Part 29

5. But of their madness I suddenly received intelligence by means of a shocking writing which certain faithful Christians, men of high rank, and signal piety, caused to be conveyed to me, unworthy as I am, in order that the opposition of these men to the Divine Law might be detected by the discernment of the Clergy and repressed by a spiritual sentence. Assuredly we receive without scorn the vows of those marriages which we assist at with the veil[213], but virgins, for whose existence marriage is necessary, as being devoted to God, we honour more highly.

Sidenote: Gal. i. 8.

6. Having therefore held an assembly of my clergy it became clear that their sentiments were contrary to our doctrine, that is, to the Christian law. Therefore, following the Apostolic precept, we, seeing that they were _preaching another Gospel than that which we received_, have excommunicated them. Know therefore that it was the unanimous sentence of us all, as well of the presbyters and deacons as of the other clergy, that Jovinian, Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus[214], Martianus, Januarius, and Ingeniosus, who were discovered to be the promoters of the new heresy and blasphemy, should be condemned by the Divine sentence and our judgment, and remain in perpetual exclusion from the Church.

7. Nothing doubting that your Holiness will observe the aforesaid decree, I have sent you this Epistle by my brethren and fellow-priests, Crescens, Leopardus and Alexander, that they, with a fervent spirit, may perform a religious and faithful service.

LETTER XLII. A.D. 389.

IN this, their reply to Siricius, drawn up in all probability by S. Ambrose himself, the Council of Milan thank him for his care, and announce that they have followed his example and condemned Jovinian and his followers in the same way. They dwell upon his errors, particularly on his disparagement of virginity, on his denial of the virginity of our Lord’s Mother, on his contempt of widowhood, and of fasting, and condemn him as a follower of Manes. They argue in especial detail against his argument with regard to the Virgin Mary, which differs from that of Helvidius and other assailants of the ἀεὶ πάρθενος.

TO THEIR LORD, THEIR DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER, POPE SIRICIUS, AMBROSE, SABINUS, BASSANIUS, AND THE REST SEND GREETING.

♦1. IN your Holiness’ Letter we recognized the vigilance of a good shepherd, for you faithfully guard the door which has been entrusted to you, and with pious solicitude watch over the fold of Christ, being worthy to be heard and followed by the sheep of the Lord. Knowing therefore the lambs of Christ, you will easily discover the wolves, and meet them as a wary shepherd, so as to keep them from scattering the Lord’s flock by their unbelieving life and dismal barking.

2. We praise you for this, our Lord and brother dearly beloved, and join in cordial commendations of it. Nor are we surprised that the Lord’s flock was terrified at the rage of wolves in whom they recognized not the voice of Christ. For it is a savage barking to shew no reverence to virginity, observe no rule of chastity, to seek to place every thing on a level, to abolish the different degrees of merit, and to introduce a certain meagreness in heavenly rewards, as if Christ had only one palm to bestow, and there was no copious diversity in His rewards.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xix. 5.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. vii. 38.

Sidenote: Ib. 34.

3. They pretend that they are giving honour to marriage. But what praise can rightly be given to marriage if no distinction is paid to virginity? We do not deny that marriage was hallowed by Christ, for the Divine words say, _And they twain shall be one flesh_, and one spirit, but our birth precedes our calling, and the mystery of the Divine operation is much more excellent than the remedy of human frailty. A good wife is deservedly praised, but a pious virgin is more properly preferred, for the Apostle says, _He that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well, but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better; for the one careth for the things of the Lord, the other for the things of the world_. The one is bound by the chains of marriage, the other is free from chains; the one is under the Law, the other under Grace. Marriage is good, for thereby the means of continuing the human race has been devised, but virginity is better, for thereby the heritage of the heavenly kingdom is regained, and the mode of attaining to heavenly rewards discovered. By a woman care entered the world; by a virgin salvation was brought to pass. Lastly, Christ chose virginity as His own special gift, and displayed the grace of chastity, thus making an exhibition of that in His own person which in His Mother He had made the object of His choice.

Sidenote: Isa. xliii. 19.

Sidenote: S. Matt. i. 23.

4. How great is the madness of their dismal barkings, that the same persons should say that Christ could not be born of a virgin, and yet assert that women, after having given birth to human pledges, remain virgins? Does Christ grant to others what, as they assert, He could not grant to Himself? But He, although He took on Him our flesh, although He was made man that He might redeem man, and recal him from death, still, as being God, came upon earth in an extraordinary way, that as He had said, _Behold I make all things new_, so also He might be born of an immaculate virgin, and be believed to be, as it is written, _God with us_. But from their perverse ways they are induced to say ‘She was a virgin when she conceived, but not a virgin when she brought forth.’ Could she then conceive as a virgin, and yet not be able to bring forth as a virgin, when conception always precedes, and birth follows?

Sidenote: S. Luke i. 37.

Sidenote: Ib. 34.

Sidenote: Ib. 38.

5. But if they will not believe the doctrines of the Clergy, let them believe the oracles of Christ, let them believe the admonitions of Angels who say, _For with God nothing shall be impossible_. Let them give credit to the Creed of the Apostles, which the Roman Church has always kept and preserved undefiled. Mary heard the voice of the Angel, and she who before had said _How shall this be?_ not asking from want of faith in the mode of generation, afterwards replied, _Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word_. This is the virgin who conceived, this the virgin who brought forth a Son. For thus it is written, _Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son_; declaring not only that she should conceive as a virgin, but also that she bring forth as a virgin.

Sidenote: Ezek. xliv. 1, 2.

Sidenote: S. Matt. iii. 15.

Sidenote: Ezek. xliv. 2.

6. But what is that _gate of the sanctuary_, that _outward gate which looketh towards the East, which remains shut, and no man_, it is said, _shall enter in by it but the Lord, the God of Israel_. Is not Mary this gate, by whom the Saviour entered into the world? This is the gate of righteousness, as He Himself said, _Suffer us to fulfil all righteousness_. Blessed Mary is the gate, whereof it is written that _the Lord hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut_ after birth; for as a virgin she both conceived and brought forth.

Sidenote: Ps. cxiv. 3.

Sidenote: Exod. xvii. 6.

Sidenote: Ib. xiv. 22.

Sidenote: Numb. xx. 11.

Sidenote: 2 Kings vi. 6.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xiv. 26.

Sidenote: Is. xix. 20, 21.

Sidenote: Exod. xv. 20.

7. But why should it be incredible that Mary, contrary to the usage of natural birth, should bring forth and yet remain a virgin; when contrary to the usage of nature, the sea saw and fled, and the floods of Jordan retired to their source. It should not exceed our belief that a virgin should bring forth, when we read that a rock poured forth water, and the waves of the sea were gathered up like a wall. Nor need it, again, exceed our belief that a man should be born of a virgin, when a running stream gushed forth from the rock, when iron swam upon the waters, and a man walked upon them. If therefore the waves carried a man, could not a virgin bring forth a man? But what man? Him of Whom we read, _The Lord shall send them a Man Who shall deliver them; and the Lord shall be known to Egypt_. Wherefore in the old Testament a Hebrew virgin led the people through the sea, in the New Testament a royal virgin was elected to be a heavenly abode for our salvation.

Sidenote: S. Luke ii. 36, 37.

8. But what more? let us also subjoin the praises of widowhood, since in the Gospel next after that most illustrious birth from a virgin, comes the widow Anna; she who _had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served with fastings and prayers night and day_.

9. And fitting it is that these men should despise widowhood, which is wont to keep fasts, for they regret that they should have been mortified by these for any time, and avenge the wrong they inflicted on themselves, and by daily banquets and habits of luxury seek to ward off the pain of abstinence. They do nothing more rightly than in thus condemning themselves out of their own mouth.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. ix. 27.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. vi. 5.

Sidenote: Col. ii. 20. sqq.

10. But they even fear lest their former fasting should be reckoned against them. Let them choose whichever they like: if they ever fasted, let them repent of their good work, if never, let them confess their own intemperance and luxury. And so they assert that Paul was a teacher of excess. But who can be a teacher of temperance if he was a teacher of excess, _who chastised his body and brought it into subjection_, and recorded his performance of the service he owed to Christ by many fastings; and this not for the purpose of praising himself and his doings, but that he might teach us, what example to follow. Did he then teach excess who said, _Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using_; who also says, _Not in indulgence of the body, not in any honour to the satisfying and love of the flesh, not in the lusts of error; but in the Spirit by Whom we are renewed_.

Sidenote: Ps. lxix. 10.

Sidenote: Gen. iii. 7.

Sidenote: Jonah iii. 5.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xvii. 21.

11. If what the Apostle has said is not enough, let them hear the Prophet saying, _I chastened myself with fasting_. He therefore who fasts not is uncovered and naked and exposed to wounds. And if Adam had clothed himself with fasting he would not have been found to be naked. Nineveh delivered itself from death by fasting. And the Lord Himself says, _This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting_.

12. But why need we say more to our master and teacher? seeing that these persons have now paid the worthy price of their perfidy, who have on this account come even hither, that no place might remain where they were not condemned; who have proved themselves to be truly Manichees, by not believing that He came forth from a virgin. What madness is this, almost equal to that of the modern Jews? If He is not believed so to have come, neither is He believed to have taken upon Him our flesh, therefore He was seen only in figure, He was crucified only in figure. But He was crucified for us in truth, He is in truth our Redeemer.

13. He is a Manichee who denies the truth, who denies that Christ came in the flesh; and therefore the remission of sins is not their’s; but it is the impiety of the Manichees which both the most merciful Emperor has abhorred[215], and all who saw them have fled from as a plague. Witnesses thereof are our brethren and fellow-presbyters, Crescens, Leopardus, and Alexander, fervent in the Holy Spirit, by whose means they have been exposed to common execration, and driven as fugitives from the city of Milan.

14. Wherefore you are to know that Jovinian, Auxentius, Germinator, Felix, Plotinus, Genialis, Martianus, Januarius and Ingeniosus, whom your Holiness has condemned, have also, in accordance with your judgment, been condemned by ourselves.

May our Almighty God keep you in safety and prosperity, Lord and brother most beloved.

Here follows the subscription.

I Eventius[216], Bishop, salute your Holiness in the Lord, and have subscribed this Epistle.

MAXIMUS, Bishop.

FELIX, Bishop.

BASSIANUS, Bishop.

THEODORUS, Bishop.

CONSTANTIUS, Bishop.

By command of my lord Geminianus Bishop, and in his presence, I Aper, Presbyter, have subscribed.

Eustasius, Bishop, and all the Orders have subscribed.

LETTER XLIII.

THIS Letter is a reply to a question from Horontianus, why man, the highest work of God’s creation, was made the last. S. Ambrose brings forward various analogies to shew that the last is first, and each with an enthusiastic and poetical description of man’s greatness and of his dominion over the other works of creation.

AMBROSE TO HORONTIANUS.

Sidenote: Gen. i. 16.

1. YOU have intimated to me your surprise at finding in my Treatise on the Six days of Creation, that, while you found both the Sacred Narrative and the tenor of my discourse assigning greater gifts to man than to any other creature in the earth, still that the land and the waters brought forth all flying and creeping things and things in the waters before him for whose sake they were all created: and you ask me the reason of this, which Moses was silent about, and I did not venture to touch upon.

2. And perhaps that spokesman of the Divine Oracles purposely kept silence, lest he should seem to render himself the judge and counsellor of the Divine ordinances; for to give utterance to that with which he was inspired by the Spirit of God is one thing, to interpret the will of God is another. I am of opinion however that we, not as speaking in God’s Name, but as gathering up scattered principles of reason from human usage, may be able, from the way in which God has disposed other things for man’s use, to come to the conclusion that it was fitting for man to be the last work of creation.

Sidenote: S. Luke xiv. 16.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xxii. 12.

3. For he who sets out a banquet, like that rich man in the Gospel, (for we must compare Divine things with each other the better to draw our conclusion,) prepares every thing first, kills his oxen and fatlings, and then bids his friends to supper. The more trivial things therefore are prepared in the first place, and then he who is worthy of honour is invited. Hence the Lord also first provided for the food of man all other animals, and then invited to the feast man himself, as His friend: and truly His friend, seeing that he was partaker of the Divine Charity and heir of His Glory. To man himself it is that He says: _Friend, how camest thou in hither?_ So then all things that precede are to minister to the need of the friend, and it is the friend who is invited last.

Sidenote: Rev. ii. 10.

Sidenote: 2 Tim. iv. 7.

Sidenote: Ib. ii. 5.

4. Take another instance. What is the world but a sort of arena of continual strife? Wherefore also in the Apocalypse the Lord says, _To him that overcometh will I give a crown of life_; and Paul says, _I have fought a good fight_; and in another place, _No man is crowned except he strive lawfully_. He who institutes this combat is Almighty God. Now he who in this world offers a combat, does he not first provide all things which are necessary thereto, and prepare the chaplets of victory before he summons the athletics to contend for the prize; and all this that the conqueror may not suffer delay, but retire from the contest crowned with his reward? Now the rewards of man are the fruits of the earth and the lights of heaven; the former for the use of this present life, the latter for the hope of life eternal.

Sidenote: Rom. viii. 20.

Sidenote: Dan. xii. 3.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. ix. 26.

5. As a wrestler therefore he enters the lists last of all; he raises his eyes to heaven, he sees that even the heavenly _creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope_. He sees that _the whole creation groaneth in pain together, waiting for redemption_. He sees that labour awaits us all. He raises his eyes, he sees the circlets of lights, he surveys the orbs of the moon and stars: _For the just, who overcome, shall be as the stars in heaven_. And he chastises his body, that it may not be his enemy in the combat, he anoints it with the oil of mercy, he exercises it with daily trials of virtue, he smears himself with dust, he _runs_ to the goal of the course but _not as uncertainly_, he aims his blows, he darts forth his arms, but not into empty space, he strikes the adversary whom he sees not, for he has respect to Him alone to Whom all enemies give way, even those who are invisible, in Whose Name the powers of the air were turned aside. It is he therefore who poises the blow, but it is Christ Who strikes, it is he who lifts up his heel, but Christ Who directs it to the ground. Lastly, although Paul saw not those whom he struck, he was not _as one that beateth the air_, because by the preaching of Christ he wounded those evil spirits which assaulted him. Rightly therefore did man, for whom a race was prepared, enter the course last, that he might be preceded by heaven which was to be, as it were, his reward.

Sidenote: Eph. vi. 12.

Sidenote: Gen. ix. 21.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. xi. 26.

Sidenote: Acts xvi. 22.

6. But we wrestle not only _against spiritualities of wickedness in high places_, but also _against flesh and blood_. We wrestle with satiety, with the very fruits of the earth, with wine, by which even a righteous man was made drunk, and the whole people of the Jews overthrown; we wrestle with wild animals, with the fowls of the air; for our flesh, if pampered by these, cannot be brought to subjection; we wrestle _with perils of the way, with perils of waters_, as Paul says; we wrestle with rods of the wood, those rods with which the Apostles were beaten. You see how severe are our combats. Thus the earth is man’s trial-ground, heaven is his crown; and fitting therefore it was that as a friend, what was to minister to his wants should precede him, as a combatant, his reward.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. xv. 49. Gen. i. 27.

7. Take another illustration. In all things the beginning and the ending are most excellent. If you look upon a house, it is the foundation and the roof which are more considerable than the other parts, if you look upon a field it is the sowing and the harvest, the planting and the vintage. How sweet are the grafts of trees, how pleasant are the fruits! In the same manner also was the heaven created first, and man last, as a kind of heavenly creature upon earth. For although in body he is compared with the beasts, in mind he is numbered among the inhabitants of heaven; for _as we have borne the image of the earthy; we shall also bear the image of the heavenly_. How should he not be heavenly, who is made after the image and likeness of God?

Sidenote: Is. lxvi. 1.

Sidenote: S. John xiv. 23.

8. Rightly therefore in the creation of the world the heaven is both first and last, wherein is that which is beyond heaven, even the God of heaven. And of man is rather to be understood the text, _Heaven is my throne_, for God does not sit above the element, but in the heart of man. Wherefore the Lord also says, _We will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him_. Heaven therefore is the first work in the creation of the world, and man the last.

Sidenote: Ps. cii. 25.

Sidenote: Ib. cxix. 73.

Sidenote: Ps. xix. 1.

Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 16.

Sidenote: Ib. xvi. 18.

Sidenote: Deut. xxxii. 13.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. x. 4.

9. Heaven is of the world, man above the world; for the former is a portion of the world, the latter is an inhabitant of Paradise, and the possession of Christ. Heaven is thought to be undecaying, yet it passes away; man is deemed to be incorruptible, yet he puts on incorruption; the fashion of the first perishes, the latter rises again as being immortal; yet the hands of the Lord, according to the authority of Scripture, formed them both. For as we read of the heavens, _And the heavens are the work of Thy hands_; so also man says, _Thy hands have made me and fashioned me_; and again, _The heavens declare the glory of God_. And as the heaven is resplendent with stars, so are men bright with the light of good works, for their works shine before their Father Which is in heaven. The former is the firmament of heaven which is on high, and the latter firmament is not unlike to it, whereof it is said, _Upon this rock will I build My Church_; the one is the firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and the last is more excellent; _they sucked honey out of the firm rock_, for _the Rock_ is the flesh _of Christ_, which redeemed the heaven and the whole world.

Sidenote: 2 S. Pet. i. 4.

Sidenote: Acts xvii. 27, 28.

10. Why should I add further, carrying you, as it were, through the whole course, that God made man _partaker of the Divine nature_, as we read in the Epistle of Peter? Whence one says not improperly, _We also are His offspring_, for He made us akin to Himself, and we are of a rational nature, that we might seek for that Godhead _Which is not far from each one of us, in Whom we live and move and have our being_.

Sidenote: Gen. i. 28.