t even in my hiding
place. Secretly my rivals complained and lamented one to another,
saying: "Behold now, the whole world runs after him, and our
persecution of him has done nought save to increase his glory. We
strove to extinguish his fame, and we have but given it new
brightness. Lo, in the cities scholars have at hand everything they
may need, and yet, spurning the pleasures of the town, they seek
out the barrenness of the desert, and of their own free will they
accept wretchedness."

The thing which at that time chiefly led me to undertake the
direction of a school was my intolerable poverty, for I had not
strength enough to dig, and shame kept me from begging. And so,
resorting once more to the art with which I was so familiar, I was
compelled to substitute the service of the tongue for the labour of
my hands. The students willingly provided me with whatsoever I
needed in the way of food and clothing, and likewise took charge of
the cultivation of the fields and paid for the erection of
buildings, in order that material cares might not keep me from my
studies. Since my oratory was no longer large enough to hold even a
small part of their number, they found it necessary to increase its
size, and in so doing they greatly improved it, building it of
stone and wood. Although this oratory had been founded in honour of
the Holy Trinity, and afterwards dedicated thereto, I now named it
the Paraclete, mindful of how I had come there a fugitive and in
despair, and had breathed into my soul something of the miracle of
divine consolation.

Many of those who heard of this were greatly astonished, and some
violently assailed my action, declaring that it was not permissible
to dedicate a church exclusively to the Holy Spirit rather than to
God the Father. They held, according to an ancient tradition, that
it must be dedicated either to the Son alone or else to the entire
Trinity. The error which led them into this false accusation
resulted from their failure to perceive the identity of the
Paraclete with the Spirit Paraclete. Even as the whole Trinity, or
any Person in the Trinity, may rightly be called God or Helper, so
likewise may It be termed the Paraclete, that is to say the
Consoler. These are the words of the Apostle: "Blessed be God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation"
(2 Cor. i, 3). And likewise the word of truth say