Letter 8: Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most merciful Emperor Valentinian.

LETTER XVIII. Ambrose replies to the Memorial of Symmachus, and after first securing for himself the goodwill of Valentinian, attacks the three principal heads in that Memorial. For against the personification by which Rome was feigned to demand her ancient rites, he sets the same Rome demanding the contrary; the sacred virgins and the priests of Christ are compared with the Vestals and the sacrificers; and finally, the claim that the abolition of those ceremonies was avenged by famine is shown to be empty by the most unanswerable arguments. Ambrose the bishop to the most blessed prince and most merciful emperor Valentinian Augustus. 1. When the most illustrious Symmachus, prefect of the city, had laid before your Clemency a request that the altar which had been removed from the senate house of the city of Rome should be restored to its place; and when you, O emperor, though still in the first training of your youthful years, flourishing in your fresh youth, yet a veteran in the strength of faith, did not approve the entreaty of the heathen — at that very moment, when I learned of it, I presented a petition. In it, although I included what seemed necessary to the matter, I nevertheless asked that a copy of the Memorial be given to me. 2. And so, not as one doubtful of your faith, but provident in caution and assured of your dutiful examination, I reply by this discourse to the assertion of the Memorial, asking only this one thing: that you think you must look not for elegance of words, but for the force of the matters themselves. For golden, as the divine Scripture teaches (Sirach 6:11), is the tongue of learned wise men, which, endowed with bedizened speech and flashing back like the glint of precious color with a certain splendor of shining eloquence, takes captive the eyes of minds with the appearance of beauty, and dazzles the sight. But this gold, if you handle it more carefully with your hand, is price on the outside, base metal within. Turn over, I pray, and shake out the sect of the heathen: they sound out things precious and grand, they defend things barren of truth; they speak of God, they adore an image. 3. Three things, then, in his Memorial did the most illustrious prefect of the city set forth, which he thought valid: that Rome, as he says, demands her ancient worship; that emoluments ought to be granted to her priests and to the Vestal Virgins; and that, the emoluments of the priests being denied, a public famine followed. 4. In the first proposition, with tearful complaint of speech Rome weeps, demanding, as he says, the ancient observances of the ceremonies. "These sacred rites," she says, "drove Hannibal from the walls and the Senones from the Capitol." And so, while the power of the sacred rites is proclaimed, their weakness is betrayed. Therefore Hannibal long insulted the Roman sacred rites, and while the gods fought against him, he came as far as the walls of the city by conquering. Why did they suffer themselves to be besieged, on whose behalf the arms of their gods were fighting? 5. For of the Senones, what am I to say — whom, as they penetrated the secret places of the Capitol, the remnants of the Romans would not have withstood, had not a goose betrayed them with terrified cackling? See what kind of protectors the Roman temples have! Where then was Jupiter? Was he speaking in the goose? 6. But why should I deny that the rites of the sacred ceremonies fought for the Romans? Yet Hannibal too worshipped those same gods. Let them choose, then, which they will. If the sacred rites conquered among the Romans, then among the Carthaginians they were overcome; if they were triumphant among the Carthaginians, then assuredly they did not profit the Romans. 7. Let that envious complaint of the Roman people, therefore, be done away with: Rome did not commission this. She accosts them in other words: "Why do you daily stain me with the empty blood of an innocent flock? The trophies of victory are not in the entrails of cattle, but in the strength of warriors. By other disciplines I subdued the world. It was Camillus who served as a soldier, who brought back the standards carried off from the Capitol, after slaying the conquerors of the Tarpeian rock: valor laid low those whom religion did not remove. What shall I say of Attilius [Regulus], who spent even his death in military service? Africanus [Scipio] found his triumph not among the altars of the Capitol, but among the battle lines of Hannibal. Why do you bring forward to me the examples of the ancients? I hate the rites of the Neros. What shall I say of the two-month emperors, and of the ends of reigns coupled with their beginnings? Or is it perhaps something new, that barbarians have overstepped their own borders? Were those too Christians, by whose pitiable and unprecedented example one emperor was made captive, and under another the whole world was made captive, when the rites that promised victory betrayed it? Was there then no altar of Victory? I repent my fall: my ancient gray hair has drawn a blush at the shameful blood. I am not ashamed to be converted in old age along with the whole world. For it is certainly true that no age is too late for learning thoroughly. Let that old age blush which cannot amend itself. It is not the gray hair of years that is praised, but of character (Wisdom 4:9). There is no shame in passing over to better things. This alone I had in common with the barbarians, that I formerly did not know God. Your sacrifice is the rite of being sprinkled with the gore of beasts. Why do you seek the voices of God in dead cattle? Come, and learn upon earth the heavenly warfare: here we live, and there we serve as soldiers. Let God himself teach me the mystery of heaven, who founded it — not a man who has been ignorant of his own self. Whom should I believe concerning God rather than God? How can I believe you, who confess that you do not know what you worship?" 8. "By one road," he says, "one cannot arrive at so great a mystery." What you do not know, that we have come to know by the voice of God. And what you seek by conjectures, we hold as ascertained from the very wisdom of God and from truth. Your beliefs, therefore, do not agree with ours. You entreat the emperors for peace for your gods; we ask of Christ peace for the emperors themselves. You adore the works of your own hands; we count it an injury that anything which can be made should be thought to be God. God does not wish himself to be worshipped in stones. Indeed, even your own philosophers laughed at these things. 9. But if for this reason you deny that Christ is God — because you do not believe that he died (for you do not know that that death was of the flesh, not of the divinity, and that it brought it about that of those who believe none now dies) — what is more imprudent than you, who worship with insult and disparage with honor? For you think your god to be wood. O insulting reverence! You do not believe that Christ could die. O honoring obstinacy! 10. "But the ancient altars," he says, "must be restored to the images, the ornaments to the shrines." Let these things be demanded back by a partner in the superstition: a Christian emperor has learned to honor the altar of Christ alone. Why do they compel pious hands and faithful lips to render service to their sacrilegious rites? Let the voice of our emperor echo Christ, and let him speak of him alone, whom he feels within; for the heart of the king is in the hand of God (Proverbs 21:1). Did any heathen emperor ever raise an altar to Christ? While they demand back the things that once were, by their own example they admonish how much Christian emperors ought to grant of reverence to the religion which they follow — seeing that the heathen granted everything to their own superstitions. 11. We began long ago, and now they follow [or rather: pursue] those whom they have shut out. We glory in our blood; loss disturbs them. We count these things in place of victory; they think them an injury. They never conferred more upon us than when they ordered Christians to be scourged and proscribed and slain. Religion made a reward of what perfidy thought to be punishment. See how great-souled we are! Through injuries, through want, through punishment we have grown; they do not believe that their ceremonies can endure without profit. 11 [second]. "Let the Vestal Virgins," he says, "have their immunity." Let those say this who do not know how to believe that virginity can be free of charge: let those make appeal to gains who have no confidence in virtues. Yet how many virgins have the promised rewards made for them? Scarcely seven Vestals are taken as girls. Behold the whole number which the fillets of the bound head, the purple dyes of robes, the pomp of the litter surrounded by a retinue of attendants, the greatest privileges, the immense gains, and finally the prescribed period of chastity have compelled together! 12. Let them lift up the eyes of mind and body; let them behold the common people of modesty, the populace of integrity, the assembly of virginity. Not fillets are an adornment for the head, but a humble veil for use, noble for chastity; not sought-out, but renounced, are the allurements of beauty; not those insignia of purples, not the luxury of delicacies, but the practice of fastings; no privileges, no gains: all things, in short, of such a kind that you would think they are recalled from the pursuit even while the duties are being performed. Yet while the duty is performed, the pursuit is provoked. Chastity is heaped up by its own losses. That is not virginity which is bought for a price, not possessed by the pursuit of virtue; that is not integrity which is bid at auction for the temporary profit of money. The first victory of chastity is to conquer the desires for possessions; for the pursuit of gain is a temptation of modesty. Yet let us grant that subsidies of largess ought to be conferred on the virgins. What gifts will overflow to Christian virgins? What treasury will suffice for such great wealth? Or if they think it ought to be conferred on the Vestals alone, are they not ashamed that those who claimed everything for themselves under heathen emperors should, under Christian princes, think that no share is owed to us in common? 13. They complain also that public maintenance is not owed to their priests and ministers. What a great uproar of words has clattered out from this! But on the contrary, the emoluments even of private succession are denied to us by recent laws, and no one complains; for we do not count it an injury, because we do not grieve at the loss. If a priest [of theirs] seeks the privilege of declining the burden of the city council, he must give up his ancestral and inherited possession and the possession of all his property. How the heathen would aggravate this complaint, if they had it — that a priest buys the leisure of his ministry at the cost of his whole patrimony, and at the private loss of every advantage purchases the practice of public service: holding out the watches of the common welfare, he consoles himself with the wage of domestic want; because he did not sell his ministry, but acquired grace. 14. Let him compare the cases. You wish to excuse the decurion [of his civic obligations], whereas it is not permitted to excuse a priest for the Church. Wills are written to the ministers of the temples; no profane person is excepted, none of the lowest condition, none prodigal of his modesty: of all men, only to the cleric is the common right closed — by whom alone, on behalf of all, the common vow is undertaken, the common office is performed: no legacies, even of grave widows, no donation. And where no fault is detected in conduct, nevertheless a penalty is prescribed because of the office. What a Christian widow has bequeathed to the priests of a temple is valid; what she has bequeathed to the ministers of God is not valid. This I have set down not in order to complain, but that they may know what I do not complain of; for I would rather that we be inferior in money than in grace. 15. But they report that those things which have been either given or left to the Church have not been violated. Let them themselves say who has taken gifts from the temples, such as has been done to the Christians. If these things had been done to the heathen, injury would be repaid rather than inflicted. Only now at last is justice held forth, equity demanded? Where then was that judgment, when, the property of all Christians having been plundered, they even grudged them their very breath of life, and forbade to the dead, nowhere denied to any, the final dealings of burial? Those whom the heathen cast headlong, the seas gave back. This is the victory of the faith, that they themselves now find fault with the deeds of their forefathers, whose acts they condemn. But what — confound it! — is the reasoning, that they should seek the gifts of those whose deeds they condemn? 16. Yet no one has denied offerings to the shrines and legacies to the soothsayers; the estates alone have been taken away, because they did not use religiously the things which they would defend by the law of religion. Those who use our example, why did they not use our practice? The Church possesses nothing for herself except the faith. These are the revenues she furnishes, these the fruits. The possession of the Church is the maintenance of the needy. Let them count what captives the temples have redeemed, what sustenance they have conferred on the poor, to what exiles they have ministered the means of living. Estates, therefore, have been intercepted, not rights. 17. Behold, the deed which a public famine, as they say, avenged, as expiating a grievous crime — because what was profiting the advantage of the priests began to profit the use of all! Therefore, those things being withdrawn, as they say, the shrubs stripped of their bark licked the mouths of the failing with their pitiable sap. Therefore, exchanging grain for the Chaonian acorn, recalled again to the pasturage of cattle and to the sustenance of unhappy fare, they consoled their wretched hunger in the forests by shaking the oak. New prodigies of the lands, forsooth, which had never happened before — while heathen superstition seethed throughout the whole world! In truth, when before this did the crop with empty stalks mock the prayers of the greedy farmer, and the herb sought in the furrows fail the hope of the rustic people of grain? 18. And whence had the Greeks the oracles attributed to their oak, except because they thought the remedy of woodland nourishment a gift of heavenly religion? For such gifts they believe to be the gifts of their gods. Who adored the trees of Dodona except the people of the nations, when they honored the sad fodder of the field with the dignity of groves? It is not likely that their gods, in their indignation, inflicted as a punishment that which they used, when appeased, to confer as a gift. And what equity is there, that — grieving that food was denied to a few priests — they should themselves deny it to all; when the vengeance would be more merciless than the fault? It is not, therefore, a suitable cause that bound up so great a sickness of a deceiving world, that with the crops green the grown hope of the year should suddenly die. 19. And certainly, for very many years the rights of the temples have been taken away throughout the whole world: did it only now at last come into the mind of the gods of the heathen to go and avenge their injuries? Was it for this reason that the Nile did not swell in its accustomed course — to avenge the losses of the City's priests, who did not avenge those of his own? 20. Yet grant that they think the injuries of their gods were avenged in the previous year — why this present year were they held in contempt? For now the rustic people are not fed on the torn-up roots of herbs, nor do they seek the solace of the woodland berry, nor snatch food from the brambles: but glad with prosperous works, while it even marvels at its own harvests, the land has filled the fast with the fullness of its desire: the earth has rendered us its produce with interest. 21. Who, then, so unaccustomed to human affairs, would be astonished at the changes of the years? And yet even in the previous year we know that most provinces overflowed with produce. What shall I say of the Gauls, richer than usual? Pannonia sold the grain it had not sown; and second Rhaetia learned the envy of its own fertility — for she who was wont to be safer through her famine, stirred up an enemy against herself by her fecundity: the autumn grain fed Liguria and Venetia. Therefore neither did that year wither through sacrilege, nor did this year flower through the fruits of the faith. Let them deny too that the vineyards overflowed with abundant offspring. And so we have both received the harvest with interest, and we possess the benefits of a more liberal vintage. 22. There remains the last and greatest point: whether you, O emperors, ought to restore those subsidies which were profitable to you; for he says: "Let them defend you, let them be worshipped by us." This is what we cannot endure, most faithful princes: that they reproach us that in your name they supplicate their gods, and, without your commanding it, commit a monstrous sacrilege, interpreting your acquiescence as consent. Let them keep their own protectors to themselves: let those protectors defend their own, if they can. For if they cannot be of help to those by whom they are worshipped, how can they defend you, by whom they are not worshipped? 23. "But the rite of our ancestors," he says, "must be preserved." What of the fact that all things afterward advanced to the better? The world itself, which had either first congealed when the seeds of the elements were forced together through the void, with its globe yet tender, or was still dim with the dreadful disorder of an undigested work — did it not afterward, when the distinction of heaven, sea, and lands had been made, receive the forms of things by which it appears beautiful? Stripped of their dewy darkness, the lands stood amazed at a new sun. The day does not shine forth at its beginning, but in the progress of time it glitters with the increase of light, and burns with heat. 24. The moon herself, by whose appearance, in prophetic oracles, the Church is figured, when first rising she is restored into her monthly ages, is hidden from us in darkness; and little by little, filling her horns, or freeing herself from the region of the sun, she grows red with the brilliance of clear radiance. 25. They did not before know how to be worked for the fruits of the earth: afterward, when the careful farmer began to command the fields, and to clothe the formless soil with vineyards, the woodland tempers, softened by domestic cultivation, put off their wildness. 26. The first age of the year itself, which has colored us with like usage at the bidding of the things that give birth: but in its progress it grows green with flowers about to fall, and matures with its last fruits. 27. We too, raw in age, have the infancy of sense: but changed into the years, we lay aside the rudiments of our understanding. Let them say, then, that all things ought to have remained in their beginnings; that the world, because it has shone with the splendor of the sun, is displeasing because it was once veiled in darkness. And how much more pleasing it is to have driven away the darkness of the mind than that of the body, and that the radiance of faith should have shone forth rather than that of the sun! Therefore the primeval beginnings both of the world and of all things wavered, that the venerable old age of a gray faith might follow. Let those whom this disturbs find fault with the harvest, because its fecundity is late; let them find fault with the vintage, because it is at the close of the year; let them find fault with the olive, because it is the last fruit. 28. Therefore our harvest too is the faith of souls; the grace of the Church is the vintage of merits, which from the beginning of the world was green among the saints, but in the last age poured itself out among the peoples, that all might observe that the faith of Christ crept not into raw minds (for there is no crown of victory without an adversary), but that, the opinion which before prevailed having been exploded, what was true is by right preferred. 30. If the ancient rites delighted them, why did the same Rome succeed to foreign rites? I pass over the ground hidden by its price, and the shepherds' huts gleaming with degenerate gold. Why — to answer from the very thing of which they complain — did the rivals of an alien superstition receive the images of captured cities, and conquered gods, and foreign rites of the sacred ceremonies? Whence, then, comes the example, that Cybele washes her chariots in the simulated river Almo? Whence the Phrygian seers, and the divinities of unequal Carthage, ever hateful to the Romans? Whom the Africans worship as Caelestis, the Persians as Mithras, most peoples as Venus — for diversity of name, not for variety of divinity. Thus they believed Victory too to be a goddess, which surely is a gift, not a power: it is given, it does not rule; it is the favor of legions, not the power of religions. Is she then a great goddess, whom the multitude of soldiers claims for itself, or the outcome of battles bestows? 31. They ask that her altar be built in the senate house of the city of Rome — that is, where more Christians assemble. There are altars in all the temples, an altar even in the temple of the Victories. Since they delight in number, they everywhere celebrate their sacrifices together. What is it but to insult the faith, to claim the sacrifice of a single altar? Is this to be endured, that a heathen sacrifice, and a Christian be present? "Let them drink in," he says, "let them drink in, even unwilling, the smoke with their eyes, the music with their ears, the ashes with their throats, the incense with their nostrils — and though they turn away, let the ash stirred up from our hearths bespatter their faces." Are the baths not enough for them, the porticoes, the streets occupied with images? Even in that common assembly, will there not be a common condition? The pious portion of the senate will be bound by the voices of those who adjure, by the oaths of those who swear by sacred rites. If it refuse, it will seem to betray a falsehood; if it acquiesce, to confess sacrilege. 32. "Where," he says, "shall we swear to your laws and words?" So then your mind, which is held enclosed by the laws, gathers its sanction from the ceremonies of the heathen, and binds its faith [there]? Now not only is the faith of those present, but even of the absent, and — what is more, O emperors — your faith is assailed; for you compel, if you command. Constantius, of august memory, not yet initiated into the sacred mysteries, thought himself contaminated if he should see that altar. He ordered it to be carried away, he did not order it to be replaced. The one act has the authority of a deed done, the other has not that of a command. 33. Let no one flatter himself on account of absence. He is more present who inserts himself into minds than he who attests himself to the eyes. For it is more to be joined in mind than to be coupled in body. The senate has you as the presidents who summon its assembly; for you it convenes; to you, not to the gods of the heathen, it pledges its conscience; it prefers you to its children, yet not to its faith. This is the love to be sought, this is the love greater than empire, if the faith be safe which preserves the empire. 34. But perhaps it may move someone that a most faithful prince was thus forsaken [by fortune] — as if the price of merits were to be estimated by the fleeting things of the present. For what wise man does not know that the affairs of human things are placed in a kind of orbit and circuit, because they do not always have the same successes, but their states vary and their turns change? 35. Whom more blessed than Gnaeus Pompey did the Roman temples send forth? Yet he, when with three triumphs he had girdled the globe of the lands, driven from the battle line, a fugitive in war and an exile from the borders of his own empire, fell by the hand of a eunuch of Canopus. 36. Whom more noble than Cyrus did the lands give as king of the Persians, of the whole East? He too, when he had conquered the most powerful princes who opposed him, and had spared the conquered, perished, overthrown by the arms of a woman. And that king, who had even honored the vanquished with a seat of honor, having had his head cut off and ordered to be sated, enclosed within a skin full of gore, was made a mockery to a woman's command. So in the course of this life, not like things are rendered to like, but things far different! 37. Whom, too, do we find more devoted to sacrifices than Hamilcar, the leader of the Carthaginians? When, throughout the whole time of the battle, placed among the fighting battle lines, he was offering sacrifice — when he learned that part of his men had been conquered, he cast himself into the very fires upon which he was burning offerings: that he might at least with his own body extinguish those rites which he had learned profited him nothing. 38. For of Julian, what shall I say? who, when he was ill-trusting in the responses of the soothsayers, took from himself the means of returning. Therefore in a common misfortune there is no common offense; for our promises have mocked no one. 39. I have answered those who provoked, as though not provoked myself; for my zeal was to refute the Memorial, not to expound the superstition. Yet let their very Memorial, O emperor, make you more cautious. For when he had woven together [arguments] about the earlier princes — that the prior number of them cultivated the ceremonies of their fathers, and the more recent did not remove them — and had added also: "if the religion of the ancients does not set the example, let the connivance of those nearest do so" — he plainly taught what you owe both to your faith, that you should not follow the example of the heathen rite, and to your piety, that you should not violate the statutes of your brother. For if, for their own party at least, they have proclaimed the connivance of those princes who, though they were Christians, nevertheless by no means removed the decrees of the heathen — how much more ought you to yield to brotherly love, so that you, who ought to connive even at something you perhaps might not approve, lest you should derogate from your brother's statutes, should now hold fast what you judge to befit both your faith and the bond of brotherhood.

EPISTOLA XVIII. Relationi Symmachi respondet AMBROSIUS, et post conciliatam sibi VALENTINIANI benevolentiam, tria in eadem relatione praecipua capita aggreditur. Nam prosopopoeiae qua Roma priscos suos ritus poscere fingebatur, alia ejusdem Romae contraria efflagitantis opponitur, cum Vestalibus et sacrificulis virgines sacrae et Christi sacerdotes comparantur, ac tandem quod sublatas illas ceremonias famem ultam fuisse dictitabatur, id vanum esse invictissimis argumentis demonstratur. AMBROSIUS episcopus beatissimo principi, et clementissimo imperatori VALENTINIANO augusto. 1. Cum vir clarissimus praefectus urbis Symmachus ad clementiam tuam retulisset, ut ara quae de urbis Romae curia sublata fuerat, redderetur loco; et tu, imperator, licet adhuc in minoris aevi tirocinio florentibus novus annis, fidei tamen virtute veteranus obsecrata gentilium non probares; eodem, Quo comperi, puncto libellum obtuli: quo licet comprehenderim, quae suggestioni necessaria viderentur; poposci tamen exemplum mihi relationis dari. 2. Itaque non fidei tuae ambiguus, sed providus cautionis, et pii certus examinis, hoc sermone relationis assertioni respondeo, hoc unum petens, ut non verborum elegantiam, sed vim rerum exspectandam putes. Aurea enim, sicut Scriptura divina docet (Eccl. VI, 11), est lingua sapientium litteratorum, quae phaleratis dotata sermonibus, et quodam splendentis eloquii velut coloris pretiosi corusco resultans, capit animorum oculos specie formosi, visuque perstringit. Sed aurum hoc, si diligentius manu tractes, foris pretium, intus metallum est. Volve, quaeso, atque excute sectam gentilium: pretiosa et grandia sonant, veri effeta defendunt: Deum loquuntur, simulacrum adorant. 3. Tria igitur in relatione sua vir clarissimus praefectus urbis proposuit, quae valida putavit: quod Roma veteres, ut ait, suos cultus requirat, et quod sacerdotibus suis virginibusque Vestalibus emolumenta tribuenda sint, et quod emolumentis sacerdotum negatis, fames secuta publica sit. 4. In prima propositione, flebili Roma quaestu sermonis illacrymat, veteres, ut ait, cultus ceremoniarum 834 requirens. Haec sacra, inquit, Hannibalem a moenibus, a Capitolio Senonas repulerunt. Itaque dum sacrorum potentia praedicatur, infirmitas proditur. Ergo Hannibal diu sacris insultavit Romanis, et diis contra se dimicantibus, usque ad muros urbis vincendo pervenit. Cur se obsideri passi sunt, pro quibus deorum suorum arma pugnabant? 5. Nam de Senonibus quid loquar, quos Capitolii secreta penetrantes Romanae reliquiae non tulissent, nisi eos pavido anser strepitu prodidisset? En quales templa Romana praesules habent. Ubi tunc erat Jupiter? An in ansere loquebatur? 6. Verum quid negem sacrorum ritus militasse Romanis? Sed etiam Annibal eosdem Deos colebat. Utrum volunt igitur, eligant. Si in Romanis vicerunt sacra, in Carthaginensibus ergo superata sunt: si in Carthaginensibus triumphata, nec Romanis utique profuerunt. 7. Facessat igitur invidiosa illa populi Romani querela: non hanc Roma mandavit. Aliis illa eos interpellat vocibus: Quid me casso quotidie gregis innoxii sanguine cruentatis? Non in fibris pecudum, sed in viribus bellatorum tropaea victoriae sunt. Aliis ego disciplinis orbem subegi. Militabat Camillus, qui sublata Capitolio signa, caesis Tarpeiae rupis triumphatoribus, reportavit: stravit virtus, quos religio non removit. Quid de Attilio loquar, qui militiam etiam mortis impendit? Africanus non inter Capitolii aras, sed inter Annibalis acies triumphum invenit. Quid mihi veterum exempla profertis? Odi ritus Neronum. Quid dicam bimestres imperatores, et terminos regum cum exordiis copulatos? Aut forte illud est novum, barbaros suis excessisse finibus? Numquid etiam illi christiani fuerunt, quorum miserabili novoque exemplo alter captivus imperator, sub altero captivus orbis, fefellisse quae victoriam promittebant, suas ceremonias prodiderunt? Numquid et tunc non erat ara victoriae? Poenitet lapsus: vetusta canities pudendi sanguinis traxit ruborem. Non erubesco cum toto orbe longaeva converti. Verum certe est quia nulla aetas ad perdiscendum sera est. Erubescat senectus, quae emendare se non potest. Non annorum canities est laudata, sed morum (Sap. IV, IX). Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire. Hoc solum habebam commune cum 835 barbaris, quia Deum antea nesciebam. Sacrificium vestrum ritus est bestiarum cruore respergi. Quid in mortuis pecudibus quaeritis Dei voces? Venite, et discite in terris coelestem militiam: hic vivimus, et illic militamus. Coeli mysterium doceat me Deus ipse, qui condidit: non homo, qui se ipsum ignoravit. Cui magis de Deo, quam Deo credam? Quomodo possum vobis credere, qui fatemini vos ignorare quod colitis? 8. Uno, inquit, itinere non potest perveniri ad tam grande secretum. Quod vos ignoratis, id nos Dei voce cognovimus. Et quod vos suspicionibus quaeritis, nos ex ipsa sapientia Dei et veritate compertum habemus. Non congruunt igitur vestra nobiscum. Vos pacem diis vestris ab imperatoribus obsecratis, nos ipsis imperatoribus a Christo pacem rogamus. Vos manuum vestrarum adoratis opera, nos injuriam ducimus omne quod fieri potest, Deum putari. Non vult se Deus in lapidibus coli. Denique etiam ipsi philosophi vestri ista riserunt. 9. Quod si vos ideo Christum Deum negatis; quia illum mortuum esse non creditis (nescitis enim quod mors illa carnis fuerit, non divinitatis, quae fecit ut credentium jam nemo moriatur) quid vobis imprudentius, qui contumeliose colitis, et honorifice derogatis; vestrum enim Deum lignum putatis. O contumeliosa reverentia! Christum mori potuisse non creditis. O honorifica pervicacia! 10. Sed vetera, inquit, reddenda sunt altaria simulacris, ornamenta delubris. Reposcantur haec a consorte superstitionis: christianus imperator aram solius Christi didicit honorare. Quid manus pias et ora fidelia ministerium suis cogunt sacrilegis exhibere? Vox imperatoris nostri Christum resultet, et illum solum, quem sentit, loquatur; quia cor regis in manu Dei (Prov. XXI, 1). Numquid imperator gentilis aram Christo levavit? Dum ea quae fuerunt, reposcunt, exemplo suo admonent quantum christiani imperatores religioni, quam sequuntur, debeant deferre reverentiae; quando gentiles superstitionibus suis omnia detulerunt. 11. Dudum coepimus, et jam sequuntur exclusos. Nos sanguine gloriamur, illos dispendium movet. Nos haec victoriae loco ducimus, illi injuriam putant. Numquam nobis amplius contulerunt, quam cum verberari christianos atque proscribi ac necari juberent. Praemium fecit religio, quod perfidia putabat esse supplicium. Videte magnanimos. Per injurias, per inopiam, per supplicium nos crevimus: illi ceremonias suas sine quaestu manere posse non credunt. 836 11. Habeant, inquit, Vestales virgines immunitatem suam. Dicant hoc, qui nesciunt credere, quod possit esse gratuita virginitas: provocent lucris, Qui diffidunt virtutibus. Quantas tamen illis virgines praemia promissa fecerunt? Vix septem Vestales capiuntur puellae. En totus numerus quem infulae vittati capitis, purpuratarum vestium murices, pompa lecticae ministrorum circumfusa comitatu, privilegia maxima, lucra ingentia, praescripta denique pudicitiae tempora coegerunt. 12. Attollant mentis et corporis oculos, videant plebem pudoris, populum integritatis, concilium virginitatis. Non vittae capiti decus, sed ignobile velamen usui, nobile castitati: non exquisita, sed abdicata lenocinia pulchritudinis: non illa purpurarum insignia, non luxus deliciarum, sed usus jejuniorum: non privilegia, non lucra: omnia postremo talia, ut revocari a studio putes, dum exercentur officia. Sed dum exercetur officium, studium provocatur. Suis castitas cumulatur dispendiis. Non est virginitas, quae pretio emitur, non virtutis studio possidetur: non est integritas quaecumque in auctione nummario ad tempus licitatur compendio. Prima castitatis victoria est facultatum cupiditates vincere; quia lucri studium tentamentum pudoris est. Ponamus tamen subsidia largitatum conferenda virginibus. Quae christianis munera redundabunt? quod tantas opes sufficiet aerarium? Aut si arbitrantur solis Vestalibus conferendum, non pudet, ut qui totum sibi sub imperatoribus gentilibus vindicarunt, iidem sub principibus christianis non putent nobis sortem debere esse communem. 13. Sacerdotibus quoque suis et ministris queruntur alimenta publica non deberi. Quantus hinc verborum tumultus increpuit? At contra, nobis etiam privatae successionis emolumenta recentibus legibus denegantur, et nemo conqueritur; non enim putamus injuriam, quia dispendium non dolemus. Si privilegium quaerat sacerdos, ut onus curiale declinet, patria atque avita et omnium facultatum possessione cedendum est. Quomodo hanc gentiles, si haberent, ingravarent querelam, quod sacerdos ferias ministerii sui emat totius patrimonii sui damno, et privati universae commoditatis dispendio usum publici mercetur obsequii: praetendens communis salutis excubias, domesticae inopiae se mercede soletur; quia ministerium non vendidit, sed gratiam comparavit. 14. Conferet causas. Vos excusare vultis decurionem, cum Ecclesiae excusare non liceat sacerdotem. Scribuntur testamenta templorum ministris, nullus excipitur profanus, nullus 837 ultimae conditionis, nullus prodigus verecundiae: soli ex omnibus clerico commune jus clauditur, a quo solo pro omnibus votum commune suscipitur, officium commune defertur: nulla legata vel gravium viduarum, nulla donatio. Et ubi in moribus culpa non deprehenditur; tamen officio mulcta praescribitur. Quod sacerdotibus fani legaverit christiana vidua, valet: quod ministris Dei, non valet. Quod ego non ut querar, sed ut sciant quid non querar, comprehendi; malo enim nos pecunia minores esse, quam gratia. 15. Sed referunt, ea quae vel donata vel relicta sunt Ecclesiae, non esse temerata. Dicant et ipsi quis templis dona detraxerit quod factum est christianis. Quae si facta essent gentilibus, redderetur potius quam inferretur injuria. Nunccine demum justitia praetenditur, aequitas postulatur? Ubi tunc erat ista sententia; cum direptis christianorum omnium facultatibus, ipsos vitales anhelitus in viderent, et nullis usquam negata defunctis inhiberent supremae commercia sepulturae? Quos gentiles praecipitarunt, maria reddiderunt. Fidei ista victoria est, quod et ipsi jam facta majorum carpunt, quorum gesta condemnant. Sed quae, malum! ratio, ut eorum munera petant, quorum gesta condemnant? 16. Nemo tamen donaria delubris, et legata haruspicibus denegavit: sola sublata sunt praedia; quia non religiose utebantur iis, quae religionis jure defenderent. Qui nostro utuntur exemplo, cur non utebantur officio? Nihil Ecclesia sibi, nisi fidem possidet. Hos redditus praebet, hos fructus. Possessio Ecclesiae sumptus est egenorum. Numerent quos redemerint templa captivos, quae contulerint alimenta pauperibus, quibus exsulibus vivendi subsidia ministraverint. Praedia igitur intercepta, non jura sunt. 17. En quod factum, quae triste piaret nefas, fames, ut aiunt, publica vindicavit; quia usui omnium proficere coepit, quod proficiebat commodis sacerdotum. Propterea ergo detractis, ut aiunt, arbusta exuta corticibus, succo miserabili deficientium ora lambebant. Propterea Chaonia frugem glande mutantes, rursus in pecudum pastus, et ad infelicis victus alimenta revocati, concussa quercu, famem in silvis 838 miseram solabantur. Nova videlicet prodigia terrarum, quae numquam ante acciderant; cum superstitio gentilis toto orbe ferveret! Re vera quando ante vacuis avenis seges avari vota lusit agricolae, et spem rusticae plebis quaesita sulcis frugis herba destituit? 18. Et unde Graecis oracula habita suae quercus, nisi quia remedium silvestris alimoniae coelestis religionis donum putarunt? Talia enim suorum munera credunt deorum. Quis dodonaeas arbores, nisi gentium populus adoravit; cum pabulum triste agri nemorum honore donaret? Non est verisimile quod indignantes eorum dii id pro poena intulerint, quod solebant placati conferre pro munere. Quae autem aequitas, ut paucis sacerdotibus dolentes victum negatum, ipsi omnibus denegarent; cum inclementior esset vindicta, quam culpa? Non est igitur idonea, quae tantam aegritudinem mundi fallentis causa constrinxerit; ut virentibus segetibus subito spes anni adulta moreretur. 19. Et certe ante plurimos annos templorum jura toto orbe sublata sunt: modone demum diis gentilium venit in mentem suas injurias ultum ire? Propterea nec assueto cursu Nilus intumuit, ut Urbicorum sacerdotum dispendia vindicaret, qui non vindicavit suorum? 20. Esto tamen si superiore anno deorum suorum injurias vindicatas putant, cur praesenti anno contemptui fuere? Jam enim nec herbarum vulsis radicibus rusticana plebs pascitur, nec baccae silvestris explorat solatia; nec cibum de sentibus rapit: sed operum laeta felicium, dum messes suas et ipsa miratatur, explevit voti satietate jejunium: usurarios nobis reddidit terra proventus. 21. Quis ergo tam novus humanis usibus vices stupeat annorum? Et tamen etiam superiore anno plerasque novimus provincias redundasse fructibus. De Galliis quid loquar solito ditioribus? Frumentum Pannoniae, quod non severant, vendiderunt: et secunda Rhetia fertilitatis suae novit invidiam; nam quae solebat tutior esse jejunio, fecunditate hostem in se excitavit: Liguriam Venetiasque autumni frumenta paverunt. Ergo nec ille sacrilegio annus exaruit, et iste fidei fructibus annus effloruit. Negent etiam quod largo fetu vineae redundaverint. 839 Itaque et messem feneratam recepimus, et liberalioris vindemiae beneficia possidemus. 22. Postremus superest et maximus locus, utrum ea quae vobis profuerint, imperatores, restituere subsidia debeatis; ait enim: Vos defendant, a nobis colantur. Hoc est, fidelissimi Principes, quod ferre non possumus; quia exprobrant nobis vestro se nomine diis suis supplicare, et vobis non mandantibus, sacrilegium immane committunt, dissimulationem pro consensu interpretantes. Sibi habeant praesidia sua: suos si possunt, illa defendant. Nam si iis a quibus coluntur, auxilio esse non possunt; quomodo possunt vos defendere, a quibus non coluntur? 23. Sed majorum, inquit, servandus est ritus. Quid quod omnia postea in melius profecerunt? Mundus ipse, qui vel primum coactis elementorum per inane seminibus, tenero orbe, concreverat, vel confuso adhuc indigesti operis caligabat horrore; nonne postea distincto coeli, maris, terrarumque discrimine, rerum formas quibus speciosus videtur, accepit? Exutae humentibus tenebris novum terrae stupuere solem. Dies in exordio non refulget, sed in processu temporis incremento luminis micat, et caloris exaestuat. 24. Luna ipsa, qua propheticis oraculis species Ecclesiae figuratur, cum primum resurgens in menstruas reparatur aetates, tenebris nobis absconditur: paulatimque cornua sua complens, vel e regione solis absolvens, clari splendore fulgoris irrutilat. 25. Exerceri in fructus terrae ante nesciebant: post ubi imperare arvis sollicitus coepit agricola, et informe solum vestire vinetis, silvestres animos domesticis mollitae cultibus exuerunt. 26. Anni ipsius aetas prima, quae nos usu parili coloravit nutu gignentium: sed in processu lapsuris floribus vernat, postremis adolescit fructibus. 27. Nos quoque aevi rudes, sensus habemus infantiam: sed mutati in annos ingenii rudimenta deponimus. Dicant igitur in suis omnia manere debuisse principiis; mundum tenebris obductum, quia splendore solis illuxerit, displicere. Et quanto gratius est animi tenebras depulisse, quam corporis, fideique jubar emicuisse, quam solis? Ergo 840 et mundi sicut omnium rerum primaeva nutarunt, ut venerabilis canae fidei sequeretur senectus. Quos hoc movet, reprehendant messem; quia sera fecunditas est: reprehendant vindemiam; quia in occasu anni est: reprehendant olivam; quia postremus est fructus. 28. Ergo et messis nostra fides animorum est; Ecclesiae gratia meritorum vindemia est, quae ab ortu mundi virebat in sanctis, sed postrema aetate se diffudit in populos, ut adverterent omnes non rudibus animis irrepsisse fidem Christi (nulla enim sine adversario corona victoriae) sed explosa opinione, quae ante convaluit, quod erat verum, fit jure praelatum. 30. Si ritus veteres delectabant, cur in alienos ritus eadem Roma successit? Omitto absconditam pretio humum, et pastorales casas auro degeneri renitentes. Quid, ut de ipso respondeam quod queruntur, captarum simulacra urbium, victosque deos, et peregrinos ritus sacrorum alienae superstitionis aemuli receperunt? Unde igitur exemplum, quod currus suos simulato Almonis in flumine lavat Cybele? Unde Phrygii vates, et semper invisa Romanis non aequae Carthaginis numina? Quam Coelestem Afri, Mithram Persae, plerique Venerem colunt, pro diversitate nominis, non pro numinis varietate. Sic deam esse et victoriam crediderunt, quae utique munus est, non potestas: donatur, non dominatur, legionum gratia, non religionum potentia. Magna igitur dea, quam militum multitudo sibi vindicat, vel praeliorum donat eventus? 31. Hujus aram strui in urbis Romae curia petunt, hoc est, quo plures conveniunt christiani. Omnibus in templis arae, ara etiam in templo victoriarum. Quoniam numero delectantur, sacrificia sua ubique concelebrant. Quid est nisi insultare fidei, unius arae sacrificium vindicare? Ferendumne istud, ut gentilis sacrificet, et christianus intersit? Hauriant, inquit, hauriant vel inviti fumum oculis, symphoniam auribus, cinerem faucibus, thus naribus, et aversantium licet ora excitata focis nostris favilla respergat. Non illi satis sunt lavacra, non porticus, non plateae occupatae simulacris? Etiamne in communi illo concilio non erit communis conditio? Obstringetur pia senatus portio obtestantium vocibus, adjurantium sacramentis. Si refutet, videbitur mendacium prodere: 841 si acquiescat, sacrilegium confiteri. 32. Ubi, inquit, in leges vestras et verba jurabimus? Ergo mens vestra, quae legibus tenetur inclusa, ceremoniis gentium suffragium colligit, fidem stringit? Jam non solum praesentium, sed absentium etiam, et quod est amplius, imperatores, fides vestra pulsatur; vos enim cogitis, si jubetis. Constantius augustae memoriae nondum sacris initiatus mysteriis, contaminari se putavit, si aram illam videret. Jussit auferri, non jussit reponi. Illud auctoritatem facti habet, hoc praecepti non habet. 33. Nemo sibi de absentia blandiatur. Praesentior est, qui se animis inserit, quam qui oculis protestatur. Plus enim est mente connecti, quam corpore copulari. Vos senatus cogendi concilii praesules habet, vobis coit: vobis conscientiam suam, non diis gentium praestat: vos liberis suis, non tamen fidei suae praefert. Haec est charitas expetenda, haec est charitas major imperio, si fides tuta sit, quae servat imperium. 34. Sed fortasse aliquem moveat ita fidelissimum principem destitutum: proinde quasi meritorum pretium caducis aestimetur praesentium. Quis enim sapiens non in orbe quodam atque circuitu locata humanarum rerum novit negotia; quia non eosdem semper successus habent: sed variant status, et mutant vices? 35. Quem beatiorem Cneio Pompeio Romana templa miserunt? At is cum tribus triumphis terrarum cinxisset orbem, pulsus acie, bello profugus, et sui terminis exsul imperii, Canopei manu spadonis occubuit. 36. Quem nobiliorem Cyro Persarum totius Orientis terrae regem dederunt? Is quoque cum principes potentissimos adversantes vicisset, victos reservasset, muliebribus armis fusus interiit. Et ille rex qui superatos etiam consessus honore donaverat, exsecto capite et intra utrem plenum cruoris, satiari jussus, incluso, femineis imperiis ludibrio fuit. Adeo in istius vitae curriculo non paria paribus, sed longe diversa referuntur! 37. Quem etiam magis sacrificiis deditum, quam Carthaginensium ducem Hamilcarem reperimus? Qui cum toto praelii tempore inter acies positus dimicantes, sacrificium faceret; ubi partem suorum victam esse cognovit, in ipsos quos adolebat, se praecipitavit ignes: ut eos vel corpore suo restingueret, quos sibi nihil profuisse cognoverat. 842 38. Nam de Juliano quid loquar? qui cum responsis haruspicum male credulus esset, ademit sibi subsidia revertendi. Ergo in communi casu non est communis offensa; neminem etenim promissa nostra luserunt. 39. Respondi lacessentibus tamquam non lacessitus; refellendae etenim Relationis, non exponendae superstitionis mihi studium fuit. Te tamen, imperator, ipsa eorum relatio faciat cautiorem. Nam cum de superioribus principibus texuisset, quia prior eorum numerus ceremonias patrum coluit, recentior non removit; addidisset etiam: si exemplum religio veterum non facit, faciat dissimulatio proximorum; evidenter docuit quid et fidei tuae debeas, ut gentilitii ritus non sequaris exemplum: et pietati, ut fratris statuta non violes. Si enim pro suis dumtaxat partibus eorum dissimulationem principum praedicarunt, qui cum essent christiani, decreta tamen gentilium minime removerunt: quanto magis amori debes deferre fraterno, ut qui dissimulare deberes, etiamsi quid forsitan non probares, ne fraternis derogares statutis, et nunc teneas quod et fidei tuae, et germanitatis necessitudini judicas convenire.