The Young Pope and the Popes. Cyril and Hypatia in Western Confessional Struggles

The very erosion of State power by the Church pursued by the young pope of Alexandria and dreaded by the Alexandrian aristocracy is the key to understanding both Cyril’s political action and Hypatia’s murder. The conviction or exaltation of the feared bishop is a litmus test of the position that every interpreter assumes with respect to relations between Church and State through his entire historiographical afterlife: from the Counter-Reformation up until 18th and 19th century lay literature, when the fabrication of Hypatia as a secular icon would be interwoven with the debate concerning Papal temporal authority. This contribution seeks to illustrate the above by not only emphasizing the centrality of Cyril in interpreting Hypatia’s affair over the centuries, but also by highlighting the relevance of the religious identity of scholars who have analyzed her cold case from a historical-religious standpoint.