hen he issued his memorable edict decreeing the
rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the
Jewish worship in its original splendour.

The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced
with his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most
distant quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment
ensued. Fire destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the
enterprise, and the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.

The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised
the whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members
could not but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely
dispersed in all those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium,
the Rhine districts, Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and
Spain. Not only did the Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively
in mercantile pursuits, but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly
into their hands--the internal slave-trade of Europe.

The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking
to impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.

A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to
issue severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the
patriarchate. In the East, under the rule during the same period of the
Persian king, Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in
531 A.D., the position was not more favourable for the Jews of
Babylonia.

_III.--The Golden Age of Judaism_

During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect
its throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and
the first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years
before Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sabaea and
established an independent kingdom, known as Homerit