The Ancient Standard

The Last Pagan Emperor of Rome – Part 3/3: Religious Reform (331 – 363 AD)

By: The Scribe on November, 2007

As ‘Julian the Apostate’ began his religious transformation of the state, his new position as Emperor allowed him to force Christian churches to accept pagan practices as normative among the local population – first, forcing the Churches to either return the riches which had been looted from pagan temples since Constantine’s legislation of Christianity of the official religion of Rome, or paying fines that were equal to what had been taken.

A supporter of the polytheistic ‘old Roman faith’, he claimed that he didn’t want to end up like his cousin and turn into someone who forced one religion on people over another, but he did state that his laws – which tended to specifically target Christians who were well educated and wealthy – were designed not to destroy Christianity, but to do everything imaginable to drive it out of the empire’s governing classes.

Christian bishops lost much of their influence on public offices as well as their ability travel for free at Rome’s expense, and lands which had been taken over by the church were given back to the original landowners. In order to convince the public that he had its best interests at heart, Julian handed down an edict in 362 AD that guaranteed freedom of religion to the populace – according to the edict, all religions were held equal in the eyes of the law, and it was in Rome’s best interest to return to its former days of religious eclecticism, wherein no one was forced to accept one religion over the other in any corner of the Empire.

Although Julian wouldn’t come right out and admit that his actions or laws were undermining Christianity, the fact remained that he knew very well that previous persecutions of Christians by Roman Emperors only strengthened the people who believed – and thus he designed his campaign to harass them and cause difficulty for Christians who might try to resist the re-establishment of paganism as an acceptable belief system.

The Orthodox Church even claims that Julian prohibited the worship or veneration of Christian relics, remembering two men as saints – Maximos and Juventinus – who were apparently part of the imperial guard of the Emperor. They openly opposed Julian’s edict against sacred relics, and according to tradition, Julian ordered them executed. In another edict simply known as ‘School Edict’, Julian also forbid Christian teachers from using pagan literature – such as the classical works of the Iliad and the Odyssey – and limited them to using the gospels such as Mark or Luke to each reading and writing. This severely harmed teachers and educators, since it meant fewer students – no one wanted their child educated in such a limiting environment.

The problem was, not everyone was so willing to take back the pagan ways, and it certainly didn’t help the Emperor’s cause that the Christian churches continued to raise funds to help the poor and care for the community, regardless of whether someone was Christian or pagan…

…to be continued…

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Tomorrow: Part…four?!