THE persecution against S. Ambrose still continued. The Court
party endeavoured to induce him to leave Milan, in order, they
said, to prevent more serious troubles. This he refused to do,
and at last he remained for several days and nights continuously
within the Basilica[113], attended by a crowded congregation,
all determined to protect him from the violence of the court,
while a guard of soldiers was at the same time blockading the
Church, and preventing any from leaving it. It was during this
time that this Sermon was preached. In it S. Ambrose first calms
the fears of the people lest he should be induced to leave them,
assuring them that he will only yield to force; and proceeds
to apply the Lessons of the day, the story of Naboth and the
Entry into Jerusalem, to the circumstances of the time, giving
incidentally several interesting details of the contest between
himself and the Court, and alluding to the hymns which he then
taught the people to sing.
1. I SEE that you are in an unusual state of excitement, and that your
eyes are fixed upon me. I am at a loss to know the cause of this. Is
it that you saw or heard that an Imperial message has been brought to
me by the Tribunes, commanding me to depart hence whither I would, and
that all who would were permitted to follow me. Were you then alarmed
lest I should desert the Church, and in fear for my own life abandon
you? But you heard my answer. I said that the thought of deserting the
Church could not for an instant enter my mind, for I feared the Lord
of the Universe more than the Ruler of the Empire; that if I were to be
forcibly removed from the Church, it would be my body not my mind which
would be driven by violence from thence, that if the Emperor were to
act as royal power is wont, I was prepared for that which is the part
of a priest to suffer.
2. Why then are you thus disturbed? I will never desert you of my own
will, but I may not repel force by force. I shall still be able to
mourn, to weep, and to groan; when weapons, soldiers, Goths assail me,
my tears are my weapons, for these are the defence of a priest. By any
other means I neither can nor ought to resist; but to fly and desert
the Church is not my wont, lest any one should impute it to fear of
heavier punishment. You yourselves know that I am wont to pay deference
to our Rulers, but not to give way to them, and willingly to offer
myself to punishment, not fearing what is prepared for me.
3. Would that I could be satisfied that the Church would not be
delivered to heretics! I would willingly go to the Emperor’s palace,
were this accordant with the priest’s office, so as to hold our
contest rather in the palace than in the Church. But in the Consistory
Christ is not wont to be the accused, but the Judge. Who will deny
that a matter of faith should be pleaded in the Church? If any one has
confidence in his cause let him come hither; let him not look for the
judgment of the Emperor, which already shews its leaning, which has
declared plainly by the law he has enacted that he is adverse to the
Faith, nor for the expected support of certain intriguers. I will not
give occasion to any one to barter for gain a wrong to Christ.