1. YOUR Majesty’s letter has broken my silence; for I had persuaded
myself that in sorrow so great I could do nothing better than withdraw
into retirement. But not being able to conceal myself in any retreat,
or abdicate my bishopric, I at least retired within myself by silence.
2. I am filled, I confess, with bitter grief, not only because the
death of Valentinian has been premature, but also because, having been
trained in the faith and moulded by your teaching, he had conceived
such devotion towards our God, and was so tenderly attached to myself,
as to love one whom he had before persecuted, and to esteem as his
father the man whom he had before repulsed as his enemy. I have
mentioned this not for the sake of recalling former wrongs, but as a
proof of his conversion. For the one he learnt from others, the other
was his own, and retained by him when once received from you, so firmly,
as to fortify him against all the arguments of his mother. He professed
that he owed his education to me, he longed for me as for a careful
parent, and when some pretended to have received tidings of my arrival,
he anticipated it with impatience. Moreover, on those very days of
public mourning, although he had within the limits of Gaul holy and
eminent bishops of the Lord, he thought proper nevertheless to write
to me to confer upon him the Sacrament of Baptism. By this request,
in an unreasonable but affectionate way, he gave testimony of his love
towards me.
3. Shall I not then sigh after him with my inmost spirit, shall I not
embrace him in the secret recesses of my heart and soul? Shall I deem
him dead to me? Yes, indeed to me he is assuredly dead. How thankful
was I to the Lord, that he was so changed towards me, so improved, and
had assumed a character so much more mature. How thankful also was I
to your Clemency, in that you had not only restored him to his kingdom,
but also, what is more, had disciplined him in your own faith and piety.
Shall I not weep therefore that he, while fresh in years, and before
he had obtained as he desired the grace of the Sacraments, has met with
a sudden death? It has been a solace to my mind that you have yourself
condescended to testify to my grief. I have your Majesty for judge of
my affections and interpreter of my thoughts.
4. But hereafter we shall have time for sorrow; let us now care for his
sepulture, which your Clemency has commanded to take place in this city.
If he has died without Baptism, I now keep back what I know. We have
here a most beautiful porphyry vessel, and well adapted for the purpose;
for Maximian the colleague of Diocletian was so buried. There are also
very precious tablets of porphyry, to encase the covering in which the
royal remains are inclosed.
5. All this was prepared, but we waited for your Majesty’s order; and
its arrival has comforted your holy daughters, sisters of your son
Valentinian, who greatly afflict themselves, and the more in that for
a long while they received no answer. This has been no small solace
to them, but so long as his remains lie unburied, they do not spare
themselves, for they daily imagine that they are celebrating the
funeral of their brother. And in truth they never are without many
tears and heavy sorrow, and whenever they visit his body they return
almost lifeless. It will be for their good therefore, and for that of
his beloved remains, that the burial should shortly take place, lest
the heat of summer should wholly dissolve them, for its first fervour
is scarcely past.
6. I observe your command and commend it to the Lord; may He love you,
for you love the Lord’s servants.
LETTER LIV.
A.D. 392.
THE Eusebius to whom this and the following letters are
addressed is probably not the Bp. of Bologna who took a leading
part in the Council of Aquileia, though he appears to be also
connected with Bologna, (Lett. lv. 2.). S. Ambrose does not
write to him in the style in which he would address an eminent
♦Ecclesiastic. He was probably a layman, on very intimate terms
with S. Ambrose, as the whole tone of the Letters implies. Both
are on affairs of private life, both, especially the latter,
are written in a tone of playful pleasantry and a not irreverent
adaptation of sacred things, such as has often marked the
familiar correspondence of a great Bishop.
Eusebius seems to have had a son Faustinus, and this son a large
family, of whom another Faustinus an Ambrosius and an Ambrosia
are here mentioned. It was to this Eusebius, on the occasion
of Ambrosia’s dedication as a professed Virgin, that S. Ambrose
wrote the treatise ‘De Institutione Virginis.’ She is the
‘sancta soror,’ the ‘holy sister’ of Lett. liv.