[To complete the character of S. Ambrose as shewn in his Letters, these
will be printed at the end of the volume, but, on account of their
subject, in the original Latin.]
LETTER VII.
381 A.D.
THE Justus to whom this letter and the following are addressed
is in all probability S. Justus Bishop of Lyons, who is
mentioned below as one of the Bishops who took part in the
Council of Aquileia: that he was a Bishop is implied by
S. Ambrose addressing him as ‘brother.’ The letter contains
a mystical interpretation of the half-shekel of redemption,
(Exodus xxx. 12. sqq.) and of the didrachma and stater of our
Lord’s miracle of the piece of money in the fish’s mouth, and
of the penny of the tribute money. The date given in the margin
depends on the truth of the hypothesis that Justus is the Bishop
of Lyons. Of him it is recorded that he did not return to his
See after the Council of Aquileia, but became a monk in the
deserts of Egypt. See Newman’s Fleury vol. 1, p. 25.