Since in almost all your letters you anxiously inquire about the church, hear what is being done. The day after I received your letter, in which you had indicated that your dreams were tormenting you, a mass of grievous disturbances began to be set in motion. And now it was not the Portian basilica—that is, the one outside the walls—that was being demanded, but the new basilica—that is, the one within the walls, which is the larger. First the chief men of the powers came to me, the counts of the consistory, that I should both hand over the basilica and take care that the people should stir up no tumults. I replied what was in accord with my order: that the temple of God cannot be handed over by a priest. The next day there was an outcry in the church. Even the prefect came there; he began to urge that we should at least yield the Portian basilica. The people shouted back in protest.
So they then departed, with the prefect saying that he would report the matter to the emperor. The next day—it was the Lord's Day—after the readings and the sermon, when the catechumens had been dismissed, I was handing over the Creed to certain candidates in the basilica of the baptistery. There it was announced to me, on reliable information, that they had sent deans from the palace to the Portian basilica and were hanging up the imperial hangings, and that a part of the people was making its way there. I, however, remained at my office; I began to celebrate Mass. While I was offering, I learned that a certain Castulus had been seized by the people—one whom the Arians called a presbyter. The passers-by had come upon him in the street.
I began most bitterly to weep and, in the very act of the oblation, to pray to God that He would come to our aid, lest anyone's blood should be shed in the cause of the church; or at least that my blood should be poured out for the salvation not only of the people, but even for the impious themselves. In a word: having sent presbyters and deacons, I rescued the man from injury. At once the most severe condemnations were decreed, first against the whole body of merchants. And so, in the holy days of the last week, on which it was customary for the chains of debtors to be loosed, the chains rattled, were laid upon the necks of the innocent, two hundred pounds of gold were exacted within the whole space of three days. They answered that they would give as much again, or even double, if it were demanded, provided they might keep the faith. The prisons were full of traders.
All the palatine officials—that is, the secretaries, the agents in affairs, the attendants of the various counts—were ordered to refrain from going out, under the pretext that they were forbidden to take part in sedition; the men of honor were threatened with very grave penalties, unless they handed over the basilica. The persecution was raging, and, as though they had thrown open the gate, they seemed about to burst out into every crime. I myself was summoned by the counts and tribunes, that there should be a speedy handing over of the basilica, they saying that the emperor was using his own right, inasmuch as all things were in his power. I replied that, if he asked of me what was mine—that is, my estate, my silver, anything of mine of this sort—I would not refuse, although all things that are mine belong to the poor;
but those things which are divine are not subject to the imperial power. 'If my patrimony is sought, invade it; if my body, I will go to meet it. Do you wish to seize me into chains? Do you wish to lead me to death? It is a pleasure to me. I will not entrench myself with a surrounding throng of peoples, nor will I cling to the altars begging for life, but I will more gladly be sacrificed for the altars.' I shuddered indeed in my soul when I learned that armed men had been sent to seize the basilica of the church: lest, while they were claiming the basilica, some slaughter should take place which would tend to the ruin of the whole city. I prayed that I might not survive the funeral pyre of so great a city, or of all Italy; I detested the odium of shedding blood; I offered my own throat. The Gothic tribunes were present; I assailed them, saying:
'Is it for this that the Roman dominion took you in—that you should offer yourselves as ministers of public disturbance? Where will you go, if these things are destroyed?' It was demanded of me that I restrain the people. I replied that it was within my right not to incite them, but in God's hand to calm them; finally, that if he thought me the instigator, I ought now to be punished, or to be carried off into whatever solitudes of the earth he wished. When these things had been said, they departed; I spent the whole day in the old basilica. Thence I withdrew home to bed, so that, if anyone wished to carry me off, he might find me ready. Before daybreak, when I had set foot over the threshold, the basilica was occupied, with the soldiery poured around it. And it was said to have been commanded to the soldiers by the emperor that, if he wished to come forth, he should have the opportunity;
yet they would be at hand, if they saw him assemble with the catholics—otherwise they would go over to that assembly which Ambrose was gathering. None of the Arians dared to come forth, because there was not anyone of the citizens among them, only a few of the royal household, some Goths as well. To whom, as once wagons were a dwelling, so now the church is a wagon. Wherever that woman goes forth, she carries all her assemblies with her. I perceived from the groaning of the people that the basilica was surrounded. But while the readings were being read, it was made known to me that the new basilica too was full of people; that the crowd seemed larger than when they were all free; that a reader was being demanded. What more?
The very soldiers who were thought to have seized the basilica, when they learned that I had given orders — that they were to be kept from the fellowship of communion — began to come to this assembly of ours. At the sight of them the women's hearts were thrown into alarm, and one rushed out. Yet the soldiers themselves declared that they had come to pray, not to do battle. Some of the people cried out; with what restraint, with what constancy, with what faith they begged that we should go to that basilica! In that basilica too it is reported that the people clamoured for my presence. Then I began this discourse: «You have heard, my children, the book of Job read, which is run through by solemn duty and in its appointed season.»
From his practice the devil too knew that this book was to be brought home, for in it all the power of his temptation is laid bare and exposed; and therefore today he shook himself with a mightier convulsion. But thanks be to our God, who has so strengthened you in faith and patience. I had gone up meaning to admire one Job, and I found all of you to be Jobs whom I might admire. In each one of you Job has come to life again; in each one the patience and virtue of that holy man has shone out. For what more excellent thing could be said by Christian men than that which the Holy Spirit spoke today in you? «We entreat you, Augustus; we do not fight; we are not afraid, but we entreat.» This becomes Christians: that the tranquillity of peace be desired, and that constancy of faith and truth be not recalled even by the peril of death.
For the Lord is our defender, who will save those who hope in him. But let us come to the appointed readings. You see that licence to tempt is given to the devil, that the good may be proved. The wicked one envies good advances; he tempts in diverse ways. He tempted holy Job in his estate, he tempted him in his children, he tempted him in the pain of his body. The stronger man is tempted in his own body, the weaker in what belongs to another. From me too he wished to take away my riches, which I have in you, and he desired to scatter this estate of your tranquillity. He longed to snatch from me you yourselves, my good children, for whom I daily renew the sacrifice; he tried to entangle you in certain ruins of public disturbance. Two kinds of temptation, then, I have already received.
And perhaps because the Lord God knows me to be the weaker, he has not yet given power over my body. Even though I myself should desire it, even though I should offer myself, perhaps he still judges me unequal to this contest, and exercises me with various labours. Nor did Job begin from this kind of contest, but in it he consummated his trial. Now Job was tempted by heaped-up tidings of evils; he was tempted also through his wife, who said: «Speak some word against God, and die.» You see how great things are suddenly stirred up: Goths, arms, the heathen, the great loss of merchants, the punishment of the saints. You perceive what is commanded when the order is given: «Surrender the basilica» — that is to say: «Speak some word against God and die. And not only speak against God, but also act against God.» It is commanded:
«Hand over the altars of God.» We are therefore pressed by royal commands, but we are strengthened by the words of Scripture, which answered: «You have spoken as one of the foolish women.» This temptation, then, is no slight one; for we have learned that those temptations which come through women are the harsher. Indeed, through Eve even Adam was tripped up, and thereby it came about that he turned aside from the heavenly commandments. When this error was discovered, the guilty man, conscious of his transgression, wished to hide, but he could not hide; and therefore God said to him: «Adam, where are you?» That is: where were you before, and where have you now begun to be; where had I set you, and to what have you yourself passed over? You recognize that you are naked, because you have lost the garments of good faith.
These are the leaves with which you now seek to cover yourself. You have rejected the fruit, and you wish to hide beneath the leaves of the law, but you are betrayed. You desired to withdraw from the Lord your God for the sake of one woman; and so you flee from him whom you were seeking to see. With one woman you preferred to hide yourself, to abandon the watchtower of the world, the dwelling of paradise, the grace of Christ. What shall I say of how Jezebel too cruelly persecuted Elijah, of how Herodias had John the Baptist killed? Yet each persecuted but one; for me, the less by far my merits, the heavier the temptations. My strength is weaker, but the peril is greater. The turns of the women succeed one another, their hatreds alternate, their contrivances are varied, the elders are gathered, the king's wrong is held up as a pretext.
What reason, then, is there for this graver temptation against this poor little worm, except that it is not me but the Church that they persecute? In short, the command is given: «Hand over the basilica.» I answer: «It is not lawful for me to hand it over, nor is it expedient for you, Emperor, to receive it. You can by no right violate the house of a private man; do you think the house of God is to be taken away?» It is alleged to the Emperor that all things are lawful to him, that all things are his own. I answer: «Do not burden yourself, Emperor, by supposing that you have any imperial right over those things which are divine. Do not exalt yourself; but if you wish to reign the longer, be subject to God. It is written: render the things of God to God, the things of Caesar to Caesar. To the Emperor belong the palaces, to the priest the churches.»
«The right over the public walls is committed to you, not over the sacred ones.» Again the Emperor is said to have given command: «I too ought to have one basilica.» I answered: «It is not lawful for you to have it. What have you to do with an adulteress? For she is an adulteress who is not joined in lawful wedlock to Christ.» While I was treating of these things, it was reported to me that the royal hangings had been removed, and that the basilica, packed with people, was demanding my presence; and at once I turned my discourse to that, saying: «How lofty and deep are the oracles of the Holy Spirit! In the morning hours, as you remember, brethren, that was read which we answered with the deepest grief of soul: ‹O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance.› And in very truth the heathen came, and even more than heathen came;»
for there came Goths and men of diverse nations; they came with arms, and surrounding it they seized the basilica. This we, ignorant of your loftiness, bewailed, and in our want of foresight thought otherwise. The heathen came, but truly they came into your inheritance; for those who came as heathen were made Christians. Those who came to invade the inheritance were made co-heirs of God. I have as defenders those whom I thought enemies; I hold as allies those whom I reckoned adversaries. That has been fulfilled which the prophet David sang concerning the Lord Jesus, that «his place was made in peace,» and «there he broke the horns of bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle.» For whose gift, whose work is this, O Lord Jesus, but yours?
You saw armed men coming to your temple; on one side the people groaning and crowding together, lest the basilica of God should seem to be surrendered; on the other, violence being commanded against the soldiers. Death was before my eyes, lest amid these things anything be permitted to frenzy. You set yourself, O Lord, in the midst, and made of the two one. You restrained the armed men, saying surely: «If men rush to arms, if those shut within my temple are stirred to tumult, what profit is there in my blood?» Thanks be to you, therefore, O Christ. Not a legate nor a messenger, but you yourself, O Lord, saved your people; «you have rent my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.» These things I said, marvelling that the Emperor's mind could be softened by the zeal of the soldiers, the entreaty of the courtiers, the prayer of the people.
Meanwhile it was announced to me that a secretary had been sent to deliver the commands. I withdrew a little; he made known the order. «What did you think to do,» he said, «in acting against the decree?» I answered: «What the decree is, I do not know; and what is said to have been done rashly, I hold to be uncertain.» He said: «Why did you send presbyters to the basilica? If you are a usurper, I wish to know it, that I may know how to prepare myself against you.» I replied, saying that I had done nothing to the prejudice of the Church; that at the time when I had heard the basilica was seized by the soldiers, I had only given a freer groan, and that when many urged me to go there, I had said: «I cannot surrender the basilica, but I ought not to fight»;
but afterwards, when I had learned that the royal hangings had been taken away from there, since the people demanded that I go thither, I had directed the presbyters; yet I myself had been unwilling to go, but had said: «I trust in Christ that the Emperor himself will act with us.» If these things seem to belong to usurpation, I have arms, but in the name of Christ; I have the power of offering up my own body. Why would he delay to strike, if he thought me a usurper? By ancient right empires were bestowed by the priests, not usurped; and it is commonly said that emperors have desired the priesthood more than priests have desired empire. Christ fled, lest he be made king. We have our own usurpation. The usurped power of a priest is his weakness:
«When I am weak,» he says, «then am I strong.» Yet let him beware, lest he himself make for himself a tyrant, against whom God has stirred up no adversary. Maximus does not say this — that I am the tyrant of Valentinian, he who complains that, through the obstacle of my embassy, he was unable to cross over into Italy. I added that priests have never been tyrants, but have often suffered tyrants. That whole day was spent in our mourning; yet the royal hangings were torn by mocking boys. I could not return home, because the soldiers who were guarding the basilica were posted round about. With the brethren we said the psalms in the lesser basilica of the church. On the following day the book of Jonah was read, according to custom; and when it was finished I began this discourse:
«The book has been read, brethren, in which it is prophesied that sinners turn back to repentance. It was so received that it was hoped this would come to pass in the present.» I added that the just man had even been willing to incur offence, so as neither to behold nor to announce the destruction of the city, and that he was even grieved that the gourd had withered. And that God too said to the prophet: «Are you sad for the gourd?» Jonah answered: «I am sad.» The Lord said that, if he grieved over that — that the gourd had been scorched — how much more ought the salvation of so great a people to be a care to him! And therefore he removed the destruction which had been prepared for the whole city.
Without delay, it was announced that the Emperor had ordered the soldiers to withdraw from the basilica, and that to the merchants there should be restored whatever had been exacted from them by way of fine. What joy there was then among the whole people! What applause of the whole populace, what thanksgivings! Now it was the day on which the Lord delivered himself up for us, the day on which in the Church penance is relaxed. The soldiers vied with one another in bringing this news, and rushing upon the altars signified by their kisses the token of peace. Then I recognized that God had struck the worm before dawn, that the whole city might be preserved. These things have been done — and would that they were now finished! But the imperial words, full of agitation, foretell that graver disturbances are to come. I am called a usurper, and even more than a usurper.
For when the courtiers besought the Emperor to come forth to the church, and said that they did so at the request of the soldiers, he answered: «If Ambrose bids you, you will hand me over to him in bonds.» Consider what may remain after such a word. At that word all shuddered, but he has those by whom he is exasperated. In short, even with explicit language Calligonus, the chamberlain of the bedchamber, dared to send me word: «While I live, do you despise Valentinian? I will take off your head.» I answered: «May God permit you to fulfil what you threaten; for I shall suffer what bishops suffer, you will do what eunuchs do.» And would that God may turn them away from the Church: let them turn all their darts against me, and slake their thirst with my blood!