Justina’s Plot Against Ambrose

At this time Justina, the wife of Valentinian the Great and mother of the young prince, disclosed to her son the seeds of the Arian teaching that she had received long before. Knowing well how warm her husband’s faith was, she had tried to hide her views all through his life. But seeing that her son’s character was gentle and easily led, she took courage to bring her deceitful doctrine into the open. The boy thought his mother’s counsel wise and good for him, for nature had so arranged the bait that he could not see the deadly hook beneath it. He first raised the matter with Ambrose, thinking that if he could persuade the bishop he would win over the rest without difficulty. Ambrose, however, tried to remind him of his father’s piety and urged him to keep unbroken the inheritance he had received. He also explained to him how the one doctrine differed from the other: how the one agrees with the teaching of the Lord and of his apostles, while the other is wholly opposed to it and at war with the code of the spiritual laws. [a]

The young man, as young men will, and spurred on besides by a mother who was herself the victim of deceit, not only refused to accept the arguments put to him but lost his temper. In a rage he was for surrounding the approaches to the church with companies of legionaries and light-armed troops. But when he learned that this illustrious champion was not in the least alarmed at what he was doing, and treated it all like the ghosts and bogeymen some people use to frighten babies, he was furious and publicly ordered him to leave the church. “I will not do so willingly,” said Ambrose. “I will not hand over the sheepfold to the wolves, nor betray God’s temple to blasphemers. If you wish to kill me, drive your sword or your spear into me here inside. I will welcome such a death.” [b]