was
less repugnant to the precepts of the gospel; and his active curiosity
might have been gratified by a theological system, which explains the
mysterious essence of the Deity, and opens the boundless prospect
of invisible and future worlds. But the independent spirit of Julian
refused to yield the passive and unresisting obedience which was
required, in the name of religion, by the haughty ministers of the
church. Their speculative opinions were imposed as positive laws, and
guarded by the terrors of eternal punishments; but while they prescribed
the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the words, and the actions of the
young prince; whilst they silenced his objections, and severely checked
the freedom of his inquiries, they secretly provoked his impatient
genius to disclaim the authority of his ecclesiastical guides. He
was educated in the Lesser Asia, amidst the scandals of the Arian
controversy. [10] The fierce contests of the Eastern bishops, the
incessant alterations of their creeds, and the profane motives which
appeared to actuate their conduct, insensibly strengthened the prejudice
of Julian, that they neither understood nor believed the religion for
which they so fiercely contended. Instead of listening to the proofs of
Christianity with that favorable attention which adds weight to the
most respectable evidence, he heard with suspicion, and disputed with
obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines for which he already entertained
an invincible aversion. Whenever the young princes were directed to
compose declamations on the subject of the prevailing controversies,
Julian always declared himself the advocate of Paganism; under the
specious excuse that, in the defence of the weaker cause, his learning
and ingenuity might be more advantageously exercised and displayed.

[Footnote 4: Nicomediae ab Eusebio educatus Episcopo, quem genere
longius contingebat, (Ammian. xxii. 9.) Julian never expresses any
gratitude towards that Arian prelate; but he celebrates his preceptor,
the eunuch Mardonius, and describes his mode of education, which
inspired his pupil with a passionate admiration for the genius, and
perhaps the religion of Homer. Misopogon, p. 351, 352.]

[Footnote 5: Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He labored to effect that holy mark
in the blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 361,
No. 3, 4.]

[Footnote 6: Julian himself (Epist. li. p. 454) assures the Alexandrians
that he had been a Christian (he m