Letters

⁴ Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustine said:—

“I approve of that of which you also express your approval; but I do not wish that to be done in regard to him which was done in my own case. What was done many of you know; in fact, all of you, excepting only those who at that time were not born, or had not attained to the years of understanding. When my father and bishop, the aged Valerius, of blessed memory, was still living, I was ordained bishop and occupied the episcopal see along with him which I did not know to have been forbidden by the Council of Nicaea; and he was equally ignorant of the prohibition. I do not wish to have my son here exposed to the same censure as was incurred in my own case.”

The people shouted, saying thirteen times, “To God be thanks! To Christ be praise!”