Such were the disorder and bloodshed that the emperor had to interfere.

He dispatched a rescript to Alexandria, enjoining the bishop, Theophilus, to destroy the Serapion; and the great library, which had been collected by the Ptolemies, and had escaped the fire of Julius Caesar, was by that fanatic dispersed.
THE MURDER OF HYPATIA.

The bishopric thus held by Theophilus was in due time occupied by his nephew St.Cyril, who had commended himself to the approval of the Alexandrian congregations as a successful and fashionable preacher.

It was he who had so much to do with the introduction of the worship of the Virgin Mary.

His hold upon the audiences of the giddy city was, however, much weakened by Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, who not only distinguished herself by her expositions of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, but also by her comments on the writings of Apollonius and other geometers.