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42 ◆ Christianity A SHORT GLOBAL HISTORY
political power they had pulled down pagan temples as houses of false
worship and used their stones to build churches.
A large group of Christian bishops were thrilled when Julian was
killed in battle. Some of the tales of his death insist that a Christian in
his own army was responsible, not the Persians. The vitriol of orations
written against Julian is remarkable. Although these bishops could use
their rhetorical talents in struggling with each other over questions of
doctrine, nothing like the level of ridicule and rebuke marked those
debates as it did their attacks on Julian. Gregory of Nazianzus
(c. 329–90) wrote two such treatises, both brimming with bile. Ephraem
the Syrian (c. 306–73) also found Julian appalling. The pagan emperor
and his attempted revival of pagan communities were widely perceived
as an enormous threat to Christian communities. They should not have
suffered such fears. In Antioch, where Graeco-Roman religions had been
so strong, Julian prepared his troops for battle with the Persians. He
went expectantly to a scheduled major festival of Apollo only to find a
single old priest ready to sacrifice a lone goose.
In the late fourth century in theological orations apparently focused on
Christian disputes, Gregory of Nazianzus also mentioned pagan worshippers
but treated them in a much milder manner. He warned that non-
Christians would have difficulty understanding the begetting of the Son by
the Father. They pictured the birth of gods through tales like those of Triptolemus,
who brought forth lesser gods from his thigh and then gobbled
them up when he thought they were a threat. But pagan cults made good
sense when they kept much of their deepest teaching from the general
public and taught it primarily to those already initiated into the community.
Christians would do well to ease converts into the mysteries of the
faith as those religions did. Gregory also found genuine piety among those
worshipping the Graeco-Roman pantheon. Anyone who could pray all
night in the cold and rain, as one pagan did, could teach Christians many
things about contemplation. Indeed Gregory insisted that his father, a
member of the Hypsistarii – an Iranian and Jewish religious mix in
Gregory’s eyes – had virtually belonged to the Christian church before his
conversion. His deeds were exemplary. Some in the church did not live as
disciples of Christ; some outside did what Jesus taught without knowing
of him. What those apparent outsiders needed was the name disclosed in
baptism. They were already inside, as evidenced by their actions.
The contact with other religions was more than just a battle to the
death that Christians had already won. John Chrysostom noticed that