eir number decrease, grew very troublesome to
the Christians, whom they excluded from commerce and all public offices,
and injured them all manner of ways. St. Porphyrius, to screen himself
and his flock from their outrages and vexations, had recourse to the
emperor's protection. On this errand he sent Mark, his disciple, to
Constantinople, and went afterwards himself in company with John, his
metropolitan, archbishop of Caesarea. Here they applied themselves to St.
John Chrysostom, who joyfully received them, and recommended them to the
eunuch Amantius, who had great credit with the empress, and was a
zealous servant of God. Amantius having introduced them to the empress,
she received them with great distinction, assured them of her
protection, and begged their prayers for her safe delivery, a favor she
received a few days after. She desired them in another visit to sign her
and her newborn son, Theodosius the Younger, with the sign of the cross,
which they did. The young prince was baptized with great solemnity, and
on that occasion the empress obtained from the emperor all that the
bishops had requested, and in particular that the temples of Gaza should
be demolished; an imperial edict being drawn up for this purpose and
delivered to Cynegius, a virtuous patrician, and one full of zeal, to
see it executed. They stayed at Constantinople during the feast of
Easter, and at their departure the emperor and empress bestowed on them
great presents. When they landed in Palestine, near Gaza, the Christians
came out to meet them with a cross carried before them, singing hymns.
In the place called Tetramphodos, or Four-ways-end, stood a marble
statue of Venus, on a marble altar, which was in great reputation for
giving oracles to young women about the choice of husbands, but had
often grossly deceived them, engaging them to most unhappy marriages; so
that many heathens detested its lying impostures. As the two bishops,
with the procession of the Christians, and the cross borne before them,
passed through that square, this idol fell down of itself, and was {477}
broken to pieces: whereupon thirty-two men and seven women were
converted.

Ten days after arrived Cynegius, having with him a consular man and a
duke, or general, with a strong guard of soldiers, besides the civil
magistrates of the country. He assembled the citizens and read to them
the emperor's edict, commanding their idols and temples to be destroyed,
which was acco