§ 3. Ambrose and the Martyrs.

     
      1.
      A termination was at length put to the persecution of the Church of Milan by an occurrence of a very different nature from any which take place in these days. And since such events as I am to mention do not occur now, we are apt to argue, not very logically, that they did not occur then. I conceive this to be the main objection which will be felt against the following narrative. Miracles never took place then, because we do not see reason to believe that they take place now. But it should be recollected, that if there are no miracles at present, neither are there at present any martyrs. Might we not as cogently argue that no martyrdoms took place then, because no martyrdoms take place now? And might not St. Ambrose and his brethren have as reasonably disbelieved the possible existence of parsonages and pony carriages in the nineteenth century, as we the existence of martyrs and miracles in the primitive age? Perhaps miracles and martyrs go together. Now the account which is to follow does indeed relate to miracles, but then it relates to martyrs also.
      Another objection which may be more reasonably urged against the narrative is this: that in the fourth century there were many miraculous tales which even Fathers of the Church believed, but which no one of any way of thinking believes now. It will be argued, that because some miracles are alleged which did not really take place, that therefore none which are alleged took place either. But I am disposed to reason just the contrary way. Pretences to revelation make it probable that there is a true Revelation; pretences to miracles make it probable that there are real ones; falsehood is the mockery of truth; false Christs argue a true Christ; a shadow implies a substance. If it be replied that the Scripture miracles are these true miracles, and that it is they, and none other but they, none after them, which suggested the counterfeit; I ask in turn, if so, what becomes of the original objection, that no miracles are true, because some are false? If this be so, the Scripture miracles are to be believed as little as those after them; and this is the very plea which infidels have urged. No; it is not reasonable to limit the scope of an argument according to the exigency of our particular conclusions; we have no leave to apply the argument for miracles only to the first century, and that against miracles only to the fourth. If forgery in some miracles proves forgery in all, this tells against the first as well as against the fourth century; if forgery in some argues truth in others, this avails for the fourth as well as for the first.
      And I will add, that even credulousness on other occasions does not necessarily disqualify a person's evidence for a particular alleged miracle; for the sight of one true miracle could not but dispose a man to believe others readily, nay, too readily, that is, would make him what is called credulous.
      Now let these remarks be kept in mind while I go on to describe the alleged occurrence which has led to them. I know of no direct objection to it in particular, viewed in itself; the main objections are such antecedent considerations as I have been noticing. on original] But if Elisha's bones restored a dead man to life, I know of no antecedent reason why the relics of Gervasius and Protasius should not, as in the instance to be considered, have given sight to the blind.
      2.
      The circumstances were these:—St. Ambrose, at the juncture of affairs which I have described in the foregoing pages, was proceeding to the dedication of a certain church at Milan, which remains there to this day, with the name of “St. Ambrose the Greater;” and was urged by the people to bury relics of martyrs under the altar, as he had lately done in the case of the Basilica of the Apostles. This was according to the usage of those times, desirous thereby both of honouring those who had braved death for Christ's sake, and of hallowing religious places with the mortal instruments of their triumph. Ambrose in consequence gave orders to open the ground in the church of St. Nabor, as a spot likely to have been the burying-place of martyrs during the heathen persecutions.
      Augustine, who was in Milan at the time, alleges that Ambrose was directed in his search by a dream. Ambrose himself is evidently reserved on the subject in his letter to his sister, though he was accustomed to make her his confidant in his ecclesiastical proceedings; he only speaks of his heart having burnt within him in presage of what was to happen. The digging commenced, and in due time two skeletons were discovered, of great size, perfect, and disposed in an orderly way; the head of each, however, separated from the body, and a quantity of blood about. That they were the remains of martyrs, none could reasonably doubt; and their names were ascertained to be Gervasius and Protasius; how, it does not appear, but certainly it was not so alleged on any traditionary information or for any popular object, since they proved to be quite new names to the Church of the day, though some elderly men at length recollected hearing them in former years. Nor is it wonderful that these saints should have been forgotten, considering the number of the Apostolic martyrs, among whom Gervasius and Protasius appear to have a place.
      It seems to have been usual in that day to verify the genuineness of relics by bringing some of the energumeni, or possessed with devils, to them. Such afflicted persons were present with St. Ambrose during the search; and, before the service for exorcism commenced, one of them gave the well-known signs of horror and distress which were customarily excited by the presence of what had been the tabernacle of divine grace.
      The skeletons were raised and transported to the neighbouring church of St. Fausta. The next day, June 18th, on which they were to be conveyed to their destination, a vast concourse of people attended the procession. This was the moment chosen by Divine Providence to give, as it were, signal to His Church, that, though years passed on, He was still what He had been from the beginning, a living and a faithful God, wonder-working as in the lifetime of the Apostles, and true to His word as spoken by His prophets unto a thousand generations. There was in Milan a man of middle age, well known in the place, by name Severus, who, having become blind, had given up his trade, and was now supported by charitable persons. Being told the cause of the shoutings in the streets, he persuaded his guide to lead him to the sacred relics. He came near; he touched the cloth which covered them; and he regained his sight immediately.
      This relation deserves our special notice from its distinct miraculousness and its circumstantial character; but numerous other miracles are stated to have followed. Various diseases were cured and demoniacs dispossessed by the touch of the holy bodies or their envelopments.
      3.
      Now for the evidence on which the whole matter rests. Our witnesses are three: St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and Paulinus, the secretary of the latter, who after his death addressed a short memoir of his life to the former.
      1. St. Augustine, in three separate passages in his works, two of which shall here be quoted, gives his testimony. First, in his City of God, in an enumeration of miracles which had taken place since the Apostles' time. He begins with that which he himself had witnessed in the city of St. Ambrose:—
           “The miracle,” he says, “which occurred at Milan, while I was
     there, when a blind man gained sight, was of a kind to come to the
     knowledge of many, because the city is large, and the Emperor was
     there at the time, and it was wrought with the witness of a vast
     multitude, who had come together to the bodies of the martyrs
     Protasius and Gervasius; which, being at the time concealed and
     altogether unknown, were discovered on the revelation of a dream to
     Ambrose the bishop; upon which that blind man was released from his
     former darkness, and saw the day.”—xxii. 8.
      And next in his sermon upon the feast-day of the two martyrs:—
           “We are celebrating, my brethren, the day on which, by Ambrose the
     bishop, that man of God, there was discovered, precious in the
     sight of the Lord, the death of His Saints; of which so great glory
     of the martyrs, then accruing, even I was a witness. I was there, I
     was at Milan, I know the miracles which were done, God attesting to
     the precious death of His Saints; that by those miracles
     henceforth, not in the Lord's sight only, but in the sight of men
     also, that death might be precious. A blind man, perfectly well
     known to the whole city, was restored to sight; he ran, he caused
     himself to be brought near, he returned without a guide. We have
     not yet heard of his death; perhaps he is still alive. In the very
     church where their bodies are, he has vowed his whole life to
     religious service. We rejoiced in his restoration, we left him in
     service.”—Serm. 286. vid. also 318.
      The third passage will be found in the ninth book of St. Augustine's Confessions, and adds to the foregoing extracts the important fact that the miracle was the cause of Justina's relinquishing her persecution of the Catholics.
      2. Now let us proceed to the evidence of St Ambrose, as contained in the sermons which he preached upon the occasion. In the former of the two he speaks as follows of the miracles wrought by the relics:—
           “Ye know, nay, ye have yourselves seen, many cleansed from evil
     spirits, and numbers loosed from their infirmities, on laying their
     hands on the garment of the saints. Ye see renewed the miracles of
     the old time, when, through the advent of the Lord Jesus, a fuller
     grace poured itself upon the earth; ye see most men healed by the
     very shadow of the sacred bodies. How many are the napkins which
     pass to and fro! what anxiety for garments which are laid upon the
     most holy relics, and made salutary by their very touch! It is an
     object with all to reach even to the extreme border, and he who
     reaches it will be made whole. Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, for
     awakening for us at this time the spirits of the holy martyrs, when
     Thy Church needs greater guardianship. Let all understand the sort
     of champions I ask for—those who may act as champions, not as
     assailants. And such have I gained for you, my religious people,
     such as benefit all, and harm none. Such defenders I solicit, such
     soldiers I possess, not the world's soldiers, but soldiers of
     Christ. I fear not that such will give offence; because the higher
     is their guardianship, the less exceptionable is it also. Nay, for
     them even who grudge me the martyrs, do I desire the martyrs'
     protection. So let them come and see my body-guard; I own I have
     such arms about me. 'These put their trust in chariots and these
     in horses; but we will glory in the name of the Lord our God.'
           “Elisæus, as the course of Holy Scripture tells us, when hemmed in
     by the Syrian army, said to his frightened servant, by way of
     calming him, 'There are more that are for us than are against us.'
     And to prove this, he begged that Gehazi's eyes might be opened;
     upon which the latter saw innumerable hosts of Angels present to
     the prophet. We, though we cannot see them, yet are sensible of
     them. Our eyes were held as long as the bodies of the saints lay
     hid in their graves. The Lord has opened our eyes: we have seen
     those aids by which we have often been defended. We had not the
     sight of these, yet we had the possession. And so, as though the
     Lord said to us in our alarm, 'Behold what martyrs I have given
     you!' in like manner our eyes are unclosed, and we see the glory of
     the Lord, manifested, as once in their passion, so now in their
     power. We have got clear, my brethren, of no slight disgrace; we
     had patrons, yet we knew it not. We have found this one thing, in
     which we have the advantage of our forefathers—they lost the
     knowledge of these holy martyrs, and we have obtained it.
           “Bring the victorious victims to the spot where is Christ the
     sacrifice. But He upon the altar, who suffered for all; they under
     it, who were redeemed by His passion. I had intended this spot for
     myself, for it is fitting that where the priest had been used to
     offer, there he should repose; but I yield the right side to the
     sacred victims; that spot was due to the martyrs. Therefore let us
     bury the hallowed relics, and introduce them into a fitting home;
     and celebrate the whole day with sincere devotion.”—Ep. 22.
      In his latter sermon, preached the following day, he pursues the subject:—
           “This your celebration they are jealous of, who are wont to be;
     and, being jealous of it, they hate the cause of it, and are
     extravagant enough to deny the merits of those martyrs, whose works
     the very devils confess. Nor is it wonderful; it commonly happens
     that unbelievers who deny are less bearable than the devil who
     confesses. For the devil said, 'Jesus, Son of the living Son, why
     hast Thou come to torment us before the time?' And, whereas the
     Jews heard this, yet they were the very men to deny the Son of God.
     And now ye have heard the evil spirits crying out, and confessing
     to the martyrs, that they cannot bear their pains, and saying, 'Why
     are ye come to torment us so heavily?' And the Arians say, 'They
     are not martyrs, nor can they torment the devil, nor dispossess any
     one;' while the torments of the evil spirits are evidenced by their
     own voice, and the benefits of the martyrs by the recovery of the
     healed, and the tokens of the dispossessed.
           “The Arians say, 'These are not real torments of evil spirits, but
     they are pretended and counterfeit.' I have heard of many things
     pretended, but no one ever could succeed in feigning himself a
     devil. How is it we see them in such distress when the hand is laid
     on them? What room is here for fraud? what suspicion of imposture?
           “They deny that the blind received sight; but he does not deny that
     he was cured. He says, 'I see, who afore saw not.' He says, 'I
     ceased to be blind,' and he evidences it by the fact. They deny the
     benefit, who cannot deny the fact. The man is well known; employed
     as he was, before his affliction, in a public trade, Severus his
     name, a butcher his business: he had given it up when this
     misfortune befell him. He refers to the testimony of men whose
     charities were supporting him; he summons them as evidence of his
     present visitation, who were witnesses and judges of his blindness.
     He cries out that, on his touching the hem of the martyrs' garment,
     which covered the relics, his sight was restored to him. We read in
     the Gospel, that when the Jews saw the cure of the blind man, they
     sought the testimony of the parents. Ask others, if you distrust
     me; ask persons unconnected with him, if you think that his parents
     would take a side. The obstinacy of these Arians is more hateful
     than that of the Jews. When the latter doubted, at least they
     inquired of the parents; these inquire secretly, deny openly, as
     giving credit to the fact, but denying the author.”—Ibid.
      3. We may corroborate the evidence of those two Fathers with that of Paulinus, who was secretary to St. Ambrose, and wrote his life, about A.D. 411.
           “About the same time,” he says, “the holy martyrs Protasius and
     Gervasius revealed themselves to God's priest. They lay in the
     Basilica, where, at present, are the bodies of the martyrs Nabor
     and Felix; while, however, the holy martyrs Nabor and Felix had
     crowds to visit them, as well the names as the graves of the
     martyrs Protasius and Gervasius were unknown; so that all who
     wished to come to the rails which protected the graves of the
     martyrs Nabor and Felix, were used to walk on the graves of the
     others. But when the bodies of the holy martyrs were raised and
     placed on litters, thereupon many possessions of the devil were
     detected. Moreover, a blind man, by name Severus, who up to this
     day performs religious service in the Basilica called Ambrosian,
     into which the bodies of the martyrs have been translated, when he
     had touched the garment of the martyrs, forthwith received sight.
     Moreover, bodies possessed by unclean spirits were restored, and
     with all blessedness returned home. And by means of these benefits
     of the martyrs, while the faith of the Catholic Church made
     increase, by so much did Arian misbelief decline.”—§ 14.
      4.
      Now I want to know what reason is there for stumbling at the above narrative, which will not throw uncertainty upon the very fact that there was such a Bishop as Ambrose, or such an Empress as Justina, or such a heresy as the Arian, or any Church at all in Milan. Let us consider some of the circumstances under which it comes to us.
      1. We have the concordant evidence of three distinct witnesses, of whom at least two were on the spot when the alleged miracles were wrought, one writing at the time, another some years afterwards in a distant country. And the third, writing after an interval of twenty-six years, agrees minutely with the evidence of the two former, not adding to the miraculous narrative, as is the manner of those who lose their delicate care for exactness in their admiration of the things and persons of whom they speak.
      2. The miracle was wrought in public, on a person well known, on one who continued to live in the place where it was professedly wrought, and who, by devoting himself to the service of the martyrs who were the instruments of his cure, was a continual memorial of the mercy which he professed to have received, and challenged inquiry into it, and refutation if that were possible.
      3. Ambrose, one of our informants, publicly appealed, at the time when the occurrence took place, to the general belief, claimed it for the miracle, and that in a sermon which is still extant.
      4. He made his statement in the presence of bitter and most powerful enemies, who were much concerned, and very able to expose the fraud, if there was one; who did, as might be expected, deny the hand of God in the matter; but who, for all that appears, did nothing but deny what they could not consistently confess, without ceasing to be what they were.
      5. A great and practical impression was made upon the popular mind in consequence of the alleged miracles: or, in the words of an historian, whose very vocation it is to disbelieve them, “Their effect on the minds of the people was rapid and irresistible; and the feeble sovereign of Italy found himself unable to contend with the favourite of heaven.”[366]
      6. And so powerfully did all this press upon the Court, that, as the last words of this extract intimate, the persecution was given up, and the Catholics left in quiet possession of the churches.
      On the whole, then, are we not in the following dilemma? If the miracle did not take place, then St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, men of name, said they had ascertained a fact which they did not ascertain, and said it in the face of enemies, with an appeal to a whole city, and that continued during a quarter of a century. What instrument of refutation shall we devise against a case like this, neither so violently à priori as to supersede the testimony of Evangelists, nor so fastidious of evidence as to imperil Tacitus or Cæsar? On the other hand, if the miracle did take place, a certain measure of authority, more or less, surely must thereby attach to St. Ambrose—to his doctrine and his life, to his ecclesiastical principles and proceedings, to the Church itself of the fourth century, of which he is one main pillar. The miracle gives a certain sanction to three things at once, to the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to the Church's resistance of the civil power, and to the commemoration of saints and martyrs.
             * * * * *
      Does it give any sanction to Protestantism and its adherents? shall we accept it or not? shall we retreat, or shall we advance? shall we relapse into scepticism upon all subjects, or sacrifice our deep-rooted prejudices? shall we give up our knowledge of times past altogether, or endure to gain a knowledge which we think we have already—the knowledge of divine truth?
      FOOTNOTES:
      [366] Gibbon, Hist. ch. 27.