at
one half of the population of Egypt was at that moment in 'religious
orders.'

After the monks, the laity began to enter but even then so vast was the
crowd, and so dense the crush upon the steps, that before he could force
his way into the church, Cyril's sermon had begun. ...............

--'What went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Nay, such
are in kings' palaces, and in the palaces of prefects who would needs
be emperors, and cast away the Lord's bonds from them--of whom it is
written, that He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth them to scorn, and
taketh the wicked in their own snare, and maketh the devices of princes
of none effect. Ay, in king's palaces, and in theatres too, where the
rich of this world, poor in faith, deny their covenant, and defile their
baptismal robes that they may do honour to the devourers of the earth.
Woe to them who think that they may partake of the cup of the Lord
and the cup of devils. Woe to them who will praise with the same mouth
Aphrodite the fiend, and her of whom it is written that He was born of
a pure Virgin. Let such be excommunicate from the cup of the Lord, and
from the congregation of the Lord, till they have purged away their sins
by penance and by almsgiving. But for you, ye poor of this world, rich
in faith, you whom the rich despise, hale before the judgment seats, and
blaspheme that holy name whereby ye are called--what went ye out into
the wilderness to see? A prophet?--Ay, and more than a prophet--a
martyr! More than a prophet, more than a king, more than a prefect whose
theatre was the sands of the desert, whose throne was the cross, whose
crown was bestowed, not by heathen philosophers and daughters of
Satan, deceiving men with the works of their fathers, but by angels and
archangels; a crown of glory, the victor's laurel, which grows for ever
in the paradise of the highest heaven. Call him no more Ammonius, call
him Thaumasius, wonderful! Wonderful in his poverty, wonderful in his
zeal, wonderful in his faith, wonderful in his fortitude, wonderful
in his death, most wonderful in the manner of that death. Oh thrice
blessed, who has merited the honour of the cross itself! What can
follow, but that one so honoured in the flesh should also be honoured
in the life which he now lives, and that from the virtue of these
thrice-holy limbs the leper should be cleansed, the dumb should speak,
the very dead be raised? Yes; it were impiety to doubt it. C