1. YOU seem to have supposed, most blessed Emperor, as I understood
from your Majesty’s letters, that I had removed to a distance from
Milan because I believed your cause was forsaken by God. But in my
absence I was not so foolish, nor so unmindful of your virtues and good
deeds, as not to feel sure that the assistance of heaven would aid your
piety, and assist you to rescue the Roman Empire from the cruelty of a
barbarian robber, and the rule of an unworthy usurper.
2. Wherefore I made immediate haste to return, as soon as ever I was
aware that he whom I thought it right to avoid was gone, for I had not
deserted the Church of Milan, which the judgment of God had committed
to me, but I shunned the presence of one who had involved himself in
sacrilege. So I returned about the first of August, and from that day
I have been in residence here, and here your Majesty’s letter[251] has
found me.
3. Thanks be to our Lord God, Who has responded to your faith and piety,
and revived among us the pattern of ancient sanctity, giving to us to
see in our own times what we marvel at in the Lessons of Holy Scripture,
so effectual a presence, I mean, of Divine aid in battle[252], that
no mountain tops delayed your passage, no hostile arms presented any
impediment.
4. For this you think I ought to give thanks to the Lord our God; and
this I will willingly do, conscious of your good deeds. That victim is
certainly pleasing to God, which is offered in your name; and how great
faith and devotion does this evince! Other Emperors, as soon as ever
they gain a victory, order triumphal arches or other badges of triumph
to be erected, but your Clemency provides a victim for God, and desires
that oblations and thanksgivings should be offered to the Lord by the
priests.
5. I therefore, though unworthy and unequal to such an office, and to
the offering of such prayers, will yet tell you how I have acted. I
carried with me your Majesty’s letter to the altar, and laid it thereon,
bearing it in my hand, when I offered the Sacrifice; that so your faith
might speak with my voice, and the Imperial letter itself might perform
the functions of the priestly oblation.
6. Truly the Lord is merciful to the Roman Empire, seeing that He hath
chosen such a prince and parent of princes, whose virtue and power,
raised on so great and triumphant an eminence of dominion, is supported
by such humility as to vanquish Emperors in valour and priests in
humility. What shall I wish for, or what shall I desire? You possess
everything; from your stores therefore I will obtain the sum of my
wishes; your Majesty is pitiful, and has great clemency.
7. But I desire for you again and again an increase of mercy, than
which the Lord hath given nothing more excellent; that by your clemency,
the Church of God, as it rejoices in the peace and tranquillity of the
innocent, so it may also rejoice in the absolution of the guilty. I
would chiefly ask you to pardon those who have sinned for the first
time. May the Lord preserve your Clemency. Amen.
LETTER LXII.
A.D. 394.
IN this letter also S. Ambrose urges on Theodosius a merciful
use of his victory, and appeals to him specially for some of
the defeated party who had sought the protection of the Church.
He acknowledges the greatness of the request, but pleads for it
on the score of the divine favour which had been miraculously
displayed in his behalf.