14. De civ., I, 29.
INTRODUCTION XVU of the many. And these, giving vent to their passions, private aims, and selfish desires, will gradually be reduced to a condition of complete unrestraint, which will last until the strong again begin to prevail over the weak, and power is again concentrated, perhaps more tightly than ever before, in the hands of the few who have come to understand what really holds the city of man together.
But what about Christianity? Has not Christ's coming into the world made a difference in its politics? The question was being raised very pointedly in St. Augustine's time. Less than a full generation earlier, Christianity had been proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the event had inspired in most faithful minds an irresistible sense of optimism. Even so thoughtful a Churchman as St. Ambrose of Milan had allowed himself to entertain the hope (so movingly 'expressed in his oration on the death of the elder Theodosius)^^ that the Roman Empire, because of the piety of its rulers, might ever reign in the world, together with the Church, in a partnership of two sovereignties, each with special power and authority from God, each serving to guarantee the safety and well-being of the other. But then Alaric's sack came, just fifteen years after the death of Theodosius, and such optimism was shaken to its very foundations. The city of Rome had not been violated by an enemy in almost eight hundred years of pagan rule, and now —see what befalls it under Christian emperors! Ubi est deus eoruml^^ was the contemptuous cry
13. Sancti Ambrosii Oratio de obitu Theodisii, ed. and tr. Sister M. D. Mannix, Washington, 1925.
14. De civ., I, 29.