Resultados21 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. 380 · score 0.02
I believed that gods of wood and metal could protect me. Experience has taught me otherwise. Hannibal came to my gates despite all the rites I performed. The Gauls seized the Capitol while the geese screamed and the priests chanted. My gods did not save me then. It was Roman courage that saved me — not Roman religion." …
ambrose_milan · c. 377 · score 0.02
To the most merciful Emperors, the Christian and most glorious princes Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius — from the Council assembled at Aquileia. Most merciful Emperors, your decrees have ensured that Arian faithlessness [the heresy denying the full divinity of Christ] can no longer hide or spread. The Council's ru …
ambrose_milan · c. 383 · score 0.02
I turned my temples red with the blood of animals, I bowed before dead stones, I honored gods who were demons. Now I have been taught better. I am ashamed of my past, not proud of it. I do not beg for my old errors to be restored. I beg you to leave them buried." If length of custom were an argument for truth, then the …
ambrose_milan · c. 378 · score 0.02
To the most merciful, Christian, and glorious princes Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius — from the Council assembled at Aquileia. However abundantly we might give thanks, most merciful Emperors, we could never match the scale of your generosity to the faith. After so many years of persecution inflicted on Catholics …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.02
But Rome's greatness was built by her soldiers, not her priests. Regulus did not consult the augurs before marching to Carthage. Scipio did not sacrifice to Victory before destroying it. The battles that made Rome were won by Roman arms, not Roman altars. And the rites that Symmachus defends — the very rites he claims …
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. 380 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most gracious Emperor Valentinian. Since the illustrious Symmachus, Prefect of the City, has petitioned your Grace to restore the altar removed from the Roman Senate house, and since you, Emperor — young in years but a veteran in faith — rejected the prayer of the pagans, …
ambrose_milan · c. 383 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most merciful Emperor Valentinian. When the illustrious Symmachus, Prefect of the City, submitted his memorial to your Clemency requesting that the altar removed from the Roman Senate house be restored to its place, you, Emperor — though still young in years — proved your …
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. 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. 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. 382 · score 0.01
Are you, Valentinian, to restore what your father condemned and your brother abolished? Do not think this is a private concern. It is a matter of faith. If you grant what they ask, you will be making offerings to idols with public money — offerings that our consciences cannot accept. I say this plainly: if such a decre …
ruricius_limoges · c. 502 · score 0.01
Bishop Ruricius to the lord Bishop Ambrose. The apostolic precepts remind us that to those from whom we receive divine gifts, we should offer earthly ones [Galatians 6:6; Romans 15:27]. Observing this rule at least in part, in return for the heavenly feast you provide us — through the living word and through the writin …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 460 · score 0.01
Sidonius to his lord Bishop Ambrosius, greetings. 1. Your Holiness has prevailed with Christ through the power of intercession on behalf of our dearest friend -- why should I name the name and person? You will recognize everything. You had often complained about his youthful weakness, sometimes openly with witnesses ca …
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. 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. 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, 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 …
basil_caesarea · c. 368 · score 0.01
The gifts of the Lord are always great and always many -- great beyond measure, beyond counting in number. To anyone alive to his mercy, one of the greatest of these is the privilege I now enjoy: the chance for us, though separated by vast distance, to address one another by letter. God grants us two ways of becoming a …