Secundianus said; ‘When you add to the Name and call Him very [God], do
you understand what the character of your own faith is, and are you a
Christian?’
Eusebius, Bishop, said; ‘Who has denied that He is very God? Arius and
Palladius have denied it. If you believe Him to be very God, you should
simply express it.’
74. AMBROSE, Bishop, said; ‘If you will not say that He is very God
begotten of very God, you have denied Christ.’
Secundianus said; ‘When asked about the Son, I answered you: I have
answered as to the manner in which I ought to make my profession. We
have your statement: we will bring it forward; let it be read.’
Ambrose, Bishop, said; ‘You should have brought it forward to-day, but
you are attempting a subterfuge. You demand a profession of me and I
demand a profession of you. Is the Son of God very God?’
Secundianus said; ‘The Son of God is God only-begotten. I also ask him:
Is He only-begotten?’
75. AMBROSE, Bishop, said; “Let reason move us: let us be moved too by
your impiety and folly. When you speak of God very only-begotten, you
do not apply the ‘very’ to ‘God,’ but to ‘only-begotten.’ And therefore
to remove this question answer me this: Is He very God of very God?”
Secundianus said; ‘Did then God not beget God? He Who is very God begat
What He is; He begat one true only-begotten Son.’
Ambrose, Bishop, said; ‘You do not confess Him very God but you would
call Him very only-begotten. I too call Him only-begotten, but also
very God.’
Secundianus said; ‘I say that he was begotten of the Father, I say to
all that he was very begotten[37].’
The Names of the Bishops and Presbyters who were present at the Council.
VALERIAN, Bishop of Aquileia[38].
AMBROSE, Bishop of Milan.
EUSEBIUS, Bishop of Bologna.
LIMENIUS, Bishop of Vercellæ.
ANEMIUS, Bishop of Sirmium in Illyricum.
SABINUS, Bishop of Placentia.
ABUNDANTIUS, Bishop of Brescia.
CONSTANTIUS, Bishop of Orange, Deputy of the Gauls.
THEODORUS, Bishop of Octodurus.
DOMNINUS, Bishop of Grenoble.
AMANTIUS, Bishop of Nice.
MAXIMUS, Bishop of Emona.
BASSIANUS, Bishop of Lodi.
PROCULUS, Bishop of Marseilles, Deputy of the Gauls.
HELIODORUS, Bishop of Altinum.
FELIX, Bishop of Jadera.
EVENTIUS, Bishop of Ticinum[39].
EXSUPERANTIUS, Bishop of Dertona.
DIOGENES, Bishop of Genoa.
CONSTANTIUS, Bishop of Sciscia.
JUSTUS, Bishop of Lyons, also Deputy of the Gauls.
FELIX, Deputy of Africa.
NUMIDIUS, Deputy of Africa.
EVAGRIUS, Presbyter and Deputy.
ARTEMIUS, ALMACHIUS, JANUARIUS, JOVINUS, MACEDONIUS, CASSIANUS,
MARCELLUS, EUSTATHIUS, MAXIMUS, CHROMATIUS a Presbyter.
LETTER IX.
A.D. 381.
A FORMAL letter from the Italian Bishops assembled at Aquileia,
thanking the Bishops of the three Provinces for the presence of
their deputies, and announcing officially the condemnation of
Palladius and Secundianus.
THE COUNCIL WHICH IS ASSEMBLED AT AQUILEIA TO OUR MOST BELOVED
BRETHREN, THE BISHOPS OF THE VIENNESE AND THE FIRST AND SECOND
NARBONESE PROVINCES[40] IN GAUL.
1. WE return thanks to your holy unanimity that in the persons of
our Lords and brethren Constantius and Proculus you have given us the
presence of you all, and at the same time following the directions of
former times, have added not a little weight to our judgement, with
which the profession of your holinesses also is in agreement, Lords
and brethren most beloved. Therefore, as we received with gladness the
above mentioned holy men of your order and ours, so do we also dismiss
them with an abundant offering of thanks.
2. But how necessary the meeting was will be plain from the mere facts,
since the adversaries and enemies of God, the defenders of the Arian
sect and heresy, Palladius and Secundianus, the only two who dared
to come to the meeting of the Council, received in person their due
sentence, being convicted of impiety. Farewell. May our Almighty God
keep you safe and prosperous, Lords and brethren most beloved. Amen.
LETTER X.
A.D. 381.
IN this letter, addressed formally to the three Emperors,
but really to Gratian, the Council offer their thanks for the
summoning of the Council, and announce its results, requesting
that they may be enforced by the imperial authority. They also
request the removal of Julius Valens from Italy, and that the
Photinians may be forbidden to hold assemblies, which they were
doing at Sirmium.
THE HOLY COUNCIL WHICH IS ASSEMBLED AT AQUILEIA TO THE MOST
GRACIOUS AND CHRISTIAN EMPERORS, AND MOST BLESSED PRINCES,
GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN, AND THEODOSIUS.
1. BLESSED be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has
given you the Roman empire, and blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God, Who guards your reign with His
loving-kindness, before Whom we return you thanks, most gracious
Princes, that you have both proved the earnestness of your own faith
in that you were zealous to assemble the Council of Bishops for the
removal of disputes, and that in your condescension you reserved for
the Bishops the honourable privilege that no one should be absent who
wished to attend, and none should be constrained to attend against his
will.
Sidenote: Ps. xli. 1. C.P.T.
2. Therefore according to the directions of your Graces we have
met together without the odium of large numbers and with zeal for
discussion, nor were any of the Bishops found to be heretics, except
Palladius and Secundianus, names of ancient perfidy, on whose account
people from the farthest portions of the Roman world demanded that a
Council should be summoned. None however, loaded with the years of a
long life, whose gray hairs alone would be entitled to reverence, was
compelled to come from the most distant recesses of the Ocean: and yet
nothing was lacking to the Council: no one dragging a feeble frame,
weighed down by his campaigns of fasting, was forced by the hardships
of his journey to lament the inconvenience of his loss of strength;
no one finally, being without the means of coming, had to mourn over
a poverty honourable to a Bishop. So that what the divine Scripture
has praised was fulfilled in you, most merciful of Princes, Gratian,
_Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy_.
3. But what a hardship would it have been that on account of two
Bishops only, who are rotten in perfidy, the Churches over the whole
world should be left destitute of their Bishops. But though owing to
the distance of the journey they could not come personally, nearly
all from all the western provinces were present by the sending of
deputies, and proved by manifest attestations that they hold what we
assert and that they agree in the formula of the Council of Nicæa, as
the documents hereto attached declare. Therefore the prayers of the
nations are now in concert every where on behalf of your Empire, and
yet assertors of the Faith have not been wanting to your decision. For
though the directions of our predecessors, from which it is impious
and sacrilegious to deviate, were plain enough, still we gave them the
opportunity of discussion.
4. And in the first instance we examined the very beginning of the
question which had arisen, and we thought fit to hear recited the
letter of Arius, who is found to be the author of the Arian heresy,
from whom also the heresy received its name, the arrangement being thus
far even favourable to them, that since they had been in the habit of
denying that they were Arians they might either by censure condemn the
blasphemies of Arius, or by argument maintain them, or at least not
refuse the name of the person, whose impiety and perfidy they followed.
But inasmuch as they could not condemn and were unwilling to support
their Founder, after they had themselves, three days before, challenged
us to a discussion, fixing place and time, and gone forth to it without
waiting to be summoned, on a sudden the very individuals, who had said
that they would easily prove that they were Christians, (which we heard
with pleasure, and hoped that they would prove,) began to shrink from
the engagement on the spot and to decline the discussion.
5. Yet had we much discourse with them: the divine Scriptures were set
forth in the midst; and they had the offer made to them of a patient
discussion from sun-rise to the seventh hour of the day. And would
that they had said little, or that we could cancel what we heard. For
when Arius by saying in sacrilegious words that the Father was alone
eternal, alone good, alone true God, alone possessing immortality,
alone wise and alone powerful, had intended that the Son by an impious
inference should be understood to be without these attributes, these
men have preferred following Arius to confessing that the Son of God
is everlasting God and very God, and good God and wise and powerful
and possessing immortality. We spent several hours to no purpose. Their
impiety waxed greater and could in no wise be corrected.
6. At last when they saw that they were pressed by the sacrileges of
Arius’ letter, (which we have appended in order that even your Graces
might shrink from it) they started away in the middle of the reading
of the letter, and asked us to answer what they proposed. Though it
lay not within either order or reason that we should interrupt the
plan laid down, and though we had already answered that they were
to condemn the impieties of Arius and then we would answer about
whatever proposals of theirs they pleased, preserving order and plan,
we notwithstanding acceded to their unreasonable wish: on which,
falsifying the scriptures of the Gospel, they stated to us that our
Lord said, _He that sent Me is greater than I_: whereas the course of
the Scriptures teaches us that it is written otherwise.
7. They were convicted of the falsehood even to confession: they were
not however corrected by reason. For when we said that the Son is
called less than the Father in respect to his taking flesh upon Him,
but is proved according to the testimonies of the Scriptures to be like
and equal to the Father in respect of His Godhead, and that there could
not be degrees of any distinction or greatness, when there was unity of
power; they not only would not correct their error; but began to carry
their madness further, so as even to say that the Son is subject in
respect of His divinity, as if there could be any subjection of God in
respect of His Divinity and Majesty. In short they refer His death not
to the mystery of our salvation, but to some infirmity of His Godhead.
8. We shudder, most gracious Princes, at such dire sacrileges, and
such wicked teachers, and that they might not any longer deceive the
people of whom they had a hold, we judged that they should be degraded
from the Priesthood, since they agreed with the impieties of the book
put before them. For it is not reasonable that they should claim to
themselves the Priesthood of Him Whom they have denied. We appeal
to your faith and your glory that you would shew the respect of your
government to Him Who is the author of it, and judge that the assertors
of impiety and debauchers of the truth be kept away from the threshold
of the Church, by an order of your Graces issued to the competent
authorities, and that Holy Bishops be put into the place of the
condemned ones by deputies of our humble appointment.
9. The Presbyter Attalus[41] too who avows his error and adheres to
the sacrilegious doctrines of Palladius is included under a similar
sentence. For why should we speak of his master Julianus Valens[42]?
who although he was close at hand shunned coming to the Council of
Bishops for fear he should be compelled to account to the Bishops for
the ruin of his country, and his treason to his countrymen: a man, who,
polluted with the impiety of the Goths, presumed, as is asserted, to go
forth in the sight of a Roman army, wearing like a Pagan a collar and
bracelet: which is unquestionably a sacrilege not only in a Bishop, but
also in any Christian whatever: for it is alien to the Roman customs.
It may be that the idolatrous priests of the Goths commonly go forth in
such guise.
10. Let your piety be moved by the title of Bishop, which that
sacrilegious person dishonours, convicted as he is of atrocious crime
even by the voice of his own people, if indeed any of his own people
can still survive. Let him at least return to his own home, and cease
to contaminate the most flourishing cities of Italy; at present by
unlawful ordinations he is associating with himself persons like
himself, and he endeavours by help of all abandoned individuals to
leave behind him a seed-plot of his own impiety and perfidy: whereas he
has not so much as begun to be a Bishop. For, to begin with, at Petavio
he was put in the place of the holy Marcus, a Bishop whose memory is
highly esteemed: but, having been disgracefully degraded by the people,
unable to remain at Petavio, he has been riding in state at Milan,
after the overthrow, say rather the betrayal, of his country.
11. Deign then, most pious princes, to deal with all these matters,
lest we should appear to have met to no purpose, when we obeyed your
Graces’ injunctions: for care must be taken that not only our decisions
but yours also be saved from dishonour. We must request therefore that
your Graces would be pleased to listen indulgently to the deputies
of the Council, Holy men, and bid them to return speedily with
accomplishment of what we ask for, that you may receive a reward from
Christ our Lord and God, Whose Church you have cleansed from all stain
of sacrilegious persons.
12. With respect to the Photinians also, whom by a former law you
forbad forming assemblies, revoking at the same time the law which had
been passed for the assembling of a Council of Bishops[43], we request
of your Graces, that as we have ascertained that they are attempting
to hold assemblies in the town of Sirmium, you would by now again
interdicting their meetings, cause respect to be paid, in the first
place to the Catholic Church, and next to your own laws, that with God
for your Patron you may be triumphant, while you provide for the peace
and tranquillity of the Church.
LETTER XI.
A.D. 381.
THIS letter, which, like the previous one, is really
addressed to Gratian, though in accordance with custom formally
superscribed with the names of all the three Emperors, urges him
to support Damasus as the orthodox and duly elected Bishop of
Rome, and to condemn his rival Ursinus, whose interference with
their Council, and intrigues with the Arian party they also
inform him of.
TO THE MOST GRACIOUS EMPERORS AND CHRISTIAN PRINCES, THE MOST
GLORIOUS AND MOST BLESSED, GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN, AND THEODOSIUS,
THE COUNCIL WHICH IS ASSEMBLED AT AQUILEIA.
1. YOUR enactments have indeed already provided, most gracious Princes,
that the perfidy of the Arians may not any further either be concealed
or diffused: for we do not conceive that the decrees of the Council
will be without effect; for as regards the West, two individuals
only have been found to dare to oppose the Council with profane and
impious words, men who had previously disturbed a mere corner of Dacia
Ripensis[44].
2. There is another subject which distresses us more, which, as we
were assembled, it was our business to discuss duly, lest it should
spread through the whole body of the Church diffused over the whole
world, and so trouble all things For though we were generally agreed
that Ursinus[45] could not have overreached your piety (though he
allows nothing to be quiet, and amid the many urgencies of war would
press upon you with his importunity) still lest your holy tranquillity
of mind, which delights in having all persons in its care, should be
swayed by the false adulation of that unreasonable person, we think it
right, if you condescendingly allow it, to offer you our prayers and
entreaties, not only to guard against what may be, but shuddering at
past things also which have been brought about by his temerity. For if
he found any vent for his audacity, where would he not spread confusion?
3. But if pity for a single person can sway you, much more let the
prayer of all the Bishops move you. For which of us will be united
to him in fellowship and communion when he has attempted to usurp a
place not due to him, and one he could not lawfully have arrived at,
and endeavours to regain in a manner most unreasonable what he was
most unreasonable in aiming at? Often as he has been found guilty of
turbulence, he still goes on, as if his past conduct should inspire
no horror. He was often, as we ascertained and saw in the present
Council, in union and combination with the Arians at the time when he
endeavoured in company with Valens[46] to disturb the Church of Milan
with their detestable assembly: holding private meetings sometimes
before the doors of the synagogue and sometimes in the houses of the
Arians, and uniting his friends to them; and, as he could not go openly
himself to their congregations, teaching and informing them in what
way the Church’s peace might be disturbed. Their madness gave him fresh
courage, so as well to earn the favour of their supporters and allies.
Sidenote: Titus iii. 10.
Sidenote: 2 S. John 10.
4. When therefore it is written; _a man that is an heretic after[47]
one admonition reject_, and when another man who spoke by the Holy
Spirit has said that beasts such as these should be spurned and not
received with greeting or welcome, how is it possible that we should
not judge the person whom we have seen united to their society to be
also a maintainer of their perfidy? What even if he were not there? We
might still have besought your Graces not to allow the Roman Church,
the Head of the whole Roman world, and the sacred faith of the Apostles
to be disturbed; for from thence flow all the rights of venerable
Communion to all persons. And therefore we pray and beseech you that
you would condescend to take from him the means of stealing advantage
from you.
Sidenote: 1 Tim. iii. 3–7.
5. We know your Graces’ holy modesty: let him not press upon you words
unbecoming your ears, or give his noisy utterance to what is alien from
the office and name of a Bishop, or say to you what is unseemly. When
he ought to have _a good report_ even _from those who are without_,
let your Graces condescend to recollect what was the testimony with
which the men of his own city have followed him. For it is a shame to
say and against modesty to repeat how disgraceful is the rumour, with
the reproach of which he is wounded. The shame of this ought to have
constrained him to silence, and if he partook in any degree of the
feelings and conscience of a Bishop, he would prefer the Church’s peace
and concord to his own ambition and inclination. But, lost to all shame,
he sends letters by Paschasius an excommunicated person, the standard
bearer of his madness, and so sows confusion, and attempts to excite
even Gentiles and abandoned characters.
6. We therefore entreat you to restore by the degradation of that most
troublesome person the security which has been interrupted both to us
Bishops and to the Roman people, which is at present in uncertainty
and suspense since the memorial of the Prefect of the city. And
on obtaining this let us in continuous and unbroken course offer
thanksgivings to God the Almighty Father and to Christ our Lord God.
LETTER XII.
A.D. 381.
THIS letter, referring to the settlement of affairs in the
East, is really addressed to Theodosius, the Emperor of the East.
After expressing the thanks due to the Emperors for the success
which has attended their efforts to establish the true faith
throughout the Empire, the Bishops beg that Theodosius will use
his influence to settle the questions of disputed succession,
which were vexing the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch, and
endangering the maintenance of Communion between the East and
West. They ask therefore that a general Council may be summoned
to Alexandria to settle both questions.
TO THE MOST GRACIOUS AND CHRISTIAN EMPERORS, THE GLORIOUS AND
MOST BLESSED PRINCES, GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN, AND THEODOSIUS,
THE HOLY COUNCIL WHICH IS ASSEMBLED AT AQUILEIA.
1. MOST gracious Emperors and most blessed and most glorious princes,
Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, beloved of God the Father and
of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, we are unable to match the benefits
which your piety has conferred upon us, even with the most overflowing
return of thanks. For now that, after many times of trial and various
persecutions, which the Arians, especially Lucius[48], who marked his
course by the impious murder of monks and virgins, and Demophilus[49]
too, an evil source of perfidy, brought on the Catholics, all the
Churches of God, in the East especially, have been restored to the
Catholics; while in the West scarce two heretics have been found to
oppose the decrees of the Holy Council, who can conceive himself able
to make an adequate acknowledgement of your goodness?
2. But though we cannot give full expression to your favours in words,
we still desire to recompense them by the prayers of the Council;
and though in all the several Churches we celebrate our daily vigils
for your Empire before our God, still when assembled in one body,
than which service we conceive nothing can be more glorious, we offer
thanksgivings to our Almighty God both on behalf of the Empire, and of
your own peace and safety, because peace and concord have been so shed
over us through you.
3. In the West indeed only in two corners, on the borders of Dacia
Ripensis and of Moesia did murmurs appear to have been raised against
the faith: and these places after the sentence of the Council should,
we conceive, be immediately provided for with your Graces’ indulgence.
But over all tracts and countries and village departments as far as the
Ocean, the communion of the faithful remains one and unpolluted. And in
the East we have had the greatest joy and delight in learning that the
Arians, who had violently invaded the Churches, have been ejected, and
that the sacred temples of God are frequented by Catholics alone.
4. But still since the envy of the Devil is never wont to rest, we hear
that there are among the Catholics themselves frequent dissensions and
implacable discord; and all our feelings are disturbed at ascertaining
that many things have been innovated upon, and that persons are
molested now who should have been relieved, men who continued always in
our Communion. In short Timotheus Bishop of the Church of Alexandria,
and Paulinus Bishop of the Church of Antioch[50], who always maintained
the concord of Communion with us inviolate, are said to be distressed
by the variances of other persons, whose faith in former times was
scarcely stedfast. These persons, if it be possible, and they are
recommended by a sufficient faith, we would wish to have added to our
fellowship: but without prejudice to the rights of those who share with
us the ancient Communion. And our care for them is not superfluous,
first of all because the fellowship of Communion should be clear of
all offence, and secondly, because we have long since received letters
from both parties, and particularly from those who were divided in the
Church of Antioch.
5. Indeed if the irruption of the enemy[51] had not hindered, we had
made arrangements to send thither some of our own number, to take the
office of umpires and referees for diffusing peace again, should it be
possible. But since our desires could not have accomplishment at that
time owing to the troubles of the state, we think it right to offer
our prayers to your Goodness, asking that by agreement[52] between
the factions, on the death of the one, the rights of the Church should
remain with the survivor, and that no additional consecration should
be forcibly attempted. And therefore we request you, most gracious
and Christian Princes, that you would have a Council of all Catholic
Bishops held at Alexandria, that they may more fully discuss and define
among themselves to whom Communion is to be imparted and with whom it
is to be maintained[53].
6. For though we have always supported the disposition and order of
the Church of Alexandria, and according to the manner and custom of our
predecessors we retain Communion with it in indissoluble fellowship to
these present times, still lest it should be thought that persons have
been neglected who have sought our Communion according to the agreement,
which we wish should stand, or that the shortest road to that peace and
fellowship of the faithful has not been taken, we pray you that when
they have discussed these matters in a full assembly among themselves,
the decrees of the Bishops may be furthered by the assistance
ministered by your Goodness. And allow us to be made acquainted with
this, that our minds may not waver in uncertainty, but that, full of
joy and relieved from anxiety, we may return thanks to your goodness
before Almighty God, not only that heresy is shut out, but also that
faith and concord are restored to the Catholics. The prayer which the
African and Gallic Churches offer you through their deputies is this,
that you would make the Bishops over the whole world your debtors,
though the debt already due to your excellence is not small.
7. To offer however our entreaties to your clemency and to obtain what
we ask for, we have sent as deputies our brethren and fellow-presbyters,
whom we pray you that you would condescend graciously to listen to, and
allow to return speedily.
LETTER XIII.
A.D. 382.
IN the year following the Council of Aquileia, a Council of
the Bishops of the civil Diocese of Italy appears to have been
held, over which S. Ambrose presided. It appears to have dealt
principally with the questions at issue between the East and
West. This letter was written by S. Ambrose in the name of the
Council, after the end of its session (‘in concilio nuper,’ § 3),
to Theodosius. The Bishops complain of the election of Flavian
to succeed Meletius at Antioch, contrary to the compromise which
they urged in the last letter, and maintain Maximus’ claim to
the see of Constantinople against Nectarius, urging again the
necessity of a General Council of both East and West, to settle
finally all the questions in dispute between them, and suggest
that it should be held at Rome.
TO THE MOST BLESSED EMPEROR AND MOST GRACIOUS PRINCE THEODOSIUS,
AMBROSE AND THE OTHER BISHOPS OF ITALY.
1. WE knew indeed that your holy mind was devoted to God in pure and
sincere faith, but your Majesty has loaded us with fresh benefits in
restoring the Catholics to the Churches. And I would that you could
have restored the Catholics themselves to their ancient reverence,
that they would innovate in nothing against the prescription of our
ancestors, and not be hasty either to rescind ♦what they ought to
maintain nor to maintain what they ought to rescind. Therefore we sigh,
your Majesty, perhaps with too much grief, but not without sufficient
reason, that it has proved easier to get the heretics expelled than to
establish concord among the Catholics. For the extent of the confusion
that has lately taken place is beyond expression.
2. We wrote to you not long ago, that since the city of Antioch
had two Bishops, Paulinus and Meletius, both of whom we regarded as
true to the faith, they should either agree with each other in peace
and concord, preserving Ecclesiastical order, or at least, if one of
them died before the other, no one should be put into the place of the
deceased while the other lived. But now on the death of Meletius, while
Paulinus is still alive, whom fellowship derived from our predecessors
uninterruptedly testifies to have remained in our Communion, another
person is said to have been not so much supplied, as super-added, into
the place of Meletius, contrary to right and to Ecclesiastical order.
3. And this is alleged to have taken place by the consent and advice
of Nectarius[54], the regularity of whose ordination we are not clearly
convinced of. For in a Council lately, when Maximus the Bishop, having
read the letter of Peter a man of holy memory, had shewn that the
communion of the Church of Alexandria remained with him, and had proved
by the clearest testimony, that he was consecrated[55] by three Bishops
ordaining by mandate within his private house, because the Arians were
at that time in possession of the Basilicas, we had no cause, most
blessed of Princes, to doubt of his episcopacy, when he testified that
he resisted and was forcibly constrained by a majority of the laity and
clergy.
4. Still that we might not appear to have settled any thing
over-hastily in the absence of the parties, we thought it fit to inform
your Grace by letter, in order that his case might be provided for so
as best to serve the interests of public peace and concord, because
in truth we perceived that Gregory claimed to himself the priesthood
of the Church of Constantinople, by no means in accordance with the
tradition of the Fathers. We therefore in that Synod, attendance at
which appeared to have been prescribed to the Bishops of the whole
world, were of opinion that nothing ought to be decided rashly. So at
that particular time the persons who declined a general Council and who
are said to have had one at Constantinople, where they had ascertained
that Maximus had come hither to plead his cause in the Synod (and this,
even if a Council had not been proclaimed it was competent for him to
do lawfully and according to the customs of our predecessors, as also
Athanasius of holy memory, and since that Peter, brother Bishops of the
Church of Alexandria, and several of the Eastern Bishops have done, so
as to appear to have sought the decision of the Churches of Rome, of
Italy, and of all the West) when, as we said, they saw that he wished
to bring the question to a trial with those who denied his episcopate,
they were surely bound to wait for our opinion upon it[56]. We do not
claim any special privilege of examining such matters, but we ought to
have had a share in an united decision.
5. Last of all, it ought to have been decided whether he was to lose
his See, before deciding whether another should receive it, especially
by persons by whom Maximus complained that he was either deserted or
injured. Therefore since Maximus the Bishop has been received into
Communion by those of our fellowship on the ground that it was certain
that he had been ordained by Catholics, we did not see that he ought to
have been excluded from his claim to the Bishopric of Constantinople,
and we thought that his allegation ought to be weighed in the presence
of the parties.
But since we have learned recently that Nectarius has been ordained
at Constantinople, we fear that our communion with the Oriental
regions is broken, especially since Nectarius is said to have been left
immediately without the fellowship of Communion by the very persons by
whom he was ordained.
6. There is therefore no slight difficulty here. And it is not any
contention about wishes and ambition of our own that makes us anxious,
but we are greatly disturbed by the breaking up and interruption of
communion. Nor do we see any way in which concord can be established
except either by restoring to Constantinople the Bishop who was first
ordained, or at least having a Council of ourselves and of the Eastern
Bishops at Rome, to consider the ordination of both of them.
7. Nor does it seem unbecoming, your Majesty, that the persons, who
thought the judgement of Acholius, a single Bishop, so well worth
waiting for, that they called him to Constantinople from the regions of
the West, should be obliged to submit to the discussion of the Bishop
of the Church of Rome, and of the Bishops of the neighbourhood and of
Italy. If a question was reserved for a single individual, how much
more should it be reserved for many?
8. We, however, as it has been suggested to us by the most blessed
Prince, your Brother[57], that we should write to your Grace’s Majesty,
request that when the communion is one, you would be pleased that the
judgement should be joint and the consent concurrent.
LETTER XIV.
A.D. 382.
THIS letter is a reply to one addressed to the Bishops of
Italy by Theodosius, in answer to the last. He seems in it to
have “undeceived them by informing them what Maximus was, and
how different his ordination was from that of Nectarius. He
represented to them that these affairs, and that of Flavian,
ought to be judged in the East, where all the parties were
present, and that there was no reason to oblige those of the
East to come unto the West.” (Fleury xviii, 17, vol. 1. p. 41,
Newman’s Transl.) The Bishops in this reply thank the Emperor
for his efforts to appease the differences between the East and
West, and profess the disinterestedness of their desire for a
general Council, and add, as an additional reason for it, the
spread of opinions attributed to Apollinaris, which require to
be examined into in the presence of the parties concerned.
TO THE MOST BLESSED EMPEROR AND MOST GRACIOUS PRINCE THEODOSIUS,
AMBROSE AND THE OTHER BISHOPS OF ITALY.
1. THE knowledge of your faith, which is diffused over the whole world,
has soothed the innermost feelings of our minds; and therefore, that
your reign might have the additional glory of having restored unity to
the Churches both of the West and East, we have thought it right, most
serene and faithful Emperor, at once to beseech and inform your Grace
on Ecclesiastical subjects by our letter. For we have been grieved
that the fellowship of holy Communion between the East and West was
interrupted.
2. We say not a word by whose error or by whose fault this was, that
we may not be supposed to be spreading fables and idle talk. Nor can
we regret having made an attempt, the neglect of which might have
turned to our blame. For it was often made matter of blame to us that
we appeared to disregard the society of the Eastern brethren, and to
reject their kindness.
3. We thought moreover that we ought to take this trouble on ourselves,
not for Italy, which now for this long time has been quiet and free
from anxiety on the part of the Arians, and which is troubled with no
disturbance of the heretics; not for ourselves, for we seek not our own
things, but the things of all; not for Gaul and Africa which enjoy the
individual fellowship of all their Bishops, but that the circumstances
which have disturbed our communion on the side of the East might be
enquired into in the Synod, and all scruple be removed from among us.
4. For not only with regard to the persons about whom your Grace
condescended to write, but with regard to others who are attempting to
bring into the Church some dogma or other, said to be Apollinaris’[58],
there were several things that affected us, to which the knife should
have been applied in the presence of the parties, that a person
convicted of maintaining a new dogma and proved to be in error should
not shelter himself under the general name of the Faith, but at once
lay down both the office and name of Bishop, which he was not entitled
to by authority of doctrine, and that no threads or artifices of
delusion should remain for persons hereafter wishing to deceive. For
the person who is convicted, not in the presence of the parties, as
your Grace has truly decided in your august and princely answer, will
always lay hold of a handle for reviving the enquiry.
5. This was why we asked for a Council of Bishops, that no one
should be permitted to state what was false against a person in his
absence, and that the truth might be cleared up by discussion in the
Council. We ought not then to incur any suspicion either of over-zeal
or over-leniency, seeing that we made all our observations in the
presence of the parties.
6. In truth we drew up what was quoted, not to decide but to
give information, and while we asked for a judgement, we offer no
prejudgement. Nor ought it to have been regarded as any reproach to
them, when Bishops were invited to the Council, who in many cases were
more present by their very absence, since it contributed to the common
good. For neither did we conceive it to be a reproach to us when a
Presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, by name Paulus, demanded
that there should be a Synod both of Eastern and Western Bishops in
the province of Achaia.
7. Your Grace observes that this demand, which was made by the Greeks
also, was not unreasonable. But, because there are disturbances in
Illyricum[59], a neighbourhood near the sea and safer was sought.
Nor have we indeed made any innovation in the way of precedent, but
preserving the decisions of Athanasius of holy memory, who was as
it were a pillar of the Faith, and of our holy fathers of old time
in their Councils, we do not tear up the boundaries that our Fathers
placed, or violate the rights of hereditary Communion, but reserving
the honour due to your authority, we shew ourselves studious of peace
and quietness[60].
LETTER XV.
A.D. 383.
THIS letter is addressed to the Bishops of Macedonia, in
reply to their announcement of the death of Acholius[61],
Bishop of Thessalonica. S. Ambrose pronounces a warm eulogium
on the departed Bishop, whom he compares to Elijah, especially
in leaving in Anysius a successor, like Elisha, endowed with
a double portion of his spirit. He recounts the pleasure which
he had felt in his intercourse with Acholius at Rome, when they
had wept together over the evils of the times, and invokes the
Blessing of God upon his successor.
AMBROSE TO ANATOLIUS, NUMERIUS, SEVERUS, PHILIP, MACEDONIUS,
AMMIANUS, THEODOSIUS, EUTROPIUS, CLARUS, EUSEBIUS,
AND TIMOTHEUS, PRIESTS OF THE LORD, AND TO ALL THE
BELOVED CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF THESSALONICA, HEALTH.
1. WHILE longing to keep ever imprinted on my mind the holy man, and
while I survey all his acts like one set on a watch-tower, my restless
anxiety caused me to drink only too swiftly these bitter tidings, and
I learned what I had rather still be ignorant of, that the man whom we
were seeking on earth was already at rest in heaven.
2. You will ask who announced this to me, seeing that the letter of
your Holinesses had not then arrived. I know not who was the bearer of
the tidings: it is, you know, men’s wont not willingly to remember the
bearer of tidings of sorrow: however, though the sea was then closed,
and the land blocked by a barbarian invasion, there was no lack of a
messenger, though it was impossible for any one to arrive from abroad;
so that it appears to me the saint himself announced his own death to
us, for now that he enjoyed the eternal recompense of his labours, and
freed from the bands of the body, had been carried by the ministry of
Angels to the intimate presence of Christ, he was desirous of removing
the error of one who loved him, that we might not be asking for him
length of mortal life, while he was already receiving eternal rewards.
Sidenote: Ps. lv. 7.
Sidenote: Phil. i. 24.
3. This veteran then of Christ Jesus is not dead, but has departed and
left us, he has changed for heaven this earth below, and clapping the
pinions and wings of his spirit he exclaims, _Lo, I have got me away
far off!_ For in the spirit of the Apostle he desired long ago to leave
the earth, but he was detained by the prayers of all, as we read of
the Apostle, because it was needful for the Church that he should abide
longer in the flesh. For he lived not for himself but for all, and was
to the people the minister of eternal life, so that he gained the fruit
thereof in others, before he experienced it in himself.
Sidenote: Ps. xlviii. 7.
Sidenote: Baruch iii. 24, 25.
4. Now therefore he is a citizen of heaven, a possessor of that eternal
city Jerusalem, which is in heaven. There he sees the boundless circuit
of this city, its pure gold, its precious stones, its perpetual light
though without the sun. And seeing all these things whereof he before
had knowledge, but which are now manifested to him face to face, he
says, _Like as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord
of hosts, in the city of our God_. Standing there he appeals to the
people of God saying, _O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how
large is the place of His possession!_ Great is He, and hath none end.
Sidenote: 2 Kings vi. 18.
5. But what is this? While I consider his merits, and follow as it
were in spirit his departure, and mingle with the choirs of saints that
escort him, not indeed by my desert but by my affection, meanwhile I
have almost forgotten myself. Is then this wall of faith and grace and
sanctity taken from us, that wall which, though frequently assaulted
by the Goths[62], their barbarian darts could never penetrate, nor the
warlike fury of many nations overpower? They who in other places were
spoilers there prayed for peace, and while they marvelled what was this
unarmed force which opposed them, the wiser hinted that one like Elisha
dwelt within, one who was nearly his equal in age, in spirit quite his
equal, and bade them beware lest after the manner of the Syrian army,
blindness should fall on them also.
6. However the gifts of Christ to His disciples are various. Elisha
led captive into Samaria the army of the Syrians, holy Acholius by his
prayers caused the victors to retreat from Macedonia. Do we not see
in this a proof of supernatural forces, that though no soldiers were
at hand, the victors should thus fly without a foe; is not this too
a proof of blindness that they should fly when no man pursued? Though
in truth holy Acholius pursued and fought them, not with swords but
prayers, not with weapons but good works.
Sidenote: Ib. vii. 6.
7. Do we not know that the saints fight even when they keep holiday?
Was not Elisha at rest? Yes, at rest in body, but in spirit he was
active, and by his prayers he fought when the noise of horses and the
noise of a great host were heard in the camp of the Syrians, so that
they thought that the forces of other princes were marching against
them, to succour the people of Israel. So they were seized with great
panic and fled, and four lepers, who had gone out to seek for death,
spoiled their camp. And did not the Lord work like, or, I might almost
say, greater wisdom in Macedonia, by the prayers of Acholius? For it
was not by an idle panic nor a vague suspicion, but by a raging plague
and burning pestilence that the Goths were troubled and alarmed. In
short they then fled that they might escape; afterwards they returned
and sued for peace to save their lives.
Sidenote: 2 Kings ii. 4.
8. Wherefore in the great deeds of this eminent man we have seen
former ages revived, and have witnessed those works of the prophet
which we read of. Like Elisha he was all his life in the midst of
arms and battles, and by his good works made wars to cease. And when
tranquillity was restored to his countrymen, he breathed out his holy
soul, a misfortune heavier than war itself. Like Elijah he was carried
up to heaven, not in a chariot of fire, nor by horses of fire, (unless
haply it was but that we saw them not) nor in any whirlwind in the sky,
but by the will and in the calm of our God, and with the jubilation of
the holy Angels who rejoiced that such a man had come among them.
Sidenote: S. Matt. xxv. 21.
9. Surely we cannot doubt this, when all other particulars agree so
well. For at the very moment when he was being taken up, he let fall so
to speak the vestment which he wore, and invested with it holy Anysius
his disciple, and clothed him with the robes of his own priesthood.
His merits and graces I do not now hear for the first time, nor have I
first learnt them from your letters, but I recognised them in what you
wrote. For as if foreknowing that he would be his successor, Acholius
designated him as such by tokens, though in open speech he concealed
it; saying that he had been aided by his care, labour, and ministry,
thus seeming to declare him his coadjutor, one who would not come as a
novice to the chief office of the priesthood, but as a tried performer
of its duties. Well does that saying in the Gospel befit him, _Well
done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things_.
Sidenote: 1 Kings x. 24.
10. So far both you and I participate in holy Acholius, but there is
this special bond between him and me, that the man of blessed memory
suffered me to become his friend. For on his arrival in Italy, when
I was prevented by illness from going to meet him, he himself came
and visited me. With what ardour, with what affection did we embrace
each other! With what groans did we lament the evil of the times, and
all that was happening here! Our garments were bedewed with a flood of
tears, while in the enjoyment of our meeting long and mutually desired,
we remained locked in each others embrace. Thus what I had long yearned
for he bestowed, the opportunity of seeing him. For although it is in
the spirit, the seat of love, that the greater portion and more perfect
knowledge lies, yet we desire to behold our friends in bodily form also.
Thus formerly the kings of the earth sought to behold the face of
Solomon, and to hear his wisdom.
Sidenote: Deut. xxxiii. 8.
Sidenote: Ib. 9.
Sidenote: Ecclus. xliv. 15.
11. He is gone then from us, and has left us tossed on this sea; what
is a benefit to him is to the many a heavier calamity than even the
rage of the barbarians; for this he repelled, and now who shall bring
back his presence to us? Nay, the Lord brings it back, and he himself
gives himself back in his disciple. Your judgements give him back,
by which you say, _Give to Levi his manifest one, and his truths to
Thy holy one_. You have given _his manifest one_ inasmuch as he is
established by his appointment; you have given a follower of that
man, _who said unto his father and to his mother I have not seen thee;
neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children. He
observed the word of the Lord, and kept His covenant. The people will
tell of his wisdom._
12. Such was the man’s life, such his heritage, such his conversation,
such his succession. While yet a boy he entered a monastery, and
though shut up in a narrow cell in Achaia, yet by grace he traversed
the spaces of many countries. The people of Macedonia besought that
he might be their Bishop, the priesthood elected him to that office,
that where the faith had before been maimed[63] by the Bishop, there
afterwards the solid foundations of the faith might be established by
the Bishop.
Sidenote: Deut. xxxiii. 9.
Sidenote: Deut. xxxiii. 16.
13. None other did his disciple imitate, who also himself _said unto
his father and to his mother I have not seen thee_. He saw them not
with affection, he saw them not with desire, and he knew not his
brethren, because he desired to know the Lord. He observed also the
word of the Lord and kept His covenant, and will ever offer sacrifice
upon His altar. Bless, O Lord, his faith, his holiness, his assiduity.
Let Thy blessing descend upon his head and upon his neck. Let him be
honourable among his brethren, let him be as the leader of the herd.
Let him sift the hearts of his enemies, let him soothe the minds of the
saints, and let the judgement of Thy priests flourish in him as a lily.
Brethren, farewell, and love me, as I love you.
LETTER XVI.
A.D. 383.
THIS letter is addressed to Anysius, immediately on his election
as successor to Acholius, in answer apparently to one from
Anysius, which accompanied that from the Bishops of Macedonia,
and announced his appointment. He speaks of the responsibility
of succeeding so zealous a Bishop as Acholius, whom he praises
in enthusiastic terms, and prays that God may make him a worthy
successor in every way.