Collected Works 4 part 2/9

I commend to you, my son, the Church which is at Forum Cornelii, that you may visit it from nearby more frequently, until a bishop is ordained for it. Occupied as I am by the approaching days of Lent, I cannot run out so far. 28. You have there Illyrians of the evil doctrine of the Arians; beware their tares: let them not draw near to the faithful, let not their adulterous seeds creep in; let them take note of what has befallen them because of their faithlessness, and let them be still, that they may follow the true faith. It is difficult indeed for minds steeped in the poisons of unbelief to abolish the glue of their impiety; yet if the ill-omened venom has grown into them, you should not think them easily to be trusted.

For there are sinews, as it were, and certain joints of wisdom, namely not to believe rashly, especially in a matter of faith, which is rarely perfect in men. 29. Yet if there is anyone who, though of suspect infirmity and wavering disposition, wishes to clear away the opinion held about himself, permit him to think that he has made satisfaction, indulge him a little; for the one whose satisfaction is shut out is turned away in spirit. For even physicians skilled in healing, when they see the marks of sickness, as they themselves call them, do not indeed apply the medicine at once; but they await the time for the medicine: nor do they abandon the weak, but with gentler words, or with such soothings as they can, they stroke him gently; lest either the disease, left untreated, grow worse through despair of mind, or the patient, too raw, reject the medicine.

For this reason it cannot come to maturity, if an unskilled physician should lay rough hands on matters of this kind while still undigested. Indeed, even an apple, when shaken while unripe, quickly perishes. 30. And since we have drawn an example from the field, charge them to keep inviolate the laws of their boundaries, to guard the ancestral landmarks which the Law protects. Above brotherly love there is often the goodwill of a neighbor (Deut. XIX, 14); for the brother is often far off, while the neighbor is near at hand, a witness of one's whole life, an arbiter of one's conduct. Let it delight him to let his livestock range free through the neighboring tracts, and, set loose in the green grass, to enjoy untroubled leisure. 31. Let the master also keep his servants subject by the right of servitude under the governance of restraint, yet as partners of his soul.

For he is called the father of the household (paterfamilias), that he may rule them as it were as sons; since he himself too is the servant of God, and calls the Lord of heaven his Father, the Governor of all powers. Farewell, and love us as you do; for we love you. With the greatest reverence in Christ, Oscarius invites Ambrose to come to him, that he may confirm him in the faith concerning the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. He also asks for a book, to which he requests that another concerning the Holy Spirit be joined. To Ambrose, the religious priest of Almighty God, Gratianus Augustus. 1. I greatly desire that the one whom I recall though absent, and with whom I am in mind, I may also be present with in body. Hasten therefore to me, religious priest of God, that you may teach a doctrine truly believing:

not because I am eager for contention, or because I wish to embrace God by words rather than by mind; but that the revelation of the divinity may settle more deeply in an opened heart. 2. For He will teach me, whom I do not deny, whom I confess to be my God and Lord, not objecting against Him the creaturehood which I see in myself—I who confess that I can add nothing to Christ; yet I wish even to commend myself to the Father by proclaiming the Son. I shall not fear envy in God: I shall not think myself such a praiser as to magnify the divinity by words. I, weak and frail, proclaim as much as I can: not as much as the divinity itself is. 3. I ask you to give me that very treatise which you had given, increasing therein a faithful disputation concerning the Holy Spirit:

that by Scriptures and arguments you may prove God to be. May the Divinity preserve you for many years, O father, worshiper of the eternal God whom we worship, even Jesus Christ. He gives thanks to the emperors for the convening of the synod; he sets forth who came to it; he recounts the evasions, blasphemies, and obstinacy of the heretics; finally he implores the faith of the emperors, that by their authority the decrees of the council may be carried into execution, and that certain other heretics may be restrained. To the most merciful and Christian emperors and most blessed princes Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, the holy Council which has met at Aquileia. 1.

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave you the Roman Empire, and blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who guards your kingdom by His mercy; to whom we give thanks on your behalf, most merciful princes, because you have proved the zeal of your faith, you who, to remove disputes, took care to gather a priestly Council, and reserved honor for the bishops by your gracious regard; so that no one willing might be absent, and no one unwilling might be compelled. 2. And so, according to the command of your clemency, we have come together without the ill-will of a multitude, and with eagerness for the debate:

nor were any bishops found among the heretics except Palladius and Secundianus, names of ancient faithlessness, on whose account they were demanding that a council of Romans be gathered from the farthest part of the world. Behold, no one weighed down with the years of old age, whose hoary head alone would be worthy of reverence, was compelled to come from the farthest recess of the Ocean sea, and the council lacked nothing: no one dragging a feeble body, burdened by the toll of fastings, was forced by the wrong of the journey to bewail the losses of strength lost; no one, in short, deprived of means of coming, lamented his poverty—a poverty glorious in priests. Whence there was fulfilled in you, most merciful of princes, Gratian, that which the divine Scripture has praised:

Blessed is he who has understanding for the needy and poor (Ps. XL, 2). 3. How grievous indeed it would have been, that on account of only two priests rotten in faithlessness the Churches throughout the whole world should be deprived of their chief priests! Who, even if they were unable to come because of the length of the journey, yet almost all of them from all the western provinces were present through legates sent, and by clear attestations declared that they hold that which we assert, and that it agrees with the treatise of the Council of Nicaea, as the appended documents show. Everywhere therefore now, on behalf of your empire, the prayers of the peoples ring out in harmony, nor were the defenders of the faith lacking to your judgment. For although the precepts of the elders were clear, from which it is impious and sacrilegious to deviate;

yet we offered an opportunity for debate. 4. And first we examined the very beginning of the question that had arisen, and we judged that the letter of Arius should be read aloud, who is found to be the author of the Arian heresy, whence the heresy also took its name; namely with this intent, that since they had been accustomed to deny that they were Arians, they should either condemn the blasphemies of Arius by accusing them, or defend them by supporting them, or at least not refuse the name of him whose impiety and faithlessness they were following. But because they could neither condemn their own author nor were willing to approve him;

when they themselves had, three days before, challenged us to debate at an appointed place and time, and had come forth before the agreed meeting, suddenly those who had said that, since they were Christians, they would easily prove their case (which we gladly accepted, and wished that they would prove it), began at once to flee the encounter and to decline the debate. 5. Yet we had much discourse with them, the divine Scriptures being set forth in the midst, with full opportunity given for debating from the first dawning of the day until the seventh hour, and with patience extended. And would that they had said few things, or at least that we could abolish what we heard!

For when Arius, with sacrilegious utterances, by calling the Father alone everlasting, alone good, alone the true God, alone possessing immortality, alone wise, alone powerful, wished by his impious admonition that the Son be understood to be devoid of these; these men chose rather to follow Arius than to confess the everlasting Son of God to be God, and the true God, and the good God, and wise, and powerful, and possessing immortality. We consumed many hours in vain. Their impiety was growing, nor could it be corrected in any way. 6.

At length, when they saw themselves pressed hard by the sacrileges of Arius's letter (which we have therefore appended, that even your clemency might shudder at it), recoiling from the midst of the reading of the letter, they begged that we answer their propositions. Although it was neither according to order nor reason that we should interrupt the matters proposed; and although it was answered by us that they should condemn the impieties of Arius, and that we would answer their contentions on whatever points they wished, keeping order and place: yet we yielded to their preposterous wish. There then, falsifying the writings of the Gospel, they put forward to us that the Lord had said: He who sent me is greater than I; whereas the context of the Scriptures teaches it written otherwise. 7. They were refuted concerning the falsehood, so that they confessed it; nor yet were they corrected by reason.

For when we said that the Son is called less than His Father according to the assumption of the flesh, but according to His divinity is proven equal and on a par with the Father by the testimonies of the Scriptures, and that there could be no degree of any distinction or of magnitude where there was a unity of power; not only did they refuse to amend their error, but they even began to increase their madness, so as to say that the Son is also subjected according to His divinity—as though there could be any subjection of God according to His divinity and majesty. His death, finally, they refer not to the sacrament of our salvation, but to a certain infirmity of the divinity. 8. We shudder, most merciful princes, at such dire sacrileges and depraved teachers;

and lest they should any longer deceive the peoples whom they held, we judged that they must be deprived of the priesthood; since by their subscription they were in harmony with the impieties of the document. For it is not fitting that they should claim for themselves the priesthood of Him whom they have denied. We implore your faith, your glory, that you may show the reverence of your empire to its Author, and may decree that the defenders of impiety and the adulterers of the truth, by letters issued from your clemency to the competent tribunals, be debarred from the thresholds of the Church, and that holy priests be substituted in the place of the condemned through the legates of our littleness. 9. Attalus also, a presbyter confessed of prevarication and clinging to the sacrileges of Palladius, a like sentence comprehends.

For what shall we say of his master Julianus Valens? who, though he was nearby, declined the priestly council, lest he be compelled to render to the priests his reasons for his overthrown homeland and his betrayed fellow-citizens. Who also, profaned by Gothic impiety, dressed after the manner of the heathen, dared to come forth into the sight of the Roman army wearing, as is asserted, a torque and an armlet: which without doubt is sacrilege not only in a priest, but even in any Christian whatsoever; for it is abhorrent to Roman custom. Unless perhaps the idolatrous priests of the Goths are wont to come forth thus. 10. Let the priestly name move your piety, which that sacrilegious man defames; who is convicted of unspeakable crime even by the voices of his own people, if indeed any can still survive.

Let him at least return to his own home; let him not contaminate the most flourishing cities of Italy—he who now, by unlawful ordinations, associates with himself men like himself, and seeks to leave behind a seedbed of his impiety and faithlessness through whatever lost men; he who has not even begun to be a bishop. For at first he had been set over the holy man Marcus at Patavium, a priest of admirable memory; but after he was disgracefully cast down by the people, he who could not remain at Patavium has now ridden in upon Milan after the overthrow—let us say the betrayal—of his homeland. 11. Concerning all these matters, therefore, let your piety deign to take counsel for us; lest, while we obey the statutes of your tranquillity, we be seen to have assembled in vain.

For we must beware not only lest our decrees, but also lest your decrees be brought into disrepute. We ask therefore that your clemency may equally deign to hear the legates of the council, holy men, and may command them to return more speedily with the effect of those things which we request; so that you may receive a reward from the Lord God Christ, whose churches you have cleansed from every stain of the sacrilegious. 12. The Photinians also, whom by a previous law you decreed should hold no assemblies, and whom you removed by that law which was given concerning the gathering of a council of priests;

we ask that, since we have learned that they are still attempting to hold an assembly in the town of Sirmium, your clemency, the gathering being even now forbidden, may command that reverence be shown first to the Catholic Church, and then also to your laws; so that you too, with God presiding, may triumph, you who take counsel for the peace and quiet of the Churches. They signify to the emperors what was done in the synod; and they warn them not to allow Ursinus to creep in upon them, that author of disturbances, accused moreover of an infamous crime which they keep on record. Finally they ask that they may provide for the safety of the Roman clergy and at the same time of all.

To the most merciful emperors and Christian princes, the most glorious and most blessed Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, the Council which has met at Aquileia. 1. Provision has indeed been made, most merciful princes, by the statutes of your tranquillity, that the faithlessness of the Arians can no longer either lie hidden or creep abroad; for we think that the effect of the council will by no means be lacking to the decrees: for as far as concerns the western parts, only two were found who dared, with profane and impious utterances, to oppose the council—men accustomed scarcely to disturb a corner of Ripensian Dacia. 2. There is another matter by which we are more distressed, concerning which, since we had assembled, it had to be duly treated; lest the whole body of the Church, spread throughout the whole world, and the universe besides, might be thrown into disorder.

For although we have frequently agreed that Ursinus could not creep in upon your piety (although he allows nothing to be quiet, and amid so many warlike necessities an importunate creeping-in is attempted), yet lest your holy mind and the tranquillity of your spirit, which yearns to take counsel for all, be swayed by the feigned flattery of an importunate man, we judge that you must be entreated and besought, if you deem it worthy—not only forestalling future things, but also shuddering at past things which have already been done by his very rashness. For if he gains any path for his audacity, what will he not throw into confusion? 3. But if the pity of one man can sway you, much more let the prayer of all the priests move you.

For who of us will be joined to him in the fellowship of communion, since he has attempted to usurp a rank not due to him, and could not lawfully attain to it; and that which he importunately coveted, he most importunately strives to seek again? So often condemned for disturbances, he still advances as though not to be shuddered at on account of past examples. He who very often (as we have learned and seen in this council) was coupled and joined with the Arians at that time when, with Valens, he was striving to disturb the Church of Milan by a detestable gathering: now before the doors of the Synagogue, now in the houses of the Arians mingling in secret councils, and joining his own people to them;

and since he himself could not come forth openly into their gatherings, instructing and informing them how the peace of the Church might be disturbed: by whose frenzy he found relief, in that he could earn their favorers and allies. 4. Since therefore it is written: A heretic, after one correction, avoid (Titus III, 10); and since another man too, speaking by the Holy Spirit, said that beasts of this kind must be shunned and not received even with a greeting (II John 10), nor with any meeting: how can it come about that we should not also judge to be a defender of faithlessness the very one whom we have seen inserted into their society? And what even if he were absent?

yet the head of the whole Roman world, the Roman Church and that most sacred faith of the Apostles—your clemency was to be implored, that it should not allow these to be disturbed; for from there the rights of venerable communion flow out to all. And therefore we ask and beg that you may deign to take away from him the opportunity of creeping in. 5. We know the holy modesty of your clemency; lest he obtrude unworthy things upon your hearing, lest he intrude things alien to the office and name of a priest, lest he speak shameless things to you: he who, when he ought to have testimony even from those who are outside (I Tim. III, 7)—with what testimony his own fellow-citizens have pursued him, let your clemency deign to remember.

For it is shameful to tell, and unseemly to recount, how foul a reputation has wounded him with reproach. By which shame at least he ought to have been constrained to fall silent; and if he had any conscience of a priest, he would have preferred the peace and concord of the Church to his own ambition and zeal. But, far estranged from all modesty, through a mutilated man, Paschasius, the standard-bearer of his fury, by sending letters, he sows disturbances, and tries to stir up whatever heathen and lost men. 6. We pray therefore that you would grant security—interdicted us—both to the Roman people, who after the report of the Prefect of the City hang in uncertainty, and to us priests, by the casting out of this most importunate man.

And this being obtained, may we celebrate thanksgiving in continual perpetuity before God the Almighty Father, and Christ, and the Lord God. Thanks are rendered to the emperors for the tranquillity restored to the Church, and to the same the prayers of the bishops are promised. Then, certain dissensions of the Catholics having been reported, the same princes are asked to command that a council convene at Alexandria, to which they would not disdain to lend their aid, thereby conferring a great benefit upon the bishops. To the most merciful and Christian emperors, and the glorious and most blessed princes Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, the holy Council which has met at Aquileia. 1.

Even with our acts of thanksgiving overflowing, by no means can we match the benefits of your piety, most merciful, most blessed, and most glorious emperors and princes Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, beloved of God the Father and of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. For when, after many seasons and various persecutions which the Arians inflicted upon the Catholics—and especially that Lucius who raged with the impious slaughter of monks and virgins, and also Demophilus, the dread head of faithlessness—all the Churches of God, especially those throughout the East, have been restored to the Catholics: while in the western parts scarcely two heretics have been found who could oppose the holy council;

Who is there who would think himself a fit reporter of your acts of grace? 2. Yet even though we cannot set forth your benefits in words, we nevertheless desire to repay them with the vows of the council. For although in each and every one of the churches we keep our daily watches before our God on behalf of your empire, yet gathered together into one — than which office we think nothing more beautiful — we give thanks to our almighty God both for your empire and for the peace and welfare bestowed on you, because through you peace and concord have thus been poured back upon us. 3. Indeed, throughout the Western regions it seemed that the faith was being assailed in only two corners — that is, on the borders of Dacia Ripensis and of Moesia.

For these, then, after the council's decision, we think provision should at once be made by the favour of your clemency. But throughout all the tracts and regions, and the enclosures of the villages as far as the ocean, there abides one and undefiled communion of the faithful. In the Eastern parts, however, we have learned indeed with the utmost joy and gladness that, the Arians having been cast out who had violently invaded the churches, the sacred temples of God are now frequented by the catholics alone. 4. Yet nevertheless, because the envy of the devil is never wont to rest, we hear that among the catholics themselves there are frequent dissensions and unappeased discord; and we are confounded with all affection, because we find that very many things have been newly altered, and that those are now being burdened who ought to have been helped — those who had always endured in our communion.

Indeed, Timothy bishop of the Alexandrian Church, and also Paulinus of Antioch, who have always held with us an undefiled concord of communion, are reported to be hard pressed by the dissensions of others whose faith in former times was wavering. These men, if it can be done, and full faith commends them, we wish to be joined to our fellowship — yet in such a way that to the partners of our ancient communion their prerogative may be preserved, for whom our care is not superfluous: first of all, because the partnership of communion ought to have no offence; and next, because we have long since received letters from each party, and especially from those who were at variance in the Church of Antioch. 5.

And indeed, had not the enemy's incursion been a hindrance, we had arranged to send thither some even from our own number, who might stand as mediators and arbiters for the restoration of peace, if it could be done. But because our endeavours could not at that time take effect on account of the public tumults, we think our prayers should be offered to your piety, by which, according to the agreement made between the parties, we have requested that, on the death of one, the rights of the Church should remain with the survivor, and that no overlordship should be attempted by force.

Therefore we beg you, most clement and Christian princes, that you would decree that a council of all the catholic priests be held at Alexandria, who may among themselves more fully treat and determine to whom communion is to be imparted and with whom it is to be kept. 6. For although we have always maintained the disposition and order of the Alexandrian Church, and according to the custom and usage of our forefathers preserve its communion in indissoluble fellowship down to these very times; yet, lest either any should seem to have been slighted who by the very pact, which we wish to stand, have sought our communion, or the advantages of that peace and fellowship of the faithful be neglected;

this we beseech, that when they have deliberated among themselves in a fuller assembly, the supports of your piety may also breathe upon the priestly decrees. And may you deem fit that it be brought to our knowledge, so that we may not waver with hesitant feeling, but joyful and secure may render thanks to your piety before almighty God — not only because perfidy has been shut out, but because faith and concord have been restored to the catholics. This the African and Gallican Churches beseech of you through their legates, namely, that you may make the bishops of the whole world your debtors; though it be no small debt that is owed to your virtue. 7.

To entreat your clemency, then, and to obtain what we ask, we have sent our brothers and fellow-presbyters as legates, whom we beg that you would both deign clemently to hear, and judge fit to send back the sooner. Having given thanks to Theodosius for the orthodox restored to their basilicas, and having signified his grief over the disturbances of the Church, he complains that a bishop was substituted at Antioch on the death of Meletius; and he asks that Nectarius, ordained at Constantinople after Maximus, give place, or that judgment concerning the ordination of both be pronounced in a synod at Rome. To the most blessed Emperor and most clement prince THEODOSIUS, AMBROSE and the other bishops of Italy. 1. We knew that your holy mind was devoted to almighty God in pure and sincere faith;

but you have heaped up fresh benefits, O Emperor Augustus, in that you have restored the catholics to their Churches. And would that you had restored the catholics themselves to their old reverence, so that they might innovate nothing against the precepts of our forefathers, nor rashly either rescind what should be kept, or keep what should be rescinded. And so, with more grief perhaps than rashness, we groan, O Emperor, that heretics could be expelled more easily than catholics brought to agreement. For how great a confusion has lately arisen cannot be expressed. 2. We had written long ago that, since the city of Antioch had two bishops, Paulinus and Meletius, whom we thought to be in harmony in the faith, either peace and concord should be established between them with the ecclesiastical order preserved, or surely, if one of them,

while the other survived, should die, no substitution should be brought about into the place of the deceased while the other survived. But now, Meletius being dead and Paulinus surviving — whom the fellowships, which from our forefathers were conducted without offence, testify to have remained in our communion — it is asserted that, contrary to right and ecclesiastical order, a man has been not so much substituted as imposed in the place of Meletius. 3. And this deed is alleged to have been done with the consent and counsel of Nectarius, whose ordination we do not see what order it had. For in the council lately, when Maximus had disclosed, by reading the letters of Peter, a man of holy memory, that the communion of the Alexandrian Church remained with him;

and had shown by clear testimony that his consecration took place within a private house, because the Arians still held the basilicas of the Church, with the commissioning bishops performing the ordination, we had nothing, O most blessed of princes, on which we could doubt concerning his episcopate; since he had testified that force was inflicted on him as he resisted, by very many even of the people and clergy. 4. Yet, lest in the absence of the parties we should seem to have presumptuously determined anything, we thought your clemency should be instructed by letters sent, so that provision might be made for him out of regard for the public peace and concord; because in truth we perceived that Gregory was by no means claiming for himself the priesthood of the Church of Constantinople according to the tradition of the fathers.

We therefore, in the synod, judged that nothing should be rashly established in that matter which seemed to be prescribed for the bishops of the whole world. So much so that at that very time those who declined the general council are said to have been acting at Constantinople; for when they had learned that Maximus had come on behalf of the parties to plead his cause in the synod (which, even had the council not been proclaimed, by the right and custom of our forefathers — as also Athanasius of holy memory, and long ago Peter, bishops of the Alexandrian Church, and most of the Easterners did — so that they might seem to have had recourse to the judgment of the Roman Church, of Italy, and of the whole West); when they had learned, as we said, that he wished to make trial against those who had denied his episcopate;