Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-11

the majority OF the eccieslasrlcat historians
have been willing to admit. The two
facts, frs. that he had the power both
of prevention and punishment; second,
that he exercised neither, suffice to convict
him. But in truth this murder, dreadful
as it appears to US now, was of very little
account TO man of Cyrils training and
character. For his whole career was filled
with lawlessness. He was breeder of
street riots, an inciter of massacres, a
fomenter of persecution, and long before
he died was stepped in innocent blood
from head to foot. Nor does greater
criminal often cross the stage of history
His every method was unchristian. In
his contest with Nestorius he en-
ployed the basest treachery, the most
audaeious unfairness, the most impu-
dent bribery, the most inscriptions mis-
representations. He did not hesitate to
forge damaging letters in the names
of his adversaries. At the Council of
Ephesus he proceeded throughout in de-
iance of the law, and his deposition of
Nestorius was a high-handed outrage He
plundered the Jews to bride the court of
Theodosius, and through Eunuch, Sc
cured the favor of Pulcheria, afterward
Empress. And, says Milman, this
Eunuch having died, "when the En-
"peror ordered his vast treasures to be
"opened, coniscated no doubt to the
Imperial use, a receipt was found
"for many pounds of gold received from
cyril through Paul, bis sisters son." To
such man, hardened in vice and crime of
every kind, the murder of one woman very
probably may have appeared mere tTife,
but, as Draper remarks, though in his
"privacy st. Cyril and his friends might
'laugh at the end of his antagonist, his
"memory must bear the weight of the
righteous indignation of posterity. u
1t must be borne in mind that during
the fifth century Christianity was a scan
dial to the world. The Christian world was
torn into countless schisms. Each party
dealt damnation upon its opponents and
all dissidents, Rome was defied by Con-
stantinople, and Constantinople by Alex
andria Milman says of this period Per
"secution is universal persecution by
"every means of violence and cruelty
the only question is, in whose hands is
"the power to prosecute. Blood
"shed, murder, treachery, assassination,
"even during the public worship of God
"these are the frightful means by which
leach party strives to maintain its opin-
"ions and defeat its adversary" 1t was
in such period, when mere ordinary bru-
tally and criminality were so common as
to attract no attention, that Cyril of Alex
andria attained that bad eminence upon
| which he has stood ever since. He is dis.
| tinguished as the most thorough. paced
scoundrelin an age when scoundrelism was
considered almost indispensable to success.
He stands prominently out as the most
outrageous travesty upon Christian virtues
and characteristics to be found in history.
He was so utterly unlovely and evil man
that the bishop of Cyrus, Theodoret, said
to have been the wiseat and hottest ecclesi.
astic in the East, wrote of him when he
died I" His death made those who sur
"vived him joyful; but it grieved most
probably the dead; and there is
"cause to fear, lest, finding his
presence too troublesome, they should
"send him back to US. May it
leone to pass, by your prayers, that he
"may obtain mercy and forgiveness, that
"the immeasurable grace of God may
prevail over his wickedness." Let us
remember that this was written by one of
his contemporaries, and that it is written
| of one who has been canonizsd by Rome.
1t is true, as we remarked in former
article, that Cyril of Alexandria is not the
first bad man who has been SO honored,
but it may perhaps be doubted whether he
is not the most fragrant and intolerable
saint in the calendar.