Letters 1-9

1. Following the Emperor in Spirit and Prayer

Affection has not been lacking in me, most Christian of princes; for I have nothing which I could say more truly and more gloriously than this: I say, affection has not been lacking in me, but modesty held back my affection from hastening to meet your clemency. Yet if I did not meet you on the road as you returned, I met you in spirit, I met you in vow, in which are the greater duties of a priest. Did I say I met you? For when was I absent, I who followed you with my whole affection, to whom I clung with sense and mind? And truly the presence of souls is greater. I read of your daily journey, day and night placed in your camp by care and by sense, I set forth the watches of prayers: and though weak in merit, yet zealous in affection.

2. Thanks for the Restored Peace of the Church

And indeed, when we offered these things for your welfare, we were doing them for ourselves. There is nothing of flattery in this, which you do not require, and I hold to be foreign to our office: but very much of the grace which you have given. He himself, the judge of us, whom you confess, and in whom you piously believe, knows that my inmost being is refreshed by your faith, your welfare, your glory: and that I owe prayers not only by public duty, but also by private love. For you have restored to me the quiet of the Church, you have closed the mouths of the faithless, and would that also their hearts: and this you have done with no less authority of faith than of power.

3. The Emperor's Own Hand Compared to Abraham

For what shall I say of your recent letter? You wrote the whole letter with your own hand; so that the very characters might speak your faith and piety. So once Abraham with his own hand slew a calf, that he might minister to his guests as they feasted: nor in a religious ministry did he seek the help of others. But he, a private man, offered service either to the Lord and the angels, or to the Lord in the angels: you, O Emperor, by royal condescension honor the lowest priest. But it is to the Lord that honor is paid, when a little servant is honored; for he himself said: What you have done to one of the least of these, you have done to me.

4. The Emperor's Faith That Christ Is No Creature

But I proclaim only humility as sublime in an emperor, and no more; for you have spoken faith with a mind truly conscious of your merit, than which faith has he not taught you, whom you do not deny? For who else could have taught you not to cast upon him the creaturehood which you see in yourself? Nothing could have been said more fitting, nothing more express; for to call Christ a creature is for the purpose of an insult, not of a confession of reverence. Then what is so insolent as to think him to be what we are? You have taught me, then, you who profess to wish to learn from me: I have not yet read such a thing, I have not heard such a thing.

5. Praising the Son Without Fear of Envy

How pious, moreover, how admirable it is, that you do not fear envy in God! You presume a reward from the Father for love of the Son, and in praising the Son, you profess that you cannot add anything to him: but that you wish also to commend yourself to the Father by the proclamation of the Son. Which surely only he taught you who said: He who loves me shall be loved by my Father.

6. Weakness Made Strong in Christ

You added to this, that you, weak and fragile, did not consider yourself such a praiser as to increase divinity by words: but that you proclaim as much as you are able, not as much as the divinity itself is. This weakness is stronger in Christ, just as the Apostle also said: When I am weak, then I am powerful. This humility excludes frailty.

7. Sending Two Books on the Holy Spirit

I shall come indeed, and I shall hasten, as you bid; that I may hear these things present, that I may read these things present, when they proceed from your own mouth. I have sent, however, two little books, of which, since they have already been approved by your clemency, I shall not fear the peril; but concerning the Spirit I ask meanwhile for indulgence in the writing; since I have recognized what judge I shall have of my discourse.

8. The Emperor's Faith Extended to the Holy Spirit

Meanwhile, however, your judgment and faith concerning the Lord and Savior, drawn from the Son of God, redounds to a most abundant assertion, through which the eternal divinity of the Holy Spirit also may be believed; so that you do not cast upon him the creaturehood which you see in yourself, nor think that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ envies his own Spirit. For that which lacks communion with creaturehood is divine.

9. Honoring the Spirit by His Own Name

If the Lord shall favor it, I shall satisfy this will of your clemency also; so that him whose grace you have received, you may esteem, being preeminent in the glory of God, as one to be honored by his own name.

10. A Closing Prayer for the Emperor's Reign

May almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, deign to keep you most blessed and most flourishing through a long lifetime, and to confirm your kingdom in the highest glory and perpetual peace, lord Emperor Augustus, chosen by divine judgment, most glorious of princes.

Ambrose to Constantius.

1. The Church as a Ship Amid the Storm

You have taken up the office of the priesthood, and sitting at the stern of the Church, you steer the ship against the waves. Hold fast the rudder of faith, that the heavy storms of this age may not be able to disturb you. The sea indeed is great and spacious, but do not fear; for he himself founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers. Thus not without reason, among so many straits of the world, the Church of the Lord, as if built upon the apostolic rock, remains immovable, and persists upon an unshaken foundation against the assault of the raging sea. It is washed by the waves, not shaken: and although the elements of this world frequently dash against it and rebound with great crashing, yet it has that which may receive those laboring, the safest harbor of salvation.

2. Rivers of the Spirit and the Voice of Preaching

But yet, even if it is tossed on the sea, it runs in rivers; and see that it is not more in those rivers of which it is said: The rivers have lifted up their voice. For there are rivers which shall flow from the belly of him who has received drink from Christ, and has taken from the Spirit of God. These rivers, then, when they overflow with spiritual grace, lift up their voice. There is also a river which runs down upon his saints like a torrent. There is also the rush of a river which gladdens the soul that is peaceful and tranquil. From the fulness of this river whoever has received, as did John the Evangelist, as did Peter and Paul, lifts up his voice: and just as the apostles poured forth the voice of evangelical preaching with resounding proclamation even to all the ends of the world; so also this man begins to evangelize the Lord Jesus. Receive, then, from Christ, that your sound too may go forth.

3. The Sea of Scripture and Its Many Streams

The sea is divine Scripture, having in itself profound meanings, and the depth of prophetic enigmas: into which sea very many rivers have entered. There are, then, also sweet and clear streams, there are also snowy springs, which leap up unto eternal life: there are also good words, like honeycombs of honey: and pleasing sentences, which irrigate the souls of hearers with a certain spiritual draught, and soothe them with the sweetness of moral precepts. Diverse, then, are the streams of the divine Scriptures. You have what you may drink first, you have what second, you have what last.

4. Gathering and Pouring Out the Water of Scripture

Gather the water of Christ, that which praises the Lord. Gather the water from many places, which the prophetic clouds pour forth. Whoever gathers water from the mountains, and draws it to himself, or draws from fountains, he himself also becomes dew like the clouds. Fill, then, the bosom of your mind; that your earth may be moist, and be irrigated with domestic fountains. He, then, who reads much and understands, is filled: he who has been filled, waters others; and therefore Scripture says: If the clouds be filled, they will pour rain upon the earth.

5. Words as Goads for the Wavering

Let your words be flowing, let them be pure and clear; so that through moral discourse you may pour sweetness into the ears of the peoples, and by the grace of your words soothe the plebs; so that willingly they may follow where you lead. But if there is some obstinacy in the people, or in certain persons, or some fault, let your words be of such a kind that they goad the hearer, that they prick the ill-conscienced: For the words of the wise are like goads. The Lord Jesus also goaded Saul, when he was a persecutor. Consider how salutary was the goad, which made an apostle out of a persecutor, saying: It is hard for you to kick against the goad.

6. Words Like Milk for the Weak

There are also words like milk, which Paul poured out to the Corinthians; for those who cannot feast on stronger food, he exercises their infancy with the juice of milk suited to their capacity.

7. Words as Medicine for Wounded Souls

Let your addresses be full of understanding. Whence also Solomon says: The lips of the wise are weapons of understanding; and elsewhere: Let your lips be bound with sense, that is, let the manifestation of your words shine forth, let understanding gleam, and let your address and treatise not need the assertion of another: but let your speech, as it were with its own weapons, defend itself, nor let any word of yours go forth in vain, and proceed without sense. For there is a bandaging which is wont to bind up the wounds of souls; which if anyone rejects, he betrays his own despaired-of salvation. And therefore, concerning those who are afflicted with a grievous sore, use the oil of speech, whereby you may soften the hardness of mind: apply the poultice, add the bandage of a salutary precept; that those wavering and fluctuating in faith, or in the observance of discipline, you may by no means allow to perish through a loosened mind and slackened vigor.

8. A Call to Renounce Fornication and Uncleanness

Admonish, then, the people of the Lord, and beseech them, that they may abound in good works, renounce disgraceful deeds, not kindle the fires of flames, I do not say on the sabbath, but at every time; lest it burn its own body: let fornication and uncleanness not be among God's little servants; because we serve the immaculate Son of God. Let each one know himself, and possess his own vessel, by which, once the soil of his own body has been subdued, he may await the due fruits, nor let his earth bring forth for him thorns and thistles, but let him too say: The earth has given her fruits; and in this once thorny frailty of passions let the grafted shoots of virtues flourish.

9. Good Works Done Without a Witness

Teach also and instruct, that they do what is good, and let each one not omit a praiseworthy work, whether it is seen by many, or is without a witness; for conscience, a wealthy witness, abounds sufficiently for itself.

10. The Judgment of One's Own Conscience

Let him also flee evil reproaches; even if he believes he cannot be convicted. For even if he be enclosed by walls, and covered by darkness, without witness, without confidant; yet he has a judge of the deed, whom nothing escapes, to whom all deeds cry out. Indeed even the voice of blood cried out. Each one has himself and his own mind as a severe judge of himself, an avenger of crime, and a punisher of guilt. Indeed, fearing and trembling, Cain wandered about, paying the penalties of his parricidal crime; so that his own death was a remedy for him, which through death freed the wandering exile from the dreaded terror of death at every moment. 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 fear.

11. On Avarice and True Riches

Nor let him covet very much, since even a little is very much to him; for poverty and wealth are terms of want and of sufficiency. Nor is he rich who lacks something; nor is he poor who lacks nothing. Nor let anyone despise a widow, defraud an orphan, cheat his neighbor. For woe to him who has gathered substance by deceit, and builds a city in blood, that is, his own soul! For it is this that is built like a city. This city avarice does not build, but destroys; lust does not build it, but burns and consumes it. Do you wish to build a city well? Better is a little with the fear of God, than great treasures without fear. A man's riches ought to serve for the redemption of his soul, not for its destruction. And treasure is redemption, if one uses it well; and again it is a snare, if one does not know how to use it. For what is money to a man, but a kind of provision for the journey?

Much is a burden, a moderate amount is useful. We are travelers of this life; many walk, but one must pass through well; for with him who passes through well is the Lord Jesus. And so you read: If you pass through water, I am with you; the rivers shall not close over you, nor shall the fire burn your garments, if you pass through. But he who binds fire to his own body—the fire of lust, the fire of immoderate desire—does not pass through, but burns up this wrapping of his soul. A good reputation is more excellent than money, and good favor is above all heaps of silver. Faith itself is sufficient unto itself, rich enough and more than enough with its own worth. To the wise man too, nothing is foreign, except what is unsuited to virtue; wherever he arrives, he will find all things his own. The whole world is his possession, since he uses the whole of it as if it were his own.

12. Defrauding the Hired Laborer's Wages

Why then is a brother cheated? Why is a hired laborer defrauded? Not great, he says, are the gains from the wage of a harlot, that is, of this slippery fragility. This harlot is not one particular person, but public; not one woman, but every wandering desire is a harlot. Every perfidy, every deceit is a harlot—not only she who has prostituted her body, but every soul which sells its hope, which seeks base gains and degenerate alms. And we too are hired laborers, who work for wages, and we hope for the wage of this our work from our Lord and God. If anyone wishes to know how we are hired laborers, let him hear one saying: How many hired servants of my father abound with bread, while I here perish with hunger; and further on: Make me, he says, as one of your hired servants.

All are hired laborers, all are workers; yet he who expects the fruit of labor should consider that he who has defrauded another of due wages will himself be defrauded of his own. This debt taken on interest offends, and afterward will be paid back with a more heaped-up measure. Therefore let him who does not wish to lose what is everlasting not snatch from another what is temporal.

13. The Deceitful Balance of Words

Let no one also speak in deceit to his neighbor. There is a snare in our lips, and often each one is not freed by his own words, but entangled. The mouth of the malevolent is a deep pit: a great precipice is innocence, but greater is that of malevolence. The innocent man, while he believes easily, falls quickly; but nevertheless that fall rises again: but the slanderer is cast down by his own devices, whence he never leaps out or escapes. Let each one, therefore, weigh his words, not with fraud and deceit: A deceitful balance is disapproved before God—I do not mean that balance which weighs another's merchandise (and even in cheap matters deceitful flesh costs dear), but the very balance of words is execrable before God, which pretends the weight of sober gravity, and beneath it hides the cunning of fraud. This God condemns most of all, if anyone deceives his neighbor by the kindness of promises, and oppresses him, drained by crafty iniquity, gaining nothing for himself by the arts of his own cunning.

For what does it profit a man, if he gain the riches of the whole world, but defraud his own soul of the wages of eternal life?

14. The Balance of Sins and Good Deeds

There is another balance to be considered by pious minds, by which the deeds of each are weighed, in which often, for judgment, sins outweigh, or good deeds outweigh sins. Woe to me, if crimes go first, and tip the scale with deadly weight toward the sentence of death! It is more tolerable if all things follow after, yet manifest to the Lord: and even before judgment neither can good things lie hidden, nor those things which are full of offense be concealed.

15. Cutting Off the Root of Avarice

How blessed is he who has been able to cut off the root of vices, avarice! Such a one will certainly not dread this balance. For avarice generally dulls the human senses, and perverts opinions, so that they think gain is piety, and money as it were the wage of prudence. But the great wage of piety, and the gain of sobriety, is to have what is enough for use. For what benefit in this world are the superfluities of riches, since in them there is neither any help for being born, nor any hindrance to dying? For we are born into this world without covering, and depart without provision for the way, and are buried without inheritance.

16. The Balance of Merits at Judgment

The balance of merits hangs for each of us, and often it is tipped this way and that by small weights, whether of good work or of degenerate crime: if evil things prevail, woe is me! If good, forgiveness is at hand. For no one is free from sin: but where good things outweigh, sins are lifted up, overshadowed, covered. Therefore on the day of judgment either our own works will help us, or they themselves will plunge us into the depths, as if pressed down by a millstone. For heavy, as if propped up by a leaden weight, is iniquity; intolerable is avarice, and all pride, foul fraudulence. 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, without hindrance.

17. The Wealth of Sincere Speech

Good also is the sincerity of pure speech, and it is wealthy before God, even if it walks among snares; yet because it knows not how to weave traps or bonds for another, it is not itself bound.

18. True Humility Distinguished from False Humility

This too is especially important, if you persuade them to know how to be humbled, to know the true color of humility, to know its nature. Many have the appearance of humility, but do not have the virtue; many display it outwardly, and inwardly fight against it: they put it forward as a paint, but disown it as truth, and deny it as grace: For there is one who humbles himself wickedly, and his interior is full of deceit. And there is one who submits himself excessively out of much humility. Therefore there is no humility except without paint, without deceit. That is true humility which has the pious sincerity of mind. Great is its virtue. For indeed through the disobedience of one man death entered in, and through the obedience of the one Lord Jesus Christ the redemption of all was accomplished.

19. Joseph's Humility in Egyptian Slavery

Holy Joseph knew how to be humbled, who, though sold into slavery by his brothers, or bought by merchants, humbled in fetters, as Scripture says, learned the virtue of humility, and rejected weakness. And so, bought in the parts of Egypt by a servant of the king, the chief of the cooks, he did not, out of consciousness of noble lineage, as if a shoot of the Abrahamites, disdain servile duties, nor scorn a degenerate condition; but rather showed himself diligent and faithful to his master's command, aiming with lofty purpose that it made no difference in what state one proved oneself approved; but that this was the end of good things, that they be approved in whatever state; and that this was the chief point, if character commended the state, rather than the state the character. For the lower the state, the more eminent the virtue. Such, then, did he show himself, so diligent, that his master entrusted his whole house to him, and committed all things to him.

20. Joseph Resists the Advances of Potiphar's Wife

Whence his master's wife also cast her eyes upon him, captivated by the charm of his form; for it is nothing to us if by wanton eyes age is sought after, or beauty. Let art be absent, there is no crime in comeliness; let allurement be gone, and the appearance and grace of form are inoffensive. So she, roused and raging in mind, accosts the young man, and, compelled by lust, overcome by the goads of passion, confesses her crime.

But he abjures the offense, saying that it accords neither with the customs of the Hebrews, nor with their laws, that they should violate another's marriage-bed—they whose care it is to guard chastity; that those who are pure in marriage should be joined to pure virgins, nor should any woman be fitting for a man who does not know the lawful use of the marriage bed; and that it was a matter of religion to him, lest, drunk with shameful intemperance, ungrateful for his master's kindness, he should inflict grave insult on him to whom he owed obedience.

21. Joseph's Steadfast Refusal Despite Renewed Temptation

Did he blush to call that man his master, low as he was, and to confess himself a slave? Indeed, when the woman pressed him, even beseeching for fear of betrayal, or pouring out tears of her own love in order to extort consent, he was not bent by pity to consent to the crime, nor compelled by fear, nor did he yield to threats, preferring perilous honesty to rewards, rather than shameful recompense to chaste modesty. Again too, the woman, assailing him with greater attempts, when she perceived him unbending, immovable even a second time, with fierce passion and shamelessness lending her strength, assails the young man, seizing his garment, drawing him toward the bed, offering embrace: and she had almost caught him, had not Joseph stripped off the garment by which he was held; lest he should strip off the mantle of humility, the garment of modesty.

22. Joseph's Imprisonment as a Type of Christ

He knew, then, how to be humbled, who was humbled even to prison; and when he endured a false accusation, he preferred to undergo a false charge, rather than report the truth. He knew, I say, how to be humbled, because he was humbled for virtue's sake. He was humbled as a type of him who was to humble himself even unto death, death upon the cross: who was to come, to raise up this life from sleep, and to teach that this manner of living is a dream, in which the diverse changes of fortune, like drunken things, and nothing solid, nothing firm—like the dream of one sleeping, seeing we do not see, and hearing we do not hear, and eating we are not satisfied, rejoicing we do not rejoice, running we do not arrive. Vain are the hopes of men in this world, who think that the things which are not, as though they were, are to be pursued.

And so empty and vacant appearances of things have come as in a dream, and gone; have stood by, and vanished. They are spread about and scattered, seem to be held, and are not held. At last, where one has heard him saying: Rise, you who sleep, and has risen from the sleep of this age, he has understood all these things to be false: he has awakened, and the dream has fled, power has fled, care for patrimony has departed, the charm of beauty, the pursuit of honors. For these are dreams, by which those who are awake in heart are not moved; but those who sleep are troubled by them.

23. Joseph's Reversals Show the Instability of Fortune

Holy Joseph pledges surety for this saying of mine, that the things of this age are not perpetual nor lasting, he who from the beginning was noble by birth, rich in wealth, suddenly became an ignoble little slave, and (what embitters the very baseness of servitude) a chattel bought with the money of a degenerate master. For it is thought less base to serve a free man: but servitude is doubled where one serves house-born slaves. So he was a slave from illustrious lineage, poor from a rich father, brought from love to hatred, from favor to punishment; again from prison to the palace, from accusation to judgment; and he was neither broken by adversity, nor puffed up by prosperity.

24. David's Changing Fortunes and the Good of Humility

The frequently changing condition of holy David too attests that the turns of things are but momentary—he who was despised by his father, precious to God; noble by triumph, base by envy, summoned to royal service, chosen for kinship by marriage, at last, his face and countenance changed, an exile from the kingdom, fleeing from parricide, now bewailing his own stumblings, and again removing those of others, made more noble by the reconciled heir than disgraced by him. Having experienced all things, therefore, he said beautifully: It is good for me that I have been humbled.

25. Christ's Humility as the Pattern for All

Although this too may be referred to him who, being in the form of God, could easily have bent the heavens; yet he descended, and taking the form of a servant, bore our infirmities: who, foreseeing his saints, did not, as it were, seize as a robbery his own proper honor; but subjected himself to his equals, and preferred others to himself, and said: It is good for me that I have been humbled. It is good for me that I have subjected myself; that all things may be subject to me, and God may be all in all. Pour this humility into the minds of each, and offer yourself as a pattern to all, saying: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.

26. True Wealth Found in Care for the Poor

Let them learn to seek the riches of good works, and to be wealthy in character. The beauty of riches lies not in the purses of the wealthy, but in the sustenance of the poor. In those weak and needy ones wealth shines the better. Let the wealthy therefore learn to seek not their own things, but those which are Christ's; that Christ too may seek them out, that he may lavish his own upon them. He has expended his blood for them, he pours out upon them his Spirit, he offers them his kingdom. What more shall he give, who has offered himself? Or what is there that the Father will not give, who for us delivered his only Son to death? Admonish them therefore to serve the Lord in sobriety and grace, to raise the eyes with the whole diligence of the mind to heavenly things, to place nothing among gains except what pertains to eternal life; for all this gain of the present age is a loss of souls.

In fine, he suffered the loss of all things who wished to gain Christ; and although he spoke marvelously, he yet expressed less than he had received. For he spoke of things belonging to another, but Christ said: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself; that he himself may be his own loss, whereby the gain of Christ may come to be. All these things are fleeting, with loss, without gain: that alone is gain where the fruit is perpetual, where the reward is of eternal rest.

27. Commending the Church of Forum Cornelii

I commend to you, my son, the Church which is at Forum Cornelii, that you may visit it more frequently, being nearby, until a bishop is ordained for it. Being occupied with the approaching days of Lent, I am not able to travel so far.

28. Warning Against Arian Teaching Among the Illyrians

You have there Illyrians from the evil teaching of the Arians; beware of their tares: let them not draw near to the faithful, let not the adulterous seeds creep in; let them consider what has befallen them on account of their own perfidy, let them keep quiet, that they may follow the true faith. Minds imbued with the poisons of infidelity can hardly wipe away the glue of their impiety; and if the unhappy virus has taken deep root in them, you should not think they are easily to be believed. For it is a sinew, and as it were a limb, of wisdom, not to believe rashly, especially in a matter of faith, which is rarely perfect in men.

29. Patience Toward Those Wavering in Faith

Yet if there is one who, though of suspected weakness and a wavering disposition, wishes to clear the opinion held of him, permit him to think that he has given satisfaction; grant a little indulgence; for he whose satisfaction is refused has his mind turned away. For even the skilled physicians, when they see marked illnesses, as they themselves call them, do not indeed apply medicine at once; but nonetheless they await the time for medicine, and do not abandon the weak one, but soothe him with gentler words, or with whatever soothing means they can, lest the illness, if neglected, grow worse through despair of mind, or, being too raw, reject the medicine—since it cannot come to maturity if the physician lays unaccustomed hands on things not yet ripened in this way. For indeed even a fruit, when shaken while unripe, quickly perishes.

30. Guarding Boundary Rights and Neighborly Goodwill

And since we have taken an example from the field, instruct them to preserve inviolate the rights of boundary, to guard the ancestral limits, which the Law protects. Above brotherly charity there is often the favor of a neighbor; for the brother is often far away, but this one is near, a witness of one's whole life, an arbiter of one's conduct. Let it delight him that his free cattle range over the neighboring spaces, and, cast upon the green grass, snatch a carefree leisure.

31. Masters and Servants as Partakers of One Household

Let the master also hold his servants, though subject by the right of servitude, as partakers of his soul, with a measure of restraint. For he is called the father of the household, that he may rule as it were sons; since he himself also is a servant of God, and calls the Lord of heaven, the moderator of all powers, his Father. Farewell, and love us, as you do; for we love you.

Ambrose to Felix.

1. Thanks for a Gift of Truffles

You sent me truffles, indeed of amazing size, so that they were a marvel for being so large. I did not wish to hide them in my bosom, as they say, but preferred to show them to others as well. So I sent part to my friends, and kept part for myself.

2. A Complaint Over a Friend's Long Absence

A sweet gift, yet not so powerful as to suppress the complaint I rightly raised, that you who love us for so long a time by no means come to visit us again. And beware hereafter lest you find greater truffles of sorrow. For there is a different reckoning of this name; for as they are pleasing as a gift, so in the body and in feeling they are troublesome. Obtain from yourself that I may not grieve at your absence; for the cause of my agitation is longing for you. Bring it about, if you can, to be less pleasing.

3. A Playful Appeal for a Visit

I have set forth the matter, I have proved the case. That javelin-tipped sentence, no mere foot-soldier's, must now be hurled. You feared, certainly; but see how I am moved, that it delights me to jest. Yet do not excuse yourself afterward; for although this excuse of yours is, so to speak, tributary to me, it judges badly of you, nor better of me, if you think either that your absence must be compensated for by gifts, or that I am to be bought off by gifts. Farewell, and love us who love you.

Ambrose to Felix, greeting.

1. Rejoicing at News of an Approaching Ordination Anniversary

Although I was in poor bodily condition, yet when I read the discourse of your heart, one with mine, I received no small grace toward recovering, as though refreshed by a certain pennyroyal of your address; at the same time because you announced that a day famous for us both is approaching, on which you took up the helm of the highest priesthood, of which I was speaking a moment ago with our brother Bassianus. For a conversation arose about the dedication of the basilica which he built in the name of the Apostles, and this gave occasion to this discourse; since he indicated that he was earnestly seeking the presence of your holiness.

2. A Pledge to Attend the Anniversary Celebration

Then I wove into our talk your birthday, which would fall at the very beginning of the kalends of November; and, if I am not mistaken, it has drawn near, and is to be celebrated tomorrow; wherefore hereafter you will have no excuse. I promised, then, on your behalf, since you likewise have this liberty concerning me: I promised it to him, I exact it of myself; for I have taken it for granted that you will be present, because you ought to be present. My promise, then, will not bind you more than your own resolve, since you have put it into your mind to do what is fitting. You see, then, that it was not so much as one bold in promising, but as one confident of you, that I pledged myself to my brother. Come, then, lest you convict two bishops: yourself, for not having been present; and me, for having promised so readily.

3. Prayers Exchanged for the Anniversary Day

We shall accompany your birthday with our prayers, and do not forget us in your own petitions. Our spirit will go with you; and you also, when you enter the second tabernacle, which is called the holy of holies, do as we are accustomed, that you bring us in with you also. When with your spirit you kindle that golden censer, do not leave us out; for it is the very one that is in the second tabernacle, from which your prayer, full of wisdom, rises like incense toward the heavenly places.

4. The Ark and Its Furnishings as Symbols of Christ

There is the Ark of the Testament covered on every side with gold, that is, the teaching of Christ, the teaching of the wisdom of God. There is the golden jar holding manna; namely, the receptacle of spiritual nourishment, and the storehouse of divine knowledge. There is the rod of Aaron, the emblem of priestly grace. It had withered before, but flowered again in Christ. There are the Cherubim above the tablets of the Testament, the knowledge of sacred reading. There is the mercy-seat, above which on high is God the Word, the image of the invisible God, who says to you: I will speak with you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two Cherubim; for thus he speaks with us, so that we may understand his word: or because he speaks not worldly things but things intelligible, as he says: I will open my mouth in parables.

For where Christ is, there is everything, there is his teaching, there is the remission of sins, there is grace, there is the separation of the dead from the living.

5. Christ as Mediator Between Death and Life

And Aaron indeed stood once in their midst, interposing himself, so that death might not pass over to the ranks of the living from the funerals of the dead. But this one, as it were the Word, always stands in each individual, he whom we do not see, separating within us the rational virtues from the corpses of deadly passions and pestilent thoughts. He stands as one who has come into this world, to blunt the sting of death, to close up its devouring maw, to give to the living the eternity of grace, to grant to the dead the resurrection.

6. Exhortation to Guard the Trust of Ordination

To him you serve as a soldier the good warfare, his deposit you guard, his money you put out at interest, according to what is written: You shall lend to nations at interest. Good is the interest of spiritual grace, which the Lord at his coming will exact with usury; and when he finds that you have well administered it, he will give you more for less; and it will be the sweetest fruit to me, that my judgment concerning you will be proved right. The ordination will not be blamed which you received through the laying on of my hands, and the blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do, then, a good work, that on that day you may find your reward, and that I may find rest in you, and you in me.

7. The Scarcity of Laborers in Christ's Harvest

The harvest of Christ is great, but the laborers few; and it is hard to find those who will help. This indeed is an old saying: but the Lord is powerful, who may send laborers into his harvest. Certainly in that congregation of Como many have already begun to believe under your instruction, and by your teaching have received the word of God: but he who gave believers will also give helpers; whereby both the necessity of your excusing yourself for visiting us too late may be removed from you, and a more frequent grace of your presence may be poured back upon me. Farewell, and love us, as you do.

Ambrose to Syagrius.

1. Defending the Judgment in Zeno's Virgin's Case

That care must be taken lest our dearest people of Verona speak ill of our judgment, you have set forth in your own letters. I do not think that will be the case; certainly they are not accustomed to do so.

Or if they do speak ill, of what they are accustomed to speak ill is beyond doubt clear: since they come here exasperated, and return to you peaceful; especially since this judgment of ours proceeded in consultation with our brothers and fellow-priests, whereas you have thought this judgment must be claimed by yourself alone, without the counsel of any brother; in which matter, however, before judgment you have made a prejudgment, in that you think that the maiden of Zeno of holy memory, approved by his judgment, and sanctified by his blessing, after so many years, without an author of accusation, without an accuser, without one who declares the charge, should be led into the peril of a criminal charge; against whom envy has been woven together by vain persons, by heretics, as they themselves wish, by base persons, through crime, through avarice, through intemperance, by those seeking freedom for their own wrongdoing; by those, in short, who had been cast out and expelled from her house, because they were weaving works of a different color from those which they had displayed at first under the pretense of their profession.

2. Objecting to Judging a Virgin Without Accusers

Such accusers, such witnesses you were setting up in your court, who dared neither to accuse, nor to bind themselves by the obligation of a formal charge; and thus you were arranging for a virgin, whom no one accused, no one denounced, to be handed over to inspection. Where is this solemnity of a hearing? Where is such a form of judging? If we consult the public laws, they require an accuser; if the Church's, it says: By two or three witnesses every word shall stand: but by those witnesses who were not enemies before yesterday and the day before; lest, being angry, they wish to do harm, lest, having been injured, they wish to take revenge.

3. The Need for Unbiased Witnesses, the Example of Susanna

An unoffended disposition of witnesses is therefore sought; yet in such a way that the accuser first comes forward publicly. Those very elders of the Jews first laid their hands upon the head of Susanna, and professed the accusation, and likewise added the authority of testimony, which the people, set under error, had imprudently accepted: but almighty God, by divine judgment through the prophet, unveiled and refuted it; so that it might be clear to all that they wished to sow envy in advance against the peril of an innocent woman, since they lacked the argument of accusation and the support of proof, reckoning namely that if envy, having preoccupied the ears of the crowd, should assail the mind, it would bring a prejudgment upon the examining of the truth. For indeed when things heard beforehand anticipate, they block the ear, they occupy the mind, so that proof is not sought, and rumor is held as though the crime were already convicted.

4. Maximus Abandons His Accusation

We, therefore, demanded an accuser, and thought that Maximus, the author of this whole drama, must be pressed. But he abandoned by formal profession the accusation which he had zealously fashioned and had brought forward in word; and yet he pressed it in feeling, he pursued it by artifice, but he fled from the name of it, because he distrusted proof. Finally, by scattering rumors, and even by composed and dispatched letters, he sought to sharpen the odium of the accusation; but the integrity of the accused could by no means be overwhelmed or circumvented. For if he had had proofs, your sentence would never have demanded an inspection.

5. Objecting to Physical Inspection of a Virgin

What, then, this means, and to what end you thought a midwife must be employed, I cannot understand. Shall it therefore be free for everyone to accuse, and, when they have failed of proof, shall it lie open for them to seek an inspection of the genital secrets, and shall consecrated virgins always be condemned to mockeries of this kind, which are horror and shame both to see and to hear? Finally, there is no small shame even in your letters at the attempted expression. Things, then, which cannot resound in the ears of others without harm to modesty—can these be attempted upon a virgin without harm to her modesty?

6. Modesty, Not Inspection, Proves a Virgin's Integrity

You have found for yourself a cheap slave, an impudent little house-servant girl—why do you not abuse her shame-faced office, and expose her modesty; since especially nothing is more sacred in a virgin than modesty? For a sacred virgin is not sought after merely that she be intact in body, but that her modesty remain unimpaired in all things. The virgin of the Lord relies on her own supports for the proof of herself, nor does she need dowries from others in order to prove herself a virgin: and it is not the inspection of hidden and concealed things, but a modesty open to the view of all, that vouches for her integrity. She is not pleasing to God whom the gravity of her own character does not prove; she is not approved by the Lord who needs the testimony of a single midwife—a testimony which is very often procured for a price.

Does she then seem to you a reliable witness to faith, who can both be bribed and be deceived: so that she may either excuse the accused and cover up the crime, or be ignorant of it and be unable to detect the offense?

7. Against Requiring Bodily Examination of Virgins

Nor indeed do I think that just which you set down in your letter, namely that unless integrity be inspected, it is imperiled and fluctuates in uncertainty about itself. Are all women then, who have not been inspected, thereby exposed to danger regarding their modesty? Are then those about to marry to be inspected beforehand, so that they may marry as more proven? Are then those who are to be veiled to be subjected beforehand to handling of this kind—for they are not visited, but handled—and is it, according to your judgment, more correct that one not yet approved be inspected than one already consecrated?

8. The Unreliable Testimony of Midwives

What of the fact that even the chief physicians themselves say that the reliability of such inspection cannot be clearly established, and that this was the opinion of the ancient teachers of medicine themselves? We too have learned this by experience, that variance has often arisen among midwives, and questions have been raised; so that there was more doubt about her who offered herself to be inspected than about her who was not inspected. Indeed we have learned this by a very recent example: for a certain woman of servile condition, inspected and rejected at Altinum, was afterward at Milan—not indeed by my order, but by the will of Nicentius, a former tribune and notary, her lord and patron—visited by a most skilled and well-off woman practiced in this art; and although both these conditions were present, so that neither the poverty of the midwife made her testimony suspect, nor lack of skill her ignorance, still the question remains unresolved.

9. The Futility and Danger of Repeated Inspection

What good then was it for her to be inspected, since the condemnation still stands? For as anyone pleases, he will assert either that the midwife was unskilled, or that she was bribed; so the wrong done by the inspection is without any effect. What then will happen? As often as someone arises who does not believe, will the virgin be handled that many times? For if ever she refuses to be visited, according to your assertion she will thereby confess to the crime. And it is easier for her to deny what she never did than what she did. So midwives will be varied, lest one of them be suspected and favor be sought again. There will thus be among many—though even in great cities the practice of this kind of examination belongs to few—there will be, I say, either a malicious or an unskilled one, whom the barriers of modesty may bypass, and who through ignorance may brand an unblemished modesty with a mark of disgrace.

You see into what danger you bring the profession of virginity, while you think a midwife ought to be employed; so that now it is imperiled not only at the cost of her own modesty, but also by the uncertainty of the midwife.

10. The Biblical Office of Midwives

Now let us consider what the office of a midwife is. We read of midwives also in the Old Testament, but not of inspectresses: for they went in to women in labor, not to virgins; that they might receive the offspring, not examine modesty. Whence also they are called obstetrices (midwives), because they stand against (obsistant) the pain: or certainly against the child, lest, the womb's generative barriers being loosened, it fall to the ground. In second and third place in the Scriptures we find midwives employed: but everywhere for childbirth, nowhere for inspection. First where Rachel gives birth, then where Tamar gives birth, third where Pharaoh commands the midwives of the Hebrews to kill the male children; when they answered that the Hebrew women do not give birth in the manner that the Egyptian women do, but that the Hebrew women give birth before the midwives come in to them.

Which passage, as it is useful in the former instance to the safety of the Hebrews, so it is rugged ground in the remaining case for the credibility of midwives, who have learned to lie for the sake of safety, and to deceive for the sake of an excuse.

11. Better Proofs Than Suspect Inspection

Why then do we pursue suspect and doubtful evidence, when there are other, greater proofs and testimonies for examining the truth, in which the signs of violated modesty, if any, would be more clearly expressed? For what is more public than an offense against modesty, and the deflowering of virginity? Nothing indeed betrays itself more than the loss of chastity. The belly swells, and as she walks the burdens of her offspring weigh upon her; to say nothing of other signs by which even a silent conscience betrays itself.

12. The Evident Innocence of the Virgin of Verona

But perhaps in some cases the offense could be hidden under the pretext of sterility. But here indeed, since the birth—brought forth and exposed, or killed (while regard is had more to spite than to proof)—has been scattered through the ears of all, the license of slanders has been strangled, if she has given birth. Indeed she was at Verona, and was frequently visited by virgins and women; for she was always held in honor. She was visited also by priests on account of the reverence due her chastity, and as a mirror of gravity. How then could she have hidden a crime which would have betrayed itself even by its own appearance? How did she conceal her womb? How did she not shrink from the gaze of women, from the eyes of those greeting her? How, in labor, did she suppress her voice? But pain does not allow this: indeed Scripture calls these the greatest of pains, those of a woman in labor.

For thus, it says, the day of the Lord comes suddenly, and is present unforeseen, like the pain of childbirth, which shuts off every escape of hiding.

13. Elizabeth's Seclusion and the Suspicion Cast on Mary

This is the truer credibility of proofs, one which even women themselves blush before. Indeed Elizabeth hid herself for five months, because being barren she had conceived in old age. By these signs even the virginity of Mary herself, among those ignorant of the mystery, was suspected of disgrace. Whence also Joseph, to whom the virgin was betrothed, held her fault suspect, while he did not yet know the mystery of the Lord's incarnation.

14. Inspection Fit for Slaves Not Sacred Virgins

Do we then deny that virgins should be inspected? Meanwhile, what I have nowhere read, I do not assert, nor do I judge it true. But since we do many things for appearance's sake, not for truth's sake; and for the sake of error we often put forward many pretenses (for there are those who do not know how to act rightly except from fear of punishment), let us leave this to those whom modesty does not restrain from falling, but only the fear of injury deters: among whom there is no care for modesty and the grace of chastity, but only fear of penalty. Let us leave it to household slave-girls, to whom the dread is of being caught rather than of having sinned. Far be it from a sacred virgin that she should have known a midwife: childbirth is presumed, and it is regarded as a remedy for pain, not an examination of modesty.

Let us leave it also to those, if any, who, assailed by grave slanders, oppressed by testimonies, strangled by arguments, take refuge in offering themselves for inspection, so that at least the custody of the body may be proved—if indeed it can be ascertained in such cases wherein the grace of modesty and the discipline of integrity waver. Yet the case stands ill where the prerogative of the flesh is preferred to that of the mind. I would rather have virginity expressed by the seal of character than by the enclosure of the body.

15. Against Those Who Dictated a Formula of Judgment

Now that is a fine thing which you wrote, that it had been insinuated to you by certain persons that they would in no way keep communion with you, if you believed she ought to be received without an examination. So then you have received a formula for judging. What sort of men are they, who wish to prescribe to priests what we ought to follow? So I have freed you from the most grievous necessity of an inquiry, lest you be obliged to carry out the formula that was dictated to you. What will become of us, who have not obeyed their zealous demands?

16. In Defense of a Virgin's Seclusion

But still I know that there are many there who fear the Lord. For here too we have seen for some time now, and there too we have learned, that there are those who complain that this slander was fabricated: whom, they say, favored Maximus because they were offended at this, that this virgin does not go about houses, nor greet and court their matrons. What then is to be done, how shall we clear her of so great a charge? How shall we persuade her to take up new habits, to lay aside her own? A grave offense indeed, that a virgin should spend her time within the secrecy of her house, shut up in her own inner chambers! Thus indeed the reading teaches that Mary was found at home, when the archangel Gabriel came to her. Susanna is described as fleeing crowds. Indeed, when she bathed, she ordered the garden to be closed. But what is more excellent (especially in a virgin, whose chief work is modesty) than seclusion?

What is safer than seclusion, and more ready for all right actions? For she puts on the duties of modesty, not of running about. But I shall look into the other matters later; now I must answer your letter.

17. Maximus Shown to Be the True Accuser

I marvel at you, brother, that you should so strenuously defend Maximus as not having been an accuser, but as having grieved, out of a parent's sorrow, at the odium of a scattered rumor; when he himself could not deny that, having already declared himself an enemy and adversary litigant, he had attempted judicial proceedings against a sacred virgin: and that, with a wall placed between, the houses of his wife and of the virgin were separated, the fellowship of sisterly kinship between the sisters divided; and other things, by which he was grieved that the virgin had, within the field of his own relationship, shunned his company. How then is he not an accuser, who has long since exercised the disposition of an accuser, who by his own speech brought an accusation, who filled your ears with outcry, and produced witnesses to hearsay, and demanded a hearing?

18. Letters That Prove the Accusation Against Maximus

However much you have argued, you could not deny that you wrote to Indicia that Maximus, whether at the instigation of others or from his own grief, had brought forward a grave charge. This letter alone is sufficient testimony of the accusation; for I did not think you needed to be pressed by the letters you sent to me, but having read those which you had sent to the virgin, I noticed that what you had written to me differed; and yet, since your letters did not agree with each other, I thought you should be consulted, not accused. What then is the point of that argument, that he had reported what you had written to me, namely that she had been reported guilty of a shameful crime, so much so that she asserts a birth was brought forth and buried? As though you had written that to Indicia, not to me.

She, when she heard from your letters that Maximus was withdrawing from the accusation, produced your letters, by which she proved him the informer of the charge: she had not read those sent to me, nor knew what they contained.

19. The Contradictory Testimony of False Witnesses

But I from the first shuddered at the slander, because I perceived that no crime was being alleged, but that an injury to the virgin was desired, whose inspection and examination was being demanded, not that any offense was being reported. For who would not think that this, from the beginning, having been fraudulently contrived, did not at all fit together or agree with itself?

That base women ran to the monastery, spread abroad the report of the virgin's childbirth and the killing of the child, that the rumor was scattered among the people from the monastery, and reached the ears of Maximus's new relative by marriage, that the bishop was appealed to by him, that those women who were said to have spoken were dismissed and forced into flight, as became clear to us: that those who claimed to have heard it, being summoned to the church, produced Renatus and Leontius, those two men of iniquity whom Jezebel suborned, whom Daniel refuted, whom the people of the Jews suborned; that they might assail the author of their own life with false testimony.

Yet although they had together concocted the crime, together entered upon the way—and not to omit anything—joined to Maximus, accompanied, as Leontius said, by those who had spread that rumor; nevertheless, when they stood together before my tribunal, when I first inquired into the origin of the matter, they brought forth things diverse and discordant, separated not by places, but by a divorce of lies.

20. Witnesses Flee Rather Than Testify

Since then they did not agree with themselves, they sent away Mercurius and Lea, persons of the basest condition and of more detestable wickedness; Theudula fled, not unaware of the crime being laid to her charge, namely that she alone had lain before the bed of Renatus; another maidservant was at hand, who said that she herself had been defiled by the stuprum of the same Renatus; on the very day that had been appointed for the inquiry, they withdrew themselves from the assembly of the bishops, although even the day before, this same Renatus had suddenly cried out that they would be departing.

21. Indicia's Testimony Offered in Place of Inspection

Whereupon I fixed a day for judgment, and yet, though no one was accusing, though no testimonies were pressing, I intimated to the holy sister that you were asking that the said virgin be inspected and examined in her presence. But she, in holy fashion, refused indeed the inspection, but did not decline to give testimony, saying that she had learned nothing in Indicia except what belonged to virginal modesty and sanctity: that she had lived at Rome in our house, while we were absent, that she had given herself to the familiarity of no vices, and that she wished a portion reserved for herself with her, by the Lord Jesus, in the kingdom of God.

22. The Testimony of Her Constant Companion

I also questioned our paternal daughter, who is accustomed never to depart from her, whose love is a testimony of this life. And so, although what she said unsworn ought to be weighed against the sanctity of an oath, still, under solemn attestation, she declared her free of the crime with which she was charged, and that she knew nothing in her lacking in good conduct.

23. The Testimony of the Nurse

I also questioned the nurse, a woman of free condition, whose status, by no means subject to base servitude, gave her the liberty of speaking the truth, and whose good faith and age lent support to the truth, along with her office as nurse, for knowledge of what was secret. She too said that she had seen nothing unseemly, that nothing had been entrusted to her, as to a mother, by the virgin, worthy of reproach.

24. The Verdict Clearing Indicia of the Charge

Moved by these considerations, we pronounced Indicia to be a virgin free of blame. But Maximus and Renatus and Leontius were so involved in the sentence, that for Maximus, should he correct his error, hope of return was reserved; while Renatus and Leontius were to remain excommunicated, unless perchance, their repentance being proved, and this deed lamented over a long time, they should show themselves worthy of mercy. Farewell, brother, and love us; for we love you.

Ambrose to Syagrius.

1. The Injustice of Forcing Chastity to Prove Itself

You retain knowledge of what has been transacted in our judgment; and therefore I now approach you as though a portion of my own soul, holding with you a familiar and grieving complaint over the insult to chastity. Was it fitting that a cause touching virginity should be adjudged unheard and unpleaded, such that it could not be resolved—except by her own injury, unless she be led from honorable modesty to an unseemly exposure of her own body, so as to render, forsooth, a grand testimony of herself, that she be exposed to mockery, and be marked with the note of shamelessness?

Is this, then, the prerogative you have conferred upon integrity, this the honor, by which those who think this office ought to be received should rejoice to be provoked or invited to be assailed—so that they lose the freedom of common self-defense, and cannot protect themselves by the right either of sacred law or of public order, whereby it might require an accuser, and demand a summoner—but instead she alone must put on impudence, and cast herself forth to injury?

2. The Ancestors' War to Avenge Violated Chastity

Not thus did our forefathers hold chastity to be despicable, to which they showed such reverence that they thought war must be undertaken against violators of modesty. In fine (Judges 20:1 ff.), so great was the zeal of vengeance, that the whole tribe of Benjamin would have been utterly destroyed, save for six hundred whom the nature of a higher place had preserved as remnants of the war; for so it is expressed in the sequence of the divine reading, whose course it is fitting to review.

3. The Levite and His Estranged Wife

A Levite man (Judges 19:1 ff.), greater in spirit than in resources, dwelt in the parts of Mount Ephraim; for to that tribe by lot had fallen a place given in possession of the land as its portion of inheritance. He took to himself a wife from Bethlehem of Judah. And as the first beginnings of unions are wont to be, he burned for the young woman with an immoderate desire of soul: and at the same time, because she did not respond in kind, he blazed more and more in his possession of her, and burned to an immense degree. Whence, because nothing was returned on the young woman's part—whether from lightness of love or force of grief, so that she would by no means match him with equal recompense—when he demanded this of her. Hence frequent quarreling: whereby the woman, offended, sent back the keys, and returned to her father's house.

4. The Father-in-Law's Hospitality and Delayed Departure

But he, overcome by love, having nothing else to hope for; when he saw the fourth month now passing, he hastened thither, relying on the fact that the young woman's mind would be softened by her parents' counsel. Her father met him before the door, brought his son-in-law in; reconciled his daughter to him; and in order to send them off more joyfully, kept them three days, as though renewing the marriage: and when he wished to depart, he prolonged even the fourth day, under a show of hospitality, weaving delays. In like manner, when he wished also to add a fifth day to the former ones, and new reasons for staying were now lacking; yet, from a father's affection, the desire of keeping his daughter not lacking, he put off the promised opportunity of departure until midday, that they might set out on the road refreshed with food. After the meal too, wishing to attach a further delay, because evening was now approaching, he yielded, though reluctantly, to his son-in-law's entreaties.

5. The Journey Home and the Servant's Warning

He continued his journey joyful in spirit, because he had recovered her whom he loved. Accompanied by a single young servant, as the day now declined, they hastened the way with quick step. The woman rode upon a beast of burden; the man had no sense of toil, since the fruit of his desire, together with varied conversation with the woman and the servant, lightened the way. So then, when they drew near to Jerusalem, which was thirty stadia distant, and which at that time the Jebusites held; the boy suggested that they should turn aside into the city, because at nightfall even things otherwise safer become suspect, and the uncertainties of darkness are to be guarded against; especially since the inhabitants of the place were not of the children of Israel. And so they ought to forestall this, lest those bearing hostile intentions bring some ambush upon them, the obscurity of night being quite opportune for those seeking to perpetrate a crime.

But this counsel by no means pleased his master, that they should take lodging among foreigners, since Gibeah and Ramah, cities of Benjamin, were not far off. And so, his own judgment prevailing, he set aside the servant's suggestion; as though counsel were to be judged by condition, and not rather the lowliest condition raised up by counsel. And now the sun was at its setting: indeed it scarcely met them, when already they were being urged by evening to go into the city.

6. An Old Man's Hospitality at Gibeah

The Gibeonites inhabited the place, inhospitable, harsh, intolerable; yet all things more tolerable than if they had received anyone into hospitality. In fine, it would have gone better for this Levite man, had he not found lodging in Gibeah. But that nothing might be lacking to the offense, at his first entrance he found no inn: and while, stationed in the public square, he was awaiting another's mercy, he came upon an old man arriving from the field, whom evening drove from his rustic labor to withdraw by night. And when he came into the old man's view, and was asked whither he was going, and whence he was coming, he replied: I am returning from Bethlehem of Judah, I am making for Mount Ephraim, and a woman is with me: but behold, I have turned aside hither, and there is none to receive me into hospitality, and to supply the use of rest.

Not that there was any lack of food or drink for himself, or of fodder for his cattle, but that they were kept from the hospitality of a roof: this alone was wanting, the bare hospitality of a roof was desired. To this the old man, kindly enough and calmly: Peace, he said, be to you: and come in, guest and fellow-citizen alike, for my origin too is from the parts of Mount Ephraim, and this is a place of hospitable dwelling: but a long sojourn has fixed here my abode. And so, having received them into his dwelling, he cherished them alike with his own service and with hospitable provisions.

7. The Men of Gibeah Demand the Woman

The old man urged them to gladness, and pressed upon them more frequent cups, that with wine he might obliterate the memory of their cares; when suddenly the Gibeonites surrounded them, young men given over to every lust, holding nothing in weight or measure: whom the woman's beauty had enticed, and was hurling into every madness: for, captivated by her comeliness, and by the old age of their host, and the weakness of his support, having conceived hope of possessing her, they demand the woman, and beat upon the door.

8. The Host's Vain Plea and Offer of His Daughter

And so, the old man going out, begged them not to defile the tables of hospitality with so foul a crime, and not to think that even the untamed nations of barbarian peoples would violate a reverend right: that this man, a fellow tribesman, an Israelite, resting upon the union of a lawful marriage bed, should be afflicted with so great an outrage, not without indignation of the heavenly Judge. When he perceived that this availed little, he added that he had a virgin daughter, offering her with greater grief as a parent, but with lesser loss to the grace of hospitality: he judged public disgrace more tolerable than private dishonor. But they, driven by the heat of their fury, and inflamed by the incitement of lust, burned all the more for the young woman's beauty, the more it was refused them. And devoid of justice, they mocked words of fairness, holding the old man's daughter in contempt, because she was offered with less odium of crime.

9. The Woman's Outrage and Death at the Door

And so, when pious entreaties availed nothing, and the host stretched forth aged hands in vain, all defense being despaired of, the woman is seized, and through the whole night is filled with outrage. But when the light put an end to their intemperance, she returned to the hospitable door, not that she sought the sight of her husband, which she thought rather to be avoided, wretched with the shame of her disgrace: but that she might display to her husband the state she was in, she who had lost her chastity, and set forth the corpse of her own outrage before the hospitable door in a lamentable spectacle. So the Levite, going out, when he found her lying there, thinking that from shame she dared by no means to lift up her face, began to console her, saying that not by will, but unwillingly, she had succumbed to so great an outrage: he urged her to rise, and return home with him.

But when no answer was returned, as if to one sleeping, he sought to rouse her from sleep with a louder voice.

10. The Dismembered Body Summons Israel to War

But, when the certainty of her final death became clear, he carried home her remains laid upon a beast of burden, and sent the woman's limbs, divided into twelve parts, through each of the tribes of Israel. Moved by this (Judges 20:1 ff.) the whole people gathered at Mizpah, and there, the complaint being made known through the Levite, all blazed up for war, resolving that it was not lawful for any man to go into his tent, before vengeance had been exacted from the authors of so great a crime. So they were rushing headlong into battle in their eagerness: but the counsel of the wiser prevailed over that resolve, that they should not rashly engage in war with their fellow citizens, but should first make trial by words concerning the crime, and settle terms for the offenses: nor did it seem just that the penalty for the crime of a few should reach to all, and that the private sins of young men should undermine the condition of the public welfare.

And so they sent men to declare to the Gibeonites that they should hand over those guilty of so great a crime: but if not, let them know that to have defended so great a deed was no less a crime than to have committed it.

11. The Costly Battles Against the Tribe of Benjamin

But when they answered proudly, counsels of peace were changed to war. And neither in the first nor in the second engagement, when very many were struck down by a few, did the Israelites think they ought to yield to adverse battles; for four hundred thousand fighting men contended against twenty-five thousand of the tribe of Benjamin, and seven hundred Gibeonite youths tried in war. And although by an unlucky lot two battles had already fallen against them, yet the ready spirit of Israel by no means laid aside its confidence of victory, and its presumed hope of vengeance.

12. The Ambush and Burning of Gibeah

But, because those who were superior in cause and in number had drawn back in the outcome of battle, reckoning it a divine offense, they sought reconciliation of heavenly grace with fasting and great weeping. And so, having entreated the Lord's peace, they returned more fierce into war; as men to whom the oracle had given courage, had heaped up hope. And by feigning that they were retreating from the front, and by setting ambushes by night behind the city in which the enemy's force was stationed; while these retreated, and those pursued, opportunity was given to invade the empty city, and soon, fire being applied and quickly grown great, the crash of flames and raging heat made manifest the appearance of the captured city. Whereby the spirits of their own were broken, and those of the enemy raised up.

For the men of Benjamin, thinking themselves shut in and surrounded, before they should be attacked from behind, began to scatter and flee into the desert; and on the contrary Israel pressed them with a twofold column, and pursued them as they scattered.

13. The Slaughter of Benjamin and the Six Hundred Survivors

And so twenty-five thousand were slain, that is, almost all the men of Benjamin, save six hundred, who, having seized the stronghold of a rocky crag, were a terror to the victors, partly by the nature of the place and the help of nature, partly by desperation. For favorable circumstances counsel caution: in adversity, vengeance is held as victory. Nor was the number of women exempt from so great a peril: but the whole tribe of Benjamin, of the female sex, together with boys and girls, and of every age, was destroyed by sword or fire; and an oath was added, that no one should give his daughter in marriage to a man of that tribe, so that every succession for restoring the name might be abolished.

14. Israel's Mourning and Embassy to the Survivors

The end of the war was made at the same time as the end of anger (Judges 21:2, 3), and fury turned into repentance: and having laid down arms, the men of Israel, gathering together into one, wept a great weeping, and celebrated a fast, grieving that one tribe had perished from among their brethren, and that a strong band of their people had been destroyed: rightly indeed had war been waged against the champions of crimes as the price of the offense, but the people had been miserably turned against their own vitals, and both sides afflicted by civil war.

The outpouring of tears moved the passion of their souls, and drove home their affection, and reason succeeded to savagery: and legates were sent to those six hundred men of Benjamin, who for four months had defended themselves upon the height of the sheer rocks, or were deserted through want, which would be a danger to the multitude besieging them, and they lamented that common calamity, that these had lost fellow tribesmen, those kinsmen and allies; but yet that the succession for restoring the tribe was not utterly cut off: they took counsel together how both the pledge of the oath might stand firm for them, and how the one tribe, in no way torn away from the body, might not perish.

15. The Virgins of Jabesh-gilead Given in Marriage

And so an altar being set up, a sacrifice of reconciliation and peace was offered. And because the people of Jabesh-gilead were liable to punishment and curse (for all Israel had bound itself by a great oath, that if anyone had not gone up with them to punish the crime, he should die the death), twelve thousand fighting men were sent; that both all the men and the women should be destroyed by the sword, reserving only the young maidens who had had no share of the marriage bed. And so, all the people of Jabesh-gilead being slain, only four hundred virgins survived from the destruction of the rest. Israel, taking these, resolved that the men of Benjamin should lay aside the fear of war, and take to themselves in marriage maidens intact alike in age and modesty: for whom there would be a full case before their husbands, since none of their own kin had taken up war against them; and a claim of affection, since for their sake these women had been snatched from final punishment.

In this way, then, unions were sought for the four hundred young men.

16. The Feast at Shiloh and the Seizing of Wives

But because there remained two hundred in number, to whom wives were lacking, we have learned that provision was made for these also without fraud against the oaths. A feast day used to be celebrated yearly in Shiloh. There the maidens were accustomed to exult, and to lead dances in honor of religion: some going before their mothers, and the whole road being filled with a throng of travelers.

One of the elders said: If those two hundred men of the tribe of Benjamin, lying in wait within the vineyards, kept watch until the whole company of women poured itself forth, and, rising up from the vineyards, each one claimed for himself as wife whomever the encounter presented, this would in no way be a fraud; for the people favored the restoration of succession to the tribe, but could not, because of their oath, grant the fellowship of their daughters to them; nor yet would it seem contrary to the oath, if one did not think it should be prohibited; because upon the oath there seemed to be laid no necessity either of compelling or of prohibiting: that they ought to look to their own interest without fear.

Indeed, if the parents of the girls demanded vengeance, they would be recalled partly by entreaty, partly also by turning back upon themselves the fault of unwilling custody, since, knowing that the men of Benjamin were without wives, they had come forth with their daughters: that the tribe was surely now worthy not of punishment, but of mercy: that harshness enough had already been inflicted upon them, and a part of their own body had been overcome in war: that the people had blazed forth too immoderately, so as to extinguish domestic succession, and to slay their own kin: that it was pleasing to God that the tribe of the people should not perish, nor that so bitter a reckoning should be exacted for the sake of one woman.

17. The Restoration of the Tribe of Benjamin

The Israelites approved the counsel: the men of Benjamin carried it out, and, stationed in the vineyards at a favorable place and time, they seized the roads full of the throng of women. The solemnity of the religious festival provided them with a feast of marriage. The daughters, snatched from the embrace of their fathers, were, as it were, given over into wedlock by the very parents themselves, and you would think that she who had been betrothed was not carried off from her mother’s bosom, but came forth of her own accord. Thus the tribe of Benjamin, almost cut off and extinguished, flourished again in a short time, furnishing proof that the vindication of chastity, and the vengeance for violated purity, is a great ruin to the insolent.

18. Pharaoh's Plague for the Attempt on Sarah

Nor does Scripture teach this in this one place only, but in very many. For in Genesis also we read that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was harassed with plagues because he had attempted Sarah; and yet he did not know that she was another’s wife.

19. The Guarding of Chastity and Consecrated Virginity

The Lord’s will, then, is to guard chastity; how much more is it to defend integrity? Hence no injury ought to be inflicted upon sacred virgins; for those who do not marry, and those who do not take wives, are held as the angels of God in heaven. And therefore let us not bring bodily contumely upon heavenly grace; since God is powerful, whom no transgression escapes, and whom the bitter and grievous contumely of a gift accepted by Him and of consecrated virginity moves. Farewell, brother, and love us; for we love you.

Ambrose to Justus, greeting.

1. The Question of the Half-Shekel's Meaning

You admonish beautifully, brother, that we should bring the tales of letters, and the conversation of the absent, to the interpretation of the heavenly oracle, asking me what that half-shekel signifies, half of which the Hebrew is commanded to offer for the redemption of his soul For what is so fitting a companion as to weave a discourse about divine matters?

2. The Drachma as Faith and the Lost Coin

Now the half of the didrachma is a drachma; and the redemption of the soul is faith: faith, then, is the drachma, which that woman in the Gospel, as we read, diligently seeks when it is lost, lighting a lamp, and cleaning her house; and if she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, asking them to rejoice with her, because she has found the drachma which she had lost For it is a great loss to the soul, if one has lost faith, or the grace which he acquired for himself at the price of faith. Do you, then, also light your lamp: The lamp of your body is your eye, namely that inner eye of the mind. Light that lamp, which receives spiritual oil, and shines throughout your whole house. Seek the drachma, the redemption of your soul, which he who has lost is troubled, and he who has found rejoices.

3. Redemption as Mercy in the Census Offering

The redemption of the soul is also mercy; for the redemption of a man’s soul is his riches, by which indeed mercy is done, which by expenditure helps the poor. Faith, then, grace, mercy, is the redemption of the soul, which is expended at the price of the drachma, that is, of the entire whole sum. For thus it is written, the Lord saying to Moses: When you shall take the census of the children of Israel in their numbering, each shall give the redemption of his soul to the Lord, and there shall be no plague among them at their numbering. And this is what they shall give, as many as pass over in the numbering, half a part of the didrachma, which is according to the holy didrachma. Twenty obols make a didrachma: and the half part of the didrachma is the offering to the Lord. Every one who enters into the numbering, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to the Lord.

He who is rich shall not add, and he who is poor shall not diminish from the half part of the didrachma; when they begin to give the offering to the Lord, to entreat for their souls. And you shall take the money of the offering from the children of Israel, and shall give it into the work of the Tabernacle of testimony, and it shall be for the children of Israel a lawful memorial before the Lord, to entreat for your souls.

4. The Manna Gathered Equally by Every Soul

Would there ever be lacking either a rich man who might offer more, or a poor man who might have less, if this half-didrachma were in money and not in virtue? Hence it must be noted that this drachma is not material, but intelligible, which is reckoned to be contributed equally by all. Finally, of that heavenly food also (now food and the delight of heavenly nourishment is wisdom, on which those who were placed in paradise fed, which was the unfailing food of the soul, which the divine word called manna) we read that a distribution was made through each individual soul, so that the division was equal. And they gathered according to the arrangement of Moses, both he who gathered much, and he who gathered little: and they measured it by the gomor, and he who had much did not abound, nor was there any lack to him who had little.

For each one, according to the number of souls that were with him in the tents, gathered per head a gomor, that is, a measure of wine, as the interpretation has it.

6. The Measure of Wisdom and the Gifts of the Spirit

Now there is a measure of wisdom, which, if it be beyond measure, does harm; because it is written: Be not overly wise. And Paul taught that the distribution of graces is given according to measure, when he says: To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit, to one the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith of wisdom through the spirit of knowledge according to the same spirit, faith in the same spirit; and that this grace is divided according to the will of the Spirit. That He divides, belongs to equity: but that He divides according to His own will, belongs to power. Or because He wills to bestow upon each one that which He knows will profit him.

7. The Gomor as the Wine of Wisdom

The gomor, then, is a measure, and a measure of wine, which gladdens the heart of man. And what is this but the drink of wisdom, the joy of the heart? This is that wine which Wisdom mixed in the bowl, and offers to be drunk, that we may take unto ourselves sobriety and prudence: which ought to be poured out with that equality into our senses and thoughts, and into all the motions which are within this house of ours; that we may know that all can abound, and none can fail.

8. The Blood of Christ as Equal Redemption for All

But it is understood more fully of the blood of Christ, from whose grace nothing is diminished, nothing added. And whether you take little, or drink much, the measure of redemption is perfect and equal for all.

9. The Passover Lamb Divided According to Each Soul

The Lord’s Passover also, that is, the lamb, the fathers are thus commanded to feast upon, that they should feast according to the number of their souls, neither more nor fewer: nor should more be given to some, less to others, but according to the souls of each; lest either the stronger take more, or the weaker less. For grace is divided equally to each, redemption is divided, the gift is divided. Nor ought there to be more, lest anyone depart empty of hope and redemption. There are more, when some are outside the number: but the saints are all numbered, and their hairs too; for the Lord knows who are His; nor fewer, lest by the greatness of the grace one be too weak to receive it.

10. The Passing-Over of the Soul to Christ

And therefore He commanded all to bring an equality of devotion and faith to the Lord’s passover, that is, to the passing-over. Now it is a passover, when the soul lays aside irrational passion, and takes up instead good compassion; that it may suffer with Christ, and receive His passing-over into itself, that He may dwell in it, and walk in it, and become its God. The grace, then, is equal through all, but the virtue is diverse in each. Let each one, therefore, take the portion suited to his own strength, lest either the stronger lack, or the weaker be burdened.

11. The Equal Wage and the Few Who Attain the Crown

You have this in the Gospel, that an equal wage is paid to all who labor in the vineyard: but few attain to the prize, few to the crown, few say: There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. For the reward of liberality and grace is one thing, the stipend of virtue, the recompense of labor, another.

12. The Stater Found in the Fish's Mouth

The didrachma, then, is redemption, or rather half of the didrachma. He redeemed us from death, He redeemed us from servitude; lest we be subject to the world, which we have renounced. Whence the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter, that he should go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the stater found in the mouth of the fish, and give it for the Lord and for himself to those demanding the didrachma. This, then, is the didrachma which was demanded according to the Law: but the son of the king did not owe it, but a stranger. For why should Christ redeem Himself from this world, He who had come that He might take away the sin of the world? Why should He redeem Himself from sin, He who had come down that He might forgive sin to all? Why should He redeem Himself from servitude, He who had emptied Himself, that He might give liberty to all?

Why should He redeem Himself from death, He who had taken flesh, that by His death He might acquire resurrection for all?

13. Christ's Payment of the Didrachm Beyond the Law

The Redeemer of all had no need, surely, of redemption: but just as He accepted circumcision, that He might fulfill the Law; and came to baptism, that He might fulfill righteousness: so also He did not refuse to those demanding it the payment of the didrachma; but immediately ordered a stater to be given for the didrachma, for Himself and Peter. For He preferred to pay beyond the Law, rather than to deny that which was of the Law. But He showed that the Jews acted contrary to the Law, who demanded a didrachma from one man; whereas Moses prescribed that a half-didrachma should be demanded. And therefore He ordered that, both for Himself and for Peter, as it were single drachmas, payment should be made in a stater. Now good is the tax of Christ, which is paid in a stater; because the stater is justice, and justice is above the Law. Finally, Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness for every believer.

This stater is found in the mouth of the fish: of that fish which the fishers of men catch: of that fish which weighs its words, that it may bring them forth tried by fire.

14. The Slave Who Refuses His Freedom

This stater the Jews did not know, which they gave to the traitor. But the Law demands the half of the didrachma for the redemption of the soul, which drachma it assigns to God; because it could not claim the whole didrachma. For scarcely could even a portion of devotion be found in a Jew. But he who is truly free, the true Hebrew, is wholly God’s; whatever he has belongs wholly to liberty. He who refuses liberty has nothing of it, saying: I have loved my master, and my wife and my children: I will not go out free. Which refers not only to a master, but also to that man’s own weakness, who has subjected himself to the world, in that he loves the world, or his own mind, that is, νοῦν, the author of this will. Nor does it refer only to a wife, but also to that delight which takes up domestic, not that eternal, care.

To this man, therefore, at the threshold and door his own master pierces the ear; that he may remember his own word, by which he chose servitude.

15. The Christian's Call to Sell All and Follow Christ

And therefore you, O Christian, should not imitate this man; because it is written for you, not that you should offer to God the half of a didrachma, if indeed you wish to be perfect, but that you should sell all that you have, and give to the poor. Nor that you should reserve for the world a portion of servitude, but that you should deny yourself wholly, and take up the Lord’s cross, and follow Him.

16. Render Unto Caesar the Things That Are Caesar's

We have learned, therefore, that the half-didrachm was required by the Law for this reason, that half was reserved for this kind of world, that is, for worldly conversation, and for domestic use, and for posterity, for whom it was necessary that a lot be assigned out of the lot, that is, of transmission. Whence also the Lord, when the Pharisees tempted him with a crafty question whether he would advise that tribute be given to Caesar, answered: Why do you tempt me, hypocrites? Show me the coin of the tribute. But they offered him a denarius, on which was the image of Caesar. He said to them: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's; showing that those who seemed perfect to themselves were so imperfect that they paid Caesar before God. For they to whom the care of the world came first ought first to pay what belonged to the world.

Whence also he says: Render, that is, you render, the things that are Caesar's, among whom is found the figure and image of Caesar.

17. The Hebrew Boys Who Owed No Tribute to Caesar

Those Hebrew boys, then, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, that wiser Daniel, who did not adore the king's image, who did not receive it, who took nothing from the king's table, were not bound to the payment of tribute. For they possessed nothing of what belonged to the earthly king. Therefore their imitators, for whom God is their portion, do not pay tribute. Therefore the Lord says: Render, that is, you render, who have produced the image of Caesar, among whom it is found: but I owe nothing to Caesar, because I have nothing of this world: For the prince of this world comes, and will find nothing in me. Peter owes nothing, my apostles owe nothing; because they are not of this world, even though they are in this world. I have sent them into this world; but they are now not of this world, because they are with me above the world.

18. Christ Pays the Didrachm for Himself and Peter

Therefore what belongs to the divine law is commanded to be paid, not what belongs to Caesar. But nevertheless he himself, the perfect one, that is, the preacher of the Gospel, no longer owed it, who preached more. The Son of God did not owe it, nor did Peter, who was received by the Father into adoption through grace: but lest they be scandalized, he says, go to the sea, and cast a hook, and take the fish that first comes up; and when its mouth is opened, you will find there a stater; take that and give it to them for me and you. O great mysteries! He gives the half-didrachm which the Law commanded, and does not deny what belongs to the Law, as one made of a woman, made under the Law. I have spoken of what was made according to the incarnation, of a woman according to sex; woman is of sex, virgin is of kind: sex belongs to the race, virgin to integrity.

In that, then, in which he came under the Law, in that he was made of a woman, that is, in the body. And therefore he commands the didrachm to be paid for himself and for Peter, because both were begotten under the Law. He commands, then, that it be paid according to the Law, that he might redeem those who were under the Law.

19. The Stater as a Guard Upon the Mouth

And yet he commands that the stater be given, by which they might place bars upon their mouth, lest through much speaking they commit sin. And he commands it to be given as found in the mouth of the fish, that they might recognize the Word. For they who demanded what belonged to the Law, why did they not know what belonged to the Law? For they ought not to be ignorant of the Word of God; because it is written: The Word is near, in your mouth, and in your heart. Therefore he who reserved nothing for the world paid the whole didrachm to God. For justice is paid to God, which is sobriety of mind: to God is paid the guarding of speech, which is sobriety of speech: for with the heart one believes unto justice, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

20. The Drachma as the Image of God

The drachma can also be taken for the Old Testament, the didrachm for the price of both Testaments; because according to the Law each one was redeemed through the Law: but he who is redeemed according to the Gospel pays the drachma according to the Law, is redeemed by the blood of Christ according to grace, having a twofold redemption, of devotion and of blood. For faith alone is not sufficient for perfection, unless it also obtains the grace of baptism, and the redeemed one receives the blood of Christ. Good, then, is the drachma which is paid to God. The drachma is not the denarius, but it is different. Indeed, on the denarius is the image of Caesar, on the drachma the image of God; because it is of the one God, in imitation of him. It begins from one, and is diffused into infinity: and again from an infinite number all things return into one, as it were into an end; because God is both the beginning and the end of all things.

Whence those who make this their study have called the unit not a number, but the element of number. And we have said this for this reason, because it is written: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; and: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.

22. Being Unchangeable Like the Image on the Drachma

You too, therefore, in the likeness of God, be one and the same: not sober today, drunk tomorrow: peaceable today, quarrelsome the next day: frugal today, unrestrained the next day; for each one is changed by variety of morals, and becomes another: in whom is not recognized what he was, and he begins to be what he was not, degenerate from himself. For it is a grave thing to be changed for the worse: but be like the image on the drachma, unchangeable, keeping the same appearance every day. Seeing the drachma, attend to the image, that is, seeing the Law, attend in the Law to the image of God, Christ; because he himself is the image of the invisible and incorruptible God, let him shine upon you as in a mirror of the Law. Confess him in the Law, that you may recognize him in the Gospel. If you have known him in the commandments, recognize him in the works.

Farewell, and if you do not think this didrachm entrusted to me has been unfruitful, do not hesitate to entrust me again, if you have anything more.

Ambrose to Justus.

1. Scripture Written by Grace, Not Human Art

Many deny that our writers wrote according to art. Nor do we resist this; for they did not write according to art, but according to grace, which is above all art; for they wrote what the Spirit gave them to speak. But nevertheless, those who have written about art have discovered art from their writings, and have composed commentaries on the art, and instructions.

2. Cause, Matter, and Result in the Sacrifice of Isaac

Indeed, in art it is especially required that there be αἴτιον (cause), ὕλη (matter), ἀποτέλεσμα (result); when, then, we read the holy Isaac saying to his father: Behold the fire and the wood, where is the victim? Which of these is lacking? For he who asks, doubts: he who answers the one asking, pronounces, and resolves the doubt. Behold the fire, that is, the αἴτιον: and the wood, that is, the ὕλη, which in Latin is called matter: what third thing remains, but the ἀποτέλεσμα, which the son asked, and the father returned to him who asked. Where is the victim? God, he says, will provide for himself a sacrifice, my son.

3. The Ram as a Sacrifice of Wisdom and Justice

Let us defer the mystery a little. God showed a ram hanging by its horns: the ram, however, is the Word full of tranquility, and moderation, and patience; by which it is shown that the good sacrifice is wisdom, and to know prudently the manner of earning and of propitiating. Whence also the prophet says: Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice. Thus it is a sacrifice of justice, just as it is a sacrifice of wisdom.

4. The Mind as Fire and the Gift of Understanding

Behold, then, the mind, warm and burning like fire, which works: behold also the intelligible things, that is, the matter; where is the third thing, understanding? Behold color; where is seeing? Behold the sensible things; where is sensing? For matter is not seen by all; therefore God gives the gift of understanding, and of sensing, and of seeing.

5. How Unbelievers Unwittingly Confirm the Word

The Word of God, then, is the ἀποτέλεσμα, that is, the definition and consummation of the disputation, which is poured into the more prudent, and confirms doubtful things. But those, too, who have not believed in the coming of Christ, beautifully refute themselves; so that they confess what they think should be denied. For they say the ram is the Word of God, and do not believe the mystery of the passion; though in that mystery is the Word of God, in which the sacrifice was fulfilled.

6. The Manna as Fountain of All Learning

Let us, then, first kindle in ourselves the fire of the mind, that it may work in us. Let us seek the matter that underlies it, what it is that nourishes the soul, as if we were seeking it in darkness. For not even the fathers knew what manna was: they found, it says, manna, saying it itself is the speech and Word of God; whence all disciplines flow and derive from a continual and perpetual fountain.

7. The Bread from Heaven Signifies the Word of God

This is the heavenly food. It is signified, however, from the person of the one speaking: Behold I will rain bread for you from heaven: the αἴτιον, then, is that God works, who irrigates minds with the dew of wisdom: the ὕλη, because souls seeing and tasting are delighted, and seek whence that thing is which is more splendid than light, sweeter than honey. It is answered to them in the sequence of Scripture: This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat; and this is the Word of God, which God arranged, or ordained: by which the soul of the prudent is fed, and delighted: which is bright and sweet, illuminating with the splendor of truth, and soothing with the sweetness of virtues the souls of the hearers.

8. The Calling of Moses and the Name I Am

For the prophet had learned in himself what the αἴτιον of the accomplishment of the matter was. For when he was sent to the king of Egypt to free the people of God, he says: Who, that I should go, and lead the people out from the power of the king? The Lord answered: I will be with you. Moses asked again: What shall I say to them, if they ask: Who is the Lord who sent you, and what is his name? The Lord said: I am who I am. You shall say: He who is, has sent me. This is the true name of God, to be always. Whence also the Apostle says of Christ: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is among you, who was preached by us, by me and Sylvanus and Timothy; was not, he says, Yes and No: but Yes was in him. Moses answered: If they do not believe me, nor hear my voice, saying that God has not appeared to you, what shall I say to them?

He gave him signs to do, that he might be believed to have been sent by the Lord. A third time Moses said: I am not worthy, and I am of a weak voice, of a slower tongue, how will Pharaoh hear me? It was answered him: Go, and I will open your mouth, and instruct you what you ought to speak.

9. Signs for Doubt, the Promise for Faith

Those questions in the middle, then, and the answers, have seeds of wisdom and θεωρία. Yet the ἀποτέλεσμα is pleasing; because he says: I will be with you. And although he gave him signs to do; yet to him doubting again, that you may know that signs are not for the unbelieving, but the promise is for the believing, he answered the weakness either of merit or of vow: I will open your mouth, and instruct you what you ought to speak. Therefore the perfect ἀποτέλεσμα was preserved.

10. Asking, Seeking, and Knocking for the Word

You have this also in the Gospel: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. Ask ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰτίου, that is, seek from the author. You have the ὕλη, the intelligible things, by which you may seek: knock, and God will open the Word to you. What asks is the mind, which works, like fire: the intelligible things, in which the ardor of the mind works, like fire in wood: God opens to you the Word, which is the Ἀποτέλεσμα. We have also elsewhere in the Gospel, the Lord saying: But when they deliver you up, do not think how or what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak. For it is not you who speak: but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you.

11. Jacob's Answer to Isaac and Laban's Idols

You have this also in Genesis, Isaac saying: What is it, how have you found it so quickly, my son? Who said: What the Lord your God delivered into my hands. The Lord is the Ἀποτέλεσμα. He who seeks through the Lord, finds. Laban, indeed, who did not seek through the Lord; because he sought idols, did not find.

12. The Three Terms in Isaac and Jacob's Exchange

He has beautifully preserved what they call ὅροι (terms). The first is the ὅρος: Go, bring me of your hunting, that I may eat. He stirs up and kindles, as it were with a certain fire of his exhortation, his mind, that it may work and seek. The second ὅρος: What is it, that you have found so quickly? This is in the question. The third ὅρος is in the answer: What the Lord your God delivered into my hands. The Ἀποτέλεσμα is God, who concludes and consummates all things: of whom there is no need to doubt.

13. The Term Concerning Spontaneous Growth

There is also that ὅρος concerning things spontaneous: If you do not sow, you shall not reap; for although cultivation calls forth the seeds, yet nature works in them by a certain spontaneous impulse of its own, that they may rise.

14. Paul on Planting, Watering, and God's Increase

Whence the Apostle says: I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. Therefore neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters: but God who gives the increase. God gives to you in the spirit, and the Lord sows in your heart. Act, then, so that he may inspire and sow; that you may reap: if you have not sown, you will not reap. As if you were admonished to sow: you have not sown, you will not reap; this is the sentence. The end corresponds to the beginning: the beginning is the seed, the end is the harvest.

15. Nature, Grace, and the Perfection of Learning

Learn, he says, from me: nature helps the one learning; but God is the author of nature. And of God too, that we may learn well; because this is of nature, to learn thoroughly: for the hard of heart do not learn. Increases come through nature, which has the grace of a divine gift: but consummation and perfection God gives, that is, that most excellent and divine nature and substance of the Trinity. Farewell, and love us, as you do; for we love you.

1. The Opening of the Council of Aquileia

When Syagrius and Eucherius, most illustrious men and consuls, on the third day before the nones of September, were sitting in the church at Aquileia, together with the bishops Valerian, Ambrose, Eusebius, Limenius, Anemius, Sabinus, Abundantius, Artemius, Constantius, Justus, Philaster, Constantius, Theodore, Almachius, Domninus, Amantius, Maximus, Felix, Bassianus, Numidius, Januarius, Proculus, Heliodorus, Jovinus, Felix, Exuperantius, Diogenes, Maximus, Macedonius, Cassian, Marcellus and Eustathius, bishops of the city of Aquileia; Bishop Ambrose said: 2. "We have long dealt with matters apart from the acts: and since such great sacrileges on the part of Palladius and Secundianus are being poured into our ears, that scarcely anyone could believe they could have blasphemed so openly; or lest by some cunning of their own they should afterward attempt to deny their own words, although there can be no doubt as to the testimony of so many priests: yet since it pleases all the bishops, let acts be made; so that no one may be able to deny his own profession.

Let it therefore be declared, holy men, what pleases you." All the bishops said: "It pleases us."

Bishop Ambrose said: "Our discussions must be confirmed from the matter by the imperial writing, that it may be cited." 3. "Sabinianus the deacon read aloud: Desiring as soon as possible to find out whether the priests are at variance over ambiguous points of doctrine, we had ordered the bishops entrusted, by the merits of your excellency, to your diocese, to assemble in the city of Aquileia. For the disputed questions could not be more rightly settled than if we appointed as interpreters of the controversy that had arisen the very bishops from whom the teachings in dispute proceed; so that, evidently, by those from whom the instructions of the doctrine take their origin, the disagreement of the discordant learning might be resolved by the same men. 4. "Nor indeed do we now order otherwise than we ordered, not reversing the tenor of the precept, but reconsidering the superfluous abundance of those assembling.

For since Ambrose, a bishop conspicuous both for the merit of his life and for God's favor, bishop of the city of Milan, suggests that there is no need of a multitude there, where truth would not labor among many, if it were placed among few: and suggests that he himself, together with the bishops of the neighboring cities of Italy, against the assertions of those who would stand opposed, would be quite sufficient and more than sufficient; we have decided that the venerable men should be spared fatigue, lest anyone, either burdened by advanced age, or worn out by bodily weakness, or of modest means through praiseworthy poverty, should have to traverse unaccustomed lands. And so forth."

5. The Emperor's Rescript Read to the Council

Bishop Ambrose said: "Behold what the Christian emperor has decreed. He did not wish to do injury to the priests; he appointed the bishops themselves as interpreters. And for this reason, since we are sitting in a council of priests, answer to the things proposed to you. The letter of Arius has been read: it shall be read again now, if you think fit. From the beginning it contains blasphemies; it said the Father alone is eternal. If it seems to you that the Son of God is not everlasting, assert this itself however you wish: if you think it should be condemned, condemn it. The Gospel is at hand, and the Apostle, all the Scriptures are ready to hand. Assert from whatever source you wish, if you think that the Son of God is not everlasting."

6. Palladius Objects That the Council Is Incomplete

Palladius said: "It is by your doing, as the sacred reading brought forward by you itself dictates, that this was not a general and full council: with our associates absent, we cannot answer." Bishop Ambrose said: "Who are your associates?" Palladius said: "The Eastern bishops."

7. The Custom of Separate Eastern and Western Councils

Bishop Ambrose said: "Meanwhile, since in former times a council was so held that the Easterners, established in the parts of the East, would have their council there, and the Westerners in the West; we, established in the parts of the West, have assembled in the city of Aquileia, according to the emperor's command. Moreover, even the prefect of Italy gave letters, that if the Easterners wished to assemble, it would be in their power: but because they knew of this custom, that in the East there should be a council of Easterners, within the West one of Westerners, therefore they thought there was no need to come."

8. Dispute Over Summoning the Eastern Bishops

Palladius said: "Our emperor Gratian ordered the Easterners to come: do you deny that he ordered it? The emperor himself told us that he had ordered the Easterners to come." Bishop Ambrose said: "Certainly he ordered it, he who did not forbid them to come here." Palladius said: "But it was your petition that prevented them from coming: under the guise of a false wish you obtained this, and you delayed the council."

9. Palladius Refuses to Answer on Arius

Bishop Ambrose said: "There is no need to wander further; answer now. Did Arius rightly say that the Father alone is eternal? And did he say this according to the Scriptures, or not?" Palladius said: "I will not answer you." Bishop Constantius said: "You who have blasphemed so long do not answer?" Bishop Eusebius said: "But you ought simply to reveal the liberty of your faith. If a gentile were to demand of you how you believe in Christ, you ought not to be ashamed to confess it."

10. Sabinus Confronts Palladius with His Own Letter

Bishop Sabinus said: "You asked that we should answer: today, by your own will, and at your urging, we have assembled, and we have not waited for the rest of the brothers who might have come. Therefore it is not open to you to wander off. Do you say that Christ was created, or do you say that the Son of God is everlasting?" Palladius said: "I told you, we said this to you so that we might come, and prove that you did not act rightly in stealing a march upon the emperor." Bishop Ambrose said: "Let Palladius's letter be read, to see whether he gave us this instruction, and it will be shown that even now he is lying." Palladius said: "Let it plainly be read." The bishops said: "When the emperor was present at Sirmium, did you appeal to him, or did he himself compel you? And what do you answer to this?" Palladius answered: "He said to me: Go. We said: Have the Easterners been assembled? He said: They have been assembled.

Would we have assembled, if the Easterners had not been assembled?"

11. Ambrose Demands a Verdict on Arius's Teaching

Bishop Ambrose said: "Let the question of the Easterners be set aside; I ask your judgment today. The letter of Arius has been read to you: you are accustomed to deny you are an Arian. Either condemn Arius today, or defend him." Palladius said: "It is not within your authority to ask this of me." Bishop Eusebius said: "We do not believe that the religious emperor said anything other than what he wrote. He ordered the bishops to assemble: he could not have said to you alone, contrary to his own rescript, that the case should not be tried at all without the Easterners." Palladius said: "Were the Italians alone ordered to assemble?" Evagrius the priest and legate said: "That four days before, and two days before, he answered that he would be present. What then were you waiting for? The agreement of the Easterners, your associates, as you say, was to be awaited?

You should have given such instruction, not promised a confrontation." Palladius said: "Because I had come as it were to a full council, I saw that my associates had not assembled, so that, if I took part and spoke, you would act according to instructions to the prejudice of the future Council."

12. Palladius Reserves His Answer for a Future Council

Bishop Ambrose said: "That we should sit today, you yourself demanded. Furthermore, you yourself said today that we, as Christians, have come to Christians. You have therefore proved us Christians. You promised that you would engage in debate, you promised that you would either bring or accept an accounting. We have gladly accepted, therefore, your preface. We wished you to come as a Christian. I have offered you the letter of Arius, which Arius wrote, on account of whose name you say you frequently suffer injury. You say that you do not follow Arius. Today your judgment ought to be open: either condemn him, or establish him by whatever readings." And he added: "Is it therefore, according to the letter of Arius, that Christ the Son of God is not everlasting?" Palladius said: "We said we would prove ourselves Christians, but in a full council.

We are not answering you at all, to the prejudice of the future council." Bishop Eusebius said: "Without cunning, you ought to set forth the profession of your faith." Palladius said: "And what do we reserve for the council?"

13. The Council Condemns Denial of Christ's Eternity

Bishop Ambrose said: "With one voice condemnation has been passed upon him who would deny that the Son of God is everlasting. Arius denied it; Palladius follows him, since he is unwilling to condemn Arius. Consider, therefore, whether his judgment is to be approved: and whether he speaks according to the Scriptures, or against the Scriptures, it is possible to understand. For it has been read: The everlasting power of God, and his divinity. Is Christ the power of God? If therefore the power of God is everlasting, certainly Christ is everlasting; because Christ is the power of God". Bishop Eusebius said: "This is our faith, this is catholic understanding. Whoever shall not say this, let him be anathema." All the bishops said: "Anathema."

14. Palladius Denies Knowing Arius

Bishop Eusebius said: "He expressly says that the Father alone is everlasting, and that the Son began at some point." Palladius said: "I have neither seen Arius, nor do I know who he is." Bishop Eusebius said: "The blasphemy of Arius has been brought forward, in which he denies the Son of God to be everlasting. Do you condemn this perfidy together with its author, or do you assert it?" Palladius said: "Where there is no authority of a full council, I do not say."

15. The Gallic Legates Condemn Arius's Impiety

Bishop Ambrose said: "Do you hesitate to condemn Arius after divine judgments, when he burst asunder in the midst?" And he added: "Let the holy men, legates of the Gauls, also speak." Bishop Constantius, legate of the Gauls, said: "This impiety of that man we have both always condemned, and now condemn, not only Arius, but also whoever shall not have said the Son of God is everlasting." Bishop Ambrose said: "What too does my lord Justus say?" Bishop Justus, legate of the Gauls, said: "Whoever does not confess the Son of God co-eternal with the Father, let him be held anathema." All the bishops said: "Anathema."

16. The African and Illyrian Legates Pronounce Judgment

Bishop Ambrose said: "Let the legates of the Africans also speak, who have brought here the opinions of all their fellow citizens." Bishop Felix, legate, said: "If anyone shall have denied the Son of God to be everlasting, and denied him co-eternal, not I alone, legate of the whole African province, condemn him: but also the whole priestly assembly, which sent me to this most holy gathering, itself also condemned him beforehand." Bishop Anemius said: "The head of Illyricum is none other than the city of Sirmium: I therefore am bishop of that city. Him who does not confess the Son of God eternal, and co-eternal with the Father, which is everlasting, I pronounce anathema: and likewise those who do not confess the same."

17. Debating Whether the Son Is True God

Bishop Ambrose said: "Hear what follows." And it was read: "The Father alone eternal, alone without beginning, alone true, alone possessing immortality." Bishop Ambrose said: "And in this too condemn him, who denies the Son to be true God. For since he himself is the truth, how is he not true God?" And he added: "What do you say to this?" Palladius said: "Who denies that the Son is true?" Bishop Ambrose said: "Arius denied it." Palladius said: "Since the Apostle says that Christ is God over all, can anyone deny that the Son of God is true?"

18. Ambrose Presses for the Words True Lord

Bishop Ambrose said: "That you may know how simply the truth is required of us, behold, I say as you say: but I hold it only half fully. For when you speak thus, you seem to deny true God: but if you simply confess: the Son of God true God, assert it in that order which I myself propose." Palladius said: "I speak to you according to the Scriptures, I say the Son of God is the true Lord." Bishop Ambrose said: "Do you say the Son of God is the true Lord?" Palladius said: "Since I say true Son, what more is needed?" Bishop Ambrose said: "I do not ask merely that you say true Son, but that you say the true Lord, the Son of God."

19. Sons by Adoption and the Son by Nature

Bishop Eusebius said: "Is Christ true God, according to the faith of all, and catholic profession?" Palladius said: "He is the true Son of God." Bishop Eusebius said: "For we too are sons by adoption, he according to the property of divine generation". And he added: "Do you therefore confess the true Son of God to be true Lord according to nativity and property?" Palladius said: "I say the true only-begotten Son of God." Bishop Eusebius said: "Do you then think it contrary to the Scriptures, if Christ is said to be true God?"

20. Ambrose Invokes John's Testimony of the True God

And when Palladius was silent, bishop Ambrose said: « He who does not wish to call the only true Son of God, who is called so, "true Lord," seems to deny it. Let Palladius, then, confess in this order, if indeed he does confess; and let him say whether he calls the true Son of God true Lord. » Palladius said: « When the Son says: That they may know thee the only true Lord, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; does he mean this in affection, or in truth? » Bishop Ambrose said: « John said in his epistle: This is the true God. Deny this. » Palladius said: « When I call him to you the true Son, I also profess his true divinity. » Bishop Ambrose said: « And in this is the fraud; for you are accustomed to speak thus of one and true divinity, so as to attribute one and true divinity only to the Father, and not also to the Son.

Therefore if you wish to speak plainly, since you appeal me to the Scriptures, say what the evangelist John said: This is the true God: or deny that it was said. » Palladius said: « Apart from the Son there is no other begotten. »

21. The Final Anathema on Christ's True Lordship

Bishop Eusebius said: « Is Christ true God according to the faith of all and the catholic profession, or in your opinion is he not true God? » Palladius said: « He is the power of our God. » Bishop Ambrose said: « You do not have the freedom to profess; and therefore let there be anathema to him who does not confess the Son of God to be true Lord. » All the bishops said: « Let him be held anathema who has not said that Christ the Son of God is true Lord. »

22. Palladius Questions Whether Christ Is a Divine Name

Again he added: « The only true one, the only one having immortality. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Does the Son of God have immortality, or not, according to his divinity? » Palladius said: « Do you accept the Apostle, or not? » The King of kings, who alone hath immortality.

Bishop Ambrose said: « What do you say about Christ the Son of God? » Palladius said: « Is Christ a divine name, or a human one? »

23. Eusebius Explains Christ as Both God and Man

Bishop Eusebius said: « According to the mystery of the flesh he is indeed called Christ, but the same one is God and man. » Palladius said: « Christ is a name of the flesh: Christ is a human name; and do you answer me. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Why do you linger over superfluous matters? When the impiety of Arius was being read, who says this of the Father, that he alone has immortality, you brought forward a testimony in agreement with the impiety of Arius, saying from the Apostle: Who only hath immortality, and dwelleth in light inaccessible. But if you understand rightly, he expressed the dignity of the whole nature under the name of God: since indeed under the name of God both Father and Son are signified. » Palladius said: « And you likewise have refused to answer what I asked. »

24. Ambrose Presses Palladius on the Son's Immortality

Bishop Ambrose said: « I ask you plainly for your opinion: Does the Son of God have immortality according to his divine generation, or not? » Palladius said: « According to the divine generation he is incorruptible, and through the flesh he died. » Bishop Ambrose said: « It was not the divinity that died, but the flesh that died. » Palladius said: « Answer me first. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Does the Son of God have immortality according to his divinity, or not? But have you not already, by your frauds and snares, betrayed yourself as not speaking otherwise than according to the profession of Arius? » And he added: « What seems to you concerning him who denies that the Son of God has immortality? » All the bishops said: « Let him be held anathema. »

25. Debate on Christ's Death According to the Flesh

Palladius said: « The divine offspring is immortal. » Bishop Ambrose said: « This too is craftily said, so that you may express nothing plainly concerning the Son of God; but I say: The Son of God has immortality according to his divinity, or deny that he has immortality. » Palladius said: « Did Christ die, or not? » Bishop Ambrose said: « According to the flesh: our soul does not die; for it is written: Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Since therefore our soul cannot die, do you think that Christ died according to his divinity? » Palladius said: « Why do you shudder at the name of death? » Bishop Ambrose said: « On the contrary, I do not shudder; I confess it according to my flesh; for it is through him that I have been freed from the bonds of death. » Palladius said: « Death is caused by the separation of the spirit; for Christ the Son of God took on flesh, and through the flesh he died. » Bishop Ambrose said: « It is written that Christ suffered.

According to the flesh, therefore, he suffered; according to his divinity he has immortality. Whoever denies this is a devil. » Palladius said: « I do not know Arius. »

26. Bishops Anathematize Denial of the Son's Immortality

Bishop Ambrose said: « Then Arius spoke wrongly, since even the Son of God has immortality according to his divinity. » And he added: « Did he speak well, then, or ill? » Palladius said: « I do not consent. » Bishop Ambrose said: « To whom do you not consent? Anathema to him who does not set forth the freedom of the faith. » All the bishops said: « Anathema. » Palladius said: « Say what you wish, his divinity is immortal. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Whose—the Father's, or also the Son's? » And he added: « Arius has heaped up many impieties. But let us pass to other matters. »

27. Dispute Over Calling the Son Wise

And it was read: « The only wise one. » Palladius said: « The Father is wise of himself: but the Son is not wise. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Then the Son is not wise, though he himself is wisdom? For we too say that the Son was born of the Father. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Is anything so impious, so profane, as what he has said, denying that the Son of God is wise? » Palladius said: « He is called wisdom; who can deny wisdom? » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is he wise, or not? » Palladius said: « He is wisdom. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Wise, then, since he is wisdom. » Palladius said: « We answer you according to the Scriptures. » Bishop Ambrose said: « As far as I see, Palladius has attempted to deny even that the Son of God is wise. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Whoever denies that the Son of God is wise, let him be anathema. » All the bishops said, « Anathema. »

28. Debate on the Father Alone Being Called Good

Bishop Eusebius said: « Let Secundianus also answer this. » And when Secundianus was silent, bishop Ambrose said: « He who is silent wishes to keep the judgment intact. » And he added: « When he says the Father alone is good, has he confessed the Son, or denied him? » Palladius said: « We read: I am the good shepherd; and do we deny it? Who would not call the Son of God good? » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is Christ, then, good? » Palladius said: « Good. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Then Arius spoke wrongly of the Father alone, since the Son of God also is God to all. » Palladius said: « Whoever does not call Christ good, speaks wrongly. »

29. Eusebius Presses Palladius to Confess Christ Good

Bishop Eusebius said: « Do you confess Christ good? For I too am good. To me he said: Well done, good servant, and: A good man bringeth forth good things out of his good treasure ». Palladius said: « I have already said, I will not answer you until a full council. » Bishop Ambrose said: « The Jews said that he is good: and Arius denies that the Son of God is good. » Palladius said: « Who can deny this? » Bishop Eusebius said: « Then the Son of God, God, is good. » Palladius said: « The good Father begot a good Son. »

30. Anathema on Denying the Good Son Is God

Bishop Ambrose said: « He begot us also good; but not according to divinity. You call the Son of God a good God. » Palladius said: « The Son of God is good. » Bishop Ambrose said: « You see, then, that you call Christ a good Son, but not a good God; which is what is asked of you. » And he added: « Whoever does not confess the good Son of God to be God, anathema. » All the bishops said: « Anathema. »

31. Debate on Whether the Son Is Powerful

Again he read: « The only powerful one. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is the Son of God powerful, or not? » Palladius said: « He who made all things, is he not powerful? He who made all things, can he do less? » Bishop Ambrose said: « Then Arius spoke wrongly. » And he added: « Do you condemn Arius, then, on this point too? » Palladius said: « How do I know who he is? I answer you for myself. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is the Son of the Lord God, God, powerful? » Palladius said: « Powerful. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is God good? » Palladius said: « I have already said the only-begotten Son of God is powerful. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Lord, powerful. » Palladius said: « Son of God, powerful. »

32. Bishops Anathematize Denial of Christ's Power

Bishop Ambrose said: « Men also are powerful; for it is written: Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity? And elsewhere: When I am weak, then I am powerful. This I require of you, that you confess the Lord Christ the Son of God to be powerful: or if you deny it, argue it. For I, who say that the power of Father and Son is one, thus call the Son of God powerful just as I call the Father. Do you hesitate, then, to confess the Lord, the Son of God, to be powerful? » Palladius said: « I have already said, we answer you according to disputation, as far as we can; for you alone wish to be judges: you wish to be litigants. We do not answer you now, but we will answer you in a general and full council. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Anathema to him who denies that Christ the Lord is powerful. » All the bishops said: « Anathema. »

33. Dispute Over the Son as Judge of All

Again it was read: « The only powerful one, the judge of all. » Palladius said: « The Son of God, judge of all. There is one who gives, there is one who receives. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Did he give it by grace, or by nature? And judgment is also given to men. » Palladius said: « Do you call the Father greater, or not? » Bishop Ambrose said: « I will answer you afterward. » Palladius said: « I will not answer you, if you do not answer me. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Unless you condemn the impiety of Arius point by point, we will not grant you the opportunity to question. » Palladius said: « I will not answer you. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Is the Son of God, as has been read, a judge, or not? » Palladius said: « If you do not answer me, I, as to an impious man, will not answer you. »

34. Reading Resumes From the Letter of Arius

Bishop Ambrose said: « You have my profession, by which I will answer you. Meanwhile let the letter of Arius be read through. » And he added: « In the letter of Arius you will find this sacrilege too, which you are attempting. » Palladius said: « I who question, will you not answer me? » Bishop Eusebius said: « We say that the Son of God, God, is equal. » Palladius said: « You are the judge, your recorders are here. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Let your own men write, whoever wishes. »

35. Scripture on Christ Equal to God Debated

Palladius said: « Is the Father greater, or not? » Bishop Eusebius said: « According to divinity the Son is equal to the Father. You have in the Gospel that the Jews persecuted him; because he not only broke the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. What then the impious, in persecuting, confessed, we, believing, cannot deny. » Bishop Ambrose said: And elsewhere you have: « Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, obedient unto death ». And he added: « Do you see that in the form of God he is equal? And, it says, he took the form of a servant. In what, then, is he lesser? According to the form of a servant, of course, not of God. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Just as, established in the form of a servant, he was not inferior to a servant: so, established in the form of God, he could not be inferior to God. »

36. Ambrose Charges Palladius With Falsifying Scripture

Bishop Ambrose said: « Either say that the Son of God is lesser according to his divinity. » Palladius said: « The Father is greater. » Bishop Ambrose said: « According to the flesh. » Palladius said: « He who sent me is greater than me. Was it the flesh that was sent by God, or the Son of God? » Bishop Ambrose said: « We prove today that the divine Scriptures are falsified by you; for thus it is written: My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you. Let not your heart be troubled: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. He did not say: He who sent me is greater than I ».

Palladius said: « The Father is greater. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Anathema to him who adds anything to the divine Scriptures, or takes away. » All the bishops said: « Anathema. »

37. Distinguishing the Son's Equality and His Lowliness

Palladius said: « The Father is greater than the Son. » Bishop Ambrose said: « According to the flesh the Son is lesser than the Father, according to divinity he is equal to the Father: I have read, then, that the Son of God is equal to the Father, as the copies now produced also testify. But according to the flesh why do you wonder that he is lesser; since he called himself a servant, since he called himself a stone, since he called himself a worm, since he called himself lesser than the angels; for it is written: Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels ».

Palladius said: « I see you asserting things impiously: we will not answer you without listeners present. » Bishop Sabinus said: « Let no one seek an opinion from him who has blasphemed with so many countless opinions. » Palladius said: « We will not answer you. »

38. Sabinus Condemns Palladius Amid Scriptural Testimony

Bishop Sabinus said: « Palladius is now condemned by all: the blasphemies of Arius are much less than those of Palladius. And when Palladius had risen up, and wished to go out: “Palladius has risen up for this reason,” he said, “because he perceives that he must be convicted by the open testimonies of the Scriptures, just as he has already been convicted; for thus it is read, according to divinity, that the Son is equal to the Father. But let him understand that the Son of God, according to divinity, has no one greater. It is written: When God had made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one else greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself. You see, then, from Scripture that He has no one else greater by whom to swear.

But it is the Son of whom it is said that He Himself was seen by Abraham; whence also He says: Abraham saw my day, and was glad.” Palladius said: « The Father is greater. » Bishop Eusebius said: « When He spoke as God, He had no one greater; when He spoke as man, He had one greater. »

39. Anathema on Denying the Son's Equality With the Father

Palladius said: « The Father begot the Son, the Father sent the Son. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Anathema to him who denies that the Son, according to divinity, is equal to the Father. » All the bishops said: « Anathema. » Palladius said: « The Son is subject to the Father, the Son keeps the precepts of the Father. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Subject according to the manner of the flesh. Moreover you yourself remember, for you have read: No one comes to me unless the Father has drawn him ».

Bishop Sabinus said: « Let him say whether He is subject to the Father according to divinity, or according to the incarnation. »

40. Debate on the Father's Greatness in the Incarnation

Palladius said: « Therefore the Father is greater. » Bishop Ambrose said: « And elsewhere it is written: God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son. I say that the Father is greater according to the assumption of flesh, which the Son of God took on, not according to divinity. » Palladius said: « What comparison is there of the Son of God? And can flesh say: God is greater than me? Was it the flesh that spoke, or the divinity; since flesh was there? » Bishop Ambrose said: « Flesh does not speak without a soul. » Bishop Eusebius said: « God in the flesh spoke according to the flesh, when He said: Why do you seek to kill me, a man? Who said this? » Palladius said: « The Son of God. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Therefore the Son of God is God according to divinity, and man according to the flesh. » Palladius said: « He took on flesh. » Bishop Eusebius said: « Therefore He used human words. » Palladius said: « He took on human flesh. »

41. Christ's Humbling and Obedience Unto Death Discussed

Bishop Ambrose said: « Let him say that it was not according to divinity that the Apostle called Him subject, but according to the flesh; for it is written: He humbled Himself, being made obedient unto death. In what, then, did He taste death? » Palladius said: « Because He humbled Himself. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Not the divinity, but the flesh was humbled and made subject. » And he added: « Did Arius say well or ill that He was a perfect creature? » Palladius said: « I do not answer you, who have no authority. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Declare what you hold? » Palladius said: « I do not answer you. »

42. Sabinus Presses Palladius on His Prior Answers

Bishop Sabinus said: « You do not answer for Arius, you do not answer what is asked? » Palladius said: « I have not answered for Arius. » Bishop Sabinus said: « You have answered to the extent that you have denied the Son of God to be powerful, denied Him to be true God. » Palladius said: « I do not allow you as judge, whom I charge with impiety. » Bishop Sabinus said: « You yourself compelled us to sit. » Palladius said: « I ordered that you sit, so that I might convict you. Why have you stolen a march on the emperor? You have obtained this by fraud, so that the council should not be full. » Bishop Ambrose said: « When the blasphemies of Arius were read, your impiety likewise was condemned along with them, since it agreed with the Arian impiety. It pleased you to propose a reading from the middle of the letter, the part you wished: it has been answered to you how the Son called the Father greater, namely because, according to the assumption of flesh, the Father is greater than He.

You also proposed that the Son of God is subject; and to this also it has been answered to you, that the Son of God is subject according to the flesh, not according to divinity. You have our profession; now hear the rest. Since you have been answered, answer to what is being read. »

43. Palladius Disputes the Recording of the Proceedings

Palladius said: « I do not answer you; because whatever I have said is not written down: only your words are being written: I do not answer you. » Bishop Ambrose said: « You see that everything is being written. Indeed, what has been written is abundantly sufficient as proof of your impiety. » And he added: « Do you call Christ a creature, or do you deny it? » Palladius said: « I do not answer. » Bishop Ambrose said: « A short while ago, when it was read that Arius said Christ was a creature, you denied it: it was offered to you that you might condemn the perfidy, you were unwilling: even now say whether Christ was born of the Father, or created? » Palladius said: « If you wish, let our stenographers come, and thus let everything be taken down. » Bishop Sabinus said: « Let him bring his stenographers. » Palladius said: « We will answer you in a full council. »

44. Ambrose Questions Attalus on the Nicene Signature

Bishop Ambrose said: « Attalus signed the record of the Nicene council. Let him deny the fact, since he has come to the council. Let him say today whether he signed the record of the Nicene council, or not. » And when Attalus remained silent, Bishop Ambrose said: « Attalus the presbyter, although he is among the Arians, nevertheless has the authority to speak: let him freely declare whether he signed the record of the Nicene council under his bishop Agrippinus, or not. » Attalus said: « You have already said several times that I am condemned: I do not answer you. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Did you sign the record of the Nicene council, or not? » Attalus said: « I do not answer you. »

45. Witnesses Confirm Attalus Signed at Nicaea

Palladius said: « Do you now wish the record to be considered full, or not? » The presbyter Chromatius said: « You have not denied it a creature, you have denied it powerful. You have denied everything that the catholic faith professes. » Bishop Sabinus said: « We are witnesses that Attalus signed at the Nicene council, and now is unwilling to answer. What is the view of all?

And when Attalus remained silent, Bishop Ambrose said: « Let him say whether he signed the record of the Nicene council, or not? »

46. Stenographers Record as the Letter Resumes

Palladius said: « Let your stenographer and ours stand, and write down everything. » Bishop Valerianus said: « Already what you have said, and what you have denied, has all been written down. » Palladius said: « Say what you wish. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Since Palladius, who has already often been condemned, wishes to be condemned all the more, I read the letter of Arius, which he was unwilling to condemn: declare what seems right to you? » All the bishops said: « Let it be read. » And it was recited: « But born, not putatively, » and the rest.

Bishop Ambrose said: « I have answered you concerning the “greater,” I have answered you also concerning “subject”: now do you also answer. »

47. Ambrose Recites Arius' Letter on Christ's Origin

Palladius said: « I will not answer unless auditors come after the Lord's Day. » Bishop Ambrose said: « You had come to conduct a debate, but after I confronted you, you saw the letter of Arius, which you were unwilling to condemn, and yet you cannot affirm it either; for this reason you now flee and quibble. I recite it fully, point by point. Say whether Christ seems to have been created; or whether there was a time when He was not: or rather whether the only-begotten Son of God has always existed? When you have heard the letter of Arius, either condemn it, or approve it. »

48. Palladius Refuses to Answer and Accuses Ambrose

Palladius said: « Since I charge you with impiety, I do not use you as judge. You are a transgressor. » Bishop Sabinus said: « Say what impieties you charge against our brother and fellow-priest Ambrose. » Palladius said: « I have already told you, I will answer in a full council, and with auditors present. » Bishop Ambrose said: « I desire to be confuted and refuted in the assembly of my brothers. Say, then, what things I have said impiously: but I seem impious to you, who assert piety. » Bishop Sabinus said: « So he who refutes the blasphemies of Arius seems impious to you? »

49. Debate Over Confessing Christ as Good God

Palladius said: « I have not denied that the Son of God is good. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Do you then say that Christ is God, good? » Palladius said: « I do not answer you. » Bishop Valerianus said: « Do not press Palladius too much, he cannot simply confess our truths. For his conscience is confounded by a twofold blasphemy; for he was ordained by the Photinians, and was condemned along with them: and now he will be condemned even more fully.

Palladius said: « Prove this. » Bishop Sabinus said: « He could not deny the true Christ in any other way, except by following his own teachers. »

50. All Bishops Pronounce Anathema Upon Palladius

Bishop Ambrose said: « You have charged me with being impious, prove this. » Palladius said: « We will bring our exposition; and when we have brought it, then the disputation will be held. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Condemn the impiety of Arius. » When Palladius remained silent, Bishop Eusebius said: « He dwells on superfluous things. Palladius has been unwilling to condemn so many impieties of Arius; rather, by asserting them, he has confessed them. He who does not condemn this man is like him, and must rightly be called a heretic. » All the bishops said: « Let there be anathema from all of us upon Palladius. »

51. Palladius Demands Auditors Before Further Answers

Bishop Ambrose said: « Do you agree, Palladius, that the rest of Arius' words be read? » Palladius said: « Give us auditors: let stenographers come from both sides. You cannot be judges, if we do not have auditors; and unless those who will listen come from both sides, we will not answer you. » Bishop Ambrose said: « What auditors do you seek? » Palladius said: « There are many honorable men here. » Bishop Sabinus said: « After so many blasphemies do you seek auditors? » Bishop Ambrose said: « Priests ought to judge laymen, not laymen judge priests. But still, say whom you would ask as judges. » Palladius said: « Let auditors come. » The presbyter Chromatius said: « With the priestly condemnation preserved, let even now, in full assembly, those things which belong to Palladius be read. »

52. Ambrose Pronounces Palladius Unfit for the Priesthood

Palladius said: « They are not permitted to speak. Let auditors come, and stenographers from both sides, and these men will answer you in a general council. » Bishop Ambrose said: « Even though he has been caught in many impieties, yet we would blush that he who claims priesthood for himself should be seen to be condemned by laymen: and on this very account he is also to be condemned in this very matter, since he awaits the judgment of laymen; whereas rather priests ought to judge laymen. According to what we have heard Palladius profess today, and according to what he was unwilling to condemn, I pronounce him unworthy of the priesthood and that it must be taken from him, so that a catholic may be ordained in his place. » All the bishops said: « Anathema to Palladius. »

53. The Emperor's Referral and the Sentence Against Palladius

Bishop Ambrose said: « The most clement and Christian emperor said that he had entrusted the case to the judgment of priests, that they themselves might be the arbiters of the dispute. Since, therefore, it seems that the judgment has been referred to us as interpreters of the Scriptures, let us condemn Palladius, who was unwilling to condemn the sentence of the impious Arius: and because he himself denied the Son of God to be eternal, and the other things which are contained in the acts. Therefore let him be held anathema. » All the bishops said: « We all condemn him, let him be held anathema. » The condemnation of Palladius by the individual Fathers.

54. Valerianus Condemns Palladius; Palladius Refuses to Answer

Bishop Ambrose said: « Since all Christian men, and brothers approved by God, and our fellow-priests, are present, let each one say what seems right to him. » Bishop Valerianus said: « It seems to me that he who defends Arius is an Arian: he who does not condemn his blasphemies is himself a blasphemer; and therefore I judge that a man of this sort should be estranged from the fellowship of priests. » Palladius said: « You have begun to sport; go on sporting. Without an Eastern council we will not answer you. »

55. Anemius and Constantius of Orange Condemn Palladius

Anemius, bishop of Sirmium, said: « Whoever does not condemn the Arian heresies must necessarily be an Arian. We judge, therefore, that this man is estranged even from our communion, and once again deprived of the priestly assembly. » Constantius, bishop of Orange, said: « Since Palladius, the disciple of Arius, whose impieties were already condemned long ago by our fathers in the Nicene council, and now today have been proved as they were reviewed one by one by Palladius; since he was not ashamed, while confessing the Son of God to be a stranger to God the Father, in that he confesses Him a creature: since he says He began in time, he denies the true Lord—I judge that he must be condemned forever. »

56. Justus and Eventius Depose Palladius from the Priesthood

Bishop Justus said: « Palladius, who was unwilling to condemn the blasphemies of Arius, but rather seems to confess them all the more, I judge can no longer be called a priest, nor be numbered among the bishops. » Eventius, bishop of Ticinum, said: « I consider that Palladius, who was unwilling to condemn the impiety of Arius, is removed forever from the priestly fellowship.

57. Abundantius and Eusebius of Bologna Condemn Palladius

Abundantius, bishop of Trent, said: « Since Palladius defends manifest blasphemies, let him recognize that he stands condemned by the council of Aquileia. » Eusebius, bishop of Bologna, said: « Since Palladius was not only unwilling to condemn the impieties of Arius, written with a diabolical pen—impieties which it was not lawful even to admit to one's ears—but even became their advocate, by denying that the Son of God is the true Lord, the good Lord, the wise Lord, the eternal Lord, I judge that he is rightly condemned from the priestly assembly, both by my own sentence and by the judgment of all catholics. »

58. Sabinus and the African Legates Anathematize Arian Doctrine

Sabinus, bishop of Piacenza, said: « Since it has been made plain to all that Palladius, who is the author of the Arian perfidy, also holds that impiety which is contrary to the evangelical and apostolic institutions, the sentence of the whole council brought against him is just; and by the judgment of my own small self, being once again deprived of the priesthood, let him rightly be expelled from this most sacred assembly. » Felix and Numidius, legates of the Africans, said: « Anathema to the sect of the Arian heresy, in which, at the synod of Aquileia, Palladius has been declared guilty. But we also condemn those who fight against the truth of the Nicene synod. »

59. Limenius and Maximus of Emona Condemn Palladius

Limenius, bishop of Vercelli, said: « It is manifest that Arian doctrine has often been condemned; and therefore, since Palladius, being confronted in this holy synod of Aquileia, refused to correct or amend himself, but rather proved himself worthy of reproach, and defiled himself with the perfidy which he publicly confessed to hold, my judgment is, and I too declare, that he must be deprived of the fellowship of the priesthood. » Maximus, bishop of Emona, said: « That Palladius, who was unwilling to condemn the blasphemies of Arius, but rather confessed them himself, has been justly and deservedly condemned, both God knows, and the conscience of the faithful has condemned him. »

60. Exuperantius and Bassianus Add Their Condemnation of Palladius

Exuperantius, bishop of Dertona, said: « Palladius, who refused to condemn the sect of Arius or his doctrine, but rather defended it, just as the rest of my colleagues have condemned him, I too condemn. » Bassianus, bishop of Lodi, said: « I have heard, as have the rest of my colleagues, the impieties of Arius, which Palladius not only did not condemn but confirmed: let him be anathema, and let him be deprived of the priesthood. »

61. Philaster, Constantius of Siscia, and Heliodorus Condemn Palladius

Philaster, bishop of Brescia, said: « The blasphemies and iniquity of Palladius, who follows and defends the Arian doctrine, I have condemned along with all. » Constantius, bishop of Siscia, said: « Palladius, who did not condemn the blasphemies and impieties of Arius, just as the rest of my fellow-priests, I too judge must be condemned. » Heliodorus, bishop of Altino, said: « The perfidy of Arius and of all the heretics, of whom Palladius is a partaker, whose foolish heart did not confess the truth—him, together with the rest of my fellow-priests, I condemn. »

62. Felix of Zadar, Theodorus, and Dominus Condemn Palladius

Felix, bishop of Zadar, said: « Palladius, who utters blasphemies against the Son as Arius did, I condemn along with all equally. » Theodorus, bishop of Octodurum, said: « Palladius, who denied that Christ is true God, coeternal with the Father, we deem in no way a Christian, nor in any way a priest. » Dominus, bishop of Grenoble, said: « Palladius, remaining forever in the perfidy of Arius, just as the brethren have condemned, I too judge must be condemned. »

63. Proculus and Diogenes Declare Palladius Condemned

Proculus, bishop of Marseilles, said: « Palladius, who defends the blasphemies of Arius by a certain impious inheritance, by not condemning them—just as the judgment of the majority of venerable priests has already designated him a blasphemer and declared him alien to the priesthood, so my judgment likewise designates him condemned forever. » Diogenes, bishop of Genoa, said: « Since Palladius does not confess Christ the Lord as true God, like and equal to the Father—nay, has denied it—I judge that he should share condemnation with the rest of my brother priests. »

64. Amantius and Januarius Condemn Palladius; Secundianus Cavils Likewise

Amantius, bishop of Nice, said: « Palladius, who did not destroy the sect of Arius, according to the judgment of my fellow-priests I too condemn. » Januarius, bishop, said: « Just as all my fellow-priests have condemned Palladius, so I too judge with equal judgment that he must be condemned. » Secundianus, when pressed to acknowledge Christ as true God, tries by the same cavilling as Palladius to mock the Fathers.

65. Ambrose Questions Secundianus on the Son's True Godhead

And when Secundianus had slipped away, Ambrose the bishop said: « You have heard, Secundianus, what sort of sentence the impious Palladius received, condemned by the priestly council; although it displeased us that you did not shudder at his, that is, Palladius’s, madness, yet I ask something of you in particular. Do you say that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God or not true God? » Secundianus said: « Whoever denies that the Father of our Lord and God Jesus Christ is true God is not a Christian: nor is he who denies that the Son is the true Lord of God. » Ambrose the bishop said: « Do you confess the Son of God to be true God? » Secundianus said: « I say the true Son of God, the true only-begotten Son of God. »

66. Eusebius Presses Secundianus on Christ as True Lord

Ambrose the bishop said: « Do you say true Lord? » Secundianus said: « The true only-begotten Son: who denies the true Son of God? » Eusebius the bishop said: « It is not enough that you confess the Son of God only-begotten; for all confess this: but this is the point at issue, that Arius said the Father alone is Lord, alone is true; he denied that the Son of God is true Lord. Do you simply confess the Son of God to be true God? » Secundianus said: « Who Arius was I do not know: what he said I do not know. You speak with me, living to living. I say what Christ said: The only-begotten who is in the bosom of the Father; therefore he asserts himself to be the only-begotten Son of the Father: the only-begotten Son is therefore the true Son of God. »

67. Ambrose Cites Scripture to Press the True God Question

Ambrose the bishop said: « Is God true, is the true Son of God, God? » And he added: « It is written in the divine books: For they who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God. Which without doubt is not to be doubted to concern Christ. We therefore profess the true God: and this is our faith and profession, that the only-begotten Son of the Father is true God. Say you too, of the true God, then the Son true God. » Secundianus said: « Of the true God. »

68. Secundianus Evades Confessing Christ as True God

Ambrose the bishop said: « Is the Son of God true God? » Secundianus said: « Then a liar. » Ambrose the bishop said: « In this you practice deceit, in that you do not say true God, but true only-begotten God, and for this reason say simply: The only-begotten Son of God is true God. » Secundianus said: « I said the only-begotten Son of God. »

69. Ambrose Likens Secundianus's Evasions to Photinus and Sabellius

Eusebius the bishop said: « This Photinus does not deny, this Sabellius confesses. » Ambrose the bishop said: « And he who does not confess this is justly condemned; and for this reason I confront you again and again, although by cavilling you have denied the truth. I do not ask that you merely say the true only-begotten Son of God, but also true God. » Secundianus said: « I profess myself a servant of the truth. What I say is not written: and what you say is written. I say Christ is the true Son of God. Who denies that the Son of God is true? »

70. Ambrose Pronounces Anathema on Denial of Christ's True Godhead

Ambrose the bishop said: « Let him who denies that the only-begotten Son of God is true God be anathema. » Secundianus said: « True God, the only-begotten Son of God: why do you press upon me what is not written? » Ambrose the bishop said: « It is an open sacrilege, when Arius denied that Christ the Son of God is true God. » Secundianus said: « I say Jesus Christ the Son of God, God, who may be called Christ the true Son, I say the Son of God: but ‘true God’ is not written. »

71. Secundianus Answers Evasively Instead of Confessing Directly

Ambrose the bishop said: « Have you not yet come to your senses? » And he added: « Lest it seem that anything has been slipped past him, let him confirm his own statement. Let him then say that the only-begotten Christ, Son of God, is true God. » Secundianus said: « I have already said it. What more do you wish to wring from me? » Ambrose the bishop said: « What did you say? Surely if you had said such great things, what is spoken gloriously ought often to be repeated. » Secundianus said: « It is said: Let your speech be, yes, yes; no, no. »

72. Ambrose Presses for True God Begotten of True God

Ambrose the bishop said: « He who says the Father himself is the Son is sacrilegious. This I ask of you, that you say the true God, the Son of God, born of the true God. » Secundianus said: « I say the Son begotten by God, as He Himself says: I have begotten thee; and confessing that he was begotten, I say it. »

73. Eusebius Recalls That Arius and Palladius Denied This

Ambrose the bishop said: « Is he true God from true God? » Secundianus said: « And when you add ‘true’ even to the name, do you hear what kind of faith is in you, and are you a Christian? » Eusebius the bishop said: « Who denied him to be true God? Arius and Palladius denied it. If you believe him to be true God, you ought to state it plainly.

74. Secundianus Stalls, Demanding a Written Profession First

Ambrose the bishop said: « If you do not say that true God was born of true God, you have denied Christ. » Secundianus said: « Asked about the Son, I gave an answer: as I ought to profess, I have answered. We have your exposition, we will bring it forth, let it be read. » Ambrose said: « You ought to have brought it today; but instead you try to slip away. You demand a profession from me; and I demand a profession from you. Is the Son of God true God? » Secundianus said: « The Son of God is the only-begotten God. And I ask him: Is he only-begotten? »

75. Ambrose Distinguishes True God from True Only-Begotten

Ambrose the bishop said: Let reason move « us, as well as your impiety and folly. When you say ‘true only-begotten God,’ you do not say true God, but true only-begotten. And so, that this question may be removed, answer thus: Is God true from God true? » Secundianus said: « So then did God not beget God? God who is true, being what he is, begot; he begot one true, only-begotten Son? » Ambrose said: « You do not confess true God, but you wish to say true only-begotten. And I say only-begotten, but also true God. » Secundianus said: « I say begotten of the Father, I say begotten true to all. » The names of the bishops and priests who took part in the Council.

76. The Roster of Bishops and Priests at Aquileia

Valerian, bishop of Aquileia. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Eusebius, bishop of Bologna. Limenius, bishop of Vercelli. Anemius, bishop of Sirmium of Illyricum. Sabinus, bishop of Piacenza. Abundantius, bishop of Trent. Philaster, bishop of Brescia. Constantinus, bishop of Orange, legate of the Gauls. Theodorus, bishop of Octodurum. Dominus, bishop of Grenoble. Amantius, bishop of Nice. Maximus, bishop of Emona. Bassianus, bishop of Lodi. Proculus, bishop of Marseilles, legate of the Gauls. Heliodorus, bishop of Altino. Felix, bishop of Zadar. Eventius, bishop of Pavia. Exsuperantius, bishop of Dertona. Diogenes, bishop of Genoa. Constantius, bishop of Siscia. Justus, bishop of Lyon, another legate of the Gauls. Felix, legate of the Africans. Numidius, legate of the Africans. Evagrius, priest and legate. Artemius, Almachius, Januarius, Jovinus, Macedonius, Cassianus, Marcellus, Eustathius, Maximus, Chromatius the priest.

The council which met at Aquileia, to our most beloved brothers the bishops of the provinces of the Gauls, of Vienne and of Narbonensis Prima and Secunda.

1. Gratitude for the Presence of the Council's Legates

We give thanks to your holy unanimity, that in our lords and brothers Constantius and Proculus you have bestowed upon us the presence of all of you: and likewise, following the precepts of our forefathers, you have added no small weight to our judgments, with which the profession of your holiness also agrees, most beloved lord brothers. And so, just as we gladly received these holy men of your and our fellowship, so also we send them away with abundant thanksgiving.

2. The Council's Necessity and the Sentence on Palladius and Secundianus

How necessary this assembly was will be evident from the facts themselves, since the adversaries and enemies of God, the defenders of the Arian sect and heresy, Palladius and Secundianus—only two who dared to come to the Council—received in person the sentence due to them, convicted of impiety. Farewell. May our almighty God keep you safe and most flourishing, lord brothers most beloved. Amen.