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EARLIEST TRACES 59
used to pray and sing hymns night and day ('die noctuque hymnis et
orationibus').
AMBROSIAN CHANT
(i) Origins. The fourth century, as we shall see in the next chapter,
was the epoch of the great liturgical and musical reforms in Italy,
starting on the one hand from Rome and on the other from Milan.
The chant of Milan is called 'Ambrosian' after its bishop, St.
Ambrose (374-97) in spite of the fact that this chant and its corre
sponding liturgy were fixed in times later than those of the great
bishop. The Ambrosian chant is one of the four classes of liturgical
chant in the Latin Church the other three being the Roman, the
Gallican, and the Mozarabic and like these it has no little depen
dence upon the Eastern Church. The city of Milan was the residence
of the Emperors and had several Greek bishops. It fell into bad
repute during its occupation by Auxentius (355-74), an Arian
bishop and the immediate predecessor of St. Ambrose, but regained
its position as a metropolitan city during the fourth and fifth
centuries. Bishops from southern Italy, Gaul, and Spain turned to
it for instruction. This almost patriarchal influence was due to the
activities of St. Ambrose, who was the counsellor of the Emperors
and one of the most eminent personages of his time. Trained in the
theology of the Greek Fathers and a stubborn champion of orthodoxy,
he placed himself at the head of the faithful against the Arians; and
at the same time he came to the front as a reformer of the Milanese
liturgy and chant, by which his name has come down to us as the
originator of several musical forms.
In the first place we know that during the days of religious struggle
St. Ambrose introduced more elaboration and perhaps a new arrange
ment in the celebration of the Vigils, so as to encourage popular
interest; and that he established the singing of hymns and antiphonal
psalmody. According to his biographer Paulinus, the Saint, 1 because
of the persecution of the Empress Justina, locked himself up with the
faithful in the Basilica Portiana, and 'hoc in tempore primum anti-
phonae, hymni ac vigiliae in ecclesia Mediolanensi celebrari coeperunt'
(at this time antiphons, hymns, and vigils first began to be used
in the Church of Milan); and according to St. Augustine 2 'excubabat
pia plebs in ecclesia . . . Tune hymni et psalmi
ut canerentur secun-
dum morem orientalium partium ne populus moeroris taedio conta-
besceret, institutum est' (the faithful kept guard
1 Patrologia Latina, xiv. 31.
in the church . . .
a Confessions, ix. 7.