artfully fomented the religious
war: and the balance which he affected to preserve between the hostile
factions, served only to perpetuate the contest, by the vicissitudes
of hope and fear, by the rival claims of ancient possession and actual
favor. The Christians had forgotten the spirit of the gospel; and the
Pagans had imbibed the spirit of the church. In private families, the
sentiments of nature were extinguished by the blind fury of zeal and
revenge: the majesty of the laws was violated or abused; the cities of
the East were stained with blood; and the most implacable enemies of the
Romans were in the bosom of their country. Jovian was educated in the
profession of Christianity; and as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch,
the banner of the Cross, the Labarum of Constantine, which was again
displayed at the head of the legions, announced to the people the faith
of their new emperor. As soon as he ascended the throne, he transmitted
a circular epistle to all the governors of provinces; in which he
confessed the divine truth, and secured the legal establishment, of the
Christian religion. The insidious edicts of Julian were abolished;
the ecclesiastical immunities were restored and enlarged; and Jovian
condescended to lament, that the distress of the times obliged him to
diminish the measure of charitable distributions. [2] The Christians
were unanimous in the loud and sincere applause which they bestowed on
the pious successor of Julian. But they were still ignorant what creed,
or what synod, he would choose for the standard of orthodoxy; and the
peace of the church immediately revived those eager disputes which had
been suspended during the season of persecution. The episcopal leaders
of the contending sects, convinced, from experience, how much their fate
would depend on the earliest impressions that were made on the mind of
an untutored soldier, hastened to the court of Edessa, or Antioch.
The highways of the East were crowded with Homoousian, and Arian, and
Semi-Arian, and Eunomian bishops, who struggled to outstrip each other
in the holy race: the apartments of the palace resounded with their
clamors; and the ears of the prince were assaulted, and perhaps
astonished, by the singular mixture of metaphysical argument and
passionate invective. [3] The moderation of Jovian, who recommended
concord and charity, and referred the disputants to the sentence of a
future council, was interpreted as a symptom of indifferenc