julian's last attempt to restore paganism by imperial influence had only proved that the old faith had lost all hold upon the hearts of the masses at his death the great tide wave of new opinion rolled on unchecked and the rulers of earth were fain to swim with the stream to accept in words at least the church's laws as theirs to acknowledge a king of kings to whom even they owed homage and obedience and to call their own slaves their poorer brethren and often too their spiritual superiors