against the Protestant, in the controversy on the sacrament of penance. Nec- tarius certainly did abolish the institution of penitential priest, and the public church penance. But for or against private penances no inference can be drawn from the statement of these historians. § 68. DECLINE OF DISCIPLINE. 359 mau. If you fear man, he will treat you with scorn ; if you fear God, you will appear v^enerable even to men." ' Synesius excom- municated the worthless governor of Pentapolis, Andronicus, for his cruel oppression of the poor and contempt of the exhorta- tions of the bishop, and tlie discipline attained the desired effect. The most noted example of church discipline is the encounter between Ambrose and Theodosius I. in Milan about the year 390. The bishoj) refused the powerful and orthodox emperor the communion, and thrust him back from the threshold of the church, because in a tempest of rage he had caused seven thousand persons in Thessalonica, regardless of rank, sex, or guilt, to be hewn down by his soldiers in horrible cruelty on account of a riot. Eight months afterward Ambrose gave him absolution at his request, after he had submitted to the public penance of the church and promised in future not to execute a death penalty until thirty days after the pronouncing of it, that he might have time to revoke it if necessary, and to exer- cise mercy.^ Here Ambrose certainly vmdicated — though perhaps not without admixture of hierarchical loftiness — the dignity and rights of the church against the state, and the claims of Christian temperance and mercy against gross mili- tary power. " Thus," says a modern historian, " did the church prove, in a time of unlimited arbitrary power, the refuge of popular freedom, and saints assume the part of tri- bunes of the people." ^ ' Horn. 82 (al. 83) in Matt., toward the close (in Montfaucon's edition of Chrys., torn. Tii. p. 789 sq.). Comp. his exposition of 1 Cor. xi. 27, 28, in Horn. 27 and 28, in 1 Corinth. (English translation in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, etc., p. 379 sqq., and 383 sqq.). '' This occurrence is related by Aml)rose himself, in 395, in his funeral discourse on Theodosius (de obitu Theod. c. 34, in the Bened. ed. of his works, torn. ii. p. 1207), in these words : " Deflevit in ecclesia publice peccatum suum, quod ei aliorum fraude obrepserat ; gemitu et lacrymis oravit veniam. Quod privati erubescunt, non erubuit imperator, publice agere poenitentiam ; neque ullus postea dies fuit quo non ilium doleret errorem. Quid, quod praeclaram adeptus victoriam ; tamen quia hostcs in acie prostrati sunt abstinuit a consortio sacramentorum, donee Domini circa se gratiam filiorum experiretur adventu." Also by his biographer PauUnus (de vita Ambros. c. 24), by Augustine (De civit. Dei, v. 26), by the historians Theodoret (v. 17), Sozomen (vii. 25), and Rufinus (xi. 18). ' Hase, Church History, § 117 (p. 161, 7th ed.) 360