Hypatia was a Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived during the mid fourth through the early fifth century.  This was of course after Christianity was embraced by Constantine the Roman Emperor nearly a hundred years prior.  Ooops, did I forget to mention that Hypatia was a woman?

Hypatia’s father Theon was also a noted astrologist and astronomer, and taught his daughter all that he knew.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great by Elbert Hubbard:

Theon taught his daughter that all systems of religion that pretend to teach the whole truth were to a great degree false and fraudulent.  To have a religion thrust upon you, and be compelled to believe in it or suffer social ostracism, is to be cheated of the right to make your own. In a degree it is letting another live your life. The brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as erroneous as vicarious exercise. Strength comes from personal effort. Religious mania is a result of dwelling on a borrowed religion. If let alone no man would become insane on religious topics, for the religion he would evolve would be one of joy, laughter and love, not one of misery and horror. The religion that contemplates misery and woe is one devised by priestcraft for a purpose, and that purpose is to rule and rob. From the blunt ways of the road we get a polite system of intimidation which makes the man pay. It is robbery reduced to a system, and finally piously believed in by the robbers, who are hypnotized into the belief that they are doing God's service.

"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final," said Theon to Hypatia. "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."

And so she did, however the thought came to mind that her philosophies only mimicked that of her Father and because of this doubt she set off alone to gain knowledge from her own experiences.

She spent many years traveling between Athens, Rome and other Italian cities; visiting philosophers of her time and lecturing on mathematics.  During this time there are rumors of numerous proposals from infatuated and enraptured philosophers and royalty alike, but it’s said she never married for the failure of finding an equal mind.  

Finally she landed in Alexandria, at that time being the intellectual center of the world, and became the chief intellectual factor.  Scores of people would flock to her lectures – they believed her to be divine or an emissary of darkness.  Certainly anyone of such influence will eventually fall upon the ears of the patriarchs of the city.

Alexandria was under the rule of a Roman Prefect, Orestes.  He too became enraptured by Hypatia’s teachings and philosophies.  This was most likely because the Church was attempting to snatch power out from under the State.  Orestes tattled to the Roman Emperor that the Bishop of Alexandria was abusing his power by offing anyone he disliked.  Unfortunately for Orestes, siding with Hypatia’s teaching as opposed to the Church was practically considered treason by the recently converted Christian Roman Empire.

In his defense Orestes quoted Hypatia:

A fixed, formal and dogmatic religion would paralyze the minds of men and make the race, in time, incapable of thought. Therefore the Bishop should keep his place, and not try to usurp the functions of the police. In fact, it was better to think wrongly than not to think at all. We learn to think by thinking, and if the threats of the Bishop were believed at all, it would mean the death of science and philosophy.

This was the worst possible plea Orestes could make.  I imagine the Bishop turned several shades of purple before announcing that Hypatia was only scheming to establish her own Church.  The Bishop promised the masses paradise and in contrast eternal damnation if ever they were to believe in such heresy.

Pertaining to a salivating mob, Elbert Hubbard said it best:

A mob is made up of cotton waste, saturated with oil, and a focused idea causes spontaneous combustion.

When one sees emotionalism run riot at an evangelistic revival, and five thousand people are trooping through an undesirable district at midnight, how long, think you, would a strong voice of opposition be tolerated?

Hypatia was snatched after a leaving a lecture where upon her clothes were ripped, the hair torn from her head, her skin peeled away by oyster shells and finally dismembered all inside a church under the cross.  Her body and all evidence were quickly burned while the perpetrators scattered into the night.

Orestes resigned and fled from the city.  The Bishop of Alexandria made claim that Hypatia had returned to Athens and there had been no tragedy.  Later this Bishop, St. Cyril of Alexandria, expelled the Jews, commanded the destruction of old temples and the burning of the Library of Alexandria where at least 500,000 scrolls were lost.

Good ol’ Cyril is today considered a Saint in Catholicism.