Resultados25 letters/passages
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
I understand that your Serenity's favor is richer than any gift, since you urge me to do things that can only benefit my own soul. Such is always the wish of one who loves — that you want us to perform acts of mercy that commend us to divine power. Therefore I report to Your Glory that the convent of God's handmaids, w …
ambrose_milan · c. 389 · score 0.02
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most merciful prince and most blessed Emperor Theodosius. I am always burdened with cares, most blessed Emperor, but I have never been in such distress as now — because I see that I must guard against anything that could be charged to me as sacrilege. I beg you: hear me patiently. If I am unwort …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.02
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most merciful prince and most blessed Emperor Theodosius. I am constantly burdened with cares, most blessed Emperor, but I have never been in such distress as now. I see that I must take every precaution against anything that might be charged to me as approaching sacrilege. I beg you: hear me wi …
leo_great · c. 448 · score 0.02
Leo, Bishop of Rome, to the Emperor Theodosius, ever Augustus. I. He suspends judgment on the appointment of Anatolius until he has made an open confession of the Catholic faith In all your piously expressed letters, amid the anxieties we endure for the faith, you have given us hope of security by upholding the Council …
symmachus · c. 372 · score 0.02
… aim for themselves the windfall gains [bona caduca -- property that fell to the imperial treasury when intended heirs were disqualified], and that the position of honest men will grow worse if the opportunity for fraud falls only to those restrained by neither law nor shame. Therefore, since the emperor's own position …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.02
3. What, then, could I do? Should I not hear? But I could not close my ears with the wax of ancient fables. Should I speak what I heard? But I was forced to guard my words against the very thing I feared from your commands — that some act of bloodshed would be carried out. Should I keep silent? But then my conscience w …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
Punish the rioters if justice demands it — but do not compel a Christian bishop to build a synagogue. That is not justice. That is a triumph of those who deny Christ over those who confess him. If you will not hear me as a counselor, hear me at least as an intercessor. I would rather owe you gratitude for mercy than be …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
For the one is a sign of humility, the other of contempt. For the Word of God Himself tells us that He prefers obedience to His commandments over the offering of sacrifice. God proclaims this, Moses declares it to the people, Paul preaches it to the Gentiles. Do what you understand to be most beneficial for the present …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
… hing is hidden that will not be made known" (Luke 8:17). So I complied with the imperial will as respectfully as I could, taking care that you would have no reason for displeasure when I arranged that nothing of the imperial decrees would be reported to me. When present, I would either fail to hear — because everyone e …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
I dare not offer the sacrifice [the Eucharist] if you intend to be present. Is what is not permitted after shedding the blood of one innocent person, permitted after shedding the blood of many? I do not think so. 14. Finally, I am writing with my own hand what only you may read. As I hope that the Lord will deliver me …
ambrose_milan · c. 389 · score 0.01
Either way, the church loses. Is that your intention? I am not saying that the synagogue should have been burned. I am saying that the remedy you have chosen is worse than the offense. Punish the rioters, if you must — but do not compel a bishop to rebuild with his own money a place where Christ is blasphemed. That is …
epistulae_austrasicae · c. 534 · score 0.01
To the most august and ever-victorious Emperor Justinian, greetings in Christ from Theudebert, king of the Franks, The God who rules over kings has granted me the inheritance of my father's throne, and my first duty in assuming that inheritance is to secure the friendships that my father valued. Among those friendships …
isidore_pelusium · c. 391 · score 0.01
If these, then, are adorned with truth, they ought to be desirable to the prudent. But if they arm themselves against truth, they justly deserve to be dishonored. To Neidos. Since the height of humility is great, and the fall of arrogance precipitous, I counsel you to embrace the former and not to fall into the latter. …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
… is called the will of God. When Jews suffer, it is called an outrage requiring imperial intervention. Consider Julian the Apostate. He ordered the Jews to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. What happened? Fire burst from the foundations and consumed the workers. Even the elements refused to cooperate. Shall a Christia …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
And David too, when he held the kingdom and heard that innocent Abner had been killed by Joab, his army commander, said: "I am guiltless, and my kingdom is guiltless from this day forward of the blood of Abner, son of Ner," and he fasted in grief. 11. I have written this not to humiliate you, but so that the examples o …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
To Olympias Do not be anxious on my behalf, nor rack yourself with solicitude, on account of the severity of the winter, and the weakness of my digestion, and the incursions of the Isaurians. For the winter is only what it is wont to be in Armenia; nothing more need be said about it; and it does not very seriously inju …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
Isaiah 40:6 2. Nevertheless, you will say, adversity is a terrible thing and grievous to be borne. Yet look at it again compared with another image and then also learn to despise it. For the railings, and insults, and reproaches, and gibes inflicted by enemies, and their plots are compared to a worn-out garment, and mo …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
For since he had been an enemy and adversary what he wrote was above suspicion even in the opinion of enemies. 3. Do you see the abundance of resource belonging to God? His wisdom, His extraordinary power, His loving-kindness and care? Be not therefore dismayed or troubled but continue to give thanks to God for all thi …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
Yet I would rather have died than not wait two or three days for your arrival. But it was not possible for me to do so. 6. What was done in the city of Thessalonica [the massacre of approximately 7,000 people in the hippodrome in retaliation for the murder of the Gothic military commander Butheric] has no parallel in r …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
It follows therefore that you should deem this the greatest encouragement, and the crown of your consolation. Do not call your household desolate, which has now a higher place assigned to it in Heaven by reason of the sufferings which it endures. I was grievously distressed on account of Pelagius the monk. Consider the …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
For what is there grievous in inhabiting a prison and wearing a chain? Or in being ill-treated when it is the occasion of so much gain? Or why should exile be grievous or confiscation of goods? These are mere words, destitute of any terrible reality, words void of sorrow. For if you speak of death you only mention that …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
Letters to Olympias The deaconess Olympias to whom seventeen of Chrysostom's extant letters are addressed was the most eminent of his female friends. She belonged to a Pagan family of high rank, and was born about 368. Her father Seleucus who was a count of the Empire died when she was a young girl and she was brought …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
For as that poor woman when she had cast two mites into the treasury surpassed all those who had cast in more, because she used up her whole substance: even so they who devote themselves to the work in hand with all their might discharge it completely, so far as they are concerned, even if nothing results from it, and …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
Yet I have survived all these things, and now I am in sound health, and great security, so that all Armenians are astonished that with such a feeble and flimsy frame as mine I can support such an intolerable amount of cold, or that I can breathe at all, when those who are habituated to the winter are suffering from it …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
Are you not aware how great an evil despondency is? As to the Isaurians, dismiss your fears in future concerning them: for they have returned into their own country: and the governor has done everything necessary in this respect; and I am in far greater security here than when I was in Cæsarea. For in future I have no …