THOUGH both Athanasius and Arius had passed away, the controversy raged as fiercely as ever. Of course every true Christian must maintain the divinity of Christ; for without His divinity there can be no atonement; and without an atonement there can be no salvation. Of course there may have been many who held these views without knowing their value and power; while, on the other hand, Satan was as determined as ever that such a doctrine must be opposed.
One of the first things that demanded the attention of Valentinian in the West, in respect to the church, was the election of a bishop of Milan. Here both parties—if such they may be called—were most determined to elect one of their own people, and there seemed no hope of their being able to agree, when suddenly some one in the crowd proposed that the magistrate who presided over their meeting should be bishop, This was Ambrose. “Ambrose for bishop” was cried out. But he refused the dignity, until seeing there was no hope of their coming to any other decision he consented. He was baptized, hurried through the intermediate stages, and on the eighth day was consecrated bishop of Milan.
Ambrose was of Roman parents, and had been educated for the bar, and about A.D. 370 had been made consular prefect of Liguria and Æmilia. He was residing at Milan, and presiding over the election of a bishop, or was present to prevent disorder, when, as we have seen, he was thus suddenly elected bishop.
When this was fixed, he proceeded to fulfill its duties. He settled all his possessions (after giving much away) under the care of a brother as a reserve for his sister, that he might be wholly devoted to his ecclesiastical duties.
Valens in the East had been gained over to the Arian party, and became a bitter persecutor of the orthodox. On one occasion, eighty ministers appealed to the emperor and sought to gain an interview with him; but he gave secret orders for them all to be put to death. The officer, fearing an insurrection if they were killed openly, ordered them on board ship for banishment, but gave secret orders to the sailors to fire the ship and leave them to their fate. This was actually done, and they all perished.
Valens was compelled to defend his estates from the Goths, which gave relief to the orthodox. He fell in battle in A.D. 378. Valentinian had died in A.D. 375. Theodosius succeeded, at first with others, and then alone in the East; Valentinian II in the West.
In A.D. 381 the second General Council met at Constantinople (again in A.D. 382 and 383), which confirmed the decrees of the Council of Nice, and condemned Arianism and several other minor heresies. This brought the orthodox into greater power; but alas, few men can bear to be in power without abusing it. This was strikingly brought out in the otherwise worthy Ambrose. In a remote district the people, led on by a bishop, attacked a Jewish synagogue and a meeting-place belonging to some separatists, and both were destroyed. The emperor ordered the people to rebuild the edifices, or to pay a fine to the holders. But, on hearing this, Ambrose strongly opposed this being done, insisting that toleration of the Jewish religion was a persecution of Christianity! The emperor gave way, and would have let the matter drop; but Ambrose insisted that a solemn promise should be given that the guilty should not be punished, and again the emperor yielded.
We see here how strangely Ambrose mistook his mission. Instead of obeying the powers that be, according to the Epistle to the Romans, he was here opposing them, and that too in a simple matter of justice for injury done, and moreover in a civil matter. The bold bishop had, however, to oppose the emperor in a matter that came more immediately under his mission.
During some public games at Thessalonica the people were offended by the governor thwarting them in some of their wishes, whereupon they rose and murdered the officer and some of his guards. The emperor was so incensed at this, that he ordered the garrison to carry out an indiscriminate massacre of the inhabitants. They were invited into the circus on the pretense of seeing some public game; but on a signal the soldiers rushed in and commenced to kill, irrespective of age or sex. It was estimated that 7000 were thus ruthlessly put to death. The emperor indeed relented of his rash design and sent a messenger to prevent it, but, alas, he did not arrive in time. The emperor was sorry for the issue, but had to bear the reproaches of the clergy. Ambrose was the boldest of them, and told the emperor he could not allow of his taking the Lord's supper. The emperor pleaded the case of David and his sin. Ambrose replied, "You have indeed imitated the king of Israel in the sin of homicide; it remains for you to imitate him in his repentance." The emperor was humbled by the bishop's rebuke and promised to submit to any penance he might impose. Ambrose insisted upon a public penance, and that the emperor should not for the future have any execution carried out for thirty days after the sentence, that there might be time for passion to cool down.
Thus, while in Ambrose we see a bold man who would not be a respecter of persons, we see also how all this was paving the way for the clergy to reach that place of authority over the powers that be which eventually culminated in the arrogance of the Popes of Rome.
An incident in the life of Ambrose shows how necessary baptism was considered to be to salvation. Baptism was often put off till death was supposed to be near, and Valentinian had died unbaptized, and his sisters deeply lamented the fact; but Ambrose assured them that his desire was equal to the act, and that he had been washed in his piety as the martyrs in their blood! One is puzzled to know how anyone can be a martyr until he is a Christian and has been already washed in the precious blood of Christ. It shows how deeply mystical and confused was their knowledge of the truth.
Ambrose died quietly on his bed (A.D. 397), fulfilling his duties until the last.
While these things were transpiring in the West, let us look at another of the great Fathers located in the East.