I certainly don't think "thugs" is too strong a word. Consider this account written by the xtian scholar Socrates Scholasticus - who was a contemporary of the events described - the murder of Hypatia by xtian thugs.
http://cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia...rates.html
Socrates, trying to put the best possible face on this neglects to mention that Cyril, the bishop in charge, was later made another one of those fucking 'saints' that catholics seem to trot out at will.
http://cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia...rates.html
Quote:Some of them, therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles.* After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them.
Socrates, trying to put the best possible face on this neglects to mention that Cyril, the bishop in charge, was later made another one of those fucking 'saints' that catholics seem to trot out at will.