The Bishops Court Jovian

When Jovian had come back from Persia, the disturbances in the church started up again. Those who presided over the churches tried to get ahead of one another, each hoping the emperor would attach himself to their own teaching. But from the beginning he had held to the homoousian faith, and he openly declared that he preferred it to all others. He also wrote letters to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, encouraging him. Athanasius had recovered the church of Alexandria immediately after Julian’s death, and now, gaining confidence from these letters, he put away all fear. The emperor also recalled from exile all the bishops whom Constantius had banished and Julian had not restored. Moreover, the pagan temples were shut up again, and the pagans hid themselves wherever they could. The philosophers too laid aside their philosopher’s cloaks and dressed in ordinary clothes. And the public pollution of sacrificial blood, which in Julian’s reign had been poured out lavishly to the point of disgust, was now done away with as well. [a]