S. Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria was well-nigh the last of that bright array of Greek Fathers which shone throughout all the fourth century and into the fifth. His powerful and comprehensive mind, well read and strengthened by study of Greek Heathen lore (as his frequent citations not only of Homer but even of the less known poets and his very language indicate), fostered by the works of his great predecessor S. Athanasius and aided by the living influence of S. Isidore Abbat of Pelusium, whom even when he had become Archbishop he still called father, his single-hearted loyal piety which every writing of his breathes forth, his will formed for rule, combined with the perception of the points that he could yield without betraying Truth:—all gave him during his life an influence such as no other man of his time had, and his writings were appealed to for centuries after on matters of dogma.