speaking, pronounced the funeral oration. He enlarged on the moral purity of the deceased, his kindness of heart, his devotion to his duty, and deplored the loss sustained by the Christian cause. "Thou wert smitten, O Church, on one cheek, when thou didst lose Gratian: thou hast turned the other, now that Valentinian has been taken from thee." The regret expressed by some that he had died without receiving Baptism, the preacher said, was needless; he had wished for it, and had sent for him to administer it : there was no reason to doubt that the gift from above which he had longed for was in effect bestowed on him. As the martyrdom of catechumens was always held to supply the place of the external administration of the Sacrament of regeneration, by the baptism of blood, so it might be hoped that the murdered youth was bathed in his own piety and holy desires. There is more of rhetoric in the discourse, and, we may add, more of the dignity of human merit, than is quite suited to the taste of an English churchman : many of the Scriptural allusions are forced and farfetched; and we cannot help wondering, as we read the strong encomiums upon the departed, whether Ambrose had forgotten that he of whom he spoke was a few years before not only unbaptized, but an Arian.

Arbogastes was well enough acquainted with the feelings of Romans to be quite aware that he must be satisfied with the power of an emperor without the name. A century and a half had not effaced the remembrance of the brutal Maximin; and notwithstanding the success and renown of Philip, and Diocletian, and Maximian, whose title to the Roman

name was more than questionable, it was clear that a German who should attempt to copy him in his reign over Italians would only be consigned by them to his fate. A puppet emperor must be set up, a degenerate Roman, who would wear the purple and obey his commander-in-chief. Such a person was soon found in Eugenius, the rhetorician, his secretary and master of the offices.

The new emperor sent without delay to announce to Theodosius the unfortunate suicide (as he termed it) of Valentinian. Theodosius was once again obliged to temporize, as he had done with Maximus, and for the same reason. The unhappy affair of Thessalonica had shown him the risk he ran in being absent from his dominions; and Constantinople itself was far from being quiet. He dismissed the envoys with an equivocal answer, and with the usual gifts of honour, but at the same time began to prepare for another civil war.

Eugenius had not long been invested with the purple when a deputation from the pagan party at Rome waited upon him to beg for the restoration of heathen worship and the restitution of heathen endowments. They were dismissed with an answer in the negative; for Eugenius was professedly a Christian. A second deputation received a similar reply, but either perceived some tendency to vacillation on the part of the emperor, or, more probably, got a hint of some inclination on the part of Arbogastes to favour their demands. They persevered, and Eugenius, while still declining to restore the endowments to the temples, agreed to present some of them, as a favour, to certain

eminent persons, "of the Gentile observance," as the euphemistic phrase ran; coupling with this a relaxation of the edicts of Theodosius which forbad all heathen rites and ceremonies.

Not long after, the new ruler of the West crossed the Alps and proceeded to Milan. He had already sent a letter to the bishop to announce his elevation, and to intimate his intention of visiting the capital. To this he received, at first, no answer. Nor did Ambrose await his arrival, but thought it his wisest course to withdraw, as he had done on the approach of Maximus six years before. He first retired to Bologna, and thence to Florence sending a letter addressed "To the most clement Emperor Eugenius," in which he explained the reason of his previous silence and of his withdrawal from Milan to be the indulgence shown by a Christian ruler to idolatry. The presenting the heathen endowments to individuals was, he said, a mere quibble: it could not deceive any one, least of all God. "Though the Imperial power is great," he wrote, "consider, sire, how great God is: He sees the hearts of all, He questions the inner conscience, He knows everything before it is done, He knows the inmost recesses of your soul. You do not permit yourself to be deceived; do you try to conceal anything from God? has this never occurred to your mind? however pertinacious they were with you, was it not your part, sire, to be all the more pertinacious in your resistance, for the glory of the Most High, the true and living God, and to refuse them what was inconsistent with the Sacred Law? Who grudges your giving what you choose to others? we do not pry into

your liberality, nor envy the advantages of others: but we are interpreters of your faith. How will you offer your gifts to Christ? Emperor though you are, you ought to be, all the more, the servant of God. How will the priests of Christ dispense your gifts?"

The letter, as we might expect, had no effect. It was more important for Arbogastes to conciliate a party at Rome than to procure the doubtful advantage of the bishop's residence at Milan : he boasted, we are told, to some Frankish chiefs of being the prelate's intimate acquaintance and dear friend: but this was only because of the exalted idea they entertained of his power; the wily barbarian had no objection to be thought to stand in amicable relations to one whose friendship was supposed to ensure victory: but he did not want him in the capital. Nor did Eugenius care to have one near him who would be continually warning him of the sinfulness of tolerating idolatry, and by whose orders he had already been denied the privilege of worshipping in the churches. So Ambrose still remained at Florence; unwilling, he said, to be near one who had mixed himself up with sacrilege. Nor was he an unwelcome guest. Like his own Milanese flock, the Tuscans were charmed with his preaching.

CHAPTER XIV.

VICTORY AND DEATH.

A.D. 394-395.

THE preparations of Theodosius were at last complete, and on January 10, 394, he began to move westwards. Eugenius and Arbogastes set out from Milan to meet him, fulminating dire threats against the Christians. The churches should be turned into stables, and the whole clergy should feel the weight of their vengeance when they returned, as they were sure to do, in triumph. But Ambrose was not terrified by such menaces, and had firm faith in the Providence which he believed to be watching over the orthodox and lawful emperor. No sooner did he hear of their departure than he started for Milan, and arrived there on the 1st of August. Meanwhile, the usurper and his barbarian patron had reached the banks of the Frigidus, a small stream which rises in the Julian Alps, and joins the main stream of the Isonzo at no great distance from Aquileia. Here they awaited the coming of the Eastern emperor. An indecisive skirmish, terminating rather to the disadvantage of Theodosius, revealed the weakness of his barbarian allies and the inferiority of his numbers: the Western commanders were inspired with fresh courage,