To this they added the name of Greeks and Impostors. Which is noted by St. Jerome(viii) who says
* Chrys. Horn. 63. torn. 5.
** Naz. i. Invectiv.
*** Dio in Domitian.
**** Athen. Legat. pro Christ.
(v) Just. Apol. i. p. 47.
(vi) Arnob. lib. i.
(vii) Euseb. lib. iv. c. 15.
(viii) Hieron. Ep. 10. ad Furiara. Ubicunque viderint
wheresoever they saw a Christian, they would presently cry out, '[—Greek—], 'Behold a Grecian impostor.' This was the character which the Jews gave our Saviour, [—Greek—]' that deceiver*, Matt, xxvii. 63. And Justin Martyr** says, they endeavoured to propagate it to posterity, sending their apostles or emissaries from Jerusalem to all the synagogues in the world, to bid them beware of a certain impious, lawless sect, lately risen up under one Jesus, a Galilæan impostor. Hence Lucian*** took occasion in his blasphemous raillery to style him The crucified sophister. And Celsus**** commonly gives him and his followers the name of [—Greek—] 'deceivers.' So Asclepiades the judge in Prudentius**** compliments them with the appellation of sophisters; and Ulpian(v) proscribes them in a law by the name of impostors.
The reason why they added the name of Greeks
* Christianum, statim illud de Trivio, [—Greek—] vocant
Impostorem.
** Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. p. 335.
*** Lucian. Peregrin.
**** Cels. ap. Orig. lib. i. et lib. 6.
(v) Prudent. [—Greek—]. Carm. 9. de Romano Marty. Quis hos
Sophistas error invexit novus, &c.
(vi) Digest, lib. 50. tit. 13. c 1. Si incantavit, si in-
precatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo Impostoruxn utar) si
exorcisavit
to that of impostors, was (as learned men* conjecture) because many of the Christian philosophers took upon them the Grecian or philosophic habit, which was the [—Greek—] or pallium: whence the Greeks were called Pallitati, as the Romans were called Togati, or Gens togata, from their proper habit, which was the toga. Now it being some offence to the Romans to see the Christians quit the Roman gown, to wear the Grecian cloak; they thence took occasion, to mock and deride them with the scurrilous names of Greeks, and Grecian impostors. Tertullian s book de Pallio was written to show the spiteful malice of this foolish objection.
But the heathens went one step further in their malice; and because our Saviour and his followers did many miracles, which they imputed to evil arts and the power of magic, they therefore generally declaimed against them as magicians, and under that character exposed them to the fury of the vulgar. Celsus** and others pretended that our Saviour studied magic in Egypt: and St. Austin*** says, it was generally believed among the heathens, that he
* Kortholt de Morib. Christian, c. 3. p. 23. Baron an.
56. n. 11.
** Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 2. Arrobius, lib. 1. p. 36.
*** Aug. de Consensu Evang. lib. 1. c. 9.