Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane

lectures, conversation, or other appropriate methods, instruction in all the various departments of human knowledge. _There flocked to this great intellectual centre, students from all countries._ It is said that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand were in attendance. Subsequently even the Christian church received from it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Athanasius, &c. The library in the museum was burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Cæsar. To make amends for this great loss, the library collected by Eumenes, King of Pergamus, was presented by Mark Antony to Queen Cleopatra. Originally it was founded as a rival to that of the Ptolemies. It was added to the collection in the Serapion, or the temple of Serapis.[440:1] It was not destined, however, to remain there many centuries, as this very valuable library was willfully destroyed by the Christian Theophilus, and on the spot where this beautiful temple of Serapis stood, in fact, on its very foundation, was erected a church in honor of the "noble army of martyrs," who had never existed. This we learn from the historian Gibbon, who says that, after this library was destroyed, "the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice."[440:2] The destruction of this library was almost the death-blow to free-thought--wherever Christianity ruled--for more than a thousand years. The death-blow was soon to be struck, however, which was done by _Saint Cyril_, who succeeded _Theophilus_ as Bishop of Alexandria. _Hypatia_, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, endeavored to continue the old-time instructions. Each day before her academy stood a long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and fashion of _Alexandria_. They came to listen to her discourses on those questions which man in all ages has asked, but which have never yet been answered: "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?" Hypatia and Cyril; philosophy and bigotry; they cannot exist together. As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by (Saint) Cyril's mob--_a mob of many monks_. Stripped naked in the street, she was dragged into a _church_, and there killed _by the club of Peter the Reader_. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. _For this frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. It seemed to be admitted that the end sanctified the means. So ended Greek philosophy in Alexandria_, so came to an untimely close the learning that the Ptolemies had done so much to promote. The fate of Hypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane knowledge. _Henceforth there was to be no freedom for human thought. Every one must think as ecclesiastical authority ordered him_; A. D.