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“Socrates - The Murder of Hypatia (415) - original Greek Text with English translation”
Historia Ecclesiastica, 7. 15.
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books Socrates of Constantinople: Historian of Church and State Theresa Urbainczyk ----- Glenn Chesnut
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Of Hypatia the Female Philosopher.
There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon,
who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the
philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and
Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of
whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the
self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the
cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of
the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in coming to an assembly of men.
For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the
more. Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time
prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously
reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes
from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them therefore, hurried away by a
fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her
returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church
called Cæsareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with
tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place
called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least
opprobrium, not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And
surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance
of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month
of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril’s episcopate, under the tenth
consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius. |
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Socrates
Hypatia
Orestes
Cyril of Alexandria
Monks of Nitria
Church History
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Patrologia Graeca