Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The empire from Constantine the Great to Justinian

Julian the Apostate (361-363)

Page 8

Ammianus Marcellinus, a friend of Julian and his companion in military campaigns, explained briefly this edict; (Julian) forbade the Christian masters of rhetorical grammar to teach unless they came over to the worship of the gods, in other words, unless they became pagans. On the basis of references made by some of the Christian writers of that time, some people suppose that Julian issued a second decree forbidding Christians not only to teach but even to study in the public schools. St. Augustine wrote: And did not Julian, who forbade the Christians to teach and study the liberal arts (liberales litteras), persecute the church? But the text of the second decree has not been preserved; it is possible that such a decree was never issued, especially since the first decree forbidding the Christians to teach indirectly involved the restriction upon study. After the publication of the teaching edict the Christians could send their children only to grammar and rhetorical schools with pagan teaching, and from that the majority of Christians abstained because they feared that within one or two generations of pagan instruction Christian youth might return to paganism. On the other hand, if Christians were not to receive a general education, they were bound to become the intellectual inferiors of the pagans. Thus Julians decree, even if there was only one, was of extreme significance to the Christians, since it greatly endangered the future of Christianity. Gibbon quite justly remarked: The Christians were directly forbidden to teach; they were also indirectly forbidden to study, since they could not (morally) attend pagan schools.

An overwhelmingly large majority of the Christian rhetoricians and grammarians preferred to abandon their profession rather than turn back to paganism. Even among the pagans the attitude toward Julian's edict varied. The pagan writer Ammianus Marcellinus wrote concerning this: But Julian's forbidding masters of rhetoric and grammar to instruct Christians was a cruel action, and one deserving to be buried in everlasting silence.

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