Chapter VIII.--Of the confiscation of the sacred treasures and taking away of the allowances. [627]
Even when the wicked had become acquainted with these events they set themselves in array against the God of all; and the prince ordered the holy vessels to be handed over to the imperial treasury. Of the great church which Constantine had built he nailed up the doors and declared it closed to the worshippers wont to assemble there. At this time it was in possession of the Arians. In company with Julianus the prefect of the East, Felix the imperial treasurer, and Elpidius, who had charge of the emperor's private purse and property, an officer whom it is the Roman custom to call "Comes privatarum," [628] made their way into the sacred edifice. Both Felix and Elpidius, it is said, were Christians, but to please the impious emperor apostatised from the true religion. Julianus committed an act of gross indecency on the Holy Table [629] and, when Euzoius endeavoured to prevent him, gave him a blow on the face, and told him, so the story goes, that it is the fate of the fortunes of Christians to have no protection from the gods. But Felix, as he gazed upon the magnificence of the sacred vessels, furnished with splendour by the munificence of Constantine and Constantius, "Behold," said he, "with what vessels Mary's son is served." But it was not long before they paid the penalty of these deeds of mad and impious daring.
[627] tes ton siteresion aphaireseos. This deprivation is not further referred to in the text. Philostorgius (vii. 4) says "He distributed the allowance of the churches among the ministers of the dæmons," cf. Soz. v. 5. The restitution is recorded in Theod. iv. 4. The sitometrion of St. Luke xii. 42. (cf. ten trophen in Matt. xxiv. 45) is analogous to the siteresia of the text. Vide Suicer s.v.
[628] By the constitution of Constantine the two great ministers of finance were (i) the Comes sacrarum largitionum, treasurer and paymaster of the public staff of the Empire; (ii) Comes rei privatæ, who managed the privy purse and kept the liber beneficionum, an account of privileges granted by the emperor. cf. Dict. Christ. Ant. i. p. 634.
[629] Trapeza is the word commonly employed by the Greek Fathers and in Greek Liturgies to designate the Lord's Table. Thusiasterion is used by Eusebius H. E. x. 4, for the Altar of the Church of Tyre, but the earlier thusiasterion of Ignatius (Philad. iv.) does not appear to mean the Lord's Table. cf. Bp. Lightfoot Ap. Fathers. pt. II. ii. p. 258.
Chapter IX.--Of what befell Julianus, the Emperor's Uncle, and Felix.
Julianus forthwith fell sick of a painful disease; his entrails rotted away, and he was no longer able to discharge his excrements through the normal organs of excretion, [630] but his polluted mouth, at the instant of his blasphemy, became the organ for their emission.
His wife, it is said, was a woman of conspicuous faith, and thus addressed her spouse: "Husband, you ought to bless our Saviour Christ for shewing you through your castigation his peculiar power. For you would never have known who it is who is being attacked by you if with his wonted long suffering he had refrained from visiting you with these heaven-sent plagues." Then by these words and the heavy weight of his woes the wretched man perceived the cause of his disease, and besought the emperor to restore the church to those who had been deprived of it. He could not however gain his petition, and so ended his days.
Felix too was himself suddenly struck down by a heaven-sent scourge, and kept vomiting blood from his mouth, all day and all night, for all the vessels of his body poured their convergent streams to this one organ: so when all his blood was shed he died, and was delivered to eternal death.
Such were the penalties inflicted on these men for their wickedness.
[630] apokrisis
Chapter X.--Of the Son of the Priest.
A young man who was a priest's son, and brought up in impiety, about this time went over to the true religion. For a lady remarkable for her devotion and admitted to the order of deaconesses [631] was an intimate friend of his mother. When he came to visit her with his mother, while yet a tiny lad, she used to welcome him with affection and urge him to the true religion. On the death of his mother the young man used to visit her and enjoyed the advantage of her wonted teaching. Deeply impressed by her counsels, he enquired of his teacher by what means he might both escape the superstition of his father and have part and lot in the truth which she preached. She replied that he must flee from his father, and honour rather the Creator both of his father and himself; that he must seek some other city wherein he might lie hid and escape the violence of the impious emperor; and she promised to manage this for him. Then, said the young man, "henceforward I shall come and commit my soul to you." Not many days afterwards Julian came to Daphne, to celebrate a public feast. With him came the young man's father, both as a priest, and as accustomed to attend the emperor; and with their father came the young man and his brother, being appointed to the service of the temple and charged with the duty of ceremonially sprinkling the imperial viands. It is the custom for the festival of Daphne to last for seven days. On the first day the young man stood by the emperor's couch, and according to the prescribed usage aspersed the meats, and thoroughly polluted them. Then at full speed he ran to Antioch, [632] and making his way to that admirable lady, "I am come," said he, "to you; and I have kept my promise. Do you look to the salvation of each and fulfil your pledge." At once she arose and conducted the young man to Meletius the man of God, who ordered him to remain for awhile upstairs in the inn. His father after wandering about all over Daphne in search of the boy, then returned to the city and explored the streets and lanes, turning his eyes in all directions and longing to light upon his lad. At length he arrived at the place where the divine Meletius had his hostelry; and looking up he saw his son peeping through the lattice. He ran up, drew him along, got him down, and carried him off home. Then he first laid on him many stripes, then applied hot spits to his feet and hands and back, then shut him up in his bedroom, bolted the door on the outside, and returned to Daphne. So I myself have heard the man himself narrate in his old age, and he added further that he was inspired and filled with Divine Grace, and broke in pieces all his father's idols, and made mockery of their helplessness. Afterwards when he bethought him of what he had done he feared his father's return and besought his Master Christ to nod approval of his deeds, [633] break the bolts, and open the doors. "For it is for thy sake," said he, "that I have thus suffered and thus acted." "Even as I thus spoke," he told me, "out fell the bolts and open flew the doors, and back I ran to my instructress. She dressed me up in women's garments and took me with her in her covered carriage back to the divine Meletius. He handed me over to the bishop of Jerusalem, at that time Cyril, and we started by night for Palestine." After the death of Julian this young man led his father also into the way of truth. This act he told me with the rest. So in this fashion these men were guided to the knowledge of God and were made partakers of Salvation.
[631] The earliest authorities for the order are St. Paul, Rom. xvi. 1, and probably 1 Tim. iii. 11; and Pliny in his letter to Trajan, if ancilla = diakonos
[632] Vide note on page 98.
[633] neusai