in this matter of conscience, defy
your authority. We will obey God rather than you." See in this defiance
the rise of a new power,--the power of the Middle Ages,--the reign of
the clergy.

In the first place, Ambrose refused to take part in a religious
disputation held in the palace of his enemy,--in any palace where a
monarch sat as umpire. The Church was the true place for a religious
controversy, and the umpire, if such were needed, should be a priest and
not a layman. The idea of temporal lords settling a disputed point of
theology seemed to him preposterous. So, with blended indignation and
haughtiness, he declared it was against the usages of the Church for the
laity to sit as judges in theological discussions; that in all spiritual
matters emperors were subordinate to bishops, not bishops to emperors.
Oh, how great is the posthumous influence of original heroes!
Contemplate those fiery remonstrances of Ambrose,--the first on
record,--when prelates and emperors contended for the mastery, and you
will see why the Archbishop of Milan is so great a favorite of the
Catholic Church.

And what was the response of the empress, who ruled in the name of her
son, in view of this disobedience and defiance? Chrysostom dared to
reprove female vices; he did not rebel against imperial power. But
Ambrose raised an issue with his sovereign. And this angry sovereign
sent forth her soldiers to eject Ambrose from the city. The haughty and
insolent priest should be exiled, should be imprisoned, should die.
Shall he be permitted to disobey an imperial command? Where would then
be the imperial authority?--a mere shadow in an age of anarchy.

Ambrose did not oppose force by force. His warfare was not carnal, but
spiritual. He would not, if he could, have braved the soldiers of the
Government by rallying his adherents in the streets. That would have
been a mob, a sedition, a rebellion.

But he seeks the shelter of his church, and prays to Almighty God. And
his friends and admirers--the people to whom he preached, to whom he is
an oracle--also follow him to his sanctuary. The church is crowded with
his adherents, but they are unarmed. Their trust is not in the armor of
Goliath, nor even in the sling of David, but in that power which
protected Daniel in the lions' den. The soldiers are armed, and they
surround the spacious basilica, the form which the church then assumed.
And yet though they surround the church in battle array, they d