"Most merciful Cæsar, that is hard on us, for these relics have long
rested here, in a place blessed by the will of Cæsar Gallus. But as it
is a matter beyond our jurisdiction, we are forced to refer it to the
bishop."
A murmur ran through the crowd; an urchin hidden in a laurel bush
shouted--
"The butcher comes With a big, big knife!"
But he received such a buffet that he fled, howling.
The arch-priest, feeling that decency obliged him to defend the
relics, coughed again and began--
"If it pleases your High Wisdom to give this order on account of the
idol..." he quickly corrected himself.
"Of the Hellenic god, Helios...."
The Emperor's eyes sparkled with rage.
"The 'idol,'" he interrupted, "'idol' is your word. For what imbeciles
do you take us, if you think that we worship the matter that
represents our gods, metal, stone, or wood. All your preachers preach
this, but it is a lie. We worship not these things, but the soul, the
living soul of beauty in these models of the purest human beauty. It
is not we, the idolaters, but you--you, who devour each other like
wild beasts for the sake of an iota; you, who kiss the rotten bones of
criminals punished for breaking the Roman laws; you, who call the
fratricide Constantius an 'Eternal Holiness!' To deify the splendid
sculptures of Phidias, which breathe Olympian beauty and goodness, is
that less reasonable than to bow before two crossed beams of wood, a
shameful instrument of torture? Must one blush for you, pity you, or
hate you? It is the pitch of mad degradation for our country, to see
sons of the Hellenes, who read Plato and Homer, rushing to an outcast
tribe, a tribe almost blotted out by Vespasian and Titus, in order to
deify a dead man!... And you still dare to accuse us of idolatry!"
The arch-priest imperturbably stroked his long beard, and looking at
Julian askance, wiped the perspiration from his glistening forehead.