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. The palaces of the earth might indeed belong to
Cæsar; 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