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XLVII.

foon prompted, or accepted, the facrifice of a vir- CHAP. gin, who profeffed the religion of the Greeks, and cultivated the friendship of Oreftes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician 25, was initiated in her father's ftudies; her learned comments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and Diophantus, and she publickly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philofophy of Plato and Ariftotle. In the bloom of beauty, and in the maturity of wisdom, the modeft maid refused her lovers and inftructed her difciples; the perfons moft illuftrious for their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philofopher; and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the gorgeous train of horses and flaves who crowded the door of her academy. A rumour was spread among the Chriftians, that the daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of the præfect and the archbishop; and that obftacle was speedily removed. On a fatal day, in the holy feafon of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, ftripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader, and a troop of favage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was fcraped from her bones with fharp oyfter-fhells 26, and her

quivering

25 ForTheon, and his daughter Hypatia, fee Fabricius,Bibliothec. tom. viii. p.210,211. Her article in the Lexicon of Suidas is curious and original. Hefychius (Meurfii Opera, tom. vii. p. 295, 296.) obferves, that fhe was profecuted die

Begav co prav; and an epigram in the Greek Anthology (1. i. c. 76. p. 159. edit. Brodæi) celebrates her knowledge and eloquence. She is honourably mentioned (Epift. 10. 15, 16. 33-80. 124. 135. 153.) by her friend and difciple the philofophic bishop Synefius.

26 Ορρα καις α είλον, και μεληδόν διασπασαντες, &C. Oyfter-fhells were plentifully ftrewed on the fea beach before the Cæfareum. I may

therefore

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CHAP quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progrefs of inquiry and punishment was stopped by feasonable gifts; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted an indelible ftain on the character and religion of Cyril of Alexandria 27.

Neftorius, patriarch of Conftantino

ple, A.D. 428, April 10.

Superftition, perhaps, would more gently expiate the blood of a virgin, than the banishment of a faint; and Cyril had accompanied his uncle to the iniquitous fynod of the Oak. When the me mory of Chryfoftom was reftored and confecrated, the nephew of Theophilus, at the head of a dying faction, ftill maintained the juftice of his fentence; nor was it till after a tedious delay and an obstinate refistance, that he yielded to the confent of the Catholic world 28. His enmity to the Byzantine pontiffs was a sense of interest, not a fally of paflion he envied their fortunate ftation in the

29

therefore prefer the literal fense, without rejecting the metaphorical verfion of tegula, tiles, which is ufed by M. de Valois. I am ignorant, and the affaffins were probably regardless, whether their victim was yet alive.

27 Thefe exploits of St. Cyril are recorded by Socrates (1. vii, C. 13. 14, 15.); and the most reluctant bigotry is compelled to copy an hiftorian who coolly ftyles the murderers of Hypatia adpes to gornja &Õigμoi. At the mention of that injured name, I am pleased to obferve a blush even on the cheek of Baronius (A. D. 415, No 48.).

28 He was deaf to the entreaties of Atticus of Conftantinople, and of Ifidore of Pelufium, and yielded only (if we may believe Nicephorus, 1. xiv. c. 18.) to the personal intercession of the Virgin, Yet in his last years he ftill muttered that John Chryfoftom had been justly condemned (Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xiv. p. 278–282. Baronius, Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 412, No 46—64 ).

29 See their characters in the history of Socrates (1. vii. c. 25— 28.); their power and pretenfions, in the huge compilation of I homaflin (Difcipline de l'Eglife, tom. i. p. 80-1.).

funshine

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funshine of the Imperial court; and he dreaded CHAP. their upstart ambition, which oppreffed the metropolitans of Europe and Afia, invaded the provinces of Antioch and Alexandria, and measured their diocese by the limits of the empire. The long moderation of Atticus, the mild ufurper of the throne of Chryfoftom, fufpended the animofities of the eastern patriarchs; but Cyril was at length awakened by the exaltation of a rival more worthy of his esteem and hatred. After the short and troubled reign of Sifinnius bishop of Conftantinople, the factions of the clergy and people were appeafed by the choice of the emperor, who, on this occafion, confulted the voice of fame, and invited the merit of a stranger. Neftorius 30, a native of Germanicia, and a monk of Antioch, was recommended by the aufterity of his life, and the eloquence of his fermons; but the first homily which he preached before the devout Theodofius betrayed the acrimony and impatience of his zeal. "Give me, O Cæfar," he exclaimed, "give me "the earth purged of heretics, and I will give "you in exchange the kingdom of heaven. Ex❝ terminate with me, the heretics; and with you, "I will exterminate the Perfians." On the fifth day, as if the treaty had been already figned, the patriarch of Conftantinople difcovered, furprised, and attacked a fecret conventicle of the Arians: they preferred death to fubmiffion; the flames that were

3o His elevation and conduct are described by Socrates (1. vii。 c. 29. 31.); and Marcellinus seems to have applied the loquent. fatis, fapientiæ parum, of Salluft.

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CHAP. kindled by their despair, soon spread to the neighbouring houses, and the triumph of Neftorius was clouded by the name of incendiary. On either fide of the Hellefpont, his epifcopal vigour impofed a rigid formulary of faith and difcipline; a chronological error concerning the festival of Easter was punished as an offence against the church and state. Lydia and Caria, Sardes and Miletus, were purified with the blood of the obftinate Quartodecimans ; and the edict of the emperor, or rather of the patriarch, enumerates three and twenty degrees and denominations in the guilt and punishment of herefy". But the fword of perfecution, which Neftorius fo furiously wielded, was foon turned against his own breast, Religion was the pretence; but, in the judgment of a contemporary faint, ambition was the genuine motive of epifcopal warfare 32.

His herefy, A. D. 429-431.

In the Syrian school, Neftorius had been taught to abhor the confufion of the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the humanity of his master Christ from the divinity of the Lord Jefus 33. The

31 Cod. Theodos. Į. xvi. tit. v. leg, 65. with the illuftrations of Baronius (A. D. 428. N° 25, &c.), Godefroy (ad locum), and Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 208.).

32 Ifidore of Pelufium (1. iv. epift. 57.). His words are strong and fcandalousτι θαυμαζεις, ει και των περί πζαγμα θείον και λογι κρειττον διαφωνεῖν προσποιύνται υπο φιλαρχίας εκβακχευομενοι. Ifidore is a faint, but he never became a bishop; and I half suspect that the pride of Diogenes trampled on the pride of Plato.

33 La Croze (Chriftianifme des Indes, tom. i. p. 44-53. Thefaurus Epiftolicus La Crozianus, tom.iii. p. 276-280.) has detected the ufe of worns, and d xupi Inous, which, in the ivth, vth, and with centuries, discriminate the school of Diodorus of Tarfus and his Neftorian disciples,

Bleffed

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Bleffed Virgin he revered as the mother of Chrift, CHAP. but his ears were offended with the rafh and recent title of mother of God 34, which had been infenfibly adopted fince the origin of the Arian controverfy. From the pulpit of Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch, and afterwards the patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word " unknown to the apoftles, unauthorised by the church, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the fimple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a feeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus 36. In his calmer moments Neftorius confeffed, that it might be tolerated or excufed by the union of the two natures, and the communication of their

34 ɛTon-Deipara: as in zoology we familiarly speak of oviparous and viviparous animals. It is not eafy to fix the invention of this word, which La Croze (Chriftianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16.) afcribes to Eufebius of Cæfarea and the Arians. The orthodox teftimonies are produced by Cyril and Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. v. c. 15. p. 254, &c.); but the veracity of the faint is questionable, and the epithet of er so easily slides from the margin to the text of a Catholic MS.

35 Bafnage, in his Hiftoire de l'Eglife, a work of controversy (tom. i. p. 505.), juftifies the mother, by the blood of God (Acts, xx. 28. with Mill's various readings). But the Greek MSS are far from unanimous; and the primitive style of the blood of Chrift is preserved in the Syriac verfion, even in those copies which were used by the Christians of St. Thomas on the coaft of Malabar (La Croze, Chriftianifme des Indes, tom. i. p. 347.). The jealousy of the Neftorians and Monophyfites has guarded the purity of their text. 36 The Fagans of Egypt already laughed at the new Cybele of the Christians (Ifidor. 1. i. epift. 54.): a letter was forged in the name of Hypatia, to ridicule the theology of her affaffin (Synodicon, c. 216. in iv tom. Concil. p. 484.). In the article of NESTORIUS, Bayle has scattered fome loofe philofophy on the worship of the Virgin Mary.

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