CHAPTER XXXV

CYRIL, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, AND ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH

CYRIL, the nephew of Theophilus, was at this period bishop of Alexandria. John, a man of exemplary piety, was the bishop of Jerusalem, having succeeded another Cyril, who has been already mentioned. Alexander, who governed the church of Antioch, added the virtues of private life to the dignity of the priesthood. Before he was raised to the bishopric, he dwelt in a monastery, and led a life of conflict and austerity. He not only instructed others by precept, but confirmed his precepts by his actions. He succeeded Porphyry, who had received the helm of the church at the death of Flavian, and who had left behind him many memorials of his philanthropy, and of his remarkable prudence. The holy Alexander distinguished himself by the austerity of his life, by his love of wisdom, by his contempt of riches, by his eloquence, and by innumerable other endowments. The numerous partizans of Eustathius whom Paulinus, and after him Evagrius, would not receive into communion, were gained over by the mild exhortations of Alexander, and were re-united with the rest of the body; and he commemorated the event by a festival which was unequalled in point of splendour and magnificence. He assembled all those who had been of the same opinions as himself, both clergy and people, and brought them to the place in which the Eustathians held their meetings. They found them engaged in singing psalms, and they sung with them. From the left gate opposite the West to the New Church, all the space was crowded with men; presenting the similitude of a majestic river, like that which flowed through the city. On seeing this, the Jews, Arians, and Greeks, lamented and mourned, because they perceived that this river was flowing into the sea of the church. This bishop was the first who inscribed the name of the celebrated John in the ecclesiastical register.