in some cases added to the laws of the previous reign against the heathen. In the year 408, Honorius even issued an edict excluding heathens from civil and military office ; ' and in 423 appeared another ' Cod. Theodos. xvi. 5, 42 : " Eos qui Catholicae sectae eunt inimici, intra pala- tium militare probibemus. Nullus nobis sit aliqua ratione conjunctus, qui a nobis fide et religione discordat." According to tlie somewhat doubtful but usually ad- mitted testimony of Zosimus, 1. v. c. 46, this edict was revoked, in consequence oi the threatened resignation of a pagan general, Generid, whom Honorius could not dispense with. But Theodosius issued similar laws in the east from 410 to 439. See Gibbon, Milman, Schrockh, and Neander, 1. c. The latter erroneously places the edict of Honorius in the year 416, instead of 408. § 7. THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM. 67 edict, wliich questioned the existence of heathens.' But in tlie first place, such laws, in, the tlien critical condition of the em- pire amidst the conliision of the great migration, especially in the West, could he but imperfectly enforced ; and in the next place, the frequent repetition of them itself proves that heathenism still had its votaries. This fact is witnessed also by various heathen wi-iters. Zosimus wrote his " New History," down to the year 410, under the reign and at the court of the youuger Theodosius (appearing in tlie high office of comes and advocatusfisci, as he styles himself), in bitter prejudice against the Christian emperors. In many places the Christians, in their work of demolishing the idols, were murdered by the in- furiated pagans. Meantime, however, there was cruelty also on the Christian side. One of the last instances of it was the terrible tragedy of Hypatia. This lady, a teacher of the Neo-Platonic philoso phy in Alexandria, distinguished for her beauty, her intelli- gence, her learning, and her virtue, and esteemed both by Christians and by heathens, was seized in the open street by the Ciiristian populace and fanatical monks, perhaps not with- out the connivance of the violent bishop Cyril, thrust out from her carriage, dragged to the cathedral, completely stripped, barbarously murdered with shells before the altar, and then torn to pieces and burnt, a. d. 415.' Socrates, who relates this, adds : " It bronglit great censure both on Cyril and on the Alexandrian church." §7. Tlie Downfall of Heathenism.. The final dissolution of heathenism in the eastern empire may be dated from the middle of the fifth century. In the * Theodos. II., in Cod. Theodos. xvi. 10, 22 : " Paganos, qui supersuut, quam- guam jam nullos esse credamus, promulgatarum legum jamdudum praescripta com- pescant." But between 821 and 426 appeared no less than eight laws against apos- tasy to heathenism ; showing that many nominal Christians changed their religion according to circumstances. * Socrat. vii. 15 (who considers Cyril guilty); the letters of Synesius, a pupil of Hypatia ; and Philostorg.