Episode 7 - Ambrose of Milan - The Renaissance Times

At the end of episode 6, the Augustii Valens and Gratian were dead.
Valens burned alive in a cottage by the Goths.
Gratian assassinated by a rebel general under Magnus Maximus.
One story about that.
While he was hunting down Gratian, The general, Andragathius, apparently hid himself in a litter carried by mules.
He ordered his guards to send out a report that the litter contained the wife of Gratian.
Sneaky fucker.
So that was in 383.
The only Augustus left with any real authority is Theodosius.
But there’s also the kid emperor, Valentinian II.
He’s about 12.
Now in the last episode we also mentioned the Bishop Ambrose of Milan
He is also an important guy in this story.
Ambrose was born in into a Roman Christian family somewhere around 340 in Gallia Belgica, aka Belgium.
His father was some kind of official, perhaps a praetorian prefect of Gaul.
Ambrose followed him into public service and ended up the governor of the Aemilia-Liguria region in northern Italy.
Which was a pretty important region, because it’s capital was Milan.
And the imperial court had been based in Milan, or Mediolanum as it was called, since Diocletian moved it there in 286.
After he moved to Nicomedia, Maximian, who BTW was the spitting image of Orson Welles, based his court in Milan, making it the court of the Western Empire.
Rome was still the capital of the empire, and the Senate was still based there.
But Milan was just closer to the rest of the empire for a few good reasons.
It was kind of in the middle of the Western empire.
Which is why it’s called Mediolanum.
I think it actually means “middle of the plains”.
But you get the idea.
So by being closer to Gaul, it saved the emperor and field army weeks of travel time in an emergency;
it was also more politically independent of the Senate (there was a lot of friction between the emperors and the Senate in the period when the former were Christian while the latter was still predominantly pagan),
and it was safer from a potential sea attack from Africa (which was periodically in rebellion, and later occupied by the Vandals).
Strategically speaking, Rome was not well-placed to address effectively the threats faced by the Late Roman Empire.
Emperors needed to be on borders, to defend actively provinces against external pressure.
Rome, precisely, was not on any Roman border—an attractive position in terms of safety, not of reactivity.
But also not so great in terms of safety.
As we’ll see when the Goths decide to make their home in Rome.
So Ambrose is the governor of the region where Milan is based.
He was given the position by one of the richest Roman aristocrats of the time – Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus.
AKA Sexy Claudy PP.
He was a Christian who had been Proconsul of Africa and then Praetorian prefect four times in various regions.
And then he was co-consul with the Emperor Gratian.
For some reason, maybe he knew his father, he made Ambrose governor of Aemilia-Liguria.
It’s a pretty good gig and he holds that position for a couple of years.
Then in 374, the bishop of Milan, an Arian, died.
There’s a power struggle between the Arians and the Nicenes as to who should replace him.
Ambrose goes to the place where the elections are taking place to try to keep the peace.
Before you know it, someone has suggested he takes up the job as the new bishop.
The only problem is – Ambrose wasn’t even baptised.
And he had zero training in theology.
But hey – they are just hiccups.
Hiccups for the bishupps.
Gratian is still alive at this stage and says he thinks its a good idea that good men are made bishops, whether or not they have any fucking clue about Christianity.
So he takes the job.
That’s the story as history tells it.
But let’s stop and think for a moment.
Why would the governor of one of the most important regions of the empire, the region where the imperial court of the Western empire sits, become a bishop?
He could have been a contender for emperor.
And why would anyone want to make a guy with zero theological experience a bishop?
Especially the bishop of the most important region of the empire?
There’s something fishy going on here.
Smells like… teen spirit.
Or victory in the morning.
One of those.
I think Gratian and Ambrose cooked it up amongst themselves.
The previous bishop of Milan, Auxentius, was Arian.
So you have an Arian bishop in the home of the Nicene emperor, Gratian.
There’s also a new Pope in Rome at the time – Damasus.
Also, of course, a Nicene.
He’s also accused of murder and adultery with a married woman, but that’s a story for another time.
This Pope has accused Auxentius of being a heretic.
And you can’t afford to have a heretic as the bishop of the diocese of Milan!
Where the Emperor lives!
So Auxentius died – maybe suspicious circumstances, maybe not – and Gratian engineers it so his buddy Ambrose is the new bishop.
So he’s got a guy who “gets it” – a politician, not a theologian.
A lot like when American businesses got Reagan elected governor of California.
He’s an actor, not a politician.
He knows how to read the scripts we give him.
So Ambrose is a Nicene, not an Arian.
The Arians in Milan kick up a stink – yes this battle is still going on – and a couple of the Arian bishops ask Gratian to hold another council made up of both sides to hear argument about which one is the right Christianity.
But obviously Ambrose is obviously not going to let that happen, and besides, Gratian is a Nicene as well, so they just decide to fill the council full of Nicene bishops – no Arians invited.
So the Nicenes wins that round.
Milan is also where Valentinian I was based and ten years after his death, his young son, now the Augustus Valentinian II, Gratian’s half-brother, with his hot bisexual mother, Justina, were based there.
Remember Gratian technically just had Gaul – Italy belonged to Valentinian II, even though, in reality, he was just a kid and Gratian controlled it all.
But Justina and Valentinian were Arians.
They demand that a couple of churches in Milan are reserved to Arians.
Ambrose refuses.
Valentinian II is the Augustus!
You can’t refuse the Augustus!
But he does.
Remember, Arians and Nicenes are both Christians.
But they fucking hate each other.
And Ambrose is the new sheriff in town.
He’s there to drive a stake into the heart of the Arians and the pagans.
And so Ambrose just refused the use of his churches by the Arians.
This started a war, and Justina brought in her own Arian bishop and they issued an imperial order to hand over the church.
Ambrose and his congregation barricaded themselves inside the church until the order was rescinded.
But then after Magnus Maxentius killed Gratian and was planning on invading Italy, Valentinian asked Ambrose for help.
So Ambrose went to Magnus and talked him out of the invasion.
More on that in a bit.
And now Ambrose and VII are kind of friendly, although neither changes their position.
Valentinian II got used as a pawn in the wars between both the Arians and the Nicenes, as well as the Christians against the Pagans.
The pagan senators, led by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, who had tried to get Gratian to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House a couple of years earlier, now tries again with the kid emperor.
Valentinian, at the insistence of Ambrose, refused the request.
BTW – Ambrose and Symmacus were cousins!
They were both from the gens Aurelii Symmachi.
A little bit of cousin rivalry methinks.
Symmachus’ plea has been saved, as has Ambrose’s rebuttal.
Symmachus brings up Constantine I, and tries to get them to follow his example:
He diminished none of the privileges of the sacred virgins, he filled the priestly offices with nobles, he did not refuse the cost of the Roman ceremonies, and following the rejoicing Senate through all the streets of the eternal city, he contentedly beheld the shrines with unmoved countenance, he read the names of the gods inscribed on the pediments, he enquired about the origin of the temples, and expressed admiration for their builders. Although he himself followed another religion, he maintained its own for the empire, for everyone has his own customs, everyone his own rites. The divine Mind has distributed different guardians and different cults to different cities. As souls are separately given to infants as they are born, so to peoples the genius of their destiny. Here comes in the proof from advantage, which most of all vouches to man for the gods. For, since our reason is wholly clouded, whence does the knowledge of the gods more rightly come to us, than from the memory and evidence of prosperity? Now if a long period gives authority to religious customs, we ought to keep faith with so many centuries, and to follow our ancestors, as they happily followed theirs.
Ambrose wrote a rebuttal to Valentinian.
In essence he says progress is good, and Christianity is the latest thing, so it’s more cool.
He also says it’s not fair that Christians attending the Senate House should be insulted by animal sacrifices happening on the altar of Victory – they shouldn’t have to see it or hear it or smell the smoke.
It’s funny – you don’t hear many Christian bishops today extolling the values of progress.
So anyway, Valentinian sides with Ambrose.
In 383, Magnus Maximus, the rebel commander of the armies in Britain, declared himself Emperor and established himself in Gaul and Hispania.
Then he set his sights on taking Italy from the 12 year old.
Theodosius sent his Magister militum, “Master of the Soldiers”, Flavius Bauto with a powerful force to stop him.
And this is when Ambrose went to help out, because Maximus is a good Christian – fighting other good Christians.
To see who is the Christian Jesus loves the most.
Theodosius did a deal with him, and he was made emperor in Britannia and Gaul while Valentinian II retained Italy, Pannonia, Hispania, and Africa.
Maximus was a good Christian and had a lot of heretics killed, including the Bishop Priscillian, who was possibly a Chrisitan Gnostic, and his followers.
Priscillian was a wealthy nobleman of Roman Hispania who promoted a strict form of Christian asceticism.
At his trial, Priscillian was forced while being tortured to admit he “studied obscene doctrines, held nocturnal meetings with shameful women, and prayed while naked”.
They were all killed by the sword.
Priscillian’s execution is seen as the first example of secular justice intervening in an ecclesiastical matter.
But Maximus wasn’t all bad.
He issued an edict in 387 or 388 which censured Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish synagogue
The edict was condemned by bishop Ambrose, who said ‘the emperor has become a Jew’.
Also in 387 Maximus managed finally to kick young Valentinian II out of Milan.

Episode 7 – Ambrose of Milan

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Episode 7 – Ambrose of Milan

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