ing, and those who were most fearful of separating, the divinity and the humanity of Christ."
Saint Cyril, the advocate of unity, was a man of fanatical zeal. He used his position as patriarch
to incite pogroms of the very large Jewish colony in Alexandria. His chief claim to fame is the
lynching of Hypatia, a distinguished lady who, in an age of bigotry, adhered to the Neoplatonic
philosophy and devoted her talents to mathematics. She was "torn from her chariot, stripped
naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the Reader and a
troop of savage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-
shells and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progress of inquiry and
punishment was stopped by seasonable gifts." * After this, Alexandria was no longer troubled
by philosophers.
Saint Cyril was pained to learn that Constantinople was being led astray by the teaching of its
patriarch Nestorius, who maintained that there were two persons in Christ, one human and one
divine. On this ground Nestorius objected to the new practice of calling the Virgin "Mother of
God"; she was, he said, only the mother of the human Person, while the divine Person, who was
God, had no mother. On this question the Church was divided: roughly speaking, bishops east
of Suez favoured Nestorius, while those west of Suez favoured Saint Cyril. A council was
summoned to meet at Ephesus in 431 to decide the question. The Western bishops arrived first,
and proceeded to lock the doors against late-comers and decide in hot haste for Saint Cyril, who
presided. "This episcopal tumult, at the distance of thirteen centuries, assumes the venerable
aspect of the Third Å’cumenical Council." â€
As a result of this Council, Nestorius was condemned as a heretic. He did not recant, but was
the founder of the Nestorian sect, which had a large following in Syria and throughout the East.
Some centuries later, Nestorianism was so strong in China that it seemed to have a chance of
becoming the established religion. Nestorians were found in India by the Spanish and
Portuguese missionaries in the sixteenth century. The persecution of Nestorianism by the
Catholic
* Gibbon, op. cit., Chap. XLVII.â
€
Ibid.