who translated the Bible, and had
great success in the conversion of the barbarians to a nominal faith. This
is the earliest instance of the reception of the new faith by the Germanic
races.

(M1161) While Theodosius was restoring the eastern empire, Gratian
relapsed into indolent pleasures at Milan, which provoked a revolution.
Maximus was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain, and invaded
Gaul. Gratian fled, with a retinue of three hundred horse, and was
overtaken and slain. Theodosius recognized the claims of the usurper,
unwilling to waste the blood of the enfeebled soldiers in a new civil war,
provided that Italy and Africa were secured to Valentinian II., the
younger brother of Gratian. The young emperor made himself unpopular by
espousing Arianism, and for being governed by his mother Justina, and four
years after was obliged to flee to Thessalonica, on an invasion of Italy
by Maximus, and invoke the aid of Theodosius, who responded to his call,
won by the charms of the princess Galla, whom he married. Maximus was
defeated, put to death, and Valentinian II. was replaced upon his throne.

(M1162) It was when Maximus was triumphant in Gaul that the celebrated
Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, was sent to the usurper's camp to demand the
dead body of the murdered Gratian. But this intrepid prelate made himself
still more famous for his defense of orthodoxy against the whole power of
Valentinian II. and his mother. He is also immortalized for the
chastisement he inflicted upon Theodosius himself for the slaughter of
Thessalonica. The emperor was in Milan when intelligence arrived of a
sedition in the city, caused by factions of the circus, during which
Boderic, the commander of the imperial troops, was killed. This outrage
was revenged by the wanton massacre of seven thousand people. The news of
this barbarity filled Ambrose with horror, and he wrote a letter to the
emperor, which led to his repentance; but as he was about to enter the
basilica, the prelate met him at the door, and refused admission until he
had expiated his crime by a rigorous penance, and the emperor submitted to
the humiliation--an act of submission to the Church which was much
admired--an act of ecclesiastical authority which formed a precedent for
the heroism of Hildebrand.

(M1163) Under the influence of the clergy, now a great power, Theodosius
the same year promulgated an edict for the suppression of all acts of
pagan worship, private a