Resultados20 letters/passages
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.02
I replied that I had never deceived anyone: the fact that I had not cooperated with his plans was exactly the point. I had been sent by a legitimate emperor, and I had acted in that emperor's interest. Then he tried a different tactic. He claimed that Bauto, the Frankish general, had invited barbarians into the empire. …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.02
To my sister, dearer to me than my eyes and life. Since you ask anxiously in every letter about the church here, let me tell you what is happening. The day after I received your letter — in which you said your dreams were troubling you — the pressure of heavy troubles began. This time it was not the Portian basilica ou …
ambrose_milan · c. 395 · score 0.02
Ambrose explains to the Emperor Eugenius [a Western usurper emperor, 392-394, a former rhetoric teacher elevated by the Frankish general Arbogast] why he was absent from Milan. He then reproaches him for his concessions to pagan worship. This, he says, was why he did not write sooner, and he promises to treat him with …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.02
But when they arrived and found the people assembled in prayer, they joined the congregation. When word reached us that the soldiers had come over, the joy was tremendous. It was Easter, and the troops sent to enforce the emperor's will had defected to Christ. I preached. I compared our situation to Job's trials — espe …
ambrose_milan · c. 395 · score 0.02
Lastly, I said that if he did this, he should either not come to the church, or if he came, he would either find no priest there or find one standing against him. Nor could the excuse be offered that he was a catechumen [a person preparing for baptism], since catechumens are not allowed to contribute to idol worship. 3 …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.02
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. 396 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius. Although I have recently written to your Clemency twice already, I still feel that I have not done enough — given how deeply indebted I am for your many kindnesses, most blessed and august Emperor. Every opportunity to express my duty must be seized, not least because I would …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
To the most merciful Emperor Theodosius — from the Council assembled at Aquileia. Most gracious Emperor, we write to you about Antioch [the great see in Syria, one of the five patriarchal centers of early Christianity], where the divisions among Catholics themselves cause us the deepest grief. It is not heresy that div …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Shall I expose men either to betrayal of the faith or to punishment? Ambrose is not so important as to degrade the priesthood on his own account. The life of one man is not worth as much as the dignity of all priests -- on whose advice I have composed this document. They warned me that perhaps some pagan or Jew might b …
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. 395 · score 0.01
For when in the city of Tyre the quinquennial games were being held and the extremely wicked king of Antioch [Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid persecutor of the Jews] had come to attend, Jason appointed agents to carry three hundred silver didrachms from Jerusalem and give them for the sacrifice to Hercules. But th …
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. 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. 395 · score 0.01
But you know that we must constantly stand up for the cause of God — as is often done for the cause of liberty — not only by priests but also by those in your armies or among the provincials. When you became Emperor, envoys requested that you restore funds to the temples, and you refused. Others came a second time and …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
I neither recognize him as a bishop nor know where he comes from. Where do we stand, Emperor, when you yourself have already declared your judgment -- indeed, when you have enacted laws forbidding anyone to judge otherwise? When you have laid this down for others, you have laid it down for yourself as well. For the emp …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the faithful of Milan. I am dying. You have known this for some time, and so have I. The illnesses that have been my companions for years are now making their final claim, and I have no strength left to resist them. I do not write this to inspire pity. I have had a life that would exhaust ten men, a …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most merciful Emperor and most blessed Augustus Valentinian. Dalmatius, the tribune and notary, came to me on what he described as your Clemency's orders, demanding that I choose judges for a debate, since Auxentius the Arian bishop had already chosen his. He did not specify who had been nominat …
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. 388 · score 0.01
If he obeys, he becomes an apostate — building with Christian hands and Christian money a place where Christ is denied. If he disobeys, he becomes a martyr. Either way, the church loses and the synagogue wins. Is this truly your intention? I do not argue that the synagogue should have been burned. But the remedy is wor …