"'Be our father! Be our bishop!' "This cry they repeated eight times. "When the people became silent, the bishop Augustin spoke again in these words: "'There is no need for me to praise Heraclius. As much as I do justice to his wisdom, in equal measure should I spare his modesty.... As you perceive, the secretaries of the church gather up what we say and what you say. My words and your shouts do not fall to the ground. To put it briefly, these are ecclesiastical decrees that we are now drawing up, and I desire by these means, as far as it is in the power of man, to confirm what I have declared to you.' "Here the people cried out: "'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' * * * * * "'Be our father, and let Heraclius be our bishop!' "When silence was made again, Augustin the bishop thus spoke: "'I understand what you would say. But I do not wish that it happen to him as it happened to me. Many of you know what was done at that time.... I was consecrated bishop during the lifetime of my father and bishop, the aged Valerius, of blessed memory, and with him I shared the see. I was ignorant, as he was, that this was forbidden by the Council of Nice. I would not therefore that men should blame in Heraclius, my son, what they blamed in me.' "With that the people cried out thirteen times: "'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' "After a little silence, Augustin the bishop said again: "'So he will remain a priest till it shall please God for him to be a bishop. But with the aid and mercy of Christ, I shall do in future what up to now I have not been able to do.... You will remember what I wanted to do some years ago, and you have not allowed me. For a work upon the Holy Scriptures, with which my brothers and my fathers the bishops had deigned to charge me in the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage, _I was not to be disturbed by anybody during five days of the week_. That was a thing agreed upon between you and me. The act was drawn up, and you all approved of it after hearing it read. But your promise did not last long. I was soon encroached upon and overrun by you all. I am no longer free to study as I desire. Morning and afternoon, I am entangled in your worldly affairs. I beg of you and supplicate you in Christ's name to suffer me to shift the burthen of all these cares upon this young man, the priest Heraclius, whom I signal, in His name, as my successor in the bishopric.' "Upon this the people cried out six-and-twenty times: "'We thank thee for thy choice!' "And the people having become silent, Augustin the bishop said: