Christians Shut Out of the Schools; the Writings of Apollinaris

Julian held the same attitude described above toward all Christians, and he showed it whenever the chance came. Those who refused to sacrifice to the gods, however blameless they were in every other way, were stripped of the rights of citizenship and of the right to take part in the assemblies and in the forum. He would not let them be judges or magistrates or share in public offices. [a] He forbade the children of Christians to attend the public schools and to be taught the writings of the Greek poets and authors. He bore a great grudge against Apollinaris the Syrian, a man of wide knowledge and learning in letters; against Basil and Gregory, natives of Cappadocia, the most famous speakers of the time; and against other learned and eloquent men, some of whom held to the doctrines of Nicaea and others to the teachings of Arius. His only reason for shutting the children of Christian parents out of the learning of the Greeks was that he thought such studies helped them gain skill in argument and persuasion. So Apollinaris put his great learning and ingenuity to work producing a heroic epic on the history of the Hebrews down to the reign of Saul, to take the place of Homer’s poem. He divided this work into twenty-four parts, and gave each the name of one of the letters of the Greek alphabet, following their number and order. He also wrote comedies in imitation of Menander, tragedies like those of Euripides, and odes on the model of Pindar. In short, taking his themes from the Scriptures across the whole range of learning, he produced in a very short time a set of works that are recognized as matching Greek literature in manner, style, character and arrangement, and that were equal to it in number and in power. If it were not for the extreme favor with which the works of antiquity are regarded, I have no doubt that the writings of Apollinaris would be valued as highly as those of the ancients. [b] The breadth of his mind is especially to be admired, for he excelled in every branch of literature, whereas the ancient writers were skilled in only one. He wrote a very remarkable work called “The Truth,” against the emperor and the pagan philosophers, in which he clearly proved, without any appeal to the authority of Scripture, that they were far from having reached right opinions about God. To make fun of works of this kind, the emperor wrote to the bishops in these words: “I have read, I have understood, and I have condemned.” They sent back this reply: “You have read, but you have not understood; for if you had understood, you would not have condemned.” [d] Some have credited this letter to Basil, the head of the church in Cappadocia, and perhaps not without reason. But whether he wrote it or someone else did, it fully shows the greatness of spirit and the learning of its writer.