e clergy and people of Milan were attached
to their archbishop; and he deserved the esteem, without soliciting the
favor, or apprehending the displeasure, of his feeble sovereigns.

The government of Italy, and of the young emperor, naturally devolved to
his mother Justina, a woman of beauty and spirit, but who, in the
midst of an orthodox people, had the misfortune of professing the Arian
heresy, which she endeavored to instil into the mind of her son. Justina
was persuaded, that a Roman emperor might claim, in his own dominions,
the public exercise of his religion; and she proposed to the archbishop,
as a moderate and reasonable concession, that he should resign the use
of a single church, either in the city or the suburbs of Milan. But
the conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. The
palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Caesar; but the churches were
the houses of God; and, within the limits of his diocese, he himself, as
the lawful successor of the apostles, was the only minister of God. The
privileges of Christianity, temporal as well as spiritual, were confined
to the true believers; and the mind of Ambrose was satisfied, that his
own theological opinions were the standard of truth and orthodoxy. The
archbishop, who refused to hold any conference, or negotiation, with the
instruments of Satan, declared, with modest firmness, his resolution
to die a martyr, rather than to yield to the impious sacrilege; and
Justina, who resented the refusal as an act of insolence and rebellion,
hastily determined to exert the Imperial prerogative of her son. As she
desired to perform her public devotions on the approaching festival of
Easter, Ambrose was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed the
summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but he was followed,
without his consent, by an innumerable people they pressed, with
impetuous zeal, against the gates of the palace; and the affrighted
ministers of Valentinian, instead of pronouncing a sentence of exile on
the archbishop of Milan, humbly requested that he would interpose his
authority, to protect the person of the emperor, and to restore the
tranquility of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and
communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and, during six
of the most solemn days, which Christian piety had set apart for the
exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the irregular convulsions
of tumult and fan