and equitable prince to fupprefs it by the punishment of the guilty, but without ufing any feverity to those who behaved peaceably and fubmiffively to the laws. The first just occafion of complaint which they gave, was on one of their festivals in which they celebrated what they call the feast of Haman (A); and on which, instead of hanging that enemy of theirs on a high gibbet, as had been their conftant custom on that folemnity, they prefumed on this year to fasten him to a crofs, which failed not to be interpreted by the Christians, and not without reason, as an indignity offered to Christ. This did not hinder them from taking both down, and burning them with the ufual execrations; which however was attended with no other confequence (except fome blows exchanged on both fides) than with an edict, forbidding for the future the erecting and burning fuch gibbets, under the penalty of forfeiting all their privileges. The Jews obeyed in most parts of the empire; nevertheless thofe of Macedon, Dacia, and fome other parts, ftill continued affronting the Christians with fuch kinds of infults; and were as often retaliated by having their fynagogues and houses burned, and some of their leaders even put to death by the magistrates. This produced a new A.C. 408, edict from that good prince, exprefly forbidding the Chrifti a nev ans to profecute them on account of their religion, and these edict. to offer any contemptuous infults to the established church. This fufpended their infolence for two or three years; but, at length, thofe of Inmeftar, a city in Chalcis, being heated with the wine and zeal usual at that feast, took it into their heads to tie a young Chriftian to one of those gibbets, and to whip A.C. 412, him fo feverely that he lost his life by it; which fo exasperated infults to the Chriftians that they took up arms against them. The the ChriftiJews being very numerous there, a bloody fight enfued, in ans punishwhich many were killed on both fides. At length, the go (A) This festival, which was kept in memory of the victory which the Jewish nation got over Haman (45), was ufually kept with great alacrity and good cheer; and even, during the reading of the book of Efther in their fynagogues or houfes, men, women, and children, made a moft horrid noife with their feet, hands, and even with ftones and mallets against the walls and benches, as often (45) Vid. Efiber, pass. &c. ult. vernor ed. A.C.423, vernor of the province having informed the emperor of it, was ordered to punish the guilty; by which means an effectual end was put to the tumult (B). d Christian THIS did not prevent the one from frequently renewing of reprisals their hoftilities, nor the other from burning and plundering against their fynagogues, particularly at Antioch, where the Jews were them. very numerous and rich, the plunder being commonly given to the church. These fkirmishes became fo common and fcandalous, that complaints were made of them to the emperor, and backed by the præfectus prætorio; fo that the clergy were condemned by a new edict, which obliged them to restore the plunder, and to affign the Jews a place where they both for- might erect a new fynagogne. He was however obliged not only to repeal it, at the inftigation of the famed faint (and martyr in the air, as he is ftiled) Simon, furnamed Stylites (C), who had taken upon him to condemn it, and even to turn the prefect out of his office for having obtained it in favour of A.C. 425. the Jews. It was not long however before he was forced to publish a fresh explication of his former edicts, in order to fupprefs the exceffes which the revocation of his late one had encouraged the hot-headed zealots to commit against the Jews, not only at Antioch, but in many provinces of the empire; and to forbid the burning of their fynagouges, or perfecuting them on account of their religion. bidden. d Cod. THEODOS. lib. xvi. xviii. & xxi. (B) The celebrated lawyer Godfrey pretends, that it was on account of the murder of that young Chriflian that the emperor published thofe two edicts (46); whereas there is a manifeft difference of time, place, and occafion the first of them being published, an. 408, and extended over the whole eaftern empire; and as fuch was directed to Anthemius, the then prefect over it; and the other not till four years after, and extending only to Eaftern Illyricum, Da. cia, and Macedon, and was therefore directed to Philip, the then governor of those provinces. Mr. (C) So called from living on the top of a pillar. This fanatic devoto was then in fuch ef teem with all the clergy, that the emperor was obliged, to avoid his and their cenfure, to recall his orders about making reftitution to the Jews. Valois even pretends that he wrote a civil letter to him, wherein he ftiles him, The most holy martyr in the air. But whether those were the words of the emperor, or of Evagrins, who was a great admirer of that airy monk, is hardly worth enquiring; that title carrying, to all appearance, more pleasantry than veneration. (46) In Cod. Theodof lib xvi, xviii, an. 408, & xxi, ani 412. Vid. & Sur. lib. vil A A STRANGE accident which happened in the isle of Can- A.C. 432, dia, where the Jews were very rich and numerous, occafioned converted great numbers of them to embrace Chriflianity, not only in Candia, there, but in other provinces of the empire; and the fhame of &c. having been feduced by a false messiah (D), and having placed fuch strong and surprising confidence in him, opened their eyes to find out the real and only one in the church. Another event, related by the fame ecclefiaftical hiftorian, brought a fresh number of profelytes into it, to the no fmall mortification of the reft, on whom the miraculous cure performed on an old paralytic, could not make the fame falutary impreffion (E). As we are writing the history of the Jews, and not that of the church, we shall pafs over a number of those e See the following note. (D) This impoftor, who had taken upon him the name and office of their great lawgiver and deliverer, had fo far infatuated them, as to make them expect as great a deliverance under him, as they had under the former, viz. of opening to them a miraculous way through the fea into their own land. We are even told, that he himself was fo perfuaded of it, that he had in one year run through every town and village of that ifland, and perfuaded the Jews in it to follow him (47), and to be ready for him on the day and place appointed by him. Their delufion proved fo ftrong and univerfal, that they neglected their lands, houfes, and all other concerns, and took only fo much with them as they could conveniently carry; and, on the day appointed, the Pfeudo Mofes, having led them to the top of a rock, men, women, and children, threw themselves headlong down into the fea, without the leaft hefitation or reluctance; till fo great a number of them were drowned, (47) Socrat. Hift. Ecclefiaßt. lib. vii. 17. P. 354, and fome others faved by fisher- (E) This was an old Conftan This miraculous converfions with which this century abounded, and only obferve, that the Christians having then accustomed themselves to make some confiderable prefents to those new converts, induced many cheats, not only to become Chriftians with that view alone, but even to run privately from one mong them. fect into another of them, and be baptized in them all, for the fake of gaining fresh tokens of their liberality. Several cheats a Jews raife at A REMARKABLE inftance of this our author gives us of a Jew, who went through all the fects then at Conftantinople, but was at length discovered in a miraculous manner by the Novatian bishop there, and owned, that he had been baptized by every one but that f. These cheats could not but render the Jews obnoxious to the Chriftians; but there was ftill another thing that made them more fo, viz. the feveral arch-heretics, fuch as the Novatians, Neftorians, &c. who, by borrowing fome of the Jewish tenets, were ftiled Judaizers and Jews. But it is time to fee how they behaved and fared in other countries. THOSE of Alexandria, who are computed to have amounta tumult at ed to about 100,000 at the time that they raised a bloody uproar againft the Chriftians, had had many skirmishes against them before, which feldom ended without bloodshed (F). Alexan dria. f Cod. THEODOS. 1. xxi. c. v.p. 342. (F) The Jews, it seems, were by this time grown not only fo bold, but diffolute, that, in ftead of affifting at the duties of their fynagogues on the fabbath, they chofe rather to be prefent at the public diverfions and fhews, which were commonly exhibited on that day; which feldom failed of producing those bloody fkirmishes we mentioned above, and which the magiftrates were feldom able to fupprefs. This put the preThis put the prefect upon making fome wholfome regulations against thofe diforders. But, whilt he was one day at one of them, and was giving fome orders for the more peaceably exhibiting thofe fhews, he found himself furrounded with a croud of the pa triarch's creatures, who are fuppofed to have been fent for no other end, but to exafperate him against the Jews; one in particular, named Hierax, an admirer and great favourite of Cyril, behaved on that occafion in fuch a manner against them, that they loudly complained of him to the prefect; who thereupon, without any other ceremony, ordered him to be publicly whipt upon the ftage. This was a fenfible affront to the patriarch, who failed not to refent it as fuch: fo that, inftead of uniting their authority in promoting the public tranquillity of the city, they only ftrove to thwart each other's measures to the manifeft difturbance of it (49). (49) Socrat. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. vii. cb, 13, & feq. Cyril, then bishop of it, and fince fainted, was thought as much too zealous against them, as Oreftes, the then prefect, was partial to them; and, at length, carried it fo far as to infringe upon his office, and to threaten them with ecclefi- A.C.415. aftical execution. This however they defpifed, knowing the governor to be on their fide; and grew to fuch an height of infolence as to refolve to fall foul upon them in the middle of the night. To this end, they hired fome of their own people Bishop Cyto run about the street of the city, crying out, that the great ril arms church was all in flames; which immediately brought all the against Christians out unarmed, to go and fave that noble building; them. whilst the Jews, who had taken care to distinguish themfelves by fome peculiar mark, fell upon, and killed great numbers of them. Cyril, as foon as he was apprised of it, ftaid not to be righted by the civil power, but, putting himfelf at the head of a fufficient number of Chriftians, entered their fynagogues, and feifed on them to the ufe of the church. He then abandoned their houses to be plundered, and obliged them to march out of the city almost naked. This failed not to exafperate the prefect, who could not brook fuch an infringement on his authority, and the city to be ftript of fo vaft a number of its inhabitants, without making the feverest complaints against the bishop, who, on his part, fent feveral bitter accufations to court against him. Here the people, having declared for the prefect against the patriarch, would have obliged the latter to fubmit to the former, but he abfolutely refused to do it. him. INSTEAD of that, he went to him with the Gospel in his Odd belahand, and threatening in his words and looks, tried to viour to frighten him into a reconciliation. But, finding him inflexible, the prefect. he ordered a regiment of his monks, to the number of fifteen hundred, to come down from the mountains, and to affault faults & wounds him in his chariot with volleys of ftones, which wounded him in the head, and covered him with blood; fo that he must have been killed inevitably (his guards having been forced to abandon him) had not the people come to his affistance, and rescued him out of their hands. The tumult being appeased, Oreftes caused one of the ringleaders of thofe monks, named Ammonius, to be executed, and fent an account of the whole affair to court. The patriarch did the fame; and not only juftified the proceedings of his monks, but, in his next fermon, declared Ammonius a martyr. This behaviour produ- Hypatia ced a new tumult foon after; in which, among many others murdered that loft their lives, was the deservedly celebrated Hypatia, at a new tumult. a young heathen lady, of great fenfe, learning, and virtue, who was hurried by the bishop's mob before one of their 04 churches, |