Resultados20 letters/passages
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. 395 · score 0.02
… 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 0.02
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. 385 · score 0.02
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 0.02
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. 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. 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. 395 · score 0.01
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. 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. 381 · score 0.01
… to recognize the devil's favorite instrument. The basilica was surrendered. The imperial hangings were removed. The people sang hymns of relief and thanksgiving. But even then, a notary came to me with a warning: "Ambrose, you despise the emperor. I see that you wish for death." I answered: "God grant that I do not des …
ambrose_milan · c. 395 · score 0.01
… s are not allowed to contribute to idol worship. 3. My letters were read in the imperial council. Count Bauto [a Frankish general in Roman service], a man of the highest military rank, was present, as was Rumoridus — also of the same rank and devoted to pagan worship from his earliest youth. Valentinian at that time fo …
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. 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
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. 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. 388 · score 0.01
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 0.01
… officials had been sent from the palace to seize the Portian basilica — hanging imperial curtains as a sign of confiscation, while part of the crowd was already heading there. I stayed at my post and began celebrating the Eucharist. During the offering, I heard that a certain Castulus — an Arian priest, the people said …
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 …