Julian At The Mysteries

But when he found himself in darkness, in the earth's awful depths, with a group of unholy Greeks, and bodiless figures appeared before him with haloes of light, the young Julian for a moment lost his nerve: an impulse from his pious years came back and he crossed himself. The Figures vanished at once; the haloes faded away, the lights went out. The Greeks glanced at each other. The young man said: 'Did you see the miracle? I'm frightened, friends. I want to leave. Didn't you see how the demons vanished the second they saw me make the holy sign of the cross?' The Greeks chuckled scornfully: 'Shame on you, shame, to talk that way to us sophists and philosophers! If you want to say things like that, say them to the Bishop of Nicomedia and his priests. The greatest gods of our glorious Greece appeared before you. And if they left, don't think for a minute that they were frightened by a gesture. It was just that when they saw you making that vile, that crude sign, their noble nature was disgusted and they left you in contempt.' This is what they said to him, and the fool recovered from his holy, blessed fear, convinced by the unholy words of the Greeks.