more than
ordinary prominence. The circumstances are briefly these: A sedition
broke out in the city of Thessalonica, in which a number of officers and
the commander of the imperial forces were slain. Theodosius, at the
instigation of Rufinus, a military officer of prominence, sent a warrant
to the commander of Illyricum to let the soldiers loose upon the city; a
command that was carried out with great cruelty, and by which more than
seven thousand persons, the innocent as well as the guilty, were
massacred in the most inhuman manner. The grief of Ambrose on hearing
this was extreme; and, in order to afford the emperor time to reflect,
he withdrew from Milan, and addressed him a very touching letter
exhorting him to repentance, assuring him at the same time that he, as
bishop, would not receive his offerings nor perform the services of
religion in his presence till he had done so. The prelate soon after
returned to his episcopal city; and when the emperor appeared at the
doors of the church to attend divine services, he forbade him to enter
till he had done penance for his crime. Excuses and palliations were of
no avail, and when the emperor urged that King David had sinned, he was
told that as he had imitated David in his sin, he should also imitate
him in his repentance; and the doors of the church were closed against
him. The emperor returned to his palace, where for eight months he did
penance for his fault; and he was not admitted to full communion till he
had perfectly complied with the requirements of the bishop.

While to the general reader there may appear an unwonted severity, and
even a tyrannical vindictiveness in this firmness of the holy prelate,
his companions and those who knew his character best find in it an
evidence of his zeal for the cause of religion, and his desire for the
true conversion of the sinner; and the man of the world will find in him
the champion of the poor and oppressed against the tyranny of power. It
is a well-known fact of history that he did not cease, during all this
time, to beseech heaven with prayers and tears for the emperor, whom he
sincerely loved. But his character in this, as in all else, has
withstood the test of time, and shines with undiminished lustre down the
vista of ages.

St. Ambrose died about midnight before Holy Saturday, April 4, 397; and
his body reposes in a vault under the high altar of the basilica of
Milan--the church that he had served so long and so we