hat I am always astonished by this contrast.]

[Footnote 61: The short and superficial Life of St. Ambrose, by his
deacon Paulinus, (Appendix ad edit. Benedict. p. i.--xv.,) has the merit
of original evidence. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 78-306) and
the Benedictine editors (p. xxxi.--lxiii.) have labored with their usual
diligence.]

[Footnote 62: Ambrose himself (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 888--891) gives
the emperor a very spirited account of his own embassy.]

The government of Italy, and of the young emperor, naturally devolved to
his mother Justina, a woman of beauty and spirit, but who, in the
midst of an orthodox people, had the misfortune of professing the Arian
heresy, which she endeavored to instil into the mind of her son. Justina
was persuaded, that a Roman emperor might claim, in his own dominions,
the public exercise of his religion; and she proposed to the archbishop,
as a moderate and reasonable concession, that he should resign the use
of a single church, either in the city or the suburbs of Milan. But the
conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. [63] The
palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Caesar; but the churches
were the houses of God; and, within the limits of his diocese, he
himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles, was the only minister
of God. The privileges of Christianity, temporal as well as spiritual,
were confined to the true believers; and the mind of Ambrose was
satisfied, that his own theological opinions were the standard of truth
and orthodoxy. The archbishop, who refused to hold any conference,
or negotiation, with the instruments of Satan, declared, with modest
firmness, his resolution to die a martyr, rather than to yield to the
impious sacrilege; and Justina, who resented the refusal as an act
of insolence and rebellion, hastily determined to exert the Imperial
prerogative of her son. As she desired to perform her public devotions
on the approaching festival of Easter, Ambrose was ordered to appear
before the council. He obeyed the summons with the respect of a faithful
subject, but he was followed, without his consent, by an innumerable
people they pressed, with impetuous zeal, against the gates of the
palace; and the affrighted ministers of Valentinian, instead of
pronouncing a sentence of exile on the archbishop of Milan, humbly
requested that he would interpose his authority, to protect the person
of the emperor, and to restore the tra