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the mob of the Chriftian Church; as if he obftructed à reconciliation between Bishop CYRIL and ORESTES. Wherfore certain hot-brain'd men, headed by one PETER a Lecturer, enter'd into a confpiracy against her, and watching their opportunity when she was returning home from fome place, they dragg'd her out of her chair; hurry'd her to the church call'd CESAR'S, and ftripping her stark naked, they kill'd her with tiles. Then they tore her to pieces, and carrying her limbs to a place call'd Cinaron, there they burnt them to afbes. Nothing fhort of this treatment, not to be parallel'd among the most favage nations against a woman (and against a woman of fuch diftinction fcarce credible, did not two or more of her contemporaries atteft it) nothing, I fay, but the blood of HYPATIA, fhed in the most inhuman manner, cou'd glut the fury of CYRIL'S Clergy for thefe were the monsters, that putting off all humanity, committed this barbarous murder. SOCRATES tis true diftinctly names but one Clergyman, PETER the Lecturer: but Nr CEPHORUS exprefly tells us, that the zealots, 14. cap.16. led on by this PETER, were CYRIL's Clergy, who hated her for the credit fhe had with ORESTES; that they were thefe, who imputed to her the misunderstanding between the Governor and their Bishop; and finally, that they butcher'd her in the time of folemn fafting: which, added to their fanctifying of their villany by perpetrating it in a Church, fhows the glorious state of Religion in thofe pure and primitive times; as fome, no lefs hypocritically than falfely, are pleas'd to ftile them. The citizens of Alexandria, on whom certain perfons wou'd fain lay this act of popular heat, as they fpeak by way of extenuation, were too great admirers of HYPATIA's vir tue,and too much in the intereft of ORESTES, to have any hand in fo foul a bufinefs, however prone

Hift.lib.

prone to tumults. All the circumstances accompanying the fact, clearly prove this: not to repeat the affault fo lately made by the Nitrian Monks on the Governor, whom the People refcu'd; tho I will not anfwer for all the mob, efpecially when the Clergy loo'd them on.

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XX.

ISIDORI

E it fo that the Clergy of Alexandria were the murderers (fome may fay) and that their affection for CYRIL tranf ported them beyond what can be ju ftify'd: how does it appear that he himself had any hand in this black deed, which perhaps he neither knew nor cou'd prevent? For the fake of our common humanity (fince true Chriftianity is not at all concern'd) I wish it were fo but there is fuch evidence as will not let any man, if not wilfully fhutting his eyes against truth, to believe it. DAMASCIUS, who is the other In vita contemporary witnefs of her murder I meant befides SOCRATES, pofitively affirms that CYRIL you'd HYPATIA's deftruction, whom he bitterly envy'd; and SUIDAS, who writes the fame thing, In Ya fays, that this envy was caus'd by her extraordi Tid. nary wisdom and skill in Aftronomy: as HES YCHIUS, when he mentions her limbs being carry'd all over the city in triumph, writes that this ta ‘Y*a? befell her on the Score of her extraordinary wisdom, TIC. and especially her skill in Aftronomy. For CYRIL was a mighty pretender to Letters, and one of thofe Clergymen who will neither acknowledge nor bear the fuperiority of any Laymen in this refpect,

be it ever fo inconteftable to others. But fome circumftances of HYPATIA's death, not mention'd in SOCRATES, are preferv'd in the Abridgment of ISIDOR US's Life in PHOTIUS, fuch as VALESIUS had it; and which I here In Annot. give you, reader, tho it fhou'd coft you the triad SOCRAT. bute of one tear more to her memory. Upon a lib. 7. cap. time, fays DAMASCIUS, CYRIL paffing by the

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boufe of HYPATIA, faw a great multitude before the door both of men on foot and on horseback; wherof fome were coming, fome going, and others ftay'd. When he inquir'd what that croud was, and what occafion'd fo great a concourfe? he was an・fwer'd by fuch as accompany'd him, that this was HYPATIA the Philofopher's houfe, and that these came to pay their respects to her. Which when CYRIL understood, he was mov'd with fo great envy, that be immediately vow'd her deftruction, which he accomplish'd in the most deteftable manner. For when HYPATIA, as was her cuftom, went abroad, several men, neither fearing divine vengeance nor buman punishment, fuddenly rush'd upon her and kill'd her: thus laying their country both under the highest infamy, and under the guilt of innocent blood. And Vide SUID. indeed the Emperor was grievously offended at this matter, and the murderers had been certainly punifh'd, but that EDESIUS did corrupt the Emperor's friends: fo that his Majesty its true remitted the punishment, but drew vengeance on himself and bis pofterity, his nephew paying dear for this action. This nephew VALESIUS believes to have been VALENTINIAN whofe mother PLACIDIA was aunt to THEODOSIUS.

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XXI. THUS

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XXI.

HUS ended the life of HYPATIA, whose memory will ever laft, and whose murder happen'd in the fourth year of CYRIL's Epifcopate,HONORIUS being the tenth time and THEODOSIUS the fixth time Confuls, in the month of March, in the time of Lent, and in the year 415.

That action, fays SOCRATES, brought no fmall infa- SOCRAT. my not onely upon CYRIL, but also upon the whole Hift. lib.7. Church of Alexandria: for flaughters, and fightings,and cap. 15. fuch like things, are quite foren to the Chriftian Inftitution. There's nothing furer, there's nothing truer; but of genuin Chriftianity there remain'd very little at that time, unless Christianity be made to confift in the bare name and profeffion: for, were I difpos'd to take this troble upon me, I fhou'd think it no difficult task to show, that neither the doctrines nor diftinctions then in vogue were ever taught by CHRIST or his APOSTLES; and that the ceremonies injoin'd or practis'd were all utterly unknown to them. No, no, they were no Chriftians that kill'd HYPATIA: nor are any Chriftian Clergymen now to be attack'd thro the fides of her murderers, but thofe that refemble them; by fubftituting precarious Traditions, Scholaftic fictions, and an ufurp'd Dominion, to the falutiferous Institution of the holy JESUS. PHOTIUS is very angry with PHILOSTORGIUS, whom he ftigmatizes as an Lib 8. cap. 9 Edit. Impious man, for faying that the Homooufians, or Gea, the ATHANASIAN Trinitarians, tere her to

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pieces: but is he not an Impudent man, or somthing worfe that dares to deny this? when none were more remarkable sticklers for the Homooufion, than CyRIL and his adherents. This only the truth of hiftory requires to be specially noted: for with me, the Homoioufion and the Homooufion are of no account, in comparison of the Bible, where neither of them are to be found. In the mean time twill In Differ- not be amifs to hear GOTHOFRED on this octat. ad PHI- cafion. Obferve here, fays he, the ARIAN poyson of PHILOSTORGIUS against the Homooufians or Catholics: as if the murder of HYPATIA were the crime of the Catholics, and not of the indifcrete Populace. Thus much however may be gather'd from this paffage, that this fame HYPATIA was no Catholic. Admirable GOTHOFRED! Not to fay any thing to your ARIAN poyfon, for which I am not a whit concern'd; neither of the People's guilt, whom I have fufficiently clear'd before; nor yet of the nice diftinction between the Populace and the Catholics, as if the bulk of the Catholics, were not the Populace: your conclufion that HYPATIA was not a Catholic is unfpeakably acute, when in reality fhe was not as much as a Chriftian; her father having been a heathen Philofopher, and her felf the wife of one, without the leaft appearance that he was ever any other with regard to her own perfuafion. As for a ridiculous Letter, pretended to be written by her to CYRIL about the Pafchal Cycle, tis a manifeft forgery: for fhe was murther'd the fixth year of THEODOSIUS, and therfore one and twenty years before the exile of NESTORIUS, who yet is mention'd in that Letter under the epithet of Impious.

XXII. AND

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