Letters 81-91

AMBROSE to Marcellus.

1. Called to Examine a Family Dispute

The course of your affair's text has run through my mind, which you did not bring about, but received; for there was both a necessity of dutifulness, and a wish to prove generosity toward the poor. But I recognized it according to the pattern of sacred precept, into which the authority of the most blessed Apostle has clothed me, as well as the pattern and discipline of your teaching and life. For when I myself charged that a stale quarrel still remained among you, the circumstances imposed on me the necessity of inquiring.

2. Advocates Press for a Bishops Judgment Over the Prefects

I blushed to refuse, I confess, especially since the togaed advocates of both sides were provoking one another, saying that it should be made clear under my examination which side had the greater support of law or of justice. What more? When the days were already closed, and only the space of a few hours remained, in which the prefect nevertheless would hear other business, the advocates of the case asked that a delay of a few days be granted, so that I might sit as examiner. Such was the ardor of these Christian men, that the prefect should not judge concerning a bishop's affair. They said besides I know not what things done indecorously, and each, according to his own zeal, alleged matters which ought rather to be examined by a bishop as judge than by a prefect.

3. Accepting the Role of Arbiter Under Apostolic Precept

Disturbed by these things, and at the same time admonished by the Apostolic precept, which reproves, saying: Do you not judge those who are within? And again: If then you have secular judgments, set those who are least esteemed in the Church to judge. I speak to your shame. So is there not among you any wise man, who can judge between his brother? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers; I accepted the cognizance, yet so that I should be arbiter of a settlement. For I saw that if I judged for your side, he might not acquiesce: if the sentence were given for him, your defense and that of your holy sister would obey. The condition for deciding, then, was unequal. Also the grace due to priestly kinship might seem suspect to them. For when is a defeated party ever persuaded that anyone else is fairer to him than himself?

And what is true, the losses of the old quarrel were intolerable to both sides; if its end should lack either fruit or the solace of generosity.

4. Choosing a Settlement Over a Contested Judgment

When, therefore, I perceived the judgment doubtful, the right disputed, manifold actions on both sides, petitions full of ill-will, and also underhanded procurements of rescripts overlaying the case: and when I noted also that he, if he should win, would proceed under a heavy condition regarding double fruits and the expenses of the long-standing suit: and that it would not be fitting for your office to demand the expenses of the suit: nor would it be proper for you as possessor to claim anything concerning the fruits you had received; I preferred to cut short the quarrel by a settlement, rather than embitter it by a pronouncement. For other quarrels would have been stirred up: then, what is most grave, even if the quarrels were removed, the hatreds would still remain, which are of loss to good character.

5. A Settlement Where Every Side Triumphs

Placed amid these tides, since the person of a priest, the gravity of a widow of the female sex, and also the consideration of a friend, met in me under a threefold and not perfunctory title, I thought this course should be followed: that I should wish no one to be defeated, and everyone to win. Nor did the judgment deceive me; for you have all triumphed over kinship, triumphed over nature, triumphed over Scripture, which says: Why do you not rather suffer wrong? Why do you not rather suffer fraud?

6. On Suffering Loss Rather Than Inflicting It

But you think yourself burdened by the loss of a right, by a loss of money. Losses are surely better for priests than the gains of the world: for it is more blessed to give than to receive. But perhaps you say: I ought not to have suffered fraud, I ought not to have endured injury, to undergo loss.

What then? Would you wish to inflict it? But even if you did not inflict it, he would say that he had suffered it. And so see what the Apostle says: Why do you not rather suffer fraud? So that it might almost seem that he who does not suffer has done it; for he who is stronger ought to bear it.

7. Terms Proposed Between Brother and Widowed Sister

But why do I act with you thus, as though this were mine, and not yours? For you offered, as arbiter of the suit, that your sister should possess a part of the estate for the term of her life, and that after her death the entire possession should pass to your brother. Nor should anyone contend with him, either in your name or that of the Church: but he should keep it for himself, if he so preferred, so that he might administer nothing for the Church. When I proclaimed this, and set forth to him how great a grace of generosity had been infused into your mind, your brother replied that the offer pleased him, if the fear of the property's deteriorating should be removed. For how could a woman, and what is more, a widow, manage a tributary property? What would it profit him that you should yield to him the rights of possession, if he judged that he must undergo greater losses from the neglect of the field?

8. Laetus Takes the Field and Its Risk

This moved the togaed advocates of both sides. And so, by the agreeing assent of all, it was decided that Laetus, a man of distinguished rank, should take on the field, and pay a fixed amount of grain, wine, and oil yearly to the sister. Therefore your holy sister has lost not the right, but the anxiety: not the fruit, but the labor of cultivation: not the income, but a certain uncertainty of outcome, what is commonly called a hazard. If severe storms of wind should hinder the yield, your sister's own abundance will nevertheless remain to her. If through excessive dryness the growing things of the ground should wither, still the fruitfulness of the sown fields will not be diminished for your sister. Laetus will attribute to himself the condition of his own offer: if the necessities of the times and extraordinary exactions should press upon them, your sister, by your kindness, will be exempt, as it will be Laetus's loss: but Laetus will console himself with the ownership of the land.

9. Charity as the True Gain of the Settlement

You have therefore all conquered: Laetus, because he has obtained the right to the place which he did not hold; the sister, because she will now possess the annual fruits without lawsuit, without dispute; yet no one has conquered more fully, no one more gloriously than you, who, while wishing your generosity to be confirmed toward your sister, have made her a sharer in the brotherly bond on both sides. For you have granted to your brother the ownership, and to your sister the usufruct; but nothing is taken away from the Church which is gained for piety; for charity is not a loss but a gain of Christ; indeed charity is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. The case has therefore been carried through with an apostolic character. We grieved before that you had a lawsuit: the dispute has profited, that you might put on the form of apostolic life and teaching. That did not befit the priesthood; but this settlement befits the apostolic rule.

10. The Churchs Share in Spiritual Fruits

Do not fear that the Church should be without share or portion in your generosity. She too has your fruits, and indeed more abundant ones; she has the fruits of your teaching, she has the stipend of your life; she has the fruitfulness which you have watered with your institutions. Rich with these returns, she does not seek temporal things; because she possesses eternal ones. Moreover you have added to her not only apostolic but even evangelical fruits; for the Lord said: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity. You too have made friends, and, what is wonderful, out of those who were at odds. You have made brothers return to the right of kinship, you have made them secure by this charity, by this grace, that they may be received into the eternal tabernacles.

11. Christ as Author of the Peace Agreed

With Christ therefore as author, and two priests as arbiters—you who first gave the form, I who pronounced the sentence—the peace that has been made will not limp; since so many pledges of faith have come together, that faithlessness cannot go unpunished.

12. Laetus Restored to the Ownership of His Name

Laetus will plow for his sister, whose labors, belonging to another, he once envied; Laetus will gather the harvest for his sister, in which before he could not bear another's gifts; he will carry the fruits to his sister's granaries, and he will do this gladly, having now recovered even the ownership of his own name.

13. A Closing Blessing on Priestly Virtue

You meanwhile, conformed to the apostle of Christ, taking up prophetic authority, will say to the Lord: You have possessed my reins. This possession better befits Christ; that he may possess the virtues of his priest, that he may take these fruits, which are of integrity and continence, and, what is greater, of charity and tranquility. Farewell, and love us; for we love you.

Ambrose to Sisinnius.

1. Forgiving a Sons Marriage Made Without Consent

That you have forgiven our son at my request, because he had taken a wife without consulting you, I attribute more to piety than to our affection; for it is more to have obtained piety itself from you, than anyone's petition. Certainly a priest obtains more then, when virtue prevails; for the petition of a priest is the teaching of piety. Nature, then, obtained it; the son obtained it the more fully, because the contemplation of what is requested is usually temporal, but the habit of virtue is lasting, and a continual leading of minds.

2. A Fathers Anger and a Fathers Forgiveness

It was beautifully done, then, that you should recognize yourself as a father: at the same time because your indignation was just; for I would rather that the fault be acknowledged, so that the fatherly indulgence may be more praised: but there was also a fatherly offense in this, that you ought to have chosen by your own judgment the one who was to come into your daughter's place, whose father you would become. For either we receive children by nature, or by choice; in nature there is chance, in choice there is judgment: and we take more offense in adopted children than in natural ones; because that natural children should be degenerate is attributed to nature, but that those admitted by adoption or by union should be dishonorable is ascribed to our own error. There was, then, cause for you to be angry with your son, but there was also cause for you to forgive; because he chose a wife for himself. You have acquired a daughter without the risk of choosing.

If he has married a good woman, she has gained you favor; if he erred, by receiving her you will make her better, by rejecting her you will make her worse.

3. The Bride Between a Fathers Choice and a Husbands Judgment

A girl is indeed given by a father to a son with a more mature counsel: but with a greater purpose of obedience she is led by the son to the father, and, chosen by the husband, enters the house of her father-in-law; while the son also fears to displease by his judgment, and the daughter-in-law by her service. The former is raised up and lifted by the prerogative of her father's choice; the latter is humbled by fear of offense, bowed down by modesty. The son will have nothing to lay to his wife's account, as though he were without fault, if perhaps something has given offense, as happens in use; rather he will labor the more, that in both his own quality may be proved—in his wife, judgment, and in himself, obedience.

4. Quick Forgiveness and the Example of Abraham

You have done, then, what good parents do, in forgiving quickly, though only when besought; for before you were asked, it was not forgiveness, but approval of the deed. Moreover, to delay pardon longer is both bitter for you and useless for them; for indeed fatherly feelings could not bear it longer. And. Abraham, with a purpose of the highest devotion, was offering his son according to the divine oracle as a holocaust; and as though bereft of natural feeling, he drew the sword, lest delay should dishonor the sacrifice; yet when he was bidden to withhold his hand from his son, he gladly put back the sword: and he who, in the intensity of faith, was hastening to sacrifice his only son, with even greater zeal of piety hastened to substitute a ram for the sacrifice.

7. Joseph's Forgiveness of His Brothers

Joseph too, in order to keep his younger brother, feigned anger toward his brothers, and a contrived charge of theft; yet, though indignant, when one of the brothers, Judas, fell at his knees, and the others wept, overcome and moved by brotherly affection, he could not maintain the pretense of severity any longer: and having sent away the witnesses, he revealed to his brothers that they were his own kin, and that he himself was Joseph, whom they had sold; nor did he remember his own injury, but excused, in brotherly fashion, the bitterness of their brotherly betrayal, and referred what he might have blamed to higher causes; because it had thus been fitting to happen, by God's providence, that he who was to feed his people, lacking foreign grain, should go into Egypt, so that in the time of famine he might be a support for the feeding of his father and his brothers.

8. David's Mercy Toward His Rebellious Son

What shall I say of holy David, who received back into his house a degenerate son, forgetful of his brother's blood, his fatherly heart softened at the petition of a single woman?

9. The Father's Welcome for His Prodigal Son

That evangelical father himself received the younger son, who had squandered all the substance received from his father by living riotously, yet returning, moved by the humility of a single confession, that he had sinned against his father, cherished him with a devoted embrace, fell upon his neck, ordered the first robe, a ring and shoes to be brought for him; and having honored him with a kiss, given him a gift, received him at a marvelous banquet.

10. An Example of Fatherly Piety Rewarded

You have shown yourself an imitator of these men through fatherly piety, by which we come nearest to God; and therefore I readily urged our daughter to undertake the labor of the journey even in wintertime, so as to winter more comfortably, not only in lodging but also in fatherly affection, since favor has now succeeded to indignation: seeing that, in order that you might fully conform and liken yourself to the holy men, you accused those who thought by fabricated lies to stir up your mind against your children. Farewell, and love us; for we love you.

Ambrose to Cynegius.

1. Modesty in Consulting on a Family Matter

How ingenuously you have shown your modesty, in that you consulted me about a matter which you did not approve, but complied with a parent's wish; so that you might not injure piety, being confident that nothing else could be reported back to you by me, except what befits holy relationships.

2. A Grandfather's Wish to Become a Father-in-Law

I indeed gladly took your burdens upon myself, and, I suppose, restored the granddaughter to the grandfather. I do not know by what notion he desired her to become his daughter-in-law, so as to exchange grandfather for father-in-law. More need not be said, lest this too add to the shame. Farewell, my son, and love us; for we too love you.

Ambrose to Siricius.

1. Joy at News Brought by Syrus

It is pleasing to me when I receive your letters. But when you send to us some of our fellow servants—as you accompanied our brother and fellow-presbyter Syrus with your letters—the joy is doubled. But would that this fruit had been longer lasting! For as soon as he came, he thought he must hurry back: which indeed greatly diminished my desire, but greatly increased his own credit.

2. Presbyters Who Do Not Linger from Duty

For I love those presbyters or deacons who, when they have gone forth with someone, do not allow themselves to be absent longer from their own duty. For the prophet says: I have not labored following after you. But who can labor while following Jesus; since he himself says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you? Let us therefore always follow Jesus, and not cease. For if we always follow, we never fail; for he gives strength to those who follow him. And so the nearer you are to virtue, the stronger you will be.

3. Persevering Despite the Taunt Where Is the Lord's Word

Often, when we follow, it is said to us by adversaries: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But let us not tire in following, nor be turned aside by the hindrance of a treacherous question. This was said to the prophet, when he was sent into prison, when he was plunged into the pit of mud: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But he followed all the more, and therefore reached the prize, therefore received the crown; because he who was following Jesus did not labor: For there is no labor in Jacob, nor is sorrow seen in Israel. Farewell, and love us; for we too love him who loves us and is our father.

Ambrose to Siricius.

1. Letters Carried Back and Forth by Priscus

You gave letters to my old and coeval friend Priscus on his arrival; I likewise returned them to him on his return, as I owed both by duty and by affection. Both of us, then, have been rewarded by his service, since he has restored your letters to me, and mine to you; and so the price of his service ought to grow by an increase of favor. Farewell, brother, and love us; for we love you.

Ambrose to Segatius and Delphinus, Bishops.

1. Polybius Returns from His Proconsular Post in Africa

Our son Polybius, when he had returned from the parts of Africa, in which he had excellently represented the proconsular jurisdiction, and had spent several days with us, poured himself into my inmost affections with the greatest grace.

2. The Custom of Writing One Joint Letter

Then, when he wished to depart from here and travel on, he asked that I write to each of you. I promised I would. So I dictated a letter, and gave it, written in the names of both of you. He asked for another. I said that it had been given, according to our custom and usage, addressed to both of you together; because your holy mind takes delight not in the number of letters, but in the joining of names; nor could it bear that a separation of names should occur, whose affection was one; and that this was prescribed for my duty, that I should use the shortcut of charity.

3. Apostolic Precedent for a Shared Letter

Why say more? He demanded another, I gave it; so that I would neither refuse him what he asked, nor change for myself what had become the custom. Thus he too has something to deliver to each; because his only concern was, that having delivered it to one, he should not go empty-handed to the other. And I will pay to you the gift of undivided grace without any risk of offense, and without scruple of division; especially since this is also the form of Apostolic writing, that one may write to many, as Paul to the Galatians: and two may write to one, as it is written: Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy the brother, to Philemon. I bid you greeting: love us, and pray for us; for I love you.

Ambrose to Atticus.

1. An Old Friendship Renewed in Priscus

You gave letters to my Priscus. My Priscus delivered them to me, and I gave letters to Priscus. Do you, as is your custom, love Priscus; and even more than is your custom: which I urge because I myself hold my Priscus in the highest regard. For there is toward him this ancient affection of ours, which grew up with us together from boyhood: but I saw him after a long interval of time; so that truly he has come to me an "old friend" (priscus) not only in name, but also by so great an interval of time. Farewell, and love us who love you; for we love you.

Ambrose to Alypius.

1. A Letter Delivered by Antiochus the Consul

Antiochus, a man of consular rank, delivered to me a letter from your excellency, nor did I fail in the duty of replying; for through my own men I sent a letter, and, unless I am mistaken, another occasion having arisen, I doubled the letter. But because I think the duties of friendship are not so much to be measured back exactly as to be heaped up, it was fitting, especially since he himself was returning who had so honored me with the name of your letter, that some service of my speech be rendered; so that each of us might be discharged toward the other, and that he might be free toward you, who owed to report back what he had received. Farewell, and love those who love you.

Ambrose to Antonius.

1. Silence That Does Not Mean Neglect

You are never silent to me, nor shall I ever complain of being neglected by your silence, knowing that I am not lacking in your heart. For since you weigh what is worth more, how could you deny what often flows out even to many, not so much from the practice of love as from the exchange of duty?

2. United in Spirit Though Apart in Body

I indeed, from my own mind, so reckon your part, that I never think you absent from me, nor myself from you; since we always cling together in spirit: I never suppose that your letters are lacking to me, or mine to you; since I speak with you daily as though present, and direct toward you my eyes, my zeal, and all my duties.

3. An Appeal to Stop the Thanks

These things delight me to encounter with you; for your letters, that I may speak openly with the undivided depths of my heart, make me blush. Wherefore I ask that you desist from the giving of thanks; for the highest reward of my duty toward you is this, that I should think myself not to have failed in the office owed to you. Farewell, and love us, since I also love you.

AMBROSE to His Brother Candidianus.

1. The Brightness of a Friend's Mind in Letters

The highest splendor indeed is in your speech, but it shines forth to me even more in your affection; for in your letters I behold the brightness of your mind, most beloved brother and most blessed one. May the Lord bless you, and grant you his grace; for even in your letters I recognize rather your good wishes than my own merits. For what merits of mine could match such words of yours? Love us, brother; for we love you.