Letter 16

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Emperor Theodosius Date: ~394 AD Context: A joyful letter after Theodosius's victory over the usurper Eugenius — Ambrose thanks God for the emperor's triumph, praises his piety in requesting prayers rather than triumphal arches, and promises to celebrate the victory at the altar. Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius. You supposed, most blessed Emperor — as I gathered from your letter — that I had gone far from Milan because I believed God had abandoned your cause. But I am neither so imprudent nor so forgetful of your virtues and your merits as to have doubted that heaven's help would attend your piety, enabling you to vindicate the Roman Empire from the savagery of a barbarian brigand and to reclaim it from the throne of an unworthy usurper [Eugenius, defeated at the Battle of the Frigidus in September 394]. I hurried back as soon as I learned that the man I had rightly avoided was gone. I had not abandoned the church of Milan, entrusted to me by God's judgment. I had simply avoided the presence of a man who had entangled himself in sacrilege [by restoring pagan temple funding]. I returned around the first of August, and I have been here since. Your letter found me here. Thanks be to the Lord our God, who answered your faith and piety and restored the pattern of ancient holiness — so that we might see in our own time what we marvel at in the reading of Scripture: the kind of divine aid in battle that was given to holy Moses, to Joshua, to Samuel, and to David. Your victory is reckoned not by human estimation but by the outpouring of heavenly grace. Here we ask for equal piety — the piety whose merit earned the victory itself. What strikes me most is this: other emperors, at the start of a victory, order triumphal arches or other monuments. Your Clemency prepares an offering to God. You desire that thanksgiving and sacrifice be celebrated by priests in the Lord's name. Though I am unworthy and unequal to so great a charge, I write to tell you what I have done: I carried your letter with me to the altar. I placed it on the altar itself. I held it in my hand as I offered the sacrifice — so that your faith might speak through my words, and the emperor's letter might serve as the priestly offering. The Lord has heard your prayers. May he continue to hear them. May his peace be upon you and upon the empire you have restored.

EPISTOLA LXI. Cur Mediolano secesserit, ac mature eodem redierit, declarato, gratiisque Deo propter opem THEODOSIO praestitam actis, voluntati ejusdem principis obsecuturum se pollicetur. Cujus pietatem summe commendans, ut clementia utatur petit. AMBROSIUS THEODOSIO imperatori. 1. Arbitratus es, beatissime imperator, quantum ex augustis litteris tuis comperi, me longe abesse ab urbe Mediolanensium; quia res tuas crederem a Deo destitui. Sed non ego ita imprudens, aut virtutis et meritorum tuorum immemor abfui, ut non praesumerem coeleste auxilium pietati tuae adfore, quo Romanum imperium a barbari latronis immanitate et ab usurpatoris indigni solio vindicares. 2. Festinavi igitur illico reverti, posteaquam illum, quem jure declinandum putaveram, jam abesse cognovi; non enim ego Ecclesiam Mediolanensem dereliqueram Domini judicio mihi commissam: sed ejus vitabam praesentiam, qui se sacrilegio miscuisset. Redii itaque circiter kalendas Augustas, ex illo die hic resedi. Hic me, Auguste, clementiae tuae apices repererunt. 3. Gratias Domino Deo nostro, qui fidei tuae pietatique respondit; et formam veteris restituit sanctitatis; ut videremus nostro tempore, quod in Scripturarum lectione miramur, tantam in praeliis divini auxilii fuisse praesentiam, ut nulli vertices montium adventus tui cursum retardarent, non hostilia arma impedimentum aliquod afferrent. 1021 4. Pro his gratias me censes agere oportere Domino Deo nostro: faciam libenter conscius meriti tui. Certum est placitam Deo esse hostiam, quae vestro offertur nomine, et hoc quantae devotionis et fidei est! Alii imperatores in exordio victoriae arcus triumphales parari jubent, aut alia insignia triumphorum: clementia tua hostiam Deo parat, oblationem et gratiarum actionem per sacerdotes celebrari Domino desiderat. 5. Etsi ego indignus atque impar tanto muneri et tantorum votorum celebritati; tamen quid fecerim scribo. Epistolam pietatis tuae mecum ad altare detuli, ipsam altari imposui, ipsam gestavi manu, cum offerrem sacrificium; ut fides tua in mea voce loqueretur, et apices Augusti sacerdotalis oblationis munere fungerentur. 6. Vere Dominus propitius est imperio Romano; quandoquidem talem principem et parentem principum elegit, cujus virtus et potestas in tanto imperii constituta culmine triumphali, tanta sit humilitate subnixa, ut virtute imperatores, humilitate vicerit sacerdotes. Quid exoptem? quidve desiderem? Omnia habes: ex tuis itaque summam votorum capessam, pius es, Imperator, clementiam habes maximam. 7. Opto tamen tibi etiam atque etiam incrementa pietatis, qua nihil Dominus praestantius dedit; ut per tuam clementiam Ecclesia Dei sicut innocentium pace et tranquillitate gratulatur, ita etiam reorum absolutione laetetur. Ignosce maxime his, qui non ante peccarunt. Dominus clementiam tuam conservet, Amen.