Both parties made their appeal to Theodosius, at that time a boy of fourteen. Whether it was that the Court of Constantinople was too much engaged with affairs of State to attend to troubles in Egypt, or that Cyril’s private influence gained the ascendency, we are not told; but it does not appear that any of the criminals, not even the murderers of Hypatia,[66] were ever punished, or the Jews, who had been expelled from Alexandria, reinstated in their homes. Some years afterwards (A.D. 429), the Jews received a severe blow in the suppression of the Patriarchate of Tiberias; which had existed for about three hundred years, but now expired in the person of Gamaliel IV., the ninth patriarch who had held that office. The revenue by which the patriarchs had been supported, was derived from certain duties levied upon the Jews residing in all quarters of the empire, the patriarch’s collectors being sent everywhere for that purpose. It is probable that the tie which united the Jews to the ancient centre of their faith had for a long time been growing gradually weaker, as the severance itself widened; and the periodical visits to Jerusalem, which had kept up the bond of attachment, had long ceased to be observed. It is said that petitions were presented to the emperors requesting the abolition of the impost. However that may have been, an edict was issued by Honorius, forbidding the levying of the duty at Rome, and, most probably, in any part of the Western empire. That raised in the East appears to have gone directly into the Imperial treasury. This step did not formally abrogate the patriarchal office, but it was a deathblow to it. Gamaliel retained the name, and some show of authority, during the remainder of his life, but no successor was appointed when he died. FOOTNOTES: [60] I have elsewhere pointed out how fearfully mistaken is such a belief. Granting, for the argument’s sake, that the Jews who crucified our Lord are to be regarded as His enemies, and, as such, just objects of our abhorrence, their genuine descendants, those who should inherit that abhorrence, are not their children according to the flesh, but they (St. John viii. 41, 44) who imitate their deeds. These are their genuine children. These ‘crucify the Son of God afresh.’ If we must abhor any as the enemies of Christ, let us abhor these. [61] Ambrose, _Epist._ xxix. [62] A similar case occurred at Antioch, under Theodosius II. (A.D. 423), where the clergy were ordered to make restitution to the Jews, whose synagogue they had gutted and plundered. The celebrated Simeon Stylites interfered on this occasion, and succeeded, as Ambrose had done, in annulling the Imperial order. [63] Cod. Theod. viii. 16. [64] It is not improbable that the tradition of this occurrence gave rise to the charge so often made, and which seems so inexplicable, against the Jews in after ages, of crucifying boys in mockery of the Saviour’s passion, though no evidence of such an act was ever produced.