Sidenote: Gen. viii. 11.
Sidenote: Ib. 20.
Sidenote: Ib. ix. 1.
Sidenote: Ib. 9.
Sidenote: Ib. 12.
1. THE two Faustinuses are herewith restored to you, the two little
Ambroses stay with me. You have in the father what is best, in the
younger son what is most agreeable; for you have at once the summit
of virtue, and shew forth the grace of humility. I have what is
intermediate between father and younger son. With you is the head of
the whole family, and the continuous succession of a name handed down;
with me remains that frugal mean which both depends upon the head,
and has a common being with what follows it. You have him who is our
common rest, who when he comes to me in my turn, smooths all the cares
of my soul. You have him who alike by his life and works, and by his
offspring has found favour with our Lord, you have him who in the
storms of this world nourished a spiritual dove, to bring him the fruit
of peace, anointed with the oil of chastity. You have him who built
an altar to the Lord, he whom God blessed together with his sons, and
said unto them, _Be fruitful and multiply_; with whom He established
the covenant of His peace, that it might be unto _him and his sons for
perpetual generations_.
Sidenote: Ib. 20.
2. You have then one who is an heir of Divine benediction, a partner
in grace, a sharer in righteousness. But take care, I beseech you, that
this our husbandman Noah, the good planter of the fruitful vineyard,
does not become inebriated with the cup of your love and favour, as one
filled with wine, and so indulge too long in rest, and then if haply he
fall asleep the longing for our Shem awake him.
Sidenote: Ib. 23.
Sidenote: Gen. ix. 24.
Sidenote: Ps. xlv. 3.
Sidenote: Gen. ix. 27.
Sidenote: Ib. x. 1.
3. There also is Japhet the youngest of the brethren, who with pious
reverence may cover his father’s nakedness, whom his father may see
even in sleep and never dismiss from his remembrance, but keep him ever
in his sight and in his bosom, and when he wakes may know _what his
younger son has done unto him_. In Latin his name signifies ‘health,’
in that grace is spread over his lips and over his life, wherefore God
hath blessed him, because he, going backward, one may say, to Bologna,
covered his father with the pious garment of charity, and shewed honour
to piety; of whom also his father said, _God shall enlarge Japhet,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem_. Wherefore also in the
enumeration of this generation he is preferred to his elder brother,
he is substituted for him in the blessing: he is preferred in regard
of honour to his name, he is substituted in regard of the prerogative
of elder birth and the honour due to nature.
Sidenote: Prov. xxii. 1.
4. Now in Latin Shem signifies a ‘name.’ And truly is this Ambrose of
ours a good name, in whose tents Japhet may be enlarged, _because a
good name is rather to be chosen than great riches_. Let him therefore
also be blessed, let his name be above gold and silver, let the seed of
Abraham be in his portion, let all his blessing rest on his posterity,
and on the whole family of the just man. But no one is cursed, all are
blessed, for blessed is the fruit of Sarah.
Sidenote: Gen. ix. 26.
Sidenote: Ib. x. 9.
5. The Ambroses salute you, the beloved Parthenius salute you, so does
Valentinian, disposed to humility, which is in Hebrew ‘Canaan’, being
as it were the servant of his brother, to whom he has also given place
as regards his name. And therefore he is like Nimrod, mighty in his
double name, a great hunter upon the earth, of whom it is said; _Even
as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord_. For being somewhat rude
in intellect, but of great bodily strength, he surpasses in strength
those whose genius he cannot equal; so that he would seem to carry
with him the Comacine[237] rocks, and to resemble them in his outward
appearance, being as he is somewhat like a bull, wrathful at being
set aside, at being deprived of his paternal name, at being subjected,
through an inhabitant of the capital, to one from Bologna, for he knows
not the blandishments of infancy, and sprung without suffering injury
from his nurse’s bosom.
Farewell: love me for I love you.
LETTER LVI.
A.D. 392.
A NOTE in p. 71 [Footnote #50] gives a brief outline of
the schism in the Church of Antioch up to the time of the
Council of Aquileia, which made some efforts to bring about
a settlement. Meletius was then succeeded by Flavian, so that
there still remained two rival Bishops, Flavian and Paulinus.
Another opportunity for closing the schism came at Paulinus’
death, at the end of 388 A.D., but so far from allowing the
wound to be so healed Paulinus on his death-bed consecrated
Evagrius as his successor in violation of the Canons of Nicæa,
(Theod. H.E. v. 23) which ‘do not allow a Bishop to appoint
his successor, but require all the Bishops of the province to
be summoned to elect, and forbid consecration without at least
three consecrating Bishops.’ The western Bishops therefore
continued to press Theodosius to call a Council to deal with
the matter, which was accordingly assembled at Capua. Flavian,
though ordered by the Emperor, did not appear, and the
Council referred the question to the decision of Theophilus
of Alexandria and the Bishops of Egypt who were not committed
to either side, and in this letter S. Ambrose replies to
Theophilus who had written to him that Flavian still refused
to submit himself to their decision and again appealed to
the Emperor, and urges him to summon Flavian once more, and
endeavour to bring the matter to a peaceful issue, advising
him to consult also Siricius, the Bishop of Rome. He points
out that both parties rely rather on the weakness of their
opponent’s case than on the soundness of their own, and
expresses a hope that an end may be put to the schism, and
peace restored to the Church. Tillemont, in note 41 on the
Life of S. Ambrose, discusses the date of the Synod of Capua,
and fixes it at the end of A.D. 391, chiefly on the ground
that Theodosius did not return to Constantinople from Milan
till November of that year, while it must have been held
before the disturbance in the west occasioned by the revolt of
Arbogastes and the death of Valentinian, which took place in
the spring of A.D. 392.