Letter 13: Ambrose, Bishop, to the most august Emperor Theodosius.

Ambrose, bishop, to the most august Emperor Theodosius. 1. The memory of our old friendship is sweet to me, and I am mindful of the kindnesses which, through my frequent intercessions, you have with the highest graciousness conferred upon others. From this it can be gathered that it was from no ungrateful feeling that I was able, until now, to avoid your arrival, which was always most longed for by me. But why I did so I will briefly explain. 2. I saw that I alone in your retinue had been deprived of the natural right of hearing, with the result that I was also deprived of the office of speaking; for you have frequently been moved because certain things had reached me which had been decided in your consistory. I therefore am shut out from the common practice, although the Lord Jesus says that nothing is hidden which shall not be made manifest [Luke 8:17]. With such modesty as I could, then, I gave satisfaction to the imperial will; and I took care lest you yourself should have a cause for being disturbed -- since I have acted so that nothing of the imperial decrees should be reported to me -- or lest I, when I am present, should either through fear not hear what everyone hears, and so incur the reputation of one who connives; or so hear that, while my ears are open, my voice is shut off, so that I cannot speak of what I have heard, lest I harm in their peril those who have come under the suspicion of betrayal. 3. What, then, should I do? Should I not hear? But I cannot close my ears with the wax of the old fables. Should I disclose it? But what I would fear in your commands, I ought to guard against in my own words -- lest anything bloody be committed. Should I be silent? But this would be the most wretched of all, that the conscience be bound, the voice taken away. And where is that text? -- But if the priest does not speak to him who errs, he who has erred shall die in his own fault, and the priest shall be liable to punishment, because he did not admonish the one in error [Ezekiel 3:19]. 4. Receive this, august emperor. That you have zeal for the faith, I cannot deny; that you have the fear of God, I do not disclaim: but you have an impulsiveness of nature which, if anyone wishes to soothe it, you quickly turn to mercy; if anyone spurs it on, you rouse it the more, so that you can scarcely call it back. Would that, if no one calms it, no one would inflame it! Gladly do I entrust you to yourself: you call yourself back, and by your zeal for piety you overcome the impulse of your nature. 5. This impulse I preferred to commit secretly to your own thoughts, rather than perhaps to provoke it publicly by my deeds. And so I preferred that something should be lacking to my duty rather than to my humility; and that the authority of a priest should be looked for in me by others, rather than that the honor due should be missed in me by you, who love me most -- so that, the impulse being repressed, the faculty of choosing counsel might be unimpaired. I pleaded a sickness of body, in truth a grave one, and one scarcely to be relieved except by gentler men: yet I would rather even have died than not awaited your arrival for two or three days. But there was nothing I could do. 6. There was done in the city of the Thessalonians a thing of which there is no memory, which I could not call back so that it should not happen; nay, a thing which beforehand I said would be most atrocious, when I asked so many times: and a deed which you yourself, by calling it back too late, judged to be grievous, this deed I could not extenuate. When it was first heard of, a Synod had assembled because of the arrival of the bishops of Gaul; there was no one who did not groan, no one who took it with indifference: there was no absolution of your deed in communion with Ambrose; rather the odium of the offense would be heaped upon me the more, if no one said that reconciliation with our God would be necessary. 7. Or are you ashamed, Emperor, to do that which the prophet-king David, the author of Christ's lineage according to the flesh, did? To him it was said that a rich man who had very many flocks seized and killed the one ewe of a poor man on account of the arrival of a guest; and when he had learned that he himself was being reproached in this, because he had done it, he said: I have sinned against the Lord [2 Samuel 12:13]. Do not therefore bear it impatiently, Emperor, if it be said to you: You have done this thing -- which was said to King David by the prophet. For if you hear this earnestly, and say: I have sinned against the Lord; if you say that royal prophetic word: Come, let us adore and fall down before him; and let us weep before our Lord, who made us [Psalm 95:6]; it shall be said to you also: Since you repent, the Lord forgives you your sin, and you shall not die [2 Samuel 12:13]. 8. Again, when David had ordered the people to be numbered, he was stricken in heart, and said to the Lord: I have sinned grievously, in that I have done this thing; and now, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have transgressed grievously [2 Samuel 24:10]. And Nathan the prophet was sent to him again, to offer him the choice of three conditions, that he might choose whichever he wished: famine for three years in the land, or to flee for three months from the face of his enemies, or death in the land for three days. And David answered: These three are exceedingly grievous; nevertheless I will fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are many; and I will not fall into the hand of man [2 Samuel 24:14]. Now his fault was that he wished to know the number of all the people who were with him -- which he ought to have reserved for God alone to know. 9. And when, it is said, death came upon the people, on the very first day at the hour of the midday meal, when David had seen the angel striking the people, David said: I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly, and this flock, what has it done? Let your hand be upon me, and upon the house of my father [2 Samuel 24:17]. And so it repented the Lord, and he commanded the angel to spare the people, but that David should offer sacrifice; for there were then sacrifices for offenses, which now are the sacrifices of penance. And so by that humility he became more acceptable to God: for it is not to be wondered at that a man sins, but this is blameworthy, if he does not acknowledge that he has erred, and does not humble himself before God. 10. Job too, holy and himself powerful in the world, says: I have not hidden my sin, but have announced it before all the people [Job 31:33]. To the savage King Saul himself his own son Jonathan said: Do not sin against your servant David [1 Samuel 19:4]; and: Why do you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without cause [1 Samuel 19:5]? For although he was king, he nevertheless sinned, if he killed the innocent. Finally David also, when he had now obtained the kingdom and had heard that the innocent Abner had been killed by Joab, the commander of his army, said: I am innocent, and my kingdom henceforth and forever, of the blood of Abner the son of Ner [2 Samuel 3:28]; and he fasted in grief. 11. These things I have therefore written, not to confound you, but that the examples of kings may move you to take away this sin from your kingdom: and you will take it away by humbling your soul before God. You are a man, and temptation has come to you; conquer it. Sin is not taken away except by tears and penance. Neither an angel can do it, nor an archangel; the Lord himself, who alone can say: I am with you [Matthew 28:20], does not, if we have sinned, grant remission except to those who offer penance. 12. I urge, I ask, I exhort, I admonish; because it is a grief to me that you, who were an example of unheard-of piety, who held the summit of clemency, who would not suffer individual guilty men to be endangered, should not grieve that so many innocent men have perished. Even if you have acted most successfully in battles, even if you are praiseworthy in other things also, yet the summit of your works was always piety. The devil envied you that, which you had most excellent. Conquer him, while you still have the means by which you can conquer. Do not add another sin to your sin; do not lay claim to that which, when laid claim to, has harmed many. 13. I, certainly, though in all other matters a debtor to your piety -- to which I cannot be ungrateful, which piety I used to prefer above many emperors, and to equal to one alone -- I, I say, have no cause of defiance toward you, but I have cause of fear: I dare not offer the sacrifice, if you should wish to be present. Or is that which is not permitted after the blood of one innocent man permitted after the blood of many? I do not think so. 14. Lastly, I write with my own hand what you alone are to read. So may the Lord free me from all tribulations; for not from a man, nor through a man, but openly was the prohibition made known to me. For when I was anxious, on the very night on which I was preparing to set out, you seemed indeed to have come to the Church; but it was not permitted me to offer the sacrifice. Other things I pass over, which I was able to take precaution against: but I endured them out of love for you, as I think. May the Lord bring it about that all things turn out with tranquility. In many ways our God admonishes us, by heavenly signs, by the precepts of the prophets: by visions also of sinners he wishes us to understand; that we may ask him to take away disturbances, to preserve peace for you who rule, that the faith and tranquility of the Church may endure, to which it is profitable that emperors be Christian and pious. 15. Surely you wish to be approved by God. There is a time for everything, as it is written: A time, it says, of doing, O Lord [Ecclesiastes 3:1]; and: It is time, O God, for your good pleasure [Psalm 119:126]. Then you shall offer, when you have received the faculty of sacrificing, when your victim is acceptable to God. Would it not delight me to have the favor of the emperor, so that I might act according to your will, if the case allowed it? And simple prayer is a sacrifice: this prayer brings pardon, that offering brings offense; because this has humility, that has contempt: for it is the voice of God that he prefers his commandment to be done rather than that a sacrifice be offered. God cries this out, Moses announces it to the people, Paul preaches it to the nations. Do that which you understand to be the greater thing to do at this time. I prefer mercy, he says, rather than sacrifice [Matthew 9:13]. Why should not those rather be Christians who condemn their own sin, than those who think to defend it? For the just man is in the beginning of his speech the accuser of himself [Proverbs 18:17]. He who accuses himself when he has sinned is just, not he who praises himself. 16. Would, Emperor, that even before this I had trusted myself rather than your custom. When I think how quickly you forgive, how quickly you call yourself back, as you have often done; both you were forestalled, and I did not avoid that which I ought not to have guarded against. But thanks to the Lord, who wishes to chastise his little servants, lest he lose them. This I have in common with the prophets, and this you will have in common with the saints. 17. Or shall I not prefer the father of Gratian before my own eyes? Your other holy pledges deserve pardon. I set before them a name sweet to me, to whom I have shown love in common. I love, I cherish, I follow you with my prayers. If you believe, follow; if, I say, you believe, acknowledge what I say: if you do not believe, pardon what I do, in which I prefer God. Most blessed and most flourishing, may you enjoy perpetual tranquility with your holy pledges, august Emperor.

EPISTOLA LI. Adventum ejus non ingrato affectu se declinare, sed ne tacere cogeretur, aut offensionis causam praeberet. Iracundum esse Theodosium, sed ex se placabilem: ne igitur eum commoveret, valetudinem excusasse. Ingemuisse episcopos caedem Thessalonicensem, proinde in eluenda illa sanctorum imitandam poenitentiam, sine qua peccatum non tollitur. Diabolum qui ei inviderit, vincendum. Non audere se, illo praesente, offerre sacrificium, a quo etiam divinitus fuerit deterritus: at ipsam poenitentiam sacrificium esse. Quod factum ejus non praeverterit, dolere se, quippe qui eum vere diligat. Augustissimo imperatori THEODOSIO AMBROSIUS episcopus. 1. Et veteris amicitiae dulcis mihi recordatio est, et beneficiorum, quae crebris meis intercessionibus summa gratia in alios contulisti, gratiae memini. Unde colligi potest quod non ingrato aliquo affectu adventum tuum semper mihi antehac exoptatissimum declinare potuerim. Sed qua causa hoc fecerim, breviter expediam. [0B] 2. Soli mihi in tuo comitatu jus naturae ereptum videbam audiendi, ut et loquendi privarer munere; motus enim frequenter es quod ad me pervenissent aliqua, quae in consistorio tuo statuta forent. Ego ergo expers communis usus sum, cum dicat Dominus Jesus nihil esse occultum, quod non manifestetur (Luc. VIII, 17). Verecundia igitur, qua potui, satisfeci imperiali arbitrio; et prospexi ne aut ipse causam commotionis habeas, cum id egerim, ne quid ad me de imperialibus deferatur statutis: aut ego cum fuero praesens, aut non audiam per metum omnium, et quasi conniventis famam subibo: aut ita audiam, ut mihi aures pateant, vox intercludatur; ut audita non possim eloqui, ne eos qui in suspicionem proditionis venerint, laedam in periculo. [0C] 3. Quid igitur facerem? Non audirem? Sed aures non possem cera veterum fabularum claudere. Proderem? Sed quod in tuis jussis timerem, in meis verbis deberem cavere; ne 998 quid cruentum committeretur. Tacerem? Sed quod miserrimum foret omnium, alligaretur conscientia, vox eriperetur. Et ubi illud? Sed si sacerdos non dixerit erranti, is qui erraverit, in sua culpa morietur, et sacerdos reus erit poenae, quia non admonuit errantem (Ezechiel III, 19)? 4. Accipe illud, imperator auguste. Quod habeas fidei studium, non possum negare; quod Dei timorem, non diffiteor: sed habes naturae impetum, quem si quis lenire velit, cito vertes ad misericordiam: si quis stimulet, in majus exsuscitas, ut eum revocare vix possis. Utinam si nemo mitigat, nullus accendat! Libenter eum committo tibi: ipse te revocas, et pietatis studio vincis impetum naturae. 5. Hunc ego impetum malui cogitationibus tuis secreto committere, quam meis factis publice fortassis movere. Itaque malui officio meo aliquid deesse, quam humilitati: et requiri in me ab aliis sacerdotis auctoritatem, quam a te desiderari in me amantissime honorificentiam; ut represso impetu, integra esset consilii eligendi facultas. Praetendi aegritudinem corporis re vera gravem, et nisi a viris mitioribus vix levandam: vel emori tamen maluissem, quam adventum tuum biduo, aut triduo non exspectarem. Sed quid facerem, non erat. 6. Factum est in urbe Thessalonicensium quod nulla memoria habet, quod revocare non potui, ne fieret; immo quod ante atrocissimum fore dixi, cum toties rogarem: et quod ipse sero revocando grave factum putasti, hoc factum extenuare non poteram. Quando primum auditum est, propter adventum Gallorum episcoporum Synodus convenerat; nemo non ingemuit, nullus mediocriter accepit: non erat facti tui absolutio in Ambrosii communione, in me etiam amplius commissi exaggeraretur invidia, si nemo diceret Dei nostri reconciliationem fore necessariam. 7. An pudet te, Imperator, hoc facere quod rex propheta, auctor Christi secundum carnem prosapiae fecit David? Illi dictum est, quia dives qui haberet plurimos greges, unam pauperis ovem propter adventum hospitis eripuit et occidit; et cognito quod in hoc ipse argueretur, quia ipse fecisset, ait: Peccavi Domino (II Reg. XII, 13). Noli ergo impatienter ferre, Imperator, si dicatur tibi: Tu fecisti istud, quod David regi dictum est a propheta. Si enim hoc sedulo audieris, et dixeris: Peccavi Domino; si dixeris regale istud propheticum: Venite adoremus, 999 et procidamus ante eum; et ploremus ante Dominum nostrum, qui fecit nos (Psal. XCIV, 6); dicetur et tibi: Quoniam poenitet te, dimittit tibi Dominus peccatum tuum, et non morieris (II Reg. XII, 13). 8. Iterum cum plebem numerari jussisset David, percussus est corde, et dixit ad Dominum: Peccavi vehementer, quod fecerim hoc verbum, et nunc, Domine, aufer iniquitatem servi tui, quod deliqui vehementer (II Reg. XXIV, 10). Et missus est iterum ad eum Nathan propheta, qui ei trium optionem conditionum offerret, ut quam vellet, eligeret: famem tribus annis in terra, aut tribus mensibus fugere a facie inimicorum suorum, aut triduo mortem in terra. Et respondit David: Angustiae sunt tria haec vehementer; verumtamen incidam in manu Domini; quoniam multae misericordiae ejus nimis: et in manus hominis non incidam (Ibid., 14). Culpa autem erat, quoniam voluit scire numerum totius plebis, quae secum erat: quod scire Deo soli debuit reservare. 9. Et cum, inquit, mors fieret in plebe, ipso primo die ad horam prandii cum vidisset David percutientem angelum in plebem, ait David: Ego peccavi, et ego pastor malignum feci, et hic grex quid fecit? Fiat manus tua in me, et in domum patris mei (Ibid., 17). Itaque poenituit Dominum, et jussit angelo ut parceret plebi, sacrificium autem offerret David; erant enim tunc sacrificia pro delictis, haec nunc sunt sacrificia poenitentiae. Itaque ea humilitate acceptior Deo factus est: non enim mirandum peccare hominem: sed illud reprehensibile, si non se cognoscat errasse, non humiliet Deo. 10. Job sanctus et ipse potens in saeculo, ait: Peccatum meum non abscondi, sed coram plebe omni annuntiavi (Job. XXXI, 33). Ipsi immani regi Saul dixit Jonathas filius suus: Noli peccare in servum tuum David (I Reg. XIX, 4): et: Ut quid peccas in sanguinem innocentem occidere David sine causa (Ibid., 5)? Quia etsi rex erat, peccabat tamen, si occideret innocentem. Denique etiam David cum jam regno potiretur, et audisset Abner innocentem occisum a Joab duce militiae suae, ait: Innocens sum ego et regnum meum amodo et usque in aeternum a sanguine Abner filii Ner (II Reg. III, 28); et jejunavit in dolore. 11. Haec ideo scripsi, non ut te confundam, sed ut regum exempla provocent, ut tollas hoc peccatum de regno tuo: tolles autem humiliando Deo animam tuam. Homo es, et tibi venit tentatio, vince eam. Peccatum non tollitur nisi lacrymis et poenitentia. Nec angelus potest, nec archangelus; Dominus ipse, qui solus potest dicere: Ego vobiscum sum (Matth. XXVIII, 20); si peccaverimus, nisi poenitentiam deferentibus non relaxat. 12. Suadeo, rogo, hortor, admoneo; quia dolori est mihi, ut tu qui pietatis inauditae exemplum eras, qui apicem clementiae tenebas, qui singulos nocentes non patiebaris periclitari, 1000 tot periisse non doleas innocentes. Etsi in praeliis felicissime egeris, etsi in aliis quoque laudabilis; tamen apex tuorum operum pietas semper fuit. Id tibi invidit diabolus, quod habebas praestantissimum. Vince eum, dum habes adhuc unde possis vincere. Noli peccato tuo aliud peccatum addere; ut usurpes, quod usurpasse multis officit. 13. Ego certe in omnibus aliis licet debitor pietati tuae, cui ingratus esse non possum, quam pietatem multis imperatoribus praeferebam, uni adaequabam: ego, inquam, causam in te contumaciae nullam habeo, sed habeo timoris: offerre non audeo sacrificium, si volueris assistere. An quod in unius innocentis sanguine non licet, in multorum licet? Non puto. 14. Postremo scribo manu mea, quod solus legas. Ita me Dominus ab omnibus tribulationibus liberet; quia non ab homine, neque per hominem, sed aperte mihi interdictum adverti. Cum enim essem sollicitus, ipsa nocte qua proficisci parabam, venisse quidem visus es ad Ecclesiam; sed mihi sacrificium offerre non licuit. Alia praetereo, ut potui cavere: sed pertuli amore tuo, ut arbitror. Dominus faciat ut omnia cum tranquillitate cedant. Multifarie Deus noster admonet, signis coelestibus, prophetarum praeceptis: visionibus etiam peccatorum vult nos intelligere; quo rogemus eum, ut perturbationes auferat, pacem vobis imperantibus servet, fides Ecclesiae et tranquillitas perseveret, cui prodest christianos et pios esse imperatores. 15. Certe vis probari Deo. Omnis rei tempus, ut scriptum est: Tempus, inquit, faciendi, Domine (Eccles. III, 1); et: Tempus beneplaciti Deus (Psal. CXVIII, 126). Tunc offeres, cum sacrificandi acceperis facultatem, quando hostia tua accepta sit Deo. Nonne me delectaret habere gratiam imperatoris, ut secundum voluntatem tuam agerem, si causa pateretur? Et simplex oratio sacrificium est: haec veniam refert, illa offensionem; quia haec habet humilitatem, illa contemptum: Dei enim vox est, quod malit ut fiat mandatum ejus, quam deferatur sacrificium. Clamat istud Deus, ad populum Moyses annuntiat, ad populos Paulus praedicat. Id facito quod intelligis in tempore plus facere. Misericordiam, inquit, malo quam sacrificium (Matth. IX, 13). Quare non illi magis sint Christiani, qui peccatum condemnant suum, quam qui defendere putant? Justus enim in exordio sermonis accusator est sui (Prov. XVIII, 17). Qui se accusat cum peccaverit, justus est, non ille qui se laudaverit. 16. Utinam, Imperator, etiam ante mihi potius credidissem, quam consuetudini tuae. Cum puto quod cito ignoscis, cito revocas, ut saepe fecisti; et tu praeventus es, et ego non declinavi, quod cavere non debueram. Sed gratias Domino, qui vult servulos suos castigare, ne 1001 perdat. Istud mihi commune est cum prophetis, et tibi erit commune cum sanctis. 17. An ego Gratiani patrem non oculis meis praeferam? Debent veniam sancta alia pignora tua. Dulce mihi nomen antetuli, quibus amorem communiter detuli. Amo, diligo, orationibus prosequor. Si credis, sequere; si, inquam, credis, agnosce quod dico: si non credis, ignosce quod facio, in quo Deum praefero. Beatissimus et florentissimus cum sanctis pignoribus fruaris tranquillitate perpetua, Imperator auguste. 1002