Complete Extant Works of Saint Ambrose, Vol. I

in the year 387; at which time, and by which teachers that hymn which is called the Te Deum God, we praise thee is found to have been sung and circulated under the name of Saint Ambrose.

In the same year, being sent again to the tyrant Maximus by the Empress Justina, who had vexed him so bitterly, he did not refuse to face a new danger, forgetful of the injury he had received. Having returned shortly thereafter, he dared to rebuke publicly the Emperor Theodosius, who had ordered the synagogue at Callinicum, burned by Christians, to be rebuilt.

At that time, when the emperor had offered the gifts of the sacred table: "He stopped inside the cancelli lattice screens/altar rails, as he was accustomed to do. The great Ambrose did not keep silence, but taught him what the distinctions of the places were; and first he asked him if he wanted something. When the emperor replied that he was waiting for the reception of the sacred mysteries through the Archdeacon, he indicated this to him:

The inner places, Emperor, are open only to priests, and are inaccessible and untouchable to all others. Depart, therefore, and stand with the others. For the purple makes emperors, not priests.

The most faithful emperor, accepting this admonition with an equable mind, ordered it to be reported to Ambrose: that he had not stood inside the cancelli altar rails out of pride, but because he had learned that such was the custom in Constantinople. Moreover, he gave thanks for this correction...