$1.95 The conflict the church and the synagogue

l88THE CONFLICT OF CHURCH AND SYNAGOGUEtheir synagogue, offered the Jews living in Dertona baptism1or expulsion.The Jews had a short period in which to take their revengeunder Julian. It is difficult to say to what extent they availedthemselves of it. That they play little part in the martyrdomswhich took place during this time has been already shown.But Ambrose accuses them of having burnt down churchesinnumerable, two at Damascus, and others at Gaza, Ascalon,Beirut, and elsewhere; and also to have aided the pagans toburn the great church at Alexandria. But other writers donot confirm this accusation. Gregory of Nazianzen, whowrote two lengthy Orations over the heinous offences of thedeceased emperor, mentions the church at Gaza, but not theJewish share in its destruction. He only mentions the tauntflung at the Christians by Julian's encouragement of the rebuildingof the Temple 2 . He ascribes to the Jews 'inveterate'hostility but does not specify its expression other than inthis effort at rebuilding 3 . Theodoret of Cyris also silentupon the point as are Socrates and Sozomen4 . If Ambrosewas not so obviously arguing an extremely bad, and indeedpatently illegal cause, his affirmation would outweigh thesilence of the others, but it is quite inadequate to stand alone,and while it is probable, indeed certain, that the Jews wouldshare in the attacks of the pagans upon the Christians, it isdifficult to assert that they took the initiative in such attacks.That the violence of the century was mostly on theChristian side is rendered more probable by the contrastbetween the protective legislation issued by Valentinian andTheodosius, and that issued by their successors in the fifthcentury. The earlier legislation is direct, and contains nocounter charges of Jewish unrighteousness. In fact, noneof the laws of the century can be said to refer to actual Jewishmisdoings. The law prohibits that which was, up to the timeof its passing, legal. It does not repress existing criminalbehaviour. Until the end of the reign of Theodosius itwould seem all to be directed towards the protection of the1See note 3, page 187.* Oratio, iv and v; P.O., XXXV. See especially Chs. Ixxxvi ff., p. 616.3 Ibid. p. 668.4Theodoret, EccL Hist., Bk. Ill; P.O., LXXXII. Socrates, Bk. Ill;P.O., LXVII; and Sozomen, Bk. V; P.G., LXVIL