according to st. augustine ("confessiones", ix, vii) and paulinus the deacon ("vita s. ambrosii", § 13), st. ambrose introduced innovations, not indeed into the mass, but into what would seem to be the divine office, at the time of his contest with the empress justina for the portian basilica, which she claimed for the arians. st. ambrose filled the church with catholics and kept them there night and day until the peril was past. and he arranged psalms and hymns for them to sing, as st. augustine says, "secundum morem orientalium partium ne populus mæroris tædio contabesceret" (after the manner of the orientals, lest the people should languish in cheerless monotony); and of this paulinus the deacon says: "hoc in tempore primum antiphonæ, hymni. et vigiliæ in ecclesiâ mediolanensi celebrari cœperunt, cujus celebritatis devotio usque in hodiernum diem non solum in eadem ecclesia verum per omnes pæne occidentis provincias manet" (now for the first time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began to be part of the observance of the church in milan, which devout observance lasts to our day not only in that church but in nearly every province of the west).