the Scorched Dream (L'empereur Julien ou le rêve calciné). (Series "ZhZL")
• Evola Yu. Emperor Julian // Tradition and Europe. - Tambov, 2009. - S. 25-28. - ISBN 978-5-88934-426-1.

In Russian:

• Alfionov Ya. Emperor Julian and his attitude to Christianity. Kazan, 1877. 432 pages. 2nd ed. M., 1880. 461 pages.
  • reissue: 3rd ed., M.: Librokom, 2012. 472 p., Series “Academy fundamental research: history", ISBN 978-5-397-02379-5
• Vishnyakov A. F. Emperor Julian the Apostate and literary controversy with him St. Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, in connection with the previous history of the literary struggle between Christians and pagans. Simbirsk, 1908.
• Grevs I. M.,. Julian, Flavius ​​Claudius // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Rosenthal N. N. Julian the Apostate. The tragedy of a religious person. Pg, 1923.
• Popova T.V. Letters of Emperor Julian. // Antique epistolography. Essays. M., 1967. S. 226-259.
• Section on Julian in chapter 6 (Literature), by S. S. Averintsev. // Culture of Byzantium. 4th-first half of 7th c. M., 1984. S. 286-290.
• Julian. // Losev A.F. History of ancient aesthetics. [In 8 vol. T.7] Last centuries. Book 1. M., 1988. S. 359-408.
• Dmitriev V. A. Julian the Apostate: Man and Emperor // Metamorphoses of History: Almanac. Issue. 3. Pskov, 2003. S. 246-258.
• Solopova M. A. Julian Flavius ​​Claudius // Ancient Philosophy: encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 2008. 896 pp. 831-836.
• Paganism and Christianity in the middle of the 4th century. Julian the Apostate. characteristics of his reign. // F. I. Uspensky. History of the Byzantine Empire (VI-IX centuries) Publisher: Moscow, Direct-Media, 2008. 2160 p.

Fiction

• Strauss D.F. Romantic on the throne of the Caesars.
• Eichendorff J. Julian.
• Ibsen G. Caesar and the Galilean.
• Merezhkovsky D.S. Death of the gods. Julian the Apostate.
• Weingartner F. Julian the Apostate (opera).
• Vidal G. Julian.

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An excerpt characterizing Julian the Apostate

Eight stressful years have passed. Svetodar turned into a wonderful young man, now much more like his courageous father - Jesus-Radomir. He matured and got stronger, and in his clear blue eyes, the familiar steel hue began to appear more and more often, which once flashed so brightly in the eyes of his father.
Svetodar lived and studied very diligently, with all his heart hoping to someday become like Radomir. Wisdom and Knowledge he was taught by the Magus Easten who came there. Yes, yes, Isidora! – noticing my surprise, Seever smiled. - the same Easten whom you met in Meteora. Istan, together with Radan, tried in every possible way to develop the living thinking of Svetodar, trying to open the mysterious World of Knowledge for him as widely as possible, so that (in case of trouble) the boy would not remain helpless and could stand up for himself, meeting face to face with the enemy or losses.
Having said goodbye to his wonderful sister and Magdalena some time ago, Svetodar never saw them alive again... And although almost every month someone brought him fresh news from them, his lonely heart deeply yearned for his mother and sister - his the only real family, apart from Uncle Radan. But, despite his early age, Svetodar had already learned not to show his feelings, which he considered the unforgivable weakness of a real man. He aspired to grow up as a Warrior like his father, and did not want to show his vulnerability to others. This is how his uncle Radan taught him... and this is how his mother asked in her messages... distant and beloved Golden Mary.
After the senseless and terrible death of Magdalena, the whole inner world of Svetodar turned into a continuous pain ... His wounded soul did not want to accept such an unfair loss. And although Uncle Radan had been preparing him for such a possibility for a long time - the misfortune that had come hit the young man like a hurricane of unbearable torment, from which there was no escape... His soul suffered, writhing in impotent anger, for nothing could be changed... nothing could be returned back. His wonderful, tender mother has gone to a distant and unfamiliar world, taking his sweet little sister with her...
He was now completely alone in this cruel, cold reality, not even having time to become a real adult man, and not being able to properly understand how to stay alive in all this hatred and hostility ...
But the blood of Radomir and Magdalena, apparently, did not flow in vain in their only son - having suffered his pain and remaining the same persistent, Svetodar surprised even Radan, who (like no one else!) Knew how deeply vulnerable the soul can be, and how hard it is sometimes given returning back, where there are no longer those whom you loved and for whom you so sincerely and deeply yearned ...
Svetodar did not want to surrender to the mercy of grief and pain... The more ruthlessly "beat" his life, the more fiercely he tried to fight, knowing the way to the Light, to the Good, and to the salvation of human souls lost in the darkness... People came to him in a stream begging for help. Someone longed to get rid of the disease, someone longed to cure their heart, well, and someone just aspired to the Light, which Svetodar shared so generously.
Radan's anxiety grew. The fame of the "miracles" performed by his careless nephew has spread beyond the Pyrenees... More and more suffering people wanted to turn to the newly-minted "miracle worker". And he, as if not noticing the imminent danger, did not refuse anyone further, confidently walking in the footsteps of the deceased Radomir ...
A few more anxious years passed. Svetodar matured, becoming stronger and calmer. Together with Radan, they long ago moved to Occitania, where even the air seemed to breathe the teachings of his mother, the untimely deceased Magdalene. The surviving Knights of the Temple accepted her son with open arms, vowing to protect him and help him as much as they could.
And then one day, the day came when Radan felt a real, openly threatening danger... It was the eighth anniversary of the death of Golden Maria and Vesta, Svetodar's beloved mother and sister...

– Look, Isidora... – Sever said quietly. - I'll show you if you want.
A bright, but dreary, living picture immediately appeared in front of me ...
Gloomy, foggy mountains were generously sprinkled with importunate, drizzling rain, leaving a feeling of insecurity and sadness in the soul... Grey, impenetrable haze wrapped the nearest castles in cocoons of fog, turning them into lonely probation guarding eternal peace in the valley... The Valley of the Mages looked gloomily to a cloudy, joyless picture, remembering the bright, joyful days, illuminated by the rays of the hot summer sun ... And from this everything around became even more dreary and even sadder.
A tall and slender young man stood as a frozen “statue” at the entrance of a familiar cave, not moving and not showing any signs of life, as if a mournful stone statue carved by an unfamiliar master right in the same cold stone rock ... I realized that this must have been an adult Svetodar. He looked mature and strong. Powerful and at the same time - very kind ... Proud, held high head spoke of fearlessness and honor. Very long blond hair, tied at the forehead with a red ribbon, fell in heavy waves over his shoulders, making him look like an ancient king... a proud descendant of the Meravingles. Leaning against a damp stone, Svetodar stood, feeling neither cold nor moisture, or rather, feeling nothing...
Here, exactly eight years ago, his mother, Golden Mary, and his little sister, the brave, affectionate Vesta, died... They died, brutally and vilely murdered by a crazy, evil man... sent by the "fathers" of the Holy Church. Magdalene never lived to embrace her grown-up son, as boldly and faithfully as she, walking along the familiar road of Light and Knowledge.... Along the cruel earthly road of bitterness and loss...

“Svetodar has never been able to forgive himself for not being here when they needed his protection,” Sever continued quietly again. - Guilt and bitterness gnawed at his pure, warm heart, forcing him to fight even more fiercely with the non-humans, who called themselves "servants of God", "saviors" of the human soul ... He clenched his fists and swore to himself for the thousandth time that he would "rebuild" this "wrong" earthly world! It will destroy everything false, "black" and evil in it...
On the broad chest of Svetodar was the bloody cross of the Knights of the Temple... The cross of memory of Magdalene. And no Earthly power could make him forget the oath of knightly revenge. How kind and affectionate to bright and honest people was his young heart, so ruthless and severe was his cold brain towards the traitors and "servants" of the church. Svetodar was too determined and strict towards himself, but surprisingly patient and kind towards others. And only people without conscience and honor caused him real hostility. He did not forgive betrayal and lies in any of their manifested forms, and fought with this shame of a person by all possible means, sometimes even knowing that he could lose.
Suddenly, through a gray shroud of rain, a strange, unprecedented water ran along the rock hanging directly above him, the dark splashes of which sprinkled the walls of the cave, leaving eerie brown drops on it ... Svetodar, who had gone deep into himself, did not pay attention to this at the beginning, but then , looking closer, shuddered - the water was dark red! It flowed from the mountain in a stream of dark “human blood”, as if the Earth itself, unable to withstand the meanness and cruelty of man, opened up with the wounds of all his sins ... After the first stream, a second ... third ... fourth ... did not flow in streams of red water. There was a lot of her... It seemed that the holy blood of Magdalene was crying out for revenge, reminding the living of her grief!.. , majestically sailed, washing along the walls of old Carcassonne, carrying its streams further into the warm blue sea ...

Red clay in Occitania

(Having visited these sacred places, I managed to find out that the water in the mountains of Occitania turns red because of the red clay. But the sight of the running "bloody" water really made a very strong impression...).
Suddenly Svetodar listened warily... but immediately smiled warmly.
– Are you taking care of me again, uncle?
Radan stepped out from behind the stone ledge, sadly shaking his graying head. The years did not spare him, leaving a harsh imprint of anxieties and losses on his bright face ... He no longer seemed that happy young man, that ever-laughing sun-Radan, who could once melt even the hardest heart. Now it was a Warrior hardened by adversity, trying by any means to save his most precious treasure - the son of Radomir and Magdalena, the only living reminder of their tragic lives ... their courage ... their light and their love.
– You have a Duty, Lightgiven... Just like I do. You must survive. Whatever it takes. Because if you are gone, it will mean that your father and mother died in vain. That scoundrels and cowards have won our war... You have no right to that, my boy!
“You are mistaken, uncle. I have my right to it, because this is my life! And I will not allow anyone to write laws for her in advance. My father lived his brief life, obeying someone else's will ... Just like my poor mother. Only because, by someone else's decision, they saved those who hated them. I do not intend to obey the will of one person, even if this person is my own grandfather. This is my life, and I will live it the way I see fit and honest!.. Forgive me, Uncle Radan!
Svetodar got excited. His young mind resented the influence of others on his own destiny. According to the law of youth, he wanted to decide for himself, not allowing someone from outside to influence his valuable life. Radan only smiled sadly, watching his courageous pet... There was enough of everything in Svetodar - strength, intelligence, endurance and perseverance. He wanted to live his life honestly and openly... only, unfortunately, he did not yet understand that there could be no open war with those who hunted him. Just because it was they who had no honor, no conscience, no heart ...
“Well, you're right in your own way, my boy… It's your life. And no one can live it but you... I'm sure you'll live it with dignity. Just be careful, Svetodar - your father's blood flows in you, and our enemies will never back down to destroy you. Take care of yourself, my dear.
Patting his nephew on the shoulder, Radan sadly stepped aside and disappeared behind a ledge of stone rock. A second later there was a scream and a heavy thud. Something heavily fell to the ground and there was silence... Svetodar rushed towards the sound, but it was too late. On the stone floor of the cave, clinging in the last embrace, lay two bodies, one of which was a man he did not know, dressed in a cloak with a red cross, the second was ... Radan. With a piercing cry, Svetodar rushed to his uncle's body, which lay completely motionless, as if life had already left him, not even allowing him to say goodbye. But, as it turned out, Radan was still breathing.
- Uncle, please don't leave me!.. Not you... I beg you, don't leave me, uncle!
Svetodar bewilderedly squeezed him in his strong male embrace, gently rocking him like a small child. Just like how Radan once pumped him so many times... It was clear that life was leaving Radan, drop by drop flowing out of his weakened body in a golden stream... And even now, knowing that he was dying, he was worried only about one thing - how to save Svetodar ... How to explain to him in these remaining few seconds what he has not been able to convey for all his long twenty-five years? .. And how will he tell Maria and Radomir, there, in that other, in an unfamiliar world that could not save itself, that their son was now left all alone? ..

Dagger of Radan

“Listen, son… This man is not a Knight of the Temple. Radan said hoarsely, pointing to the dead man. - I know them all - he is a stranger ... Tell this to Gundomer ... He will help ... Find them ... or they will find you. And best of all - go away, Svetodarushka ... Go away to the Gods. They will protect you. This place is covered with our blood... there is too much of it here... go away, dear...
Slowly, slowly, Radan's eyes closed. From the unclenched powerless hand, a knight's dagger fell to the ground with a clang. It was very unusual... Svetodar took a closer look - this simply could not be!.. Such a weapon belonged to a very narrow circle of knights, only those who once personally knew John - at the end of the handle there was a gilded crowned head...
Svetodar knew for sure that Radan had no longer had this blade for a long time (it had once remained in the body of his enemy). So today, he, defending himself, grabbed the killer's weapon?.. But how could it fall into someone else's hands?!. Could one of the knights of the Temple he knew betray the cause for which they all lived?! Svetodar did not believe in it. He knew these people as he knew himself. None of them could have committed such low meanness. They could only be killed, but it was impossible to force them to betray. In that case, who was the person who wielded this special dagger?!
Radan lay motionless and calm. All earthly worries and bitterness left him forever... Hardened over the years, his face smoothed out, again resembling that joyful young Radan, whom Golden Mary loved so much, and whom his dead brother, Radomir, adored with all his heart... He again seemed happy and bright , as if there was no terrible misfortune nearby, as if everything in his soul was joyful and calm again ...
Svetodar was on his knees, not saying a word. His dead body only gently swayed from side to side, as if helping itself to endure, survive this heartless, vile blow ... Here, in the same cave, eight years ago Magdalena died ... And now he was saying goodbye to his last loved one being truly all alone. Radan was right – this place absorbed too much of their family blood... No wonder even the streams turned crimson... as if wanting to tell him to leave... And he never came back.
I was shaking with some strange fever... It was scary! It was completely unacceptable and incomprehensible - after all, we were called people !!! And there must be somewhere a limit to human meanness and betrayal?
– How could you live with it for so long, Sever? All these years, knowing this, how did you manage to remain so calm?!
He just smiled sadly, not answering my question. And I, sincerely surprised at the courage and steadfastness of this wonderful man, discovered for myself a completely new side of his selfless and hard life... his unyielding and pure soul ....
“A few more years have passed since Radan's murder. Svetodar avenged his death by finding the killer. As he suspected, it was not one of the Knights of the Temple. But they never knew who the man who had been sent to them really was. Only one thing nevertheless became known - before killing Radan, he also vilely destroyed the magnificent, bright Knight who had been walking with them from the very beginning. Destroyed just to get his cloak and weapon and give the impression that Radan was killed by his...
The heap of these bitter events poisoned the soul of Svetodar with losses. He had only one consolation - his pure, true love... His sweet, gentle Margarita... She was a wonderful Qatari girl, a follower of the teachings of the Golden Mary. And she somehow imperceptibly resembled Magdalene ... Either it was the same long golden hair, or the softness and slowness of her movements, or maybe just the tenderness and femininity of her face, but Svetodar very often caught himself on what he was looking for in her long gone, dear to my heart memories ... A year later they had a girl. They named her Mary.
As promised to Radan, little Maria was taken to the lovely courageous people - the Cathars - whom Svetodar knew very well and trusted completely. They pledged to raise Mary as their daughter, no matter what it costs them, and no matter what it threatens them with. Since then, this has been the custom - as soon as a new child was born in the line of Radomir and Magdalena, he was given up for education to people whom the “holy” church did not know and did not suspect. And this was done in order to save their priceless lives, to give them the opportunity to live them to the end. No matter how happy or sad he is...
- How could they give away their children, Sever? Did their parents never see them again? .. - I asked in shock.
- Why didn't you see it? Seen. It's just that each fate developed differently ... Later, some of the parents generally lived nearby, especially mothers. And sometimes there were cases that they were arranged even by the same people who raised their child. They lived differently ... Only one thing never changed - the servants of the church did not get tired of following their trail, like bloodhounds, not missing the slightest opportunity to destroy the parents and children who carried the blood of Radomir and Magdalena, fiercely hating even himself for this a small, newly born child...
- How often did they die - descendants? Did anyone stay alive and live their life to the end? Did you help them, Sever? Did Meteora help them?.. - I literally bombarded him with a hail of questions, unable to stop my burning curiosity.
Sever thought for a moment, then said sadly:
“We tried to help... but many of them didn't want to. I think that the news of a father who gave his son to perish lived in their hearts for centuries, not forgiving us, and not forgetting. The pain can be severe, Isidora. She does not forgive mistakes. Especially the ones that can't be fixed...
– Did you know any other of these wondrous descendants, Sever?
– Well, of course, Isidora! We knew everyone, but we didn't get to see everyone. Some I think you already know. But will you allow me to finish about Svetodar first? His fate was complicated and strange. Are you interested in learning about her? - I just nodded, and Sever continued... - After the birth of his wonderful daughter, Svetodar finally decided to fulfill Radan's wish... Do you remember, dying, Radan asked him to go to the Gods?
- Yes, but was it serious?! .. To what "gods" could he send him? After all, there are no living Gods on Earth for a long time! ..
– You are not quite right, my friend... Maybe this is not quite what people mean by Gods, but there is always someone on Earth who temporarily takes their place. Who is watching, so that the Earth does not come to a cliff, and life on it would not come to a terrible and premature end. The world has not yet been born, Isidora, you know that. The earth still needs constant help. But people should not know about it... They should get out themselves. Otherwise, help will only bring harm. Therefore, Radan was not so wrong in sending Svetodar to those who are watching. He knew that Svetodar would never come to us. So I tried to save him, to protect him from misfortune. After all, Svetodar was a direct descendant of Radomir, his first-born son. He was the most dangerous of all because he was the closest. And if he had been killed, this wonderful and bright Rod would never have continued.
Saying goodbye to his sweet, affectionate Margarita, and shaking little Maria for the last time, Svetodar set off on a very long and difficult journey ... To an unfamiliar northern country, to where the one to whom Radan sent him lived lived. And whose name was the Stranger...
Many more years will pass before Svetodar returns home. He will return to perish... But he will live a full and bright Life... He will gain Knowledge and Understanding of the world. He will find what he has been following for so long and stubbornly ...
I will show them to you, Isidora... I will show you something that I have never shown to anyone before.
There was a breath of cold and spaciousness around me, as if I had suddenly plunged into eternity... watched me for a moment, trying to understand who dared to disturb his peace. But soon this feeling disappeared, and only a big and deep, "warm" silence remained...
On the emerald, boundless clearing, cross-legged, two people were sitting opposite each other ... They were sitting with their eyes closed, without uttering a word. And yet, it was clear - they said ...
I understood - their thoughts were speaking... My heart was beating wildly, as if wanting to jump out!.. remember their images in my soul, for I knew that this would not happen again. Apart from the North, no one else will show me what was so closely connected with our past, with our suffering, but not surrendering Earth ...
One of those sitting looked very familiar, and, of course, having looked at him carefully, I immediately recognized Svetodar ... He almost did not change, only his hair became shorter. But the face remained almost as young and fresh as on the day when he left Montsegur ... The second was also relatively young and very tall (which was visible even sitting). His long, white, frost-covered hair fell over his broad shoulders, glowing like pure silver in the sun. This color was very unusual for us - as if not real... But what struck him the most was his eyes - deep, wise and very large, they shone with the same pure silvery light... As if someone with a generous hand scattered myriads of silver stars into them. .. The face of the stranger was hard and at the same time kind, collected and detached, as if at the same time he was living not only our, Earthly, but also some other, alien life...
If I understood correctly, this was exactly the one whom the North called the Wanderer. The one who watched...
Both were dressed in white and red long clothes, girded with a thick, twisted, red cord. The world around this unusual couple swayed smoothly, changing its shape, as if they were sitting in some kind of closed oscillating space, accessible only to the two of them. The air around was fragrant and cool, it smelled of forest herbs, fir trees and raspberries... A light, occasionally running breeze gently caressed the juicy tall grass, leaving in it the smells of distant lilacs, fresh milk and cedar cones... The land here was so surprisingly safe , pure and kind, as if worldly anxieties did not touch her, human malice did not penetrate into her, as if a deceitful, changeable person did not set foot there ...
The two speakers got up and, smiling at each other, began to say goodbye. Svetodar was the first to speak.
– Thank you, Stranger... I bow to you. I can't go back, you know. I'm going home. But I have memorized your lessons and will pass them on to others. You will always live in my memory as well as in my heart. Goodbye.
- Go, in peace, the son of bright people - Svetodar. I'm glad I met you. And I am sad that I say goodbye to you ... I gave you everything that you were able to comprehend ... And what you are able to give to others. But this does not mean that people will want to accept what you want to tell them. Remember, knowing, a person is responsible for his choice. Not gods, not fate - only the man himself! And until he understands this, the Earth will not change, it will not get better... An easy way home for you, dedicated one. May your Faith protect you. And may our Family help you ...
The vision is gone. The surroundings were empty and lonely. As if the old warm sun quietly disappeared behind a black cloud...
- How much time has passed since the day Svetodar left home, Sever? I already thought that he was leaving for a long time, maybe even for the rest of his life? ..
– And he stayed there all his life, Isidora. For six long decades.
But he looks very young? So he also managed to live long without aging? Did he know the old secret? Or was it taught to him by the Stranger?
“That I cannot tell you, my friend, for I do not know. But I know something else - Svetodar did not have time to teach what the Stranger taught him for years - he was not allowed ... But he managed to see the continuation of his wonderful Family - a small great-great-grandson. Managed to call him by his real name. This gave Svetodar a rare opportunity - to die happy ... Sometimes even this is enough to make life not seem in vain, isn't it, Isidora?
- And again - fate chooses the best! .. Why did he have to study all his life? Why did he leave his wife and child, if everything turned out to be in vain? Or was there some great meaning in it, which I still cannot comprehend, Sever?
“Do not kill yourself in vain, Isidora. You understand everything very well - look into yourself, because the answer is your whole life ... You are fighting, knowing full well that you will not be able to win - you will not be able to win. But how can you do otherwise?.. A person cannot, has no right to give up, admitting the possibility of losing. Even if it’s not you, but someone else who, after your death, will be ignited by your courage and courage, it’s not in vain. It's just that an earthly person has not yet matured to be able to comprehend such a thing. For most people, fighting is only interesting as long as they stay alive, but none of them are interested in what happens after. They still do not know how to "live for posterity", Isidora.
“It's sad, if you're right, my friend... But it won't change today. Therefore, returning to the old, can you say how Svetodar's life ended?
North smiled kindly.
– And you are also changing a lot, Isidora. Even in our last meeting, you would have rushed to assure me that I was wrong! .. You began to understand a lot, my friend. It's only a pity that you're leaving in vain... you can incomparably more!
The North was silent for a moment, but almost immediately continued.
- After long and hard years of lonely wanderings, Svetodar finally returned home, to his beloved Oksitania ... where sad, irreparable losses awaited him.
Long ago, his sweet tender wife, Margarita, passed away, who never waited for him to share their difficult life with him ... He also did not find his wonderful granddaughter Tara, who was given to them by their daughter Maria ... and great-granddaughter Maria, who died at the birth of his great-great-grandson, who was born just three years ago. Too much of his family was lost... Too heavy a burden crushed him, not allowing him to enjoy the rest of his life... Look at them, Isidora... They are worth knowing.
And again I appeared where long-dead people lived, who became dear to my heart... Bitterness wrapped my soul in a shroud of silence, not allowing me to communicate with them. I couldn't address them, I couldn't even tell how courageous and wonderful they were...

Occitania...

Three people were standing at the very top of a high stone mountain... One of them was Svetodar, he looked very sad. Nearby, leaning on his arm, stood a very beautiful young woman, and a little blond boy clung to her, clutching a huge armful of bright wildflowers to his chest.
- Whom did you get so much, Belayarushka? Svetodar asked kindly.
- Well, how?! .. - the boy was surprised, immediately dividing the bouquet into three even parts. - This is for mommy ... And this is for dear grandmother Tara, and this is for grandmother Maria. Isn't that right, grandpa?
Svetodar did not answer, only tightly pressed the boy to his chest. He was all he had left... this wonderful sweet baby. After the great-granddaughter Maria, who died during childbirth, whom Svetodar never saw, the baby had only Aunt Marsilla (standing next to them) and his father, whom Beloyar almost did not remember, since he fought somewhere all the time.
- Is it true that you will never leave now, grandfather? Is it true that you will stay with me and teach me? Aunt Marcilla says that now you will always live only with us. Is it true, grandpa?
The baby's eyes shone like bright stars. Apparently, the appearance of such a young and strong grandfather from somewhere delighted the baby! Well, the “grandfather”, sadly hugging him, thought at that time about those whom he would never see again, even if he lived on Earth for even a hundred lonely years ...
“I’m not going anywhere, Belayarushka. Where can I go if you are here? .. We will always be together with you now, right? You and I are such a great power! .. Right?
The kid squealed with pleasure and clung to his newly-born grandfather, as if he could suddenly take and disappear, just as suddenly as he appeared.
“Are you really not going anywhere, Svetodar?” Marcilla asked softly.
Svetodar just shook his head sadly. And where was he to go, where to go?.. This was his land, his roots. Here lived and died everyone whom he loved, who was dear to him. And this is where he went HOME. In Montsegur he was incredibly welcome. True, there was not a single one of those who would remember him. But there were their children and grandchildren. There were his Cathars, whom he loved with all his heart and respected with all his soul.
The faith of Magdalene flourished in Occitania like never before, having long passed beyond its borders! This was the Golden Age of the Cathars. When their teachings rushed through the countries in a powerful, invincible wave, sweeping away any obstacles on their clean and right path. More and more newcomers joined them. And despite all the "black" attempts of the "holy" Catholic Church to destroy them, the teachings of Magdalene and Radomir captured all truly bright and courageous hearts, and all sharp minds open to new things. In the farthest corners of the earth, minstrels sang the marvelous songs of the Occitan troubadours, which opened the eyes and minds of the enlightened, but they amused the “ordinary” people with their romantic skill.