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 176 THE DECLINE AND FALL impossible, in the period of human life, to purge the ac- cumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the murderer should have been excluded from the holy communion till the hour of his death. But the archbishop, consulting the maxims of religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank of his illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride of the diadem ; and the public edification might be admitted as a weighty reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was sufficient that the emperor of the Romans, stripped of the ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and suppliant posture ; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan, he should humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his sins.^*'^ In this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods of mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight months, Theodosius was restored to the communion of the faithful ; and the edict, which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy fruits of his repentance. ^''^ Posterity has applauded the virtuous firmness of the archbishop ; and the example of Theodosius may prove the beneficial influence of those principles Avhich could force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible Judge. "The prince," says Montesquieu, "who is actuated by the hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile only to the voice, and tractable to the hand, of his keeper." ^^- The motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the inclination and interest of the man who has acquired such dangerous authority over him ; and the priest who holds in his hand the conscience of a king may inflame or moderate his sanguinary passions. The cause of humanity, and that of persecution, have been asserted by the same Ambrose, with equal energy and with equal success. a standing posture. I have the original (Beveridge, Pandect, torn. ii. p. 47-151) and a translation (Chardon, Hist, des Sacremens, torn. iv. p. 219-277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil. 100 The penance of Theodosius is authenticated by Ambrose (torn. vi. de Obit Theodos. c. 34. p. 1207), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26), and Paulinas (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24). Socrates is ignorant ; Sozomen (1. vii. c. 2^) concise [but places it a//er revolt of Eugenius] ; and the copious narrative of Theodoret (L v. c. 18) must be used with precaution. i"! Codex Theodos. 1. ix. tit. xl. leg. 13. The date and circumstances of this law are perplexed with difficulties ; but I feel myself inclined to favour the honest efforts of Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 731) and Pagi (Critica, torn. i. p. 578). lo^Un prince qui aime la religion, et qui la craint, est un lion qui cMe k la main qui le flatte, ou k la voix qui I'appaise. Esprit des Lois, 1. xxiv. c 2.