Pope washes women's feet in break with church law

[happyslug]

147. She died in a dispute between the Bishop of Alexandria AND the Governor of Alexandria

The Bishop and Governor of Alexandria (both Christians, as was the Emperor) had fallen into some sort of dispute. This dispute turn violent, even before Hypatia appears in the dispute. It appears she was an ally of the Governor, when the majority of the people supported the Bishop. This alliance seems to be the reason for her death. Peter a "Reader" of the local Church, who believed it was the counsel of Hypatia that prevented the Governor from re-conciliating with the Bishop, lead the mob against Hypatia and killed her. Please note the Christian writer of the incident call this Peter a fanatic, whose action was Anti-Christian. There is a later account, that is different, but it is more an attack on Hypatia then a reporting of the incident. This later report MAY be based on first hand reports we no longer have, but is generally given less weight then the Earlier report of the incident.

For more see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

Ecclesiastical History, Socrates Scholasticus[26]
Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, and Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, found themselves in a bitter feud in which Hypatia would come to be one of the main points of contention. The feud, which took place in 415 AD, began over the matter of Jewish dancing exhibitions in Alexandria. Since these exhibitions attracted large crowds and were commonly prone to civil disorder of varying degrees, Orestes published an edict which outlined new regulations for such gatherings and posted it in the city's theater. Soon after, crowds gathered to read the edict, angry over the new regulations that had been imposed upon them. At one such gathering, Hierax, a Christian and devout follower of Cyril, read the edict and applauded the new regulations, which many people felt was an attempt to incite the crowd into sedition. In what Scholasticus suspected as Orestes' "…jealousy [of] the growing power of the bishops…[which] encroached on the jurisdiction of the authorities…", Orestes immediately ordered Hierax to be seized and publicly tortured in the theater.
Upon hearing of this, Cyril threatened the Jews of Alexandria with "the utmost severities" if harassment of Christians was not ceased at once. In response, the Jews of Alexandria grew only more furious over Cyril's threat, and in their anger they eventually resorted to violence against the Christians. They plotted to flush the Christians out at night by running through the streets, claiming that the Church of Alexander was on fire. When the Christians responded to what they were led to believe was the burning down of their church, "the Jews immediately fell upon and slew them", using rings to recognize one another in the dark, while killing everyone else in sight. When the morning came, the Jews of Alexandria could not hide their guilt, and Cyril, along with many of his followers, took to the city’s synagogues in search of the perpetrators of the night's massacre.
After Cyril found all of the Jews in Alexandria, he ordered them to be stripped of all their possessions, banished them from Alexandria, and allowed the remaining citizens to pillage the goods they left behind. With Cyril's banishment of the Jews, "Orestes [...] was filled with great indignation at these transactions, and was excessively grieved that a city of such magnitude should have been suddenly bereft of so large a portion of its population…". Because of this, the feud between Cyril and Orestes only grew stronger, and both men wrote to the emperor regarding the situation. Eventually, Cyril attempted to reach out to Orestes through several peace overtures, including attempted mediation and, when that failed, showed him the Gospels. Nevertheless, Orestes remained unmoved by such gestures.
Meanwhile, approximately 500 monks, who resided in the mountains of Nitria, and were "of a very fiery disposition", heard of the ongoing feud between the Governor and Bishop, and shortly thereafter descended into Alexandria, armed and prepared to fight alongside Cyril. Upon their arrival in Alexandria, the monks quickly intercepted Orestes' chariot in town and proceeded to bombard and harass him, calling him a pagan idolater. In response to such allegations, Orestes countered that he was actually a Christian, and had even been baptized by Atticus, the Bishop of Constantinople. The monks paid little attention to Orestes’ claims of Christianity, and one of the monks, by the name of Ammonius, struck Orestes in the head with a rock, which caused him to bleed profusely. At this point, Orestes’ guards fled for fear of their lives, but a nearby crowd of Alexandrians came to his aid, and Ammonius was subsequently secured and ordered to be tortured for his actions. Upon excessive torture, Ammonius died. Following the death of Ammonius, Cyril ordered that he henceforth be remembered as a martyr. Such a proclamation did not sit well with "sober-minded" Christians, as Scholasticus pointed out, seeing that he "suffered the punishment due to his rashness…[not because] he would not deny Christ", and this fact, according to Scholasticus, became more apparent to Cyril through general lack of enthusiasm for Ammonius's case for martyrdom.
Scholasticus then introduces Hypatia, the female philosopher of Alexandria and woman who would become a target of the Christian anger that grew over the feud. Daughter of Theon, and a teacher trained in the philosophical schools of Plato and Plotinus, she was admired by most men for her dignity and virtue. Of the anger she provoked among Christians, Scholasticus writes, Hypatia ultimately fell "victim to the political jealousy which at the time prevailed" - Orestes was known to seek her counsel, and a rumor spread among the Christian community of Alexandria in which she was blamed for his unwillingness to reconcile with Cyril. Therefore, a mob of Christians gathered, led by a reader (i.e. a minor cleric) named Peter whom Scholasticus calls a fanatic. They kidnapped Hypatia on her way home and took her to the "Church called Caesareum. They then completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles". Socrates Scholasticus was hence interpreted as saying that, while she was still alive, Hypatia's flesh was torn off using oyster shells (tiles; the Greek word is ostrakois, which literally means "oystershells" but the word was also used for brick tiles on the roofs of houses and for pottery sherds). Afterward, the men proceeded to mutilate her, and finally burn her limbs. When news broke of Hypatia's murder, it provoked great public denouncement, not only against Cyril, but against the whole Alexandrian Christian community. Scholasticus closes with a lament: "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort".

Here is a translation of the Actual report by
http://cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia-bio-socrates.html
http://www.cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia-bio-socrates.html

THERE WAS a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more. Yet even she fell victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them, therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles.* After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least opprobrium, not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril's episcopate, under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius.

Here is a report of her in Isadore of Damascus, please note this is from the Suda of Constantinople, a 10th Century encyclopedia NOT a first hand or even second hand account, but one made 500 years after the event:
http://www.cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia-bio-suda.html

http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=hypatia&field=any&num_per_page=100

The Suda itself, if you want to read a 10th Century encyclopedia:
http://www.stoa.org/sol/