A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

be deposed. He presented the small assembly of his bishops as if it represented
‘the western Church’ acting in defence of universal Christianity. The letter was
even addressed to Theodosius as well as to Gratian on the grounds that the
western bishops had a legitimate interest in the vacancy at Antioch, where the
rights of Paulinus should be upheld against those of Flavian. (It is interesting that
Ambrose made no mention of the Council of Constantinople, which had been
held earlier in the year. One must assume that he didn’t want it to be considered
more important than his own - though he certainly knew of it through Acholius
of Thessalonika, who attended the later sessions.) Theodosius’ reply was
dismissive. The eastern and western Churches, divided by geography and
language, and increasingly by separate administrations, were by now drifting
apart. When Bishop Damasus tried to regain the initiative for the west by calling
a council to be held in Rome in 382 to which all eastern bishops were invited,
only three easterners, among them Paulinus, discarded at Antioch, attended.
There is no evidence that Gratian acquiesced in Ambrose’s demand to depose
the two ‘Arian’ bishops. But Ambrose persisted. He was both helped and
hindered by the weakness of the young emperor, who seems to have been
particularly susceptible to the machinations of others when he established his
court permanently in Milan in March 381. Milan’s central location made it a
good base from which to defend the northern borders of the western empire, and
the young Valentinian II and his mother Justina were already settled there.
Ambrose benefited from the possibility of direct access to the court, but it was
clear that a number of important Christian figures arrived from Rome to take
advantage of the shift of power to Milan. One of their successes had been to
secure the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Senate in Rome, which had
always been associated with the success of the Senate’s deliberations. This was
part of a campaign to withdraw state funds for ancient rites and went along with
a refusal by Gratian to take on the traditional imperial title of pontifex maximus,
chief of the priesthood.
The court’s move to Milan was unpopular with those communities that had
prospered from the imperial presence in Trier and Sirmium. There was additional
resentment when Gratian recruited mercenaries from among the Alans, one of
the Germanic tribes. He showed a somewhat un-Roman enthusiasm for their
skill as archers, and his public appearance in an Alan costume might have been
the moment when his credibility was irrevocably lost. Stories of the lack of
control in his court and the proliferation of corruption abounded. Theodosius
paid him less and less respect and in January 383 accorded his own eldest son