One evening, after the close of the council’s daily session, the ancient Bishop Alexander, accompanied by his young Archdeacon Athanasius, was proceeding toward his lodgings, when Marcellus, the Bishop of Ancyra, accosted him: "Hail, bishop! From what thou didst tell me of his fierce, aggressive nature, I am astonished to find that the Libyan madman continueth so quiet. How is it that thou hast called him vehement, fierce, eloquent, and controversial?" "He hath some secret end in view," replied the bishop, "and I can not fathom his purposes. But on to-morrow, Athanasius, who speaketh for me in the council, shall provoke him to some reply, and thou mayst then judge of his quiet disposition for thyself." "Good enough," said Marcellus. "No man can pick a quarrel with an oyster that keepeth its shell closed." CHAPTER VII. THE SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. On the next meeting of the council, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, offered a resolution that the Church should make a decree requiring all the married clergy to separate from their wives and lead lives of celibacy. Some objected to this, on the ground that the practice of the Church had never prohibited the marriage of clergymen of any rank; others insisted on adopting the rule, because clerical marriages, besides other inconveniences, would tend to make the office of bishop an hereditary one, and so elevate improper persons to that sacred place. But the chief opposition "came from a most unexpected quarter. From among the Egyptian bishops stepped out into the midst, looking out of his one remaining eye, and halting on his paralyzed leg, the old hermit-confessor, Paphnutius. With a roar of indignation rather than a speech, he broke into the debate: ’Lay not this heavy yoke on the clergy. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. By exaggerated strictness you will do the Church more harm than good. All can not bear such an ascetic rule. The wives themselves will suffer from it. Marriage itself is continence. It is enough for a man to keep from marriage after he has been ordained, according to the ancient custom, but do not separate him from the wife whom once for all he married when he was a layman!’ "His speech produced a profound impression. His own austere life and unblemished celibacy gave force to every word he uttered."