e, and the number of his companions. But the authority
of the saints, who have preached and practised the maxims of passive
loyalty, appeared to Ambrose of less moment than the extreme and
pressing danger of the church. He boldly refused to obey; and his
refusal was supported by the unanimous consent of his faithful people.
They guarded by turns the person of their archbishop; the gates of
the cathedral and the episcopal palace were strongly secured; and the
Imperial troops, who had formed the blockade, were unwilling to risk the
attack, of that impregnable fortress. The numerous poor, who had been
relieved by the liberality of Ambrose, embraced the fair occasion
of signalizing their zeal and gratitude; and as the patience of the
multitude might have been exhausted by the length and uniformity of
nocturnal vigils, he prudently introduced into the church of Milan the
useful institution of a loud and regular psalmody. While he maintained
this arduous contest, he was instructed, by a dream, to open the earth
in a place where the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius,
had been deposited above three hundred years. Immediately under the
pavement of the church two perfect skeletons were found, with the heads
separated from their bodies, and a plentiful effusion of blood. The holy
relics were presented, in solemn pomp, to the veneration of the people;
and every circumstance of this fortunate discovery was admirably adapted
to promote the designs of Ambrose. The bones of the martyrs, their
blood, their garments, were supposed to contain a healing power; and the
praeternatural influence was communicated to the most distant objects,
without losing any part of its original virtue. The extraordinary cure
of a blind man, and the reluctant confessions of several daemoniacs,
appeared to justify the faith and sanctity of Ambrose; and the truth
of those miracles is attested by Ambrose himself, by his secretary
Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the celebrated Augustin, who, at that
time, professed the art of rhetoric in Milan. The reason of the present
age may possibly approve the incredulity of Justina and her Arian court;
who derided the theatrical representations which were exhibited by
the contrivance, and at the expense, of the archbishop. Their effect,
however, on the minds of the people, was rapid and irresistible; and
the feeble sovereign of Italy found himself unable to contend with the
favorite of Heaven. The powers likewi