rchdeacon are the masters of it and
us. They and that Peter manage Cyril's work for him, and when Cyril
makes the archdeacon a bishop, he will make Peter archdeacon....They
have their reward, they have their reward; and so has Cyril, for that
matter.'

'How?'

'Why, don't say I said it. But what do I care? I have nothing to lose,
I'm sure. But they do say that there are two ways of promotion in
Alexandria: one by deserving it, the other by paying for it. That's
all.'

'Impossible!'

'Oh, of course, quite impossible. But all I know is just this, that when
that fellow Martinian got back again into Pelusium, after being turned
out by the late bishop for a rogue and hypocrite as he was, and got the
ear of this present bishop, and was appointed his steward, and ordained
priest--I'd as soon have ordained that street-dog--and plundered him and
brought him to disgrace--for I don't believe this bishop is a bad man,
but those who use rogues must expect to be called rogues--and ground the
poor to the earth, and tyrannised over the whole city so that no man's
property, or reputation, scarcely their lives, were safe; and after all,
had the impudence, when he was called on for his accounts, to bring the
church in as owing him money; I just know this, that he added to all his
other shamelessness this, that he offered the patriarch a large sum of
money to buy a bishopric of him.... And what do you think the patriarch
answered?'

'Excommunicated the sacrilegious wretch, of course!'

'Sent him a letter to say that if he dared to do such a thing again he
should really be forced to expose him! So the fellow, taking courage,
brought his money himself the next time; and all the world says that
Cyril would have made him a bishop after all, if Abbot Isidore had not
written to remonstrate.'

'He could not have known the man's character,' said poor Philammon,
hunting for an excuse.

'The whole Delta was ringing with it. Isidore had written to him again
and again.'

'Surely then his wish was to prevent scandal, and preserve the unity of
the church in the eyes of the heathen.'

The old man laughed bitterly.

'Ah, the old story--of preventing scandals by retaining them, and
fancying that sin is a less evil than a little noise; as if the worst of
all scandals was not the being discovered in hushing up a scandal. And
as for unity, if you want that, you must go back to the good old times
of Dioclesian and Decius.'

'The persecutors?'