Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/351

 blasphemous departure from the creed of the State as denial of resurrection and judgment, or the creation of angels, was not permitted to them; and they were compelled to use a version of the Old Testament according to the Septuagint in Greek or Latin, and not any Hebrew text of their own. In one instance, however, a community of Jews at Borium in North Africa were forced to become Christians; and their synagogue, which they declared to have been built by Solomon, was accordingly transformed into a church.

3. Having the power of compulsion in his hands, the efforts of Justinian to convert heathens to Christianity are not easily to be distinguished from persecution. As a rule his chief argument was the sword or the stake, but, as difficulties sometimes stood in the way of applying that mode of persuasion, he was obliged occasionally to have recourse to milder methods. The only notable instance, however, is that in which he appointed John, the Monophysite Bishop of Ephesus, to preach the Gospel in the wilds of Caria, Asia, Phrygia, and Lydia. It seems that in those provinces there were many small communities interspersed among rugged and barely accessible mountain tracts, who were still addicted to some primitive form of idolatry. Some peculiar fitness recommended the heretic prelate to the Emperor for this arduous task; and doubtless it was not intended that the rude proselytes should imbibe any nice theological distinctions. According to the account of the missionary himself his success was very great, and seventy