Resultados25 letters/passages
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. 386 · score 0.02
To my sister, dearer to me than eyes and life. Since you ask anxiously in every letter about the state of the church here, let me tell you what is happening. The day after I received your letter — in which you mentioned that your dreams were troubling you — a storm of heavy troubles began. This time it was not the Port …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
Ambrose to his most beloved sister Marcellina — greetings. You will have heard reports of what has happened here, and I want you to have the truth from me directly, not from rumor. The court demanded that I hand over the Portian Basilica [a church outside the walls of Milan] for the use of the Arians. I refused. They t …
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. 379 · score 0.02
To the most blessed Emperor and most merciful prince Theodosius — Ambrose and the other bishops of Italy. We knew your holy mind was devoted to Almighty God in pure and sincere faith. But you have added fresh kindnesses: you have restored Catholics to their churches, most august Emperor. If only you had restored the Ca …
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. 381 · score 0.01
To the most blessed Emperor and most merciful prince Theodosius — Ambrose and the other bishops of Italy. The report of your faith, spread throughout the whole world, has stirred deep affection in our hearts. Because we desired this glory too for your reign — that you might be seen to have restored unity to both the We …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
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. 386 · score 0.01
I pointed out that even Job's greatest trial came not from his enemies but from his own wife, who told him to curse God and die [Job 2:9]. Women, I said, are often the instrument through which the devil attacks — Eve in the garden, Jezebel against Elijah, Herodias against John the Baptist. And now the empress mother Ju …
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. 385 · score 0.01
To the most blessed and glorious Christian Emperors — Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius — from the bishops assembled at the Council of Aquileia. Most merciful Emperors, by God's grace and your own devotion, the Arian faction has been brought to judgment. The Council assembled at Aquileia, as your piety commanded, an …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
To the most merciful Emperors, Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius — the Council of Aquileia. We have dealt with the matters within our own jurisdiction, and the Arian remnant in the West has been formally condemned. But we cannot be silent about the troubles in the East, for the Church is one body, and when one part …
ambrose_milan · c. 392 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius. My silence was broken by the words of your Clemency. Until now, in the face of such sorrow, I had resolved to do nothing better, if I could manage it, than hide myself away. Since I could not withdraw from the world or resign my bishopric, I hid within silence. I grieve — I c …
ambrose_milan · c. 382 · score 0.01
Taking my text from Psalm 19 — "The heavens declare the glory of God" — I explained that the "heavens" are the martyrs and apostles, and "the day" is their confession. These men were humbled by God and then raised up. Their blood, shed centuries ago, still speaks. The earth that held them could not contain their testim …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
14. This was the doctrine decreed at the Council of Ariminum [Rimini, 359 — a council that was manipulated into adopting an Arian creed], and rightly do I reject that council, following instead the rule of the Council of Nicaea [325 — the first ecumenical council, which defined the orthodox doctrine of Christ's full di …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to his brother Severus, Bishop of Naples — greetings in the Lord. I commend to your care the bearer of this letter, a member of our Milanese clergy whom I am sending on business that he will explain to you in person. Receive him with the hospitality I know you will show, and assist him as you are able. I also w …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
For I would not want your law to be placed above the law of God. The law of God has taught us what to follow; human laws cannot teach us this. They usually force a change in the fearful, but they cannot inspire faith. 11. When the order has been given throughout so many provinces at once that whoever acts against the E …
ambrose_milan · c. 397 · score 0.01
Ambrose, a servant of Christ, called to be a bishop, to the church of Vercellae and to all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: grace be fulfilled in you from God the Father and his only-begotten Son, in the Holy Spirit. I am spent with grief that the church of God among you is still without a bishop, and tha …
ambrose_milan · c. 392 · score 0.01
Shall I think him truly dead to me? No — he is more dead to me than to anyone, because I had more reason than anyone to rejoice in his transformation. I was giving thanks to God daily for the change in him. I was giving thanks to your Clemency for having formed him in the disciplines of your own faith and piety. And no …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to his brother Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria — greetings in the Lord. The distance between Milan and Alexandria is great, but the faith that unites us is greater. I write to strengthen that bond, which the divisions of our time have strained but not broken. You are the guardian of the see of Saint Mark, and …
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. 381 · score 0.01
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 Milan] would likely choose as j …
ambrose_milan · c. 382 · score 0.01
To the lady my sister, dearer to me than my eyes and life — Ambrose, Bishop. Since I want nothing that happens here in your absence to escape your knowledge, you must know that we have discovered the bodies of holy martyrs. After I dedicated the basilica, many people, as if with one voice, said: "Consecrate it as you d …
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 …