Another general conversion took place in Crete (A.D. 432) where the circumstances, though not exactly similar, were equally strange. An impostor, who had assumed the name of Moses, gained so much influence over the Jews in that island, who, we are told, were numerous and wealthy, as to persuade them that he could open a way for them to the Holy Land through the waters of the Mediterranean, as his namesake had done of old through those of the Red Sea. The delusion spread so far, that the Jews abandoned their houses and lands and all their personal possessions, except such as they could carry with them, and having been led by their conductor to the top of a high rock, threw themselves by his order into the sea. He himself then disappeared,[65] having probably reaped all that he could hope to gain by the transaction. Great numbers were drowned, and more would probably have shared their fate, if it had not chanced that there were some fishing boats lying off that part of the coast, which came to their assistance. The occupants of these boats were Christians; and this circumstance, added to the fact that the impostor had been a Jew, induced large numbers to adopt Christianity. Turning to Egypt, always a place of importance in Jewish history, we learn that there were, about the middle of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius II., great disturbances, caused mainly by the continual feuds between the Christians and Jews. The latter had always been conspicuous, not more on account of their wealth and numbers, than of their turbulent spirit. This, however, was in a great measure stirred into action by the accession of Cyril to the bishopric of Alexandria, vacated by Theophilus, A.D. 412. Cyril was a man of great force of character, but vain, hasty, and imperious. He soon obtained a most commanding influence in the city, of which the Prefect Orestes was naturally jealous. Desiring to punish the insolence of Cyril’s followers, he ordered one of them, Hierax, a schoolmaster, who had committed some breach of the peace, to be publicly scourged. Cyril sent for the Jews who had delated Hierax to Orestes, and threatened them with his anger unless they adopted a different course in their dealings with the Christians. Anticipating that this threat would soon be followed by an open attack upon them, the Jews resolved to be beforehand with him. Having put on rings of bark, in order to be able to distinguish one another in the dark, they raised at midnight the cry that one of the principal churches was on fire. The Christians rushed out in great numbers to extinguish the flames, and the Jews falling upon them, made a great slaughter of them. In the morning Cyril armed his followers, and assailing the Jews in his turn, slew great numbers, plundered and burned their houses, and drove the survivors out of the city. Orestes interfered on their behalf, but was himself attacked, and wounded in the head by a stone.