Milan
About this date: The late-fourth-century cue concerns Ambrose and Augustine, not the city's foundation. The imperial toleration associated with Milan in 313 is an earlier, different event.
Milan connects Ambrose's episcopal ministry with Augustine's conversion, baptism, and recollection of congregational singing during the basilica conflict. It was a major late-antique western center, not merely a stop between Rome and the medieval Church.
Historical context
Milan's imperial and episcopal histories overlap without being identical. Ambrose and Augustine are shared early western witnesses, not figures whose significance begins with later denominational divisions.
Key points
- Augustine, Confessions 9.6-7, remembers baptism and the congregation's singing in the setting of conflict over Ambrose's churches.
- Augustine's retrospective religious autobiography is a primary witness, but it is not a neutral transcript of every participant's view.