17. May the unseen guardians of all sects be favourable to your Graces, and may they especially, who in old time assisted your ancestors, defend you and be worshipped by us. We ask for that state of religious matters which preserved the empire for the divine parent Valentinian I., who, as Symmachus said above, did not destroy idol worship, though he did not practise it, so that St. Ambrose says in his funeral oration on Valentinian II.: “Quod patri defuerat adjunxit; quod frater constituit, custodivit.” of your Highnesses, and furnished that blessed prince with lawful heirs. That venerable father beholds from the starry height the tears of the priests, and considers himself censured by the violation of that custom which he willingly observed.