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The clergy of the West having thus anticipated the designs of those
who sought to introduce innovations among them, carefully continued to
preserve the inviolability of the faith which had from the beginning
been handed down to them. With the solitary exception of Auxentius
and his partisans, there were no individuals among them who entertained
heterodox opinions. Auxentius, however, did not live long after this
period. At his death a sedition arose among the people concerning the
choice of a bishop for the church of Milan, and the city was in
danger. Those who had aspired to the bishopric, and been defeated in
their expectations, were loud in their menaces, as is usual in such
commotions.
Ambrosius, who was then the governor of the province, being fearful
of the movement of the people, went to the church, and exhorted the
people to cease from contention, to remember the laws, and to
reestablish concord and the prosperity which springs from peace.
Before he had ceased speaking, all his auditors at once suppressed the
angry feelings by which they had been mutually agitated against each
other, and directed the vote of the bishopric upon him, as a
fulfillment of his counsel to harmony. They exhorted him to be
baptized, for he was still uninitiated, and begged him to receive the
priesthood. After he had refused and declined, and unfeignedly fled
the business, the people still insisted, and declared that the
contention would never be appeased unless he would accede to their
wishes; and at length intelligence of these transactions was conveyed
to the court. It is said that the Emperor Valentinian prayed, and
returned thanks to God that the very man whom he had appointed governor
had been chosen to fill a priestly office. When he was informed of the
earnest desires of the people and the refusal of Ambrosius, he
inferred that events had been so ordered by God for the purpose of
restoring peace to the church of Milan, and commanded that Ambrosius
should be ordained as quickly as possible. He was initiated and
ordained at the same time, and forthwith proceeded to bring the church
under his sway to unanimity of opinion concerning the Divine nature;
for, while under the guidance of Auxentius, it had long been rent by
dissensions on this subject. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak
of the conduct of Ambrosius after his ordination, and of the
courageous and holy manner in which he discharged the functions of the
priesthood.
About this period, the Novatians of Phrygia, contrary to their
ancient custom, began to celebrate the festival of the Passover on the
same day as the Jews. Novatius, the originator of their heresy,
refused to receive those who repented of their sins into communion, and
it was in this respect alone that he innovated upon the established
doctrine. But he and those who succeeded him celebrated the feast of
the Passover after the vernal equinox, according to the custom of the
Roman church. Some Novatian bishops, however, assembled about this
time at Pazi, a town of Phrygia, near the source of the river
Sangarus, and agreeing not to follow, in this point of discipline,
the practice of those who differed in doctrine from them, established a
new law; they determined upon keeping the feast of unleavened bread,
and upon celebrating the Passover on the same days as the Jews.
Agelius, the bishop of the Novatians at Constantinople, and the
bishops of the Novatians at Nicaea, Nicomedia, and Cotyaeum, a
noted city of Phrygia, did not take part in this Synod, although the
Novatians consider them to be lords and colophons, so to speak, of
the transactions affecting their heresy and their churches. How for
this reason, these innovators advanced into divergence, and having cut
themselves off, formed a separate church, I will speak of at the
fight time.
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