Resultados25 letters/passages
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
… s from its ministers, and is bound by its canons. This is not a diminishment of imperial authority. It is its proper ordering. The emperor who recognizes the limits of his power is stronger than the one who claims unlimited authority, because the first has legitimacy and the second has only force. Your father understoo …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.02
Ambrose explains why he refused to appear at the imperial consistory when summoned. He argues that in matters of faith, only bishops can rightly judge, and that he was not being defiant but defending the rights of his order. He warns that Auxentius [an Arian bishop who claimed the see of …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
… cify who had been nominated, but added that the contest would take place in the imperial consistory, with your Majesty as arbiter. My reply, I trust, is appropriate -- and let no one call me defiant for stating what your own father of august memory not only said in words but established in law: in matters of faith or e …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
… es on the grounds that they could not resist the severity and strictness of the imperial command? But this would be the response of a defiant priest, not of a modest one. Consider, Emperor: you are already rescinding your own law in part. Would that it were not in part, but altogether! For I would not wish your law to …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most gracious Emperor Honorius. You are young, and the burden placed on you is immense. Your father was a great man and a great emperor. To follow him is an honor and a trial, and I write to offer you the counsel I gave him — the counsel he was gracious enough to hear. First: govern with justice …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
… the faith precisely because the bishops were free to debate and decide without imperial interference. When later emperors — Constantius above all [the Arian-sympathizing son of Constantine, who used imperial power to impose Arian formulas on the Church] — tried to dictate the outcome of councils, the result was not pe …
ambrose_milan · c. 395 · score 0.01
… d you saw fit to grant to those very petitioners what they had asked. 7. Though imperial power is great, consider, Emperor, how great God is. He sees the hearts of all, He examines the innermost conscience, He knows all things before they happen — He knows the hidden depths of your heart. You do not allow yourselves to …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Valentinian. Although the success of my first embassy was sufficiently proven to you — I was detained in Gaul for days precisely because I refused to cooperate with Maximus [the general who had seized Gaul and murdered Emperor Gratian in 383] — I owe you an account of my second, lest any …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.01
Your brother Gratian removed them by formal rescript. Will you now undo what your father allowed to stand and your brother actively abolished? The petition claims to come from the Senate. But the Christian senators — who are the majority — did not consent to it. They did not sign it. They did not authorize it. A handfu …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius. You know, most merciful Emperor, that I spoke to you recently about the matter of Callinicum. I see that my letter has not yet produced its full effect, and so I must press the point further — not from obstinacy but from pastoral duty. When I stood before you at the altar and you were …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most Christian Emperor Valentinian. All who live under Roman rule serve you, the emperors and princes of the world. But you yourselves serve Almighty God and the holy faith. There is no path to salvation unless everyone worships in truth the true God — the God of the Chri …
ambrose_milan · c. 382 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most Christian Emperor Valentinian. All men who live under Roman rule serve you, the emperors and princes of the world. But you yourselves serve Almighty God and the holy faith. There is no other path to salvation: everyone must worship the true God — the God of the Chris …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
Repeal your law, then, if you want a real debate. 17. I would have come, Emperor, to your consistory to make these points in your presence, if either the bishops or the people had allowed me. But they said that matters concerning the faith ought to be handled in the church, in the presence of the people. 18. And I wish …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
The bishops, however, immediately recalled their deflected opinion. And certainly the greater number at Rimini approved the faith of the Nicene Council and condemned the Arian decrees. If Auxentius appeals to a synod to dispute about the faith -- although it is hardly necessary to fatigue so many bishops on account of …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
But surely if we consult the sequence of divine Scripture or the records of past ages, who can deny that in a matter of faith -- I repeat, in a matter of faith -- it is bishops who have been accustomed to judge Christian emperors, not emperors to judge bishops? You will come of age, God willing, and then you will judge …
ambrose_milan · c. 395 · score 0.01
Since I am bound by my own words before both God and all people, I felt that nothing else was allowable or necessary for me but to act according to my conscience, since I could not fully trust you. I kept back and concealed my grief for a long time. I thought it wrong to confide it to anyone. Now I can no longer preten …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
Let them simply come to the church, if there are any who will come. Let them listen alongside the people — not for everyone to sit as judge, but so that each person may examine his own conscience and choose whom to follow. The matter concerns the bishop of this church. If the people hear him and think his arguments are …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius. I write to you, most merciful Emperor, not as a subject to a ruler but as a priest to a son of the Church — for in the things of God, the emperor is within the Church, not above it. The matter of Callinicum has been reported to you, and your initial reaction was to order the …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
3. Who, then, has responded to your Clemency defiantly? The one who desires you to be like your father, or the one who wishes you to be unlike him? — Unless perhaps the judgment of so great an Emperor seems of little account to some, whose faith was proven by the constancy of his profession, and whose wisdom was demons …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed Emperor Valentinian. Since the illustrious Symmachus, Prefect of the City [Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, the leading pagan senator and orator of his generation], has sent a memorial to your Clemency requesting that the Altar of Victory [a golden altar and statue of the goddess Victory …
ambrose_milan · c. 396 · score 0.01
The offering presented in your name will certainly be acceptable to God — and what a mark of faith and devotion this is! Other emperors, immediately after a victory, order the construction of triumphal arches or other monuments to their conquests. Your Clemency prepares an offering for God and desires that the priests …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius. I thank you, most merciful Emperor, for your willingness to reconsider the matter of Callinicum. The modification you have made shows your good will, but I must confess it does not go far enough. You have removed the requirement that the bishop personally rebuild the synagogue, but yo …
ambrose_milan · c. 389 · score 0.01
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 0.01
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 …
ambrose_milan · c. 393 · score 0.01
You have not feared God. You have not considered how others will judge you. The funds you have granted are used for sacrifices to demons. A Christian emperor — even one whose legitimacy rests on shaky ground — cannot afford to be seen financing the worship of false gods. Consider the example of the Hebrews. When they t …