face that betokens urgent business.
CAESARIUS.
Most gracious Emperor, will you permit your servant to ask a question,
in his own name, and that of these much disquieted men?
JULIAN.
Ask, my dearest Caesarius! Are you not my beloved Gregory’s brother?
Ask, ask!
CAESARIUS.
Tell me, then, sire——[_He observes HEKEBOLIUS._] What do I see!
Hekebolius here?
JULIAN.
Newly returned——
CAESARIUS.
[_Trying to draw back._] Then I beg leave to defer——
JULIAN.
No, no, my Caesarius; this friend may hear everything.
CAESARIUS.
Friend, say you? Oh my Emperor, then you have not ordered these
imprisonments?
JULIAN.
What mean you?
CAESARIUS.
Do you not know? Nevita—the general-in-chief, as he now calls himself—is
instituting prosecutions under pretext of your authority, against all
the trusted servants of your predecessor.
JULIAN.
Investigations, highly necessary investigations, my Caesarius!
CAESARIUS.
Oh sire, forbid him to go about it so harshly. The book-keeper Pentadius
is being hunted down by soldiers; and likewise a certain captain of
Praetorians, whose name you have forbidden us to mention; you know whom
I mean, sire—that unhappy man who is already, with his whole household,
in hiding for fear of you.
JULIAN.
You do not know this man. In Gaul, he cherished the most audacious
designs.
CAESARIUS.
That may be; but now he is harmless. And not he alone is threatened with
destruction; the treasurer, Ursulus, is imprisoned——
JULIAN.
Ah, Ursulus? So that has been found needful.
CAESARIUS.
Needful? Could _that_ be needful, sire. Think of Ursulus, that stainless
old man—that man before whose word high and low bend in reverence——
JULIAN.
A man utterly devoid of judgment, I tell you! Ursulus is a prodigal,
who, without any demur, has gorged the rapacity of the court servants.
And besides, he is useless in affairs of state. I have found that to my
cost. I could never trust him to receive the emissaries of foreign
princes.
CAESARIUS.
And yet we beg you, sire—all who are here present—to be magnanimous,
both to Ursulus and to the others.
JULIAN.
Who are the others?
CAESARIUS.
Too many, I fear. I will only name the under-treasurer, Evagrius, the
late chamberlain, Saturninus, the supreme judge, Cyrenus, and——
JULIAN.
Why do you stop?
CAESARIUS.
[_With hesitation._] Sire—the late Empress’s reader, Hekebolius, is also
among the accused.
JULIAN.
What!
HEKEBOLIUS.
I? Impossible!
CAESARIUS.
Accused of having accepted bribes from unworthy office-seekers——
JULIAN.
Hekebolius accused of that——? A man like Hekebolius——?
HEKEBOLIUS.
What shameful slander! Oh Christ—I mean to say—oh heavenly divinities!
CAESARIUS.
Ah!
JULIAN.
What mean you?
CAESARIUS.
[_Coldly._] Nothing, most gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
Caesarius!
CAESARIUS.
Yes, my august master!
JULIAN.
Not master; call me your friend.
CAESARIUS.
Dare a Christian call you so!
JULIAN.
I pray you banish such thoughts, Caesarius! You must not believe that of
me. How can I help all these accused men being Christians? Does it not
merely show that the Christians have contrived to seize all the
lucrative posts? And can the Emperor suffer the most important offices
of the state to be badly administered?
[_To the others._
You surely do not think that it is your creed which has kindled my wrath
against dishonest officials? I call all the gods to witness that I will
permit no proceedings against you Christians that are not consonant with
law and justice, nor will I suffer any one to do you wrong. You, or at
any rate many of you, are pious in your way, since you too adore that
Lord who is all-powerful, and who rules over the whole visible
world.—Oh, my Caesarius, is it not he whom I also adore, though under
other names?
CAESARIUS.
Suffer me, gracious Emperor——
JULIAN.
Moreover, it is my intention to show clemency wherever it is fit that I
should do so. As to Hekebolius, his secret enemies must not imagine that
they will be suffered to injure him by tale-bearing or any other sort of
paltry intrigue.
HEKEBOLIUS.
My Emperor! My shield and my defence!
JULIAN.
Nor is it my will that all the minor court servants should be
unmercifully deprived of their subsistence. I have specially in mind
that barber whom I dismissed. I am sorry for it. The man may remain. He
seemed to me one who understood his business thoroughly. All honour to
such people! So far I can go, my Caesarius, but no further. I cannot
interfere on behalf of Ursulus. I must act so that the blind, and yet so
keen-eyed, Goddess of Justice may have no reason to knit her brows over
a mortal to whom she has confided so great a responsibility.
CAESARIUS.
After this, I have not a word more to say for those unfortunates. I only
crave permission to leave the court and city.
JULIAN.
Would you leave me?
CAESARIUS.
Yes, most gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
You are stiff-necked, like your brother.
CAESARIUS.
The new order of things gives me much to reflect upon.
JULIAN.
I had great designs for you Caesarius! It would be a great joy to me, if
you could renounce your errors. Can you not?
CAESARIUS.
God knows what I might have done a month ago;—now I cannot.
Julian.
A marriage into one of the most powerful families should stand open to
you. Will you not bethink you?
CAESARIUS.
No, most gracious lord.
JULIAN.
A man like you could quickly mount from step to step. Caesarius, is it
not possible that you can give me your aid in furthering the new order
of things?
CAESARIUS.
No, most gracious lord!
JULIAN.
I do not mean here, but in other places. It is my intention to depart
from here. Constantinople is very unpleasing to me; you Galileans have
spoiled it for me in every way. I shall go to Antioch; there I shall
find better soil to work upon. I thought you would accompany me. Will
you not, Caesarius?
CAESARIUS.
Most gracious lord, I too am bound for the east; but I will go alone.
JULIAN.
And what will you do there?
CAESARIUS.
Visit my old father; help Gregory to strengthen him for the coming
struggle.
JULIAN.
Go!
CAESARIUS.
Farewell, my Emperor!
JULIAN.
Happy father, with such unhappy sons!
[_He makes a gesture with his hand; CAESARIUS and those with him
bow low, and go out to the left._
HEKEBOLIUS.
What reckless and most unseemly defiance!
JULIAN.
My heart is wounded to the quick by this and many other things. You, my
Hekebolius, shall accompany me. The ground burns beneath my feet in this
poisoned Galilean city! I will write to those philosophers, Kytron and
Priscus, who have won so great fame of late years. Maximus I expect
every day; he shall go with us.—I tell you there are joyful days of
victory awaiting us, Hekebolius! In Antioch, my friend,—there we shall
meet the incomparable Libanius,—and there we are nearer Helios at his
rising. Oh, this irresistible yearning towards the Sun-King——!
HEKEBOLIUS.
Yes, yes, yes——!
JULIAN.
[_Embracing him._] My Hekebolius!—Wisdom; light; beauty!
ACT SECOND.
SCENE FIRST.
_A spacious vestibule in the Emperor’s Palace, at Antioch. An open
entrance in the background; on the left is a door, leading into
the inner rooms._
_On a raised seat in the foreground, to the right, sits the EMPEROR
JULIAN, surrounded by his court. Judges, Orators, Poets, and
Teachers, among them HEKEBOLIUS, sit on lower seats around him.
Leaning against the wall near the entrance stands A MAN, dressed
as a Christian Priest; he hides his face in his hands, and seems
rapt in prayer. A great gathering of citizens fills the hall.
Guards at the entrance, and at the door on the left._
JULIAN.
[_Addressing the assemblage._] So great success have the gods vouchsafed
me. Hardly a single city have I approached on my journey, whence whole
troops of Galileans have not streamed forth to meet me on the road,
lamenting their errors, and placing themselves under the protection of
the divine powers. Compared with this, what signifies the senseless
behaviour of the scoffers? May not the scoffers be likened to dogs, who
in their ignorance yelp at the moon? Yet I will not deny that I have
learned with indignation that some inhabitants of this city have spoken
scornfully of the rule of life which I have enjoined on the priests of
Cybele, the good goddess. Ought not reverence for so exalted a divinity
to protect her servants from mockery? I say to those foolhardy men: Are
ye barbarians, since ye know not who Cybele is? Must I solemnly remind
you how, when the power of Rome was so gravely threatened by that Punic
commander, whose grave I saw not long since in Libyssa, the Cumaean
Sybil counselled that the statue of Cybele should be taken from the
temple in Pessinus, and brought to Rome? As to the priests’ way of life,
some have wondered that they should be forbidden to eat roots, and
everything that grows along the earth, while they are allowed to partake
of upward-growing herbs and fruits. Oh, how dense is your ignorance—I
pity you if you cannot understand this! Can the spirit of man find
nourishment in that which creeps along the ground? Does not the soul
live by all that yearns upward, towards heaven and the sun? I will not
enter more largely into these matters to-day. What remains to be said
you shall learn from a treatise I am composing during my sleepless
nights, which I hope will shortly be recited both in the lecture-halls
and on the market-places.
[_He rises._
And with this, my friends, if no one has anything further to bring
forward——
A CITIZEN.
[_Pressing to the front._] Oh most gracious Emperor, let me not go
unheard!
JULIAN.
[_Sitting down again._] Surely not, my friend. Who are you?
THE CITIZEN.
I am Medon, the corn-merchant. Oh, if my love for you, exalted and
divine Emperor——
JULIAN.
Come to your case, man!
MEDON.
I have a neighbour, Alites, who for many years has done me every
imaginable injury; for he, too, is a dealer in corn, and takes the bread
out of my mouth in the most shameful way——
JULIAN.
Aha, my good Medon; yet you look not ill-fed.
MEDON.
Nor is that the matter, most gracious Emperor! Oh, by the august gods,
whom every day I learn to love and praise more highly—his affronts to me
I could overlook; but what I cannot suffer——
JULIAN.
He surely does not insult the gods?
MEDON.
He does what is worse,—or at least equally shameless; he—oh, I scarce
know whether my indignation will permit me to utter it,—he insults you
yourself, most gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
Indeed? In what words?
MEDON.
Not in words, but worse—in act.
JULIAN.
Then in what act?
MEDON.
He wears a purple robe——
JULIAN.
A purple robe? Oho, that is bold.
MEDON.
Oh, great wing-footed Mercury, when I think how he would have paid for
that robe in your predecessor’s time! And this garment of vainglory I
have daily before my eyes——
JULIAN.
This garment, bought with money that might have been yours——
MEDON.
Oh most gracious Emperor,—punish his audacity; let him be expelled the
city; my love for our great and august ruler will not suffer me to
remain a witness of such shameless arrogance.
JULIAN.
Tell me, good Medon, what manner of clothes does Alites wear, besides
the purple cloak?
MEDON.
Truly I cannot call to mind, sire; ordinary clothes, I think; I have
only remarked the purple cloak.
JULIAN.
A purple cloak, then, and untanned sandals——?
MEDON.
Yes, sire; it looks as ludicrous as it is audacious.
JULIAN.
We must remedy this, Medon!
MEDON.
[_Joyfully._] Ah, most gracious Emperor——?
JULIAN.
Come early to morrow to the palace——
MEDON.
[_Still more delighted._] I will come very early, most gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
Give your name to my Chamberlain——
MEDON.
Yes, yes, my most gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
You will receive from him a pair of purple shoes, embroidered with
gold——
MEDON.
Ah, my most generous lord and Emperor!
JULIAN.
These shoes you will take to Alites, place them on his feet, and say
that henceforth he must not fail to put them on, whenever he would walk
abroad by daylight in his purple cloak——
MEDON.
Oh!
JULIAN.
——and, that done, you may tell him from me, that he is a fool if he
thinks himself honoured by a purple robe, having not the power of the
purple.—Go; and come for the shoes to-morrow!
[_The Corn Merchant slinks away, amid the laughter of the
citizens; the Courtiers, Orators, Poets, and the rest clap
their hands, with loud exclamations of approval._
ANOTHER CITIZEN.
[_Stepping forward from the crowd._] Praised be the Emperor’s justice!
Oh how richly this envious corn-miser deserves his punishment! Oh hear
me, and let your favour——
JULIAN.
Aha; methinks I know that face. Were not you one of those who shouted
before my chariot as I drove into the city?
THE CITIZEN.
None shouted louder than I, incomparable Emperor! I am Malchus, the
tax-gatherer. Ah, grant me your aid! I am engaged in a law-suit with an
evil and grasping man——
JULIAN.
And therefore you come to me? Are there not judges——?
MALCHUS.
The affair is somewhat involved, noble Emperor. It concerns a field,
which I leased to this bad man, having bought it seven years since, when
part of the domain belonging to the Apostles’ Church was sold.
JULIAN.
So, so; church property, then?
MALCHUS.
Honestly purchased; but now this man denies either to pay me rent, or to
give up the property, under pretext that this field once belonged to the
temple of Apollo, and, as he declares, was unlawfully confiscated many
years ago.
JULIAN.
Tell me, Malchus,—you seem to be a follower of the Galilean?
MALCHUS.
Most gracious Emperor, ’tis an old tradition in our family to
acknowledge Christ.
JULIAN.
And this you say openly, without fear?
MALCHUS.
My adversary is bolder than I, sire! He goes in and out, as before; he
fled not the city when he heard of your approach.
JULIAN.
Fled not? And why should he flee, this man who stands out for the rights
of the gods?
MALCHUS.
Most gracious Emperor, you have doubtless heard of the book-keeper,
Thalassius?
JULIAN.
What! That Thalassius who, to ingratiate himself with my predecessor,
whilst I was being slandered and menaced in Gaul, proposed, here in
Antioch, in the open market-place, that the citizens should petition the
Emperor to send them Julian Caesar’s head!
MALCHUS.
Sire, it is this, your deadly foe, who is wronging me.
JULIAN.
Truly, Malchus, I have as great ground of complaint against this man as
you have.
MALCHUS.
Tenfold greater, my gracious Emperor?
JULIAN.
What think you? Shall we two combine our quarrels, and prosecute him
together?
MALCHUS.
Oh, what exceeding grace! Oh tenfold happiness!
JULIAN.
Oh tenfold foolishness! Thalassius goes in and out as before, you say?
He has not fled the city at my approach. Thalassius knows me better than
you. Away with you, man! When I indict Thalassius for my head, you may
indict him for your field.
MALCHUS.
[_Wringing his hands._] Oh tenfold misery!
[_He goes out by the back; the assembly again applauds the
Emperor._
JULIAN.
That is well, my friends; rejoice that I have succeeded in making a not
altogether unworthy beginning to this day, which is specially dedicate
to the feast of the radiant Apollo. For is it not worthy of a
philosopher to overlook affronts against himself, whilst he sternly
chastises wrongs done to the immortal gods? I do not recall whether that
crowned cultivator of learning, Marcus Aurelius, was ever in like case;
but if he was, we must hope that he did not act quite unlike me, who
hold it an honour to follow humbly in his footsteps.
Let this serve as a clue for your future guidance. In the palace, in the
market-place, even in the theatre—did I not loathe to enter such a place
of folly—it is fit that you should greet me with acclamation and joyful
applause. Such homage, I know, was well received both by the Macedonian
Alexander and by Julius Caesar, men who were also permitted by the
Goddess of Fortune to outshine other mortals in glory.
But when you see me entering a temple, that is another affair. Then I
desire you to be silent, or direct your plaudits to the gods, and not to
me, as I advance with bent head and downcast eyes. And above all, I
trust you will be heedful of this to-day, when I am to sacrifice to so
transcendent and mighty a divinity as he whom we know by the name of the
Sun-King, and who seems even greater in our eyes when we reflect that he
is the same whom certain oriental peoples call Mithra.
And with this—if no one has more to say——
THE PRIEST AT THE DOOR.
_[Draws himself up._] In the name of the Lord God!
JULIAN.
Who speaks?
THE PRIEST.
A servant of God and of the Emperor.
JULIAN.
Approach. What would you?
THE PRIEST.
I would speak to your heart and to your conscience.
JULIAN.
[_Springing up._] What voice was that! What do I see! In spite of beard
and habit——! Gregory!
THE PRIEST.
Yes, my august master!
JULIAN.
Gregory! Gregory of Nazianzus!
GREGORY.
Yes, gracious Emperor!
JULIAN.
[_Has descended and grasped his hands; he now looks long at him._] A
little older; browner; broader. No; ’twas only at the first glance; now
you are the same as ever.
GREGORY.
Oh that it were so with you, sire!
JULIAN.
Athens. That night in the portico. No man has lain so near my heart as
you.
GREGORY.
Your heart? Ah, Emperor, you have torn out of your heart a better friend
than I.
JULIAN.
You mean Basil?
GREGORY.
I mean a greater than Basil.
JULIAN.
[_Glooming._] Ah! So that is what you come to tell me? And in that
habit——
GREGORY.
I did not choose this habit, sire!
JULIAN.
Not you? Who then?
GREGORY.
He who is greater than the Emperor.
JULIAN.
I know your Galilean phrases. For the sake of our friendship, spare me
them.
GREGORY.
Let me, then, begin by telling you how it is that you see me here,
ordained a priest of the church you are persecuting.
JULIAN.
[_With a sharp look._] Persecuting!
[_He ascends the daïs again and sits down._
Now speak on.
GREGORY.
You know what were my thoughts of things divine, during our happy
comradeship in Athens. But then it was far from my purpose to renounce
the joys of life. Neither ambition nor the thirst for riches, I can
truly say, has ever tempted me; yet I should scarce tell the truth if I
denied that my eye and my mind dwelt wonderingly on all the glories
which the old learning and art of Greece revealed to me. The wranglings
and petty schisms in our church afflicted me deeply; but I took no part
in them; I served my countrymen in temporal things; nothing more——
Then came tidings from Constantinople. It was said that Constantius had
died of terror at your proceedings, and had declared you his heir.
Heralded by the renown of your victories, and received as a superhuman
being, you, the hero of Gaul and Germany, had ascended the throne of
Constantine without striking a blow. The earth lay at your feet.
Then came further tidings. The lord of earth was girding himself up to
war against the Lord of heaven——
JULIAN.
Gregory, what do you presume——!
GREGORY.
The lord of the body was girding himself up to war against the Lord of
the soul. I stand here before you in bodily fear and trembling; but I
dare not lie. Will you hear the truth, or shall I be silent?
JULIAN.
Say on, Gregory!
GREGORY.
What have not my fellow Christians already suffered during these few
months? How many sentences of death have been passed, and executed in
the cruellest fashion? Gaudentius, the state secretary; Artemius, the
former governor of Egypt; the two tribunes, Romanus and Vincentius——
JULIAN.
You know not what you speak of. I tell you, the Goddess of Justice would
have wept had those traitors escaped with their lives.
GREGORY.
That may be, my Emperor; but I tell you that one sentence of death has
been passed which the God of Justice can never forgive you. Ursulus! The
man who stood your friend in times of need! Ursulus who, at the risk of
his own life, supplied you with money in Gaul! Ursulus, whose sole crime
was his Christian faith and his sincerity——
JULIAN.
Ah, this you have from your brother, Caesarius!
GREGORY.
Punish me, sire; but spare my brother.
JULIAN.
You well know that you risk nothing, Gregory! Besides, I will grant you
that Nevita acted too harshly.
GREGORY.
Ay, that barbarian, who tries in vain to hide his origin under a Greek
veneer——!
JULIAN.
Nevita is zealous in his duty, and I cannot myself be everywhere. For
Ursulus I have mourned sincerely, and I deeply deplore that neither time
nor circumstances allowed me to examine into his case myself. I should
certainly have spared him, Gregory! I have thought, too, of restoring to
his heirs any property he has left behind.
GREGORY.
Great Emperor, you owe me no reckoning for your acts. I only wished to
tell you that all these tidings fell like thunderbolts in Caesarea and
Nazianzus, and the other Cappadocian cities. How shall I describe their
effect! Our internal wranglings were silenced by the common danger. Many
rotten branches of the Church fell away; but in many indifferent hearts
the light of the Lord was kindled with a fervour before undreamt-of.
Meanwhile oppression overtook God’s people. The heathen—I mean, my
Emperor, those whom _I_ call heathen—began to threaten, to injure, to
persecute us——
JULIAN.
Retaliation,—retaliation, Gregory!
GREGORY.
Far be it from me to justify all that my fellow Christians may have done
in their excessive zeal for the cause of the Church. But you, who are so
enlightened, and have power over all alike, cannot permit the living to
suffer for the faults of the dead. Yet so it has been in Cappadocia. The
enemies of the Christians, few in number, but thirsting after gain, and
burning with eagerness to ingratiate themselves with the new officials,
have awakened fear and perturbation among the people both in town and
country.
I am not thinking chiefly of the insults we have had to suffer, nor of
the infringements of our just rights of property, to which we have been
constantly exposed of late. What most grieves me and all my earnest
brethren, is the peril to souls. Many are not firm-rooted in the faith,
and cannot quite shake off the care for earthly goods. The harsh
treatment which has now to be endured by all who bear the name of
Christian has already led to more than one apostasy. Sire, this is
soul-robbery from God’s kingdom.
JULIAN.
Oh, my wise Gregory,—how can you talk so? I wonder at you? Should you
not rather, as a good Galilean, rejoice that your community is rid of
such men?
GREGORY.
Gracious Emperor, I am not of that opinion. I have myself been
indifferent in the faith, and I look upon all such as sick men, who are
not past cure, so long as they remain in the bosom of the Church. So,
too, thought our little congregation at Nazianzus. Brethren and sisters,
in deep distress, assembled to take counsel against the perils of the
time. They were joined by delegates from Caesarea and other cities. My
father is infirm, and—as he owns with sorrow—does not possess the
steadfast, immovable will which, in these troublous times, is needful
for him who sits in the bishop’s chair. The assembly determined that a
younger man should be chosen as his helper, to hold the Lord’s flock
together.
The choice fell on me.
JULIAN.
Ah!
GREGORY.
I was then away on a journey. But in my absence, and without consulting
me, my father ordained me a priest and sent me the priestly habit.
These tidings reached me in Tiberina, at my country house, where I was
passing some days with my brother and with the friend of my youth, Basil
of Caesarea.
Sire—had my sentence of death been read to me, it could not have
appalled me more than this.
I a priest! I wished it, and I wished it not. I felt it must be—and yet
my courage failed. I wrestled with God the Lord, as the patriarch
wrestled with him in the days of the old covenant. What passed in my
soul during the night which followed, I cannot tell. But this I know
that, ere the cock crew, I talked face to face with the Crucified
One.—Then I was his.
JULIAN.
Folly, folly; I know those dreams.
GREGORY.