Nor ought anyone to judge me contumacious, since I assert this, which your father of august memory not only answered in word, but also sanctioned by his own laws: that in a matter of faith or of any ecclesiastical order he ought to judge who is neither unequal in office nor dissimilar in right — for these are the words of the rescript — that is, he willed that priests should judge concerning priests. Moreover, if a bishop were on other grounds also accused, and the matter of his conduct were to be examined, he willed that this too should pertain to episcopal judgment. 3. Who then has answered your clemency contumaciously? He who desires you to be like your father, or he who wishes you to be unlike him?
Unless perhaps the judgment of so great an emperor is reckoned worthless by certain men — an emperor whose faith was proved by the steadfastness of his confession, and whose wisdom is proclaimed by the advances of a bettered commonwealth. 4. When have you heard, most clement Emperor, that in a matter of faith laymen have judged concerning a bishop? Are we then so bent low by a kind of flattery that we should be forgetful of priestly right, and that what God has granted to me, this I should think ought to be entrusted to others? If a bishop is to be taught by a layman, what will follow? Let a layman then dispute, and let a bishop listen: let a bishop learn from a layman.
But surely, if we review either the sequence of the divine Scriptures or the ancient times, who is there who would deny that in a matter of faith — in a matter, I say, of faith — it is the custom that bishops judge concerning Christian emperors, not emperors concerning bishops? 5. You will, by God's favor, advance further into the ripeness of old age, and then you will judge concerning this matter what manner of bishop he is who subjects priestly right to laymen. Your father, by God's favor a man of riper age, used to say: "It is not for me to judge between bishops"; your clemency now says: "I ought to judge." And he, baptized in Christ, thought himself unfit for the weight of so great a judgment: your clemency, for whom the sacraments of baptism still remain to be earned, claims for itself judgment concerning the faith;
since he does not know the sacraments of that very faith? 6. But what manner of judges he has chosen, we can leave to conjecture, since he fears to disclose their names. Let them come openly, if there are any, to the Church: let them hear together with the people, not that anyone should sit as judge, but that each one may have an examination according to his own disposition, and choose whom he will follow. The matter concerns the priest of this Church: if the people shall hear him, and shall think that the other disputes better, let them follow his faith: I will not begrudge it. 7. I pass over the fact that the people has already judged: I am silent that they petitioned your clemency's father for the one they have: I am silent that the father of your piety pledged that there would be future peace, if the one chosen should undertake the priesthood. This pledge of the promises I have followed. 8.
But if he boasts of the flattery of certain foreigners, let him be bishop there, whence are those who think he ought to be presented with the name of the episcopate. For I neither know him as a bishop, nor know whence he is. 9. Where do we establish that point, Emperor, which you yourself have already declared as your judgment — nay, you have even given laws — that it should not be free for anyone to judge otherwise? For when you prescribed this for others, you prescribed it also for yourself: for the emperor passes laws which he himself should be the first to keep. Do you wish, then, that I should make trial, so that those who are chosen as judges should begin either to come against your decree, or at least to excuse themselves, because they could not withstand so severe and so strict a command of the emperor? 10. But this belongs to a contumacious priest, not a modest one.
Behold, Emperor, you are already in part rescinding your own law: but would that it were not in part, but altogether! For I would not have your law be above God's law. God's law has taught us what we should follow; human laws cannot teach this. They are wont to extort a change from the timid, but they cannot inspire faith. 11. Who then will there be who, when he reads that throughout so many provinces it has been ordered, all in one moment, that whoever shall oppose the emperor be struck with the sword, that whoever shall not hand over God's temple be straightway slain — who, I say, is there who, alone or among a few, could say to the emperor: "Your law is not approved by me"? It is not permitted to priests to say this; is it permitted to laymen?
And shall he judge concerning the faith who either hopes for favor or fears giving offense? 12. Furthermore, shall I myself commit the error of choosing lay judges who, if they hold the truth in faith, would either be proscribed or put to death, as the law passed concerning the faith decrees? Shall I then expose men either to prevarication or to punishment? 13. Ambrose is not of such worth that for his own sake he should cast down the priesthood. The life of one man is not of such worth as is the dignity of all the priests, by whose counsel I have dictated these things, when they pointed out that there might perhaps be even some pagan, or some Jew, who had been chosen by Auxentius — men to whom we should hand over a triumph over Christ, if we were to commit a judgment concerning Christ. What else does it delight them to hear, save an injury to Christ?
What else can please them, save (which God forbid) that the divinity of Christ be denied? With those Arians he is plainly in good agreement, who says that Christ is a creature, which pagans also and Jews most readily confess. 14. This was written at the synod of Ariminum; and deservedly do I shudder at that council, following the treatise of the Council of Nicaea, from which neither death nor sword shall be able to separate me. This faith the parent of your clemency too, Theodosius the most blessed emperor, both follows and has approved. This faith the Gauls hold, this the Spains, and they guard it with a devout confession of the divine Spirit. 15. If there must be deliberation, I have learned to deliberate in the Church: which my elders did.
If there must be a conference concerning the faith, this conference ought to belong to priests, just as was done under Constantine, the prince of august memory, who sent no laws beforehand, but gave free judgment to the priests. It was done also under Constantius, the emperor of august memory, heir of his father's dignity: but what began well was consummated otherwise. For the bishops had at first written down a sincere faith: but while certain men wished to judge concerning the faith within the palace, they brought it about that those episcopal judgments were altered by deceptions. Yet these men at once recalled the perverted sentence. And certainly the greater number at Ariminum approved the faith of the Council of Nicaea and condemned the Arian decrees. 16.
If Auxentius appeals to a synod, that he may dispute concerning the faith (although it is not necessary that so many bishops be wearied on account of one man, who, even if he were an angel from heaven, ought not to be preferred to the peace of the Churches) — when I hear that a synod is being gathered, I myself also will not be absent. Take away, therefore, the law, if you wish there to be a contest. 17. I would have come, Emperor, to the consistory of your clemency, to suggest these things in person, if either the bishops or the people had permitted me, who said that concerning the faith deliberation ought to be held in the Church before the people. 18. And would, O Emperor, that you had not given notice that I should go whither I wished! Every day I went forth, no one kept me under guard. You ought to have appointed me to go where you had willed, since I offered myself to all. Now it is said to me by the priests:
"It makes little difference whether you willingly forsake or hand over the altar of Christ; for when you have forsaken it, you will hand it over." 19. And would that it were clearly evident to me that the Church would by no means be handed over to the Arians! I would of my own accord offer myself to the arbitration of your piety. But if I alone am the obstacle, why has there been a command concerning the invasion of all the other Churches as well? Would that it might be confirmed that no one should trouble the Churches! I desire that concerning me whatever sentence seems good be passed. 20. Graciously then, Emperor, accept the fact that I could not come to the consistory. I have not learned to stand in the consistory except on your behalf: and I cannot contend within the palace, I who neither seek nor know the palace's secrets. 21.
I, Ambrose the bishop, have presented this petition to the most clement emperor and most blessed Augustus Valentinian. About to relieve the anxiety of the people caused by the imperial command, he sets forth his answer, and adds that he did not go to the consistory because he feared the handing-over of the basilica. Then, the adversaries having been challenged to debate in the Church, he denies that he is terrified by arms: and, recalling his answer concerning the sacred vessels, he testifies that he is ready for the contests. That God's decree cannot be eluded, nor His protection overcome, but that He wills to suffer the same in His servants. Since he himself had not before been captured, it is clear how vainly the heretics make their tumult.
Then, having applied the history of Naboth and Christ's entry into Jerusalem to the present matter, he censures the cruel law of Auxentius, and, having resolved the objections of the Arians, proclaims that he will gladly dispute before the people: but that Auxentius has already been condemned by the pagans whom he had chosen as judges, as also by Paul and by Christ himself. That this same heretic was appealing to Caesar, having forgotten the year before: and that the Arians, while they stir up odium against the servants of Christ, are far worse than the Jews: for the Church bears not the image of Caesar, but of Christ. Under which, when he had added a few things about his answer and about hymns, he declares that he is not disobedient, but that the emperor is a son of the Church, and that Auxentius is more than a Jew. 1.
I see that you are suddenly troubled beyond your custom, and keeping watch over me. I wonder what this may be, unless perhaps because you have seen or heard through the tribunes that I have been summoned by an imperial mandate to go hence whither I wished, and that those who wished should have the power of following. Did you fear, then, that I would desert the Church, and that, while I feared for my own safety, I would forsake you? But you could have noticed what I myself charged: that there could be no will in me to desert the Church; because I feared the Lord of the world more than the emperor of this age: assuredly, that if any force should drag me from the Church, my flesh could be expelled, but not my mind: that I was ready, if he should do what is wont to belong to royal power,
I would undergo what has been the custom of a priest. 2. Why then are you troubled? Willingly I will never desert you; coerced, I know not how to fight back. I shall be able to grieve, I shall be able to weep, I shall be able to groan: against arms, soldiers, and Goths too, my tears are my arms; for such are the defenses of a priest. Otherwise I neither ought nor am able to resist: but to flee and forsake the Church is not my custom; lest anyone interpret the deed as done from fear of a graver punishment. You yourselves also know that I am wont to defer to emperors, not to yield to them: to offer myself gladly to punishments, and not to fear those things that are being prepared. 3. Would that I were secure that the Church would by no means be handed over to the heretics? Gladly would I go to the emperor's palace, if this befitted the office of a priest;
so that I might contend rather in the palace than in the Church. But in the consistory Christ is not wont to be the defendant, but the judge. Who would deny that the cause of faith ought to be pleaded in the Church? If anyone is confident, let him come here: let him not look for either the emperor's judgment, already inclined, which he has laid bare by passing a law, in that he assails the faith; or the hoped-for partiality of certain ambitious men. I will not allow anyone to sell the injury of Christ. 4. The soldiers poured round about, the clash of arms with which the Church is walled in, do not terrify my faith: but they agitate my mind, lest, while you hold me here, some destructive thing arise to your safety. For I myself have already learned not to fear: but I have begun to fear more for you. Permit, I beg, your priest to engage: we have an adversary who provokes;
for our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour, as the apostle said (1 Pet. 5:8). Without doubt he has received — he has received (we are not deceived, but are admonished) — power to tempt of this kind; lest perhaps by the wounds of my body I might be recalled from my intent upon the faith. You also have read that the devil tempted holy Job with many such things: at the last he sought and received power of this kind, that he might tempt his body, which he covered over with sores. 5. When the proposal was made that we should now hand over the vessels of the Church, I returned this answer: that if anything of my own were demanded — whether a field, or a house, or gold, or silver, whatever was of my own right — I would gladly offer it:
that from God's temple I could pluck nothing, nor hand over that which I had received to be guarded, not to be handed over. Then, that I was taking thought even for the emperor's own welfare; because it neither profited me to hand it over, nor him to receive it; let him receive the voice of a free priest: if he wishes to take counsel for himself, let him withdraw from doing injury to Christ. 6. These things are full of humility, and, as I think, full of that affection which a priest owes to the emperor. But because our wrestling is not only against flesh and blood, but also, what is more grievous, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness which are in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12), that tempter the devil increases the contest through his ministers, and judges that it must be tried out by the wounds of my body.
I know, brethren, that these wounds which we receive for Christ are not wounds by which life is lost, but is propagated. Permit, I beg, the contest to take place: it befits you to be spectators. Consider that if indeed a city has either an athlete or one skilled in some other noble art, it longs to present him for the contest. Why in greater matters do you reject what you have been wont to wish even in lesser? He fears not arms, fears not barbarians, who fears not death, who is held back by no pleasure of the flesh. 7. Surely, if the Lord has appointed us for this contest, in vain have you displayed so many nights and days of watchful guards and vigils: the will of Christ will be fulfilled. For omnipotent is our Lord Jesus, this is our faith;
and therefore what He commands to be done will be fulfilled: nor does it befit us to oppose the divine sentence. 8. You have heard what was read today: the Savior commanded through the apostles that the colt of an ass be brought to Him, and gave order that, if anyone should resist, it should be said: "The Lord has need of his service" (Luke 19:35). What if even now He has commanded that this colt of an ass — that is, of that animal which has been wont to carry a heavy burden, as is the human condition, to which it is said: "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you: take my yoke, for it is light" (Matt. 11:28) — what if, I say, He has commanded that this colt now be brought to Him, having sent those apostles who, now stripped of the body, bear that form of the Angels incomprehensible to our eyes?
Will they not, if anyone resists, say: "The Lord has need of his service"? If the desire of this life resists, if flesh and blood resist, if bodily intercourse resists; for to some perhaps we seem pleasing. But he who loves us here will love us much more, if he allows us to become a sacrifice to Christ; because to be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better: though to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes (Phil. 1:23). There is therefore nothing for you to fear, most beloved brethren; for I know that whatever I shall have suffered, I shall suffer for Christ. And I have read that I ought not to fear those who can kill the flesh. And I have heard Him saying: "He who shall have lost his soul for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 10:39). 9.
Therefore, if the Lord wills, it is certain that no one will withstand it. But if as yet He defers our contests, why do you fear? A servant of Christ is wont to be fenced in not by bodily guard, but by the Lord's providence. 10. You were troubled because you found the twin doors lying open, which a certain man, blind in his eyes, while seeking his own lodging, is reported to have thrown open. In which thing recognize that human guard avails nothing. Behold, one who had lost the gift of sight undid all your defenses and made sport of the guards: but the Lord did not lose the guard of His mercy. Was it not, as you remember, even two days before that this too was discovered, that an entrance on the left side of the basilica lay passable, which you had thought to be closed and fortified?
The armed men had indeed walled in the basilica, they were exploring these and those approaches: they were covered with blindness, so that they could not see what was open: and so through very many nights what was open you are not unaware of. Cease therefore to be anxious; for this will be what Christ commands, and what is expedient to be. 11. Finally, I will bring forth for you examples from the Law. Elisha was sought by the king of Syria, an army had been sent to capture him, he was surrounded on every side: his young servant began to fear; because he was a young servant, that is, he was not of a free mind and free power. The holy prophet asked that his eyes be opened, and said: "Look, and see how many more there are for us than against us." And he looked, and saw thousands of angels (2 Kings
6:14ff.). You have noticed, therefore, that the young servants of Christ are guarded rather by those who are not seen than by those who are seen. But even those, if they guard, guard summoned by your prayers: for you have read that those very men who were seeking Elisha entered Samaria to the very one whom they were eager to capture: to whom not only could they do no harm; but they were saved by the intercession of the very one against whom they had come. 12. Peter the apostle too gives you an example of both things (Acts 12:4ff.). For when Herod sought and seized him, he took him into prison; for the servant of God had not withdrawn, but had stood ignorant of fear. The Church prayed for him, but the apostle rested in prison, which is a sign of one not fearing.
An angel was sent who roused him as he slept, through whom Peter, led forth from prison, escaped death for the time. 13. The same Peter afterwards, having conquered Simon, when he was sowing the precepts of God among the people, teaching chastity, stirred up the spirits of the pagans: when they sought him, the Christian souls besought that he would withdraw for a little while. And although he was desirous of suffering, yet by the regard for the people's prayer he was bent; for he was asked to reserve himself for the instructing and confirming of the people. Why say more? By night he began to go out of the walls, and seeing Christ meet him at the gate and entering the city, he said: "Lord, whither goest thou?" Christ answered: "I come to be crucified again."
Peter understood that the divine answer pertained to his own cross; for Christ could not be crucified again, who had put off the flesh by the suffering of death undergone: for in that He died, He died to sin once; but in that He lives, He lives unto God (Rom. 6:10). Peter therefore understood that Christ was to be crucified again in His servant. And so of his own accord he returned; to the inquiring Christians he gave an answer, and at once seized, by his own cross he glorified the Lord Jesus. 14. You see, therefore, that Christ wills to suffer in His servants. What if to this servant too He says: "I will that he remain, but follow thou me" (John 21:22); and wills to taste the fruit from this tree?
For if His food was to do the will of the Father (John 4:34): likewise it is His food to feast upon our sufferings. Was it not, that we may take an example from the Lord Himself, that when He willed, He suffered: and when He was sought, He was found? But when the hour of His passion had not come (John 7:30), He passed through the midst of those seeking Him, and those who saw Him could not hold Him? Which surely plainly shows that, when the Lord wills, each one is found and seized: but that which He defers, even though it meet the eyes of those seeking, is not held. 15. Did I not therefore daily go forth, whether for the sake of visiting, or proceed to the martyrs? did I not pass the royal palace going and returning?
And yet no one held me, although they had the will to drive me out, as they afterward betrayed, saying: "Go out of the city, and depart whither you will." I was expecting, I confess, something great, either the sword for the name of Christ, or fire: but they offered me delights instead of sufferings; yet the athlete of Christ demands not delights, but his own sufferings. Let no one therefore trouble you, whether they have prepared a carriage, or the hard words, as seemed to himself, hurled from the very mouth of Auxentius, who calls himself a bishop. 16. Many were relating that assassins had been sent ahead, that the penalty of death had been decreed: yet neither do I fear those things, nor do I forsake these. For whither shall I go, where all things are not full of groaning and tears;
when throughout the Churches catholic priests are commanded to be cast out, those resisting to be struck with the sword, all the curials to be proscribed, unless they shall have fulfilled the mandate? And these things written by the hand of a bishop and dictated by his mouth, who, to prove himself most learned, did not omit an old example, for we read in the prophet that he saw a flying sickle (Zech. 5:1): imitating this, Auxentius has directed a flying sword through all the cities. And Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light, and imitates his power for evil (2 Cor. 11:14). 17. You, Lord Jesus, in one moment redeemed the world: shall Auxentius in one moment, so far as in him lies, butcher so many peoples, some by the sword, some by sacrilege? He seeks my basilica with a bloody mouth, with bloodstained hands.
To whom the present reading well replied: "But to the sinner God said: Why dost thou declare my justices?" (Ps. 49:16) that is, peace and fury do not agree, Christ and Belial do not agree (2 Cor. 6:15). You remember also what was read today concerning Naboth, the holy man, possessor of his vineyard, importuned by a royal petition that he should give over his vineyard; where the king, the vines being cut down, would sow a cheap vegetable, and that he answered: "Far be it from me that I should hand over the inheritance of my fathers"; that the king was grieved, because his own right was denied him by a just reply, that was another's, but he was deceived by a woman's counsel. Naboth defended his vines even with his own blood (1 Kings 21:1ff.).
If he did not hand over his vineyard, shall we hand over the Church of Christ? 18. What then was answered by me contumaciously? For I said when accosted: "Far be it from me that I should hand over the inheritance of Christ. If he did not hand over the inheritance of his fathers, shall I hand over the inheritance of Christ?" But I added also this: "Far be it that I should hand over the inheritance of the fathers" — that is, the inheritance of Dionysius, who died in exile in the cause of the faith, the inheritance of Eustorgius the confessor, the inheritance of Myrocles, and of all the faithful bishops of old. I answered what belongs to a priest: what belongs to the emperor, let the emperor do. Sooner will he take from me my life than my faith. 19. But to whom shall I hand it over?
The present reading of the Gospel ought to teach us what is sought, and from whom it is sought. For you have heard read that, when Christ sat upon the colt of an ass, the little children cried out, and the Jews bore it ill (Luke 19:35). Finally, they importuned the Lord Jesus, saying that He should make them be silent; He answered: "If these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out" (Ibid. 40). Then, having entered the temple, He cast out the money-changers, and the seats, and those selling doves in the temple of God. This reading indeed was recited by no arrangement of ours, but by chance: which is well fitted to the present times. Always, therefore, the praises of Christ are the scourgings of the faithless. And now, when Christ is praised, the heretics say that sedition is stirred up:
the heretics say that death was being prepared for them; and indeed they have death in the praises of Christ. For how can they bear His praises, whose weakness they proclaim? And so today too, when Christ is praised, the madness of the Arians is scourged. 20. The Gerasenes could not bear the presence of Christ (Luke 8:37); these men, worse than the Gerasenes, cannot endure even the praising of Christ. They see the children singing together the glory of Christ; for it is written: "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise" (Ps. 8:3). They mock that tender age full of faith, when they say: "Behold, what do they cry out?" But Christ answered them: "If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out" (Luke
19:35) — that is, the stronger will cry out, the young men too will cry out, and the riper will cry out, and the old will cry out: these stones already made solid unto that Stone, of which it is written: "The stone which the builders rejected, this is become the head of the corner" (Ps. 117:22). 21. Invited therefore by these praises, Christ enters His temple, and takes up the scourge, and casts the money-changers out of the temple (John 2:15). For He does not suffer in His temple home-bred slaves of money, He does not suffer in His temple those who would sell the seats. What are the seats, but honors? What are the doves, but simple minds, or souls following a faith candid and pure? Shall I then bring into the temple him whom Christ shuts out?
For he is commanded to go out who sells dignities and honors: he is commanded to go out who wishes to sell the simple minds of the faithful. 22. Therefore Auxentius is cast out, Mercurinus is shut out. There is one monster, two names. For lest it be known who he was, he changed his appellation; so that, because here there had been Auxentius the Arian bishop, he called himself Auxentius, to deceive the common people whom that man had held. He changed his appellation, then, but he did not change his faithlessness: he put off the wolf, but he put on the wolf. It profits nothing that he changed his name: what he is, is recognized. He was called by one name in the regions of Scythia, by another he is called here: he has names according to the regions. He has therefore already two names; and if he proceed hence to another place, he will have a third also.
For how will he endure that there should remain to him a name marking so great a crime? He committed lesser deeds in Scythia, and yet he so blushed for them that he changed his name. Here he has dared more wicked things; and will he be willing, wherever he goes, to be betrayed by his own name? Will he write with his own hand the blood of so many peoples, and be able to stand firm in mind? 23. The Lord Jesus shut a few out of His temple; Auxentius has left no one. From His temple Jesus casts out with a scourge, Auxentius with the sword; Jesus with a scourge, Mercurinus with the axe. The merciful Lord drives out the sacrilegious with a scourge; the wicked man persecutes the godly with the sword. Of which you well said today: 「Let him carry off his own laws with him.」 He will carry them, even if he is unwilling; he will carry his own conscience, even though he does not carry a written document.