However, imperial proclamations were often misconstrued or deliberately interpreted as a carte blanche for persecution and destruction by virulent local churchmen and their followers. They only really applied to overt pagan worship, yet most of the old temples and repositories of learning were treated and protected as museum pieces in reality. They weren't centres of worship. The edicts were used by fanatics to go on the rampage and the Christian mobs were usually stepped on heavily afterwards. Unfortunately, after the damage was done. What happened in Alexandria was only one of the more notorious and infamous examples.