文集 第 4 章

AMBROSE excuses himself to the Emperor for not having come, and, after praising his humility, faith, and piety, writes that the books which were requested are being sent by him, and pledges that he will satisfy the Emperor's wish in composing treatises on the Holy Spirit. To the most blessed Augustus GRATIAN, and most Christian prince, from AMBROSE the bishop. 1. Affection was not lacking in me, most Christian of princes — for I have nothing that I may say more truly and more gloriously than this — affection, I say, was not lacking in me, but modesty held back my affection, so that I did not come to meet your clemency. Yet, though I did not meet you on your return in person, I met you in spirit, I met you in desire, in which the duties of a priest are the greater. Did I say I met you?

For when was I ever absent from him whom I followed with all my affection, to whom I clung with sense and mind? And surely the presence of souls is the greater. Daily I traced your journey; placed night and day by care and thought in your camp, I kept watch in the vigils of my prayers; and if weak in merit, yet diligent in affection. 2. And indeed, when I offered these things for your safety, I was acting for ourselves. There is here no flattery, which you do not require, and which I count foreign to our office; but there is the fullest gratitude, which you have given occasion for. He himself, the arbiter of our hearts, whom you confess and in whom you piously believe, knows that my inmost parts are refreshed by your faith, your safety, your glory; and that I pay the prayers due not only by public office, but also by private love.

For you have restored to me the quiet of the Church, and have shut the mouths — and would that the hearts too — of the faithless; and this you have done by an authority no less of faith than of power. 3. For what shall I say of your recent letter? You wrote the whole epistle with your own hand, that the very characters might speak of your faith and piety. So Abraham of old slew the calf with his own hand, that he might minister to his feasting guests, nor in the religious service did he seek the help of others. But he, a private man, rendered service either to the Lord and the angels, or to the Lord in the angels; you, Emperor, with royal condescension honour the lowliest priest. Yet it is to the Lord that honour is rendered, when a poor servant is honoured; for he himself said: «What you did to one of these least, you did to me» (Matthew

XXV, 40). 4. But I proclaim only your humility as lofty in an emperor, and your faith as no greater than you have spoken with a mind truly conscious of your merit — that faith which he teaches you whom you do not deny. For who else could have taught you not to cast up against him as a reproach the creature which you see in yourself? Nothing more upright, nothing more apt, could have been said; for to call Christ a creature is by way of insult and contumely, not by way of confessing reverence. Then, what so insolent as to esteem him to be that which we are? You have therefore taught me, from whom you profess that you wish to learn: nothing of the kind have I yet read, nothing of the kind have I heard. 5. But how pious, how admirable that is, that in God you do not fear to incur envy!

From the Father you presume upon a reward for your love of the Son, and in praising the Son you profess that you can add nothing to him; but you wish, by your proclamation of the Son, to commend yourself even to the Father. This surely he alone taught you who said: «He that loves me shall be loved by my Father» (John XIV, 21). 6. You added to this that you, being weak and frail, did not think yourself such a praiser as to augment the Godhead by words; but that you proclaim as much as you can, not as much as the Godhead itself is. This weakness is the stronger in Christ, as the Apostle also said: «When I am weak, then am I strong» (2 Corinthians XII, 10). This humility shuts out frailty. 7. I will indeed come, and will hasten, as you bid;

so that I may hear these things in your presence, and read these things in your presence, since they proceed from your own mouth. Moreover, I have sent two little books, of which, since they are already approved by your clemency, I shall not fear the risk; but concerning the Holy Spirit, meanwhile, I beg leave to write later, since I have come to know what judge I am to have of my discourse. 8. Yet meanwhile your judgment and your faith, drawn forth concerning the Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, overflows to the most abundant assertion by which the eternal divinity of the Holy Spirit too may be believed; so that you do not cast up against him the creature which you see in yourself, nor suppose that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ envies his own Spirit. For that which lacks fellowship with the creature is divine. 9.

If the Lord favour me, I will satisfy this wish of your clemency too, so that you may esteem him whose grace you have received as pre-eminent in the glory of God, to be honoured by his own name. 10. May God almighty, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, deign to guard you, most blessed and most flourishing, with length of years, and to confirm your reign in the highest glory and in perpetual peace, my lord Emperor Augustus, chosen by divine judgment, most glorious of princes. He admonishes CONSTANTIUS, lately elected bishop, that he should govern the Church amid the sea and the rivers, setting forth what is signified by each. He exhorts him to gather the waters with which he is to water the minds of the peoples:

and what manner of discourses his ought to be, and what virtues he ought to enjoin; and, having taught this, he treats of the balance by which a discourse is to be weighed. About to show the usefulness of humility, he brings forward the example of blessed Joseph; and, the vanity of present things being demonstrated by the histories of the same Joseph and of David, he teaches that the peoples are to be roused to procure for themselves true riches. Finally, commending to him the Church of Forum Cornelii, he adds something concerning prudence toward heretics, justice toward neighbours, and humanity toward servants. 1. You have undertaken the office of the priesthood, and, sitting in the stern of the Church, you steer the ship against the waves. Hold fast the helm of faith, that the grievous storms of this world may not be able to throw you into confusion. The sea indeed is great and spacious, but do not fear;

for he himself founded it upon the seas, and upon the rivers prepared it (Psalm XXIII, 2). And so, not without reason, amid so many straits of the world the Church of the Lord, as though built upon the apostolic rock, remains immovable, and abides upon an unshaken foundation against the assaults of the raging brine (Matthew XVI, 18). It is washed by the waves, but not shaken; and though frequently the elements of this world, dashed against it, rebound with a great crash, yet it has a place where it may receive the labouring, the safest harbour of salvation. 2. But still, even though it tosses upon the sea, it runs in the rivers; and see that you fear not rather those rivers of which it is said: «The rivers have lifted up their voice» (Psalm XCII, 3).

For there are rivers which shall flow from the belly of him who has received drink from Christ, and has drunk of the Spirit of God (John VII, 38). These rivers, then, when they overflow with spiritual grace, lift up their voice. There is also a river that runs down upon his saints like a torrent (Isaiah LXVI, 12). There is also the rush of a river that gladdens the soul, peaceful and tranquil (Psalm XLV, 5). Whoever has received of the fullness of this river — as John the Evangelist, as Peter and Paul — lifts up his voice; and as the apostles spread the voice of evangelical preaching, with sonorous proclamation, even to all the ends of the earth, so this man too begins to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Receive, then, from Christ, that your sound also may go forth. 3.

The divine Scripture is a sea, having in itself deep meanings and the height of prophetic enigmas; into which sea very many rivers have entered. There are, then, both sweet and clear rivers, and there are snowy fountains that leap up into eternal life (John IV, 14); there are also good words, like honeycombs (Proverbs XVI, 24), and pleasing sentences which water the souls of the hearers with a certain spiritual draught, and soothe with the sweetness of moral precepts. Diverse, therefore, are the streams of the divine Scriptures. You have what you may drink first, you have what you may drink second, you have what you may drink last. 4. Gather the water of Christ, that water which praises the Lord (Psalm CXLVIII, 5). Gather water from many places, which the prophetic clouds pour out (Ecclesiastes XI, 3).

Whoever gathers water from the mountains and draws it to himself, or draws it from the fountains, himself too sprinkles like a cloud. Fill, therefore, the bosom of your mind, that your land may grow moist and be watered by domestic fountains. Therefore he who reads much and understands is filled; he who has been filled waters others; and so the Scripture says: «If the clouds be filled, they shall pour out rain upon the earth» (Ibid.). 5. Let your discourses, then, be flowing, let them be pure and clear, that by moral disputation you may pour sweetness into the ears of the peoples, and by the grace of your words soothe the people, so that, willing, it may follow whither you lead.

But if there be in the people, or in any individuals, some obstinacy or fault, let your discourses be of such a kind as to goad the hearer and prick the man of evil conscience: for «the words of the wise are as goads» (Ecclesiastes XII, 11). The Lord Jesus too goaded Saul when he was a persecutor. Consider how salutary that goad was, which made an apostle out of a persecutor, by saying: «It is hard for you to kick against the goad» (Acts IX, 5). 6. There are also discourses like milk, such as Paul poured into the Corinthians (1 Corinthians III, 2); for those who cannot feast on stronger food exercise the infancy of their understanding with the juice of milk. 7. Let your addresses be full of meaning. Whence Solomon also says: «The lips of the wise are the arms of understanding» (Proverbs XIV, 3);

and elsewhere: «Let your lips be bound with sense» (Proverbs XV, 7) — that is, let the clarity of your discourses shine, let understanding flash forth, and let your address and treatise need no assertion from another; but let your discourse defend itself, as it were, by its own arms, and let no word of yours go out in vain or come forth without meaning. For there is a bandage which is wont to bind up the wounds of souls; and if anyone casts it off, he betrays his salvation as despaired of (Isaiah I, 6). And therefore, toward those who are afflicted with a grievous ulcer, use the oil of discourse, with which you may foment the hardness of the mind; apply a poultice, add the bandage of the saving precept;

that you may by no means suffer to perish, with slack soul and relaxed vigour, those who waver and fluctuate concerning the faith or the observance of discipline. 8. Admonish, therefore, the people of the Lord, and beseech them to abound in good works, to renounce shameful deeds, not to kindle the fires of flames — I will not say on the Sabbath only, but at all times — lest a man burn his own body; let fornication and uncleanness not be among the servants of God; for we serve the immaculate Son of God (Ephesians V, 3). Let each one know himself and possess his own vessel (1 Thessalonians IV, 4), so that, having subdued the soil, as it were, of his own body, he may await the due fruits, and his land may not bring forth thorns and thistles for him (Genesis III, 18), but he too may say: «The earth has given its fruits» (Psalm LXXXIV, 13);

and that in this once-thorny frailty of the passions, the grafted virtues may bloom forth. 9. Teach also and instruct them to do what is good, and that each one may not leave off a praiseworthy work, whether it be seen by many or be without a witness; for the conscience, a wealthy witness, abounds to itself. 10. Let him flee also evil reproaches, even if he believes that he cannot be convicted. For even if he be shut within walls and covered by darkness, without a witness, without one privy to it, yet he has an arbiter of the deed whom nothing escapes, to whom all deeds cry out. In short, even the voice of blood cried out (Genesis IV, 10). Each one has himself, and his own soul, as a severe judge of himself, an avenger of wickedness, and a punisher of crime.

In short, fearing and trembling Cain wandered about (Ibid., 14), paying the penalties of his fratricidal crime; so that his death was a remedy to him, which stripped from him, through death, that wandering exile that was terrified through all moments by the dreaded terror of death. Let no one, therefore, whether alone or with another, do anything base or wicked. And if anyone is alone, let him blush before himself above all others, whom he ought most to revere. 11. Nor let him covet many things, for to him even few things are many; for poverty and wealth are but the words for want and satiety. He is not rich who is in need of anything, nor poor who is not in need. Nor let anyone despise a widow, circumvent an orphan, or defraud his neighbour.

For woe to him who holds substance gathered by guile, and builds a city in blood (Habakkuk II, 12) — that is, his own soul! For this is what is built like a city (Psalm CXXI, 3). This city avarice does not build, but destroys; lust does not build, but scorches and sets it on fire. Do you wish to build a city well? «Better is a little with the fear of God than great treasures without that fear» (Proverbs XV, 16). The riches of a man ought to profit toward the redemption of his soul, not toward its destruction. And a treasure is a redemption, if a man use it well; and again it is a snare, if a man know not how to use it (Proverbs XIII, 8). For what is a man's money to him but a kind of travelling-provision?

Much is a burden, a moderate amount is for use. We are travellers of this life; many walk, but the need is that one pass through well; for with him is the Lord Jesus who passes through well. Therefore you read: «If you pass through the water, I am with you; the rivers shall not close over you, nor shall the fire scorch your garments, if you pass through» (Isaiah XLIII, 2). But he who binds fire in his body — the fire of lust, the fire of immoderate desire — does not pass through, but scorches that covering of his soul (Proverbs VI, 27). «A good reputation is more excellent than money, and good favour is above all heaps of silver» (Proverbs XXII, 1). Faith itself abounds to itself, sufficiently and more than sufficiently rich in its own wealth. To the wise man, too, nothing is alien except what is incongruous with virtue;

wherever he goes, he will find all things his own. The whole world is his possession, since he uses the whole of it as though it were his own. 12. Why, then, is a brother circumvented? Why is a hireling defrauded? «There is no great gain,» he says (Proverbs VI, 26), «from the wage of a harlot» — that is, of this slippery frailty. This harlot is not a particular one, but a public one; not one woman, but every wandering desire is a harlot. All faithlessness, all deceit is a harlot — not she alone who prostitutes her own body, but every soul that sells its hope, that seeks base gains and degenerate alms. We too are hirelings, who labour for wages, and hope for the wage of this our work from our Lord and God.

If anyone wishes to know how far we are hirelings, let him hear him who says: «How many loaves do my father's hirelings have in abundance? but I here perish with hunger» (Luke XV, 17); and below: «Make me,» he says, «as one of your hirelings» (Ibid., 19). All are hirelings, all are labourers; let him, however, who awaits the fruit of his labour consider that he who has defrauded another of the wage due to him shall himself also be defrauded of his own. That defrauding gives offence, and he shall afterwards pay it out in a fuller measure. Therefore he who does not wish to lose what is perpetual, let him not snatch from another what is temporal. 13. Let no one either speak in guile to his neighbour. There is a snare in our lips, and often each man is not extricated by his own words, but entangled (Proverbs VI, 2).

The mouth of the malevolent is a deep pit: a great precipice for innocence, but a greater for malevolence (Proverbs XXII, 14). The innocent, while he believes easily, quickly slips (Proverbs XIV, 15); yet that fall rises again: but the slanderer is cast down headlong by his own arts, whence he never leaps out nor escapes. Let each man, then, weigh his words, not with fraud and guile: «A false balance is unacceptable before God» (Proverbs XI, 1) — I do not mean that balance which weighs another's merchandise (and in cheap things, indeed, deceit costs dear) — but the balance of words itself is abominable before God, which holds out the weight of sober gravity, and underneath ties on the cunning of fraudulence.

This God especially condemns, if anyone deceive his neighbour by the kindness of promises, and oppress one whom he has cheated by treacherous iniquity, gaining himself nothing by the devices of his cunning. For what does it profit a man if he gain the wealth of the whole world, but defraud his own soul of the wage of eternal life (Matthew XVI, 26)? 14. There is another balance to be considered by pious minds, by which the deeds of each are weighed, in which for the most part sins incline toward judgment, or good deeds outweigh sins. Woe to me, if shameful deeds go before, and incline with deadly weight toward the prejudgment of death! It is more tolerable if they follow after — yet all things are manifest to the Lord, even before judgment;

neither can good deeds be hidden, nor those which are full of offence be concealed (1 Timothy V, 24). 15. How blessed is he who has been able to cut away the root of vices — avarice! He surely will not dread this balance. For avarice for the most part dulls human senses and perverts opinions (1 Timothy VI, 10), so that men reckon gain to be piety, and money to be, as it were, the reward of prudence. But great is the reward of piety, and the gain of sobriety, to have what is enough for use. For what in this world do the superfluities of riches profit, since in them there are neither any helps for being born, nor any hindrances to dying? For we are both born into this world without covering, and depart without travelling-provision, and are buried without inheritance. 16.

For each of us the balance of our merits hangs poised, and by the slight weights now of a good work, now of a base and degenerate sin, it is often tilted this way and that: if evil things sink it down, alas for me! but if good things, pardon is at hand. For no one is free from sin; yet where good things weigh heavier, our sins are lifted up, overshadowed, covered over. Therefore on the day of judgment either our works will come to our aid, or those very works will plunge us into the deep, weighed down as it were by a millstone. For iniquity is heavy, propped up as it were by a leaden talent; greed is unbearable, and all pride, and foul deceit (Zech. V, 7).

And therefore exhort the people of the Lord to hope rather in the Lord, to abound in the riches of simplicity, in which they may walk without snare and without hindrance (II Cor. VIII, 2). 17. Good too is the sincerity of pure speech, and it is rich in God's sight, even though it walk among snares; for since it knows not how to weave ambushes or bonds for another, it is not itself bound. 18. This also is of chief importance, if you can persuade them to know how to be humbled, that they may understand the true hue of humility, and know its nature. Many have the appearance of humility but not its virtue; many display it without and assail it within; they put it forward for show, but renounce it in truth, and deny it as regards grace. For there is one who humbles himself wickedly, and his inward parts are full of deceit (Sir. XIX, 23).

And there is one who submits himself excessively out of great humility. There is therefore no humility unless it be without disguise, without fraud. That humility is true which possesses a devout sincerity of mind (Rom. V, 19). Great is its virtue. In short, through the disobedience of one man death entered in, and through the obedience of one Lord Jesus Christ the redemption of all was accomplished. 19. Holy Joseph knew how to be humbled, who, when he had been sold by his brothers into slavery, or bought up by merchants (Gen. XXXVII, 28), humbled in fetters, as Scripture says (Ps. CIV, 18), learned the virtue of humility and rejected weakness. And so (Gen.

XXXIX, 1ff.) having been bought in the regions of Egypt by a royal servant, the chief of the cooks, he did not, out of the consciousness of a noble lineage, as a scion of the children of Abraham, scorn the duties of a household servant or disdain his lowly condition; rather he showed himself diligent and faithful to his master's command, fixing his mind on a lofty resolve: that it makes no difference in what station a man proves himself worthy, but that this is the goal of good men, that they be proven worthy in whatever station; and that this above all matters, if his character should commend his station rather than his station his character. For the lower the station, the more eminent the virtue. So he showed himself such, so diligent, that his master entrusted to him his whole house and committed all things to him. 20.

Whence (ibid., 7ff.) his master's wife also cast her eyes upon him, captivated by the charm of his form; for it is nothing against us if by wanton eyes either youth or beauty is desired. Let art be absent, and comeliness is no crime; let enticement cease, and a fair appearance and the grace of form are blameless. And so, inflamed and raging in mind, she accosts the young man, and, driven by lust and overcome by the goads of passion, she confesses her crime. But he renounces the wickedness, saying that it accords neither with the customs of the Hebrews nor with their laws to violate another's marriage bed, for whom it is a care to guard chastity; that those whole and undefiled in marriage should be joined to undefiled virgins, and should not unite with any woman who knows not the lawful use of the marriage bed.

And he held it a matter of religious duty that he should not, drunk with shameful intemperance, prove ungrateful to his master's kindness, and inflict grievous outrage upon the one to whom he owed obedience. 21. Was he ashamed nonetheless to call that man, lowly though he was, his master, and to confess himself a servant? Indeed, even when the woman pressed him, even entreated him with the fear of betrayal, or poured out the tears of her love to wring out compliance by necessity, neither bent by pity to consent to the wickedness, nor compelled by fear, he resisted her entreaties, nor yielded to her threats, preferring a dangerous honor to rewards, and a perilous integrity to a base recompense for his chaste modesty. Again too (Gen.

XXXIX, 11ff.) the woman, having attempted greater temptations, when she perceived him inflexible and unmoved even a second time, with passion grown savage and shamelessness lending her strength, assails the young man, seizing his garment and dragging him toward the bed, offering her embrace; and she had almost caught him, had not Joseph stripped off the garment by which he was held, lest he strip off the robe of humility, the clothing of modesty. 22. He knew, then, how to be humbled, who was humbled even to prison; and when he bore false accusation, he chose rather to undergo a false crime than to commit a true one. He knew, I say, how to be humbled, because he was humbled for the sake of virtue. He was humbled as a figure of Him who was to humble Himself even unto death, even the death of the cross.

who was to come, that He might rouse this life from sleep, and teach that this manner of living is but a dream, in which the diverse turns of changes are as it were drunken, and there is nothing solid, nothing firm; like one sleeping a dream, seeing we do not see, and hearing we do not hear, and eating we are not filled, rejoicing we do not rejoice, running we do not arrive. Vain are the hopes of men in this world, who suppose that the things which are not should be pursued as though they were. And so the empty and hollow appearances of things came, as in a dream, and departed; they stood by, they vanished. They were poured around and scattered; they seem to be held, and are not held. In short, when one has heard Him saying: Rise, you who sleep (Eph.

V, 11), and has risen from the sleep of this world, he understands all these things to be false; he has awakened, and the dream has fled, power has fled, the care of patrimony has departed, the charm of beauty, the pursuit of honors. For these are dreams by which those who watch in heart are not moved; but the sleeping are troubled by them. 23. Holy Joseph is surety for this saying of mine, that the things of this world are neither perpetual nor lasting—he who, noble by birth from the beginning, rich in fortune, suddenly became an ignoble little slave, and (what makes the very baseness of his servitude more bitter) a bought chattel of a base-born master. For to serve a free man is reckoned less vile; but servitude is doubled where one serves home-born slaves.

A slave, then, though of illustrious descent, poor though of a wealthy father, passing from love to hatred, from favor to punishment; again from prison to the palace, from the dock of the accused to the seat of judgment; yet he was neither broken by adversity nor exalted by prosperity (Gen. XLI, 39ff.). 24. The frequently changing fortune of holy David likewise attests that the turns of affairs are momentary—he who was despised by his father, precious to God; noble in triumph, lowly through envy (I Sam. XVI, 11ff.), called to the royal service, chosen for kinship with the king (I Sam. XVIII, 2ff.), and at last with face and countenance altered, exiled from the kingdom, fleeing from a son's parricide, now bewailing his own offenses, now again putting away the offenses of others, made nobler by being reconciled to his heir than by being disfigured (II Sam.

XII, 1ff.). Having therefore experienced all things, he beautifully said: It is good for me that I have been humbled (Ps. CXVIII, 71). 25. Although this can also be referred to Him who, when He was in the form of God, found it easy to bow down the heavens; yet He descended, and taking the form of a servant, bore our infirmities (Phil. II, 6): who, foreseeing His saints, dixit—not, as it were, seizing His own proper honor as a thing to be grasped, but subjecting Himself to His equals and preferring others to Himself, said: It is good for me that I have been humbled. It is good for me that I have subjected myself, so that all things may be made subject to me, and that God may be all and in all (I Cor. XV, 27, 28). Pour this humility into the souls of each, and offer yourself as an example to all, saying:

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ (I Cor. XI, 1). 26. Let them learn to seek the riches of good works, and to be rich in character. The beauty of riches lies not in the moneybags of the wealthy, but in the sustenance of the poor. In those weak and needy ones wealth shines the better. Let the rich therefore learn to seek not their own things, but the things which are Christ's; that Christ also may seek after them, and bestow His own things upon them. He spent His blood for them (Rom. VIII, 32), He pours out His Spirit for them, He offers them His kingdom. What more will He give, who offered His very Self? Or what is there that the Father will not give, who delivered up His only Son to death for us?

Admonish them therefore to serve the Lord in sobriety and grace, with all diligence of mind to lift their eyes to heavenly things, to count nothing as gain except what belongs to eternal life; for all this gain of the present world is a loss to souls. In short, he suffered the loss of all things (Phil. III, 8) who wished to gain Christ: and although he said this marvelously, yet he expressed less than he had received. For he spoke here of things belonging to others, but Christ said: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself (Luke IX, 23); so that he himself may be his own loss, whereby the gain of Christ may come about. All these things are fleeting, with loss, without gain: that alone is gain where the fruit is perpetual, where the rewards of eternal rest abide. 27.

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;

they certainly ought to have awaited our judgment also concerning him. We do not claim the prerogative of examination, yet there ought to have been a sharing of common arbitration. 5. Finally, it ought first to have been settled whether the priesthood should seem to be taken away from this man, before it should be conferred on another — and that especially by those by whom Maximus complained that he was either abandoned or wrongfully assailed. And so, when our fellowships received Maximus the bishop into communion, since it was established that he was ordained by catholic bishops, we did not think he should be removed from the claim of the Constantinopolitan episcopate. We judged that his allegation should be weighed in the presence of the parties.

As for Nectarius, since our humble selves have learned that he was lately ordained at Constantinople, we do not see that our communion coheres with the Eastern parts; especially since Nectarius is said to have been at once abandoned, without the fellowship of communion, by the very men by whom he had been ordained. 6. No small scruple, therefore, is here. Nor does any contention from domestic zeal and ambition vex us, but communion loosed and dissociated disturbs us. Nor do we see that it can otherwise be brought together, unless either he who was first ordained be restored to Constantinople, or surely that, concerning the ordination of the two, there be in the city of Rome a council of ourselves and of the Easterners. 7.

For it does not seem unworthy, O Augustus, that they should undergo the deliberation of the bishop of the Roman Church and of the neighbouring and Italian bishops, who thought that the judgment of one bishop, Acholius alone, was so to be awaited that they judged him to be summoned from the Western parts to Constantinople. If something is reserved to this one alone, how much more is it to be reserved to many! 8. But we, admonished by the most blessed prince, your piety's brother, to write to your clemency's command, request that, where there is one communion, you would wish there to be a common judgment and a concordant consent.

Having commended THEODOSIUS for the pains he had taken to restore unity between the Eastern and Western Church, the bishops set forth why they had written the earlier letter about that matter; they add that they had also been concerned that the supporters of Apollinaris be condemned; finally they assert that neither in seeking a Council had they done injury to anyone, nor had they anywhere departed from the institution of the forefathers. To the most blessed Emperor and most clement prince THEODOSIUS, AMBROSE and the other bishops of Italy. 1. The knowledge of your faith, spread throughout the whole world, has soothed the inmost affection of our mind;

and therefore, that this glory too might be created for your empire — namely that you should be seen to have restored unity to the Churches of the West no less than of the East — we judged that your clemency should likewise be entreated, and instructed by our letters concerning ecclesiastical affairs, O most tranquil and most faithful Emperor. For it was a grief that between the Easterners and Westerners the fellowships of sacred communion had been interrupted. 2. We now keep silence as to whose error or whose offence it was, lest we should seem to be sowing tales and empty talk. Nor do we repent of having made the attempt, which, left unattempted, would have fallen into blame. For we were often reproached on this account, that we seemed to slight the fellowship of the Easterners and to refuse their grace. 3.

Indeed we thought that the labour should be undertaken by us — not for Italy's sake, which has long been quiet and secure from the Arians, nor is vexed by any heretical disturbance; not, I say, for ourselves, because we seek not the things that are our own, but the things that are of all; not for Gaul and Africa, which enjoy the concordant fellowship of all the priests — but that those things which had disturbed our communion on the side of the East might be examined in a synod, and every scruple be removed from our midst. 4. For not only concerning those things about which your clemency deigned to write, but also concerning those who attempt to introduce into the Church some doctrine — which is said to be that of Apollinaris — many things moved us, which ought to have been cut off with the parties present;

so that the man convicted in a new doctrine and refuted in error should by no means lie hidden under the general name of the faith; but at once should both lay aside his office and the title of priest, since he held not by the mastery of teaching; nor should any fibres thereafter remain for those desiring to deceive, nor the contrivances of trickery. For he who has not been convicted with the parties present — that which your clemency, by a truly august and princely response, has determined — will always seize the little handle of fresh inquiry. 5. We therefore beseeched the priestly council that it should be permitted to no one to compose a lie against an absent man, and that there should be discussed in the council what was the truth.

And so no suspicion of partiality or of laxity falls upon those who observed all things with the parties present. 6. Truly we have woven together the allegations, not for the sake of deciding but of instructing; and we who have sought judgment do not pronounce a prejudgment. Nor was any of these to be reckoned a reproach, when the priests were invited to the council, whose absence was often more present than their presence, when they took counsel in common. For neither did we reckon it a reproach when one presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, Paul by name, requested within Achaia a synod of the Easterners no less than of the Westerners. 7. Your clemency perceives that the request was not unreasonable, since it was sought even by the Easterners.

But because Illyricum is moved by suspicion, therefore the maritime and safer places were sought. Nor have we plainly innovated anything as if by some form; but keeping the things defined in councils by Athanasius of holy memory, who was as it were the pillar of the faith, and by the ancient holiness of our fathers, we do not tear up the boundaries which our fathers set, nor do we violate the rights of our hereditary communion; but, reserving the honour due to your empire, we show ourselves zealous for peace and quiet. It belongs to emperors to protect religion, and not to demand from them the restoration of superstition. No account, therefore, is to be taken of those by whom anything is demanded against the honour of the Christian faith.

That the petition was falsely offered in the name of the senate, since the Christian senators did not consent to it. That on this matter report ought to be made to Theodosius and to the bishops: that Valentinian, if he grant privileges to unbelievers, is to be rejected by the Church, and would moreover do injury to the memory of his brother and father — over which, gravely protesting, they are led to write. AMBROSE the bishop to the most blessed prince and most Christian emperor VALENTINIAN. 1. Since all men who are under Roman dominion serve you, the emperors of lands and princes, you yourselves serve almighty God and the sacred faith.

For otherwise welfare cannot be safe, unless each one truly worships the true God — that is, the God of the Christians, by whom all things are governed; for he alone is the true God, who is to be venerated with the inmost mind: for the gods of the nations are demons, as the Scripture says (Ps. 95:5). 2. Whoever, then, serves this true God, and receives him to be worshipped with inmost affection, renders not dissimulation, not connivance, but the zeal of faith and devotion. Finally, if not these, he ought at least to display no consent to the worship of idols and to the profane cults of ceremonies. For no one deceives God, to whom all things, even the secrets of the heart, are manifest. 3.

Therefore, since by you, O most Christian Emperor, faith is to be shown to the true God, and the zeal, caution, and devotion of that very faith, I wonder how it came into the hope of some that you ought by your command to restore the altars of the gods of the nations, and to furnish expense also for the uses of profane sacrifices; for what has long since been claimed for the treasury or the public chest, you will be seen rather to bestow from your own than to render from theirs. 4. And they complain of losses, who never spared our blood, who themselves overthrew the very buildings of the Churches. They ask also that you grant privileges to those who by Julian's recent law denied us the common use of speaking and teaching, and those privileges by which even Christians have often been deceived: