opinions as far as they dared, except for Julian the Apostate ( 361363), who, as a pagan, was
neutral as regards the internal disputes of the Christians. At last, in 379, the Emperor Theodosius
gave his full support to the Catholics, and their victory throughout the Empire was complete. Saint
Ambrose, Saint Jerome, and Saint Augustine, whom we shall consider in the next chapter, lived
most of their lives during this period of Catholic triumph. It was succeeded, however, in the West,
by another Arian domination, that of the Goths and Vandals, who, between them, conquered most
of the Western Empire. Their power lasted for about a century, at the end of which it was
destroyed by Justinian, the Lombards, and the Franks, of whom Justinian and the Franks, and
ultimately the Lombards also, were orthodox. Thus at last the Catholic faith achieved definitive
success.
CHAPTER III Three Doctors of the ChurchFOUR men are called the Doctors of the Western Church: SaintAmbrose, Saint Jerome, Saint
Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great. Of these the first three were contemporaries, while the
fourth belonged to a later date. I shall, in this chapter, give some account of the life and times of
the first three, reserving for a later chapter an account of the doctrines of Saint Augustine, who is,
for us, the most important of the three.
Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine all flourished during the brief period between the victory of the
Catholic Church in the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasion. All three were young during
the reign of Julian the Apostate; Jerome lived ten years after the sack of Rome by the Goths under
Alaric; Augustine lived till the irruption of the Vandals into Africa, and died while they were
besieging Hippo, of which he was bishop. Immediately after their time, the masters of Italy, Spain,
and Africa were not only barbarians, but