964 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
the vestibule of tlie church, " how wilt thou hft up in pvayei the hands still dripping with the blood of tlie Tuurderedl How wilt thou receive with such hands the most holy body of the Lord ? How wilt thou bring to thy mouth his precioua blood? Get thee away, and dare not to heap crime upon crime." When Theodosius appealed to David's murder and adultery, the bishop answered: " Well, if thou bast imitated David in sin, imitate him also in repentance." ' The emperor actually submitted to ecclesiastical discipline, made public con fession of his sin, and did not receive absolution until he had issued a law that the sentence of death should never be executed till thirty days after it was pronounced."
From this time the relation between Ambrose and Theodosius continued undisturbed, and the emperor is reported to have said afterwards with reference to the bishop, that he had recently found the first man who told him the truth, and that he knew only one man who was worthy to be bishop. He died in the arms of Ambrose at Milan in 395. The bisbop delivered his funeral oration in which he tells, to his honor, that on his dying bed he was more concerned for the condition of the church than for himself, and says to the soldiers : " Tlie faith of Theodosius was your victory ; let your truth and faith be the strength of his sons. Where unbelief is, there is blindness, but where fidelity is, there is the host of angels."
Two years after this, Ambrose himself was fatally sick. All Milan was in terror. When he was urged to pray God for a lengthening of his life, he answered : " I have so lived among you that I cannot be ashamed to live longer; but neither do I fear to die; for we have a good Lord." During his sickness lie had miraculous intimations and heard heavenly voices, and he himself related that Christ appeared to him smiling. His
' " Qui sequutus es errautcm, sequcre corrigcatein " Paulinas, Vita Ambr. c. 24.
* Paulinus, 1. c. c. 24 : " Quod ubi audivit clementissiraus imperator, ita suscepit, ut publicam poenitcntiara non abhorrerct," &c. Ambrose liimself says in hil funeral oration on Theodosius: ''Stravit onine, quo utebatur insigne regium, deflevit in ccelcsia publico peccatuin suuin, neque ullus postea dies f'uit, quo non ilium doleret crrorem." The main fact is beyond doubt; but the details are not all reliable, and may have been cxaKscrated fcr hierarchical cuds.
§ 175. AMBROSE. 9G6
notary and biograplier, tlie deacon Paulinus, who adorns his life throughout witli miraculous incidents, tells us:' *']^ot long before his death, while he was dictating to me hia exposition of the Forty-third Psalm, I saw upon his head a flame in the form of a small shield ; hereupon his face became white as snow, and not till some time after did it return to its natural color." In the night of Good Friday, on Saturday, the 4th of ApriT, 397, he died, at the age of fifty-seven years, having first spent several hours, with his hands crossed, ir uninterrupted prayer. Even Jews and pagans lamented his d(;ath. On the night of Easter following many were baptized in the church where his body was exposed. Not a few of the newly baptized children saw him seated in the episcopal chair with a shining star upon his head. Even after his death he wrought miracles in many places, in proof of which Paulinus gives his own experience, credible persons, and documents.
Ambrose, like Cyprian before him, and Leo I. after him, was greatest in administration. As bishop he towered above the contemporary popes. As a theologian and author he iia only a star of the second magnitude among the church fathers, yielding by far to Jerome and Augustine. We have from this distinguished prelate several exegetical, doctrinal, and ascetic works, besides homilies, orations, and letters. In exegesis he adopts the allegorical method entire, and yields little substantial information. The most important among his exegetical works are his homilies on the history of creation (Hexaemeron, written 389), an Exposition of twenty-one Psalms ('390-307), and a Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (386).' The Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (Ambrosiaster so called or Pseudo-Ambrosius) which found its way among his works, is of uncertain authorship, perhaps the work of the Roman deacon Hilary under pope Damasus, and resembles in
' Vita Ambr. c. 42.
" The exegetical works are in torn, i, of the Bened. ed., excepting Ambrosiaster, which is in the Appendix to torn. ii. Jerome haa a contemptuous opinion of hia exegetical writings. In the preface to his translation of the thirty-nine Homilies of Origen on Luke, he compares the superficial and meagre Commentary of Ambrose on Luke to the croaking of a raven which makes sport of the colors of all othei birds, and yet is itself dark all over (totus ipse tenebrosus). Against this attack