The Sacred Vessels Seized and the Allowances Taken Away

Even after the wicked had learned of these events, they lined up for battle against the God of all. The ruler ordered the holy vessels to be handed over to the imperial treasury. He had the doors of the great church that Constantine had built nailed shut, and declared it closed to the worshipers who used to gather there. At this time the Arians held it. Julian, the prefect of the East, made his way into the sacred building together with Felix, the imperial treasurer, and Elpidius, who had charge of the emperor’s private purse and property, an officer the Romans call the “count of the private estates.” Both Felix and Elpidius, it is said, had been Christians, but abandoned the true religion to please the ungodly emperor. Julian committed an act of gross indecency on the holy table. When Euzoius tried to stop him, he struck him in the face and told him, so the story goes, that it was the fate of the Christians’ affairs to have no protection from the gods. And Felix, gazing at the magnificence of the sacred vessels, furnished in splendor by the generosity of Constantine and Constantius, said, “Look what vessels Mary’s son is served with!” But it was not long before they paid the penalty for these deeds of mad and ungodly daring. [a]