ommunity of the Jews, dispersed through the provinces, he
pities their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their
constancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses
a pious hope, that after his return from the Persian war, he may be
permitted to pay his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city
of Jerusalem. The blind superstition, and abject slavery, of those
unfortunate exiles, must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor;
but they deserved the friendship of Julian, by their implacable hatred
of the Christian name. The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the
fecundity of the rebellious church; the power of the Jews was not equal
to their malice; but their gravest rabbis approved the private murder
of an apostate; [55] and their seditious clamors had often awakened the
indolence of the Pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine,
the Jews became the subjects of their revolted children nor was it long
before they experienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil
immunities which had been granted, or confirmed, by Severus, were
gradually repealed by the Christian princes; and a rash tumult, excited
by the Jews of Palestine, [56] seemed to justify the lucrative modes of
oppression which were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the
court of Constantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was still permitted to
exercise a precarious jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias; [57]
and the neighboring cities of Palestine were filled with the remains
of a people who fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of
Hadrian was renewed and enforced; and they viewed from afar the walls of
the holy city, which were profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the
cross and the devotion of the Christians. [58]

[Footnote 54: Julian's epistle (xxv.) is addressed to the community of
the Jews. Aldus (Venet. 1499) has branded it with an; but this stigma
is justly removed by the subsequent editors, Petavius and Spanheim. This
epistle is mentioned by Sozomen, (l. v. c. 22,) and the purport of it
is confirmed by Gregory, (Orat. iv. p. 111.) and by Julian himself
(Fragment. p. 295.)]

[Footnote 55: The Misnah denounced death against those who abandoned the
foundation. The judgment of zeal is explained by Marsham (Canon. Chron.
p. 161, 162, edit. fol. London, 1672) and Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs,
tom. viii. p. 120.) Constantine made a law to protect Christian converts
from Judaism. Cod. The