The enthusiasm of his
character and age, guided invariably in the one direction of his
worship, took the character of the wildest fanaticism when he discovered
the Emperor's careless infringement of the supremacy of the temple. He
volunteered in the first moments of his fury to tear down the edict from
the walls, to lead an attack on the meetings of the triumphant
Christians, or to travel to the imperial abode and exhort Jovian to
withdraw his act of perilous leniency ere it was too late. With
difficulty did his more cautious confederates restrain him from the
execution of his impetuous designs. For two days he withdrew himself
from his companions, and brooded in solitude over the injury offered to
his beloved superstition, and the prospective augmentation of the
influence of the Christian sect.
But the despair of the young enthusiast was destined to be further
augmented by a private calamity, at once mysterious in its cause and
overwhelming in its effect. Two days after the publication of the edict
the high priest Macrinus, in the prime of vigour and manhood, suddenly
died.
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