[N78]. The Bishops of Alexandria had begun, says Socrates[[1]], to exceed the Limits of the Ecclesiastical Power, and intermeddle in Civil Affairs, imitating therein the Bishop of Rome, whose sacred Authority had long since been changed into Dominion and Empire. The Governors of Alexandria, looking upon the Increase of the Episcopal Power, as a Diminution of the Civil, watched all Opportunities of mortifying the Bishops, in order to restrain them within the Limits of the spiritual, and prevent their encroaching on the temporal Jurisdiction. But Cyril, from the very Beginning of his Episcopacy, bid Defiance to the civil Power, acting in such Manner as shewed but too plainly, that he would be kept within no Bounds. For soon after his Installation, he caused, by his own Authority, the Churches, which the Novatians were allowed to have in Alexandria, to be shut up, seized on the sacred Utensils, and plundering the House of their Bishop Theopemptus, drove him out of the City, stript of every thing he possessed[[[2]]. Not long after, the Jews, who were very numerous in Alexandria, having one Night treacherously murdered several Christians there, Cyril next Morning, by Break of Day, put himself at the Head of the Christian Mob, and without the Knowlege of the Governor took Possession of the Synagogue, drove the Jews out of Alexandria, pillaged their Houses, and allowed the Christians, who were concerned with him in the Riot, to appropriate to themselves all their Effects. This the Governor highly resented, and not only rebuked Cyril very severely for thus entrenching on his Jurisdiction, and usurping a Power that did not become him; but writ to the Emperor, complaining of him for snatching the Sword of Justice from him to put it into the Hands of the undiscerning Multitude. This occasioned a Misunderstanding, or rather an avowed Enmity, between Cyril and Orestes. With the former sided the Clergy, the greater Part of the Mob, and the Monks; with the latter the Soldiery, and the better Sort of the Citizens. As the two Parties were strangely animated against each other, there happened daily Skirmishes in the Streets of Alexandria. For the Alexandrians, as Socrates observes[[[3]], and is well known, were of all People the most seditious and ungovernable. The Friends of the Governor, generally speaking, made their Party good, having the Soldiery on their Side. But one Day as Orestes was going out in his Chariot, attended by his Guards, he found himself very unexpectedly surrounded by no fewer than Five hundred Monks come from the Mountains of Nitria. The Monks were, in those Days, the standing Army of the Bishops; but are now of the Popes alone, who being sensible how serviceable such a formidable Corps might prove to the Apostolic See, not only against the Laity, but the Bishops themselves, exempted them from their Jurisdiction, and made them immediately dependent on themselves. But of the monkish Orders, their Founders and Institutions, I shall speak at Length on occasion of their being first taken by the Popes into their Service. The Nitrian Monks in the Service of Cyril, having surrounded the Governor’s Chariot, first dispersed, with several Vollies of Stones, the small Guard that attended it, then falling upon him, dangerously wounded him, and seemed determined to put an End to the Quarrel between him and Cyril, by putting an End to his Life. But the Citizens, alarmed at his Danger, flew to his Rescue, put the cowardly Monks to flight at their first Appearance, and having seized on the Monk Ammonius, by whom Orestes had been wounded, delivered him into his Hands. The Governor, to deter others from the like Attempts, and to mortify Cyril, whom he well knew to be at the Bottom of the Plot, caused the Monk to be tortured with so much Severity, that he expired on the Rack. But Cyril, partly out of Spite to the Governor, and partly to reward the Zeal, which the Monk had exerted in attempting to assassinate his Antagonist, caused him to be honoured as a holy Martyr, under the Name of Thaumasius, being himself ashamed to pay him that Honour under the Name of Ammonius[[[4]]. The Partisans of Cyril, alike mortified and enraged at the Death of Ammonius, resolved, at all Events, to revenge it; and the Person they singled out among the Friends of Orestes to wreak their Rage and Revenge on, was one, who, of all the Inhabitants of that populous City, deserved it the least. This was the famous, and so much celebrated, Hypatia, the Wonder of her Age for Beauty, Virtue, and Knowlege. She kept a public School of Philosophy in Alexandria, where she was born; and her Reputation was so great, that not only Disciples flocked from all Parts to hear her; but the greatest Philosophers used to consult her, as an Oracle, with respect to the most intricate and abstruse Points of Astronomy, Geometry, and the Platonic Philosophy, which she was particularly well versed in[[[5]]. Tho' she was very beautiful, and freely conversed with Men of all Ranks, yet those she conversed with were so awed by her known Virtue and Modesty, that none, but one of her own Disciples, ever presumed to shew in her Presence the least Symptom of Passion or Tenderness; and him she soon cured[[[6]]. Orestes entertained the highest Opinion of her Abilities, often consulted her, as the other Governors had done before him, and in all perplexed Cases governed himself by her Advice. As she was the Person in Alexandria, whom he most valued, and in whose Company he took the greatest Delight, the Friends of Cyril, to wound him in the most tender and sensible Part, entered into a Conspiracy to destroy the innocent Lady, and by her Death deprive him of that Comfort. This barbarous Resolution being taken, as she was one Day returning Home in her Chariot, a Band of the Dregs of the People, encouraged and headed by one of Cyril’s Ecclesiastics named Peter, attacked her in her Chariot, pulled her violently out of it, and throwing her on the Ground, dragged her to the great Church called Cæsareum. There they stript her naked, and with sharp Tiles, either brought with them, or found there, continued cutting, mangling, and tearing her Flesh, she bearing it with the greatest Firmness and Constancy, till Nature yielding to Pain, she expired under their Hands. Her Death did not satisfy their Rage and Fury. They tore her Body in Pieces, dragged her mangled Limbs, with a thousand Outrages, through all the Streets of Alexandria, and then, gathering them together, burnt them in a Place called Cineron[[[7]]. Such was the End of the famous Hypatia, the most learned Person of the Age she lived in, and one of the best, tho’ not a Christian. Who could believe Christians, nay, Ecclesiastics, not to say Bishops, capable in those early Times of such Barbarities? The Account which I have given from Socrates of the tragical End of Hypatia, is confirmed by Damascius in his Life of Isidorus the Philosopher, written towards the End of the present Century[[[8]]. He makes Cyril the Author of that barbarous Murder. But Damascius, say Du Pin and Tillemont, was a Pagan, and therefore deserves no Credit. I wish it could not be made out so easily as it may, that, tho’ a Pagan, he deserves to be credited on this Occasion. The Mob was headed, in perpetrating that horrid Murder, by one of Cyril’s Ecclesiastics; and I do not find, that he was ever punished, or even reprimanded, by his Bishop, on that Score. When the Emperor was first acquainted by Orestes, with what had happened, he expressed the greatest Indignation and a firm Resolution to punish the Offenders with the utmost Severity. But Edesius, a Deacon of the Church of Alexandria, who resided at Constantinople, with the Character of Cyril’s Nuncio, having gained over the Ministers, with the large Sums that were remitted to him (not by the Mob, or the Ecclesiastic who headed them; for he was only a Reader), the Emperor was not only appeased, but prevailed upon to grant a general Pardon to all, who were concerned in that Riot[[[9]]. But, by pardoning them, he drew down Vengeance from Heaven upon himself, says the Historian, and was deservedly punished in the Persons of those, who were most dear to him[[[10]]. He alludes perhaps to the unhappy End of Valentinian III. his Cousin and Son-in-law, who was murdered on the 17th of March 455. and to the Misfortunes, which the whole Imperial Family was involved in after his Death.
The Church of Rome, which has sainted this Man, may think herself concerned in Honour to justify all his Proceedings; but surely the Church of England is not. I shall not therefore attempt such a Vindication; but having truly and faithfully related the Facts from a contemporary Historian, shall leave the Character of Cyril to be judged of from them, and content myself with wishing, that one, whose Zeal for the Christian Religion was sometimes meritorious, had better understood the true Bounds of that Zeal, and the true Spirit of that Religion, than he appears to have done upon many Occasions.
[1]. Socr. 1. 7. c. 7.
[2]. Id. ibid.
[3]. Socr. l. 7. c. 13.
[4]. Socr. l. 7. c. 14.
[5]. Soc. ibid. Theophan. p. 70, 71. Suid. p. 976, 977.
[6]. Socr. et Suid. ibid.
[7]. Socr. l. 7. c. 14.
[8]. Suid. p. 977.