Letters (CSEL) 1 part 15/85

It is one thing to yield to tortures and deny that one is a Christian, another to call Christ the devil, as the Scripture itself and its context, read more attentively, will be able to demonstrate to you. This ought indeed to have been discussed more at length; but since we cannot deny our presence to the friends who have gathered at our little lodging, and since it seemed the mark of an arrogant man not to answer you at once, we have compressed a broad disputation into a brief discourse, so that we have dictated not so much a letter as a little commentary. XLIII. TO MARCELLA. Ambrose — by whose furnishing of papers, expenses, and copyists that truly 'Adamantine' man, our 'Brazen-Bowelled' Origen,

unrolled so countless books — relates, in a certain letter which he had written to the same man from Athens, that he never took food in Origen's presence without a reading, that sleep never came upon them unless one of the brethren made the sacred writings resound, and that he did this by day and by night, so that reading took up prayer, and prayer reading. What have we, animals of the belly, ever done of the kind? If anyone finds us reading at the second hour, we yawn, we rub our face with our hand and restrain our stomach, and, as though after much labor, we busy ourselves again with worldly affairs. I pass over the luncheons by which the burdened mind is oppressed. I am ashamed to speak of the frequency of paying visits, in which either we ourselves daily go to others, or wait for the rest who come to us.

Thereupon we fall to words, conversation is worn threadbare, the absent are torn to pieces, another's life is described, and, biting one another, we are consumed by one another. Such food both occupies us and dismisses us. But when the friends have withdrawn, we reckon up our accounts. Now anger puts upon us the mask of a lion, now superfluous care, as though to last for many years, thinks ahead; nor do we remember the Gospel, which says: Fool, this night they require your soul of you; and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be? Garments are sought not only for use but for luxury. Wherever there is gain, the foot is swifter, the speech quick, the ear more attentive; if a loss, as often happens in household affairs, is announced, the face is cast down with sorrow; we rejoice over a coin, we are saddened over a penny.

Hence, since in one man there is so varied a face of dispositions, the prophet entreats the Lord, saying: Lord, in your city scatter their image. For, since we were fashioned after the image and likeness of God, by our own vice we lay upon ourselves very many masks. And just as on the theatrical stage one and the same actor now, robust, displays Hercules, now softly melts into Venus, now trembling into Cybele, so too we — who, if we were not of the world, would be hated by the world — have as many likenesses of masks as we have sins.

Therefore, since we have now passed a great span of life tossed about, and our ship has been battered now by the whirlwind of storms, now pierced by the crashing of rocks, let us, as soon as it is permitted, enter the seclusion of the countryside as though it were some harbour. There let coarse bread and greens watered by our own hands, milk, the delights of country folk, provide us food that is cheap indeed, yet innocent. Living thus, no sleep shall recall us from prayer, no fullness from reading. If it be summer, the shade of a tree will grant seclusion; if autumn, the very mildness of the air and the leaves strewn beneath point out a place of rest. In spring the field is painted with flowers, and amid the plaintive birds the psalms shall be chanted the more sweetly. If there be cold and the snows of winter, I will not buy firewood:

I shall keep vigil the warmer, or sleep; and certainly, so far as I know, I shall be cold at less cost. Let Rome keep its tumults to itself, let the arena rage, the circus run mad, the theatres riot in luxury, and—since something must be said of our own—let the senate of matrons be visited daily: for us it is good to cleave to God, to place our hope in the Lord, so that when the kingdoms of heaven have exchanged this poverty of ours, we may burst forth into the cry: For what have I in heaven, and what have I desired from thee upon earth? that is, when we have found such great things in heaven, we may grieve that we sought small and perishable things on earth. XLIV. TO MARCELLA. That we may console the absence of our bodies by the converse of the spirit, let each one do what he is able.

You send gifts, we send back letters of thanks—yet in such a way that, since it is the gift of veiled virgins, we may show that there are certain mysteries even in these little presents. The sackcloth is a sign of prayer and fasting; the little seats, that the virgin may not move her feet abroad; the candles, that with lamp kindled the coming of the Bridegroom may be awaited; the cups display the mortification of the flesh and a soul ever prepared for martyrdom—for the cup of the Lord, that inebriates, is exceedingly good—; and as for the fly-whisks you offer even to matrons, to be waved against tiny creatures, they signify that far from them ought to be those luxuries which, soon to perish along with this world, drive away the oil of a sweeter life. Let this be the type of virgins, this the figure of matrons.

But to us, though in a contrary sense, your gifts are fitting: it suits the idle to sit, the penitent to lie in sackcloth, the drinkers to have cups—though, both because of nocturnal fears and because a mind ever ill at ease with a dreading conscience, it may be pleasing also to have kindled candles. XLV. TO ASELLA. If I thought thanks could be rendered to you by me, I should be unwise. God is able, over and above my own person, to restore to your holy soul what it deserves. For I, unworthy, could never even reckon or wish that you would bestow on me so great an affection in Christ. And although some think me a criminal and overwhelmed with every disgrace—and even these things are small compared to my sins—yet you do well, in that out of your own mind you think even the wicked good.

For it is a perilous thing to judge another man's servant, and forgiveness is not easy for one who has spoken crookedly of the upright. That day will come, it will come, and with me you will grieve that not a few are burning. Am I disgraceful, I a turncoat and slippery, I a liar deceiving by Satan's art! Which is the more cunning: to have believed or feigned these things about the innocent, or to have refused to believe them even of the guilty? Certain persons kissed my hands, and with viperous mouth disparaged me; they grieved with their lips, but rejoiced in their heart: the Lord saw and mocked them, and reserved his wretched servant, together with them, for the judgment to come. Another slandered my gait and my laugh; that one carped at my countenance; a woman in her simplicity suspects otherwise. For nearly three years I lived with them;

a numerous throng of virgins often surrounded me; the divine books, as best I could, I frequently expounded to some. Reading had wrought assiduity, assiduity familiarity, familiarity trust. Let them say what they ever felt in me otherwise than beseemed a Christian. Whose money did I take? Did I not spurn gifts, whether small or great? Did anyone's coin ring in my hand? Was my speech oblique, my eye wanton? Nothing else is cast against me but my sex; and this is never cast against me except when Paula sets out for Jerusalem. Be it so: they believed a liar; why do they not believe one who denies? The man himself is the same as he was: he confesses innocent one whom a while ago he was calling guilty;

and surely tortures wring out the truth more than laughter—except that one more readily believes either what is gladly heard when feigned, or what, being unfeigned, is driven to be feigned. Before I knew the house of holy Paula, the zeal of the whole city resounded in my favour. By the judgment of well-nigh all I was decreed worthy of the highest priesthood. My speech was the mouth of Damasus of blessed memory; I was called holy, called humble and eloquent. Did I ever enter the house of any too wanton woman? Did silken garments, gleaming jewels, a painted face, the ambition of gold ever ravish me?

There was no other matron at Rome who could tame my mind, save one mourning and fasting, squalid with filth, well-nigh blinded with weeping, whom, praying through continuous nights for the Lord's mercy, the sun often surprised; whose song is the psalms, whose speech the Gospel, whose delight continence, whose life fasting. No other could please me but she whom I never saw eating; but after I began to venerate, to cherish, to look up to her for the merit of her holiness, at once all virtues forsook me. O envy, first gnawing at thyself! O cunning of Satan, ever persecuting the holy!

No other women furnished a tale to the city of Rome save Paula and Melanium, who, despising their riches and forsaking their offspring, raised aloft the Lord's cross as a very standard of piety. Had they sought Baiae, chosen perfumes, kept their wealth and their widowhood as materials of luxury and liberty, they would have been called ladies and holy: but now in sackcloth and ashes they wish to seem beautiful, and to descend into the fire of Gehenna—rather to escape it—with fastings and filth. Doubtless it is not permitted them to perish amid the crowds, with the people applauding. If the Gentiles carped at this life, if the Jews, I should have the consolation of not pleasing those whom Christ displeases; but now—oh, the shame!

—those who bear the name of Christian, neglecting the care of their own house and overlooking the beam in their own eye, seek the mote in another's. They tear the holy purpose to pieces and reckon it a remedy for their own punishment, if no one be holy, if all be disparaged, if the crowd of the perishing be great, the multitude of sinners many. It pleases you to bathe daily; another counts this cleanliness filth. You belch up the woodcock and glory in the sturgeon you have eaten; I fill my belly with a bean. You are delighted by troops of the guffawing; Paula and Melanium by the weeping. You desire what is another's; they despise their own. Wines steeped in honey delight you; they drink cold water, which is the sweeter;

you reckon that you lose whatever in the present you have not drained, eaten, devoured; while they long for things to come and believe that those things are true which are written. Be it so: foolishly and like old wives, they whom the resurrection of bodies has persuaded; what is that to you? To us, on the contrary, your life is displeasing. To your own good be you fat; leanness and pallor delight me. You reckon such folk wretched; we reckon you more wretched. Verdict is answered with like verdict: to each other we seem mad. This, my lady Asella, as I was already boarding ship, I wrote hastily, weeping and grieving, and I give thanks to my God that I am worthy to be one whom the world hates. But pray that from Babylon I may return to Jerusalem, and that not Nebuchadnezzar may lord it over me, but Jesus, son of Josedech;

let Ezra come, whose name is interpreted 'helper,' and lead me back into my homeland. Foolish was I, who wished to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land, and, having forsaken Mount Zion, begged the help of Egypt. I did not remember the Gospel, that he who goes forth from Jerusalem straightway falls among robbers, is despoiled, wounded, slain. But though priest and Levite deceive, that Samaritan is merciful, to whom, when it was said: Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil, denying the devil he did not deny himself a Samaritan—for whom we call 'keeper,' the Hebrews call 'Samaritan.' Some prattle that I am a worker of evil magic: as a servant I acknowledge the title of faith; the Jews too called my Lord a magician, and the apostle was called a seducer.

No temptation has laid hold of me but such as is human. What portion of straits have I endured, I who war for the cross? They have brought upon me the infamy of a false charge, but I know that through good report and evil report I shall attain to the kingdom of heaven. Greet Paula and Eustochium—whether the world will or no, they are mine in Christ—greet mother Albina and the sisters Marcellae, Marcellina too and holy Felicitas, and say to them: We shall stand before the tribunal of Christ; there it will appear with what mind each has lived. Remember me, thou pattern of chastity and signal token of virginity, and by thy prayers calm the waves of the sea. XLVI. FROM PAULA AND EUSTOCHIUM TO MARCELLA. Love has no measure, impatience knows no bounds, and longing brooks no delay.

Wherefore we too, forgetful of our own strength and thinking not of what we can do but only of what we wish, desire, disciples, to teach our teacher—and, as the common proverb has it: the sow teaches Minerva, inventress of the arts. You, who first cast a spark upon our tinder, who urged us to this pursuit both by word and by example, and who like a hen gathered your chicks under your wings—will you now suffer us to flit freely without our mother, and to dread the terror of the hawk, and to be afraid at every shadow of the birds flying past?

Therefore, that which alone we can do while absent, we pour out plaintive prayers, and attest our longing not so much by weeping as by wailing, that you may restore to us our Marcella, and that you may not suffer her—that gentle one, that sweet one, sweeter than all honey and sweetness—to be stiff among those women and to wrinkle a sad brow, whom by her affability she has provoked to a like zeal of life. Surely, if the things we ask are better, the longing is not shameless. If all the voices of the Scriptures agree with our opinion, let us not act rashly in provoking you to those things to which you have most often exhorted us. The first voice of God to Abraham was: Go forth, he says, from thy land and from thy kindred, and go into the land which I shall show thee.

The patriarch is commanded—he to whom the promise concerning Christ was first made—to leave the Chaldeans; to leave the city of confusion and Rehoboth, that is, its broad places; to leave the plain of Shinar, where the tower of pride was raised up to heaven; and after the billows of this age, after the rivers over which the saints sat and wept when they remembered Zion, after the heavy flood of Chebar, from which Ezekiel, lifted by the hair of his head, is carried all the way to Jerusalem—that he may dwell in the land of promise, which is watered not, like Egypt, from below, but from above, and yields not the herbs that are food of the languishing, but awaits the early and the latter rain from heaven.

This land, mountainous and set on high, has spiritual delights the greater in proportion as it is free from the delights of the age. In short, Mary too, the mother of the Lord, after the promise was made to her by the angel and she understood that her womb was to be the house of the Son of God, forsaking the lowlands, went up into the mountains. From this city, when the alien foe of old had been overcome and the audacity of the diabolical forehead had been struck—after he had fallen upon his face—a throng of exulting souls went forth, and a chorus singing in unison proclaimed the victory of our David over ten thousand.

In this city an angel, holding a sword and laying waste the whole world of impiety, on the threshing-floor of Ornan, king of the Jebusites, designated the temple of the Lord, even then signifying the Church of Christ rising up not among Israel, but among the Gentiles. Run back to Genesis, and you will find Melchizedek, king of Salem, the chief of this city, who even then, in a type of Christ, offered bread and wine, and consecrated the Christian mystery in the Saviour's body and blood. Perhaps you inwardly reproach us in silence, why we do not follow the order of the Scriptures, but our turbid discourse touches on things here and there, whatever comes to hand.

And at the outset we testified that love has no order and impatience knows no measure—whence in the Song of Songs it is enjoined as though it were something difficult: Set love in order within me—and now we say the same: that we err not out of ignorance, but out of affection. Finally, that we may bring forward something even more disorderly, older things must be recalled. In this city, nay, in this very place, Adam is said both to have dwelt and to have died. Whence also the place where our Lord was crucified is called Calvary, namely because there was buried the skull (calvaria) of the old man, so that the second Adam and the blood of Christ dropping from the cross might wash away the sins of the first Adam, the prostrate progenitor, and then that word of the apostle might be fulfilled:

Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee. How many prophets, how many holy men this city sent forth, it were long to recount. The whole of our mystery is native to this province and city. In three names it displays the faith of the Trinity: it is called Jebus, and Salem, and Jerusalem. The first name means 'trodden down,' the second 'peace,' the third 'vision of peace.' For little by little we come to the end, and after the treading down we are raised to the peace of vision; and out of this peace Solomon, that is 'peaceable,' was born in it, and his place was made in peace, and, as a figure of Christ under the etymology of the city, he received the name 'Lord of lords' and 'King of kings.'

Why should we recount David and his whole lineage, which reigned in this city? By as much as Judaea surpasses the other provinces, by so much does this city stand higher than all Judaea. And, to argue more compactly, the glory of the whole province is claimed by the metropolis, and whatever praise is in the members is all referred to the body. Even now, as you long to burst into words, the very letters' tips perceive it, and the paper as it comes against you understands the question. For you would answer and say that these things were once, when the Lord loved the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob, and his foundations were in the holy mountains—though these too may be interpreted more deeply—but after that voice of the rising Lord thundered forth:

Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate—and lamentably he prophesied its ruin, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chicks under her wings, and thou wouldest not. Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate—and after the veil of the temple was rent, and Jerusalem was surrounded by an army and violated by the Lord's blood, then even the protection of angels and the grace of Christ withdrew from it; finally, even Josephus, who is a native writer of the Jews, asserts that at that time when the Lord was crucified, from the inner sanctuary of the temple there burst forth a voice of the heavenly powers, saying:

'Let us migrate from these seats'—from which, and from other things, it appears that where grace abounded, there sin superabounded; and after the apostles heard: Go therefore and teach all nations, and the apostles themselves said: It was necessary that the word should first be preached to you; but since you have refused it, behold, we turn to the Gentiles—then the whole sacrament of Judaea and God's ancient familiarity was, through the apostles, transferred to the nations. A weighty question indeed, and one that could shake even those who have laid hold of some of the Scriptures, yet very easily solved. For the Lord would never have wept over her as she was falling, had he not loved her; he wept also over Lazarus, because he loved him.

And yet know this, in the first place, that it was the sin not of the place, but of the men; but because the slaughter of the people is the captivity of the city, therefore the city was destroyed, that the people might be punished, and the temple was overthrown, that the typical sacrifices might be taken away. For the rest, as far as pertains to the place, through the advances of time it is now far more august than it was before. Once the Jews venerated the holy of holies, because there were the cherubim and the mercy-seat and the ark of the covenant and the manna and the rod of Aaron and the golden altar: does not the sepulchre of the Lord seem to you more venerable?

As often as we enter it, so often do we behold the Saviour lying in the linen cloth, and lingering there a little while we again see the angel sitting at his feet, and at his head the napkin folded up. The glory of this sepulchre we know to have been prophesied long before it was hewn out by Joseph, in the oracle of Isaiah, who says: And his rest shall be honour—namely, that the place of the Lord's burial should be honoured by all. But you say: How is it that we read in the Apocalypse of John: And the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall kill them—doubtless the prophets—and their bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified?

'For if,' you say, 'the great city in which the Lord was crucified is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, then Jerusalem is Sodom and Egypt, in which the Lord was crucified.' First we would have you know that no holy Scripture can be contrary to itself, and especially that a single book does not disagree with itself, and—to add more—the same place of the same book. For in the Apocalypse, from which you have just now brought your testimony, about ten little verses before, it is written: Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. But the court which is outside the temple cast forth, and measure it not, for it is given to the Gentiles, and they shall tread the holy city under foot forty and two months.

For if the Apocalypse was written by John long after the Lord's passion, and in it Jerusalem is called the holy city, how is it again spiritually called Sodom and Egypt? Nor can you straightway say that the heavenly Jerusalem, which is to come, is called holy, and that she which fell is called Egypt and Sodom, because it is said of a future thing that the beast, which is to ascend from the abyss, shall make war against the two prophets and overcome them and kill them, and their bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city. Of which city it is also written, at the end of the same book: And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth, as also the height. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.

The length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal. And he measured the walls thereof, a hundred forty and four cubits, the measure of a man, which is of the angel. And the building of the wall thereof was of jasper stone, but the city itself of pure gold, and the rest. Where a thing is foursquare, it cannot be called either length or breadth. And what measure is this, that the length and the breadth should be as great as the height thereof, and the walls of jasper stone, and the whole city of pure gold, and the foundations and its streets of precious stones, and the twelve gates gleaming with pearls?

Since therefore these things cannot be taken carnally—for it is absurd that a city should be proclaimed to have as great a length and breadth as its height, over twelve thousand furlongs—each is to be understood spiritually. And the great city, which indeed Cain first built and named after the name of his son, is to be understood as this world, which the accuser of his brethren, the devil and fratricide doomed to perish, built up with vices, founded with crimes, filled with iniquity, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. Of which Sodom it is written: Sodom shall be restored to her former state—namely, that the world is to be so restored as it was before.

For we cannot believe that Sodom is to be built up again, and the rest—namely Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim—which are to be left in perpetual ashes. But Egypt we never read for Jerusalem, but always for this world. And because it would be long to heap up innumerable examples from the Scriptures, let us bring forward one testimony, where most manifestly this world is called Egypt. In the catholic epistle Jude the apostle, brother of James, writes, saying: But I would put you in remembrance, knowing all things once for all, how that Jesus, saving the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And lest you should think it said of Jesus son of Nun, straightway there follows: And the angels which kept not

their first estate, but left their own dwelling, he hath reserved in eternal chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. And that you may believe that, wherever Egypt and Sodom and Gomorrah are named together, not places but this world is to be interpreted, straightway he joins an example: Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. And what need is there to seek out more, when after the passion and resurrection of the Lord the evangelist Matthew records: And the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints that slept arose.

And coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared unto many? Nor is the heavenly Jerusalem understood in this place, as very many ridiculously suppose; for there could have been no sign among men of the Lord rising again, if the bodies of the saints were seen in the heavenly Jerusalem. Since therefore both the evangelists and all Scripture name Jerusalem the holy city, and the psalmist enjoins: Let us worship in the place where his feet have stood, do not suffer to hear it called Sodom and Egypt—that city by which the Lord forbids us to swear, because it is the city of the great King.

They call the land accursed, because it drank the Lord's blood; and how then do they think those places blessed in which Peter and Paul, the captains of the Christian army, shed their blood for Christ? If the confession of servants and men is glorious, why should not the confession of the Lord and God be glorious? Everywhere we venerate the sepulchres of the martyrs, and, applying the holy ashes to our eyes, we even touch them, if it be allowed, with our lips: and shall some reckon that the monument in which the Lord was laid is to be neglected? If we do not believe ourselves, let us at least believe the devil and his angels, who, as often as they are cast out from possessed bodies before it, tremble as though standing in the sight of Christ's tribunal, roar, and too late lament having crucified him whom they fear.

If after the Lord's passion, as the wicked voice clamours, this place is detestable, what did Paul mean in hastening to Jerusalem, that he might keep Pentecost there? He who spoke to those who held him back, saying: What do ye, weeping and troubling my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. What of the other holy and illustrious men, whose vows and offerings, after the preaching of Christ, were carried to the brethren who were at Jerusalem?