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Histoire de l'Église

CHAPITRE II.

Education, et apostasie de Julien.

DES sa plus tendre jeunesse, et: avant l'âge de puberté, il suça avec Gallus son frère, le lait de la saine doctrine de l'Eglise. Il conserva la pureté quelque temps depuis. L'appréhension qu'il eut 172 de la jalousie, et des ombrages de Constance, qui faisait mourir ses parents, de peur qu'ils ne conjurassent contre lui le porta à se mettre au nombre des Lecteurs, et à lire les livres de l'Ecriture sainte au peuple. Il fit aussi bâtir une Eglise, en l'honneur des Martyrs. Mais ces Saints qui prévoyaient son apostasie, refusèrent son présent. Les fondements de cet édifice n'étant pas plus fiables, que l'esprit de celui qui les avait jetés, il tomba avant que d'avoir été dédié.

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The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret (CCEL)

Chapter IX. Of what befell Julianus, the Emperor’s Uncle, and Felix.

Julianus forthwith fell sick of a painful disease; his entrails rotted away, and he was no longer able to discharge his excrements through the normal organs of excretion, [^36] but his polluted mouth, at the instant of his blasphemy, became the organ for their emission.

His wife, it is said, was a woman of conspicuous faith, and thus addressed her spouse: “Husband, you ought to bless our Saviour Christ for shewing you through your castigation his peculiar power. For P. 100 you would never have known who it is who is being attacked by you if with his wonted long suffering he had refrained from visiting you with these heaven-sent plagues.” Then by these words and the heavy weight of his woes the wretched man perceived the cause of his disease, and besought the emperor to restore the church to those who had been deprived of it. He could not however gain his petition, and so ended his days.

Felix too was himself suddenly struck down by a heaven-sent scourge, and kept vomiting blood from his mouth, all day and all night, for all the vessels of his body poured their convergent streams to this one organ: so when all his blood was shed he died, and was delivered to eternal death.

Such were the penalties inflicted on these men for their wickedness.

[^36] ἀπόκρισις