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8 Gratian, murdered a.d. 383. St. Ambrose on Ps. lxii. [lxi.] §23, gives some details mentioned by no other writer. The Emperor was noted for his great conscientiousness, and especially for purity.
9 Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae.-Herodot. I. 214.
11 Sozomen, H. E. VI. 1. Cf. St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, IV. 29; V. 21.
1 The Praecorian Prefect, one of the four great officers of the Empire, their power extending over all departments of state, except the army. See Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant.
2 The Competentes, those of the Catechumens who having requested to be baptized were admitted to be instructed in the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in preparation. This was usually done in Lent.
3 Officials probably of the same kind as lictors.
4 The officials were fixing outside the basilica certain vela or hangings, the effect of which was to mark the building as Imperial property.
5 Missam facere. This is the earliest extant instance of the use of this subsequently almost universal name for the Holy Eucharist, the meaning of which is uncertain.
6 The Book of Job is still read in the evenings of Holy Week in the Eastern Church.
13 St. Ambrose is here repeating in plain words what he has also said before, that the secular power has no authority over the Church, and what belongs to God.
16 The Goths were mostly Arians, and so worse than heathen.
17 Ps. lxxvi. [lxxv.] 2, Ps. lxxvi. [lxxv.] 3. E. V.-Salem, which means "peace."
21 The first legation, a.d. 383 or 384.
22 Read now in the West on Holy Saturday.
1 "When Valentinian was journeying from Constantinople to Rome ...some bishops despatched Hypatian ...to request permission to assemble themselves together for deliberation on questions of doctrine. ...Valentinian made the following reply: 'I am but one of the laity, and have therefore no right to interfere in these transactions; let the priests, to whom such matters appertain, assemble where they please." Sozomen, Eccl. Hist. VI. 7 [Vol. II. of this series]. The law referred to is not extant.
2 Allusion is here made to a celebrated act of Valentinian, when attending on the Emperor Julian at the temple of Fortune. One of the attendants sprinkled him with lustral water, and Valentinian struck him with his fist, saying that this water defiled rather than purified those whom it touched. Comp. Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. VI. 6.
3 St. Ambrose is alluding to the circumstances of his own election.
4 A law in favour of the Arians, allowing them to meet together freely, passed through the influence of Justina. See Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. VII. 13.