THE occasion on which this Memorial was presented is stated in
the introduction to the last letter. It is addressed formally
to the three Emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, but
really to Valentinian only, who was at that time sole Emperor
of the West. Symmachus was the leading orator and scholar of
his day, and his plea is composed with much skill and vigour.
Gibbon (ch. xxviii.) expresses hearty admiration of the caution
with which he ‘avoids every topic which might appear to reflect
on the religion of his sovereign, and artfully draws his
arguments from the schools of rhetoric rather than from those
of philosophy,’ and gives a summary of its contents in a tone of
keen appreciation, as might be expected. We may allow, with Cave
(Life of S. Ambrose 3, 3.) that ‘it was the best plea the cause
would bear.’
1. AS soon as the honourable Senate, ever faithful to your Majesty,
learnt that offences were made amenable to law, and that the character
of past times was being redeemed by pious governors, it hastened to
follow the precedent of better times, and give utterance to its long
repressed grief, and commissioned me once more to be the spokesman of
its complaints, for I was before refused access to the deceased Emperor
by evil men, because otherwise justice could never have failed me, most
noble Emperors Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, victorious and
triumphant, ever illustrious.
2. Filling then a twofold office, as your Prefect I report the
proceedings of the Senate[70], as the envoy of the citizens I offer to
your favourable notice their requests. Here is no opposition of wills.
Men have ceased to believe that disagreement proves their superiority
in courtly zeal. To be loved, to be the object of respect and affection
is more than sovereignty. Who could suffer private contests to injure
the commonwealth? Justly does the Senate assail those who prefer their
own power to the honour of the prince.
3. It is our duty to be watchful for your Majesties. The very glory of
this present time makes it the more fitting that we should maintain the
customs of our ancestors, the laws and destinies of our country; for
it conduces to this glory that you should know it is not in your power
to do anything contrary to the practice of your parents. We ask the
restoration of that state of religion under which the Republic has so
long prospered. Let the Emperors of either sect and either opinion be
counted up; a late Emperor observed the rites of his ancestors, his
successor did not abolish them. If the religion of older times is no
precedent, let the connivance of the last Emperors[71] be so.
4. Who is so friendly with the barbarians as not to require an altar
of Victory? Hereafter we must be cautious, and avoid a display of
such things. But let at least that honour be paid to the name which
is denied to the Divinity[72]. Your fame owes much, and will owe still
more, to Victory. Let those detest this power, who were never aided by
it, but do you not desert a patronage which favours your triumphs. Vows
are due to this power from every man, let no one deny that a power is
to be venerated which he owns is to be desired.
5. But even if it were wrong to avoid this omen, at least the ornaments
of the Senate-house ought to have been spared. Permit us, I beseech you,
to transmit in our old age to our posterity what we ourselves received
when boys. Great is the love of custom. And deservedly was the act
of the deified Constantius of short duration. You ought to avoid all
precedents which you know to have thus been reversed. We are solicitous
for the endurance of your name and glory, and that a future age may
find nothing to amend.
6. Where shall we swear to observe your laws and statutes? by what
sanction shall the deceitful mind be deterred from bearing false
witness? All places indeed are full of God, nor is there any spot where
the perjured can be safe, but it is of great efficacy in restraining
crime to feel that we are in the presence of sacred things. That altar
binds together the concord of all, that altar appeals to the faith
of each man, nor does any thing give more weight to our decrees than
that all our decisions are sanctioned, so to speak, by an oath. A door
will thus be opened to perjury, and this is to be approved of by the
illustrious Emperors, allegiance to whom is guarded by a public oath!
7. But Constantius, of sacred memory, is said to have done the same
thing. Be it so, let us then imitate his other actions, feeling
sure that had any one committed this error before his time, he would
never have fallen into it. For the fall of one is a warning to his
successor, and the censure of a previous example causes amendment. It
was allowable for this predecessor of your Majesties to incur offence
in a novel matter, but how can the same excuse avail us, if we imitate
that which we know was disapproved?
8. Will your Majesties listen to other acts of this same Emperor more
worthy of your imitation? He left uncurtailed the privileges of the
sacred virgins, he filled the priestly office with men of noble birth,
he allowed the cost of the Roman ceremonies, and following the joyful
Senate through all the streets of the eternal city, he beheld with
serene countenance the temples, reading the names of the gods inscribed
on their pediments, he enquired after the origin of the sacred edifices,
and admired their founders. Although he himself professed another
religion he maintained the ancient one for the Empire; for every man
has his own customs, his own rites. The Divine mind has distributed
to cities various guardians and various ceremonies. As each man that
is born receives a soul, so do nations receive a genius who guards
their destiny. Here the proof from utility comes in, which is our best
voucher with regard to the Deity. For since our reason is in the dark,
what better knowledge of the gods can we have than from the record
and evidence of prosperity? And if a long course of years give their
sanction to a religion, we ought to keep faith with so many centuries,
and to follow our parents, as they followed with success those who
founded them.
9. Let us suppose Rome herself to approach, and address you in these
terms: ‘Excellent Emperors, Fathers of your country, respect these
years to which pious rites have conducted me. Let me use the ancient
ceremonies, for I do not repent of them. Let me live in my own way,
for I am free. This worship reduced the world under my laws; these
sacred rites repulsed Hannibal from the walls, and the Gauls from the
Capitol. Am I reserved for this, to be censured in my old age? I am not
unwilling to consider the proposed decree, and yet late and ignominious
is the reformation of old age.’
10. We pray therefore for a respite for the gods of our fathers and
our native gods[73]. That which all venerate should in fairness be
accounted as one. We look on the same stars, the heaven is common to
us all, the same world surrounds us. What matters it by what arts each
of us seeks for truth? We cannot arrive by one and the same path at so
great a secret; but this discussion belongs rather to persons at their
ease, it is prayers not arguments which we now offer.
11. What advantage accrues to your treasury from the abolition of the
privilege of the Vestal virgins? Shall that be denied under princes the
most munificent which the most parsimonious have granted? Their sole
honour consists in their wages, so to speak, of chastity. As their
fillets adorn their heads, so is it esteemed by them an honour to be
free to devote themselves to the ministry of sacrifices. It is but the
bare name of exemption which they ask, for their poverty exonerates
them from any payment. So that he who reduces their means, contributes
to their praise, for virginity dedicated to the public welfare is
meritorious in proportion as it is without reward.
12. Far be such gains from the purity of your treasury. The exchequer
of good princes should be replenished by the spoils of enemies, not by
the losses of ministers of religion. And is the gain any compensation
for the odium? Those whose ancient resources are cut off only feel it
the more acutely in that you are free from the charge of avarice. For
under Emperors who keep their hands from other men’s goods and check
desire what does not excite the cupidity of the spoiler must be taken
solely with a view of injuring the person robbed.
13. The Imperial Exchequer retains also lands bequeathed by the will
of dying persons to the sacred virgins and priests. I implore you, as
Priests of justice, to restore to the sacred functionaries of your city
the right of inheritance. Let men dictate their wills in peace, knowing
that under equitable princes their bequests will be undisturbed.
Men are wont to take pleasure in this security, and I would have you
sympathise with them, for the precedent lately set has begun to harass
them on their death-beds. Shall it be said that the religion of Rome
appertains not to Roman laws? What name shall we give to the taking
away of legacies which no law no casualty has made void? Freedmen may
take legacies, slaves are allowed[74] a due latitude of bequeathing by
will, only the noble virgins and ministers of sacred rites are excluded
from inheriting lands devised to them. What advantage is it to dedicate
one’s virginity to the public safety, and to support the immortality of
the empire with heavenly protection, to conciliate friendly powers to
your arms and eagles, to take upon oneself vows salutary for all, and
to refrain from commerce with mankind in general? Slavery then is a
happier condition, whose service is given to men. It is the state which
is wronged, whose interest it never is to be ungrateful.
14. Let me not be supposed to be defending the cause of the ancient
religions only; from acts of this kind all the calamities of the Roman
nation have arisen. The laws of our ancestors provided for the Vestal
virgins and the ministers of the gods a moderate maintenance and just
privileges. This gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the
degenerate moneychangers, who diverted the maintenance of sacred
chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine
ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the
provinces. The soil was not here in fault, we ascribe no influence to
the stars, no mildew blighted the crops, nor did tares choke the corn,
it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary
that all should lose that which they had denied to religion.
15. By all means, if there is any instance of such an evil, let us
attribute this famine to the effect of the seasons. An unhealthy wind
has caused this blight, and so life is supported by means of shrubs and
leaves, and the peasants in their want have had resource once more to
the oaks of Dodona[75]. When did the provinces suffer such a calamity,
so long as the ministers of religion were supported by the public
bounty? When were oaks shaken for the food of man, when were roots dug
up, when were opposite regions of the earth cursed with sterility, so
long as provisions were furnished in common to the people and to the
sacred virgins? The produce of the earth was blessed by its support of
the priests, and thus the gift was rather in the nature of a safeguard
than of a largess. Can it be doubted that the gift was for the common
benefit, now that a general scarcity has attended its dis continuance?
16. But it may be said that public aid is rightly refused to the
cost of an alien religion. Far be it from good rulers to suppose that
what has been bestowed from the common stock on certain individuals is
within the disposal of the Imperial treasury. For as the commonwealth
consists of individuals, so that which comes from it becomes again the
property of individuals. You govern all, but you preserve for each his
own, and justice has more power with you than arbitrary will. Consult
your own generous feelings, whether that ought still to be deemed
public property which has been conferred on others. Gifts once devoted
to the honour of the city are placed out of the power of the donors,
and that which originally was a free-gift becomes by usage and
length of time a debt. Vain therefore is the fear which they would
impress upon your minds who assert that unless you incur the odium of
withdrawing the gift you share the responsibility of the donors of it.
17. May the unseen patrons of all sects be propitious to your Majesties,
and may those in particular who of old assisted your ancestors, aid
you and be worshipped by us. We ask for that religious condition which
preserved the empire to your Majesties’ father[76], and blessed him
with lawful heirs. That venerable sire beholds from his starry seat the
tears of the priests, and feels himself censured by the infraction of
that custom which he readily observed.
18. I beg you also to amend for your departed brother what he did by
the advice of others, to cover the act by which he unknowingly offended
the Senate. For it is certain that the reason why the embassage was
refused admittance was, to prevent the decision of the state from
reaching him. It is due to the credit of past times to abolish without
hesitation that which has been found not to have been the doing of the
Emperor.
LETTER XVIII.
A.D. 384.
THIS is S. Ambrose’s answer to the Memorial of Symmachus which
precedes it. In it he replies in detail to the arguments which
Symmachus had advanced, and meets him on his own ground. It is
to be remembered in forming an estimate of it, that it is simply
a state paper, adopting both the style and method natural to
such a document. That it is over rhetorical for our taste may at
once be allowed, for that is the character of the literature of
the time generally; that it is not so perfect a specimen of the
style, regarded merely as a piece of argument, as the document
to which it replies, may be granted without disparagement to S.
Ambrose, for Symmachus “stood foremost among his contemporaries
as a scholar, a statesman, and an orator.” (Dict. of Biog. sub
voc.) But he fairly meets and refutes Symmachus’ arguments, and
his retort of his adversary’s personification of Rome is happy
and telling. The earlier portion is more vigorous than the
latter, which is overwrought, especially in the argument against
maintaining things as they were. The abundance of allusions to,
and quotations of, Virgil are characteristic of the age, and
evidences of S. Ambrose’s early training in the education of a
Roman of high birth and rank.
BISHOP AMBROSE TO THE MOST BLESSED PRINCE AND GRACIOUS EMPEROR,
HIS MAJESTY VALENTINIAN.
♦1. THE honourable[77] Symmachus, Prefect of the city, having
memorialised your Majesty that the altar, which had been removed from
the Senate-house at Rome, ought to be restored to its place, and your
Majesty, whose years of nonage and inexperience are yet unfulfilled,
though a veteran in the power of faith, not having sanctioned the
prayer of the heathen, I also as soon as I heard of it presented a
petition, in which, though it embraced all that seemed necessary to be
said, I requested that a copy of the Memorial might be furnished to me.
2. Now therefore, not as doubting your faith, but as providing for
the future, and assured of a righteous judgement, I will reply to
the allegations of the Memorial, making this one request, that you
will not look for elegance of phrases but force of facts. For as Holy
Scripture teaches us, the tongue of learned and wise men is golden, and
endowed with highly-decked words, and glittering with splendid elegance
as with the brightness of some rich colour, and so captivates and
dazzles the eyes of the mind with a shew of beauty. But this gold, if
closely handled, may pass current outwardly, but within is base metal.
Consider well, I beseech you, and sift the sect of the Heathens; their
professions are grand and lofty, but what they espouse is degenerate
and effete, they talk of God but worship idols.
3. The propositions of the honourable Prefect of the city, to which
he attaches weight, are these, that Rome (as he asserts) seeks the
restoration of her ancient rites, and that stipends are to be assigned
to her priests and Vestal virgins, and that it was owing to these being
withheld that a general famine has ensued.
4. According to his first proposition, Rome utters a mournful complaint,
wanting back (as he asserts) her ancient ceremonies. These sacred rites,
he says, repelled Hannibal from the walls, the Gauls from the Capitol.
But even here, in blazoning the efficacy of these rites, he betrays
their weakness. According to this, Hannibal long insulted the Roman
religion, and pushed his conquest to the very walls of the city, though
the gods fought against him. Why did they for whom their gods fought,
allow themselves to be besieged?
5. For why speak of the Gauls, whom the remnant of the Romans could not
have prevented from entering the sanctuary of the Capitol, if the timid
cackling of a goose had not betrayed them. These are the guardians of
the Roman temples! Where was Jupiter then? Did he speak in a goose?
6. But why should I deny that their sacred rites fought for the Romans?
Yet Hannibal also worshipped the same gods. Let them choose therefore
which they will. If these rites conquered in the Romans, they were
vanquished in the Carthaginians, but if they were thus overcome in the
case of the Carthaginians, neither did they profit the Romans.
Sidenote: Wisd. iv. 9.
7. Away then with this invidious complaint of the Roman people; Rome
never dictated it. It is with other words that she addresses them: ‘Why
do you daily deluge me with the useless gore of the innocent flocks?
The trophies of victory depend not on the limbs of cattle, but on the
strength of warriors. It was by other powers that I subdued the world.
Camillus was my soldier, who recovered the standards which had been
taken from the Capitol, and slew those who had captured the Tarpeian
rock; valour overthrew those against whom religion had not prevailed.
Why should I name Regulus, who gave me even the services of his death?
Africanus gained his triumph not among the altars of the Capitol,
but among Hannibal’s ranks. Why do you produce to me the rites of
our ancestors? I abhor the rites of the Neros. What shall I say of
the two-month Emperors[78], and the ends of princes knit on to their
accession? Or is it a thing unheard of, that the barbarians should
cross their frontiers? Were those men Christians, in whose miserable
and unprecedented fate, in the one case a captive Emperor, in the other
a captive world[79] proved the falsehood of the rites which promised
victory? Was there then no altar of Victory? I am ashamed of my
downfall, the pale cheeks of age gather redness from that disgraceful
bloodshed. I do not blush to be converted in my old age along with the
whole world. It is surely true that no age is too late to learn. Let
that old age blush which cannot improve itself. It is not the hoary
head of years but of virtue which is venerable. It is no disgrace to
pass to better things. This alone had I in common with the barbarians
that of old I knew not God. Your sacrifice is a rite of sprinkling
yourselves with the blood of beasts. Why do you look for the voice of
God in dead beasts? Come and learn here on earth a heavenly warfare;
we live here, but our warfare is above. Let God Himself, the Creator,
teach me the mystery of heaven, not man who knew not himself. Whom
should I believe about God, sooner than God Himself? How can I believe
you, who confess that you know not what you worship?’
8. By a single path, he says, we cannot arrive at so great a secret.
What you are ignorant of, that we have learnt by the voice of God; what
you seek after by faint surmises, that we are assured of by the very
Wisdom and Truth of God. Our customs therefore and yours do not agree.
You ask the Emperors to grant peace to your gods, we pray for peace for
the Emperors themselves from Christ. You worship the works of your own
hands, we think it sacrilege that any thing which can be made should be
called God. God wills not to be worshipped under the form of stones.
Nay, your very philosophers have ridiculed this.
9. But if you are led to deny that Christ is God, because you cannot
believe that He died, (for you are ignorant how that this was the death
not of His Godhead but of His flesh, whereby it comes to pass that none
of the faithful shall die,) how inconsistent are you, who insult by way
of worship, and disparage by way of honour. You consider your god to be
a block of wood; what an insulting kind of reverence! You believe not
that Christ could die; what a respectful kind of unbelief!
Sidenote: Prov. xxi. 1.
10. But, he says, the ancient altars and images ought to be restored,
and the temples adorned as of old. This request ought to be made to one
who shares the superstition; a Christian Emperor has learned to honour
the altar of Christ alone. Why do they compel pious hands and faithful
lips to minister to their sacrilege? Let the voice of our Emperor speak
of Christ alone, let him declare Him only Whom in heart he believes,
for _the king’s heart is in the Hand of God_. Did ever heathen Emperor
raise an altar to God? In demanding a restoration of ancient things
they remind us what reverence Christian Emperors ought to pay to the
Religion which they profess, since heathen ones paid the utmost to
their own superstitions.
11. Long since was our beginning, and now they follow us whom they
shut out. _We_ glory in shedding our blood, a trifling expense disturbs
_them_. We consider such things a victory, they esteem them an injury.
Never did they confer a greater favour on us than when they commanded
Christians to be scourged, and proscribed and slain. Religion made
into a reward what unbelief intended for a punishment. Behold their
magnanimity! _We_ have grown by wrongs, by want, by punishment; _they_
find that without money their ceremonies cannot be maintained.
12. Let the Vestal virgins, he says, enjoy their privileges. It is for
those to say this, who cannot believe in gratuitous virginity, it is
for them to allure by profit who distrust virtue. But how many virgins
have their promised rewards obtained them? They have barely seven
Vestals. Such is the whole number whom the veiled and filleted head,
the dye of the purple vest, the pompous litter surrounded by attendants,
high privileges, great gains, and a prescribed period of virginity,
have collected.
13. Let them turn their mental and bodily eye to us, let them behold
a people of chastity, an undefiled multitude, a virgin assembly. No
fillets to adorn their heads, but a veil of common use though dignified
by chastity; the blandishments of beauty not curiously sought out, but
cast aside; no purple trappings, no luxurious delicacies, but frequent
fastings; no privileges, no gains; all things in short so ordered as
to repress any affection in the very exercise of their functions. But
in fact by this very exercise their affection to it is conciliated.
Chastity is perfected by its own sacrifices. That is not virginity
which is bought for money, not preserved for love of holiness; that is
not integrity which is bid for at an auction by a pecuniary equivalent,
to last but for a time. The first triumph of chastity is to overcome
the desire of wealth, for this desire is a temptation to modesty.
But let us suppose that virginity ought to be supported by pecuniary
bounty. In this case, what an abundance of gifts will overflow upon
the Christians; what treasury will contain riches so great? Or do
they consider that it ought to be bestowed exclusively on the Vestal
virgins? Do not they, who claimed the whole under heathen Emperors,
feel some shame in denying that under Christian Princes we ought to
participate in the bounty?
14. They complain also that public support is not given to their
priests and ministers. What a storm of words is here! To us on the
other hand the privileges of inheriting private property[80] is denied
by recent laws, and no one complains; we do not feel it to be an injury,
for we grieve not at the loss. If a priest would claim the privilege
of being exempt from the municipal[81] burthens, he must relinquish his
paternal estate and all other property. How would the heathens press
this ground of complaint, if they had it, that a priest must purchase
the liberty of performing his functions by the loss of his whole
patrimony, and at the expense of all his private advantages must buy
the right of ministering to the public, and while he claims to hold
vigils for the public safety must console himself with the wages of
domestic poverty; for he does not sell service but purchase a favour.
15. Compare[82] the two cases. You wish to exempt a Decurio, when the
Church may not exempt a priest. Wills are made in favour of ministers
of temples; not even profane persons, even of the lowest rank, nor of
abandoned character, are excepted; the clergy alone are excluded from
the common privilege, by whom alone the general prayer for all men
is offered, and the common office performed; no legacy, even of grave
widows, no donation is allowed. When no blame can attach to character,
a fine is imposed on the office. The legacy which a Christian widow
bequeaths to the minister of a temple is valid, that which she
bequeaths to the ministers of God is invalid. This I have stated not
by way of complaint, but that they may know how much I abstain from
complaining of, for I would rather we were losers in money than in
grace.
16. But they report that gifts or legacies to the Church have not been
taken away. Let them state who has snatched gifts from the temples,
a loss which Christians have[83] suffered. Had this been done to the
Gentiles, it would rather have been the requital than the infliction
of a wrong. Is it now only that they make a plea of justice, put in a
claim for equity? Where was this sentiment, when, having despoiled all
Christians of their goods, they grudged them the very breath of life,
and debarred them from that last burial-rite which was never before
denied to any of the dead? Those whom the heathen flung into it, the
sea restored. This is a victory of faith, that they themselves impugn
the acts of their ancestors, in that they condemn their proceedings.
But what consistency is there in condemning the acts of those whose
gifts they solicit?
17. Yet no man has forbidden gifts to the temples, or legacies to the
soothsayers; their lands alone are taken away, because they did not use
that religiously which they claimed on the plea of religion. If they
avail themselves of our example why did they not copy our practice?
The Church possesses nothing but her faith. There are her rents, her
revenues. The wealth of the Church is the support of the poor. Let them
count up how many prisoners the temples have ransomed, what support
they have afforded to the poor, to how many exiles they have ministered
the means of life. Hence it is that they have been deprived of their
lands, but not of their rights.
18. This is what has been done, and a public famine, as they assert,
has avenged this grave impiety, that the private emoluments of the
priests have been converted to the public service. For this cause they
say it was that men stripped branches of their bark, and moistened
their fainting life with this wretched juice. For this cause they
were obliged to substitute for corn the Chaonian acorn, and thrust
back again to this wretched fare, the food of beasts, they shook the
oaks and thus appeased their sore hunger in the woods. As if forsooth
these were new prodigies on earth, which never occurred so long as
heathen superstition prevailed over the world! But in truth how often
before this were the hopes of the greedy husbandmen frustrated by
empty oat-stalks, while the blade of corn sought for in the furrows
disappointed the race of peasants.
19. Why did the Greeks attribute oracles to their oaks, but that they
fancied their sylvan fare was the gift of their heavenly religion?
Such are the gifts which they suppose to come from their gods. Who but
heathen ever worshipped the trees of Dodona, bestowing honour on the
sorry sustenance of the sacred grove[84]? It is not probable that their
gods in their anger gave them for a punishment what they were wont when
appeased to confer as a gift.
20. But what equity were it, that because they are annoyed at the
refusal of sustenance to a few priests they should themselves refuse it
to every one? in that case their vengeance is more severe than was the
fault. But in truth the cause they assign is not adequate to produce so
great infirmity of a failing world, as that, when the crops were green,
the full grown hopes of the season should all at once perish.
21. Certain it is that many years ago the rights of the temples were
abolished throughout the world, is it only now that it has occurred to
the gods of the Gentiles to avenge their injuries? Can it be said that
the Nile failed to overflow his banks as usual, to avenge the losses
of the priests of the City, when he did not do so to avenge his own
priests?
22. But supposing that in the past year it was the wrongs of their
gods that were avenged, why are the same wrongs neglected in the
present year? Now the country people do not pluck up and eat the roots
of herbs, nor seek solace from the sylvan berry, nor gather their food
from thorns; but rejoicing in their successful labours they wonder at
their own harvest, and their hopes fulfilled compensate for their fast,
the earth having yielded us her produce with interest.
23. Who then is so inexperienced on human affairs as to be amazed at
the vicissitudes of the seasons? And yet even last year we know that
most provinces had an abundant harvest. What shall I say of Gaul which
was more fertile than usual? The Pannonias[85] sold corn which they
had not sown, and the second[86] Rhaetia learnt the danger of her own
fertility, for being used to security from her sterility, she drew
down an enemy on herself by her abundance. Liguria and Venice are
replenished by the fruits of autumn. So then the former year was not
withered by sacrilege, while the present has overflowed with the fruits
of faith. Nor can they deny that the vineyards produced an overflowing
crop. Thus our harvest yielded its produce with interest, and we
enjoyed the benefits of a more abundant vintage.
24. The last and most weighty topic remains; as to whether your
Majesties should restore those aids which have been profitable to
yourselves, for he says, ‘Let them defend you, and be worshipped by
us.’ This, most faithful Princes, we cannot endure; that they should
make it a taunt to us that they supplicate their gods in your name,
and without your command commit an atrocious sacrilege, taking your
connivance as consent. Let them keep their guardians to themselves,
let these guardians, if they can, protect their own. But if they cannot
protect those who worship them, how can they protect you who worship
them not?
25. Our ancestral rites, he says, should be preserved. But what if
all things have become better? The world itself, which at first was
compacted by the gathering together of the elemental seeds through
the vast void, an unconsolidated sphere, or was obscured by the thick
darkness of the yet unordered work, was it not afterwards endowed
with the forms of things which constitute its beauty, and were not the
heaven sea and earth distinguished from each other? The earth rescued
from dripping darkness was amazed at its new sun. In the beginning too
the day shines not, but as time goes on it is bright and warm with the
increase of light and heat.
26. The moon herself, which in the prophetic oracles represents the
Church, when first she rises again, and repairs her monthly wanings,
is hidden from us by darkness, but gradually she fills her horns, or
completes them as she comes opposite to the sun, and gleams with a
bright and glorious splendour.
27. In former days, the earth knew not how to be wrought into
fruitfulness; but afterwards when the careful husbandman began to till
the fields, and to clothe the bare soil with vineyards, it was softened
by this domestic culture, and put off its rugged nature.
28. So too the first season of the year itself, which has imparted a
like habit to ourselves, is bare of produce, then, as time goes on, it
blossoms out in flowers soon to fade, and in the end finds its maturity
in fruits[87].
29. So we, while young in age, experience an infancy of understanding,
but as we grow in years lay aside the rudeness of our faculties.
30. Let them say then that all things ought to have continued as at
first; that the world once covered with darkness is now displeasing
because it shines with the beams of the sun. And how much better is
it to have dispelled the darkness of the mind than that of the body,
and that the beam of faith has shone forth than that of the sun. So
then the early stages of the world as of all else have been unsettled,
that the venerable age of hoary faith might follow. Let those who are
affected by this find fault with the harvest too, because it ripens
late; or with the vintage, because it is in the fall of the year; or
with the olive, because it is the latest of fruits.
31. So then our harvest too is the faith of the soul; the grace of the
Church is the vintage of good works, which from the beginning of the
world flourished in the saints, but in these last days is spread over
the people; to the intent that all might perceive that it is not into
rude minds that the faith of Christ has insinuated itself, but these
opinions which before prevailed being shaken off (for without a contest
there is no crown of victory) the truth was preferred according as is
just.
32. If the old rites pleased, why did Rome adopt alien ones? I pass
over the covering of the ground with costly buildings, and shepherds’
huts glittering with the gold of a degenerate age[88]. Why, to speak
of the very subject of their complaint, have they admitted in their
rivalry the images of captured cities, and of conquered gods, and the
foreign rites of an alien superstition? Whence do they derive their
precedent for Cybele washing her chariot in a stream to counterfeit the
Almo[89]? Whence came the Phrygian seers, and the deities of faithless
Carthage ever hateful to Rome, her for instance, whom the Africans
worship as Cælestis[90], and the Persians as Mitra, the greater part of
the world as Venus, the same deity under different names. So also they
have believed Victory to be a goddess, which is in truth a gift not a
power, is bestowed and does not rule, comes by the aid of legions not
by the power of religion. Great forsooth is the goddess whom the number
of soldiers claims, or the issue of the battle confers!
33. And her altar they now ask to have set up in the Senate-house
at Rome, that is to say, where a majority[91] of Christians assemble.
There are altars in all temples, an altar also in the temple of
victories. Being pleased with numbers, they celebrate their sacrifices
every where. But to insist on a sacrifice on this one altar, what is
it but to insult over the Faith? Is it to be borne that while a Gentile
sacrifices Christians must attend? Let their eyes, he says, drink in
the smoke whether they will or no; their ears the music; their mouth
the ashes; their nostrils the incense; and though they loathe it, let
the embers of our hearths besprinkle their faces. Is it not enough for
him that the baths, the colonnades, the streets are filled with images?
Even in that general assembly, are we not to meet upon equal terms?
The believing portion of the Senate will be bound by the voices of
them that call the gods to witness, by the oaths of them that swear by
them. If they refuse, they will seem to prove their falsehood, if they
acquiesce, to acquiesce in a sacrilege.
34. Where, he asks, shall we swear allegiance to your Majesties’
laws and commands? Your minds then, of which your laws are the
outward expression, gather support and secure fidelity by heathen
rites. Moreover your Majesties’ faith is assailed not only when you
are present, but also, which is more, when you are absent, for you
constrain when you command. Constantius, of illustrious memory, though
not yet initiated into the sacred Mysteries, thought himself polluted
by the sight of that altar; he commanded it to be removed, he did not
command it to be replaced. His order bears all the authority of an Act,
his silence does not bear the authority of a precept.
35. And let no one rest satisfied because he is absent. He is more to
be considered present who unites himself to the minds of others than he
who gives the testimony of his visible presence. It is a greater matter
to be united in mind than to be joined in body. The Senate regards you
as its presidents who summon its meetings; at your bidding it assembles;
to you, not to the gods of the heathen, does she resign her conscience;
you she prefers to her children though not to her faith. This is the
affection worth seeking, an affection more powerful than dominion, if
faith, which preserves dominion, be secured.
36. But perhaps some one may be influenced by the thought that if so,
a most orthodox Emperor[92] has been left without his reward; as if
the reward of good actions was to be estimated by the frail tenure of
things present. And what wise man is there who knows not that human
affairs move in a certain cycle and order, and meet not always with the
same success, but their state is subject to vicissitudes?
37. Who more fortunate than Cneius Pompeius was ever sent forth by
the temples of Rome? But he, after compassing the circuit of the globe
in three triumphs, vanquished in battle, and driven into exile beyond
the bounds of the empire he had saved, perished by the hand of an
Eunuch[93] of Canopus.
38. What nobler king than Cyrus king of the Persians has the whole
Eastern world produced? He too, after he had conquered the most
powerful princes in battle, and detained them as his prisoners,
was worsted and slain by the arms of a woman[94]. That king who had
conferred on the vanquished the honour of sitting at meat with him, had
his head cut off and enclosed in a vessel full of blood, and so was bid
to satiate himself, exposed to the mockery of a woman. So in the course
of his life like is not matched with like, but things most unlike.
39. Again who was more assiduous in sacrificing than Hamilcar[95]
general of the Carthaginians? During the whole time of the battle he
took his station between the ranks of the combatants, and there offered
sacrifice: then, when he found himself vanquished, he threw himself
upon the fire on which he was burning his victims, that he might
extinguish even with his own body those flames which he had learnt
availed him nothing.
40. And what shall I say of Julian? who blindly believing the answers
of the diviners, deprived himself of the means of retreat[96]. Thus
even when the circumstances are common there is not a common cause of
offence, for our promises have deluded no one.
41. I have replied to those who harass me as though I had not been
harassed: for my object has been to refute their Memorial, not to
expose their superstitions. But let this very Memorial make your
Majesty more cautious. For by pointing out that of a series of former
Emperors, those who reigned first followed the rites of their ancestors,
and their successors did not remove them, and by observing upon this,
that if the religion of older ones was not an example, the connivance
of the more recent ones was, they have plainly shewn that you owe it
to the faith which you profess not to follow the precedent of heathen
rites, and to brotherly love not to violate your brothers’ ordinances.
For if they for the sake of their own cause have praised the connivance
of those Emperors, who being Christians, have not abrogated heathen
decrees, how much more are you bound to shew deference to brotherly
affection, and, whereas you would be bound to wink at what perhaps you
did not approve, for fear of detracting from your brothers’ decrees,
now to maintain what you judge to be in accordance both with your own
faith and the tie of brotherhood.
LETTER XIX.
A.D. 385.
VIGILIUS, to whom this letter is addressed, is supposed by
the Benedictine Editors to have been the Bishop of Trent,
(Tridentum,) who is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. He
had written to S. Ambrose, on his consecration as Bishop, to
ask his guidance and instruction, and S. Ambrose replies, first
with brief general directions, somewhat resembling those of
Letter 11, and then dwells at length on the duty of preventing
intermarriage between Christians and heathens, and recounts at
full length, in support of this, the history of Samson. At the
time when heathenism was rapidly dying out, it is clear how
important a point this would seem, and we do not wonder at the
stress which S. Ambrose lays on it.