very
crimes of which they accused their enemies. The next morning, as soon
as it was light, Cyril headed the mob in their attacks upon the Jewish
synagogues; they broke them open and plundered them, and in one day
drove every Jew out of the city. No Jew had been allowed to live in
Alexandria or any other city without paying a poll-tax, for leave
to worship his God according to the manner of his forefathers; but
religious zeal is stronger than the love of money; the Jews were driven
out, and the tax lost to the city.

[Illustration: 258b.jpg Street and Mosque of Mahdjiar]

Orestes, the prefect of Alexandria, had before wished to check the power
of the bishop; and he in vain tried to save the Jews from oppression,
and the state from the loss of so many good citizens. But it was useless
to quarrel with the patriarch, who was supported by the religious
zeal of the whole population. The monks of Mount Nitria and of the
neighbourhood burned with a holy zeal to fight for Cyril, as they had
before fought for Theophilus; and when they heard that a jealousy had
sprung up between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, more than
five hundred of them marched into Alexandria to avenge the affronted
bishop. They met the prefect Orestes as he was passing through the
streets in his open chariot, and began reproaching him with being a
pagan and a Greek. Orestes answered that he was a Christian, and he had
been baptised at Constantinople. But this only cleared him of the lesser
charge, he was certainly a Greek; and one of these Egyptian monks taking
up a stone threw it at his head, and the blow covered his face with
blood. They then fled from the guards and people who came up to help the
wounded prefect; but Ammonius, who threw the stone, was taken and put
to death with torture. The grateful bishop buried him in the church with
much pomp; he declared him to be a martyr and a saint, and gave him
the name of St. Thaumasius. But the Christians were ashamed of the
new martyr: and the bishop, who could not withstand the ridicule, soon
afterwards withdrew from him the title.

Bad as was this behaviour of the bishop and his friends, the most
disgraceful tale still remains to be told. The beautiful and learned
Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, was at that time
the ornament of Alexandria and the pride of the pagans. She taught
philosophy publicly in the platonic school which had been founded by
Ammonius, and which boasted of