es, the
soldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St.
Cyril; and, as far as the confines of Aethiopia, the heretic was
alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the
hardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind was
still independent and erect; the president of Thebais was awed by his
pastoral letters; he survived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and,
after sixteen years' banishment, the synod of Chalcedon would perhaps
have restored him to the honors, or at least to the communion, of the
church. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcome
summons; [55] and his disease might afford some color to the scandalous
report, that his tongue, the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by the
worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names of
Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Akmim; [56] but the immortal malice of the
Jacobites has persevered for ages to cast stones against his sepulchre,
and to propagate the foolish tradition, that it was never watered by the
rain of heaven, which equally descends on the righteous and the ungodly.
[57] Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Nestorius; yet justice
must observe, that he suffered the persecution which he had approved and
inflicted. [58]

[Footnote 52: Evagrius, l. i. c. 7. The original letters in the
Synodicon (c. 15, 24, 25, 26) justify the appearance of a voluntary
resignation, which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apud
Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 299, 302.]

[Footnote 53: See the Imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod
of Ephesus, (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1730--1735.) The odious name of
Simonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this. Yet these were
Christians! who differed only in names and in shadows.]

[Footnote 54: The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians
(Pandect. l. xlviii. tit. 22, leg. 7) to those happy spots which are
discriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of these
under the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat: 1. The temple of Jupiter
Ammon. 2. The middle Oasis, three days' journey to the west of
Lycopolis. 3. The southern, where Nestorius was banished in the first
climate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See a
learned note of Michaelis, (ad Descript. Aegypt. Abulfedae, p. 21-34.)
* Note: 1. The Oasis of Sivah has been visited by Mons. Drovetti and
Mr. Browne. 2. The little Oas