Letter 72

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~386 AD Context: A doctrinal pastoral letter warning the Milanese congregation against the various forms of heresy circulating in the empire, providing a clear summary of what orthodox Christianity teaches and what it rejects. Ambrose to the faithful. You live in a city that sits at the crossroads of the empire, and every idea — good and bad — passes through Milan. It is therefore necessary that you know what the Church teaches, so that you can recognize what it does not. We teach that God is one in substance and three in persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Arians deny the full divinity of the Son. The Macedonians deny the full divinity of the Spirit. The Sabellians deny the distinction of the persons. All three are wrong. We teach that the Son became fully human — body, soul, and mind — without ceasing to be fully God. The Apollinarians deny that Christ had a human mind. The Docetists [an early heresy that Christ only appeared to be human] deny that he had a real body. Both are wrong. We teach that the Church has the authority to forgive sins committed after baptism through the sacrament of penance. The Novatianists deny this. They are wrong. We teach that the Old Testament is the inspired word of God and that the God of the Old Testament is the same God who sent Jesus Christ. The Marcionites [followers of Marcion, who rejected the Old Testament and distinguished between the God of the Old Testament and the Father of Jesus Christ] deny this. They are wrong, and dangerously so. I do not list these heresies to frighten you but to equip you. An army that cannot identify its enemies is already half defeated. Know the faith. Know its boundaries. And when someone presents you with a novel teaching that sounds spiritual but contradicts what the Church has always taught, have the confidence to say: "No. That is not the faith." The faith is not complicated. The heresies that attack it are. Simplicity belongs to truth; complexity belongs to error. Stand firm.

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