to reading of the struggle which raged for
so many centuries between the Church and the State--the Emperor and the
Pope--that it seems quite natural to us that after the death of the
emperor Valentinian (which happened a few months later) the bishop
should become the adviser and minister of his young son Gratian. To
Ambrose, however, the situation was beset with difficulties, and both
disagreeable and dangerous. He had not the least desire to meddle in the
affairs of the empire--the care of the church in Milan was quite enough
for any one man; but when the young emperor Gratian came to him for
advice and guidance it was his duty to give it. Soon matters grew worse
and worse. The Goths crossed the Danube, and defeated the army of the
Eastern Empire near Adrianople; Byzantium, or Constantinople, the city
of Constantine, lay at their mercy; and Italy might be entered through
Hungary and the Tyrol, or by sea from the south.

The tidings reached Milan through the first of the numerous fugitives
who had managed to escape across the Alps. Every day more frightened,
starving people arrived, and the city was taxed to the utmost to find
them food and shelter. Yet even the lot of these poor creatures was
happy in comparison with those who had been taken prisoners by the
Goths, and were doomed to spend their lives in slavery unless they were
ransomed. Ambrose set the rich citizens an example by giving all the
money he had, but after every farthing possible had been raised the
unredeemed captives were still many. There only remained the golden
vessels of the church, which were the pride of Milan, and these the
bishop brought out and melted down, so that as far as in him lay all
prisoners might be freed.

In after-years his enemies sought to use the fact as a handle against
him. He had no right to give what was not his own, they said; but
Ambrose paid little heed to their words; he had done what he knew was
just, and the rest did not matter.

* * * * *

With the appointment of the general Theodosius as emperor of the East
things began to mend. The Goths began to understand that they had a
strong man to deal with, and Ambrose was once more left to act both as
bishop and magistrate in his own diocese, and to give constant advice to
the well-meaning but weak young Gratian. The legal training that Ambrose
had received was now of the highest value, and his experience of men and
the world acquired in Rom