was against the usages of the Church for the laity to sit as judges in theological discussions; that in all spiritual matters emperors were subordinate to bishops, not bishops to emperors.  Oh, how great is the posthumous influence of original heroes!  Contemplate those fiery remonstrances of Ambrose,—­the first on record,—­when prelates and emperors contended for the mastery, and you will see why the Archbishop of Milan is so great a favorite of the Catholic Church.

And what was the response of the empress, who ruled in the name of her son, in view of this disobedience and defiance?  Chrysostom dared to reprove female vices; he did not rebel against imperial power.  But Ambrose raised an issue with his sovereign.  And this angry sovereign sent forth her soldiers to eject Ambrose from the city.  The haughty and insolent priest should be exiled, should be imprisoned, should die.  Shall he be permitted to disobey an imperial command?  Where would then be the imperial authority?—­a mere shadow in an age of anarchy.

Ambrose did not oppose force by force.  His warfare was not carnal, but spiritual.  He would not, if he could, have braved the soldiers of the Government by rallying his adherents in the streets.  That would have been a mob, a sedition, a rebellion.

But he seeks the shelter of his church, and prays to Almighty God.  And his friends and admirers—­the people to whom he preached, to whom he is an oracle—­also follow him to his sanctuary.  The church is crowded with his adherents, but they are unarmed.  Their trust is not in the armor of Goliath, nor even in the sling of David, but in that power which protected Daniel in the lions’ den.  The soldiers are armed, and they surround the spacious basilica, the form which the church then assumed.  And yet though they surround the church in battle array, they dare not force the doors,—­they dare not enter.  Why?  Because the church had become a sacred place.  It was consecrated to the worship of Jehovah.  The soldiers were afraid of the wrath of God more than of the wrath of Faustina or Valentinian.  What do you see in this fact?  You see how religious ideas had permeated the minds even of soldiers.  They were not strong enough or brave enough to fight the ideas of their age.  Why did not the troops of Louis XVI. defend the Bastille?  They were strong enough; its cannon could have demolished the whole Faubourg St. Antoine.  Alas! the soldiers who defended that fortress had caught the ideas of the people.  They fraternized with them, rather than with the Government; they were afraid of opposing the ideas which shook France to its centre.  So the soldiers of the imperial government at Milan, converted to the ideas of Christianity, or sympathizing with them, or afraid of them, dared not assail the church to which Ambrose fled for refuge.  Behold in this fact the majestic power of ideas when they reach the people.