Letters 20-29

To the most clement emperor, and most blessed Augustus VALENTINIAN, AMBROSE bishop.

1. Dalmatius Requests That Ambrose Choose Judges

Dalmatius, tribune and notary, met with me by mandate, as he alleged, of your clemency, requesting that I too should choose judges, just as Auxentius had chosen. Yet he did not express the names of those who had been requested: but he added this, that in the consistory there would be a contest to come, with the judgment of your piety as arbiter.

2. Bishops Alone Should Judge Bishops

To this matter I reply, as I judge, fittingly. Nor should anyone judge me contumacious, when I assert this, which your father of august memory not only answered in speech, but also sanctioned by his own laws: That in a case of faith or of any ecclesiastical order he ought to judge who is neither unequal in office nor dissimilar in law; for these are the words of the rescript, that is, he willed that priests should judge concerning priests. Moreover, even if a bishop were accused on other grounds, and a case concerning morals were to be examined, he willed that this too pertain to episcopal judgment.

3. Who Answers the Emperor with Contumacy

Who then has answered your clemency contumaciously? He who desires you to be like your father, or he who wishes you to be unlike him? Unless perhaps to some the judgment of so great an emperor is reckoned worthless, whose faith has been proved by the constancy of his confession, and whose wisdom is proclaimed by the improved progress of the commonwealth.

4. Bishops Judge Emperors in Matters of Faith

When have you heard, most clement Emperor, of laymen judging a bishop in a matter of faith? Are we then bent by such flattery, that we should be forgetful of the sacerdotal right, and think that what God has given to me ought to be entrusted to others? If a bishop is to be taught by a layman, what will follow? Then let the layman argue, and the bishop listen: let the bishop learn from the layman. But surely if we go back either to the sequence of the divine Scriptures, or to ancient times, who is there that would deny that in a matter of faith, in a matter, I say, of faith, bishops are accustomed to judge Christian emperors, not emperors bishops?

5. A Father's Humility Against a Son's Claim to Judge

You will be, God favoring, further advanced also in the maturity of age, and then you will judge concerning this, what sort of bishop he is who lays sacerdotal right beneath laymen. Your father, God favoring, a man of riper age, used to say: It is not mine to judge between bishops; your clemency now says: I ought to judge. And he, baptized in Christ, thought himself unfit for the weight of so great a judgment: does your clemency, for whom the sacraments of baptism are still to be earned, arrogate to itself judgment concerning the faith, when it does not even know the sacraments of that faith?

6. An Invitation for the Chosen Judges to Appear

What sort of judges he has chosen, we may leave to conjecture, since he fears to reveal their names. Let them come plainly, if there are any, to the Church: let them listen with the people, not that anyone should sit as judge, but that each one, according to his own feeling, may hold an examination, and choose whom he will follow. The matter concerns the bishop of this Church: if the people hear him, and think he argues better, let them follow his faith: I shall not begrudge it.

7. The People's Prior Election and Promise of Peace

I omit that the people themselves have already judged: I am silent that they requested him, whom they now have, from the father of your clemency: I am silent that the father of your piety promised future quiet, if the one elected should undertake the priesthood. This is the faith of promises that I have followed.

8. Let Auxentius Seek a See Among His Flatterers

But if he boasts of the flattery of certain foreigners, let him be bishop there, whence come those who think that he ought to be endowed with the name of the episcopate. For I do not know the bishop, nor do I know where he is from.

9. The Emperor's Own Laws Already Judge the Case

Where do we stand on this, Emperor, since you yourself have already declared your judgment; indeed have even given laws, nor was it free for anyone to judge otherwise? What you prescribed for others, you prescribed also for yourself: for the emperor makes laws which he himself should be the first to keep. Do you wish then that I make trial, whether those who are chosen as judges will begin either to come against your own decree, or at least excuse themselves that they could not resist so severe and so strict a command of the emperor?

10. The Law of God Above the Emperor's Law

But this is the mark of a contumacious, not a modest priest. Behold, Emperor, you already rescind your law in part: but would that it were not in part, but altogether! For I would not wish your law to be above the law of God.

The law of God has taught us what we should follow; human laws cannot teach this. They are accustomed to extort a change of mind from the timid, but they cannot inspire faith.

11. Laymen Cannot Judge Under Threat of the Sword

Who then will be found who, when he reads that throughout so many provinces it has been ordered in one moment that whoever should oppose the emperor be struck down by the sword: that whoever should not hand over the temple of God be immediately slain—who, I say, is there, either alone or among a few, who could say to the emperor: Your law does not please me? Is this not permitted to priests, yet permitted to laymen? And shall he judge concerning the faith, who either hopes for favor, or fears offense?

12. Refusing to Expose Judges to Punishment

Shall I then myself commit the fault of choosing lay judges, who, when they have held to the truth of the faith, will either be proscribed or slain, as the law issued concerning the faith decrees? Shall I then offer men either to prevarication, or to punishment?

13. Priestly Counsel Against Judges Hostile to Christ's Divinity

Ambrose is not of such worth that he should cast down the priesthood for his own sake. Nor is the life of one man of such worth as the dignity of all the priests, on whose counsel I dictated these things, they warning lest perhaps there might also be some Gentile, or Jew, chosen by Auxentius, to whom we should hand over the triumph of Christ, if we entrusted judgment concerning Christ to them. What else does it delight them to hear but injury to Christ? What else can please them, except (which God forbid) that the divinity of Christ be denied? With such men well agrees the Arian who calls Christ a creature, which even the Gentiles and Jews most readily confess.

14. Fidelity to the Nicene Faith Against Ariminum

This is written in the synod of Ariminum; and rightly do I shrink from that council, following the doctrine of the Nicene council, from which neither death nor sword shall be able to separate me. This faith the most blessed emperor Theodosius, father of your clemency, both follows and has approved. This faith the Gauls hold, this the Spains, and they guard it together with the pious confession of the divine Spirit.

15. Precedents of Constantine and Constantius on Church Councils

If a matter is to be treated, I have learned to treat it in the Church: as my predecessors did. If there is to be a conference concerning the faith, that conference ought to belong to priests, as was done under Constantine of august memory, who sent no laws before it, but gave free judgment to the priests. It was done also under Constantius of august memory, heir of his father's dignity: but what began well was ended otherwise. For the bishops had at first written the sincere faith: but while some wished to judge concerning the faith within the palace, they brought it about that by circumventions those judgments of the bishops were changed. Yet they soon recalled the sentence that had been turned aside. And indeed the greater number at Ariminum approved the faith of the Nicene council, and condemned the Arian decrees.

16. A Synod for One Man Is Not Necessary

If Auxentius appeals to a synod, that he may dispute concerning the faith (though it is not necessary that so many bishops be wearied on account of one man, who, even if he were an angel from heaven, ought not to be preferred to the peace of the Churches); when I hear that a synod is being gathered, I too shall not be lacking. Take away the law, then, if you wish there to be a contest.

17. Declining the Consistory for a Hearing in Church

I would have come, Emperor, to the consistory of your clemency, to lay these things before you in person; if either the bishops or the people had permitted me, saying that matters of faith ought to be treated in the Church before the people.

18. Free to Leave, Yet Refusing to Abandon the Altar

And would that, Emperor, you had not proclaimed that I go wherever I wished! Daily I went out; no one kept watch over me. You ought to have appointed me to whatever place you had wished, whom I myself offered to all. Now it is said to me by the priests: There is no great difference, whether you leave willingly, or hand over the altar of Christ; for when you leave it, you hand it over.

19. Concern for the Fate of All the Churches

And would that it were clear to me that the Church would in no way be handed over to the Arians! I would offer myself freely to the judgment of your piety. But if I alone raise an outcry, why has it also been commanded concerning the invasion of all the other Churches? Would that it be confirmed, that no one be troublesome to the Churches! I desire that a sentence concerning me, whatever it may seem, be pronounced.

20. An Explanation for Not Attending the Consistory

Deign, therefore, Emperor, to accept that I could not come to the consistory. I have not learned to stand in the consistory except for you: and I cannot contend within the palace, I who neither seek nor know the secrets of the palace.

21. Summary of the Sermon Against Auxentius on the Basilicas

I, Ambrose the bishop, presented this petition to the most clement emperor, and most blessed Augustus Valentinian. Discourse against auxentius on the surrender of the basilicas. Intending to relieve the anxiety of the people on account of the imperial order, he sets forth his own reply, and adds that he did not go to the consistory, because he feared the surrender of the basilica. Then, having challenged his adversaries to a debate in the Church, he denies that he is terrified by arms: and having recalled his reply concerning the sacred vessels, he testifies that he is ready for contests. That the decree of God cannot be eluded, nor his protection be overcome, but that he wills the same to be suffered in his servants. Since he himself had not before been seized, it is clear how vainly the heretics rage.

Then, when he applied the story of Naboth, and the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, to the present matter, he censures the cruel law of Auxentius, and having refuted the objections of the Arians, he declares that he will gladly dispute before the people: but that Auxentius has already been condemned by the pagans, whom he had chosen as judges, just as also by Paul and by Christ himself. That the same heretic, in appealing to Caesar, has forgotten the previous year: and that the Arians, while they stir up hatred against the servants of Christ, are much worse than the Jews: for the Church bears not the image of Caesar, but of Christ. Under which, when he has added a few words concerning his own reply and the hymns, he declares that he is not disobedient, but that the emperor is a son of the Church, and Auxentius more than a Jew.

1. Reassuring the People He Will Not Abandon Them

I see that you are suddenly disturbed beyond your custom, and watching over me. I wonder what this may be, unless perhaps because through the tribunes you have seen or heard that I have been summoned by imperial command; so that I should depart hence wherever I wished, and, if any wished to follow, they might have the power to do so. Did you fear then that I would abandon the Church, and that while I feared for my safety, I would leave you behind? But you were able to perceive what I myself commanded: that there could be no will in me to abandon the Church; because I would fear the Lord of the world more than the emperor of this age. Certainly, if some force were to drag me away from the Church, my flesh could be driven out, not my mind: I am prepared, that if he should do what is wont to belong to royal power, I should undergo what is wont to belong to the priest.

2. Tears Are the Priest's Only Weapons

Why then are you troubled? Willingly I will never abandon you; when compelled, I know not how to resist. I shall be able to grieve, I shall be able to weep, I shall be able to groan: against arms, soldiers, and Goths too, my tears are arms; for such are the defenses of a priest. Otherwise I neither ought nor am able to resist: but I am not accustomed to flee and abandon the Church, lest anyone interpret it as done out of fear of a heavier penalty. You yourselves know that it is my custom to show deference to emperors, not to yield to them: to offer myself gladly to punishments, and not to fear what is being prepared.

3. Christ as Judge, Not the Accused, in the Consistory

Would that I were secure that the Church would not be handed over to heretics at all! I would go gladly to the palace of the emperor, if this were suited to the office of a priest, so that I might contend rather in the palace than in the Church. But in the consistory it is not Christ's custom to be the accused, but the judge. Who would refuse that the cause of the faith be dealt with in the Church? If anyone is confident, let him come here: let him not seek either the judgment of the emperor already inclined—which he has made plain by an enacted law that attacks the faith—or the hoped-for favor of certain ambitious persons. I will not allow anyone to sell out the injury done to Christ.

4. The Devil's Temptation Through Bodily Affliction Like Job's

The soldiers surrounding us, the clash of arms with which the Church is beset, do not terrify my faith: but they disturb my mind, lest, while you hold me, something ruinous should arise for your safety. For I have already learned not to fear for myself: but I have begun to fear more for you. Allow, I beg, your priest to engage in combat: we have an adversary who provokes us; for our adversary the devil, as the apostle said, goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Without doubt he has received—he has received (we are not deceived, but forewarned) power of tempting of this kind; lest perhaps by wounds of my body I might be recalled from the intent of faith. You too have read that in many such ways the devil tempted holy Job: at last he sought power of this sort, and received it, to tempt his body, which he covered with ulcers.

5. Refusing to Surrender the Church's Sacred Vessels

When it was proposed that we should now hand over the vessels of the Church, I gave this reply: that if anything of mine were demanded, whether an estate, or a house, or gold, or silver, whatever was within my own right, I would gladly offer it: but I could take nothing away from the temple of God, nor hand over that which I had received to guard, not to hand over. Moreover, I said that I had regard even for the emperor's own welfare; because it would be expedient neither for me to hand it over, nor for him to receive it: let him accept the voice of a free priest, and if he wishes what is good for himself, let him withdraw from injury to Christ.

6. A Contest Against Spiritual Powers, Not Flesh

These things are full of humility, and, as I judge, full of the devotion which a priest owes to the emperor. But because our struggle is not only against flesh and blood, but, what is more grievous, against spiritual wickedness which is in the heavenly places, that tempter the devil, through his ministers, increases the contest, and thinks it fit to test us through wounds of my body. I know, brethren, that these wounds which we receive for Christ are not wounds by which life is lost, but by which it is extended. Allow, I beg, the contest to be: it is fitting that you be spectators. Consider that if a city has either an athlete, or one skilled in some other noble art, it desires to offer him to the contest. Why in greater matters do you refuse what you are accustomed to wish even in lesser ones? He fears neither arms nor barbarians who does not fear death, who is held back by no pleasure of the flesh.

7. The Will of Christ Will Be Fulfilled

Certainly if the Lord has appointed us to this contest, in vain have you kept watch for so many nights and days with vigilant guard and sentries: the will of Christ will be fulfilled. For our Lord Jesus is omnipotent—this is our faith; and therefore what He commands to be done will be fulfilled: nor is it fitting for us to oppose the divine sentence.

8. The Parable of the Ass's Colt Applied to the Trial

You have heard what was read today: that the Savior ordered the colt of an ass to be brought to Him through the apostles, and commanded that if anyone should resist, it should be said: The Lord has need of its service. What if now He has ordered this colt of the ass—that is, of that animal which is wont to carry a heavy burden, as is the condition of humankind, to whom it is said: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you: take up my yoke, for it is light—what if, I say, He has now ordered this colt to be brought to Him, having sent those apostles who, already stripped of the body, bear the form of angels incomprehensible to our eyes? If someone should resist, will they not say: The Lord has need of its service? If the desire for this life resists, if flesh and blood resist, if bodily companionship resists—because perhaps we seem pleasing to some.

But He who loves us here will love us much more, if He allows us to become a sacrifice of Christ; because to be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better; though to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. There is nothing, then, dearly beloved brethren, for you to fear; for I know that whatever I shall suffer, I shall suffer for Christ. And I have read that I ought not fear those who can kill the flesh. And I have heard Him saying: He who loses his soul for my sake will find it.

9. Providence, Not a Guard, Protects Christ's Servant

Therefore, if the Lord wills, it is certain that none shall resist. But if He still postpones our contest, why do you fear? It is not a bodily guard, but the Lord's providence, that is wont to fence in the servant of Christ.

10. A Blind Man's Doors and the Guards' Blindness

You were troubled because you found the double doors open, which a certain blind man, as he sought his own lodging, is remembered to have opened. In this recognize that human guard avails nothing. Behold, one who has lost the gift of sight has undone all your defenses, and mocked the watch: but the Lord has not lost the guard of His mercy. Did you not, as you remember, find two days before this also, that on the left side of the basilica a certain entrance was passable, which you thought was closed and secured? Armed men had indeed hedged the basilica about, and were examining this entrance and that: they were overspread with blindness, so that what was open they could not see: and so for many nights, as you are not unaware, what was open remained open. Cease, then, to be troubled; for this shall be, which Christ commands, and which is expedient to be.

11. Elisha's Vision of the Angelic Host

Lastly I will bring forward for you examples from the Law. Elisha was sought by the king of Syria; an army had been sent to capture him, he was surrounded on every side: his young servant began to fear, because he was a young servant—that is, he did not have a free mind and free power. The holy prophet asked that his eyes be opened, and said: Look, and see how many more are for us than against us. And he looked, and saw thousands of angels. You have noted, then, that the servants of Christ are guarded more by those who are not seen, than by those who are seen. But even those, if they guard, guard summoned by your prayers: for you have read that those very men who were seeking Elisha entered Samaria to the very one they were eager to capture; to whom not only were they unable to do harm, but they were preserved by the intercession of him against whom they had come.

12. Peter Asleep in Prison, Freed by an Angel

Let Peter the apostle also furnish you an example of both matters. For when Herod sought him and captured him, he received him into prison; for the servant of God had not fled, but had stood, unacquainted with fear.

The Church was praying for him, but the apostle was resting quietly in prison, which is a sign of one not fearing. An angel was sent to wake him as he slept, through whom Peter, brought out of prison, escaped death for a time.

13. Peter's Flight and Meeting with Christ

The same Peter afterward, Simon having been overcome, when he was sowing the precepts of God among the people and teaching chastity, stirred up the minds of the gentiles; and when they sought him, Christian souls begged him to withdraw for a little while. And although he was desirous of martyrdom, yet he was moved by regard for the people who begged him; for he was asked to spare himself for the instructing and confirming of the people. What more? By night he began to leave the walls, and seeing Christ meeting him at the gate and entering the city, he said: Lord, where are You going? Christ answered: I am coming to be crucified again. Peter understood that the divine answer pertained to his own cross; for Christ could not be crucified again, who had put off the flesh by the passion of death once undergone: for in that He died, He died to sin once for all: but in that He lives, He lives to God.

Peter understood, then, that Christ was to be crucified again in His servant. And so he returned of his own accord; to the Christians questioning him he gave his answer, and, straightway seized, he honored the Lord Jesus by his own cross.

14. Christ's Desire to Suffer in His Servants

You see, then, that Christ wishes to suffer in His servants. What if He also says to this servant: I wish him to remain; but you, follow me; and wishes to taste fruit from this tree also? For if it was His food to do the will of the Father: likewise it is His food to feast upon our sufferings. Was it not so—that we may take an example from the Lord Himself—that when He wished, He suffered: and when He was sought, He was found? But when the hour of His passion had not yet come, He passed through the midst of those seeking Him, and, though they saw Him, they could not hold Him? This surely shows plainly that when the Lord wills, each one is found and seized: but when He delays, even if he meets the eyes of those seeking, he is not held.

15. Ambrose's Daily Movements Left Unhindered

Did I myself not go out daily either for the sake of visiting, or proceed to the martyrs? Did I not pass by the royal way of the palace, going and returning? And yet no one held me, though they had the will to drive me out, as they later revealed, saying: Go out of the city, and go wherever you wish. I was expecting, I confess, something great, either the sword for the name of Christ, or fire: but they offered me delights instead of sufferings; but an athlete of Christ demands not delights, but his own sufferings. Let no one, then, be troubled that they have prepared a carriage, or the harsh words, as they seemed to themselves, cast about by the mouth of Auxentius himself, who calls himself bishop.

16. Reports of Assassins and Auxentius's Flying Sword

Many were reporting that assassins had been sent ahead, that the penalty of death had been decreed: I do not fear those things, and I do not abandon these. For where shall I go, where all things are not full of groaning and tears; when throughout the churches catholic priests are ordered to be cast out, those resisting to be struck with the sword, all the town councilors to be proscribed unless they fulfill the mandate? And these things written by the hand and dictated by the mouth of a bishop, who, to prove himself most learned, did not omit an ancient example, for we read in the prophet that he saw a flying sickle: in imitation of this Auxentius has sent a flying sword through all the cities. And Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light, and in evil imitates His power.

17. Naboth's Vineyard and the Refusal to Yield

You, Lord Jesus, in one moment redeemed the world: will Auxentius in one moment butcher so many peoples, as far as lies in him, some by the sword, some by sacrilege? He seeks my basilica with bloody mouth, with blood-stained hands.

To whom the reading present today rightly answers: But to the sinner God has said: Why do you declare my statutes? That is, peace and fury do not agree together, Christ and Belial do not agree. You remember also what was read today concerning Naboth, a holy man, the possessor of his own vineyard, approached with a royal petition, that he should give up his vineyard; whereupon the king, after the vines were cut down, might sow cheap herbs; and that he answered: Far be it from me that I should give up the inheritance of my fathers; that the king was grieved, because his own right had been justly refused him by that answer, but was deceived by a woman's counsel. Naboth defended his vines even with his own blood. If he did not hand over his vineyard, shall we hand over the Church of Christ?

18. Defending the Inheritance of Christ and the Fathers

What then have I answered in defiance? For I said when summoned: Far be it from me that I should hand over the inheritance of Christ. If he did not hand over the inheritance of his fathers, shall I hand over the inheritance of Christ? But I added this too: Far be it that I should hand over the inheritance of the fathers, that is, the inheritance of Dionysius, who died in exile for the cause of the faith, the inheritance of Eustorgius the confessor, the inheritance of Myrocles, and of all the faithful bishops of the past. I answered what belongs to a priest: let the emperor do what belongs to an emperor. Let him take my life before he takes my faith.

19. The Children's Praise Provokes the Arians' Anger

But to whom should I hand it over? The present Gospel reading ought to teach us what is asked, and by whom it is asked. You have surely heard it read, that when Christ was sitting upon the colt of an ass, the little children cried out, and the Jews took it ill. Then they interrupted the Lord Jesus, saying that he should make them be silent; he answered: If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out. Then, entering the temple, he cast out the money-changers, and the seats, and those selling doves in the temple of God. This reading indeed was recited by no arrangement of ours, but by chance: yet it fits well with the present times. Always, therefore, the praises of Christ are the scourges of the faithless. And now, when Christ is praised, the heretics say that sedition is being stirred up: the heretics say that death was being prepared for them; and truly they have death in the praises of Christ. For how can they bear his praises, whose weakness they proclaim?

And so today too, when Christ is praised, the madness of the Arians is scourged.

20. The Stones Cry Out for Christ

The Gerasenes could not bear the presence of Christ; these men, worse than the Gerasenes, cannot even endure the praising of Christ. They see the children singing Christ's glory; for it is written: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. They mock that tender age full of faith, saying: Behold, what are they crying? But Christ answered them: If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out, that is, the stronger will cry out, the young men will cry out, and those of riper years will cry out, and the old will cry out: these are the stones now made solid unto that stone, of which it is written: The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner.

21. Christ Casts the Money-Changers from the Temple

Invited, then, by these praises, Christ enters his own temple, and takes up a scourge, and casts the money-changers out of the temple. For he does not allow those who are the servants of money to be in his temple, he does not allow those who sell seats of honor to be in his temple. What are the seats of honor, if not offices of dignity? What are the doves, if not simple minds, or souls following a pure and unspotted faith? Shall I then bring into the temple him whom Christ shuts out? For he who sells dignities and honors is bidden to go out: he who wishes to sell the simple minds of the faithful is bidden to go out.

22. Auxentius and Mercurinus, One Man Under Two Names

Therefore Auxentius is cast out, Mercurinus is excluded. It is one monster, two names. For indeed, so that he might not be recognized who he was, he changed his own name; so that, since here there had been an Arian bishop Auxentius, in order to deceive the people whom that man had held, he might call himself Auxentius. He changed his name, then, but did not change his faithlessness: he took off the wolf, but put on the wolf. It profits him nothing that he changed his name: what he is, is recognized. In the parts of Scythia he was called by one name, here he is called by another: he has names according to regions. He has, then, already two names; and if he should proceed elsewhere from here, he will have a third also. For how will he suffer that a name remain to him as a token of so great a crime?

He did lesser things in Scythia; and yet he was so ashamed that he changed his name: here he has dared more wicked things; and will he wish, wherever he goes, to be betrayed by his own name? Will he write with his own hand the blood of so many peoples, and be able to stand firm in mind?

23. The Scourge of Christ Versus the Sword of Auxentius

The Lord Jesus excluded few from his temple, Auxentius left none. Jesus casts out of his temple with a scourge, Auxentius with a sword: Jesus with a scourge, Mercurinus with an axe. The pious Lord drives out the sacrilegious with a scourge; the wicked man persecutes the pious with iron. Of this you well said today: Let him bear his own laws with him. He will bear them, even if he does not wish to: he will bear his own conscience, even if he does not bear a document: he will bear his own soul inscribed with blood, even if he does not bear a letter inscribed with ink. Thy guilt, O Judah, is written with an iron stylus and with the point of a diamond, and is written on thy heart, that is, written there, whence it proceeded.

24. Faith, Not the Law, Justifies the Righteous

Does this man dare even to make mention to me of debating, full as he is of blood, full of gore? He who thinks that those whom he cannot deceive by speech must be struck by the sword, dictating bloody laws with his mouth, writing with his hand, and thinking that law can command faith in men. Has he not heard also what was said today: That man is not justified by the works of the Law, or: Through the Law I am dead to the Law, that I might live to God, that is, through the spiritual law I am dead to the bodily interpretation of the Law. And let us too, through the law of our Lord Jesus Christ, die to this law, which sanctions the decrees of faithlessness. It was not the law that gathered the Church together, but the faith of Christ. For the law is not of faith: But the just man lives by faith.

Faith, then, makes the just man, not the law; because righteousness is not through the law, but through the faith of Christ. But he who repudiates faith, and prescribes the rights of law, testifies of himself that he is unjust, since the just man lives by faith.

25. Answering the Council of Ariminum on Christ's Nature

Shall anyone follow this law, then, by which the council of Ariminum is confirmed, in which Christ was called a creature? But they say: God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law. Therefore, they read "made," that is, created. Do they not themselves consider what they have proposed, that Christ is said to be "made," but "of a woman," that is, he was made according to the birth of the Virgin, who according to the divine generation was born of the Father? They also read today, that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. Is Christ, then, a curse according to his divinity?

But why he is called a curse, the Apostle teaches you, saying that it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that is, he who in his own flesh took on our flesh, in his own body took on our weaknesses and our curses, in order to crucify them; for he himself was not cursed, but in you he was made a curse. Finally, you have elsewhere: He who knew no sin was made sin for us; because he took up our sins, that by the mystery of his passion he might abolish them.

26. Auxentius Chooses Pagan Judges to Avoid Debate

These things, brethren, I would discuss more fully before you in his very presence: but being certain that you are not ignorant of the faith, he shrinks from your examination, and has chosen certain pagans, some four or five men, as his own judges, if indeed he has chosen any: whom I would wish to be present in the assembly of all, not that they might judge concerning Christ, but that they might hear the majesty of Christ. Yet they have already pronounced against Auxentius, whom, though he disputes daily, they have not believed. What greater condemnation of him is there, than that he was defeated before his own judges without an adversary? Therefore we already hold their own verdict against Auxentius.

27. Paul's Teaching Against Judgment by Unbelievers

And because he has chosen pagans, he is rightly to be condemned; since he has dismissed the precept of the Apostle, when the Apostle says: Does any of you, having a matter against another, dare to be judged before the unjust, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints shall judge this world? And below he says: So is it that there is not among you any wise man who can judge between brethren; but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? You see that what he has offered is against the authority of the Apostle. Choose yourselves whether we ought to follow Auxentius or Paul as our teacher.

28. The True People of God

But why should I speak of the Apostle, when the Lord himself cries out through the prophet: Hear me, my people. You who know judgment, in whose heart is my law. God says: Hear me, my people. You who know judgment; Auxentius says: You do not know judgment. Do you see that he already despises God in you, who refutes the sentence of the heavenly oracle? Hear me, he says, my people, says the Lord. He does not say: Hear, ye Gentiles. He does not say: Hear, ye Jews. For now the people who had been God's people has become a people of error: and the people who was a people of error has begun to be a people of God, because it has believed in Christ. That people, then, judges, in whose heart is the divine law, not the human: a law not written in ink, but by the Spirit of the living God: not engraved on paper, but sealed in the heart: a law of grace, not of blood.

Who, then, does you injury—he who refuses your hearing, or he who chooses it?

29. The Emperor's Summons and the People's Uproar

Shut in on every side, he flees to the cunning of his fathers. He wants to stir up ill will concerning the emperor, saying that a young catechumen, ignorant of sacred learning, ought to judge, and to judge in the consistory. As if indeed last year, when I was summoned to the palace, when, with the chief men present, the matter was being discussed before the consistory, when the emperor wished to seize the basilica, I then was broken by regard for the royal court, did not maintain the constancy of a priest, or departed with the right diminished? Do they not remember that when the people knew I had gone to the palace, they rushed in such a way that their force could not be borne; when they offered themselves all to death for the faith of Christ, before the military count, who had gone out with troops ready to disperse the crowd? Was I not then asked to soothe the people with much speech? To pledge my faith that no one would invade the Basilica of the Church?

And though my office was requested as a benefit; yet because the people had come to the palace, ill will has been stirred up against me. It is into this ill will, then, that they desire me to return.

30. Rendering to Caesar and the Charge Against Ambrose

I called back the people, and yet I did not escape ill will: which ill will indeed I think should be tempered, not feared. For what should we fear for the name of Christ? Unless perhaps this ought to move me, that they say: Should not the emperor then receive one basilica, to which he might go forth? And does Ambrose wish to have more power than the emperor, so as to deny the emperor the opportunity of going forth? When they say this, they are eager to catch at our words, just as the Jews who tempted Christ with cunning speech, saying: Master, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Is ill will always stirred up against the servants of God concerning Caesar? And does impiety fetch this to itself for a calumny, that it should put forward the imperial name as a pretext? And can these men say that they do not share the sacrilege of those whose teaching they imitate?

31. The Denarius of Caesar and the Church's Right

And yet see how much worse the Arians are than the Jews. Those asked whether he thought the right of tribute should be paid to Caesar; these wish to give the right of the Church to the emperor. But as the faithless follow their own author, so let us too answer what our Lord and author has taught us. For Jesus, considering the guile of the Jews, said to them: Why do you tempt me? Show me a denarius. And when they had given it, he said: Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered and said: Caesar's. And Jesus said to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Therefore I too say to those who object to me: Show me the denarius: Jesus saw Caesar's denarius, and said: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Can they, concerning the seizing of the Basilicas of the Church, offer a denarius of Caesar's?

32. The Image of God and the Trinity's Unity

But in the Church I know one image, that is, the image of the invisible God, of which God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness; that image of which it is written: that Christ is the splendor of glory, and the image of his substance. In this image I perceive the Father, as the Lord Jesus himself said: He who sees me, sees the Father also. For this image is not separated from the Father, which has taught me the unity of the Trinity, saying: I and the Father are one; and below: All things whatsoever the Father has are mine. And concerning the Holy Spirit, saying that he is the Spirit of Christ, and has received from Christ, as it is written: He shall receive of mine, and shall declare it unto you.

33. The Church's Wealth Spent on the Poor

What then was answered by us that was not humble? If he seeks tribute, we do not refuse it. The fields of the Church pay tribute: if the emperor desires the fields, he has the power to claim them; none of us intervenes. The collection made by the people can go to the benefit of the poor: let them not make ill will over the fields, let them take them away, if it pleases the emperor: I do not give them, but neither do I refuse. If they seek gold, I can say: I do not seek silver and gold. But they make ill will because gold is spent. Nor do I dread this ill will. I have my own treasurers: my treasurers are the poor of Christ; this is the treasure I know how to gather. Would that they always ascribed this crime to me, that gold is spent upon the poor! But if they object that I require a defense from them, I do not deny it, indeed I even seek it.

I have a defense, but in the prayers of the poor. Those blind and lame, feeble and old, are stronger than robust warriors. Finally, the gifts of the poor bind God; for it is written: He who gives to the poor lends to God. The garrisons of warriors often do not deserve divine grace.

34. The People's Hymns Confessing the Trinity

They say too that the people have been deceived by the songs of my hymns. Plainly I do not deny this either. This is a great song, than which nothing is more powerful. For what is more powerful than the confession of the Trinity, which is celebrated daily by the mouth of the whole people? All eagerly strive to confess the faith, they know how to proclaim the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in verses. Thus all have become teachers, who were scarcely able to be disciples.

35. The Obedience of Christ and the Two Realms

What then can be more obedient than that we should follow the example of Christ, who, found in appearance as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death? Indeed, he set all free through obedience: For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous. If therefore he was obedient, let those receive the teaching of obedience to whom we cling, saying to those who stir up envy against us on the emperor's account: We render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. The tribute is Caesar's, this is not denied (23, quest. 8, c. Conventior, Tributum): the Church is God's, and is by no means to be assigned to Caesar; because Caesar's right cannot extend to the temple of God.

36. The Emperor as a Son of the Church

No one can deny that this was said with honor toward the emperor. For what is more honorable than that the emperor should be called a son of the Church? And when this is said, it is said without sin, it is said with grace. For the emperor is within the Church, not above the Church; for a good emperor seeks the help of the Church, he does not refuse it. As we say these things humbly, so we set them forth steadfastly. But some threaten fires, the sword, deportation. We have learned, as little servants of Christ, not to fear. To those who do not fear, terror is never grievous. For it is written: The arrows of children have become their wounds.

37. The Baptism of Christ and the Question of Rebaptism

An answer to the points set forth seems sufficient. Now I ask them what the Savior asked: Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? And the Jews could not answer him. If the Jews did not dissolve the baptism of John, does Auxentius dissolve the baptism of Christ? For that baptism is not from men, but from heaven, which the angel of great counsel brought to us, that we might be justified before God. Why then does Auxentius think that the faithful peoples, baptized in the name of the Trinity, ought to be rebaptized, when the Apostle says: One faith, one baptism: and says that he is the adversary of men, not of Christ, since he despises the counsel of God and condemns the baptism which Christ gave us for the redemption of our sins.

To his lady sister, to be preferred to life itself and to his eyes, her brother.

1. The Discovery of the Holy Martyrs' Relics

Since I am not accustomed to pass over for your holiness anything that is done here in your absence, know also that holy martyrs have been found by us. For when I had dedicated a basilica, many, as if with one mouth, began to entreat me, saying: Dedicate it as you would dedicate the Roman basilica. I answered: I will do so, if I find relics of martyrs. And immediately there came upon me, as it were, a certain fervor of presentiment.

2. Translating the Martyrs' Relics and a Blind Man Healed

Why say more? The Lord gave grace: though the clergy themselves were fearful, I ordered the ground to be dug up in that place which is before the rails of the holy Felix and Nabor. I found signs corresponding to my hope: and even before those upon whom hands were to be laid by us were brought forward, the holy martyrs began so to stand forth that, while we were still silent, the urn was seized and laid prostrate toward the place of the holy sepulchre. We found two men of wondrous stature, such as the ancient age produced. All the bones whole, a great quantity of blood. A vast concourse of the people throughout those whole two days. Why say more? We arranged everything in order, whole; we transferred them, as evening was already coming on, to the basilica of Fausta: there, vigils through the whole night, and the laying on of hands. On the following day we transferred them to the basilica which they call the Ambrosian. As we were transferring them, a blind man was healed.

Such was my discourse to the people: 3. When I considered the celebration of your assembly, so vast and so unheard of, and the gifts of divine grace which shone forth in the holy martyrs, I judged myself, I confess, unequal to this task; nor did it seem possible that I should express in speech what we can scarcely grasp with the mind, or take in with the eyes. But when the sequence of the sacred Scriptures began to be read, the Holy Spirit, who spoke in the prophets, granted that we might bring forth something worthy of so great an assembly and of your expectation, and of the merits of the holy martyrs.

4. The Heavens That Declare the Glory of God

The heavens, it says, declare the glory of God. When this psalm is read, it occurs to one that it is not so much the material elements as heavenly merits that seem to render worthy praise to God. Today, however, by a fortuitous reading, it has become clear who are the heavens that declare the glory of God. Look to my right, look to my left, at the sacrosanct relics: behold men of heavenly conversation, gaze upon the trophies of a lofty spirit. These are the heavens who declare the glory of God: this is the firmament which announces the works of his hands. For it was not the enticement of the world, but the grace of the divine work, that raised them up to the firmament of most sacred suffering: and long before, by proofs of character and virtue, it announced in them the martyrdom by which they remained steadfast against the slipperiness of this age.

5. Paul, John, and Job as Heavens Declaring God

Paul was a heaven, who said: Our conversation is in heaven. James and John were heavens: indeed they are called sons of thunder; and therefore John, as it were a heaven, saw the Word with God. The Lord Jesus himself was the heaven of perpetual light, when he declared the glory of God, but that glory which no one had before beheld. And therefore he said: No one has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. If you seek also the works of the hands of God, hear Job saying: The divine Spirit, who made me. And therefore, made firm against the temptations of the devil, he preserved the track of unoffending constancy. But let us come to the rest.

6. Day Unto Day Utters Speech

Day, it says, utters speech to day. Behold true days, which no darkness of night interrupts. Behold true days full of light and eternal brightness, who uttered forth the word of God not with a perfunctory speech, but from the depths of the heart, steadfast in confession, persevering in martyrdom.

7. The Relics of Protasius and Gervasius

Another psalm that was read says: Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, and looks upon lowly things in heaven and on earth? Truly God looked upon lowly things, who revealed to his Church the relics of the holy martyrs, lying hidden beneath a lowly turf, whose soul is in heaven, whose body is on earth: Raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting the poor out of the dunghill; whom you see how he has placed with the princes of his people.

What princes of the people ought we to reckon these to be, but the holy martyrs, into whose number, long unknown, Protasius and Gervasius are now placed among the first—who have made the Milanese Church, once barren of martyrs, now the mother of very many children, to rejoice in a suffering of its own, both by titles and by examples?

8. Day Utters Speech to Day

Nor let this be shrunk from as contrary to true faith: Day utters speech to day, soul to soul, life to life, resurrection to resurrection. And night shows knowledge to night, that is, flesh to flesh, whose suffering has shown to all the true knowledge of the faith. Good nights, bright nights, which have stars; For as star differs from star in brightness, so also is the resurrection of the dead.

9. Miracles at the Martyrs' Tomb

Not without reason do many call this the resurrection of the martyrs; yet I shall consider whether they have risen for themselves; certainly for us the martyrs have risen. You have learned, nay you yourselves have seen, many purged of demons: very many too, when they touched the garment of the saints with their hands, freed from the infirmities under which they were laboring; the miracles of ancient times have been renewed, when grace, greater upon earth through the coming of the Lord Jesus, poured itself out; you see many healed by a certain shadow, as it were, of the sacred bodies. What quantities of head-coverings are tossed about! What garments are demanded, to be laid upon the most sacred relics and made medicinal by that very touch! All rejoice to touch the outermost hem; and whoever has touched it shall be saved.

10. The Martyrs as My Bodyguard

Thanks to you, Lord Jesus, that at this time you have raised up for us such spirits of the holy martyrs, when your Church desires greater defenses. Let all know what sort of champions I require, who can fight for, and are not accustomed to fight against. These I have acquired for you, holy people, who may be of profit to all, and harm to none. Such defenders I seek, such soldiers I have: that is, not soldiers of the world, but soldiers of Christ. I fear no envy from such as these, whose patronage is the safer the greater it is. For these very ones also who envy me them, I wish their protection. Let them come, then, and see my bodyguard; I do not deny that I am surrounded by such arms as these: These trust in chariots, and these in horses; but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God.

11. Elisha's Servant and the Unseen Host

The sequence of divine Scripture relates that Elisha, when he was besieged by the army of the Syrians, said to his fearful servant that he should not fear: for, he said, there are more with us than against us; and to prove this, he asked that the eyes of Gehazi be opened: which, when they were opened, the prophet saw that innumerable hosts of angels were present. We, though we cannot see them, nevertheless perceive them. These eyes of ours were closed, so long as the bodies of the saints lay buried and hidden. The Lord has opened our eyes; we have seen the helps by which we have often been defended. We did not see these things, but we had them nonetheless. And so, while we were trembling, it is as if the Lord had said: See how many martyrs I have given you: thus, our eyes unsealed, we behold the glory of the Lord, which is past in the suffering of the martyrs, and present in their working.

We have escaped, brethren, no small burden of shame: we had patrons, and we did not know it. We have found this one thing, in which we may seem to surpass our forebears. The knowledge of the holy martyrs, which they lost, we have acquired.

12. Enshrining the Martyrs Beneath the Altar

Noble relics are drawn forth from an ignoble tomb, trophies are shown to heaven. The tomb is wet with blood, the marks of triumphal blood appear, the relics found inviolate in their own place and order, the head torn from the shoulders. Now old men recall having heard the names of these martyrs sometime, and having read the inscription. The city had lost its own martyrs, which now has seized those of others. Even though this is a gift of God, yet I cannot deny the grace which the Lord Jesus has granted in the time of my priesthood: and because I myself do not deserve to be a martyr, I have acquired for you these martyrs.

Let the triumphal victims take their place where Christ is the victim. But he is above the altar, who suffered for all. These are beneath the altar, who have been redeemed by his suffering. This place I had marked out for myself; for it is fitting that the priest should rest there, where he was accustomed to offer: but I yield the right-hand portion to the sacred victims; this place was owed to the martyrs. Let us then lay away the sacrosanct relics and bring them into a worthy dwelling, and let us celebrate the whole day with faithful devotion.

14. Deferring the Deposition to the Next Day

The people cried out that the deposition of the martyrs should be put off to the Lord's day: but at last it was obtained that it should take place on the following day. On the following day my discourse to the people was again as follows.

15. Prophecy Fulfilled in These Days and Nights

Yesterday I treated the little verse: Day utters speech to day, as far as the capacity of our talent allowed: today it seems to me that the divine Scripture has prophesied not only of that earlier time, but of the present also. For since I see the celebration of your holiness continued through days and nights, the oracles of the prophetic song have declared that these are the days—yesterday and today—concerning which it is most fittingly said: Day utters speech to day; and these are the nights, concerning which it is most aptly said, that night shows knowledge to night. For what else, throughout these two days, have you done, but utter forth the word of God from the depths of your affection, and prove that you have knowledge of the faith?

16. Demons Confess What Arians Deny

Yet those who are accustomed to envy, envy this celebration of yours. And because they cannot bear your celebration with unenvious minds, they hate the cause of the celebration: and they go forward into such madness that they deny the merits of the martyrs, whose works even the demons confess. But this is no wonder; since so great is the faithlessness of unbelievers, that the confession of the devil is often more tolerable. For the devil used to say: Jesus, Son of the living God, why have you come to torment us before the time? And when the Jews heard this, they themselves nevertheless denied the Son of God. And now you have heard the demons crying out, and confessing to the martyrs that they cannot bear their punishments, and saying: Why have you come, that you torment us so grievously?

And the Arians say: These are not martyrs, nor can they torment the devil, nor free anyone; though the torments of the demons are proved by their own voice, and the benefits of the martyrs are declared by the remedies of the healed, and by the signs of those set free.

17. The Healing of Severus the Butcher

They deny that the blind man was illuminated, but he does not deny that he was healed. He says: I see, who did not see. He says: I have ceased to be blind; and he proves it by deed. These deny the benefit, who cannot deny the deed. The man is known—while he was in health he was assigned to public services, Severus by name, a butcher by trade. He had laid down his office, after the impediment had befallen him. He calls to witness the men by whose services he was formerly supported: he summons as witnesses of his restored sight those whom he had as witnesses and judges of his blindness. He cries out that, when he touched the fringe of the garment of the martyrs, with which the sacred relics are clothed, his sight was restored to him.

18. The Blind Man Compared to the Gospel Account

Is this not similar to that which we read in the Gospel? For we praise the power of one and the same author: nor does it matter whether it be a work or a gift; since he both bestows a gift in the work, and works in the gift. For what he has granted to be done by others, this his name works in the work of others. We read then in the Gospel that the Jews, when they saw in that blind man the remedy of health, sought the testimony of his parents. They asked: How does your son see? When he said: I was blind, now I see (ted as 9). This too does that man say: I was blind, and now I see: Ask others, if you do not believe me; ask strangers, lest you think my parents are agreeing with me out of collusion. More detestable is the obstinacy of these men than that of the Jews.

Those men, when they doubted, at least questioned the parents: these men question secretly, and deny openly; now they are not incredulous of the work, but of the author. And. But I ask what it is they do not believe—whether some can be visited by the martyrs? This is not to believe Christ: for he himself said: And greater things than these shall you do. Or is it that the bodies of these martyrs, whose merits have long flourished, have long ago been found? I ask here whether they envy me, or the holy martyrs? If me, are any powers wrought by me? By my work, by my name? Why then do they envy me for what is not mine? If the martyrs (for it remains that if they do not envy me, they may be seen to envy the martyrs), they show that the martyrs were of a different faith than they themselves believe.

For otherwise they would not envy their works, unless they judged that there was in these martyrs that faith which these men do not have. That faith confirmed by the tradition of our forefathers, which the demons themselves cannot deny; but the Arians deny it.

21. Confession of the Trinity by the Possessed

We have heard today those upon whom hands were laid saying that no one can be saved unless he has believed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: that he is dead, that he is a corpse, who should deny the Holy Spirit, who should not believe the omnipotent power of the Trinity. The devil confesses this, but the Arians refuse to admit it. The devil says: Let him be tormented, just as he himself was tormented by the martyrs, who should deny the deity of the Holy Spirit.

22. The Devil's Testimony Under Torment

I do not accept testimony from the devil, but confession. The devil spoke unwillingly, but under compulsion and torment. What malice suppresses, injury extorts. The devil yields to blows, and still the Arians do not know how to yield. How great are the things they have suffered, and how, like Pharaoh, are they hardened by their own evils? The devil said, as we read it written: I know who you are, you are the Son of the living God. The Jews said: We do not know who he is. Today and the previous day or night the demons said: We know that you are martyrs. And the Arians say: We do not know, we do not wish to understand, we do not wish to believe. The demons say to the martyrs: You have come to destroy us; the Arians say: The torments of the demons are not real, but feigned and contrived mockeries. I have heard many things contrived, but this no one could ever feign, to pretend that he himself was a demon.

What of this, that we see them so agitated on whom hands are laid? Where is there room here for deceit? Where for the suspicion of pretense?

23. The Voice of the Martyrs' Blood

But I do not claim the voice of demons in support of the martyrs. Let the sacred Passion be approved by its own benefits. It has judges, but purged ones: it has witnesses, but absolved ones. Better is the voice which the health of those speaks, who came weak: better is the voice which blood sends forth; for blood has a resounding voice, which reaches from earth to heaven. You have read God saying: The blood of your brother cries out to me. And this blood cries out by the indication of its color: blood cries out by the proclamation of its working: blood cries out by the triumph of its suffering. Your request has been granted, that we should defer the depositing of the relics from yesterday to today.

To the most beloved lord brothers, the bishops established throughout Aemilia, Ambrose bishop.

1. The Nicene Nineteen-Year Cycle

That it is a matter of no ordinary wisdom to determine the day of the paschal festival, both divine Scripture teaches us, and the tradition of our forefathers: who, meeting at the Nicene Synod, among those decrees of the faith, true as they are admirable, also concerning the feast in question, having gathered together the most skilled in computation, worked out the reckoning of nineteen years, and established, as it were, a certain cycle, from which a pattern might be produced for the remaining years. This cycle they called the ennedecateris, following the principle that we ought not to fluctuate over the celebration of such a feast by some vain opinion: but the true method being ascertained, let the agreement of all so concur, that in one and the same night everywhere the sacrifice for the Lord's resurrection may be offered.

2. Christ's Own Choice of the Passover Day

Most beloved lord brothers, it is not fitting that we should deviate from the truth to such an extent, nor differ by some wandering fancy, that some necessity of this celebration should be imposed upon all Christians; seeing that the Lord himself chose that day on which to celebrate the Passover, which coincides with the reasoning of the true observance. For it is written: Now the day came, on which it was necessary that the Passover be sacrificed, and he sent Peter and John, saying: Go and prepare for us the passover, that we may eat. And they said: Where do you wish us to prepare it? And he said to them: Behold, as you enter the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you: follow him into the house into which he enters, and you shall say to the householder: The Master says to you: Where is the guest-chamber, where I may eat the passover with my disciples? He will show you a large room upstairs: there make ready.

3. The Upper Room Not Lunar Days

We observe therefore that we ought not to descend to earthly things, but to seek a large room spread above, that we may celebrate the Lord's passover. We ought also to wash our senses with a certain spiritual water of the eternal fount, and to hold to the measure of devout observance, and not by common opinion to search out certain lunar days, since the Apostle says: You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years; I fear lest I have labored among you in vain; for it begins to be contrary.

4. Pagan Moon-Watching Versus the Paschal Moon

But it is one thing to observe things in the pagan manner, so that you judge by which moon something is to be undertaken, as for instance that the fifth day is to be avoided, and nothing begun on it: also to commend the various courses of the moon to the transacting of business, or to beware of certain days, as many are accustomed to avoid the so-called Egyptian days. It is another thing, however, to fix the observance of a religious mind upon that day of which it is written: This is the day which the Lord has made.

For although it is written that the Lord's passover ought to be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, and we ought truly to seek the fourteenth moon for celebrating the course of the Lord's Passion, nevertheless from this we can understand that for a solemnity of this kind either the perfection of the Church, or the fulness of a clear faith, is sought, as the prophet said, speaking of the Son of God, that his throne shall be like the sun in my sight, and like the perfect moon, shall endure forever.

5. The Hour of the Passion Foretold

Hence it is that the Lord himself, when he had performed wondrous works on earth, as though the faith of human minds were already founded, recalled that the time of the Passion had come, saying: Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son; that your Son may glorify you. This clarity of the Passion to be celebrated, sought elsewhere, he teaches when he says: Go, tell that fox: Behold, I cast out demons today, and tomorrow I accomplish cures, and on the following day I am consummated. By these indeed is Jesus consummated, who begin to be perfect, so that they believe by their own faith the fullness of his divinity and redemption.

6. The Ox Knows Its Owner's Crib

Therefore we seek out both the day and the hour, as Scripture instructs us. The prophet David also says: It is time to act, O Lord, asking to receive understanding to know the Lord's testimonies. And Ecclesiastes also says: There is a time for every thing. Jeremiah cries out: The turtledove and the swallow, the sparrows of the field, have known the times of their coming. What could be seen more clearly as spoken of the Lord's Passion than: The ox has known its owner, and the ass its master's crib? Let us then acknowledge this crib of the Lord, in which we are nourished, fed, and refreshed.

7. The Acceptable Time of Salvation

We ought therefore especially to know this time, in which throughout the whole world the harmonious prayer of the sacred night is offered; because prayers also are commended by their time, as it is written: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. This is the time of which the Apostle said: Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.

8. Bishops Await a Ruling on Easter

Whence it was necessary, since even after the computations of the Egyptians, and the determinations of the Alexandrian Church, many bishops of the Roman Church also, by letters, still await my judgment as to what I think should be written concerning the day of Easter. For although the question of the coming Easter day has arisen, nevertheless we also set forth what ought to be held for the future, should any such question arise.

9. The Fourteenth Moon and the First Month

Two things are to be observed in the solemnity of Easter: the fourteenth moon, and the first month, which is called the month of new things. Therefore, lest we seem to depart from the Old Testament, let us review the very chapter concerning the day of celebrating the Passover. Moses admonishes the people, saying that the month of new things is to be kept, proclaiming it to be the first month; for he says: This month shall be to you the beginning of months, it shall be the first of the months of the year: and you shall keep the Passover to the Lord your God on the fourteenth day of the first month.

10. The Moon-Days of Christ's Passion

The Law indeed was given through Moses: but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He therefore who spoke the Law, coming afterward through the Virgin in the last times, fulfilled the fullness of the Law; because he came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it; and he celebrated the passover in that week in which the fourteenth moon fell on the fifth day of the week. Then on that very day, as the foregoing shows, he ate the passover with his disciples: but on the following day, that is, the sixth day of the week, he was crucified, the moon being the fifteenth. On the great sabbath also it was the sixteenth; and thus on the seventeenth moon he rose from the dead.

11. No Fasting on the Lord's Day

Hence this law of the passover must be observed by us, that we should not observe the fourteenth moon on the day of the resurrection, but rather on the day of the Passion, or certainly on the nearest preceding days; because the celebration of the resurrection is celebrated on the Lord's day: but on the Lord's day we cannot fast; because we rightly condemn the Manichaeans also for their fasting on that day. For this is not to believe in the resurrection of Christ, if anyone imposes the law of fasting on the day of the resurrection; since the Law says that the passover is to be eaten with bitterness, that is, with sorrow, because by so great a sacrilege of men the author of salvation was put to death: but on the Lord's day the Prophet teaches that we must rejoice, saying: This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it.

12. Deferring Easter When the Moons Coincide

Therefore not only the day of the Passion, but also that of the resurrection ought to be observed by us; that we may have both a day of bitterness and a day of joy: on the one let us fast, on the other let us be refreshed. Whence if it should happen, as is about to be the case, that the fourteenth moon of the first month falls on the Lord's day; since we ought neither to fast on the Lord's day, nor to break the fast when the thirteenth moon falls on the sabbath, which ought especially to be observed on the day of the Passion: the celebration of Easter must be deferred to the following week. Since then the fifteenth moon follows, on which Christ suffered, and it will be the second day of the week; the third day of the week also will be the sixteenth moon, on which the Lord's flesh rested in the tomb; while the fourth day of the week will be the seventeenth moon, on which the Lord rose.

13. The Sacred Three-Day Period

Since therefore that sacred three-day period falls next into the last week, within which three-day period he both suffered, and rested, and rose, concerning which three-day period he said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; what trouble of doubt can this bring to us? For if this matter causes scruple, that we do not celebrate on the fourteenth moon itself the day either of the Passion or of the resurrection; the Lord himself did not suffer on the fourteenth moon, but on the fifteenth, and rose on the seventeenth. But if it troubles someone, that passing over the fourteenth moon, which falls on the Lord's day, that is, the fourteenth day before the kalends of May, we advise that the celebration be held on the following Lord's day, there exists authority of this kind.

14. Precedents from the Diocletian Era

For in somewhat earlier times, when the fourteenth moon of the first month fell on the Lord's Day, the solemnity was celebrated on the following second Lord's Day. But in the eighty-ninth year from the day of Diocletian's empire, when the fourteenth moon fell on the ninth day before the kalends of April, we celebrated Easter on the day before the kalends of April. The Alexandrians too and the Egyptians, as they themselves wrote, when the fourteenth moon fell on the twenty-eighth day of the month Phamenoth, celebrated Easter on the fifth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the day before the kalends of April, and thus agreed with us.

Again, in the ninety-third year from the day of Diocletian's empire, when the fourteenth moon fell on the fourteenth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifth of the ides of April, which was the Lord's Day, Easter was celebrated on the Lord's Day, the twenty-first of Pharmuthi, which according to us was the sixteenth of the kalends of May. Whence, since there is both reason and precedent, nothing on this point ought to disturb us.

15. Keeping Easter Within the First Month

Now this is the point which seems to need explanation, because many suppose that we will celebrate Easter in the second month, since it is written: Keep the first month of new grain; which cannot happen, that they should celebrate Easter outside the month of new grain, unless those who observe the fourteenth moon so strictly according to the letter that they celebrate on no other day but that one. Indeed, the Jews are going to celebrate Easter in the twelfth month, not the first—that is, on the thirteenth of the kalends of April according to us: but according to the Egyptians, on the twenty-fourth day of the month Phamenoth, which is not the first month, but the twelfth; for the first month among the Egyptians is called Pharmuthi, and begins on the sixth of the kalends of April, and ends on the seventh of the kalends of May.

Therefore according to the Egyptians we shall be celebrating the Lord's Day of Easter in the first month, that is, on the seventh of the kalends of May, which is the thirtieth day of the month Pharmuthi.

16. The Month of New Grain from Egypt

Nor do I think it absurd that we should draw our example of observing the month from that place where the first Passover was celebrated. Whence also our forebears, in the treatise of the Council of Nicaea, if anyone attends carefully, thought that this same "Enneade cateridem" should be established, and rightly kept this very month of new grain; because in Egypt in this first month the new grain is reaped: and this month is both the first according to the Egyptians' harvest, and the first according to the Law, and the eighth according to our custom; for the indiction begins in the month of September. Therefore in the eighth month are the kalends of April: but the month begins not according to common usage, but according to the custom of those skilled in the matter, from the equinox, which day is the twelfth of the kalends of April, and ends on the eleventh of the kalends of May. Hence it is chiefly within these thirty-one days that the day of Easter has often been celebrated.

17. Reckoning the Fourteenth Moon in the First Month

But since six years ago we celebrated the Lord's Day of Easter on the eleventh of the kalends of May, that is, on the thirtieth day of the month, according to our reckoning, we ought not to be disturbed if very recently too we are to celebrate the Lord's Day of Easter on the thirtieth day of the month Pharmuthi. But if anyone reckons the month otherwise from this, because after three days of the completed month, which seems to be completed on the eleventh of the kalends of May, the Lord's Day of Easter will fall; let him consider this, that the fourteenth moon, which is sought, will be on the fourteenth of the kalends of May, that is, within the prescribed number of the month. But the Law requires that the day of the Passion must be celebrated within the first month of new grain.

18. The Letter and Spirit of the Paschal Reckoning

Satisfaction is therefore given according to the fullness of the moon, for which three other days remain to complete the month. It does not, then, fall over into another month, since Easter will be celebrated within that same month which is the first. But that we ought not to be bound to the letter, although the custom of celebrating Easter itself instructs us; nevertheless the Apostle also teaches, who says: Christ our Passover is sacrificed. But the passage cited also teaches that the letter is not to be followed; for thus you have it: And you shall keep the Passover to the Lord your God on the fourteenth day of the first month. He says "day" for "moon"; whence also the most skilled, according to the Law, compute the month by the lunar course: and therefore, since the course of the moon begins from several nones—that is, the first day—you see that the nones of May can still be reckoned to the first month of new grain.

Therefore, according to the sense of the Law also, this is the first month. Indeed, the Greeks call the moon μήνη, whence they call months μῆνας in Greek; and the natural usage of foreign nations calls the moon in place of days.

19. The Passover Lamb and the Two Feast Days

But that one day is to be celebrated for the Passion, another for the Resurrection, the series of the Old Testament also shows; for thus you have it: The lamb shall be without blemish, clean, perfect, a year old, a male, you shall take from the sheep and the goats, and it shall be kept for you until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of its blood, and put it upon the two doorposts and upon the lintel of the door of the house wherein they shall eat it among themselves: they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire; and further on: And you shall eat it in haste; for it is the Passover of the Lord, and I will pass through the land of the Egyptians that night, and I will smite every firstborn in Egypt, from man to beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, I the Lord.

And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will protect you, and there shall not be among you the plague of destruction. And I will strike the land of Egypt, and this day shall be memorable and solemn to you, and you shall keep it as a feast day to the Lord throughout your generations, an everlasting ordinance, you shall keep it as a feast day.

20. Fasting for the Passion, Joy at the Resurrection

We also observe that the day of the Passion is described as one of fasting, because the lamb was to be slain in the evening; although we may take the "evening" to mean the last time, according to John, who says: Children, it is the last hour. But according to the mystery too it is established that he was slain in the evening of the day, when darkness immediately fell: and that fasting must be kept on that day is true, because thus "you shall eat it in haste"; for anxiety clings to those who fast. But on the day of the Resurrection there is exultation of refreshment and of joy, on which day the people seems to have gone out from Egypt, the firstborn of the Egyptians having been slain. Which the later passages more clearly teach, in which Scripture says that after the Jews had made the Passover, as Moses commanded, it came to pass about midnight, and the Lord smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron by night, and said to them: Rise up and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel: go and serve the Lord your God. And the Egyptians pressed upon the people, hastening to drive them out as quickly as possible. Thus the Israelites indeed set out in such haste that unleavened bread had no chance to ferment for them; for the Egyptians drove them out, and they could not wait for the provisions they had prepared for the journey.

21. The Resurrection Must Follow the Fourteenth Moon

It is therefore disclosed that the day of the Resurrection to be observed must come after the day of the Passion, which day of the Resurrection ought not to be the fourteenth moon, but afterward, as the old Testament speaks; because the day of the Resurrection is that on which the people, going out from Egypt, baptized in the sea and in the cloud, as the Apostle says, conquered death, receiving spiritual bread, and drinking a spiritual drink from the rock: nor can the Passion of the Lord be celebrated on the Lord's Day: and if the fourteenth moon should fall on the Lord's Day, another week must be added, just as was done in the seventy-sixth year from the day of Diocletian's empire. For then, on the twenty-eighth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the ninth of the kalends of May, we celebrated the Lord's Day of Easter without any doubt of our forebears.

At the same time also the course and reckoning of the moon lends support, since the next Easter is to be celebrated by the twenty-first moon; for it has been customary to extend as far as the twenty-first moon.

22. An Exhortation to Keep the Paschal Feast

Therefore, since so many tokens of truth concur, let us, according to the examples of our forebears, celebrate the feast of public salvation joyfully and exultantly, coloring our doorposts, where is the door of the word which the Apostle prays may be opened to him, with the faith of the Lord's Passion. Of this door David also speaks: Set, O Lord, a guard upon my mouth, and a door of enclosure about my lips; so that we may speak nothing else but the blood of Christ, by which we have conquered death, by which we have been redeemed. Let the fragrance of Christ blaze within us. Let us hear Him, let us direct the eyes both of mind and of body toward Him, marveling at His works, proclaiming His benefits: upon the lintel of our door let the confession of sacred redemption shine forth. Let us receive with fervent spirit the sacrament in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, singing with pious doctrine the glory of the Father and the Son, and the undivided majesty of the Spirit.

Ambrose to the Emperor Valentinian.

23. Introducing the Account of a Second Embassy

Although the faithfulness of my earlier embassy has been so proved to you that its reasoning need not be sought from me—for it became sufficiently clear from this very fact, that I was detained for some days within Gaul, that I did not accept the wishes of Maximus, nor consented to those things which inclined more to his will than to peace: indeed you would not have entrusted me with a second embassy, had you not approved the first. But because, upon my return, he imposed on me the necessity of deciding matters with him, therefore I thought I should insert in this letter an account of my embassy; lest anyone's talk should weave falsehoods in with the truth before my return should make manifest the whole matter, sealed with the mark of sincere truth.

2. Seeking Audience at the Palace of Trier

When I had arrived at Trier, the next day I went to the palace. There came out to me a man of Gaul, the prefect of the bedchamber, a royal eunuch. I asked for the opportunity of an audience; he asked whether I had a rescript of your clemency. I answered that I had. He replied that I could not be seen except in the consistory. I said that this was not the custom of a bishop, and that there were certainly some matters about which I ought to converse seriously with his prince. What more? He consulted him, but believed that the same answer must be reported back; so that it might be clear that even the earlier answers had been drawn from that same judgment. I said, nevertheless, that this indeed was foreign to our office, but that once received in audience I would not fail; that the humility was pleasing to me, especially in a matter of fraternal piety, and, what is true, in this business.

3. A Tense Exchange Before Maximus in Council

When he was seated in the consistory, I entered, he rose to give me the kiss. I stood among the members of the consistory. Some began to urge me to come up; he to call me. I said: Why do you kiss one whom you do not acknowledge? For if you had acknowledged me, you would not see me in this place. You are disturbed, bishop, said he. Not, said I, from injury, but from modesty, because I stand in a place not my own. And yet, said he, at the first embassy you entered the consistory. Nor was that, I said, a fault of mine: it is the fault of the one who summons, not of the one who enters. Why then, said he, did you enter? Because, I said, then I was seeking peace as an inferior; now I stand as an equal. By whose kindness, said he, are you equal? I answered: By the kindness of Almighty God, who has preserved for Valentinian the kingdom which He had given.

4. Maximus Vents His Grievance Against Bauto

At last he burst out, saying: Since you and that Bauto have mocked me, who wished to claim the kingdom for himself under the guise of a boy, who even sent barbarians against me: as if I did not have those whom I could bring in; since so many thousand barbarians serve under me, and receive their rations from me. But if I, at the time when you came, had not been held back, who would have withstood me and my strength?

5. A Measured Answer in Defense of the Boy Emperor

To this I answered gently: There is no need, I said, for you to be disturbed, since there is no cause for disturbance: but hear patiently what is reported to these men. I too came for this reason, because at the first embassy, while you believed me, you were asserting that you had been deceived through me. This is glorious to me, and this too for the safety of the ward-emperor. For whom ought bishops to protect more than wards? For it is written: Judge for the fatherless, and defend the widow, and deliver him that suffers injury; and elsewhere: Judge of widows, and father of orphans.

6. Ambrose Denies Deceiving Maximus

Nevertheless I will not reproach Valentinian with my service. To speak truly, where did I resist your legions, so as to prevent you from pouring into Italy? By what cliffs? By what battle-line? By what forces? Or did I truly block the Alps with my own body? Would that this were mine! I should not fear the charge, I should not dread your accusations. By what promises did I deceive you, that you should acquiesce in peace? Did not Count Victor, whom you sent, meet me within Gaul near the city of Mainz, to ask for peace? In what, then, did Valentinian deceive you, who was asked for peace by you before he himself demanded it? In what did Bauto deceive you, who showed devotion to his own emperor? Is it because he did not betray his own prince?

In what have I circumvented you? When I first came, since you were saying that Valentinian ought to come to you as a son to a father, I replied that it was not fair that a boy should cross the Alps with his widowed mother in the harsh season of winter; and that without his mother he should not be entrusted to so great a journey amid uncertain circumstances. An embassy about peace had been entrusted to us, not a promise of his arrival: it is certain that we could not pledge that which had not been committed to us; certainly that I pledged nothing, so much so that you said: Let us wait to see what answer Victor brings back. It is clear, moreover, that while I was detained, he arrived at Milan, and was refused what he was demanding. That the desires of both sides were agreed only concerning peace, not concerning the arrival of the emperor, who ought not to be moved. I was present when Victor returned. How then did I call back Valentinian?

Envoys were again sent to Gaul, who denied his coming; they found me at Valence in Gaul: soldiers of both parties who were guarding the mountain passes I found on my return. What armies of yours did I call back? What eagles did I turn away from Italy? What barbarians did Count Bauto send in?

8. Barbarian Allies Compared: Bauto and Maximus

And what wonder if Bauto had done this, being by birth a Transrhenan; when you yourself threaten the Roman empire with the aid of barbarians, and with cross-border troops, for whom the tributes of the provincials were paying the supplies? But see what difference there is between your threats and the gentleness of the emperor-boy Valentinian. You were demanding that, surrounded by columns of barbarians, you might pour yourself into Italy: Valentinian turned back the Huns and the Alans, who were approaching Gaul, through the lands of Alemannia. What ground for envy is there, if Bauto made barbarians contend with barbarians? Since, while you were keeping the Roman soldier occupied, while he was stretched out against himself on both sides, in the very bosom of the Roman empire the Juthungi were ravaging the Rhaetias; and therefore the Hun was summoned against the Juthungian. Yet the same Hun, because he was trampling upon neighboring Alemannia, and was already, from the vicinity of the evil, pressing upon the Gauls, was compelled to abandon his triumphs, lest you should be afraid.

Compare the deeds of both. You caused the Rhaetias to be invaded; Valentinian bought peace for you with his own gold.

9. Pleading for the Return of a Slain Brother's Body

Look also at that man who stands at your right hand, whom Valentinian, though he could have avenged his own grief, caused to return to you honored. He held him within his own lands, and even at the very report of his brother's murder he restrained his impulse; nor did he return the like to you, though not of equal rank, yet of the same kinship. Compare, then, with yourself as judge, the deed of each. He sent your brother back to you alive; do you at least return his brother's body, even dead. Why do you refuse the remains of a brother to him who did not refuse you aid against himself?

10. Why Fear the Dead Man You Killed

But you fear lest, upon the return of the remains, grief should be renewed among the soldiers; for this is what you allege. Will they who deserted him living, defend him dead? Why do you fear him dead, whom you killed, when you could have preserved him? "I have destroyed my enemy," you say. He was not your enemy, but you were his. He no longer perceives any defense; consider the case yourself. If someone today should think to usurp the empire in these parts against you, I ask whether you would call yourself his enemy, or him yours? Unless I am mistaken, the usurper wages war, the emperor defends his own right. Therefore do you refuse the remains of one whom you ought not to have killed? Let the emperor Valentinian have at least his brother's remains as pledges of your peace. And how were you alleging that you did not order him to be killed, when you forbid him to be buried?

Can it then be believed that you do not begrudge him life, when you begrudge him even burial?

11. The Death of Vallio and Desertions to Theodosius

But let me return to myself. I hear that you complain that those who are with the emperor Valentinian have betaken themselves rather to the emperor Theodosius.

What then did you hope would happen, when you demanded that those fleeing to you be punished, and slew those you captured, while Theodosius enriched them with gifts, honored them with offices? "Whom," he says, "did I kill?" I answered him, Vallio. But what a man! What a warrior! Was this a just cause of death, that he kept faith with his own emperor? "I," he says, "did not order him killed." I replied: We heard that he was ordered to be killed. "But," he says, "if he had not done violence to himself, I had ordered him to be led to Chalon, and there to be burned alive." I replied: Therefore for that very reason it was believed that you killed him. Who indeed would think he ought to be spared, when a brave warrior, a faithful soldier, a useful companion was slain? Thus I departed at that time, with him saying he would deal with the matter.

12. Expelled for Defending the Exiled Bishop Hyginus

Afterward, when he saw that I was abstaining from the bishops who were in communion with him, or who were demanding the death of some, even though estranged from the faith, being angered against them he ordered me to return without delay. And I indeed gladly, although many did not believe I would escape treachery, set out on the journey, moved by this grief alone, that I learned that the aged bishop Hyginus was being led into exile, a man who had left in him now nothing but his last breath. When I approached his companions on his behalf, that they should not allow the old man to be thrust out without clothing, without bedding, I myself was thrust out.

13. A Farewell Warning Against False Peace

This is the account of my embassy. Farewell, Emperor; and be more on your guard against a man who covers war with the cloak of peace.

Ambrose to Studius.

1. Duty to the Law and the Claims of Mercy

I recognize the affection of a pure mind, and zeal for the faith, and the fear of our Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning which I too would be afraid to give an answer, bound on the one hand by that which has been entrusted to you for the keeping of the laws, on the other by mercy and grace, were it not that you have on this matter the authority of the Apostle: "For not without cause does he bear the sword who judges"; for he is God's avenger against those who do evil.

2. Whether Judges Who Condemn Should Receive Communion

Yet even if this were known to you, you thought it not idle to inquire. For there are some, outside the Church however, who would not admit to the communion of the heavenly sacraments those who have judged that a capital sentence ought to be pronounced against certain persons. Many also abstain of their own accord: and indeed they are praised, nor can we ourselves fail to commend them; we who observe the authority of the Apostle so far as this, that we do not dare to deny them communion.

3. Counsel to a Judge on Mercy and Sentencing

You see, then, what authority grants, what mercy urges. You will have an excuse, if you act; praise, if you do not act. But if you cannot avoid acting, yet do not wear down the guilty with the squalor of prison, but rather acquit them—this I shall approve the more, as befits a priest. For it can happen that, the case having been examined, the accused may be received for sentence, who afterward may either seek pardon for himself, or at least, as someone has said, without harsh severity may dwell in prison. I know, however, that many of the pagans used to boast that they brought back the axe of provincial administration unstained with blood. If pagans do this, what ought Christians to do?

4. Christ's Answer to the Woman Taken in Adultery

For all this, however, receive the Savior's answer. For when the Jews had found an adulteress, they brought her to the Savior, hoping that, if he acquitted her, he would seem to dissolve the Law, he who had said, "I have not come to dissolve the Law, but to fulfill it"; if he condemned her, he would seem to have come against the very purpose of his mission. Foreseeing this, therefore, the Lord Jesus, bowing his head, wrote upon the ground. What was he writing, but that prophetic word: "Earth, earth, write these men disowned"; which is written of Jechonias in the prophet Jeremiah?

5. Let Him Without Sin Cast the First Stone

When the Jews make their appeal, the names of the Jews are written on the earth; when Christians approach, the names of the faithful are not written on earth, but in heaven. But those disowned by their own father are written on the earth, who tempt the Father, and cast reproaches upon the author of salvation. When the Jews make their appeal, Jesus bows his head; and because he has nowhere to lay his head, he raises it again, as though about to pronounce sentence, and says, "Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her". And again, bowing his head, he wrote upon the ground.

6. The Accusers Withdraw, the Eldest First

Hearing this, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the eldest: either because they themselves, having lived longer, had more sins, or because, being wiser, they perceived first the force of the sentence, and being accusers of another's crime began rather to weep over their own sins.

7. Neither Do I Condemn You, Go and Sin No More

When they had withdrawn, therefore, Jesus remained alone, and lifting his head to the woman, said: Where are those who accused you? Has no one stoned you? And she answered: No one. Jesus said to her: Neither will I condemn you. Go, and see that you sin no more. He does not condemn, as being redemption; he corrects, as being life; as a fountain, he washes clean. And because whenever Jesus bows himself, he bows in order to raise up those who are lying prostrate, therefore he pronounces remission of sins: Neither will I condemn you.

8. The Sinner's Paths to Correction and Salvation

You have here something to follow; for it can happen that that guilty man may have hope of correction: if he is without baptism, that he may receive remission; if baptized, that he may perform penance, and offer his body for Christ. How many are the roads to salvation!

9. Why the Elders Favored Mercy Toward Judges

And for this reason our elders preferred to be more indulgent toward judges; so that, while their sword was feared, the fury of crimes might be checked, and not incited: whereas if communion were denied, the punishment of the guilty would seem to have been avenged. Our predecessors therefore preferred that this should rest in the will of the one abstaining, rather than in the compulsion of law. Farewell, and love us; for we too love you.

Ambrose to Irenaeus.

1. A Fuller Answer to a Repeated Question

Although in a previous letter I have already resolved this little question which you proposed, nevertheless, since you as a son ask for something fuller, I have not held back from bringing it forth and working it out more fully.

2. Revisiting the Case of the Woman Taken in Adultery

And indeed the question has always been much discussed, and celebrated has been the acquittal of that woman who, in the book of the Gospel which is written according to John, was brought before Christ as guilty of adultery. For this the tergiversation of the Jews contrived; so that if she were acquitted contrary to the Law, the sentence of the Lord Jesus would be held to have been pronounced contrary to the Law; but if she were condemned according to the Law, the grace of Christ would seem to be void.

3. The Growing Dispute Over Bishops as Accusers

But the question has become more pressing, since bishops have begun to accuse men guilty of the gravest crimes in public trials—some even pressing matters to the sword and to death itself—while others have begun to approve accusations of this sort and the bloody triumphs of priests. For what else do these say, than what the Jews used to say: that men guilty of crimes ought to be punished by public laws; and that therefore it was fitting that they be accused even by priests in public trials, whom they assert ought to be punished according to the laws? The cause is the same, but the number is smaller; that is, the question of judgment is not different, but the odiousness of the punishment differs. Christ did not allow one woman to be punished according to the Law; these men assert that a smaller number has been punished.

4. Christ's Judgment in the Temple Treasury

But in what place does Christ pronounce this judgment? For very often, according to the character of the places in which he was teaching, he deigned to shape his discourses to his servants; as, walking in the portico of Solomon—that is, of the wise man—he was saying: "I and the Father are one"; as in the temple of God he said: "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me". This judgment too he exercises while placed in the temple, as is written afterward; for thus you have it: "These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple; and no one laid hold of him". What is the treasury? The offering of the faithful, the sustenance of the poor, the rest of the needy, according to which, as you have it in Luke, Christ sitting there judged the two mites of the poor widow to be preferred to the gifts of the rich, preferring by divine testimony the affection of assiduous liberality to the rewards of abundant largesse.

5. The Widow's Two Mites Explained

He who held such judgment, let us see what he himself, standing by the treasury, was contributing; for it was not idly that he preferred the widow casting in two mites. That poverty is precious, made rich by the mystery of faith. These are the two mites which that Samaritan of the Gospel left with the innkeeper for the healing of the wounds of him who had fallen among robbers. Therefore this woman too, a widow in appearance, in the type of the Church, thought fit to contribute to this sacred treasury, by which the wounds of the poor might be healed, the fasting of pilgrims relieved.

6. The Price of Both Testaments

Whence also now it behooves you to weigh spiritually what Christ contributes; for he was distributing to the peoples silver tried by the fire of heavenly utterances, and was reckoning up the coin bearing the royal image among the affections of the peoples. No one gave more than he who gave all. He satisfied the hungry, filled the needy, gave light to the blind, redeemed captives, raised up the paralyzed, restored the dead to life, and, what is more, granted acquittals to the guilty, forgave sins. These are the two mites which the Church cast in, after she received them from Christ. For what are the two mites, but the price of the New and the Old Testament? The price of Scripture is our faith; for what is read is valued according to the judgment of the one who understands it. The remission of sins, therefore, is the price of both Testaments, which was announced in type through the lamb, fulfilled in truth through Christ.

7. Purification of Seven Days and Three

For this reason you find that the purification of seven days is never without the purification of three days. The purification of seven days is according to the Law, which under the type of the present sabbath announced the spiritual sabbath; the purification of three days is according to grace, which is signified by the testimony of the Gospel; because on the third day the Lord rose again. Where punishment is prescribed, there must be repentance of sins: where remission is granted, there is grace. Repentance goes before, grace follows. Neither, therefore, is there repentance without grace, nor grace without repentance; for repentance must first condemn sin, that grace may be able to abolish it. Therefore John, receiving the type of the Law, baptized unto repentance, Christ unto grace.

8. The Seventh and Eighth Days in Hosea's Prophecy

The seventh day, then, signifies the mystery of the Law, the eighth that of the resurrection, as you have it in Ecclesiastes: Give a portion to those seven, and to those eight. For also in the prophet Hosea you have read it said to him: Take unto yourself a harlot for fifteen pieces of silver; because with the twofold coin of the Old and the New Testament, that is, with the whole price of faith, that woman, supported by a kind of wandering and harlot-like company of gathered peoples, is hired.

9. The Full and Half Measure of Barley

And I hired her, he says, for a homer of barley, and a half-homer, and a nevel of wine. By the barley he signifies that he called the imperfect to faith, that he might render them perfect: by the homer is understood the full measure, by the half-homer the half-full measure. The full measure is in the Gospel, the half-full in the Law, whose fullness is the New Testament. Since the Lord Himself says: I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it.

10. The Fifteen Steps of the Two Testaments

Nor is it without purpose that we read the fifteen Davidic psalms of the steps of ascent, and that the sun ascended by fifteen degrees when the just king Hezekiah received a respite of this life. For it was signified that the Sun of righteousness was to come, who was to illuminate with the light of his presence the fifteen steps of the Old and New Testament, by which our faith ascends to eternal life. Whence also this which today has been read in the Apostle I judge to be mystical; because he remained with Peter fifteen days: for it seems to me that, as the holy apostles conferred with each other in varied discourse on the interpretation of the divine Scripture, the brightness of full light shone forth, and the shadow of ignorance departed. But let us now come to the absolution of this adulterous woman.

11. The Accusation of the Adulterous Woman

She had been brought by the Scribes and Pharisees to the Lord Jesus, accused of adultery, and this was brought forward with fraud, so that if He should absolve her, He would seem to dissolve the Law; but if, however, He should condemn her, He would change the purpose of His coming; since He came to remit the sins of all. For above He says: I judge no man. Bringing her forward, therefore, they said: This woman we found openly committing adultery. For it is written in the law of Moses that every adulteress be stoned. What, then, do you say of her?

12. Let Him Without Sin Cast the First Stone

When they said this, Jesus, bowing His head, wrote with His finger on the ground. And when they waited to hear Him, He lifted up His head and said: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. What is so divine as this sentence; that He should punish sins who is Himself without lot in sin? For how can you bear one who avenges another's crime, and defends his own? Does he not rather condemn himself more, who in another condemns what he himself commits?

13. The Mote and the Beam

Now He said this, and wrote on the ground. What? Surely saying: The mote that is in your brother's eye you see, but the beam that is in your own eye you do not see. For lust is like a straw, it is quickly kindled, it is speedily consumed: the sacrilege of unbelief, by which the Jews denied the author of their own salvation, proclaimed the greatness of the crime.

14. Writing on the Ground, Names Written in Heaven

Now He wrote on the ground with the finger with which He had written the Law. Sinners are written on earth, the just in heaven, as you have it said to the disciples: Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. And He wrote a second time, that you may know that the Jews are condemned by a twofold Testament.

15. The Accusers Depart One by One

Now hearing this word, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, and sat pondering within themselves. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. Well does it say that they went out, who were unwilling to be with Christ. Outside is the letter, within are the mysteries. For they followed, as it were, certain leaves of the divine readings, not the fruit; who were living in the shadow of the Law, and could not see the Sun of righteousness.

16. Jesus Alone with the Woman

Then, they having departed, Jesus alone was left, and the woman standing in the midst. About to bestow forgiveness of sin, Jesus alone remains, as He Himself says: Behold, the hour comes, and now has come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; for not an ambassador, nor a messenger, but the Lord Himself saved His people. He alone remains; because this cannot be common to any man with Christ, to forgive sins. This is Christ's office alone, who took away the sin of the world. The woman also deserved to be absolved, who, when the Jews withdrew, remained alone with Jesus.

17. Neither Do I Condemn You

And Jesus, lifting up His head, said to the woman: Where are they who accused you? Has no man condemned you? And she answered: No man, Lord. And Jesus said to her: Neither will I condemn you; go, and from now on see that you sin no more. Behold, reader, the divine mysteries, and the clemency of Christ. When the woman is accused, Christ bows His head: but He lifts it up when the accuser fails; thus He wills that none be condemned, but all be absolved.

18. Answers to Questions About Christ's Knowledge

Briefly, moreover, He does away with all the questionings of heretics, by saying: Has no man condemned you?—those who say that Christ does not know the day of judgment, or who say: But to sit on My right hand, or on My left, is not Mine to give to you; behold here also He says: Has no man condemned you? How, indeed, does He ask what He saw? But He asks for our sake, that we might know she had not been stoned. It is also a custom of human feeling, that we very often ask what we see. And therefore the woman answered: No man, Lord; that is to say: Who can stone her whom You Yourself do not condemn? Who can punish another under the condition of such a sentence?

19. Dismissed, Not Absolved

To whom the Lord answered: Neither will I condemn you. Notice how He tempered His own sentence; so that the Jews could bring no calumny against Him about the absolution of the woman, but would rather turn the calumny back upon themselves, if they wished to complain: for the woman is dismissed, not absolved: because the accuser was lacking, not because her innocence was proven. Why, then, should they complain, who first ceased from the prosecution of the crime and the execution of the penalty?

20. Go and Sin No More

He added, moreover, to the erring woman: Go, and from now on see that you sin no more. He amended the guilty one, He did not absolve the crime. For indeed by a more severe sentence the fault is condemned, if each one hate his own crime, and begin to condemn the offense in himself. For indeed, when the guilty is put to death, the person rather than the fault is punished: but where the fault is laid down, the absolution of the person is the penalty of the sin. What, then, is: Go, and from now on see that you sin no more? This is: Since Christ has redeemed you, let grace correct you, which punishment would not amend, but only chastise. Farewell, my son, and love us, as a son; because we love you, as parents.

AMBROSE to Irenaeus, greeting.

1. Sacrificing What the Egyptians Abominate

You have signified to me that you were troubled, because you have read: Let us sacrifice to God the things abominable to the Egyptians. But you had the means to resolve this; because it is written in Genesis that the Egyptians abominated the shepherd of flocks, not indeed on account of the man, but on account of the flocks. For they overturned the earth with the plough: but Abraham, and Jacob, and afterward Moses and David were shepherds, putting on in this office a certain regal discipline.

2. Why the Egyptians Hated the Sacrifice

The Egyptians, therefore, hated offered sacrifices, that is, the perfect pursuits of virtues, and full of discipline. What, then, the vicious hate, this among the good is sincere and pious. The luxurious man detests the work of virtue, the glutton shuns it. So the Egyptian body, which loves allurements, turns away from the virtues of the soul, abominates rule, shuns the disciplines of the virtues, and all works which are of this kind.

3. Embracing Prudence, Shunning Folly

What, then, the Egyptian shuns—that Egyptian, and not the man—embrace these things, you who have the knowledge of humanity. But decline those things which they follow and choose; since these two things cannot agree together, prudence and folly. And so, just as prudence withdraws itself from those things which belong to a certain reckoning of imprudence and intemperance, and continence withdraws itself; so the fool and the incontinent man is deprived of all those things which belong to the goods and inheritance of the wise and continent man.

4. Laban's Sloth Alienates His Daughters

Finally, those holy women, joined in such a marriage, Leah and Rachel—one laborious, the other a strong inspiration—fleeing not the bond of kinship, but the discrepancy of character; when they had been taught by the discourse of their trained husband Jacob that he wished to depart, so as to avoid the envy and the sloth of Laban and his sons, answered: Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted as strangers by him? For he has sold us, and has devoured our price. Behold, first, that the slothful and envious man alienates from himself and flees the laborious woman, one tenacious of discipline, and desires to separate herself; since he perceives that they are a burden to him, he thinks he has made a profit by alienating them, and judges this to be his price, and this the fruit of his pleasure.

5. The Riches Taken from Laban

Now let us hear how that which virtue has, sloth does not have; for they say: All the riches and glory, which God has taken from our father, shall be ours, and our children's. Rightly, with God as arbiter, do they say these things have been taken away, because He Himself is the author of good things, by whose grace the slothful are stripped; because the beauty of the divine inheritance the wicked and the weak cannot grasp: but he succeeds who is earnest, and has in himself a strong spirit. Who, moreover, is strong except God alone, who restrains and rules all things?

6. The Lord as the Believer's Inheritance

To these, then, is owed the inheritance of God. Whence Isaiah also says: There is an inheritance to those who believe in the Lord. And he says beautifully: There is an inheritance; for it alone is the inheritance, there is no other. For neither is a blind treasure an inheritance, nor do all perishable things have the advantage of inheritance: that alone is inheritance in which God is the portion. Whence the holy one of the Lord says: The Lord is my portion; and elsewhere: I have become heir of Your testimonies. You see what the just man possesses—the commandments of God, His oracles, His precepts. In these he is rich, in these he is fed, in these he delights, as if in all riches.

7. Leah and Rachel Judge Laban Poor

Possessing these things, therefore, Leah and Rachel did not seek after their father's wealth, in which there was adulterate money, an irrational species, and lacking spiritual vigor. Finally, as rich and free women, they judged him not rich but needy. For everyone who is a partaker of good and liberal disciplines thinks no fool rich, but poor and needy, and also base; even if he abounds in royal riches, and proudly boasts of his power in gold.

8. The Company of Fools to Be Shunned

The society of such persons, therefore, is to be shunned, even if they be joined by some bond of kinship: for conversations with fools are harmful, and they infect the sober mind and discolor it; because as, cleaving to the holy, you will be holy, so with the perverse you will be perverse. For it frequently happens that one, hearing an intemperate person against his own purpose, though he himself wishes to hold to the discipline of continence, is colored by the paint of folly, and rightly discipline and insolence are contrary to and at war with each other.

9. Renouncing Desire for Worldly Riches

Whence, when the trained husband sought their opinion, they, already proved by long-continued exercise of virtue, sent forth the voice: Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? That is, do you consult us whether we wish to withdraw from him? As though you did not know that we have no desire of that society, nor does the sweet desire of the greater part of worldly riches hold us, or the gladness of luxury? These are the things which we have judged wretched, and foreign to us: these are the things which we consider full of poverty and want.

10. Laban's Loss of the Divine Image

They add also the reason for their withdrawal, because Laban has lost the true glory, and the abundance of good treasure, in which we are born. The vigor of the mind was given, and the good coin of the image and likeness of God; because it is spiritual coin. He has lost it, because he has chosen the splendid things of the world rather than the true and useful things of his life: whose beauty passes by one destitute of divine goods; since he who thinks those things beautiful deceives and cheats himself in them. Whence hear her words, and judge.

11. Jacob Answers Laban's Pursuit

He followed holy Jacob and his daughters, lest by chance he should find among them something of his own vices, and so have authority to call him back to himself, convicting the just man, when he had been refuted by reason and could answer and reply nothing by which he ought to detain him: "If you had told me," he says, "I would have sent you away". In which he betrayed what the just man had fled, lest he should follow him, lead him away, or go forth attended by such a retinue. First, because he ought not to subject himself as a slave to many masters, so as to be dismissed by him like a little servant. Then, because a man intent upon exercise, and seeking to pursue the true way to virtue, sought not a human guide but heavenly oracles. "These," he says, "commanded me to depart hence, and now accompany me on my journey."

12. Fleeing Laban's Tambourines and Feasts

But how would you have sent me away? With your joy, perhaps, which is full of sadness—with tambourines and instruments sounding immoderately, and with the sweet notes of pipes echoing unsweetly, with dissonant sounds, discordant clashings, mute voices, cymbals striking the soul? Did you believe I could be delighted by these? Recalled by these? These are the things I fled: nor do I fear the envy of your words. I fled, lest such things should follow me, lest, taking something of yours, I should depart with it.

13. Contrasting Pagan Feasts and Christian Fasts

For it is not by such guides that one arrives at the Church of Christ, toward which Jacob was tending; that thither he might lead multitudes of peoples, bring in the riches of nations, pour in posterity, fleeing the shadows of empty things, preferring to insensible images the breathing beauty of the virtues, setting serious things before things pleasing to applause. For you see how the gentiles adorn their banquets, how they proclaim their feasts: but these are more hostile to pious minds; because by them very many are deceived, captured by sweet feasts, captured by the dances of choruses: while they flee our fasts, while they think them harsh, while they judge them harmful and burdensome to the body.

14. Refusing Gold, Silver, and Servants for the Journey

Or did you suppose that I desired your gold? But you do not have the gold tried by fire, by which the just are proved. Or that I coveted silver? But you do not have silver, you who do not have the splendor of heavenly speech. But perhaps I hoped that you would add to me servants for attendance? But I seek free men, I flee the slaves of sin. But perhaps companions of the journey and guides of the ways were necessary? Would that they could follow! I would show them the ways of the Lord.

But you who do not know God, how have you come to know his ways? The ways of the Lord are entered by his elect: not by whoever enters them, but yet no one is excluded.

15. The Waters of Mesopotamia and Jacob's Marked Flock

Let him follow who is ready, let him enter the way that leads to Mesopotamia; that he who seeks it may pass through the waters, the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, of fortitude and justice, through the tears of repentance, the baptism of grace. In it is the army of God; for all who are in the Church wage war for God. In it is that notable flock of diverse virtues, which Jacob chose for himself; for every soul without a mark is untaught and unlearned, ignorant of disciplines: but the one that is marked is rich in works and abounding in graces.

16. Reconciliation, Sichem, and Wrestling with God

Let him who comes to it first reconcile his angry brother. Let him who comes to it dwell in Sichem, that precious and active workshop of virtues, where the vengeance for violated chastity is heavy. Let him who comes to it wrestle with God; that he may exercise himself in imitation of him, and engage with the humility of Christ and his sufferings. Let him take up his cross and follow Christ. Finally, a good wrestler does not envy, is not puffed up; rather he even blesses the one who wrestles with him for such a reward.

17. Jacob's Path to Patience and the Father's Joy

Let us follow, then, holy Jacob and his ways; that we may arrive at those sufferings, at those wrestlings, that we may arrive at the shoulder, that we may arrive at patience, the mother of the faithful, and at father Isaac, that is, capable of gladness, overflowing with joy. Where there is now patience, there is joy; because after tribulations comes patience, and patience works out proof, in which is hope, of which we are not put to shame; since he who has not been ashamed of the cross of Christ, Christ will not be ashamed of him. Farewell, son, and do not blush to question your father, you who do not blush to glory in the sufferings of Christ.

AMBROSE to Irenaeus, greeting.

1. The Pythagorean Precept and Its Debt to Moses

We find it recorded in the writings of certain authors that there was a Pythagorean precept, by which he forbade his disciples to enter upon the common and usual way of the people. But whence he took this is not unknown. For since he drew his origin, as most think, from the Jewish people, he derived from their discipline also the precepts of his teaching: and deservedly he is held great among philosophers; scarcely, as they say, has he found an equal. He had read, then, in Exodus, that it was Moses' divine precept by oracle: "Loose the shoe from off your feet". This same precept was given to Jesus, son of Nave, namely that they who desired to walk in the way of the Lord should shake off the dust of the worn and popular road. He had read the precept given to the same Moses, that he should ascend the mountain with the priests, while the people stood apart. He therefore separated the priests from the people, and afterward commanded Moses himself to enter within the cloud.

2. Sacerdotal Dignity Set Apart from the People

Do you see the distinctions? That nothing plebeian is required in priests, nothing popular, nothing common with the pursuit and custom and manners of the unordered multitude? Sacerdotal dignity claims for itself a sober gravity apart from the crowds, a serious life, a singular weight. For how can he be observed by the people who has nothing secret from the people, who is not unlike the multitude? For what should the multitude admire in you, if it recognizes its own in you, if it sees nothing in you which it finds beyond itself, if what it blushes at in itself it finds also in you, whom it deems worthy of reverence?

3. Declining Common Paths and the Fall of the Themanites

Let us therefore rise above plebeian opinions, and decline certain beaten tracks of herd-like conversation and the ruts of the worn road, and the ground of the vulgar path along which he runs whose life is lighter than a runner, of whom it is said: "He passed, and did not see".

But let us seek for ourselves a way inaccessible to the words of the insolent, impassable to the works of the unskilled, which no spotted man wears down—spotted, that is, with the filth of his own idleness, and smeared with the smoke of iniquity, and ruinous in darkness and in the crumbling walls of his soul, who has tasted no sweetness of virtue, or at any rate has thought it should be viewed askance rather than with straightforward affection and received with an open breast of mind; and (a thing which many love, who seem to themselves witty and urbane, transforming the beauty of wisdom into the disgrace of cunning) not beholding true grace, as one placed in the night, does not believe those who live in the day; because he is of the number of the Themanites and the Sabeans, who fail and turn away from the truth, of whom Job says: "Look upon the ways of the Themanites, and the paths of the Sabeans; for they shall fall into confusion, who put their hope in cities and riches.

So also have you risen up against me without mercy; wherefore, having seen my wound, be afraid".

4. The Way of Wisdom Unknown to Destruction

Let us therefore leave behind these deviant paths of those who turn aside, and that dust of the failing, who because of their own craving have often fallen in the desert. Let us turn instead, and follow the way of wisdom, which the sons of those who glorify and boast themselves have not trodden, which destruction does not know, which death is ignorant of; because God directed it: "The deep said: It is not in me: the sea said: It is not with me". But if you seek the way of wisdom and discipline: to worship God and be subject to him is wisdom: to abstain from sins is discipline.

5. The World's Fleeting Ways and the Narrow Gate

What then have we to do with the way of this world, in which is temptation—indeed the very life of man is temptation, and slighter than the discourse of fables—to dwell in houses of clay, to spend days and nights in gains, and always to think about gains, and like hirelings to seek a daily wage, and, as they say of cicadas, to be fed on a certain breeze of desires? Truly like cicadas, because they live from day to day, they burst with their own complaint. For what else are men of no weight, of no discipline, but that they seem like cicadas, born to a daily death, chirping rather than speaking? Who under the heat of burning desires soothe themselves with a song harmful to themselves, and immediately die, bearing no fruit, having no grace. The ways of these, then, are harmful and tortuous, like serpents, who drag themselves along with the venomous crawl of the body, and gather themselves into the coil of wickedness, and cannot raise themselves toward the heavens.

Let us instead enter the gates of the Lord, the gates of justice; which the just man who has entered confesses to the Lord. But this is the entrance of few, whence the Lord says, that the gate is narrow, and the way is strait, which leads to life; and few are they who find it. But the gate is wide, and the way spacious, by which many walk, that leads to death, and leads its travelers thither.

7. The Narrower Way and Solomon's Straight Paths

Let our way, then, be narrower, its vigor more abundant, its track more pressed, the faith more sublime, the path more strait, the mind's vigor overflowing, the paths straight; for the footsteps of the virtues are unbending. Whence Solomon: "O, they who have forsaken the straight paths"!

8. Ascending the Heights and Declining Egypt

Let our step be toward the heights; for it is better to ascend. Finally, as it is read today: "Woe to those who go down into Egypt"! It is not, of course, criminal to cross into Egypt: but to cross over into the manners of the Egyptians, to cross into the savagery of their faithlessness and the deformity of their luxury—this is criminal. He who crosses over in this way descends: he who descends falls. Let us therefore decline the Egyptian man, and not God. For even the king of the Egyptians himself was given over into the power of his own vices, in comparison with whom Moses was reckoned a god, commanding kingdoms, subjecting powers to himself. Whence we read it said to him: "I will make you a god to Pharaoh king". Farewell, and love us, as you do, as a son.

AMBROSE to Irenaeus, greeting.

1. Meditating on the Beauty of Gospel Preaching

While reading, when I had rested my mind a little, because I had ceased from night-work, I began to turn over in my mind that verse which we had used in the evening at the vigils: "Fair in beauty above the sons of men". "How beautiful are the feet of them who bring good tidings of him". And indeed nothing is more beautiful than that highest good, whose very proclamation is exceedingly beautiful, and especially the progress of a persevering discourse, and certain traces of apostolic preaching. But who can attain to these things? Those to whom God has granted, not only to proclaim Christ, but also to suffer for him.

2. The Soul's Eye Fed by the Highest Good

Let us, as much as we are able, direct our mind toward him, and be in him, hold him in our mind, who is beautiful, comely, good, so that our soul may become beautiful by his illumination and radiance, and our mind clear. For if our eyes, when overcast with some dimness, are refreshed by the greenness of the fields and the beauty of a grove, or a grassy hill drives away every unevenness of ailing sight, and the pupils and the very orbs themselves seem to take on a certain wholesome color; how much more, when this eye of the mind gazes upon that highest good, and dwells in it, and is fed by it, does it grow bright and shine, so that what is written comes to pass: "As with marrow and fatness may my soul be filled"!

Finally, he who knowingly recognizes the souls of his flock takes care to provide field grasses, that there may be very many pastures for them; for by sweeter grasses even the lambs grow fatter, and the juice of the milk more wholesome. Of these pastures those rich ones partook, who "ate and worshipped"; for there are good pastures of faith in which the holy one of God is placed.

3. Wisdom's Fleece and the Divine Nature

There is, then, also hay, by which the flocks of sheep are nourished, which send forth fleeces of wisdom, and give the garment of prudence. And perhaps this is the mountain hay, upon which the words of the prophet descend: like snow upon the hay; and which the wise man diligently gathers, that he may have sheep for clothing, namely of a spiritual veiling. The soul, then, that clings to that highest good, which is divine, has its own food and clothing: which the apostle Peter urges us to seek; that through the acquisition of his knowledge we may be partakers of the divine nature.

4. God's Good Treasure and the Rain of the Law

The good God opens the knowledge of this to his saints, and grants it from his good treasure, as the sacred law testifies, saying: "Because the Lord swore to your fathers to give you, and to open his good treasure": from which heavenly treasure he gives rain to his land, to bless all the works of your hands. This rain is the eloquence of the Law, which bedews that soul fruitful and fertile in good works; that it may have the moisture of grace.

5. David's Longing to Dwell in the House of the Lord

David sought the knowledge of this good, as he himself signifies, saying: One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the delights of the Lord, and contemplate his temple. Then he added at once in the same psalm that this is the highest good: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. For here it is sought, there it will be seen fully face to face. This good is in the house of God, in that secret and inner chamber of his. Whence again he says: We shall be filled with the good things of thy house. Elsewhere too he expressed this to be the sum of blessing, saying: May the Lord bless thee out of Sion, and mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem.

Therefore blessed is he who dwells there, in the entrance of faith, in the lodging of the mind, in the dwelling-place of devotion, in the conversation of virtue.

6. The Apostles Who Evangelize the Highest Good

Let us therefore be in that, and remain in that, of which Isaiah also says: How beautiful are the feet of them that evangelize peace, that evangelize good things! Who are they that evangelize, but Peter, but Paul, but all the apostles? What do they evangelize to us, but the Lord Jesus? This is our peace, this is that highest good; because he himself is good from the good, for from a good tree good fruit is gathered. Then also his spirit is good, which receives from him, and leads God's little servants into the right way. But who, having the Spirit of God in himself, would deny the good, when he himself says: Is thine eye evil, because I am good? May this good come into our soul, into the inmost parts of our mind, which God graciously gives to those who ask him. This is our treasure, this is our way, this is our wisdom, our righteousness, our shepherd, and good shepherd, this is our life. See how many good things are in one good!

7. The Light of the Father's Countenance

These good things the Evangelists preach to us. Seeking these good things, David says: Who hath shown us good things? And he shows that he himself is the good things, adding: The light of thy countenance is signed upon us. But who is the light of the Father's countenance, but the brightness of glory, and the image of the invisible God, in whom also the Father is seen and glorified, as he himself glorifies his Son?

8. Christ Present as Ripeness, Man and More Than Man

He himself, therefore, the Lord Jesus, is the highest good, which was announced to us by the prophets, preached by the angels, promised by the Father, evangelized by the apostles. He came to us like ripeness itself: not only as ripeness, but as ripeness present on the mountains; so that there might be nothing harsh, nothing unripe in our counsels, nothing unkind, nothing rough in our works and manners, he who was the first to be present, evangelizing good things. Whence also he says: I who spoke, am here, that is, I who spoke in the prophets, am present in the body which I assumed from the Virgin: I am present, the inner image of God, the character of his substance; and I am present as man. But who knows me? For they saw a man, but by his works above man they believed. Was he not as man, when he wept for Lazarus; and again above man, when he raised him?

Was he not as man, when he was beaten; and again above man, when he took away the sin of the whole world?

9. Seeking the Good in Whom the Godhead Dwells

Let us hasten, therefore, to him in whom is the highest good; since he himself is goodness, he himself is the patience of Israel, who calls thee to repentance; lest thou come into judgment, but rather receive remission of sins. Do penance, he says. He it is of whom the prophet Amos cries: Seek ye the good. He is the highest good, who needs nothing, and abounds in all things. He easily abounds, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. He easily abounds, of whose fulness we have all received, and in him we have been filled, as the Evangelist says.

10. The Soul's Kiss of the Word and Longing to Follow

This true and highest good, then, if the soul has tasted it with that concupiscible and delightful part of hers, and has drawn upon it with these two affections, excluding grief and fear, boils up incredibly. For having kissed the Word of God, she takes no measure, nor is she satisfied, saying: Sweet art thou, O Lord, and in thy pleasantness teach me thy justifications. Having kissed the Word of God, she desires above all beauty, loves above all joy, delights above all spices, longs to see frequently, to gaze often, longs to be drawn, that she may be able to follow. Ointment, she says, is thy name poured out; therefore do we young maidens love thee, therefore do we strive, but we are not able to lay hold of thee. Draw us, that we may be able to run, that by the odor of thy ointments we may receive the power to follow.

11. The Sweetness of the Word Tasted on the Mountain

She hastens also to see the inner mysteries, that very rest of the Word, that very dwelling of that highest good, and its light, and its brightness. In that bosom and paternal retreat she hastens to hear his words; and when she has heard, she receives above all sweetness. Let the Prophet teach thee, who tasted, and says: How sweet are thy words to my jaws, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth! For what else does the soul desire, which has once tasted the sweetness of the Word, which has once seen his brightness? Moses, placed on the mountain forty days receiving the Law, did not seek the food of the body: Elijah, hastening toward that rest, prayed that his soul might be taken from him: Peter also, beholding on the mountain the glory of the Lord's resurrection, was unwilling to come down, saying: Lord, it is good for us to be here.

How great, then, is that glory of the divine substance, how great the good things of the Word, into which even the angels desire to look!

12. Stephen's Vision and Paul's Rapture to Paradise

The soul, then, which sees that, does not seek this body, and understands that it ought to have the least familiarity with it; it renounces the world, withdraws itself from the bonds of the flesh, strips itself of all the entanglements of these pleasures. Thus Stephen was seeing Jesus, and did not fear to be stoned; nay, while being stoned, he prayed, not for himself, but for those by whom he was being destroyed. Paul too, caught up even to the third heaven, whether in the body or without the body, he did not know: caught up, I say, into paradise, he no longer felt the use of his own body; and hearing the words of God, he blushed at how he should descend to the infirmities of the body.

13. Using the World as a Passing Image Not a Possession

And so, knowing what he had seen in paradise, or what he had heard, he cried out, saying: Why, as though yet seeing of this world, do you decree? Touch not, taste not, handle not, things which are all unto corruption by the very use of them. For he wished us to be in the figure of this world, not in its possession and use; that we should use this world as though we used it not, as those passing through, not as those abiding; walking as in an image of the age, not in desire, so that with the swiftest reasoning we might pass through that very image of this world. Then he himself, walking by faith, not by sight, was a pilgrim from the body, was present with the Lord; and though he was on earth, he lived his life not among earthly things, but among the heavenly.

14. The Eternal Word Who Is

Therefore let our soul, which wishes to draw near to God, raise itself from the body, ever cling to that highest good, to that good which is divine, which is always, and which was from the beginning, and which was with God, that is, the Word of God. He himself is that divine one, in whom we live, and are, and move. He himself is that which was in the beginning, he himself is that which is: for God's Son Jesus Christ is, he says, in you: in whom there was not Yea and Nay; but Yea was in him. He himself said to Moses, that he should say: He who is hath sent me.

15. Keeping the Soul in the Spirit Not the Flesh

Since, then, our soul is with him, and may it be (if it can be brought about) always so; that of us too one may say: My soul is in thy hands always. But it will be so, if it is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: it will be so, if it does not mingle itself with earthly things.

For when it turns back to carnal things, then the allurement of the body creeps upon it, then it boils with anger and indignation, then it is afflicted with sadness, then it is thrown down by arrogance, then it is oppressed with grief.

16. The Soul's Sicknesses and the Call to Perfect Love

These are the grave sicknesses of the soul, by which it is often driven to death; while its eyes are blinded, so that they do not see the light of true glory, and the riches of the eternal inheritance. But if it always directs its eyes toward God, it will receive from Christ the brightness of wisdom; that it may have its gaze illumined in the knowledge of God, may see that hope of our calling, may look upon that which is good, and pleasing, and perfect. For what is good is pleasing to the Father: what is pleasing is perfect; as you have it in the Gospel, where the Lord says: Love your enemies, that you may imitate the Father, who rains upon the just and the unjust; which is certainly of goodness. And afterward he concludes, saying: Be ye perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. For charity is perfect: indeed it is the fulness of the Law. But what is so good as charity, which thinketh no evil?

17. Renewed Like the Eagle at Wisdom's Fountain

And therefore flee the earthly regions, in which is envy, where is ambition, where is contention. Let your soul, then, show itself capable of that good; that it may fly above the clouds, that it may be renewed like the eagle, that it may put forth wings like the eagle; that with the oarage of its wings renewed, it may not dread to seek the heights, may leave this dwelling place: for the earthly habitation weighs down the soul. Let it strip off the old things, cast away the desires of error, wash its eyes; that it may see that fountain of true wisdom, that fountain of eternal life, which flows and overflows for all, needing nothing. For who has given to him, since from him, and through him, and in him are all things?

18. The Fountain of Life That Needs Nothing

The fountain of life, then, is that highest good, from which the substance of living is ministered to all: but he himself has life abiding in himself. He receives from no one as though needy: he bestows good things on others, he does not take them from elsewhere for himself; for neither does he need what is ours. Whence also he says in the person of man: For thou hast no need of my goods. What, then, is more beautiful than to draw near to him, to cling to him? What greater pleasure is there? He who has seen this, and has freely tasted of the fountain of living water, what else can he desire? What kingdoms? What powers? What money? Since he perceives how wretched even here are the conditions of kings, how changeable the state of empire, how brief the spans of this life, how much servitude in that very empire; since they live at the will of others, not their own.

19. Despising Vanity for the Beauty of Naked Truth

But who passes over into eternal life, endowed for it, unless supported by a peculiar treasure of virtues, which, though granted to all, is pronounced impossible for the rich alone? It is not blessed, then, to use these things, but to see that by which you may despise them, and refute vain things by the true, and judge them empty and worthless, and love that beauty of naked truth, which refutes these most gaudy vanities of the age.

20. The Soul's Ascent to the City of Light

Raise up, then, O soul, thy eyes; those eyes of which the Word of God says to thee: Thou hast ravished our heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished our heart with one of thine eyes. Ascend into the palm tree, conquer the world, that thou mayest hold the height of the Word.

Leave that image of the world outside, leave malice outside: but bring in the goodness of the mind, which has grace in the tree of life; if it shall have washed its robe, and shall enter into the city, which is the true grace of the saints, in which is the tabernacle of God, around which the scribes of the Lord keep watch, where neither day, nor sun, nor moon supply light: but the Lord himself is the light, illuminating that whole city; for he is the light of the world: not indeed a visible light, but the intelligible brightness for souls that are in this world, upon whom he pours himself with the shining light of rational wisdom, as it is preached in the Gospel, setting on fire with the vapor of incorporeal virtue the secret inward recesses of minds and souls.

21. Perseverance and the Warning of Lot's Wife

If anyone, then, has begun to be an inhabitant of that heavenly city, an inhabitant, that is, in conduct and character, let him not depart from it, let him not go out; let him not turn back his footstep—I mean not the footstep of the body, but of the mind—let him not turn back. Behind lies luxury, behind lies impurity. Finally, ascending to the mountain of Lot, he left the shameful deeds of Sodom behind; but she who looked back could not escape to the heights above. Let not your feet, then, but your character, turn back. Let not your hands become slack, and the knees of your devotion and faith become weak. Let there be no relapse of infirmity in your will, no recurrence of sins. But since you have entered, remain; since you have arrived, stand fast: saving yourself, save your soul.

22. The Perilous Ascent Between Safety and Ruin

Climbing, lift up a straight step; no one returns safely from there. On one side is the way, on the other ruin. On one side the ascent, on the other the precipice. There is indeed toil in ascending, but danger in descending: but the Lord is powerful, who may keep you there, once founded, hedged about with prophetic walls and apostolic towers. Therefore the Lord says to you: Enter, tread, for the vintage is at hand. Let us be within, not without. And in the Gospel the Son of God says: Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take his vessels. He does not, of course, speak of this housetop, but of that one: He stretches out the heaven like a chamber.

23. Guarding the Soul as an Inner Jerusalem

Be, then, within, within Jerusalem, within your peaceable, gentle, and tranquil soul. Do not go out from it, nor bring down that vessel of yours to be lifted up either by honors, or by riches, or by arrogance. Be within, so that foreigners may not pass through you, so that sins may not pass through your soul, nor vain workings nor empty thoughts: and they will not pass through, if you have sanctified war for the struggle of devotion and faith, for the zeal of truth against the allurements of the passions, and have taken up the arms of God against spiritual wickedness, and against the cunning of the devil, who tries our senses by fraud and deceit; whom the gentle warrior easily tramples down, who does not sow quarrels, but, as befits a servant of the Lord, teaches the faith with modesty, and refutes those who oppose him. Of this the Scripture says: Let him who is meek rise up as a warrior, and let the weak say: I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

24. Living Waters and a Closing Farewell

Relying on this faith, even he who is weak will prevail, and his soul will be holy, and the prophetic mountains will drip sweetness for him, or the apostolic ones, and the hills will flow with milk: such as that hill which gave the Corinthians a drink of milk; and waters will flow for him from his own vessels, and from the fountains of his own wells: or from his belly living waters, namely the spiritual waters which the Holy Spirit ministers to His faithful ones, who may also deign to water your soul, that in you may abound a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Farewell, and love us as a son; for we love you as parents.