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, [69] 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. [70] 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 likewise of
the earth interposed in the defence of Ambrose: the disinterested advice
of Theodosius was the genuine result of piety and friendship; and the
mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious designs of
the tyrant of Gaul. [71]

[Footnote 65: Sozomen alone (l. vii. c. 13) throws this luminous fact
into a dark and perplexed narrative.]

[Footnote 66: Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia, mori parata cum episcopo
suo.... Nos, adhuc frigidi, excitabamur tamen civitate attonita atque
curbata. Augustin. Confession. l. ix. c. 7]

[Footnote 67: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 78, 498. Many churches
in Italy, Gaul, &c., were dedicated to these unknown martyrs, of whom
St. Gervaise seems to have been more fortunate than his companion.]

[Footnote 68: Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca aetas
ferebat, tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. The size of these skeletons
was fortunately, or skillfully, suited to the popular prejudice of the
gradual decrease of the human stature, which has prevailed in every age
since the time of Homer.--Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.]

[Footnote 69: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin. Confes, l.
ix. c. 7, de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 8. Paulin. in Vita St. Ambros.
c. 14, in Append. Benedict. p. 4. The blind man's name was Severus; he
touched the holy garment, recovered his sight, and devoted the rest of
his life (at lea