tranquility of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received
and communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and, during
six of the most solemn days, which Christian piety had set apart for
the exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the irregular
convulsions of tumult and fanaticism. The officers of the household
were directed to prepare, first, the Portian, and afterwards, the new,
Basilica, for the immediate reception of the emperor and his mother.
The splendid canopy and hangings of the royal seat were arranged in
the customary manner; but it was found necessary to defend them. by a
strong guard, from the insults of the populace. The Arian
ecclesiastics, who ventured to show themselves in the streets, were
exposed to the most imminent danger of their lives; and Ambrose
enjoyed the merit and reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from
the hands of the enraged multitude.

But while he labored to restrain the effects of their zeal, the
pathetic vehemence of his sermons continually inflamed the angry and
seditious temper of the people of Milan. The characters of Eve, of the
wife of Job, of Jezebel, of Herodias, were indecently applied to the
mother of the emperor; and her desire to obtain a church for the
Arians was compared to the most cruel persecutions which Christianity
had endured under the reign of Paganism. The measures of the court
served only to expose the magnitude of the evil. A fine of two hundred
pounds of gold was imposed on the corporate body of merchants and
manufacturers: an order was signified, in the name of the emperor, to
all the officers, and inferior servants, of the courts of justice,
that, during the continuance of the public disorders, they should
strictly confine themselves to their houses; and the ministers of
Valentinian imprudently confessed, that the most respectable part of
the citizens of Milan was attached to the cause of their archbishop.