heir hands, and chanted litanies to the mother of
God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people was
edified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trembling
monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, who
boldly pronounced, that none could hope for salvation, unless they
embraced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor of
Athanasius. At the same time, every avenue of the throne was assaulted
with gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, the
courtiers of both sexes were bribed according to the measure of their
power and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled the
sanctuaries of Constantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the
patriarch was unable to silence the just murmur of his clergy, that a
debt of sixty thousand pounds had already been contracted to support the
expense of this scandalous corruption. [50] Pulcheria, who relieved
her brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of
orthodoxy; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the
synod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of success
if he could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in the favor of
Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisive
victory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promise
of protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softened
his anathemas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofold
nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge against
the unfortunate Nestorius. [51]

[Footnote 48: I should be curious to know how much Nestorius paid for
these expressions, so mortifying to his rival.]

[Footnote 49: Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honorably named by
Cyril as a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. His
brother, the abbot Dalmatus, is likewise employed to bind the emperor
and all his chamberlains terribili conjuratione. Synodicon. c. 203, in
Concil. tom. iv p. 467.]

[Footnote 50: Clerici qui hic sunt contristantur, quod ecclesia
Alexandrina nudata sit hujus causa turbelae: et debet praeter illa quae
hinc transmissa sint auri libras mille quingentas. Et nunc ei scriptum
est ut praestet; sed de tua ecclesia praesta avaritiae quorum nosti,
&c. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to his
creature the new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccoun