Maris of Chalcedon, and Julian Shuts Christians Out of Learning

About this time Maris, bishop of Chalcedon in Bithynia, was led by the hand into the emperor’s presence, for in his extreme old age he suffered from a disease of the eyes called cataract. There he sharply rebuked Julian for his impiety, his apostasy and his atheism. Julian answered his reproaches by heaping insults on him, and defended himself with words, calling him blind. “You blind old fool,” he said, “this Galilean God of yours will never cure you.” For he was in the habit of calling Christ “the Galilean,” and Christians “Galileans.” Maris answered him with still greater boldness: “I thank God for taking away my sight, so that I might not see the face of one who has fallen into such dreadful impiety.” At the time the emperor let this pass without further notice, but afterwards he had his revenge. [a]

He saw that those who had suffered martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian were greatly honored by the Christians, and he knew that many of them were eager to become martyrs. So he determined to take his revenge on them in some other way. He held back from the extreme cruelties that had been practiced under Diocletian, yet he did not hold back from persecution altogether; for I count as persecution any measure taken to disturb and harass. This, then, was the plan he followed. He passed a law shutting Christians out of the study of literature, “for fear,” he said, “that once they have sharpened their tongues, they will be all the readier to answer the arguments of the pagans.”