The bishop who broke a rule without knowing it

HIPPO REGIUS, Numidia, September 26, 426 AD — The Church of Peace in Hippo was more crowded than usual. The church’s notaries were writing down every word. Saint Augustine of Hippo was about to name the man who would be bishop after him. He wanted the people’s answer written down too.

St. Augustine was 71. He had been bishop of Hippo, a port in Numidia, for about thirty years. He had often seen a church thrown into turmoil after its bishop died, because some men wanted the job and others were looking for a quarrel. He wanted to spare Hippo that.

Not long before, Christians at Milevis, another town in Numidia, had asked him to come. They feared trouble after their bishop, Severus, died. Severus had told the name of the man to follow him only to his clergy, not to the people, and some of the people were unhappy. St. Augustine told the crowd at Hippo he wanted no complaint like that in their church.

So he said the name out loud, in front of everyone: “I wish to have for my successor the presbyter Eraclius.” Eraclius was one of the seven priests of the city there that day. The people shouted “To God be thanks! To Christ be praise!” twenty-three times, “O Christ, hear us; may Augustine live long!” sixteen times, and “We will have you as our father, you as our bishop” eight times. The notaries counted every shout and wrote down the number. Each time St. Augustine spoke again, he had to wait for the crowd to go quiet.

St. Augustine would not praise Eraclius to his face. “I esteem his wisdom and spare his modesty; it is enough that you know him,” St. Augustine said.

Not a bishop yet

Then St. Augustine told them one thing he would not do. Eraclius would not be made a bishop while St. Augustine was alive. The Council of Nicaea had forbidden giving a church a second bishop while its own bishop was still alive.

About thirty years earlier, the bishop of Hippo, Valerius, was old and ill. He was afraid another church would take St. Augustine from him. So Valerius wrote in secret to the bishop of Carthage. He asked for St. Augustine to be made bishop of Hippo alongside him.

Then the senior bishop of Numidia came to Hippo. Valerius told the bishops, the clergy and the people what he wanted, and they called loudly for it to be done. St. Augustine refused, because his own bishop was still alive. They told him it was done all the time in Africa and overseas, and he gave in.

St. Augustine said that neither he nor Valerius had known about the rule. He didn’t want Eraclius blamed the way he had been. So he gave his ruling: “He shall be as he now is, a presbyter, meanwhile; but afterwards, at such time as may please God, your bishop.”

A promise the people broke

Meetings of bishops in Numidia and at Carthage had given St. Augustine work on Scripture. The people of Hippo had once promised that on five days of every week, no one would bring him cases and requests. The promise was written down and read back to them. They kept it only a short time. “Forenoon and afternoon alike, I am involved in the affairs of other people demanding my attention,” St. Augustine said.

So he asked their permission to hand that part of his work to Eraclius, whom he called “this young man.” The people shouted “We give thanks for your decision” twenty-six times.

From now on, the cases and requests people used to bring to St. Augustine would go to Eraclius. Eraclius could still come to St. Augustine for advice, as to a father. St. Augustine would give the rest of his days, “be they few or many,” to studying Scripture.

The people shouted “O Christ, hear us; preserve Eraclius!” eighteen times. By then it was the hour set for prayer. St. Augustine asked everyone to “pour out before the Lord your petitions for this church, and for me, and for the presbyter Eraclius.”