nciples led them. Some
went so far as to barricade the doors of the Basilica;[364] nor could
Ambrose prevent this proceeding, unnecessary as it was, because of the
good feelings of the soldiery towards them, and indeed impracticable in
such completeness as might be sufficient for security.

Some persons may think that Ambrose ought to have used his utmost
influence against it, whereas in his sermon to the people he merely
insists on its uselessness, and urges the propriety of looking simply to
God, and not at all to such expedients, for deliverance. It must be
recollected, however, that he and his people in no sense drew the sword
from its sheath; he confined himself to passive resistance. He had
violated no law; the Church's property was sought by a tyrant: without
using any violence, he took possession of that which he was bound to
defend with his life. He placed himself upon the sacred territory, and
bade them take it and him together, after St. Laurence's pattern, who
submitted to be burned rather than deliver up the goods with which he
had been intrusted for the sake of the poor. However, it was evidently a
very uncomfortable state of things for a Christian bishop, who might
seem to be responsible for all the consequences, yet was without control
over them. A riot might commence any moment, which it would not be in
his power to arrest. Under these circumstances, with admirable presence
of mind, he contrived to keep the people quiet, and to direct their
minds to higher objects than those around them, by Psalmody. Sacred
chanting had been one especial way in which the Catholics of Antioch had
kept alive, in Arian times, the spirit of orthodoxy. And from the first
a peculiar kind of singing--the antiphonal or responsorial, answering to
our cathedral chanting--had been used in honour of the sacred doctrine
which heresy assailed. Ignatius, the disciple of St. Peter, was reported
to have introduced the practice into the Church of Antioch, in the
doxology to the Trinity. Flavian, afterwards bishop of that see, revived
it during the Arian usurpation, to the great edification and
encouragement of the oppressed Catholics. Chrysostom used it in the
vigils at Constantinople, in opposition to the same heretical party; and
similar vigils had been established by Basil in the monasteries of
Cappadocia. The assembled multitude, confined day and night within the
gates of the Basilica, were in the situation of a monastic body without