The history of the Jews: From the war with Rome to the present time

by H. C. Adams

[58] Cyril, it should be remarked, says nothing of these miracles, which are reported by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret.

[59] Comp. Isa. xlv. 6, 7, where the idea is directly confuted.

CHAPTER VII.
A.D. 363-429.
JOVIAN TO HONORIUS.—MUTUAL JEALOUSIES AND OUTRAGES.—SUPPRESSION OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF TIBERIAS.

Jovian, a stern enemy of the Jews, succeeded to the throne vacated by Julian, but, fortunately for them, reigned for a few months only. Valens and Valentinian, who followed, reinstated the Jews in the possession of their ancient rights, but withdrew the exemption from serving public offices, which they had hitherto enjoyed. Under their rule, as under that of all succeeding emperors to the time of Justinian, the main things that attract the reader’s notice are the mutual jealousies of the Jews and Christians, for ever breaking out into acts of lawless violence, the blame of which does not lie wholly on one side. The idea seems to have possessed the minds of the Christians, even of their bishops (whose training and office should have taught them better), that the Jews as a race were the personal enemies of Christ,[60] and, as such, objects of aversion and horror. This was a fruitful source of the wrongs, oppressions, and cruelties with which the pages of their after history are so deeply stained. The emperors strove, to the best of their ability, to hold the balance of justice evenly between the contending parties, but often found it impossible to do so. Thus, a synagogue having been burnt by the Christians at Rome (A.D. 387), Maximus the Usurper, who was at that time in possession of the capital, ordered it to be rebuilt by those who had wrecked it. For this righteous act he was denounced by Ambrose,[61] Bishop of Milan, who attributed his subsequent fall and ruin to that act, and induced Theodosius to revoke the decree. A similar outrage having been committed at Osrhoene, a city of Mesopotamia (A.D. 395), the same order was issued by Theodosius himself. But Ambrose again interfered, and addressed a most indignant letter to the Emperor. Overlooking altogether the wrong committed by the Christians, he argued that it was most unjust to require them to take part in building up a Jewish synagogue; which was, he says, ‘the home of perfidy, the dwelling-place of impiety.’ It is said also, by Zonaras, that he preached publicly to the same effect at Milan; but of that there is no evidence. Theodosius, who entertained the profoundest respect for Ambrose, was overawed, and withdrew his edict.[62] But that his conviction as to the justice of the case was unaltered, we may see by the law which Theodosius promulgated in the last year of his life, which secured protection to the Jews in the exercise of their religion, and decreed the punishment of all who assailed them.[63]

On the other hand, the Jews were not behindhand in displaying a very turbulent and rancorous temper. On all occasions which offered themselves, and these were neither few nor trivial, they did their best to harass and mortify the Christians. The Arian controversy, which so grievously distracted the East, and for so long a period, could not have concerned them. Yet they were always ready to support the Arian leaders with their influence, and unite with Arian mobs in attacking the churches of the Orthodox. Nor were these the only outrages they committed. At some of their feasts, when, ‘flown with insolence and wine,’ they issued forth from the banqueting chamber, they were wont to insult and attack any Christians they might meet. At the feast of Purim in particular such displays were likely to occur. On that occasion it was their practice to erect a gibbet, to which a figure representing Haman was fastened, and whenever his name occurred in the service for the day they broke out into furious execrations against him. On the occasion of one of the celebrations of this feast at Inmestar, a city of Chalcis, near Antioch, their insolence was carried to a most shocking height. Rushing out into the street, some of the drunken Jews seized on a Christian boy whom they met, and dragging him into the house, fastened him to the gibbet, from which the figure of Haman had been removed, and which, in mockery doubtless of the crucifixion, had been fashioned in the shape of a cross.[64] They then proceeded to scourge the lad so severely that he is said to have died under their hands. The Christians were roused to fury by the murder, and a bloody fight ensued, in which many lives were lost. This occurred A.D. 412.

Several strange stories are told of occurrences during the early part of the fifth century, which illustrate the temper of the times. They are mostly concerned with conversions; to effect which great zeal was undoubtedly displayed; but it is not often of a kind that we can either admire or approve. Offers of worldly advantages of one kind or another were made by those who were anxious to secure converts; and no one will wonder at hearing that many, in consequence, professed themselves willing to submit to baptism. These converts, however, were not inclined to be content with profiting once only by so easy a mode of obtaining the good things of life. They presented themselves as candidates for baptism at the churches of every sect in Constantinople. The practice was detected. A tradition relates that when one of these pseudo-converts was brought to the font, the water receded from the sacred vessel, so that the ministrant could not perform his office. Startled at so strange an occurrence, he set on foot a strict inquiry, and elicited the fact that the man had already been baptized in the churches belonging to every sect in the city, except the one in which this incident was reported to have occurred. Unfortunately, the church belonged, not to the Orthodox, but to the Novatians. The extent to which the scandal had reached is proved by the enactment of a law, which forbade the baptism of any Jew, until strict inquiry had been made as to his character and motives, and a certain noviciate passed.

Not unfrequently the conversions were what may be termed wholesale, large bodies of men offering themselves at the same time for admission to the Church; and these were brought about after what most persons would consider a strange fashion. Thus, in the island of Minorca (A.D. 418), Severus, the bishop, had been greatly distressed by the presence of a Jewish synagogue under a Rabbi named Theodorus, and exerted himself to the utmost to effect their conversion. He had heard that Theodorus was a man of unusual learning and ability, as well as of the highest character, and well accustomed to controversy—a formidable antagonist, in fact, for whom, it was to be feared, the bishop himself was no match. Nevertheless, fortified by the possession of the relics of St. Stephen, which, it appears, had been left in the island, he challenged Theodorus to a disputation, which he proposed to hold in a church at Magona. The Jews declined the contest, on the ground that it was their Sabbath day, on which they could enter no unclean place. The bishop then proposed that the meeting should take place in the Jews’ synagogue; and when they came up in large numbers to his house, to decline that suggestion also, he solved the difficulty by marching with all his followers to the synagogue. A riot broke out in the street, and the Christians pursued their opponents into their place of worship, which they plundered and then burned. This procedure failing to convert the Jews, a disputation was at last held, at which Theodorus made an oration so learned and powerful that Bishop Severus was unable to answer him. Happily, however, there was no need for him to do so. When he had concluded, the whole of the Christians, anxious to gain so worthy a proselyte, broke out into a general cry, ‘Theodorus, believe in Christ.’ The Jews mistook the words for ‘Theodorus believes in Christ,’ and straightway, stricken to the heart by this terrible apostasy, fled into the woods, leaving Theodorus in the hands of the Christians. The bishop did not fail to point out to him that the hand of Heaven was plainly discernible in what had passed; and Theodorus, perplexed by the position in which he found himself placed, angered at his desertion by his countrymen, and possibly influenced by the hopes of worldly advancement, submitted to baptism; and his example was followed by his congregation. The bishop plumed himself on his victory, and besought his brethren everywhere to adopt the same method with the Jews. In burning down synagogues, as Milman remarks, they were ready enough to adopt his advice.

Another general conversion took place in Crete (A.D. 432) where the circumstances, though not exactly similar, were equally strange. An impostor, who had assumed the name of Moses, gained so much influence over the Jews in that island, who, we are told, were numerous and wealthy, as to persuade them that he could open a way for them to the Holy Land through the waters of the Mediterranean, as his namesake had done of old through those of the Red Sea. The delusion spread so far, that the Jews abandoned their houses and lands and all their personal possessions, except such as they could carry with them, and having been led by their conductor to the top of a high rock, threw themselves by his order into the sea. He himself then disappeared,[65] having probably reaped all that he could hope to gain by the transaction. Great numbers were drowned, and more would probably have shared their fate, if it had not chanced that there were some fishing boats lying off that part of the coast, which came to their assistance. The occupants of these boats were Christians; and this circumstance, added to the fact that the impostor had been a Jew, induced large numbers to adopt Christianity.

Turning to Egypt, always a place of importance in Jewish history, we learn that there were, about the middle of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius II., great disturbances, caused mainly by the continual feuds between the Christians and Jews. The latter had always been conspicuous, not more on account of their wealth and numbers, than of their turbulent spirit. This, however, was in a great measure stirred into action by the accession of Cyril to the bishopric of Alexandria, vacated by Theophilus, A.D. 412. Cyril was a man of great force of character, but vain, hasty, and imperious. He soon obtained a most commanding influence in the city, of which the Prefect Orestes was naturally jealous. Desiring to punish the insolence of Cyril’s followers, he ordered one of them, Hierax, a schoolmaster, who had committed some breach of the peace, to be publicly scourged. Cyril sent for the Jews who had delated Hierax to Orestes, and threatened them with his anger unless they adopted a different course in their dealings with the Christians. Anticipating that this threat would soon be followed by an open attack upon them, the Jews resolved to be beforehand with him. Having put on rings of bark, in order to be able to distinguish one another in the dark, they raised at midnight the cry that one of the principal churches was on fire. The Christians rushed out in great numbers to extinguish the flames, and the Jews falling upon them, made a great slaughter of them. In the morning Cyril armed his followers, and assailing the Jews in his turn, slew great numbers, plundered and burned their houses, and drove the survivors out of the city. Orestes interfered on their behalf, but was himself attacked, and wounded in the head by a stone. Both parties made their appeal to Theodosius, at that time a boy of fourteen. Whether it was that the Court of Constantinople was too much engaged with affairs of State to attend to troubles in Egypt, or that Cyril’s private influence gained the ascendency, we are not told; but it does not appear that any of the criminals, not even the murderers of Hypatia,[66] were ever punished, or the Jews, who had been expelled from Alexandria, reinstated in their homes.

Some years afterwards (A.D. 429), the Jews received a severe blow in the suppression of the Patriarchate of Tiberias; which had existed for about three hundred years, but now expired in the person of Gamaliel IV., the ninth patriarch who had held that office. The revenue by which the patriarchs had been supported, was derived from certain duties levied upon the Jews residing in all quarters of the empire, the patriarch’s collectors being sent everywhere for that purpose. It is probable that the tie which united the Jews to the ancient centre of their faith had for a long time been growing gradually weaker, as the severance itself widened; and the periodical visits to Jerusalem, which had kept up the bond of attachment, had long ceased to be observed. It is said that petitions were presented to the emperors requesting the abolition of the impost. However that may have been, an edict was issued by Honorius, forbidding the levying of the duty at Rome, and, most probably, in any part of the Western empire. That raised in the East appears to have gone directly into the Imperial treasury. This step did not formally abrogate the patriarchal office, but it was a deathblow to it. Gamaliel retained the name, and some show of authority, during the remainder of his life, but no successor was appointed when he died.