"'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.'