AMBROSE

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

Editor: David Bates

John Moorhead AMBROSE

John Moorhead JUSTINIAN

Janet Nelson CHARLES THE BALD

Richard Abels ALFRED THE GREAT

M.K. Lawson CNUT

James A. Brundage MEDIEVAL CANON LAW

John Hudson THE FORMATION OF THE ENGLISH COMMON

LAW

Lindy Grant ABBOT SUGER OF ST- DENIS

David Crouch WILLIAM MARSHAL

Ralph V Turner KING JOHN

Jim Bradbury PHILIP AUGUSTUS

Jane Sayers INNOCENT III

C.H. Lawrence THE FRIARS

David Abulafia THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS

1200-1500
Jean Dunbabin CHARLES I OF ANJOU

Jennifer C. Ward ENGLISH NOBLEWOMEN IN THE LATER

MIDDLE AGES

Michael Hicks BASTARD FEUDALISM

 AMBROSE

Church and Society in the Late

Roman World

John Moorhead
 First published 2002 by Pearson Education Limited

Published 2013 by Routledge

OXI4 4RN
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 1999, Taylor & Francis.

The right of John Moorhead to he identified as author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any infonnation storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or ll1cdical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experilnents described
of their own safety and
herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful oftheir
the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of
products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN 13: 978-0-582-25113-7 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publiration Data

A catalogue entry for this title is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moorhead, John, 1948-

Ambrose: church and society in the late Roman world / John
Moorhead.
p. cm. - (The medieval world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-582-25ll2-5
0-582-25112-5 (hbk).-lSBN 0-582-25113-3 (pbk)
1. Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, d. 397. 2. Church and state-
Rome-History. 3. Church history-Primitive and early church, ca.
30-600. I. Title. II. Series.
BR1720.A5M66 1999
270.2'092-dc21
[BJ 99-12447
CIP

Set by 35 in 11/12 pt BaskeITille

BaskeITilie
 CONTENTS

Editor's Preface and Acknowledgements viii

Abbreviations x

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 Beginnings 15
A new bishop 15
Ambrose 19
Taking office 22
Background and experience 25
The office of bishop 30
Death of a brother 36

CHAPTER 2 Women 40
The two sexes 41
The wife 43
The virgin 51
The senses 54
The body 56
Sweetness tempting men 59
Masculinity 60
Women pleasing themselves 62
Virginity and society 63
Women in private and public 68

CHAPTER 3 The Bible 71

Ambrose's writing on the Bible 72
Ambrose's approach to the Bible 75
Literal interpretation 77
Allegorical interpretation 79
The case of David 82

v
 AMBROSE

The Bible 84
Christ in the Bible 86
Two miracles 88
Coming down and going up 92
A parable 94
Ambrose's piety 96
Structural coherence: the case
of Shechem 98
Allegory across the centuries 100

CHAPTER 4 Church, State, Heretics and Pagans 102

The success of the church 102
The state 104
The church as female 106
Polemic against anti-Nicaeans III
111
Persecution of anti-Nicaeans 118
Pagans 122

CHAPTER 5 The Bishop and the City 129

Milan, sinful or Christian? 129
A skirmish over churches 132
Martyrdom 134
Easter 386 137
Music and hymns 140
The significance of Easter 143
Controversy with anti-Nicaeans 147
The discovery of relics 150
Ambrose victorious 154
The city and its bishop 156

CHAPTER 6 On Duties 157

The De Officiis 158
The clergy 161
Ambrose and classical thought 164
Neoplatonism 169
Synthesis 177
Conclusion 180

CHAPTER 7 The Elderly Bishop 182

The Jews 182
Callinicum 185
Repression at Thessaloniki 192
Church affairs 196

vi
 CONTENTS

The death of Valentinian 197

The death of Theodosius 202
Last years 206

CHAPTER 8 Nachleben
Nachlebe n 210

Bibliography 219
Map: The late Roman world of
oj Ambrose 228
Index 229

VII
VlI
 EDITOR'S PREFACE AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

One of the four Fathers of the Catholic Church, St. Ambrose,

bishop of Milan, is one of the dominant figures, not just of
the late Antique Christian Church, but of the entire history
of Christianity. As such, his actions and writings were con-
stantly re-examined and reinterpreted in later historical
periods. His life has acquired an aura which seems to straddle
time, rather than being set in any particular historical
context. Assessing Ambrose is therefore a complex matter,
especially since, while Ambrose's own writings are volumi-
nous, other relevant contemporary sources are scarce.
A member of the aristocracy of the Late Roman Empire
and a man of considerable administrative experience before
his somewhat unexpected elevation to the episcopate, Am-
brose was intensely absorbed in all the issues and controver-
sies of his time. Very conscious of a bishop's duty to expound
Scripture to his flock and to provide pastoral guidance, he
devoted a great deal of time to seeking to explain the Bible
through sermons and writings. He also took it upon himself
to combat heretics and pagans and, when necessary, lay
authority as exalted as the Emperor Theodosius.
John Moorhead's treatment of Ambrose is notable both
for the skillful way in which the historical context of the
subject's life is established and for the meticulous and
accessible analysis of his technically difficult writings. An
emotional man capable of generosity, Ambrose was also
domineering and arguably too ready to confront and to
judge. AlthoughJohn Moorhead himself observes that much
that Ambrose did cannot be admired and that he set an
authoritarian example which was not always beneficial for
the Church's influence in later times, he at the same time

viii
 EDITOR'S PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

sets out very well how the attitudes of the Late Roman
aristocrat were transferred to the episcopal office. The book
illustrates admirably the complexity of Ambrose's biblical
exegesis, underlining the central role of analogy in his
method of argument and his sensitivity to ambiguities of
meaning. Out of this study of Ambrose the theologian,John
Moorhead expands discussion to analyse such matters as his
attitudes to female piety and participation in the Church, to
doctrinal issues associated with contemporary heretical move-
ments and to lay authority.
John Moorhead's second contribution to the Medieval
World series is an exceptionally welcome one. As a scholar
with a profound interest in the intellectual and religious
world of Late Antiquity, he is superbly qualified to assess the
life and importance of one of its great figures. And even if
he announces that his Ambrose lacks the originality of
Augustine, the clarity of Gregory the Great and the zeal of
Jerome - and, indeed, the range and humanity of all three
- this book takes its reader engagingly into a complex and
vibrant world. A study both of an individual and of Church
and society in the Late Roman Empire, it illuminates the
foundations on which more than one thousand years of
medieval Christian history were to build.
David Bates

It is a pleasure to thank those people who have helped in

the writing of this book. Jonathan Barlow, Chris Hanlon
and John Oppel supplied useful criticism of the chapters
which they kindly read, while Andrew Moorhead offered
very helpful responses to a draft of the whole book. Passages
of it have formed the basis of papers read at meetings
at Armidale, Brisbane, Christchurch, Durham and London,
all of which generated fruitful discussion. With unfailing
patience, Serena Bagley and Suzanne Lewis have augmented
my meagre computer skills. Finally, I thank the copyeditor,
Anne Henwood, for her learned and patient work, for which
the book is much the better.
John Moorhead

IX
 ABBREVIATIONS

CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina

ClL Corpus lnscriptionum
lnscnptionum Latinarum
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
ep. epistula
FC The Fathers of the Church
HE Historia Ecclesiastica
LXX The Septuagint
MCH Monumenta Cermaniae Historica
AA A uctores A ntiquissimi
PC Patrologia Graeca
PL Patrologia Latina
PLRE A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale and J. Morris (eds)
The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 1,
Cambridge 1971.
SAEMO Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera
SC Sources Chretiennes
Chritiennes
Abbreviated titles of works by Ambrose can be found in the
Bibliography, pages 219-221.

x
 INTRODUCTION

As the fourth century progressed, most of its inhabitants

thought the Roman empire was in good shape. The preced-
ing century had been a time of calamities: during the period
from the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 until the accession
of Diocletian in 284, thirty-four emperors had strutted upon
the stage, confronting invasions and civil wars. Still visible
today are the remains of a wall which was built to protect
Rome itself in the 270s. Matters were taken in hand by two
great reforming emperors, Diocletian and Constantine, who
set the empire on a firm footing. No longer would there be
a single emperor, but power would be shared among two
emperors and two subordinate caesars, with responsibilities
in different regions. The administration was restructured to
a degree unknown for three hundred years. Henceforth,
military and civil authorities were separated, while a reform
of the coinage dealt with hyper-inflation. Early in the fourth
century the Emperor Constantine was converted to Christian-
ity, and went on to establish a second capital for the empire
at: Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium, on the Bosphorus.
He left behind an empire which seemed in much better
health when he died in 337, just two years before the birth
of the subject of this book.
Ambrose was the son of one of the most important officials
of the empire, the praetorian prefect of the Gauls. He was
born in Trier, a provincial capital near the empire's frontier
along the Rhine, but he did not stay there long. Like many
talented people in the empire, Ambrose found his way
from the periphery to the centre, and it was there that he
spent most of his life. As the son of an eminent official, he
was a person to whom a habit of command came naturally,

1
 AMBROSE

although his origins were not quite such as to make him com-
mitted to the ways in which conservative Roman intellectuals
saw their world. In 374 he became bishop of Milan, an office
he continued to hold until his death in 397.
It was a key job in a key place. By the time Ambrose
became a bishop Christianity had made great progress in the
empire's major cities, and as leaders of their churches, the
bishops stood at the head of groups which were increasingly
coming to constitute majority opinion. As the truth-claims of
Christianity were stronger than those of classical polytheism,
just as its teachings were potentially more destabilizing of
society, the office of bishop could be a difficult one for the
structures of the Roman world to accommodate, especially
if a bishop were a person of strong convictions adroit at
mobilizing public opinion.
Not only was the office he held important, but Ambrose's
tenure of it largely coincided with a brief period in the
sun which Milan enjoyed during late antiquity. A growing
uneasiness as to the security of the northern frontiers of the
empire had made Rome less important to its governance.
The city by the Tiber had been well placed to be the capital
of an empire based on the Mediterranean, but the growth of
military pressures on its northern borders made it increas-
ingly marginal. Emperors found themselves more and more
in Trier and Sirmium, towns within striking distance of the
Rhine and Danube frontiers. As Milan was roughly midway
between these two cities and at the centre of a network of
roads, emperors concerned with the security of the northern
frontiers often lived there when in Italy. This was particularly
the case after Gratian became emperor in 375, so it can
be said that the accession of Ambrose coincided with the
birth of a capital. l As the importance of various churches in
the empire was often seen as being related to the political
importance of the places where they were located, the bishop
of Milan was a major figure within the church. Hence the

l. Pietri (1992): 16l. The change which imperial residence brought

Milan is suggested by the Latin of Ambrose's biographer Paulinus.
Classical authors often used the noun for 'city' (Latin urbs) by itself,
knowing their readers would take it to refer to Rome, but Paulinus
applies it to Milan when an emperor was present and does not use it
of the city when an emperor was absent: VAmb. 21, also of Rome 27,34.
Similarly, Aquileia is termed urbswhen an emperor is present: VAmb. 32.

2
 INTRODUCTION
I~TRODUCTION

position which Ambrose occupied from 374 was one with

extraordinary possibilities, in terms of both relations with
the state and power within the church.
Ambrose's character, the job he held and the position of
the city in which he held it ensured his importance in the
history of the later Roman empire. He took a leading part
in the campaign against the form of Christian belief which is
generally called Arianism, engaging in activities which pointed
the way towards the difficulties experienced by adheren ts of
adherents
positions which deviated from orthod0xy in a state committed
to there being one interpretation of its official religion, as
was usually to be the case in Europe during the following
millennium. In 384 he participated in a controversy over a
non-Christian cui
cuI tic object, the altar of Victory, which marked
an important stage in the defeat of classical polytheism. In
386 he was involved in a bitter battle with the government
over the use of church buildings in Milan. Two public clashes
between Ambrose and the Emperor Theodosius I followed,
one arising from the·burning down of a synagogue in 388
and the other from a massacre which occurred in Thessaloniki
in 390. These have widely been bee n seen as marking important
victories of the church over the state. Such activities, and the
powerful expression which Ambrose gave to his convictions
concerning them, guarantee him an important place in the
long story of relations between church and state which has
been
bee n so much a part of western history.
A book on Ambrose could easily be structured around these
themes,
themes, and they will claim our attention in this book. But
the most straightforward way of approaching him is by means m eans
of his writings. It was on the basis of these that scholars of
the middle ages saw him as one of the four great fathers of
the western church, symbolized at the beginning of the Bible
by the four rivers which watered the Garden of Eden. Eden . At
first glance, one may doubt whether Ambrose belongs in
such noble company, lacking as he does the scholarship of
Jerome, the mental fire-power
fire-powe r of Augustine, and the benign
user-friendliness later generations were to find in Gregory.
But Ambrose's chief concern,
concern , the interpreting of the Bible,
has been central to the western intellectual tradition. While
his works may seem baffiing, when approached with sympathy
they not only help one understand the Christian church at one
of the most important stages of its history, when a religion

~
 AMBROSE

which saw itself as having been fertilized by the blood of

martyrs was speedily becoming part of the establishment, but
suggest key points of fracture with the classical world which
were then becoming apparent. They also open the door on
a mental universe based on principles completely different
from those which dominate modern western thought.
While not all Ambrose's works survive,2 those at our dis-
posal constitute a formidable corpus. He devoted most of his
energies to discussions of various books of the Bible which
we may loosely call commentaries, although they tend to be
responses to the text which often sit lightly on it rather than
attempts to elucidate what its authors had in mind. While
Ambrose may have come relatively late in his life to a deep
study of the Bible, he appears from his works as, essentially,
a man of this one text. He saturated himself in its language,
to the extent that a few words in one part of it would im-
mediately call to his mind any number of verbally similar
passages in other parts.:l Much of his reading beyond the
Bible was of commentaries on it written by earlier Jewish
and Christian scholars, which he studied to help him under-
stand the Scriptures better. He also wrote on topics other
than the Bible. Books on virginity, widowhood and the
duties of the clergy were addressed to different groups in
society; expositions of the Creed, sacraments and penitence
sought to explain difficult concepts to a wide public; a group
of works in which Ambrose discusses the faith, the Holy Spirit
and the incarnation of Christ, is more strictly theological;
while he wrote four orations to commemorate his brother
and two emperors. Yet even his books which take as their
starting point a definite topic rarely cover the ground in a
systematic fashion. They generally proceed by discussing what
Ambrose thought were relevant passages of the Bible.
We therefore possess a large body of material written by
Ambrose related to the Bible. It is, as we shall see, full of

2. We only have fragments of his commentary on Isaiah and his work

'On the sacrament of regeneration or philosophy', which are edited in
CCSL 14 and CS~L 11 respectively.
3. Ambrose's peculiar sensitivity to words has led me often to use his
own words rather than paraphrases, and to supply the Latin forms
of important terms. This has not been done to intimidate readers
whose Latin may be rusty, but to provide insight into the workings of
Ambrose's mind.

4
 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCfION

interest and capable of engaging modern readers of the

Bible, although in ways they may not expect. 4 But it is not
easy to move from such material to an understanding of its
author. Most of his works are commentaries, and while it is
true that commentators often reveal much of themselves, at
the very least the kind of writing which Ambrose found
most congenial was such as to force him to focus on and
expand the thoughts of other people rather than give direct
expression to his own ideas. Moreover, much of what he
says in the commentaries is borrowed, sometimes in extenso
and almost always without acknowledgment, from earlier
commentators, and, while he sometimes shows originality in
the way he develops and alters the material presented by his
predecessors, we are not given direct access to Ambrose's
own mind. Some of his borrowings are disconcerting. On
two occasions Ambrose states that he had seen a poor man
putting his children up to auction to pay his debts (Nab.
5.21; Tab. 8.29). But he copied this incident from the Greek
writer Basil, who states that he had seen this incident occur,
and while it has been urged in Ambrose's defence that it is
possible that he saw it with his own eyes, as it stands the
story seems purely literary.')
literary.'> Further, Ambrose's response to
biblical texts often takes the form of allegorizing them, which
can lend his writings an air of abstraction and unreality, and
one of his most fixed habits of mind, that of developing
arguments by the use of images which imply the basic struc-
tures of his thought rather than by the explicit assertion of
them, can make his ideas hard to establish.
All in all, it may be thought, much of Ambrose's writing
almost serves to conceal its author. Yet in some ways its
nature opens doors. Although he sometimes develops themes
in ways that can appear inconsequential and self-indulgent,
this allows his own preoccupations to emerge. Further, his

4. In the hope that some readers of this book will be moved to test
Ambrose's understanding of th thee Bible against their own, I have often
supplied references to passages he discusses. Ambrose numbered the
psalms according to a system different from that generally used nnow;ow;
hhence,
ence, his long commentary on what he thought of as psalm 118 deals
with that now usually numbered 119. My refereferences
rences are to th
thee modern
eenumeration;
numeration; those who seek to verifY
verify them in the Septuagint or Vulgate
will therefore find they do not always work.
5. Basil: PC 29:277B. See the discussion in SAEMO 6:225n.1.

;)
 AMBROSE

writing is often based on material recycled from sermons, and

so illustrates concerns Ambrose had at the time of delivery.
Whereas modern scholars in universities who write on the
Bible can usually, if they wish, do so while detached from their
immediate surroundings, Ambrose found himself having to
relate passages of the Bible read out during the liturgy on a
particular day to whatever themes were foremost in his mind
on that day.6 So it was that the biblical text was often used as
a springboard to the expression of thoughts on contemporary
issues rather than commented on in its own right.
Furthermore, many of his works are of uncertain date,
more than is the case with the works of his slightly younger
contemporary Augustine. Connections between the works of
Ambrose and the events going on around him have there-
fore to be suggested more tentatively than would be possible
if the works were securely dated. Yet this is less of a loss than
it could have been, for Ambrose's thought was largely static
and displays no marked evolution. 7 To be sure, we can see
Ambrose responding to new stimuli. At some time in the
mid-380s he will fall under the influence of a Neoplatonist
philosopher and will discover a commentary on a book of
the Bible, the Song of Songs, which will suggest a powerful way
of interpreting this text, although this will not be entirely new
even to Ambrose and will co-exist with rather than supplant
one he had adopted earlier. Ambrose does not often give
the sense of dominating his sources and using them for his
own purposes, as Augustine does. Somewhat later the activities
of Theodosius I will encourage him to consider how King
David acted in similar circumstances, and the appearance
of apparently unorthodox doctrine concerning the Virgin
Mary will force him to think through issues concerning her
more deeply. He will ruefully comment to a correspond-
ent that one of his early works was written when he was
not yet an experienced bishop (ep. 34(=45).1), and he cer-
tainly advanced in the technical expertise with which he
approached the Bible. But the steady working out and mak-
ing explicit of themes only present in nuce in earlier works,
and the sense of intellectual positions being developed in
response to changing circumstances, which give so much

6. Such a passage could be 'fortuitous' (ep. 77(=22).4).

7. Pizzolato (1978): 9.

6
 INTRODUCTION

interest to the thinking of Augustine, are not features of

Ambrose's mind.
We have not mentioned one other part of Ambrose's
literary output, which might be thought likely to reveal some-
thing of its author. In addition to his formal works he wrote
many letters, some of which he arranged for publication
towards the end of his life in ten books, perhaps imitating
the way the letters of Pliny were organized for publication. x
Of these, the tenth book contains two letters addressed to
his sister Marcellina, who lived in Rome, which offer ver-
sions of affairs in Milan in 386, while another four, addressed
to various emperors, are important sources for the political
history of the period and the role Ambrose played in it.
A further group of seventeen letters, generally styled those
'outside the collection', was assembled after his death. It
includes seven letters to emperors and one to his sister, in
which he reproduced a sermon preached in the presence of
Theodosius in 388. These letters show that from time to
time Ambrose played an influential role in political life,
which must sometimes have diverted his attention from his
scholarly enterprises." But caution is called for in their use.
It would have been possible for Ambrose to have amended
the texts of his letters when he prepared them for publica-
tion, and we have one sign that he was prepared to do this.
A letter has come down to us in its original form as well as
that in which it was published, and in the latter version it
has been subjected to a number of small but sometimes
significant alterations; we can only wonder whether such
changes were made to other letters. 10 Moreover, most of the
three letters to his sister are taken up with sermons Ambrose
preached, and while stenographers may well have taken down
the words of his sermons verbatim it is certainly possible that
Ambrose amended the texts for transmission to Marcellina;
indeed, a degree of brotherly boastfulness may have coloured
Ambrose's recounting of his successes.

8. We know of letters he failed to include. such as those he seems to

have sent to his brother Satyrus (I'xc.fr. 1.26).
9. Zelzer points out the alternation of periods of political influence and
writing activity in the life of Ambrose, comparing him in this respect
with Cicero (1987: 207f).
10. Lp. la(=40) is the original version of 1'1).74(=40). The differences are
listed at SAEMO 21:188f; see further below page 186.

7
 AMBROSE

The other nine books of the collected letters contain

formal compositions which are generally devoid of personal
interest. One of the important people in Ambrose's life was
Simplicianus, who instructed him prior to his baptism and
later succeeded him as bishop of Milan. We have four letters
which Ambrose wrote to him. He represented them as having
arisen from conversations he had enjoyed with Simplicianus
concerning passages in the Bible, but while they imply warm
relations between the two men they give little away. Letter
7 (=37), II for example, which is concerned with the happy
7(=37),11
life (vita beata), is resolutely scriptural in its content, con-
taining over a hundred biblical references. Much of it simply
reproduces in translation, without acknowledgment, words
written by Philo, a Jewish scholar who lived in Alexandria at
the time of Christ. There is little here to interest a biographer
of Ambrose. Indeed, an editor of his letters has suggested
that some of them are no more than 'make-believe letters'
to fictitious correspondents which were written as vehicles
for the exposition of the Bible. 12 The practice was familiar
in the period,13 so it would not be surprising had Ambrose
engaged in it.it. Many letters of late antiquity are impersonal
rather than intimate, but even the requests to pass on greet-
ings to common friends one finds in the correspondence of
some authors, which enable us to gain an idea of networks
of friendship and alliance, are not found in Ambrose. The

11. Ambrose's letters are numbered according to two different systems.

Whenever I cite a letter, the first reference is according to that used
in th
thee CSEL and SAEMO editions, and the second that used in PL.
12. Ambrose wrote that Bishop Justus had admonished him to write
(ep. 1(=7)
'epistulares fabulas ... ad intetpretationem ... oraculi caelestis' (ep. (=7).1),
.1),
and Faller suggests that such compositions were not genuine letters
(ed. CSEL 82/ 1: I: 1).
I). This may be to to understand 'fabulas' too narrowly,
for it need not mean 'made-up' as opposed to 'genuine' . Nevertheless,
Ambrose's correspondence contains signs of artificiality: ep. 40(=32)
begins by discussing a point raised at the end of the preceding letter,
and the beginning of ep. 64(=74), a letter devoid of any personal
touches, begins by reminding Irenaeus of a passage of the Apostle
h e had heard read out that day. Further, the utter obscurity of many
of his correspondents could be held to suggest that some of them
were fictive .
13. Marius Victorinus playfully exploited the convention when h hee ad-
dressed a reader as ''0 0 amice candide' , which could mean '0 friend
arnice candide',
Candidus' or '0 candid friend'friend '..

8
 INTRODUCTION

lack of personal warmth his letters reveal raises a question

to which we shall return later.
A number of sources contain information of a more bio-
graphical nature. Our earliest is that by Rufinus, a scholar
best known for his translations of Greek Christian texts into
Latin, who returned to Italy in 397 after spending some
decades in the East. He was a friend of Bishop Chromatius of
Aquileia, a connection which takes us close to Ambrose, for
Chromatius had been consecrated bishop by him, received a
letter from him on the office of bishop not long afterwards,14
and drew heavily on Ambrose's works in his own writings. In
402/3 Rufinus produced a translation of Eusebius' Ecclesias-
tical History which he dedicated to Chromatius, to which he
added two books concerning events which had occurred
in the period 324-395, the second of which touches on
Ambrose. Its nearness in time to Ambrose and its author's
relationship with Chromatius indicate that we should take
seriously what he says about him.
More voluminous is a biography of Ambrose written some-
what later by Paulinus, who had been Ambrose's secretary
(notarius) towards the end of the bishop's life. This suggests
that his biography will have been well informed by written
sources, although Paulinus may not have been close to the
centre of Ambrose's entourage, for he was a much younger
man who only attained the rank of deacon after he left
Milan. Towards the beginning of his work, Paulinus men-
tions his sources. He states that he drew on the evidence of
reliable people, in particular Ambrose's sister Marcellina,
on things which he had seen himself or found out from
people scattered far and wide who said that they had seen
Ambrose after his death, and on what people wrote to him
before they knew he was dead. This suggests a solid body of
material. It was probably Paulinus who edited the letters
outside the collection, a task for which his former position
as Ambrose's secretary would have equipped him well. 15 His
account is therefore a priceless source for the life of Ambrose.
Nevertheless, there are reasons why we should approach it
with care.

14. Ep. 28(=50), a commentary on part of the book of Numbers in which

Ambrose partly follows Philo.
15. See in particular Klein (1970): 365-70.

9
 AMBROSE

One difficulty arises from the circumstances of its com-

Paulinus
position. Paulin us states that he wrote at the time when John,
a former tribune and notarius, held the office of praetorian
prefect (VAmb. 31.5). While we know of a person of this
description, he was praetorian prefect twice, once in 412-413
and again in 422. There are arguments for dating Paulinus'
work to either of these periods, but those for the latter date
16 This would mean that Paulinus wrote some
are stronger. 16
twenty-five years after the death of Ambrose. Furthermore,
Paulinus
the incidents in Ambrose's life at which Paulin us was present
only occur in the few years before the death of the bishop
(VAmb. 32ff); only at that stage does Paulinus attempt chrono-
logical precision (VAmb. 32), and his Life is heavily weighted
to the last few years of Ambrose's episcopate. It is therefore
the work of one who was an eyewitness for only a few of the
many years Ambrose was bishop, and his account of events
in the distant, earlier years need not be reliable. Moreover,
he represents himself as having written with the encourage-
ment of Augustine, bishop of Hippo (VAmb. 1). This may
seem a welcome indication of reliability, for Augustine had
followed Ambrose's sermons closely when he lived in Milan,
been baptized by him in 387, and regarded him as his spir-
itual father. But the verb Paulin us uses to describe the kind
Paulinus
of encouragement Augustine gave him (hortaris) does not
imply that he was closely involved. Augustine may have had
no input into his book, and Paulinus' use of his name may
have been a matter of convention.
Nevertheless, Paulinus
Paulin us seems to have written when Augus-
tine was engaged in theological controversy with Pelagius
and his followers. It was a time when Ambrose was becom-
ing more important to Augustine. While there are no direct
citations of Ambrose in any of his works prior to 418,17
418,li there-
after he often drew on Ambrose's writings to support his
arguments. What would have been more useful to Augustine
than the publication of a short book which would advance
the reputation of Ambrose? Moreover, Paulinus is almost
certainly to be identified with another person of this name
who was involved in anti-Pelagian activities, which would

16. I agree with Pellegrino, in his edition, 5-7, and Fischer (1984), against
Lamirande (1981).
(1963):: 212; Brown (1967)
17. Paredi (1963) (1967):: 272.

10
 INTRODUCTION

make an alliance between him and Augustine all the more

plausible. IS A connection with contemporary polemic may
lie behind Paulinus' portrayal of Ambrose as a command-
ing figure whose enemies persistently met with dire fates
(e.g. VAmb. 11,12,16,17,18), an interpretation not entirely
in keeping with reality, and the strong attack on unnamed
detractors of Ambrose with which Paulinus chose to conclude
his book (VAmb. 53-55).
No-one could accuse Paulinus of having minimized the
worthiness of his subject. He states that Augustine encouraged
him to write a work similar to Athanasius' Life of Antony,
Jerome's Life of Paul, and the Life of Martin, bishop of Tours
(VAmb. 1). We may now be inclined to place Paulinus'
work with the three others in a general category of early
Christian hagiography, to which Paulinus clearly intended
it to belong. 19 But Ambrose is very different from the other
subjects, all of them monks committed to lives of heroic
self-denial who frequently worked miracles. Two lived for over
a century, and the third, the only one to become a bishop,
was a reluctant recruit to the episcopate. And if assimilating
Ambrose into the category of distinguished holy men were
not enough, Paulinus unblushingly applied to him words
used of Jesus in the Bible?) It would be too much to expect
realism from such an account. Sometimes we can see Paulinus
working on his material. For example, he writes that Ambrose
once went to the magister militum Macedonius to intercede
for an accused person, but found the doors shut and could
not enter. He spoke threatening words: 'You will come to
church and the doors will be shut so you will not be able
to enter.' Mter the Emperor Gratian died Macedonius fled
to a church, looked for a door, but could not find a way in
(VAmb. 37). It is a neat story, but perhaps its very neatness
should make us suspicious of the prophecy attributed to
Ambrose, and the threat that Macedonius would come to
church but not find what he wanted is very similar to a
threat Ambrose made to the Emperor Valentinian, contained

IS. See Paredi (1963): 212, although the initiative may have come from
Paulin us rather than Augustine.
19. Hence his use of the word for 'and so' (igitur) to begin its biograph-
ical part.
20. Luke 2:52 is used at FAmb. 16, Luke 9:29 at FAmb. 42.1.

11
 AMBROSE

in a letter which we know Paulinus read. 2 ! We may take it,

then, that Paulinus
Paulin us drew on words written by Ambrose in
another context so as to heighten the impact of the story of
Macedonius.
Other narrative sources are of less value. Three eastern
historians of the first half of the fifth century, Sozomen,
Socrates and Theodoret, wrote church histories which contain
material on Ambrose, particularly his dealings with emperors,
but it is already developing in the direction of legend.
More useful are the proceedings of a church council held at
Aquileia in 381, at which Ambrose played a prominent part.
These are exceptional among early conciliar documents in
that they give what seems to be a verbatim account of the
debate in addition to the decrees which were issued. The
letters of a contemporary, the senator Symmachus, open up
aspects of the political, intellectual and religious history of
the period, as do two large bodies of material less closely
connected with Ambrose. The works of other ecclesiastical
writers of the time,
time, especially Augustine and Jerome, provide
a context for his thoughts and activities. While their works
form a vast ocean of material which no-one can be confident
of having mastered, the background they provide is often
illuminating. In particular, Augustine's autobiographical
Confessions preserve memories of Ambrose's preaching and
some important events in Milan. The Theodosian Code, a
compilation of legislation issued in the period beginning
with the reign of Constantine which was published on the
order of Theodosius II in 438, provides data of a different
kind. Because of Ambrose's involvement with emperors, some
of the laws it preserves touch directly on his life , and as the
Code tells us when and where laws were promulgated we
can sometimes link pieces of legislation with his activities.
This balance of sources has governed the approach taken
in this book. It would be impossible to write a study of
Ambrose which illuminated him in a psychologically plaus-
ible way; he will always remain less knowable than Augustine. 22
On the other hand, we can approach him as a thinker, and

21. Compare Paulinus 'et tu quidem venies ad ecclesiam' with Ambrose 'licebit
tibi ad ecclesiam con venire' (CP. 72(=17) .13). For Paulinus' use of this
letter elsewhere, see Pellegrino's edition, 15.
22. Cf. the speculations of McLynn (1994): 35.

12
 INTRODUCTION

we shall be mainly concerned with him in this respect. Our

account will be built around clusters of material, presented
in a largely chronological sequence. Mter a chapter devoted
to Ambrose's early life and becoming a bishop, we shall ex-
amine his attitude towards women, a subject which generated
some of his earliest writings. Thereafter we shall consider
the way in which he approached the Bible, before going on
to look at how Ambrose dealt with relations between the
church and the state, and more generally the church and
the world, and the role of the church within the city. These
two chapters will consider tensions between the theoretical
constructs within which Ambrose operated and the practical
realities with which he had to deal. We shall then use one of
his most substantial books, the De officiis, as the basis for a
discussion of how Ambrose attempted to synthesize the very
different classical and biblical ways of thinking. The follow-
ing chapter will discuss issues which arose towards the end
of Ambrose's life, and we shall conclude with a brief survey
of aspects of his influence in the medieval centuries. This
will necessarily be highly selective, and will seek to do no
more than suggest some of the main lines of the topic.
The most detailed modern study of Ambrose is that of
Homes Dudden (1935), who also wrote long books about
Pope Gregory the Great and Henry Fielding. I have read his
work twice, the first time often in a spirit of exasperation
at what now seems self-indulgent prose and a complaisant
attitude towards his subject, but later with a growing respect
for his success in mastering Ambrose's voluminous writings.
Among other studies, that of Paredi (1960) in particular is
marked by its respectful learning. Two recent works in Eng-
lish have prompted important revisions of generally accepted
views. McLynn (1994) approaches Ambrose from a political
point of view, regarding him as a figure whose position was
less secure and successes less clear-cut than they have hitherto
been seen. Here, Ambrose emerges as someone who created
his own position and sometimes held it with difficulty. The
triumphalist view of Paulinus, who felt that the Lord gener-
ally gave the church triumphs over its enemies and that he
usually protected it (VAmb. 13,16,31), cannot survive McLynn's
subtle study. Williams (1995) offers an informed account
of Ambrose's dealings with those Christians usually termed
'Arians'. Again, his study tends to diminish the position of

13
 AMBROSE

Ambrose, for against much modern scholarship, which has

assumed that they were an unimportant minority whose cause
was already destined to futility when Ambrose became bishop,
Williams brings out the continuing threat they posed. But the
Ambrose these recent books describe is a man of affairs, and
the portrayal of him in the following account may be found
complementary. Whereas McLynn's Ambrose is approached
in relation to people like the senator Symmachus rather than
Augustine and Jerome (xix), my attempt at placing him works
from the other direction, approaching him as a thinker, in
particular a commentator on the Bible.
Behind the monographs on Ambrose stands the vast amount
of writing published in journals and collections of papers,
to which the bibliography at the end of this book provides no
more than an introduction. The study of Ambrose in recent
years has profited from the learned philological traditions
of German scholarship, and exciting work has been done by
Italian scholars. Much of the best writing continues to appear
in French, sensitive to both the classical and Christian sides
of late antiquity. Yet, despite all that has been written about
him over the centuries, Ambrose remains hard to know.
Towards the end of his life, he remarked: 'I have not lived
among you as so to be ashamed of continuing to live, and I
am not afraid to die, because we have a good Lord' (VAmb.
45). His words were quoted by Augustine, who took the
'good Lord' to be God the Father. 23 But Ambrose's use of
this expression elsewhere makes it certain that he had Christ
rather than the Father in mind. 24 24
It is a disturbing thought
that a theologian of the acumen of Augustine, who had known
Ambrose personally, should have misunderstood him, which
imposes humility on any who seek to understand him now.
But Ambrose is a big enough figure to make the effort worth-
while. I hope readers of this book will feel something of the
excitement I have had as Ambrose so often took me by
surprise, and join me in contemplating his contribution to
the articulation of a body of teaching 'juvenescens et juvenescere
faciens' .25
. 25

23. Possidius VAug. 27.

24. Fischer (1988).
24.
25.
25. Irenaeus Adversus omnes haereses 3.28.1.

14
 Chapter 1

BEGINNINGS

A NEW BISHOP
The choice of a bishop was not a matter taken lightly in late
antiquity. The increasing power of the church in society
and the high degree of authority bishops enjoyed within the
churches they led had made the job increasingly important,
and hence desirable. A story was told that Praetextatus, a
pagan intellectual whose death in 387 prevented his becom-
ing consul in the following year, used to tease a pope: 'Make
me bishop of Rome and I shall become a Christian on the
spot!,j
spot!,l According to the practice of the church the people
of a town or city had the right to be involved in the choice
of their bishop, which meant that elections generated wide-
spread interest. The choice of a bishop was sometimes a
catalyst for outbreaks of the civil unrest which were common
antiquity.22 The death of a bishop of Rome
in the cities oflate antiquity.
in 366 was followed by rioting and fighting between the sup-
porters of two rivals for the office which culminated in a
massacre, after which 137 bodies were found in the church
now known as Sta Maria Maggiore. ~ When disagreement
over the election of a bishop of Milan in 374 seemed likely

1. Jerome Contra IoannemHierosolymitanum 8 (PL23:377). The tenn

term 'pagan'
is problematic, it being pejorative and ascribing to different views
a uniformity which largely existed in the imagination of Christians.
Unfortunately, there is no easy alternative to it.
2. Ambrose was to ask an emperor how many houses belonging to prefects
of Rome had been burned down without punishment being exacted
(rp. 74(=40) .13).
(rp.74(=40).13).
3. Ammianus Marcellinus 27.3.13.

15
 AMBROSE

to endanger the peace of the city, the authorities could not

afford to stand by.
This was the year in which Bishop Auxentius died. He had
become bishop in 355, when his predecessor, Dionysius, was
among a number of bishops exiled by an emperor opposed
to their theological convictions. Auxentius had been an
unusual occupant of an Italian see, for he had been born in
Cappadocia, halfway across modern Turkey, and knew little
Latin. Under him the church of Milan took on a distinct
oriental colouring.4 He was also unusual in his adherence to
a minority position in Christianity. The fourth century was
a time of major debate within the church, which was com-
plicated by the ties between the church and the empire which
followed the conversion of Constantine. While there were
various areas of contention, the central issue was the relation-
ship between God the Father and the Son. Judeo-Christian
theology has posited a sharp distinction between the Creator
and the creation. Given that these two categories contain all
things that exist, the Son of God whom Christians believe to
have become incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth must belong in
one or the other of them. According to a theologian of
Alexandria who flourished in the early fourth century, Arius,
the distinction between the Father and the Son was such as
would place the latter in the realm of the creation. Against
this understanding, the council of Nicaea (325), making use
of an important concept in Greek philosophy, proclaimed
that the Father and the Son were of 'the same substance'
(Greek' homoousios') , and condemned the teaching of Arius.
The canons of this council and the Nicene Creed, which
was to be finalized later, failed to command universal assent,
but the opponents of Nicaea could not agree on exactly
how the Father and the Son were related. Those standing in
the Nicene tradition were content to label their opponents
'Arians' , for however diverse their teaching was it seemed
to stand in some relation to that of Arius, and in this book
we shall use this term when quoting from or paraphrasing
authors who employ it, but in other contexts we shall use the

4.
4. Little Latin
Latin:: Athanasius, in PC 25:784. Oriental colouring was shown
in such a small detail as the breaking of the Lenten fast on Saturdays
as well as Sundays. This remained the practice in Ambrose's time
(Rel. 10.34).
10. 34).

16
 BEGINNINGS

value-free terms 'Nicaeans' and 'anti-Nicaeans' . The former

had been unhappy at the see of Milan being in the hands
of Auxentius, but despite the efforts of Nicaean leaders such
as Bishop Hilary of Poi tiers, he remained in possession of
his see.
Auxentius profited from the attitude of the Emperor
Valentinian I (364-375). He was a no-nonsense military man,
content to stand in the middle when it came to religious
differences and issue laws which gave all people the freedom
to worship as they thought best.-' His policy of alternating
between pagans and Christians in appointments to the office
of prefect of the city of Rome;'
Rome~' was in line with this attitude,
as well as being politically shrewd, for in the face of widespread
conversions to the new religion the leading families of Rome
proved reluctant to abandon their old beliefs. Valentinian's
easy-going stance meant that he was perfectly happy to receive
communion from Auxentius when in Milan. He saw himself
as being an ordinary member of the laity. This was a stance
more modest than that adopted by Constantine, and an easy
one for an emperor whose position was strong. But such
humility could allow a bishop to treat the emperor as no more
than one among the congregation, and as our study of the
successor of Auxentius proceeds we shall see him overthrow
the principles of Valentinian 's policy, one by one.
The death of Auxentius was followed by wild scenes, for
which our best source is a passage in the Ecclesiastical History
by Rufinus. This author describes a tense situation which
involved adherents of two factions, by which he doubtless
means the Nicaeans and anti-Nicaeans. According to Rufinus,
their serious disagreemen
disagreementt and the dangerous dissension
threatened speedy disaster for the city, whichever side won.
The events in Rome which had followed the death of a pope
scarcely a decade previously furnished a warning of what
could occur in such circumstances, and there would have
been few places in which it was more likely for it to take
place than the cathedral. That in Milan was a large building,
probably capable of holding nearly 3,000 people, and it had
been built in the centre of the city, just a few minutes' walk

5. Standing in the middle: Ammianus Marccllinus

Marcellinus 30.9.5. Laws: rod. Theod.
Theod.
9 .16.9.
6. Chastagnol (1960): 428f.

17
 AMBROSE

from the forum. 7 We are told that the representative of im-

perial authority in Milan, the governor (consularis) Ambrose,
seeing that the city was threatened by ruin, hastened to the
church, planning to moderate the sedition of the people.
When he had spoken for a long time urging quiet and tran-
quillity, suddenly a shout arose from the people, and there
was just one voice yelling out 'Ambrose bishop!' The people
cried out that he was to be baptized immediately and given
to them as their bishop; there would not be one people and
one faith unless Ambrose was given to them as bishop. He
resisted, but the emperor ordered that the desire of the
people was to be fulfilled with all speed, saying that it was
the work of God that the discordant faith of the people and
minds which had been at odds had been suddenly came to
share the one opinion. So it was that Ambrose was baptized
and made a bishop.s
There is no reason not to accept the outlines of the account
provided by Rufinus, which formed the basis of a later telling
of the story by Ambrose's biographer Paulinus. 9 Aspects of
Rufinus' account recur in Paulinus, in particular the great
importance placed on the will of the people. But Paulin us,
writing some fifty years after these events, was a man with
a mission, and it may well be that some of what he says,
which modern scholars have sometimes taken at face value
to suggest the appropriateness or indeed inevitability of
Ambrose's becoming bishop, was crafted precisely to create
this impression. This may account for one important detail
which Paulinus adds to Rufinus. Paulinus reports that, while
Ambrose was speaking to the people, the voice of an infant
was suddenly heard to utter the words 'Ambrose bishop!' At
this all the people, both Arians and catholics, cried out
bishop! ' While Rufinus and Paulinus have the same
'Ambrose bishop!'
words, they place them in the mouths of different speakers.
The latter has the more impressive story, for the word 'infans'
speaking' , although Paulinus seems
literally means 'not yet speaking',

7. On the cathedral, Ki-autheimer (1983): 76.

8. Rufinus HE 11.11. It is possible that Rufinus' telling of the story was
influenced by the account of the election of Pope Fabian given in the
h e had translated (HE6.29.3f);
history of Eusebius, which he (HE6 .29.3f); so Thelamon
(1981) : 339.
99.. For what follows the chief source is Paulinus VAmb. 6-9, whose de-
pendence on Rufinus is brought out by Pellegrino, in his edition, 16f.

18
 BEGINNINGS

to use it in the general sense of 'child'. Paulinus may not

It In
have intended his story to be taken literally, for he qualifies
it as 'something which is said to have happened', and it is
oddly reminiscent of Augustine's narration of his conver-
sion, a little over a decade later, in which he heard in a
Milanese garden the voice of a child repeating the words
'Take and read' (con! 8.12.29). Perhaps the young of the
city at that time were given to portentous utterances. In any
case, Paulin us' point is not that the utterance of the words
was miraculous, but that the nomination of Ambrose came
from someone who, being a child, was presumably not asso-
ciated with one of the factions in the church at Milan.1O

AMBROSE
Little is known about the life of Ambrose prior to his be-
coming bishop. A number of pious stories of his early life
were known to Paulinus, but no less than the tale of the
speaking child they suggest that the career of Ambrose was
pre-ordained, and need not be taken seriously. According
to one story, when he was a baby sleeping with his mouth
open, bees swarmed over his face and mouth and kept on
going in and out of his mouth. His father, who was strolling
nearby with his wife and daughter, in a remarkable display
of sang froid, forbade a servant girl to intervene, for he
wished to see how such a strange incident would end. Mter
a while the bees flew up into the air so high that they passed
from sight, and the terrified father said 'If this little child
lives he will be something great.' Paulinus placed this story
in a biblical context, seeing in it evidence for the Lord being
already at work while his servant was still an infant and the
fulfilment of a biblical text, 'Good words are as a honeycomb'
(Prov. 24:16; VAmb. 3). The story would have conveyed a
different meaning to many of his readers, who would have
deduced from it that Ambrose was to be compared to such

10. 'Infantes' speak at VAmb. 48.1, although Ambrose predicates 'infantia'

in the sense of 'speechlessness' of adults at virgb. 3.3.9. While Augustine
uses the word in its literal sense (e.g. conf 1.6.lO,
1.6.10, 1.8.13) there is no
need to take it in this way here. The story of the infant is unknown to
Sozomen (HE 6.24) and Socrates (HE 4.30).

19
 AMBROSE

figures as Plato, who had an experience of this kind when

an infant, and they would have taken it as a sign of the
sweetness of the speech which would proceed from such a
mouth. I I According to another story told by Paulinus, as a
young man Ambrose offered his hand to be kissed, saying that
he was going to become a bishop (VAmb. 4), but it need not
be taken at face value, for it was a literary convention for
boys destined to become bishops to behave in an episcopal
fashionY Similarly, Paulinus tells how Probus, Ambrose's
superior when he was consu/aris,
consularis, had told him to act not as
a judge but as a bishop (VAmb. 8.3).1
8.3).133 Such data are of no
value as background to the adult Ambrose. Deductions drawn
from more general evidence take us further.
He had been born, probably in 339, at Trier, a town on
the River Moselle less than a hundred kilometres from that
frontier of the Roman empire which followed the lower
reaches of the River Rhine. Ambrose was later to describe
the Rhine as a noteworthy wall of the Roman empire against
fierce peoples (exa. 2.3.12), but influences flowed across it in
both directions, and the area around Trier was coming under
the influence of Germanic tribes who were of increasing
concern to the empire. Another indication of the marginal
status of the region within the empire was the survival of
Celtic speech, which could apparently still be heard there. 14
In some respects Trier was a typical large Roman city, which
boasted a forum, an amphitheatre, a circus capable of seat-
ing 50,000 people, large baths and a cathedral. It was unusual
in its enormous imperial reception hall, thirty metres high,
constructed in the first decade of the fourth century. Around
it stood villas, the country homes of the wealthy which were
often built so as to command views of valleys. Yet the face
this city presented to the world was a military one, for it was
surrounded by six kilometres of walls, some three metres thick
and six metres high, and it was described by a poet of the

11 . Roman versions of the story of Plato occur in Cicero De divinatione

1.78 and
a nd Pliny Naturalis histaria
historia 11.18.55. See in general Ope
Opelt
lt (1968).
12. Rufinus describes Athanasius playing at being a bishop (HE 1.14; PL
21:487)..
21:487)
'13. There is no reason to believe that Probus orchestrated the election of
Ambrose, as suggested by CorbeIlini (1975).
(1975) .
14. This is the implication of Jerome Commentarium in epistolam ad Galatas
2.3 (PL 26:382C).
26:382C) .

20
 BEGINNINGS

time as feeding, clothing and arming the military strength

of the empire. 15 Trier was the headquarters of one of the
senior officials of the empire, the praetorian prefect of the
Gauls, who was responsible for the financial and judicial
administration of Gaul, Spain and Britain, and Ambrose was
the son of the holder of this office .IIi He was therefore born
into a family of significance in the administration of the
empire, and furthermore a prosperous one, which owned
estates in Mrica. The images of Roman power among which
he grew up may never have left Ambrose.
At some time his father died, and Ambrose lived in Rome
with his mother and his elder sister Marcellina. The family
was devout. It may have been Christian for generations,17
and Marcellina made a profession of virginity in St Peter's
basilica before Pope Liberius, one Christmas in the early
350s; years later, in one of his earliest books, Ambrose pur-
ported to reproduce the address the pope delivered on the
occasion (virgb. 3.l.1-3.14). The involvement of the pope
may be a sign of the social standing of the family, and if
we accept Paulinus' assertion that bishops used to visit the
family home (VAmb. 4.1) we have another sign of the family's
standing in Christian circles in Rome. This is confirmed by
one of the letters ofJerome, in which he included Marcellina
among the noble women to whom he sent his greetings
(Jerome ep. 45.7).
Ambrose's life, however, seemed pointed in a secular fash-
ion, as he began to lay the foundations of a fine career. His
biographer Paulinus speaks of his having been instructed in
the liberal arts (VAmb. 5.1), which is doubtless true, although
his writings suggest that his secular learning was limited.
The greatest benefit Ambrose derived from his education
was an excellent knowledge of Greek, far beyond that which

15. Ausonius Ordo urbium nobilium 6.4. On Trier see Heinen (1985).
16. Arguing from the name of Ambrose's brother. Uranius Satyrus,
Mazzarino suggested that their father was the Uranius to whom a law
of 339 (cod. Theod. 11.1.5) was addressed, and made the further sug-
gestion that he was killed in 340 (1973: 1989). But the argument is
weak. To suggest, for example, that the silence of Ambrose on his
father implies a tragic end for the latter ignores the issue of how
much one would have expected to learn in any case.
17. Ambrose saw Soteris, a virgin martyr, as an ancestor of his sister
(virgil. 3.7.37f; I'xh.virg. 12.82), but his language is imprecise.

21
 AMBROSE

Augustine's provincial education allowed him to command.

In 365, together with his brother Satyrus, he was appointed
to the staff of Probus, the praetorian prefect of Illyricum
whose headquarters were at Sirmium, in the Balkans. It would
have been a worthwhile posting for an ambitious person,
for Probus, who was to enjoy the office of consul in 371, was
well placed to exercise patronage; a story was later told that
in about 391 two Persians travelled to Italy so they could
prove at first hand the wisdom of Ambrose and the power of
Probus. Having done this they went home (VAmb.
(VAmh. 25). There-
after Ambrose was appointed consulans of the province of
Liguria and Aemilia, and moved to Milan to take up the
appointment he still held when he became a bishop.

TAKING OFFICE
Ambrose may have seemed an odd choice as bishop. He had
a weak voice l8 which ill-suited him for a job which required
him to preach in a large basilica where he had to compete
with other voices, perhaps especially those of women, who
were thought inclined to talk and be noisy.19 Sometimes fights
broke out when women lost their jewellery and suspected
others of retrieving it. 20 More importantly, he had not been
baptized. He was certainly a Christian by belief, but the
ordination of unbaptized men was contrary to church law,
and later in his episcopate Ambrose wrote in a letter that
the ordination of neophytes, or newly baptized people, was
prohibited (ep.ex.coll. 14(=63).65; cf. I Tim 3:6). But his case
is not unique. In 381, following the resignation of Gregory
of Nazianzus as bishop of Constantinople, Theodosius I was
to select as his successor a layperson, Nectarius, who, despite
being of advanced years, had not been baptized. A few years
after he had been baptized as an adult, Ambrose would be
recommending the practice of infant baptism (Abr. 2.11.81,
84). But the death of unbaptized believers, such as that of the

18. On his weak voice, apol.alt.Dav. 5.28 and saer. 1.6.24; see also Augus-
tine conJ. 6.3.3.
Sacr. 6.3.15, 4.17; virgb. 3.3.11-14; cf. ps. 1.9 on the difficulty of obtain-
19. Sacr.
ing silence when lessons were read.read .
Abr. 1.9.89 (on the interpretation of 'lites',
20. Abr. 'lites' , SAEM02:121 n.n . 17)
17);; virg!.
68.

22
 BEGINNINGS

Emperor Valentinian II in 392, did not cause him concern

(ob. Val. 51), for the postponement of baptism was not as im-
portant then as it would be seen to be later, when its import-
ance had been emphasized by a more precise understanding
of original sin. Indeed, for much of the fourth century a
deferral of baptism could be seen as a sign of moral serious-
ness. Together with Ambrose's having remained unmarried,
his remaining unbaptized could have been thought to indicate
a high degree of religious conviction. The divided state of the
Milanese church may have made his status as an unbaptized
person significant in another way, for it may have suggested
that he was not strongly committed to either of the two
factions. It was certainly true that his family was Nicaean by
conviction, but on the other hand the Emperor Valentinian,
whom he had represented in Milan, had practised an even-
handed religious policy and speedily given his consent to
the ordination of Ambrose. There would therefore have been
good grounds to believe that Ambrose would be a broad-
minded bishop. He would have been an ideal compromise
candidate.
But his response to the cry of the crowd was not positive.
'How I resisted ordination!'
ordination! ' he was to recall at the end of
his life (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).65). While such humility may
seem impressive, there were precedents going back to the
time of the Roman republic for good candidates resisting
high office, which meant that, paradoxically, resistance could
be seen as a sign of a valid vocation.~1 Hence, someone who
really wanted to become a bishop could feign reluctance
for tactical reasons. Paulinus tells of a number of ways by
which Ambrose sought to evade the burden of office. On
leaving the church where he had been acclaimed as bishop
he
h e had the raised platform on which he sat in his capacity as
judge, the tribunal, prepare
prepared.d. Climbing onto it, he ordered
that torture be applied to some individuals. Such an act
would certainly not have made him popular, and it may have
bee n an attempt to disqualifY himself from episcopal office,
for papal legislation of the time forbade the ordination of
those who employed torture .~~ Nevertheless, the people cried
out 'May your sin be upon us!' Then Ambrose went home,

21. Lizzi (1989): 98f.

'Si ricius' 1'. 10.5 (usually attributed to Pope Damasus: PI. 13:1190f).
22. 'Siricius' 13: 1190f) .

23
23
 AMBROSE

expressing the wish to devote himself to philosophy, presum-

ably on the understanding that the practice of philosophy
was contrary to episcopal office. 2 :1 When this device failed he
made another attempt to dissuade the people by having
prostitutes brought into his house, but the people cried out
even more 'May your sin be upon us!' He then sought to
flee by night to Pavia, but next morning was mysteriously
found at the gate through which passed the road to Rome. 24
Mter this the people kept him under guard. 25 Approval for
his consecration was sought from the Emperor Valentinian,
who was then at Trier, and it was quickly forthcoming. In the
meantime Ambrose had fled to an estate owned by a senator,
Leontius, from which he only emerged when approval ofthe of the
people's choice came from Valentinian. He was baptized on
30 December, by a catholic bishop according to Paulinus, and
consecrated bishop on 7 December 374. 26
The involvement of an emperor in these proceedings
reflects the importance which Milan was coming to occupy
within the empire, and the desire of the emperor that a
reliable person be at the head of its church. More generally,
it points to the power emperors had come to enjoy in church
affairs. Auxentius had become bishop under unusual circum-
stances, and prudence may have dictated that imperial ap-
proval of his successor be sought. Perhaps Valentinian felt
that Ambrose would prove complaisant to imperial authority.
But such an expectation would have been sadly misplaced.
In his narrative of Ambrose's accession to office, Paulinus
emphasizes that he was the people's choice. He uses the noun
'people'
'people ' (papulus) eight times, and his tenor is unmistakable:
following the child's words Ambrose was acclaimed by 'all the
people', and his ordination took place 'with great support
and to the joy of all'. But this should be taken with a grain
of salt. Paulinus may have wanted his readers to believe that

23. Early in the fifth century Synesios, another unbaptized person, would
only become bishop of Ptolemais on the condition that he could still
practise philosophy.
24. Even accepting the truth of this story, it is going too far to see
Ambrose's re-entry into Milan as a variant of the adventus ceremony,
as does McLynn (1994) : 47.
25...'Custodiretur'
25 Custodiretur' (VAmb. 8.2), a word Augustine uses to describe what was
done to those forced against their will to become bishops (ep. 173.2).
173.2) .
26. Paulinus VAmb. 9.3; I follow the interpretation of Fische
Fisch err (1970).

24
 BEGINNINGS

Ambrose enjoyed overwhelming popular support from the

beginning of his episcopate, and as he was not present at
the time his account may constitute a projection of condi-
tions later in Ambrose's tenure of office backwards, to a
time of which he was personally ignorant. Years afterwards,
preaching on the text 'Honour thy father and mother' on
the anniversary of his consecration, Ambrose could address
the people of Milan as his parents, for it was they who had
given him the episcopate; while individually they were his
children, taken together they were his parents (Luc. 8.73).
But this is not to say that they all supported him in 374.
Ambrose moved with caution during his early years as bishop,
which suggests a desire to hold together rather than divide
the Christian community over which he had unexpectedly
come to preside. The new bishop was determined not to
rock the boat.

BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

At the very least, Ambrose's accession to the episcopate
was an unexpected career move, and it therefore becomes
important to establish what experiences and attitudes he
brought to the office of bishop. He later described himself
as having been 'snatched to the episcopate from the tribunals
and the fillets of administration' (off. l.l.4) and as

that man not brought up in the lap of the church,

not tamed from childhood;
but snatched from tribunals,
carried away from the vanities of this world.~'

It will be worth our while teasing out some of the implica-

tions of this self-description.
It is clear that Ambrose was not brought up in the lap of
the church. To be sure, he had been raised in a household
which received bishops as visitors and which was pious
enough to produce a consecrated virgin, but the world of
his family may have been one he saw himself as leaving

27. Paen. 2.8.72; cf. his referring to his having been called to the episcopate
'from the din of civil quarrels and the dread inspired by public
administration' (pant. 2.8.67).

25
 AMBROSE

behind when he became a bishop, for one of his last works

contains a reflection which may be autobiographical: the
true flight of a bishop is the renunciation of family and a
kind of estrangement from one's loved ones, the one who
acts so as to serve God denying himself when it comes to
his own people (fuga 2.7). That he had not been baptized
would have made him a stranger to much of the worship
of the church, for its practice in his day was still to dismiss
catechumens from the liturgy after the readings from the
Bible and the sermon. It is a sobering thought that Ambrose
may not have attended a full celebration of the eucharist
until a week before he became a bishop. He was by no
means the only bishop in the period to have been raised
unexpectedly to the episcopate, but some of the others, such
as Martin, who became bishop of Tours at almost exactly
the same time, were at least men of monastic experience.
We known little of the bishops who preceded Ambrose in
Milan, but of the twelve popes who held office during the
fourth century, nine were natives of Rome, in which church
it was standard practice for promotion to episcopal office to
be from within the ranks of the local clergy. We may there-
fore imagine a typical new bishop of the period as having
been formed by long exposure to the values and experi-
ences of a local clerical caste, or, failing this, having been
prepared by ascetic practices. Ambrose had totally escaped
either kind of formation. Seen against the background of the
western bishops of his day, he emerges as an odd man out.
Ambrose also asserts that he was carried away from vanities.
His career in civil life was later scornfully alluded to by
Jerome:

Yesterday a catechumen, today a bishop; yesterday in the am-

phitheatre, today in the church; in the evening at the circus,
in the morning at the altar; formerly a fan of actors, now a
consecrator of virgins! 28

One of his enemies would later utter vaguely worded accu-

sations of an immoral life, while Ambrose himself was to

28. Jerome ep. 69.9. Ambrose is not named, but the fact that this passage
comes after a reference to the blindness of people who held a position
we know Ambrose adopted makes it certain that it refers to him .

26
 BEGINNINGS

imply that he had lived badly before becoming a bishop.29

But the assertions of hostile authors writing invective on the
one hand, and a rhetorical deployment of a topos of humility
on the other, are scarcely compelling evidence. As to sexual
experience, the lack of precise evidence to the contrary and
the sense Ambrose persistently gives of being interested in
things to do with women but not experienced in them, suggest
that he had remained a virgin.'\()
Of more importance than any prior moral irregularity
in determining the nature of his life as bishop was a habit
of command into which he had entered. Such irregularity
as there was in Ambrose's background lay here, for papal
legislation forbad the ordination of magistrates.:ll Not only
was Ambrose the son of a praetorian prefect, but the office
of consularis he had held was one of weight, being two grades
above the office of praeses which Augustine could only hope
to obtain by marrying a wealthy woman. 12 This was a lofty
background for a bishop of the fourth century, during which
most bishops came from the class of citizens who were
leaders in their towns, the curials. ll Tribunals of the kind
from which Ambrose had been snatched aroused fear in the
community, and among Christians a tribunal could suggest
the one which the Lord would sit at the Last Judgment
(ps.118 20.14). When Paulin us came to describe the tactics
Ambrose used to avoid being made bishop, he cast him in
the light of Pilate sitting in judgment on Christ, and he
interprets the words he twice attributes to the people, 'Your

29. Paen. 2.8.73; Jerome ep. 69.9 ('lascivos srrrdidos annos'); Palladius jrag.
115 (Scolies ariennes, ed. Gryson).
30. Physical displays of affection among plants and animals are com-
mon in the exa. (e.g. 3.12.49), but Augustine was able to draw on
more extended experience, for example in referring to the sense of
touch (conf 10.6.8). The Df officiis suggests that Ambrose considered
avarice more of a problem for the clergy than lust.
3l. See above, n. 22.
32. Can! 6.11.19. Metaphorically, Augustine associates the rank Ambrose
held with the status St Paul held under God (conf 8.4.9). The first
known holder of the office of mnsularis of Aemelia and Liguria sub-
sequent to Ambrose, Romulus, went on to become prefect of the city
of Rome, while the first office held by Virius Nicomachus Flavianus,
one of the most eminent men of his generation, was that of wnsularis
in Sicily (PLRE 77lf, 347-49).
33. Gilliard (1984).

27
 AMBROSE

sin be on us', in the light of the words of the Jews to Pilate,

'His blood be on us' (VAmb. 7, Matt. 27:25). For Paulinus,
Ambrose in his elevated position suggested another agent
of the power of the state, Pilate, just as the difficulty he
experienced as an official representing it in controlling a
difficult crowd may well have made him think of the position
of Pilate when Christ was brought before him.
It could be argued that little changed after Ambrose was
ordained. A portrayal of him in a mosaic of the early fifth
century in the Basilica Ambrosiana at Milan shows him
dressed as an aristocrat. When Paulinus came to write his
biography he implied continuity in Ambrose's life before
and after he became a bishop. Not merely is Ambrose said
to have responded to being acclaimed bishop by having a
tribunal prepared, ascending it and ordering that tortures
be made ready, but on a trip Paulinus states he made to
Sirmium he sat on a 'tribunal', which here seems to mean a
bishop's throne, a significant verbal reminder of continuity
(VAmb. 1l.1).
11.1). From the tribunal he warned an anti-Nicaean
virgin to beware of the judgment of God; she died on the
next day. Later, responding to the challenge of two Arians
to preach on the incarnation, he ascended a tribunal, un-
aware that his enemies had already died. It was no surprise
that, after Ambrose died, people coming up from the pool
in which they had been baptized thought they saw Ambrose
sitting in the tribunal in the cathedral (VAmb. 11,18,48). In
one of his theological works Ambrose was able to describe
an exchange between Christ and an anti-Nicaean on whom
he was sitting in
injudgment
judgment in vivid terms; the taunting words
with which the passage begins are those of Ambrose:

Go on, speak; go on, speak, I say. 'Christ, I think that you are
unlike the Father.' He will answer: 'Show clearly, if you can,
show clearly, I say, how you think I am unlike him!' Say some-
thing else: 'I think you were created.' Christ will answer you: 'If
the testimony of two people is true (john 8:17), ought you not
at least believe me and the Father who called me "begotten"?' 'I
deny that you are good. ' And he will say: 'Let it happen to you
in accordance with what you believe, so that 1 will not be good
to you.' 'I don't think you are omnipotent.' He will answer:
Then I can't forgive you your sins.' 'I call you a subordinate.'
'Why then do you seek freedom and forgiveness from one you
think is subordinate and like a slave?' (fid. 2.13.108-112)

28
 BEGINNINGS

One can only hope that the blustering words Ambrose places
in the mouth of Christ do not reflect his own conduct as a
judge. Other passages in his works suggest that he never
a judge, for they often suggest legal
forgot his experiences as ajudge,
experience.
experience.~4 34 In an even more impressive display of con-

tinuity, Ambrose not only threatened people with torture

to dissuade them from making him their bishop, but was
believed to have retained his ability to punish after he died,
for it was then that he tortured throngs of demons (VAmb.
48.2f) and that two people who spoke ill of him died after
receiving severe wounds (VAmb. 530. 53£). If Ambrose's writings
lack the polish and skilful organization of material shown in
those of Augustine, a former teacher of rhetoric, his deal-
ings with others frequently displayed the power and force of
a man used to the courtroom.
Ambrose thus emerges from Paulinus' account as a for-
midable person. Even the demons, immensely threatening
figures in hagiographic texts such as the Life of Antony, which
was being read in Italy during Ambrose's time, seem in
Paulinus' account to be in constant fear of Ambrose (VAmb.
20.3, 21), to such an extent that an evil spirit overestimated
Ambrose's power, falsely attributing his being tortured to the
bishop (33.3£).
(33.30. Mter Ambrose died someone had a vision of
him rejoicing in the company of Elijah, he and the prophet
having been two men who never feared to speak before kings
and other powerful figures (VAmb. 47.3). Ambrose's boldness
could be exaggerated, for as we shall see he may have been
a less imposing figure at some stages of his episcopate than
Paulin us implied, and he was often plagued by enemies at
court. But the connection between Elijah, the prophet who
rebuked Ahab, and bishops acting as they ought was one
Ambrose made himself: if kings had committed no serious sins
they had no reason to fear being rebuked by the prophets
of God or by bishops (ps. 37.43, written after 389). This was
doubtless true, although the emperors with whom Ambrose
had most to do were all younger than he, two of them

34. Ambrose discusses the testimony of unreliable witnesses (para.(para. 12.56),

the conduct of a judge in a doubtful case (/}s.IIB
(ps.llB 8.25), the benefits
e principles of sentencing (Cain 2.9.27, 10.38) ,,
the
of pleading guilty and th
and th e conduct ofa
the of a good judge (1)1.11820.36-39);
(tJd 1820.36-39); at Tob.Tob. 10.36
10.36 he
speaks as a judge. He is aware of the possibility of his works contain-
ing flattery of a kind app
appwpriate
ropriate to the law courts (ep.
(1). 32(=48).3).

29
 AMBROSE

little more than boys. Others, too, were put in their place.
When one of his deacons claimed to have received a vision,
Ambrose ordered him to remain indoors for a year, but
the cleric made his way to Constantinople, where he was
appointed bishop of the important see of Nicomedia. 35
No-one could doubt that Ambrose projected strength; more
difficult to assess is whether this crossed the line into bullying.

THE OFFICE OF BISHOP

Ambrose settled into the daily round of life as a bishop.
Some of the functions he came to exercise were those bishops
had been carrying out for centuries. Ambrose would have
been the source of the sacraments among his people. Not
only would he have officiated at the Easter baptisms, but
Milan seems to have had a daily celebration of the eucharist by
Ambrose's time, and it would be reasonable to think of the
bishop as the usual celebrant. 36 It was also his responsibility
to bind and loose sinners in penance, this power having
been given to bishops alone (paen. 1.2.6f). To this was added
the duty of teaching which was imposed on bishops, and
Ambrose saw himself exercising this in the careful attention
he devoted to the scriptures (off. 1.1.20. One of the tasks re-
served to the bishop was explaining the Creed to candidates
for baptism, just as he would expound on the sacraments
of baptism and eucharist and the text of the Lord's Prayer
to the newly baptized, these being texts it was not proper to
divulge to those outside the church (see below, page 147).
Beyond this, there was a constant and demanding need to
preach on biblical passages read out in church, which lay
behind much of Ambrose's writing. A passage in which he
recommends a proper style of speech allows us to deduce
something of his own style as a preacher: one's voice should
be plain and straightforward, its melodies coming from
nature and not art. One should enunciate the words clearly,
in a manner full of manly flavour. One should avoid a rough
and uncouth sound, attempting a rhythm not appropriate to

35. Sozomen HE 8.6.

36. The evidence is not clear-cut, but see patr. 9.38 and virgb. l.1l.65,
with Augustine con! 5.9.17, 9.13.36.

30
 BEGINNINGS

the theatre but one serving the religious truth (off.(oJ!. l.23.104).
Early in his time as bishop he found himself in a situation
common among teachers: his devotion to teaching was a
means by which he could himselflearn (off. (oJ!. l.l.3f; cf. ps. 118
2.5 on those who speak before they have learned). A lot of
learning lay ahead of Ambrose when he became bishop,
and we can deduce that he began a programme of reading
the Bible and commentaries on it, but there is a persistent
scattering of errors on biblical matters in his writing over
the years. ·' ~7 His priorities emerge in a letter he wrote to a
newly ordained bishop, in which he develops an image of a
bishop as the pilot of a ship making its way across turbulent
seas before launching in an unexpected direction: the sea is
Holy Scripture (ep. 36(=2).1-3).
We have one hint as to his own intellectual formation as
a bishop. When Augustine was in Milan some years after
Ambrose was ordained, he had an interview with Simplicianus,
a 'servant of God' whom he described as the father of
Ambrose in receiving grace and one who was truly loved as
a father by him. It is not clear in what way Simplicianus was
Ambrose's father in receiving grace, but Ambrose himself
writes that he saw in Simplicianus 'the love of fatherly grace'
(ep. 7(=37).2). Perhaps, there being no bishop in the city
after the death of Auxentius, it fell to a person oflesser rank
to baptize Ambrose, and Simplicianus carried out the task, :~il
or perhaps Simplicianus merely gave him a crash course in
preparation for the sacrament. Simplicianus seems to have
specialized in bringing intellectuals to baptism, and given
that he encouraged Augustine in his reading of Neoplatonist
books it is not impossible that he encouraged Ambrose in
this approach to Christianity?' But this is certainly not proven,

37. It is surprising to find a bishop state that Jesus was born in Nazareth
(Luc. 4.47). Elsewhere Ambrose states that Deborah was a widow and
Barak her son (vid. 8.43, 46) , e rrors which the sly Jerome mentioned
as having been committed by 'certain inept people' (ep. (CP. 54.17).
Other mistakes are presumably careless slips: Abr. 2.3.11; off. 2.30.154.
Ambrose was also capable of the odd mistake in secular learning:
he thought the Euphrates and Tigris rivers flowed into the Red Sea
(ep.62(=19).2).
(CP·62(=19).2).
38. This would go in the face of Paulinus VAmb. 9.2, which implies that
Ambrose received baptism from a bishop.
bishop.
39. Augustine con!
conf 8.2.3f.

31
 AMBROSE

and little can be deduced about any intellectual influences

which may have played on Ambrose.
To the traditional responsibilities of a bishop, new ones
had been added, the job description having changed con-
siderably in the decades immediately prior to Ambrose's
ordination. The rapid increase in the power of the church
in the fourth century had turned the bishop into a person
who held considerable power in the community as well as
the church. Ambrose professed to have a conservative view
of the role of the bishop in society: he would restrain crowds
and be zealous for peace, unless there occurred a wrong
against God or contempt of the church (ep. 74(=40).6). There
were constant demands on his time, such as would lead
Ambrose to write a circular letter rather than letters to in-
dividual people (ep. 47(=87». He found himself dispensing
patronage, as evidenced by eight surviving letters the pagan
senator Symmachus thought it worth his while writing to
him on behalf of various people. 40 It was open to the public to
appeal to a bishop in legal cases, in which he seems to have
had power of jurisdiction, not merely arbitration,41 although
Ambrose sometimes preferred to bring matters to an end by
getting the parties to agree rather than by pronouncing a
verdict (ep. 24(=82).4). The frequent presence of the emperor
in Milan meant that Ambrose found himself interceding
at the highest level for those exiled, imprisoned and facing
the death penalty (ep. 74(=40).25; ep.ex.coll. 11(=51).1). While
we know of one fruitless attempt to intercede with a high
official (Paulinus VAmb. 37), Ambrose mentions in one of
his works a bishop interceding for a man being led to his
death and an emperor thereupon being lenient (ps.118. 8.41),
and this may well reflect personal experience. Moreover,
the church had become a wealthy body. Personally, Ambrose
was poor. On becoming a bishop he gave the gold and silver
which he possessed to the church and the needy, and he
gave the family estates to the church, reserving the profits
for his sister, so that he was left with nothing (VAmb. 38.5).
But the body over which he presided was wealthy. Some of
its assets were in the form of expensive vessels used in the
liturgy, which a bishop could sell to raise money for the

40. Symmachus ep. 3.30-37.

41. Vismara (1987).

32
 BEGINNINGS

redemption of those taken captive in battle, a growing con-

cern in the period following the defeat of a Roman army by
a force of Goths at the battle of Adrianople in August 378
(off. 2.15.70, 28.136-39). The wealth which a bishop had at
his disposal is suggested by an accusation some of Ambrose's
enemies were to make, that those to whom he distributed
charity would be his supporters (ep. 75a(=21a).33). The abil-
ity of bishops to use wealth in such ways was another sign of
a change in the balance of power in society, away from the
state towards the church.
It followed from these tasks that a bishop would spend
much of his life in public. Years after Ambrose became a
bishop, when Augustine sought a private discussion with
him, he found him surrounded by such crowds of people of
affairs that he gave the appearance of never being at leisure
(conf. 6.3.3, 6.11.18). This would have been in accordance
with Ambrose's recommendation to his own clergy that they
be easy of access (off. 2.12.61)
2.12.61),, but such accessibility came at
a price. Ambrose saw a member of the clergy as someone
who lived in public: he lived as if he was in a theatre where
he would be looked at, unlike a monk who lived hidden
away in secret, or he could be said to live in a racecourse,
whereas a monk lived in a cave (ep. ext. coll. 14(=63).7lf).
(ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).71£). He
wished the clergy to act in a way which would win them
public esteem (off. 1.50.247). They had to pay attention to
how they appeared in public, for their bodily posture was a
sign of their mental disposition, the movement of the body
being like a voice of the soul (off. 1.18.71; see further below,
page 161). Needless to say, a person living in this way was
subject to the temptations of a public figure: generosity could
be the fruit of exhibitionism rather than of a concern for
justice (off. 2.16.76). In particular, a bishop must not behave
in an evil way, because in him the life of all was formed
(ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).46). Ambrose lived a busy life in public;
for such a man the notions of the self-sufficiency of some-
one with a beautiful soul (for example, Is. 4.11) and an
interior life lived by someone placed among the people (sacr.
6.3.12) were important.l~

42. Significantly, a discussion of the virtue of silence immediately follows

a passage on the bishop'S role of preaching which opens the De
officiis; see further on silence £'/1. 33(=49).
officiis;

33
 AMBROSE

Near the beginning of the third book of the De officiis,

Ambrose alludes to a saying of Scipio which Cicero quoted
at the beginning of the third book of his own De officiis:
he was not alone when he was alone, and he was never less
at leisure than when he was at leisure (off. 3.1.2; cf. Cic. off.
3.1.1). Ambrose trumps Scipio, claiming that he was not the
first to know this. He had been anticipated by Moses, who
was aware of crying out even when he was silent. While at
leisure Moses stood, fought and triumphed over enemies he
had not touched; so much at leisure was he that others held
up his hands! When he was silent, he spoke; when at leisure,
he was active. This notion fascinated Ambrose. In a letter
addressed to a Bishop Sabinus, Ambrose asserted of himself
that he was never less alone than when he seemed to be
alone,, nor less at leisure than when at leisure, and went
alone we nt on
to broaden the point: Mary was alone, and she spoke with an
angel; she was alone, and busied herself with the salvation
of the world (ep. 33(=49).lf, where Peter and Adam are also
discussed).. Elsewhere he writes of Mary as not seeming alone
discussed)
to herself when she was alone, in the presence of so many
books, archangels and prophets. 43 The presence of the theme,
across works of different genres written at different times,
may be a hint that Ambrose found it relevant to himself.
The position of bishop was a demanding one, and Ambrose
was not inclined to underestimate the dignity of the epis-
copate. 'Where will Christ be sought?' he once asked, going
on to provide an unexpected answer: 'Why, in the breast of
a prudent bishop!' (virgt. 9.50) 'Where is the church? church?'' he
enquires in another work. 'Why, where the rod and grace of
a bishop are in flower! ,44 He boasted to his sister that Jews
(ep. ext. coil. 1(=41).10)
honoured the bishops of the church (ep.ext.colL 1(=41).10),,
and breezily compared his technique as a writer of le letters
tters to
that of St Paul, seeing the apostles as his ancestors in the art

43. Virgb. 2.2.10. Positive referen

43. ces to being alone also occur at lac.
references lac.
1.8.39; Is. 4.11.
44. Is.
Is. 8.64. The theme is persistent in Ambrose: when Christ told Mary
Magdalene to go to his brothers, his words could be taken as refereferring
rring
bish ops (virgt. 4.23); bishops are
to the elect and most observan t bishops a re those
in whom the beauty of th thee church resides (ob. Val. 7); if any gold or
silver were to be found on Ambrose it was not through his own ac acts
ts
bu
butt the mercy and grace of Christ and the episcopal ministry (ps.118.
(ps.] J 8.
20.13) .
20.13).

34
 BEGINNINGS

of letter writing (ep. 37(=47).3, 6). In one of his letters,

Ambrose carefully distinguishes between bishops and the
people: bishops should have nothing of the common folk
about them, nothing of the general people, and nothing in
common with the pursuits, practices and customs of the
rude masses. Sober gravity, serious living and a singular
weight of dignity will be their characteristics (ep. 6(=28).2,
written to a layman). He felt that bishops had nothing to
fear from comparison with holders of secular office, for they
had their own nobility which placed them ahead of prefects
(exh. virgo 82). A reading 'my dignity' in a codex
and consuls (exh.virg.
of the psalms suggested the dignity of the Christian, in the
service of so great an emperor; dignities, honours and ranks
could be seen as having been held by apostles, prophets and
doctors (ps.118.22.15; cf. the expression 'honor ecclesiasticus'
at off.
off 2.24.119). Such concerns will resonate throughout
Ambrose's episcopate.
Our best witness as to how Ambrose appeared in public is
Augustine, the fifth book of whose Confessions is artfully com-
posed so as to playoff two men with whom he had signific-
ant encounters. It begins by describing Augustine's dealings
in Carthage with a leader of the Manichean sect, Faustus.
Augustine depicts him as a man of sweet eloquence, in whose
charm and well-chosen language he took delight. Indeed,
there were many who delighted in Faustus and praised him,
but when
whe n Augustine succeeded in obtaining a discussion
with him in a small group he realized that Faustus was a
man of little reading from whom he had nothing to learn,
however agreeable and seductive his discourse was (conf.
(corif. 5.3.3,
6.11-7.12). At the end of book five, Augustine describes
how, having come to Milan as professor of rhetoric, he sought
out Ambrose. The bishop received him kindly, indeed as a
son, and Augustine began to attend his sermons, doubtless
partly motivated by the professional interest of a rhetorician.
In language strikingly similar to that he used of Faustus,
Augustine states that he was delighted by the sweetness of
Ambrose's language. But it was more learned, ifless cheerful
and soothing, than that of the Manichean. And so, although
Augustine had started to go to church to find out not what
Ambrose said but how he said it, nevertheless, little by little
something of the subject matter came into his mind along
with the words he liked so much, as Ambrose showed that the

35
 AMBROSE

old Scriptures need not be taken literally, as the Manicheans

had taught him, but as if they were riddles (con! 5.13.23-
14.24). Just as he had with Faustus, Augustine sought a private
discussion with Ambrose, but he found him surrounded by
people, only infrequently eating and reading in silence (con!
6.3.3). He rejoiced to hear Ambrose repeating to the people
in his preaching 'the letter kills but the Spirit gives life'
(II Cor 3:6), for he opened up according to the Spirit those
texts which seemed to teach perversity when taken according
to the letter by taking away that which had veiled them in a
mystery (conf. 6.4.6). We shall have occasion to turn to this
passage of Augustine again later (below, page 172 n. 28).
But for the time being we may observe that Ambrose is con-
trasted with Faustus with respect to the difficulty of obtain-
ing a private interview as well as the content of his teaching.
Augustine gives the impression that Ambrose was remark-
ably busy, whatever his interior life may have been.

DEATH OF A BROTHER
Before Ambrose had been bishop for long there was a death
in the family, that of a brother whose existence is hinted at
in no source we have hitherto discussed. 45 Only from two
orations delivered on his dead brother do we learn that, in
addition to his elder sister Marcellina, there was a middle
sibling, Satyrus; the narrow base of evidence reminds us of
the sheer elusiveness of large parts of Ambrose's life. Had
Satyrus died before Ambrose became bishop we would not
have known of his existence, and the fact that our knowledge
of him comes almost entirely from funeral orations does not
augur well for its balance. Like his younger brother, Satyrus
had remained unmarried while enjoying a successful career,
but when Ambrose became bishop he moved to Milan and
lived with him, devoting himself to administration. Satyrus

45. The dating of the death of Satyrus hinges on the identification of the
barbarians whose activities are referred to at exc.fr. 1.1, 30-32. If they
were the Quadi and Sarmati, Satyrus died in 374 or 375 (so PLRE
809), but arguments for 378 are concisely given by SAEMO 18:lOf,
and other evidence confirms that Satyrus was buried in the spring of
378 (Picard (1988) :604ff). Unless otherwise stated, all information in
the following three paragraphs comes from the De excessu fratris.

36
 BEGINNINGS

was also similar to Ambrose in deferring baptism well into

his adult life. It took a dramatic incident to bring him to the
font. On one occasion, threatened with shipwreck, he leaped
overboard with a eucharistic Host wrapped in a handkerchief
tied around his neck, and swam to safety. Only after this
did he seek baptism, which Ambrose asserts he would only
receive from a catholic bishop in agreement with the church
of Rome.
At some later time Satyrus set to sea again, to settle a dis-
pute concerning property in Mrica.
Africa. Having resolved the mat-
ter he
h e sailed homewards, only to experience what Ambrose
refers to, in vague language
language,, as a shipwreck. In Rome he he
received disturbing news. Ambrose describes him be being
ing told
by a relative, the noble Symmachus, that Italy was burning
with war, and that if he continued northwards to Milan he
would run into danger. Symmachus was a leading pagan
intellectual and substantial property holder with estates in
Africa
Nrica as well as Italy, a circumstance which may explain why
Satyrus sought him out. Despite the ravages of barbarians,
which Ambrose describes in a remarkable purple passage,
Satyrus pressed on to Milan, where he became ill and died
in the arms of his brother. H Hee was buried at the shrine of
thee martyr Victor, outside the walls of the city. Ambrose
th
commemorated him in two discourses, one delivered on the
day of his death and the second a week later. Almost all we
know of Satyrus is contained in these addresses, It; which tell
us more about Ambrose than their subject.
The first is drenched in tears. Ambrose rhetorically won-
d ered why he was weeping so much (exc.fr. 1.4,6)
dered 1.4,6),, but made
no effort to hide his tears (exc.fr. l.10,15,21,28, etc.).
e tc.). The
shedding
sh edding of abundant
abundam tears at the death of a loved one is
a familiar topos which doubtless reflects a familiar reality,
although Ambrose's exuberant development of it stands in
contrast to Augustine's initial inability to cry when his mother
ed. 47 He makes overtures to pagan opinion, or at least
died.
di
acknowledges it, and his hheavy
eavy use of classical authors sug-
gests something of his education and a preparedness, despite
his being a bishop, not to turn his back on non-Christian

46. Symmachus ep. 1.63 is the oonly

46. nly other
o th e r litCl"ary source to refer to him ;
the family connection is known from fl"Om I'xrjr.
pxrjr. 1.32.
4i.
4i. Conf. 9 .12.
.12.31-33;
31-33; see furth e r helow, p.
further p. 142f.

37
 AMBROSE

wntmgs.
wrItings. Indeed, when he wrote this oration Ambrose was
the first theologian in the West to compose a consolatio, a
non-Christian genre. 48 In the second and longer oration
Ambrose seeks to show that death is not an evil, a theme to
which he will later devote an entire book, and the confidence
which is to be gained from the resurrection. What the second
oration loses in personal interest it gains as Ambrose uses
his sources to develop interesting arguments. Not unexpected
is his heavy reliance on the Bible and his use of St Paul's
teaching on the resurrection; more typically Ambrosian is
his use of examples from Genesis and texts from the Song
of Songs which are not explicitly connected with the resur-
rection. Allusions to non-Christian authors again come thick
and fast. In the first oration Ambrose draws especially on
two Latin authors writing in the Stoic tradition, Cicero and
Seneca, as well as Ovid and a little-known Greek author of
the third century, Menander Rhetor, while in the second
he uses two works of Cicero, the Cato maior and Tusculan
orations, and Athenagoras, a Christian author of the second
century who wrote in Greek. Ambrose represents himself
as persistently taking points up with people he identifies as
pagans or philosophers (exc.fr. 2.50,58,86,128ff). One attempt
to bring together biblical and pagan is particularly reveal-
ing. Ambrose states that Solomon was of the opinion that
'Not to be born is best by far', and that on this point he was
followed by those who seemed to excel in philosophy (exc.fr.
2.30); (see Ecclesiastes 4:2f, thought to have been written by
Solomon.) The phrase he attributes to the Old Testament
author seems rather to belong to a lost work of Cicero,49 so
his hypothesis that Solomon was followed by pagan philo-
sophers thus falls to the ground, but the notion that the
insights of classical philosophy were purloined from the bib-
lical authors will be important for Ambrose.
Taken together, the two orations raise important issues.
They make it clear that Ambrose had a relationship with
earlier authors, biblical, Christian and secular, but raise dif-
ficult questions: was Ambrose, in the midst of his borrowings,

48. Fenger (1982).

49. Cf. SMMO 10:245 n. 5. It can be identified as Ciceronian because it
is quoted by the Christian author Lactantius, who refers to it as 'a
very vain saying', a different evaluation from that of Ambrose.

38
 BEGINNINGS

an original writer? Was he able to synthesize the diverse

materials with which he worked, or did they co-exist uneasily
in his work? These matters will claim our attention later.
The orations also raise the question of celibacy. Not only
did Satyrus never marry, but Ambrose represented him as
blushing in the presence of females, even relatives. Such
was his love of chastity and his closeness to his siblings that
he did not seek a wife; he shared in the chastity of his sister,
a virgin, and the holiness of his brother, a bishop (exc.fr.
1.52-54). As it happened, the topic of virginity is one to
which Ambrose was devoting a good deal of thought at just
this time. It will be appropriate to consider it in the following
chapter.

39
 Chapter 2

WOMEN

Women and their relations with men were a complicated

and important issue for Ambrose, who devoted some of his
earliest writings to them. l In 377, less than three years after he
had become a bishop, he wrote his De virginibus (Concerning
virgins). Like other authors, Ambrose approached his first
book with some trepidation. While portions of it are probably
based on sermons (see e.g. 1.2.5) 1.2.5),, the work is a polished
piece of formal writing, designed to impress. It opens with a
complicated sentence over a hundred words long and pro-
ceeds to a display of the topos of humility, in which Ambrose
recalled the teaching ofJesus that people would have to give
account for every idle word they spoke. He returned to the
topic in the De virginitate (Concerning virginity)
virginity),, probably
writte n in the late 380s2 as a response to critics of the first
written
book. Meanwhile, not long after finishing the De virginibus, he
had written both the De viduis (Concerning widows), and a
work dealing with the time Adam and Eve spent in paradise,
the De paradiso (Concerning paradise). Late in his life Ambrose
returned to these themes. The De institutione virginis (Con-
cerning the education of a virgin, written in about 393) con-
tains a sermon he delivered on the consecration of a virgin,

l. I take this to be a sign of his inte

interest
rest in the topic, whereas McLyn
McLynn n
sees it as a bid for support (1994): 53ff. If it was this it failed
failed.. See on
thee themes of this chapter Brown (1988) and the careful discussio
th discussion n of
of
Lamirande (1979).
2.
2. Some scholars date this work to the period pe riod immediately afteafterr the
De virginibus, but the commentary on part of the Song of Songs it
includes invites comparison with ththee commentaries contained in the
De Isaac and Expositio psalmi CXVIIl,
CXVIII, both works of the late 380s (see
SAEMO 14/ 1:69)
1:69)..

40
 WOMEN

while the Exhortatio virginitatis (Exhortation to virginity) was

based on a sennon given at the dedication of a church built
by a wealthy widow in Florence in 394.
Ambrose's thinking on women is structured, coherent
and nuanced, but never given systematic expression. Rather,
it emerges across a body of writings. In this chapter we shall
therefore seek to draw out themes from Ambrose's works
rather than summarize them one by one, using evidence from
various works as the discussion proceeds. As we shall see,
while Ambrose tended to believe that women were inferior
to men, his view of them was differentiated. He thought that
there were three kinds of women, virgins, widows and wives,
and that while marriage imposed slavery on a woman, virgin-
ity brought her freedom. In this respect, his teaching was
strongly opposed to traditional Roman values. Encouraging
women to commit themselves to lives of virginity, Ambrose
used the erotic language of the Song of Songs. This was a
risky strategy, for the use to which he puts this text seems to
fly in the face of its content, and themes he draws from it
appear to be opposed to those which he developed in other
works. His attitude towards women will therefore be worth
careful consideration.

THE TWO SEXES

Ambrose sends out mixed signals on his attitude towards
women. He read the Bible with sufficient care to be puzzled
by what seemed to be the occasional sexism of its language.
Why was it that psalm 1 begins 'blessed is the man who
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly' (ps. 1.14)?:1 Why
did Paul wish 'that men pray everywhere' (saer. 6.4.17, on I
Tim 2:8)? It was not clear to Ambrose why the Greek texts he
followed used the gender-specific rather than the inclusive
noun for 'man' in these passages. He saw the genders as
complementary, not only in reproductive functions but also
in the qualities they displayed: Rebekah was swayed towards
one of her sons by a feeling of love (afJectus) , while Isaac was

3. Ambrose was far more interested in this question than Basil, whose
commentary he had in front of him (PC 29:216D-217A).

41
 AMBROSE

inclined towards the other by his judgment (iudicium). 4 But

discussing an incident when Christ touched a deaf man,
Ambrose took it for granted that it would not have been
fitting for him to have touched a woman (myst 1.4), and he
assumed that a reference to the procreation of men was to
be taken as including that of women, because the more
important includes the less important. 5 His commentary on
Luke treats the women mentioned in that gospel slightingly.
Of three parables concerning them, he offers extremely short
discussions of the woman who had leaven (Luc. 7.187) and
the woman who lost a coin (7.211), while the widow who
beseeched the unrighteous judge is given the briefest possible
mention, out of sequence (5.114).
Despite this, Ambrose felt able to distinguish the genders
precisely: if there was an intrinsic unity between man and
woman, there was a functional subordination of the feminine
to the masculine. 6 Although they share one nature, the first
in creation is the first in importance (ps. 1.14).
1.14) . Discussing
the apparent redundancy within the phrase 'forty days and
forty nights' the Bible used to indicate the period when
rain fell during Noah's flood, he noted the possibility that
it indicated the violent deaths of both men and women,
'day' referring to man, he being pure and like the light, and
'night', a concept with negative connotations for Ambrose,
to woman.' Discussing the phenomenon of cross-dressing,
Ambrose accepted that the Greek women who practised it
were seeking to imitate the nature of the better sex, but
could not understand why men would want to give a false
impression of being the inferior sex (ep. 15(=69).4; cf. exc.fr.
2.7). That Zacharias prophesied at greater length than his

4. lac. 2.2.7, on Gen. 25:28. A similar apposition at Luc.Luc. 7.200: heresy,

like Eve, tempts the rigour of faith with womanly affection (perhaps
Justina) ; cf.
alluding to the Empress Justina); cf. ps.1l815.18: the woman caused
her husband to change by her affection. Nevertheless, the two states of
mind existed together inJoseph: overcome by a feeling oflove, h hee was
restrained by counsel as his reason contended with love (/05. 10.57). 10.57) .
See too on the genders Cain 1.10.47.
5. But on procreation, see exa. 1.10.37.
6. Pizzolato (1976): 188, with reference to fid. 4.28.
7. Night is also associated with women at Noe 13.43; on night, cf. e.g. Cain
2.4.16; exa. 1.10.36 (the pre-eminence Ambrose attributes to the day
may have masculine overtones, cf. cf. 1.10.37 and below, pp.. 45) ; Luc. 7.49 ;
Nab. 8 .38; ob. Theod. 39.
Nab.

42
 WOMEN

wife Elizabeth was fitting, for it belongs to a woman to learn

divine things rather than teach them (LuG.
(Luc. 2.35).
Yet women came in various categories. Ambrose pictured
himself as a worker in the countryside who wished to see the
field of the church which had been entrusted to him in a
fertile condition: it would bloom with the flower of integrity,
be strong in the dignity of widowhood, and overflow with
the fruits of marriage (vid. 14.83). Within the field one could
see buds verdant with the flower of virginity, widowhood
powerful in dignity like forests in the open countryside,
and grain fields which filled the barns of the world with the
rich produce of marriage (virg!. 6.34). Biblical exemplars of
the three states were to hand, for they were represented
respectively by Mary, Anna and Elizabeth, women important
in the birth and infancy of Jesus: after a married woman and
a virgin prophesied, it was necessary that a widow do the same
(Luc. 2.62). Each group had its own characteristic: at a time
(LUG.
when women were victims of barbarian impurity, Ambrose
thought of virgins as being sacred, widows as dignified and
married women as modest. H The order in which Ambrose
mentions the three classes of women is fixed, and clearly rep-
resents his preference.!) As widows occupied an intermediate
position, we shall chiefly concern ourselves with the other
categories, beginning with the one Ambrose esteemed least.

THE WIFE
Ambrose supported marriage. Against those who condemned
it (LUG.
(Luc. 4.10, referring to Manicheans), he insisted that fer-
tility was a gift of God to parents and that God had given his
approval to marriage at the beginning of Genesis (Luc. 1.30).
As the first woman was created for the purpose of procrea-
tion, Ambrose believed that the purpose of marriage was

8. OJ!. 3.13.84. See elsewhere on the gravitas of widows bon. mort. 6.25
(where suavitas is attributed to virgins), Cain 2.3.12; Luc. 5.89, vid.
14.83; the modesty of married women is exemplified by Sarah (Abr.
1.5.37, 42).
9. The categories occur in the reverse order at vid. 4.23, but Ambrose
goes on to reveal where his sympathies lie. Elsewhere he observes that
virginity has its rewards, widowhood its merits, and conjugal modesty
its place (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).40).

43
 AMBROSE

having children. Ambrose could infer that Elisabeth and

Zacharias had ceased to have marital relations prior to the
conception, in their old age, of John the Baptist, having
children being the only reason for getting married (Lue.
1.45). Yet within marriage, the husband and wife would play
very different roles.
Ambrose thought that a good example of a married cou-
ple acting in their proper roles was provided by Abraham
and Sarah: while Abraham stood outside the tabernacle and
offered hospitality to passing strangers, Sarah guarded her
womanly modesty, carrying out the tasks of a wife with a sense
of shame. When one of a group of visitors asked Abraham
where his wife was, his purpose was to teach the degree of
shame and modesty which was appropriate to women. Ambrose
considered that this story taught what was fitting behaviour
in a wife (Abr. 1.5.37,42, on Gen. 18). He reads this biblical
narrative in a very Roman way, for the qualities of shame
and modesty he applies to Sarah are not present in the story
told in Genesis, but virtues the Romans praised. IO Admir-
ing these qualities as he did, Ambrose was scandalized by
the behaviour of women who, rather than being within the
secluded parts of the home where they would be neither
heard nor seen by strangers, appeared drunk in public.
Whereas the apostle orders them to keep quiet in church and
ask their husbands questions at home (1 Cor. 14:34f), such
women dance in the streets under the gaze of intemperate
youths, tossing their hair, dragging their tunics behind them,
their clothing torn and their arms naked, clapping with their
hands, leaping with their feet, shouting loudly, making young
men lust for them, with a gait like that of actors, come-on
eyes and an elegant playfulness (Hel. 18.66). One wonders
how many women of this kind were to be encountered in
the streets of Milan, but there is no doubting the centrality
of the home to Ambrose's attitude to married women. He
sees significance in the Lord's having 'built' the rib he took
from Adam into a woman, for it is in a man and a woman
together that the full perfection of a home can be seen. But
it turns out that the home is a female domain: a man with-
out a wife can be thought of as being without a home, for

10. Roman women of the republican period practised a cult of Pudicitia

(cf. Livy 10.23.3-10); the virtue of verecundia was similar to it.

44
 WOMEN

just as a man was fit for public offices, a wife was fit for
domestic services in the home. I I Elsewhere, Ambrose sees
the creation of the woman while the man was asleep as
having been important. This indicated that the man, the
one who would seize the initiative in human reproduction,
came first. He would be the one to take a shining role in
public activity, while the woman, darker and shut in by the
walls of the home, would resemble the night. Indeed, having
bee n created from the man's rib, she owed her very exist-
been
ence to him. him . The man would shine in public activity; the
woman 's activity would bbee less visible, she being enclosed
woman's
within the walls of the house (Noe (Noe 13.43).
The primeval human couple was Adam and Eve, and from
the time of St Paul, Eve has carried a heavy burden in Chris-
tian thought. Ambrose's attitude towards her is complicated.
Discussing the creation narratives in Genesis, he h e pointed
out that, although Adam was created outside paradise and
Eve inside it, the man in an inferior and the woman in a
superior place, it was nevertheless
neverth eless the woman, the first to be
deceived and the one who deceived her husband, who was
found inferior.
infe rior. This, he felt, was why the apostle Peter speaks
of women being subject to their husbands and obeying them
as 10rds.l~
10rds.l ~ But Ambrose turns th e argument in an unexpected
direction. Given that Adam fell because of Eve, no-one should
tmst in the virtue of another without having first tested it,
but neither should he claim for himself someone he h e had
received as a helper. If he h e is found to be the stronger
stronger,, the
grace is to be shared and men m e n are to hold their wives in
honour (par. 4.24). 4.24) . To be sure, the fact that God found
it necessary to create Eve demonstrated
d emonstrated that women
wome n wewere
re
n ecessary for men
necessary men.. Ambrose interpreted God's statement 'It

11. Par. 11.50, Gmrsin 1.26.

11 .50, following Philo Quafsliorlfs in Gmfsin l.26. There is an a n im-
portant apposition between
betwee n public. and domestic., the second adjectiveadj ective
preserving the word for home h o me (domus) , and 'ojjir:ia' (public duties, the
title of a book Ambrose addressed to his clergy in which he h e proposed
an etymology which derived th thee word from the verb 'to do things'
(eJficio) (off
(of! 1.8.26);
l.8.26); elsewhere he h e applies the word to the th e clergy
(ep.fxl.coll. 14(=63).71))
(ep.fxl.wll. 14(=63).71) ) and 'minislma' , a word usually applied to
tasks carried
carri ed out by inferior persons.
12. But whereas I Pet. 3:1 3: I has wives being
be ing in subjection to their hus-
bands,
ba nds, Ambrose adds the notion notio n of wives obeying husbands
husba nds as lords
from Gen.
Ge n. 3:16. 1 Pet. 3:1 is similarly
si mila rly misquoted at /)(lr.
/Jflr. 4.24.

45
 AMBROSE

is not good that the man should be alone' (Gen. 2:18) in

the light of the failure of the preceding narrative to add the
phrase 'God saw that it was good' after the creation of the
first man, despite its occurrence after the creation of other
things. On the other hand, the creation of male and female
(Gen. 1:27) was followed by the statement 'And God sawall
the things which he had made, and behold they were very
good' (Gen. 1.31). But how could this be reconciled with
Eve's having been the agent of sin? Eve had been created
for the purpose of procreation, for God preferred that there
be many he might save through the forgiveness of their sins
rather than a solitary Adam free from guilt. Hence, when the
Bible spoke of Eve as having been created as a 'helper' for
the man, it referred to the help she provided in procreation.
Her role would be similar to that played by the earth when
it receives the seeds of plants. After all, Ambrose remarks, it
often happens that important people receive help from those
of lesser merit. It was not an encouraging view, but Ambrose
insists that the woman was necessary to the man. One reason
for the animals being brought before Adam (Gen. 2: 2: 19) was
to enable him to see the universality of the male and female
genders; from this he would learn his need for the partner-
ship of a woman (11.49).
The creation, then, involved a gradation and a reciprocity
between the genders. But as the text of Genesis proceeded
it became clear that it was because of the woman that the
man fell. The Devil, overcome by envy of the newly created
humans, tempted Eve, and Ambrose expressed this in terms te rms
which will be crucial to his thought. The Devil's tools, he
thought, were enjoyment and delight. 13 He approached the
woman because the man had received directly from God
the command not to eat the fruit of one of the trees in the
garden. Eve responded to the Devil by repeating the com-
mand God had given Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree
in the midst of the garden, concluding with the words 'You
shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die'
(Gen. 3:2f). But Ambrose, a precise reader of the Bible,
pointed out that this constituted an expansion of God's words

13. Voluptas and delectatio, two words which Cicero had already brought
together in referring to the ddelight
elight of the eyes and the enjoyment
66.
one derives from the stomach : Pis. 66.

46
 WOMEN

to Adam, for the initial command had been against eating

the fruit, without any mention of touching it. He found this
expansion reprehensible, and disagreed with those who held
that Adam had passed on the commandment to Eve in an
altered form. Why, then, did God rebuke Adam first when
he spoke to the errant couple? This was because the weaker
sex begins with deviation from duty, while shame belongs to
the stronger. Error originated with the female, and sense of
shame with the man.
In some ways, Ambrose's view of Eve was positive. She
behaved well in acknowledging her guilt before God, and so
received a mild sentence which would benefit her. Yet the
profit entailed subordination: she would be turned towards
her husband and serve him. This was so that she would not
easily delight in sinning; being placed under her husband,
she would not disgrace him, but be ruled by his counsel.
Ambrose saw the relationship between Adam and Eve after
the Fall as foreshadowing that between Christ and the
church. The latter would be turned towards Christ and be
in a situation of slavery, subjected to the Word of God, this
being much better than the freedom of this world (14.72).
Much of Ambrose's view of women is concentrated in his
understanding of the Fall: the service a wife renders her
husband and the association of women with enjoyment and
delight, and of men with cou~sel. Doubtless Eve's defence,
'The serpent beguiled me', was plausible, and her conduct
seemed pardonable to God because of the deceptive nature
of the serpent. But,just as the woman does, the serpent stands
for enjoyment, as Ambrose will observe elsewhere, going bey-
ond anything to be found in Genesis (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).14).
The serpent stood for enjoyment and Adam was deceived
by his appetite for it. In an important statement, Ambrose
observes that the serpent represents bodily delight, the woman
our senses and the man our mind. Delight takes the senses
captive, as they do the mind. It moves the sensibility, which
in turn influences the mind. That sin originates in delight
explains why the serpent, the woman and the man were con-
demned in that order, for delight generally captivates the
sensibility as well as the mind (para. 15.73; cf. Abr. 2.l.1).
So it is that Ambrose's picture of Eve is nuanced. In a
backhanded way he sees her as emerging more creditably
than Adam from the Fall: the woman was deceived by the

47
 AMBROSE

serpent, the wisest of all creatures and, indeed, an angel;

the man merely by the woman, his inferior (inst. virgo 4.25).
Nevertheless, Ambrose sees her as the one responsible for
the coming of sin into human life, perhaps placing more
weight on her than does St Paul, whose epistles refer five
times to Adam but only twice to Eve. Negative references to
Eve abound in his works. Yet it is noteworthy how often
negative comments about Eve are balanced by positive ref-
erences to other women: just as sin began from women, so
good things take their beginning from women (Lue. 2.28).
Ambrose was not surprised that the first appearance of Christ
after his resurrection was to Mary Magdalene: as it had been
a woman who first tasted death in the person of Eve, it was
appropriate for a woman to be the first to see the resurrection,
for she who had passed on guilt to the man now passed on
grace (Lue. 10.156). In another discussion of Christ's appear-
ance to Mary Magdalene
Magdalene,, Ambrose points out that when she
did not believe,
b elieve, Christ called her 'woman', the noun gener-
ally applied to Eve, but when she began to be converted she
was called Mary, so taking the name of the one who bore
Christ (virgt. 4.20 on John 20:15), and he will often link Eve
with the highly positive figure of Mary: if foolishness came
through a woman , wisdom came through a virgin.14
virgin. 14 But this
is to anticipate a theme we shall consider later.
Whatever subordination to Adam Eve may have experienced
before the Fall was much less than that which followed it.
The lot of a wife, as described
desc ribed in the De virginibus, is not a
happy one.
one . While a fe
fertile
rtile wife may boast of her offspring,
Ambrose believes that her children bring as much trouble
as comfort: 'She marries and she wails ... She conceives and
she becomes heavy ... She gives birth and she is sick.']'> He
enunciates a theme which will be crucial in his thought:

Need I remind you of the burdensome condition of slavery to

which women are subjected and the servile obligations they
render to men? God ordered them to act as slaves even before
there we
were
re slaves (virgb. 1.6.27).

14. Luc. 4.7; cf. inst.virg. 5.33; Luc. 4.39; para. 10.47 (although here Mary
is mulier) ; Spir.S. 3.11.74.
3.1l.74. More detail in SAEMO 14/ 2:219 n . 49.
15. Virgb. 1.6.25.
l.6.25. Elsewhere Ambrose lists a mother's suffe sufferings:
rings: the insult
to her modesty, the loss of of her virginity, the danger eencountered
ncountered in
giving birth, and her protracted discomfo
discomfortsrts and troubles (Luc. 2.66) .

48
 WOMEN

The idea is powerful, and loses nothing by the language in

which it is expressed. Ambrose depicts the standing of the
wife in the technical vocabulary applied to slavery in ancient
times l6 and emphasizes the point by forceful repetition
(servitia . .. servire . .. servos). He also alludes, in a verbally
precise way, to a portion of the biblical narrative passed
over in his commentary on paradise, for the reference to a
time 'before there were slaves' refers to the period before
Adam was granted lordship over Eve following the Fall. 17
These thoughts are followed by a powerful passage which
no less an authority than Augustine would later quote as an
example of an exalted style of writing, in which Ambrose
argues that the vice of make-up was born of women's dread of
displeasing their husbands. From a counterfeiting (adulteratio)
of the face, women go on to think of the counterfeiting
(adulteratio) of chastity. Madly, they change the appearance
nature has given them, fear of their husbands' judgment
making them suppress their own. A woman who seeks to
please another is already displeased with herself; the husband
loves another when a woman seeks to please by looking like
another. IH Here, Ambrose continues, expensive necklaces
hang down; there is a gilded dress with a train. Enticing
perfumes, ears burdened with gems, eyes whose colour has
been changed: what remains the same, where so many things
are altered? Does a woman who loses her senses believe that
she is still alive? (l.6.29; the word 'senses' is ambiguous;
we shall later be concerned with Ambrose's attitude to the

16. He elsewhere applies the word 'j(lmulatus' to the relationship between

an animal and its master (Cain 2.1.3); the Vulgate translation of the
Bible uses it for the 'service' the Israelites were obliged to render in
Egypt (Ex. 1: 14). See too rod. ThfOri. 4.8.7. An addict us was a person
who had been enslaved as a punishment.
17. Gen. 3:16, a text not discussed in the jHlTrl. The notion of lordship is
entailed by the first component of the verb used in LXX, 'kuril'usPi',
as it is in the Vulgate's 'r/ominabilur'.
18. Virgb. 1.6.28; see Augustine Dr r/octrina rhristiana 4.21.50, who also
quotes a passage of Cyprian on the same subject. Note in a similar
vein exa. 6.8.47: 'you do not please the one you desire to please, who
realizes that what pleases is 1I0t yours but something else, and you
displease your Creator'. This passage also contains a significant use of
the charged verb 'adulterate' to describe the acti\ity of women who
use make-up. But even those who professed a zeal for chastity lIsed
such devices: exh.virg. 12.81.

49
 AMBROSE

five senses). Virgins do not know of such things, which are

torments rather than ornaments. 19 There is no difference
between a golden necklace and an iron chain around the
foot (1.9.55). Elsewhere, Ambrose observes that women take
delight in shackles for their feet, as long as they are bound
by gold; they do not think of them as burdens if they are
expensive, or as chains if treasure sparkles in them. Indeed,
when gold is placed in their ears and weights hang down
from them, they delight in being wounded (Nab. 5.26). In
such ways, Ambrose is persistently negative about the status
of the wife in marriage. 20 Indeed, the 'enjoyment' which
Ambrose associated with women was experienced by men
rather than themselves; he writes of men but not women
enjoying sex. Such a man was Theotimus, who suffered from
poor eyesight and loved his wife. The doctor told him to
give up sex, but lust overcame him: 'Farewell, kindly light!'
he cried out in the ardour of his passion. 21 But Ambrose's
negative view of the standing of women is concerned with
those who are married, and for those seeking freedom there
was a simple solution. They could dispense with husbands.

'TlJI7Tle1lta potius quam ornamenta' 1.6.30. Such play on words by Ambrose

19. 'Tormenta
is frequent on this topic: jjewellery
ewellery makes women 'onerare aures, curvare
cervices' (paen. 2.9.88); cf. 'aurum aunbus inseratur' (Nab. 5.26, quoted
below). Note too alliteration : 'Noli ' Noli ... accipere cincinnos corporalium
capillorum' (virg!. 12.71).
20. Elsewhere Ambrose comments that a wife should be subject to her
husband as the church is to Christ (ep. 16(=76).14, with reference
to Eph. 5:24), and that wives owe their husbands obedience (ep.
35(=83) .3). The position can be made more gently: a wife defers to
35(=83).3).
her husband but does not serve him; a man directs his wife as one
who governs her, but nevertheless honours her (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63) .107) .
Men should see themselves as husbands, not lords: God wished them
to be governors of the inferior sex (exa. (exa. 5.7.19). Further, conjugal
slavery is experienced by men as well as women (vid. (vid. 1l.69),
11.69), and the
chains of marriage bind both partners. Commenting on Paul Paul's
's ques-
tion 'Are you free from a wife?' (I Cor. 7:27), Ambrose observes that
a man who marries binds himself with chains for his mind and flesh
(ps.1183.32).
Luc. 4.64; sexual passion is metaphorically linked with blindness
21. Luc.
(cf. ps. J18 15.18). The word Ambrose here uses for love
ps.J18 love,, 'amare',
refers to an irrational love, capable of bending the mind (Luc. 4.63)
and to reason (los. (los. 10.57);
10.57) ; one could love (amare) one's wife too
much. Ambrose's other words for love, 'cantas' and 'dilectio', have
more elevated meanings: Otten (1963).

50
 WOMEN

THE VIRGIN
Ambrose expressed his thinking on this point by words he
attributes to the widow Juliana, in a work written in 394.
The discourse directed to her children which Ambrose puts
in her mouth encourages the practice of virginity, while recog-
nizing that this cannot be commanded; among its benefits
is that virgins, not being fastened
fasten ed by the tie of marriage, do
not know slavery (exh.
(exh. virg. 4.19)
4.19).. Turning specifically to her
daughters, Juliana restates a familiar Ambrosian theme theme::
marriage is a chain by which a wife is bound to her husband
and made subject to him , and while it is tme that neither a
man nor a woman has power over their own body (d. I Cor.
7:12), the
th e man's greater strength means that the woman
enjoys
e~oys even less power than he h e does. The fact that slavery is
common to the married partners p artn ers (cf. vid. 1l.69)
11.69) does not
make the woman free, but hinds her the more severely.
Juliana encourages her daughters to imitate Paul , whose
flight from the chain of marriage allowed him to be so great
an apostle.
apostle. Her daughters were
we re people
to whom virginity alone can give freedom,freedom , since she who mar-
ries
ri es is sold into slavel), by her
h e r own money. Slavery is a better
be tter
state than wedlock, for slaves are a re bought at a price, while wives
ay to become slaves! A bride who is up for sale is burdened
ppay burde ned
with gold, she is valued in accordance with her gold. I know
from experience, children,
children , the toils of intercourse, the indign-
iti es of marriage, and this was under a good husband.
husband. But even
unde r a good husband I was not free: I served a man and
under a nd
laboured to please him.
him .

But, as she saw it, the Lord had

h ad mercy on her, for her
h e r hus-
band joined the clergy and no longer counted as a married
man.
man.~~ ~~

The continuities with Ambrose's thought in the early works

we have already examined are evident. There is the same
bmtal insistence on the slavery which marriage entailed for
women; words derived from theth e Latin word for slave (serous)
(servus)
occur four times in the passage quoted above. Again we find
th e notion of the wife seeking to please her husband.
the husband. But

r.'xh. virg.
22. E'xh. virgo3.17ff; the passage quoled
quo te d is at 4.23f. See as well Faust (1983):
123ff.
123£1'.

51
 AMBROSE

here, women are offered the prospect of freedom. Elsewhere,

in a letter to a pope which Ambrose edited on behalf of a
group of bishops, we find juxtaposed a wife, bound by the
chains of marriage, and a virgin free of chains, categories
which he assimilates into the stages of salvation history: the
(ep. ext. coll.
former was under the law, the latter under grace (ep.exl.coll.
15(=42).3).
The state of consecrated virginity had existed for some
time within Christianity when Ambrose became a bishop.
Virgins were a matter of family pride, for his sister Marcellina
was a consecrated virgin in Rome, while another virgin, the
martyr Soteris, was a remote ancestor, so that Ambrose could
allude to his sister's 'hereditary chastity' (virgb. 3.37; cf.
exh.virg. 12.82). The ostensible occasion for the De virginibus
was the celebration of the feast-day of another virgin, St
Agnes, who was twelve years old at the time of her martyr-
dom, when she displayed devotion beyond her years and
strength beyond nature (virgb. 1.5).23
1.5).23 In this work Ambrose,
who was always fascinated by martyrdom, gives an enthusi-
astic account of the death of Agnes (1 .2.7-9) before turning
to the general theme of virginity. He provides a quotation
from the Song of Songs: 'Your name is ointment poured
forth. So the young girls love you and attract you' (Song 1:3,
quoted at 1.3.11). He imagines virgins arriving in heaven to
the joyful applause of the angels, and Miriam with her tam-
bourine urging on choirs of virgins singing to the Lord
(2.2.17).24 In the Old Testament Elijah and Miriam were
virgins, but with the coming of Christ this 'way of heavenly
living in human bodies' spread throughout the world. It was
something specifically Christian, being infrequently encoun-
tered among pagans.
pagans. Hence, Ambrose placed virginity above
marriage, while maintaining that he did not advise people
against marriage. The latter was a remedy for weakness, but
virginity was the glory of chastity; marriage is not censured,
but virginity is praised (virgb. l.6.24).

23. In common with other authors, Ambrose stresses that virginity is

something beyond nature (cf. 1.2.8,3.11).
l.2.8, 3.11). Indeed, 'in virgins we see
on
o n earth the life of the ange
angels
ls which we lost in paradise' (inst.virg.
17.104; cf. virgb. 1.3.11,
l.3.11, 1.8.48-51,
l.8.48-51, with exh.virg. 4.19) .
24. Significantly, whereas the Bible describes
d escribes Miriam leading women
wome n
(Ex. 15:20), Ambrose has her leading virgins, as he has at virgb. 1.3.12.
l.3.12.
Exodus is silent as to her virginity.
virginity.

52
 WOMEN

Ambrose backed up his points by discussing a part of a

book of the Bible which was to remain among his favourites,
the Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon. It is
a book of largely amorous content, which initially made its
place within the Jewish canon of scripture insecure. Over
the centuries,Jewish and Christian exegetes had interpreted
it as an allegory, and at various stages Ambrose was attracted
to more than one interpretation. In the De virginibus he
introduced into the Latin world an interpretation derived
from the writing of Athanasius, which saw the leading female
character in the Song, referred to in the text as the bride
(sponsa), as a virgin.
The passage Ambrose considers begins with words one
would have thought inappropriate to the topic of virginity:
'You are utterly beautiful, my love, and without fault. Come
hither from Lebanon, my bride!' (virgb. l.38, quoting Song
4:7f). With these words Ambrose plunges into the world of
the most sensuous book of the Bible. Similar themes occur
in one of his later works, the De virginitate, much of which is
taken up with a commentary on another part of the Song of
Songs. In the latter book Ambrose jumps into the text by
quoting verses describing a garden of sweet smells in which
pleasant fruits were eaten (l0.54,
(10.54, on Song 4:
4:16f).
16f). He de-
scribes Christ, his hands dripping with myrrh, as knocking
at the door of the soul, a female personage who has taken
oiI her tunic and washed her feet. The soul which begins to
open to him exudes the fragrance of the myrrh and aloes
which were used at the burial of Christ, whose very name is
as an ointment poured out of its container; he it is, Ambrose
assures his audience, who poured himself out so that he
might breathe on you. After mentioning biblical passages
which seemed to refer to this ointment, Ambrose addresses
female members of his audience: 'Pick up your vessel, virgin,
and draw near so that you can be filled with this ointment!'
The woman who has this ointment receives Christ, just as
the soul does.

Move your hand to your nose and investigate the odour of your
deeds with the tireless and ever alert keenness of your mind.
The odour of your right hand will caress you and your limbs
exude the fragrance of the resurrection. Your fingers are moist
with myrrh - that is, spiritual deeds are fragrant with the grace

53
 AMBROSE

of the true faith. So take enjoyment, virgin, from your body

within. You are so sweet to yourself, so pleasant to yourself, and
you do not begin to be displeased with yourself, as often happens
to sinners. Naked simplicity will make you more happy when
you have taken off the clothing of bodily illusion. Christ longed
for you, like this; Christ chose you, like this. And so he comes in
by the door which has been opened, and he cannot let you down,
he who promised that he would come in. And so embrace him
whom you have sought ... hold him, ask him not to leave in a
hurry, beg him not to recede. (virgt. 12.73f)

This is a strong passage, almost certainly part of a sermon

Ambrose delivered before a congregation. Jerome felt that
the Song was the last book of the Bible a young woman
should come to (ep. 107.12), and the words spoken by the
woman in the Song at the point Ambrose is concerned with
(Song 5:5f) are charged, but their impact is heightened in
the expanded version he provides, which is couched, as some
of his most beguiling passages are, in the intimacy of the
second person singular. It will be worth our while consider-
ing it in detail.

THE SENSES
Ambrose encourages a virgin to enjoy her senses of smell
and touch. He was a person to whom the senses were import-
ant. One of the ways in which he organized his thinking was
in accordance with the five bodily senses, and he generally
gave sight and hearing the primacy above smell, taste and
touch. 25 He saw the five senses as being all too easily cap-
tured by bodily and worldly enticements, as was suggested
by a reference in the Bible to four kings rebelling against

25. Towards the end of the list the order varies; see e.g. bon. mort. 9.41;
Cain 1.10.41; ep. 2(=65).5, 73(=18).31; exa. 6.9.61; fuga l.3, 4.20; Noe
6.14; compare St Paul's sequence 'eye ... hearing ... smelling' (I Cor.
12:17). A confused order occurs at Abr. 2.7.41, and something like the
reverse order at Luc. 7.113, 140. This is hard to explain, but in the
tenth book of the Confessions Augustine frequently gives the sequence
sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch (6.8, 8.13, 9.16f, 12.19, 2l.30,
35.54f; a minor variant occurs at 27.38), yet in the most important
working through of the senses they are listed in precisely the oppos-
ite order (30.41£f).

54
 WOMEN

five, for the four were the elements out of which human flesh
and the world were made, while the five were the five senses,
all too easily swayed by bodily and worldly delights (Abr.
2.7.41, on Gen. 14). All five were dangerous: the eye gazes
and overturns the sentiments of the mind, the ear hears
and distracts one's intention, smell gets in the way of thought,
the mouth is at fault when it nibbles, while touch produces
fire (juga. 1.3). But the senses were not equally susceptible.
While sight and hearing were dangerous (Noe 10.34), they
could be distinguished from the others. Hence, Christ's state-
ment that five in one house would be divided, three against
two and two against three (Luke 12:52), distinguished things
we hear or read from the superfluous delights of the body
which come from the other three senses. 26 Significantly,
Ambrose observes that belief is based on sight and hearing
(Luc. 4.71); whereas sight and hearing aid the mind, smell
and taste are as foods for the body (Abr. 2.8.57; we shall later
consider the apposition of mind and body); ointments, in
particular, occasion seductive impulses (Hel. 10.36). And the
sense of smell, which relished ointments, was associated with
women . Appropriately, at baptism the bishop touched men
women.
on the mouth and women on the nose, for this allowed the
latter to receive the good odour of eternal piety. They could
say in the words of the apostle, 'We are the good odour of
Christ to God', and they would have the complete fragrance
of faith and devotion (sacr. l.3).
The hierarchy of the senses with which Ambrose usually
operates is utterly at odds with the world of the Song of Songs,
which is overwhelmingly one of the 'superfluous delights' ,27
and despite his reservations about smell, taste and touch,
Ambrose luxuriates in its language. In one of his last books,
he returns to the theme: virgins are to let the ointment of
heavenly grace flow into the depths of their hearts and the
secret places of their inmost parts (inst. virgo 13.83) , they
are represented as wearing perfumed clothes (16.100), and
Ambrose mentions the filling of a house with the odour of

26. Luc. 7. 140f; according to PX(l. 6.9.64, touch provides th e greatest

e njoyment.
27. Note the opinion of Robert Alter, in Bloch and Bloch (1995) : 122f:
'Sight and sound have their placeplace,, but it is definitely a secondary
place . .. Again and again ...
. .. it is taste and smell that predominate,
almost always implying or associated with the pleasures of touching.'

55
 AMBROSE

ointment when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, washed the feet of

Christ (13.84, 17.108;John 12:3 is often quoted). He finishes
his consideration of the Song in the De virginitate by describ-
ing the Word of God coming into a garden to collect faith,
taking hold of its odours, finding heavenly food, feasting on
sweet honey, and uttering the words which follow those he
first quoted at the beginning of the passage: 'I have gathered
my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my bread with my
honey' (16.98, quoting Song 5:1). Such expressions represent
an extraordinary triumph of the senses which Ambrose else-
where described as dangerous. Perhaps we should see here
the expression of an underlying hostility towards women, with
Ambrose using language he h e found distasteful to encourage
them. But it may be more plausible to see these emphases as
being in part strategic, representing an attempt to play on
female susceptibilities. Ambrose would have been engaged
in the practice, unexpected in a bishop, of using sensuous
language to encourage young women to commit themselves
to lives of virginity.

THE BODY
In the passage from the De virginitate quoted above, Ambrose
goes on to urge a woman to take enjoyment from her body.
Here again he seems to be thinking in terms antithetical to
his own values, for as he understood Genesis, enjoyment had
been involved in the fall of Eve, surely a poor role-model for
virgins. And his emphasis on the body is puzzling, for no-
one could accuse Ambrose of having been well disposed to
the human body.
One area in which the thought of late antiquity is most
unlike that of the modern world is the hostility many of its
thinkers, especially those influenced by Neoplatonism, dis-
played towards the body. For Ambrose, the body is a prison
enclosing the sou1. 28 He writes of the soul as observing itself
in the wretched dwelling of the body but not losing its

28 . See for example Cain 2.10.36; exa. 6.9.55; exc.fr. 1.73, 2.20; Luc. 2.59,
28.
8.48 ; para. 12.54; ps.118 4.6. Further references in SAEMO 14/ 2: 53 n .
8.48;
107; discussion in Courcelle (1965) . On the general theme, Seibel
(1958) .

56
 WOMEN

nature because of its association with this earthly home. It

groans, weighed down by being joined to the body, because
the corruptible body is a burden to the soul and its earthly
dwelling bends the mind with many thoughts. Knowing that
it walks by faith and not according to appearances, it wishes
to leave the body and be present with the Lord.2~' Elsewhere,
Ambrose offers what might be thought an implausible read-
ing of the words of the bride in the Song of Songs, whom
he here takes to be the soul, 'I washed my feet; how shall 1
defile them?':

This is, I washed my feet when I went forth and lifted myself up
from my association with the body, from that relationship and
the familiarity of fleshly embrace. How shall I make them dirty
by going back to the enclosure of the body and that dark prison
of its passions? (/5. 6.52, on Song 5:3)

The structures of Ambrose's thought emerge in his early

book De paradiso, which binds together a number of issues.
In a passage which begins and ends by referring to the opin-
ions of Philo, whom he does not name, Ambrose asserts:
asserts:

The one before us relates that sin was committed through en-
joyment and the transgression of the senses, taking the figure of
delight under the form of the serpent and seeing in the figure
of the woman the sensibility of the feelings and mind, which the
Greeks call 'aisthesis'. ""'he
""'henn she had been deceived, according
to the history the mind [mens], which the Greeks call 'nous', fell
into sin. Rightly therefore in Greek 'nolls' stands for man and
'aisthesis' for woman. And so certain people have understood
Ll1C. 7.143)
'Adam' as meaning earthly 'nolls'. (par. 2.11; cf. L11C.

Similar is a passage in Ambrose's book on Abraham, in

which he again follows Philo. Offering a moral interpreta-
tion of an incident when the patriarch was told to take a
heifer, a nanny-goat and a ram, among other animals (Gen.
15:9), Ambrose suggests that humans are made up of flesh,
sense and word. Our flesh (raro)
(caro) is a heifer, for both are
worn out by their countless labours. Our senses are like the
nanny-goat, which suggests the exciting things which assail a

29. Ep. 21 (=34)

(=34).4, Wisd.. 99::15
.4, with references to Wisd 15 and II Cor. 5:7f. Ambrose
closely follows Origen (PC 14: 1111).
IIII ).

57
 AMBROSE

leaping soul. The sight of a beautiful woman, a sweet smell,

or hearing and touch can bend the firmness of the soul and,
as it were,
were, set it against its own nature. It is fitting, Ambrose
continues, that the nanny-goat is female, for our senses are
as well, the Greek word 'aisthesis' being feminine. They are
like animals which lose strength in the act of giving birth, as
they pour forth the product of their generation and their
delight, but when their longings are excited again, fresh
impulses develop (Abr.
(Abr. 2.8.51).
Ambrose's position is therefore more coherent than one
may have thought: woman is to to the body and delight as man
to the soul, or mind, and reason. It is based on disparate
sources, his reading of the Fall following Philo and his thought
on the body and the soul being indebted to Neoplatonic
thought. We shall consider Ambrose's use of Neoplatonic
material later (below, page 169ff), but for the time being it
will be enough to note how he managed to integrate it with
biblical material. The command given to Abraham to leave
his country and kindred meant flight from the attractions
and bodily delights which the soul must suffer with the body
for as long as it remains bound to it (Abr. l.2.4). And the
attractions and delights which were associated with the body
were, Ambrose felt, linked with women. Just as the body and
the soul could be distinguished, so could the flesh and the
mind: the flesh, made soft by feminine lightness, casts the
mind down from its position (Luc. (Luc. 4.63).
In a passage towards the beginning of his De Isaac, written
when he was strongly under the influence of the Neoplatonist
Plotinus, Ambrose brings together some of these concepts,
again interpreting the quality connected with woman as a
threat to that connected with man:

The woman is delight, an enticement to the body. And so be-

ware lest the strength of your mind be bent and softened by
an intercourse involving bodily enjoyment ... For when strength
of mind is undone, utterly pernicious ideas of bodily delight pour
forth ... Had the lively mind remained under careful guard, it
would have held these in check. (Is. l.2)
1.2)

In another work, Ambrose speaks of how it is

when the soul does not connive at the enticements of the body
and is not bound by delight in the enjoyments of the flesh,
flesh , but

58
 WOMEN

the mind, pure and freed from the slavery of this world, attaches
and attracts to itself the senses of the body for its own pleasures,
so that by the use of hearing and reading it may feast upon
growing virtue and, henceforth not to know hunger, may take
its full of the nourishing spiritual foods within. For reason is
the food of the mind and nourishment excelling in sweetness?1

SWEETNESS TEMPTING MEN

Ambrose goes on, in the passage quoted above, to describe
the virgin as being sweet and pleasant to herself. The terms
may seem anodyne, and Ambrose often applied such language
to the pleasures of music.'ll Yet music could be evil. Ambrose
was aware of an argument that the music generated by the
heavenly spheres could not be heard on earth lest people
were made captive by its pleasantness and sweetness, which
could lead to their going out of their minds (exa. 2.2.7). It
was therefore fitting that when he needed an image of the
threat women posed men he thought of the Sirens, described
by Homer as female creatures whose sweet and alluring sing-
ing enticed sailors towards the shore, whereupon they were
shipwrecked in a rocky place. As it happened, mistranslations
in the Greek versions of the Old Testament mentioned
the Sirens on several occasions, which opened the way for
Ambrose to discuss the danger they posed.:l~ Cicero, discuss-
ing the Sirens in terms very similar to those used by Ambrose
(de finibus 5.49) interprets them in a positive light, but the
latter's understanding of them is quite different. The Sirens,
Ambrose holds, lead people astray, 'by the appearance of
enjoyment and the sweetness of melodious charm' (Tob. 5.16;
the same ideas are also discussed with relation to the Sirens
at fid. 3.l.4f). The sweetness of their singing enticed the
sailors who heard them, bringing about their shipwreck;
similarly, the enjoyment of this world can delight us and

30. Lur. 7.142. We shall return to the positive evaluation placed on hear-
ing and reading and the brief reference to virtue.
31. As at Luc. 7.237; off. 1.12.114; /)1. 1.10; jJs.118 pro!. 1. See further on
music below, pp. 140ff.
32. Kaiser (1964): 112.

59
 AMBROSE

deceive us (ps. 43.75, d. 80). What do those young women

stand for if not the attraction of unmanly delight, which
captures a firm mind and makes it womanish (Luc. 4.3)?
There is no danger so hidden as worldly pleasure which, as it
soothes the intellect, destroys one's life and dashes the mind
to pieces on the rocks of the body. When the Maccabees
died one would have heard triumphal music leading people
to sacrificial victory; the seductive songs of the Sirens did
not attract the hearer in this way, but to shipwreck (lac.
2.12.56). Ambrose sees women, whether prostitutes, Sirens
or indeed wives, as tempting men; only rarely are women
thought of as being tempted by men.'!'! One has a sense of
manly restraint constantly under attack by temptresses, and
in times of political controversy Ambrose will never forget
the ability of women to lead men astray.

MASCULINIlY

Ambrose's strong images therefore point to a world of mas-

culinity threatened by women. Ideally, a strong mind which
had in itself the chief virtues would command the senses of
the body not obey them (Abr. 2.5.19). Yet women and the
things which Ambrose regarded as being associated with them
posed a dire threat. One has to be on guard lest the woman,
that is passion, make man, that is mind (nous), effeminate,
for it was she who was deceived by delight of the senses
(ep. 34(=45) .17). The possibility of manly virtues becom-
ing womanish worries Ambrose. Understandably, the theme
is prominent in a work addressed to a male audience, the
De officiis, in which he affirms that desire for power makes
the manly character of justice womanish (off. 1.28.138),
1.28.138) , that

33. Sarah did not greet visitors lest their eyes be drawn to her (inJlectant,
a key verb) (Abr. l.5.42); the male sex can easily be taken captive by
female beauty (ep. 28(=50).13); wives tempt their husbands (inst.virg.
4.30f). Yet Potiphar's wife was tempted by Joseph's looks (ep. 36(=2) .20;
los. 5.22-26; ps.118 12.31
los. 12.3 1;; that LXX describes her husband as a eu-
nuch (Gen. 37:36) may make one sympathetic to her), and a young
woman can lift her eyes to the countenance of a youth, while a
woman's veil keeps others and herself from harm (paen.(PGRn. l.14.68f).
l.14.68f) .

60
 WOMEN

avarice makes manliness womanish (1.39.193), and that fear

of suffering is unmanly (2.3.9). The story of Samson and
Delilah was an alarming example of a man's undoing. When
Samson's hair was cut off above the bent knees of a woman
he lost the ornament of his manliness; money poured into
the lap of a woman and grace departed from the man
(2.26.131). Luxury so softened the warrior Holophernes that
the temperance ofJudith had the paradoxical effect of mak-
ing her the stronger (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).29). Another example
of an unmanly man was Herod, who made his promise to
Salome's daughter when amid troops of dancers. He is im-
plicitly contrasted with Jephthah, who was willing to sacrifice
his daughter in fulfilment of a vow: 'I cannot accuse a real
man', comments Ambrose (off. 3.12.77f). A man must struggle
against hostile spiritual powers with the strength, or manli-
ness of his mind (animi virtute) (Luc. 4.37), rather than being
unmanned by pleasure (exa. 3.7.30). The notion of 'manli-
ness' was important to Ambrose, and it will be worth our
while exploring it in more detail.
In an early work, Ambrose asserts that those who give
themselves over to the passions of the body and indulge in
delights, things which he persistently sees as connected with
women, stray from the teacher of virtue (virtus) (Cain l.6.24).
Elsewhere, in an unusual move, he interprets the soul as
receiving thoughts and giving birth. Some of the qualities
associated with the soul (anima) are evil and feminine, such
as malice, petulance, indulgence, intemperance and shame-
lessness, and weaken the manliness (virilitas) of our mind
(animus). On the other hand, good qualities which are mas-
culine, among them chastity, patience, prudence, temper-
ance, fortitude and justice, make it easier for our mind (mens)
and flesh to fulfil the tasks of virtue (virtus) .11 The qualities
Ambrose sees as masculine all involve restraint, while the
feminine ones suggest its overthrow. Men, in Ambrose's view,
have to struggle to remain upright.
The association of masculine qualities with the exercise
of virtue is particularly interesting because the Latin nouns
for 'manliness' and 'virtue' both originate from the word for
'man' (vir), and the etymologically plausible association of

34. Cain 1.10.47. Further, the spiritual offspring of the apostle Paul were
masculine (Cain 2.1.2).

61
 AMBROSE

virtue with the male gender is one Ambrose did not hesitate
to make. 35 He argues that our faculty of sensory experi-
ence is partly tamed and governed by the mind, and partly
untamed, in which case it rushes forward to the irrational
delights of the body. Those aspects of our nature which are
kept under control are masculine and perfect; those which are
leaderless turn the state of the body and manly vigour into
something womanish, by a kind ofloss of strength (dissolutio).
Among these is that law of the flesh which, attacking the law
of the mind of which St Paul speaks, makes it a captive of
the law of sin. And so, in order to be freed from that body
of death, Paul placed his hope not in his own virtue but in
the grace of Christ (Cain 2.l.4; cf. Rom. 7:23-5). When the
Pauline allusions are read in the context in which Ambrose
places them, the word 'virtus', here translated 'virtue', which
Ambrose adds to the biblical text, could also mean 'manli-
ness'. Ambrose holds that a mind victorious over worldly
cares and bodily enticement will be able to shut out the
blandishments of enjoyment. He is under no illusions as to
the difficulty of this enterprise, but he advises his readers to
recognize what is masculine and what is feminine. 36

WOMEN PLEASING THEMSELVES

One more point may be briefly made before we leave the
virgin whom Ambrose addressed in the language of the Song
of Songs. When he spoke of a virgin not being displeased
with herself, he was implicitly contrasting her with the mar-
ried women who wore make-up for fear of displeasing their
husbands, and with Juliana in her married state, when she
had laboured to please her husband. By excluding men from
their lives, virgins were free to please themselves. Indeed,
Ambrose represents the widow Juliana as telling her children
that her own widowhood and the chastity which she com-
mended to them were, so to speak, indications of female
dominion (exh.virg. 8.54).

35. Hence the family group of a tested man (vir) is the lineage of virtues
(virtutum): Noe 4.10. Note too the association of 'vir' with 'virtus' at
off. 2.26.13l. See already Cicero Tuse. 2.18.43.
36. Cain 2.2.8.

62
 WOMEN

VIRGINI1Y AND SOCIE1Y

SOCIETY
It is easy to imagine young women enthralled by Ambrose's
advocacy of virginity and weighing their options. Others, how-
ever, would not have been impressed. A Roman inscription
which has been preserved in more than one copy reflects a
view opposite to that of Ambrose:

May whoever loves flourish, and may whoever does not love die!
May whoever forbids love die twice overr17

The author of these sentiments would certainly have wished

Ambrose a speedy end. The verb he or she used for 'love'
(amare), is that which Ambrose applied to the unfortunate
Theotimus, whose ardour led to blindness (above, page 50).
A contemporary of Ambrose, the Gallic author Ausonius,
wrote a poem on a wedding composed of phrases which he
took from Vergil and rearranged; so sexually explicit is it
that the edition of this text in the Loeb Classical Library
refrains from offering a translation of the final passage, which
describes what happened after the couple entered the bed-
room. Ausonius may have written his work in connection
with the marriage of Gratian in 374;just a few years later the
same Gratian would receive theological works from Ambrose.
There must have been those in circles not far distant who
saw him as a life-denying killjoy.
Ambrose's teaching was not merely opposed to the inclina-
tions of most people. While some, such as the Manicheans,
held views more radical than his, Ambrose's position was
contrary to the values of Roman society. Whereas the figure
of Sarah could be assimilated into a Roman thought-world,
that of the virgin could not be. The Christian cult of virgin-
ity stood against Roman tradition, which approved of large
families. The Emperor Augustus had legislated against celib-
acy, and hostile attitudes towards it lingered. Ambrose pro-
fessed himself scandalized that people who venerated the
adulteries of their gods imposed penalties on celibacy and
widowhood (vid. 14.84) . Constantine had abolished financial
penalties for celibacy and childlessness, but as recently as

37. CIL 4:1173,4091.

4:1173, 4091.

63
 AMBROSE

363 the pagan Emperor Julian, a few days before leaving

Antioch on his last campaign, enacted legislation accord-
ing to which a father of thirteen children was to be free
from serving as a decurion. 3R The De virginitate indicates that
Ambrose's enthusiasm for virginity had encountered strong
opposition. No-one stopped Abraham when he intended to
sacrifice his son Isaac, he comments, but when the sacrifice
of chastity is offered someone comes forward to stop it (virgt.
3.10). He defended himself against charges of having pro-
hibited the marriage of girls who had been initiated into
the sacred mysteries and consecrated to virginity, pointing out
that virgins lived the life of the angels, who neither marry nor
are given in marriage (virgt. 5.24ff). Some alarmists claimed
that the overthrow of marriage would cause the world to
perish and the human race to fail, an argument he sought to
turn on its head by claiming that the lands where virginity
was practised most widely had the largest populations. 39 The
fate of Ambrose's own family could have served as evidence
for his critics. His elder sister was a consecrated virgin and
his brother had not married by the time he died, having
apparently come to a private decision to remain single, so
the family line would end with Ambrose's generation. We
have no reason to think that any of the siblings was disquieted
by this prospect.
The family of Ambrose may not have been typical, but
it could be compared to that of another person of whose
conduct Ambrose strongly approved, the senator and ex-
consularis Paulinus who, together with his wife, adopted an
ascetic life. Their only child had died in infancy, so the line
of this family would end, just as surely as that of Ambrose.
In one of his letters Ambrose purports to quote those who
scorned Paulinus: 'From that family, that stock, that talent,
so great an eloquence has departed from the senate ... This
cannot be borne!' But his response was sharp: things which
might seem shameful from a bodily aspect could be worthy
of reverence from the standpoint of religion (ep. 27(=58».
Class considerations made the issue seem more important.

38. Cod. Theod. 8.16.1 (Constantine), 12.l.55 (julian).

39. The average woman needed to bear five children for the population
to remain stationary: Brown (1988): 6. Ambrose's defence: virgt. 7.35f;
cf. exc.fr. 2.65.

64
 WOMEN

Milan was famous for its large number of elegant homes,

the inhabitants of which Ambrose would have targeted when
advocating virginity:!O What would happen to the fortunes of
families whose young women devoted themselves to religion
rather than produce offspring? The future of wealthy families
and their fortunes was at stake.
It is therefore not surprising that parents led the opposition
to the new teaching. Ambrose, who on one occasion observed
that God could provide the parents of dead children with
better ones (ps.1l8 9.18), can be suspected of having little
sympathy for parental feeling, and the thought that their sins
would be remitted by the merits of their progeny was dearly
clearly
not enough to console those whose daughters sought to
remain virgins. They made their wants dear:clear: 'Daughter, you
owe us grandchildren!' (exh. virgo 7.45). Ambrose encouraged
a virgin not to worry if her parents denied her a dowry, for
the husband she would gain, by whom he means Christ,
would be a wealthy one, and thanks to his treasure she would
not need to seek an income from what her father left. It was
doubtless true that a woman's
woman 's desire for physical integrity
would stand in the way of family succession, but Ambrose
told girls that when their parents raised this objection they
were hoping to be defeated. Virgins were to overcome kindly
feeling towards their parents; if they overcame at home,
they would overcome the world (virgb. 1.11.62f).41
l.I1.62f).41
The first book of the De virginibus ends powerfully, describ-
ing the resolution of tensions generated within a family by the
decision of a young woman to become a consecrated virgin.
Ambrose describes her standing at the altar, surrounded by
her family. They urge her to marry, doubtless to a man they
had chosen for her who may not have been suitable in the
eyes of a bishop,42
bishop,42 but she spurns them:
40.. Ausonius Ordo 7.2. Sec
40 See recently Lawrence (1997).
4l.
41. Goody argues (1983) that the clergy encouraged
e ncouraged asceticism to gain
control over property or donations,
d onatio ns, and the widow Juliana's
Juliana'S paying
for a church in Florence could co uld support this interpretation. Ye Yett
Ambrose's works contain no dirC'ct
direct evidence
evide nce for this strategy.
strategy. Indeed,
he said that no-one lamented
lamente d a law which denied the clergy
cle rgy the right
to inherit property ("p.
inh e rit private propertv ("P. 73(=18).13, referring to wd.Thl'od.
wd.Thpod.
16.2.20).
42. The spouse parents had in mind may not have been a Christian: see
on mixed marriages A hr. 1.19.84f (d. (cf. I_Itt:.
I. w e. 8.3); ps.1l8 20.48 and
a nd
"p.62(=19).

65
 AMBROSE

Would the veil of marriage really cover me better than the altar,
which sanctifies these very veils? More fitting is the altar cloth
on which Christ, the head of all, is consecrated each day. What
are you doing, relatives? Why are you still seeking to tempt my
soul to marriage? I've seen this coming for some time. You offer
me a husband? I've found a better one! Exaggerate this per-
son's wealth as much as you like, boast of his nobility, praise his
power: no-one can be compared to the one who is mine. He is
rich in the world, powerful in command, noble in heaven. If
you have such a person I do not refuse the choice; if you have
not, don't you make provision for me, my family, but look on
me with envy! (virgb. 1.11.65)
The young woman's speech is noteworthy. She speaks in
short, jerky sentences of simple grammatical structure, and
frequently poses rhetorical questions. In these respects her
speech is similar to others which Ambrose purports to quote
in his writings,43 and we can imagine readers as well as hear-
ers of Ambrose being struck at the immediacy of the words
placed in her mouth. Silence followed her outburst, which
was broken by a person who blurted out 'What if your father
were still alive? Would he have allowed you to remain with-
out a husband?' But the young woman, in whom religion
was stronger than family feeling (pietas) , answered: 'Perhaps
he died so that he could not get in the way of this.' The
person who asked the question died shortly afterwards. The
others became afraid, and those who had opposed her began
to support her. 'Here you have, girls, the reward of devotion.
Parents, beware of committing an offence of this kind!'
(11 .66). The story is obviously crafted to appeal to young
(11.66).
women. The brave girl offered a remarkably strong role-
model, and it is hard to imagine a piece which would more
effectively play on the feelings of young women.
So it is that Ambrose exalts religion over family feeling:
'first, girl, defeat family feeling [pietas]; if you defeat the home
you also defeat the world!' (virgb. l.1l.63). The sentiment is

43. See for example words put in the mouth of Helena (ob. Theod. Theod. 43,
where the first six units of speech which can be taken as sentences,
two of them lacking verbs, are made up of only 45 words); the Jews
Theod. 49); the deacon Laurence and Pope Sixtus (off. 1.41.205f),
(ob. Theod.
and the synagogue (ps.llB
(ps .llB 2.9) . As far as we can tell from writings
which closely follow material delivered orally, Ambrose's style of speak-
ing in public was similar (cf. below, p. 146).

66
 WOMEN

not unexpected in a bishop, but it is striking. The Latin word

'pietas' has a range of meanings which can involve no more
than a general sense of proper behaviour, and Ambrose fre-
quently uses it in this way. Nevertheless, it can bear the more
precise meaning of loyalty towards the members of one's
family, in particular one's parents and children. Exemplary
in this regard was Vergil's hero pius Aeneas, who saved his
father and son from the blazing ruin of Troy, but was pre-
pared to abandon his wife to die in the flames of the city
and his lover Dido to commit suicide in the flames of a
funeral pyre. Vergil's way of editing women out of his story
may seem clumsy, but suggests the connection between pietas
and blood relationship, and it is noteworthy how often
Ambrose uses the word in this restricted sense. H He neatly
makes the point in a discussion of the crucifixion: Jesus
displayed pietas towards his mother while on the cross, but
after he told Mary and John to look on each other as mother
and son, the two divided the duties of pietas between them them..45
Normally Ambrose took a positive view of family feeling.
feeling.
He was puzzled by the opposition to it implied by Christ's
i~junction to hate the members of one's family (ps.11815.15-
17, on Luke 14:26), and encouraged reverence towards par-
ents (patr. l.1). Indeed, he was happy to encourage a virgin
to display pietas towards her relatives (inst.virg. 17.112). But,
overall, religion was superior to the duties of pietas (LuG.
(LUG. 7.146),
and the message of the story Ambrose told concerning the
young woman is clear. It reversed what he thought of as the
usual situation of women. Wh Whereas
ereas wives customarily feared
their husbands, a virgin could arouse fear in her family. For
a woman facing a lifetime of slavery as she sought to please
a husband, virginity offered superior prospects. Enticingly,

t :p.ext.coll. 14(=63).109. Further biblical examples of

44. t:p.ext.coll. ofPil'tas:
pietas: apol.alt.Dav.
3.18 (Lot and his daughters), apol. Dav. l.16 (jephtha's daughter);
apol. Dav.
ep. 7(=37).7 (Jacob and his sons), 38(=55).3 (japheth and Noah);
virgb. 2.2.12 (Mary and Elisabeth). Among animals, Ambrose men-
tions the pietas of storks towards their elderly parents (exa. 5.16.55;
the be behaviour
haviour echoes that of Vergirs hero 'pius Aeneas' towards
his elderly
elde rly father),
father). and among emperors
e mperors the pil'tas of Valentinian
Valcntinian
towards his sisters and theirs towards him (oli. Val.Val. 37f) and Gratian
and his brother (71), and that of Honorius towards Theodosius
(ob.Theod. 3) .
(ob.Theod.3).
ext.coll. 14(=63).109) ; LUI. 10.129f (d. ep. 71 (=!i6a).6.
45. Ep. ext.colL

67
 AMBROSE

Ambrose describes a virgin who has been given a kingdom,

gold and beauty. She bears an unconquered mind which is
not held captive by the allurements of enjoyments; rather,
she is a lord, just like a queen (virgb. l.7.37). Concepts of
this kind, which Ambrose elsewhere applies to men, must
have been very attractive to young women.

WOMEN IN PRIVATE AND·PUBLIC

In the second book of the De virginibus, Ambrose gives

examples of women leading lives of virginity. The list begins
with Mary: 'When did she offend her relatives by so much as
a glance, when did she dissent from her kinsfolk?' he asks
(virgb. 2.2.7), apparently forgetful of the disobedient virgin
whose words he had admiringly quoted at the end of the
first book. But his words soften the message of his source
at this point, a letter to virgins attributed to Athanasius,46
and we may deduce that filial obedience was not important
to him . He represents Mary as only leaving home to go to
church, and then in the company of her parents or kinsfolk.
When Gabriel visited her he found her without a companion
in the inner parts of the home, she being indeed a virgin in
the home. How did she pass her time? Among her virtues
was reading, an occupation she followed so keenly that when
Gabriel came upon her he found her by no means alone but
in the company of books, archangels and prophets. 47 47
Later,
purporting to reproduce words spoken by Pope Liberius when
his sister Marcellina was consecrated,48 Ambrose emphasizes
the quietness of the life which lay in store for her: she would
avoid crowded banquets and flee from greetings. She would

46. Lettre aux vierges, in S. Athanase, Lettres festales et pastorales trans. L.-Th .
Lefort, Louvain 1955 (=Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
151, Scriptores Coptici 20), pp. 6l.26-29. Ambrose's use of this text
is discussed by Aubineau (1955).
47. Charmingly, Ambrose takes it for granted that when Gabriel visited
Mary she had already read a prophecy concerning herself in Isaiah
(Luc.2.15.18).
48. Suspicions as to the authenticity of Liberius' address are increased by
the discourse attributed to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria contained
in the le tter on virgins attributed to Athanasius: Rosso (1983)
(1983):: 448-50.

68
 WOMEN

avoid speech, silence being better than talking too much. In

church and elsewhere, Ambrose believes that a virgin should
keep her mouth shut. 49 He assumes that she will be reading
a book when someone asks her to take food and that her
life will be one of reading, work and prayer (virgb. 3.4. 15f;
cf. ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).82). Such a lifestyle, we may note in
passing, would have been beyond the reach of many. We
know that there was a servant in the home in which Ambrose's
sister Marcellina lived (VA mb. 4.1), and the regimen he sug-
gests for virgins is another pointer to the level of society
from which he envisaged such women being recruited. But
in general terms, the life he envisages for them is remark-
ably domestic. Doubtless there could be excitement in the
life of a virgin. As the third book of the De virginibus moves
towards its end, Ambrose describes with relish and, perhaps, a
degree of masculine interest, the martyrdom which St Pelagia
and her companions underwent when their chastity was
threatened. so The days of persecution had passed by the time
of Ambrose. But he could still hold up models of virginal
independence such as Pelagia and Mary, who was subject to
no man but Cod alone (inst.virg. 12.79), and although he
seems to have been the first author in the West to call Mary
'Mother of Cod' (exa. 5.20.65,
5.20.65 , virgb. 2.2.7), it was as a virgin
rather than a mother that Ambrose chiefly thought of her.
Yet there is a paradox in Ambrose's position. While gen-
erous in the dignity he offers virgins, he holds back from
genuine empowerment. His commentary on Luke omits all
but one of the nine verses of the Magnificat, which has spoken
to many of the strength of Mary; in his opinion, she was
a gentle and humble person whose description of herself
as the handmaid of the Lord was fitting (Lur. (Lui. 2.16). He

49. Virgb. 3.3.11-3.14. Whereas women were notorious for being noisy,
virgins, like Mary, were characte
characterized
rized by silence; see for example the
advice given a virgin to open h er
e r ears and close her mouth (insl. virgo
10.66, with other references supplied in the footnote ad loe. in the
SAEMOedition). There are interesting reflections in Pellegrino (1979)
(1979)..
50. Virgb. 3.7.33-36. Augustine was uncertain whether such conduct
was proper (civ.dei l.26, a view which may have been influenced
by the persistence of suicide among the Donatists with whom he he
had to deal),
deal) , and Ambrose himself is uncomfortable with the death ,
effectively by suicide , of the mother
mothe r of the Maccabees (lac. 2.1l.53,
on II Mace. 7:41).

69
 AMBROSE

repeatedly affirms that Mary lived within the home;"\ and

similarly expected Christian virgins to be in the secluded
parts of a house (ep. 56(=5).16, cf. 22). They would presum-
ably be unlike the vestal virgins, women of similar social
origin whose lives were nevertheless more public; a person
who is exposed to the daily importuning of the eyes of the
intemperate cannot be modest (virgb. 1.4.15). One is left
with the paradox that, if the status of virginity freed women
from the slavery of marriage, Mary and other virgins were
confined to the home just as much as the married woman
Sarah had been.
Ambrose's thinking on women is hard to summarize, being
rich, nuanced, and both giving and withholding. In some ways
his attitudes were those of the Roman world, while in others
he stands defiantly opposed to the practices of his society.
The mental processes which underlie his thought are also
interesting: elements of powerful consistency rub shoulders
with areas of sloppy and loose thought. He shows a tendency
to operate with sharply defined, often binary categories which
provided a framework into which he could slot the data of
Scripture. As we shall see, Ambrose frequently proceeds in
this way: he blocks out opposing categories, in the light of
which he interprets the contents of the Bible. But this raises
the question of how Ambrose interpreted the Bible, a topic
to which we shall turn in the next chapter.

51. The theme is made insistently in virgb., esp. 2.2.9f (Mary alone in the
innermost parts of the house), 15 (a virgin within the home). See
also ep. 56(=5).16; exh.virg. 10.71; Luc. 2.8. Virgins seem to have lived
in the family home at Milan (virgb. 1.7.32) as well as at Rome; prac-
tice at Bologna was different (1.10.60).

70
 Chapter 3

THE BIBLE

Ambrose's most important intellectual work was devoted d evoted to

interpreting the Bible. Even
Eve n his books on non-biblical topics
often contain extended commentaries on relevant passages of
Scripture. Hence, while Ambrose devoted no work specific-
ally to the Song of Songs, he systematically worked through
portions of it in various books.
books. This concentration on the
Bible arose naturally from his exercise of one of the chief
functions of a bishop in late antiquity. Just as a teacher
teach er would
sit in a raised seat, his cathedra, expounding the contents of
a book to his students, so a bishop would expound the Bible
to the
th e people within the building later called, in recognition
of
of this task, a cathedral. Many of Ambrose's works on the Bible
contain references to scriptural passages 'which you have
heard
h eard today', revealing their origin
o rigin as sermons preached on
passages read out in public worship, which were taken down
by stenographers and later late r written Up.l Short inte
interrogative
rro gative
sentences
senten ces and snappy one-liners reflecting oral delivery can give
his commentaries
comme ntaries a pleasing air of informality and apparent
spontaneity: 'What is it to see GodGod?? Don't ask me !' (Luc. l.
me!' 7)..
l.7)

1. Such
Su ch refe
references
re nces also indicate ca
carelessness
re less ness in the prepa
preparation
ra tio n of the
sermons
serm o ns for publication,
publication , as dod o the abrupt endings of some som e books.
books.
Nicaean polemic at the end of the second book of Lu(. Lu(. builds to a
remarkably
rem a rkably effective conclusion,
conclusio n. as ddoes oes the first book of virgb. But
suc h wo
such works
rks as Hel., apol.alt.Dav., and
a nd Nab. peter out in discussion
discussio n of
mino r points, and the final book of virgfJ. comes to a very unsatisfying
minor unsatisfyin g
eend.
n d. TThose
hose listening to an address on o n th
thee Emperor Theodosius
Theod osius m
may
ay
hhave
ave pricked up their ears at the th e welcome words To T o conclude'
conclude '
Theod. 33), but the oratjon
(ab. Theod. o ra tjo n ('ontinue
continuecl c\ until 56; a refe re nce to a
trumpe t signals [he
trumpet the eend
nd of aan n address (l'xr.jr. 2.105 ) which goes oon
(fxcf r. 2.105) n
until 135.

71
 AMBROSE

'You don't believe me? Well believe Paul!' (Luc. 2.88).

Ambrose usually operates as a preacher rather than a scholar.

AMBROSE'S WRITING ON THE BIBLE

His works of exegesis fall into various categories. A series
of books on the opening chapters of Genesis are among
his earliest pieces of writing, apart from an exposition of
Genesis 1, the Exameron ('Six days'), which began as a series
of sermons
se rmons preached in Holy Week, apparently towards the
end of the 380s. 2 It contains discussions of the characteristics
of plants, fish, birds and earth-bound animals which have
brought pleasure to almost all who have read them. These
works follow the biblical narrative as far as Abraham;
Abraham; towards
the end of his life Ambrose wrote on the later patriarchs
as well. The outcome was a series of commentaries which
covered, in varying degrees of detail and from different
Bible.:> Most
points of view, almost all of the first book of the Bible.:'
of these are unusual in the Ambrosian corpus in that they
are formal compositions which did not originate as sermons.
They allow us to see Ambrose steadily maturing as a scholar.
His works written in the 370s lean heavily on previous ex-
egetes. Long passages in the De paradiso and Cain and Abel
are little more than paraphrases of the commentaries of
Philo. Ambrose acknowledges few debts to his predecessors,4
and sometimes see-ms concerned to cover his tracks. But
when he wrote on the six days of the creation his debts to

2.
2. Ep. 34(=45)
34(=45).1.1 implies this when
whe n read carefully, as does a refereference
rence to
his old age when he prepared the book (exa. (exa. 4.5.20). A la
late
te date also
sits better
be tter with his use of Basil
Basil's
's comme
commentary
ntary on the six days of creation
creation,,
da ted by modern scholarship to about 378. The editing of this work
dated wo rk
for publication was not thorough, for a note which must have been
written by the stenographe
stenographerr who transcribed one sermon survives (exa.
5.12.36)..
5.12.36)
3. Ambrose ignores chapters of gen genealogy
ealogy (Gen. 5, 10f, 36), and chapter
38, which did not lend itself to his method of organizing the mate material
rial
around the lives of leading figures. His near silence on chapte chapterr 50 is
hharder
arder to explain; perhaps h hee died before dealing with it.
4. Philo is m mentioned
entioned once only, and th then
en to be criticized (par. 4.25)
4.25 );;
Origen
Orige n three times (Abr. 2.8.54, where
whe re he is queried, ps. 118 4.16, and
ep. 65(=75).1). For the rc'la
rClationship
tionship be tween Ambrose and Philo, Savo Savon:n:
(1977(a) ))..

72
 THE BIBLE

Philo were far fewer, and while he often borrows from the
commentary of Basil of Caesaraea on this topic, the borrow-
ings are short. When Jerome, who often criticized Ambrose
for lack of originality, claimed that the Exameron simply fol-
lowed the opinions of Hippolytus and Basil," he was unfair,
for when this work is compared with his earlier commentaries
it is clear that by the time be wrote it Ambrose had found
his own voice. In particular, he turns away from the com-
paratively literal interpretation of the text offered by Basil.
Ambrose also wrote a series of short works which use parts
of the Bible for didactic purposes. His work on Elijah dealt
with drunkenness, that on Naboth with avarice, and that on
Tobias with usury. A book on complaints made by Job and
David, the Interpellatione lob et David, is devoted to issues
raised in the book ofJob and the psalms, in particular psalms
42, 43, 73 and 74. In one of his last works, the De Juga saeculi,
Ambrose turned to the cities of refuge described in the
book of Numbers (Num. 35:11-14). His discussion is again
heavily indebted to Philo, but does not follow him slavishly;
rather, the interpretations of Philo are reworked so as to take
on a different significance.!i Other late works reveal the stature
Ambrose had acquired as an independent commentator.
These works, written in the last decade of Ambrose's life,
are long and ambitious in their aims, as the titles under
which they have been transmitted suggest. The Explanation
oj twelve psalms deals with psalms 1, 36-41, 44, 46, 48-9 and
62; the fact that most of the psalms on which he commentated
fall within a narrow range among the 150 contained in the
Bible may indicate an unfinished project, similar to that we
may conjecture he undertook with Genesis, to work through
a defined portion of the sacred text.' Again, there are debts

5. Ep. 84.7. Elsewhere, Jerome wrote that he would rather be the trans-
lator of someone else's work than, as certain people were, an ugly crow
adorning himself with the colours of others (PL 23: 108, referring to
Ambrose's Spir.S), and wrote of a croaking crow who rejoiced in the
colours of all the birds, although he himself was dark (PL 26:229f).
The subject of this ridicule was Ambrose; Hagendahl (1958): 115-17.
We shall encounter other examples ofJerome's hostility towards Ambrose,
the source of which has never been decisively established.
6. The issues are laid out in SAEMO 4: 11f; more detail in Savon (1977a).
7. A suspicion strengthened by the existence of what amount to com-
mentaries on psalms 42 and 43 in interprll. 2 and on psalm 51 in
apol.Dav; gaps were being methodically filled in.

73
 AMBROSE

to earlier commentators, in particular Origen and, for the

first half of the commentary on psalm 1, Basil, but, as is the
case with the Exameron,
Exameron, the sustained close dependence
on earlier writers of his first works has vanished. Longer
and more meditative are the Exposition of psalm 118 (psalm
119 in most modern Bibles), and the Exposition of the Gospel
according to Luke, the latter being unusual among Ambrose's
commentaries for its failure to consider every verse. In con-
sidering Luke, Ambrose draws on Origen for the first two
books in particular, Eusebius for the third, and for the re-
maining seven a commentary Hilary of Poi tiers had written
on Matthew, which Ambrose puts to greater use than any
other source written in Latin. Sometimes he still followed
his predecessors very closely, to the extent that a passage in
his exposition of Luke has been used to fill two lacunae in
a papyrus, discovered near Cairo in 1941, containing his
source, a work of Origen. 8 But again, these long works are
relatively independent, and Ambrose's borrowings largely
verbal. Rather than paraphrasing or translating passages he
found in earlier commentators, Ambrose increasingly came
to use them as stimuli to his own thought. This growing
independence may have been connected with the circum-
stances in which the different works had their origins, for
the sermons on which many of the later works were based
would not have lent themselves to sustained borrowings.
The two expositions are the most substantial of Ambrose's
books, and all three are products of his maturity, in which
the workings of his own mind are seen most clearly. They will
form the basis for our consideration of Ambrose's handling
of the Bible.
The topic is not an easy one, for the genre of comment-
ary is one which resists summary. Nor is Ambrose particu-
larly reflective on the task of exegesis; he has nothing to say
as thought-provoking as the crisp observation of his near-
contemporary Hilary that the matter is not subject to the
words but the words to the matter. 9 Our method must there-
fore be different from that adopted in the preceding chapter.
We shall begin by examining what Ambrose tells us of his
approach to the Bible, go on to locate his practice against

8. Puech and Hadot (1959).

9. 'Non sermoni res sed rei est sermo subiectus ':': De trinitate 4.14 (CCSL 62
62::116).
116).

74
 THE BIBLE

that current in his time, and consider his attitudes to the

Bible and the ways in which he thought of parts of it.

AMBROSE'S APPROACH TO THE BIBLE

In a letter addressed to one Irenaeus, the figure to whom
more of Ambrose's letters are addressed than anyone else
but who is unknown outside his correspondence, Ambrose
writes:

While I was resting my mind for a little while in the midst of

reading, having put aside my night-time study, I began to turn
over that line which we had used that evening at Vespers, Thou
art more beautiful than the children of men, how beautiful are
the feet of those who bring good tidings of him.' And truly,
there is nothing more fair than that highest good, even the
preaching of which is fair. 1o

This passage contains a number of pointers to Ambrose's

approach to the Bible. Although he writes in Latin, he quotes
from the text he had begun to think about in Greek. This
had been the language of early western as well as eastern
Christianity. But as time passed it had been increasingly
supplanted by Latin, and the church of Milan in the time of
Ambrose would have conducted Vespers in Latin. Despite
this, the language in which the sacred text presented itself
to Ambrose as he reflected on the passages which had been
read out was Greek.
The passage which Ambrose quotes comprises pieces from
two parts of the Bible. The first portion reproduces the
Septuagint text of Ps. 45:2 exactly, but the status of the
second, which is connected to the first by the repetition of
the word 'beautiful', is more complicated. It is clearly meant
to reproduce some words of St Paul (Rom. 10:15), but Paul
has people bringing good tidings 'of good things' rather
than 'of him', and the form of Ambrose's 'bring good tid-
ings' has more in common with the Greek form of an Old

10. lop. 11 (=29).1. Ambrose's 'inter legendum cum paululum requievissem animo'
recalls Augustine's description of him: 'reficiebat . .. lectione animum'
(con! 6.33). On the notion of the highest good (summum bonum), see
below p. 172.

75
 AMBROSE

Testament text which Paul was quoting (Is. 52:7) than that
which the apostle gave it. Perhaps Ambrose conflated the texts
as he turned the words over in his mind, for it is generally
true that we have to reckon not with different Latin texts
used by Ambrose but citations from memory, supported by
a Latin text, such as that proclaimed in the liturgy, and his
personal familiarity with the Greek text. 11 For him, possessing
a written text was quite different from appropriating its con-
tents. Explaining a prohibition on writing down the Creed,
he observed that when you write something down, you are
confident of being able to read it again, and certainly do not
think about it and meditate on it daily (expl.symb. 9). While
Ambrose was certainly devoted to books, when he responded
to Scripture he was, in part, responding to something he
apprehended aurally. Similarity or identity of words, such as
'beautiful' in the example we have been considering, allowed
one part of the Bible to suggest another. Ambrose was happy
to jump from word to word.
The fact that Ambrose's night-time reading led him to tum
over in his mind a biblical text from the liturgy suggests that
he approached the contents of the Bible in a meditative
way. He was not the kind of reader who would take notes on
a passage to summarize its main points; rather, in common
with many Christian readers, he saw a close connection
between reading and meditation. 12 He felt that even when
readers did not have a book in their hands they could
imitate those animals which were regarded as clean in the
law of the Old Testament. These animals usually ruminate
when not eating; 'in the same way we bring forth from the
treasury of our memory and our inner parts spiritual food
on which we ruminate' (ps.1187.25). The words of the Bible
were pastures on which its readers fed each day and by
which they were renewed and restored as they tasted them
or chewed them over, and which would fatten up the flock
of the Lord (ps.118 14.2). Such a process went beyond the
operations of the intellect; indeed, Mary used to tum over
what she had been reading in her sleep (virgb. 2.2.8).
Yet, despite the importance of the aural in Ambrose's
apprehension of the Bible, he read in silence. Augustine

11. I follow the important reflections in Poirier (1979): 254.

12. A patristic truism; e.g. ps.1l8 12.28,33.

76
 THE BIBLE

describes him in the act of reading: his eyes moved across

the pages and his heart sought the meaning, but his voice
and tongue were quiet (con! 6.3.3). The practice of silent
reading was unusual in antiquity, but not unique to Ambrose;
Augustine goes on at a crucial point of the Confessions to
describe himself reading in silence (8.12.29). Perhaps Ambrose
would have seen himself as reading in the way that Hannah
prayed, crying out in silence without her lips moving (ps.118
17.9, on I Sam 1:13). Silence was important for Ambrose: he
is interested in the silence of Susannah before her accusers,
which he seems to have been the first commentator to connect
with the silence of Christ when he was accused.J~ Silence comes
before speech, he informed his clergy at the beginning of a
long discussion of this virtue in the De officiis (off. 1.2.5-6.21).
This, then, was the practice which lay behind Ambrose's
work on the Bible: the meditation on a text, at least some-
times in Greek, possibly suggested by the liturgy and hence
apprehended aurally, and feeding on texts in silence. From
such meditation and reading Ambrose moved to the writing
of commentaries, producing works which reflect the ways in
which texts were approached in his time. We may distinguish
two broad ways.

LITERAL INTERPRETATION
Some commentators in late antiquity sought to elucidate the
meanings intended by the authors of texts. The immensely
long commentary on Vergil's Aeneid written early in the fifth
century by Servius, for example, discusses the precise mean-
ing of words and grammatical and rhetorical forms, while
providing background historical and mythological informa-
tion. Among Christians, much of the exegetical work of
Jerome takes the form of brief notes explaining the meaning
of the biblical text. Such an approach could leave the exegete
of texts which had already attracted commentators with little
new to say. Jerome told how his own teacher Donatus, on
coming to the words of Terence 'there is nothing spoken
which has not been spoken before', exclaimed 'Death to
those who spoke before us!' (CCSL 72:257, on eun. proI.41).
pro1.41).

13. Piredda (1991). See in general the excellent study of Pellegrino

Pellegrillo (1979).

77
 AMBROSE

Ambrose was perfectly at home with this method of

approaching a text. While he has little to say on matters of
grammar, he was alive to factual difficulties presented by the
Bible. He discussed at length the apparently incompatible
genealogies ofJesus supplied by Matthew and Luke (Luc. (Luc. 3),
and was aware of apparent contradictions in the accounts of
the resurrection in the different gospels; he felt these repres-
ented similar events which occurred at different times, rather
than different versions of the same events (Luc. 10.147ff,
17lff, 182ff). Discussing Peter's denial of Christ, Ambrose
synthesizes the apparently divergent accounts of the evangel-
ists. Usually he places little weight on Mark's gospel, but
on this occasion he evaluates his narrative with care, for he
believed that Mark was a follower of Peter and would there-
fore have learned the truth of the matter from him (Luc.
10.78; Luc. 6.12 deals with another case of apparent discord
between the gospels). He felt that the statement of Christ
that he would be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth, an apparent prediction of the interval between
the crucifixion and the resurrection which was impossible to
square with these events occurring on a Friday and Sunday
respectively, could be explained by taking the darkness which
covered the earth at the time of the crucifixion as a night
(interpel!. 1.5.14). Ambrose was alert to diverse meanings
which could arise from precise readings of a text (e.g. ob. Val.
11). He saw the Bible as a collection of written texts which
could be collated and compared.
While he usually takes for granted the meaning of the
words contained in the text, he is concerned to establish
what the precise words are. He read the New Testament in
its original Greek, as well as translations into Latin. Like
most Christians of his time, Ambrose was content to read
the Old Testament in translations, having little interest in
the original Hebrew text. 14 The chief translation was the
Septuagint, a fairly free Greek version made in the Hellenistic
period, perhaps at Alexandria, which meant that Ambrose
sometimes reflects understandings of the Bible current in

14. O ccasionally he tries to get towards the Hebrew (exa. 1.8.29), but in
ge nnee ral believed that the LXX translation was an improve m e nt on
the original (exa.
(exa. 3.5.20).
3.5.20) . He also read the Old Testament in Latin
(ep.34(=45) .5).
(ep.34(=45).5).

78
 THE BIBLE

some Jewish circles of that period. 15 But he became increas-

ingly interested in checking the Septuagint by comparing
it with three translations into Greek undertaken in the
Christian period, those of Aquila, who produced a very literal
translation, Symmachus, and, to a lesser extent, Theodotion.
While this concern is apparent early in Ambrose's exegetical
career (para. 5.27), it becomes increasingly overt as the long
commentary on Psalm 119 advances, both in explicit refer-
ences to various translations and in expressions in his Latin
which seem to reflect translations into Greek other than the
Septuagint; at one point he suggests a copyist's mistake in the
Septuagint text (ps.118 22.27). His last work, an unfinished
commentary on psalm 43, reveals a confident independence
of judgment when it persistently compares differences in the
four translations into Greek (esp. ps. 43 34-39) .16 Ambrose
was also aware of the inability of Latin to express the force
of such Greek words as 'telos' (ps.118 12.45), and was not
clear which Latin word was the better term for 'manger' (Luc.
2.42).. His approach to Scripture could therefore involve a
2.42)
close reading of the text, and increasingly displayed what
would now be regarded as sound scholarly instincts.

ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION
But people in Ambrose's time often approached texts in
another way. In his own words, 'Allegory occurs when one
thing is said and another m eant.' li According to this principle,
meant.'li
a text ostensibly dealing with one subject could be understood
as really being about another. The Greeks had long been
proposing allegorical interpretations of the text of Homer,
and their approach had become established among Jewish

15. For example, he reads 'foreign

'foreigners
e rs'' rather than 'Philistines' at Gen.
26: 18 (ob.Theod. 44).
26:18
16. Various
16. Vari ous translations are also compared at off. 1.4.15. l.4.15.
geritur et aliud figuratur' (Abr. 1.4.28;
'Allegrma est cum aliud gentur
17. 'Allegoria l.4.28 ; cf. inc.
7.66 on parables). Compare Augustine: in allegory, 'some 'something
thin g is
understood from something else' (de (de trinitatl' 15.9.15, CCSL A:481).
Quintillian defined allegory as saying on onee thing when meanin
meaning g some-
thing else: 'aliud Vl'This aliud sensu'
smsu' (Institutio orataria 88.6.44,
(lnstitutio oratoria .6.44, whe
where
re
exa mples are given, including Horace's
examples H o race's famous use of the word wo rd 'ship'
to mean 'state' ));; 'aliud diem
diem'' aliurl (ins. 9.2.92).
aliud intl'llRgi' (ins. 9 .2.92).

79
 AMBROSE

exegetes of the Bible. Philo wrote heavily allegorizing com-

mentaries on parts of it, especially the books of Genesis and
Exodus.
Exodus. The New Testament contains a mild form of allegory, allegory,
in a form scholars term typology, which allowed incidents in
the Old Testament to be interpreted in the light of the
superior revelation of the New. Some statements of Jesus
could be taken to have been uttered with typological intent,
for his observation that the Son of Man must be lifted up
just as Moses had lifted up a serpent in the wilderness (John
3:14) could be thought to imply that what Moses did con-
tained a hidden reference to the crucifixion. The technique
was frequently employed by St Matthew, as for example in
his apparently incongruous comment that the return of the
holy family from Egypt fulfilled the statement of the prophet,
'Out of Egypt have I called my son' (Matt. 2:15), which
referred in the first instance to the exodus of the chosen
people from Egypt (Hos.
(Hos. 11: 1). It was also used by the author
of the epistle to the Hebrews,
Hebrews, according to whom the law
was 'a shadow of good things to come' (Heb. 10:1), and
the author of the first letter attributed to St Peter (I Pet.
3:20f).
But St Paul uses this method most often. He states that
the story of Abraham's two sons was uttered 'in an allegorical
fashion ' , for it referred to the two covenants (Gal. 4:22-24,
fashion',
the only occurrence of a word based on 'allegory' in Paul).
He saw Adam as having been a type (typos) of Christ (Rom.
5: 14), and incidents in the history of the chosen people as
having similarly been types (I Cor. 10:6, 11) . When Paul's
Greek was translated into Latin in the Vulgate Bible, the word
'typos' was rendered as 'forma' at Rom. 5: 14, but at 1 Cor. it
was translated by 'figura' , and it is clear that Christians familiar
with both languages regarded the words as equivalent. 18
Christian commentators who practised typology therefore
thought that they were doing no more than applying to the
Bible a tool it had already applied to itself, and often quoted
Paul's words 'The letter kills but the Spirit gives life' (II Cor.
3:6). The practice attracted hostile comment from Plotinus,
a figure somewhat unusual in late antiquity in his coolness
towards it:

18. See for example Junilius 2.16 (PL 68:33).

68: 33).

80
 THE BIBLE

'Enigmas' is the pretentious name given by the Christians to

the perfectly plain statements of Moses, thus glorifYing them as
oracles filled with hidden mysteries and beguiling the critical
faculty by their extravagant nonsense. I!)

A typological approach therefore came naturally to a

reader of the Bible in late antiquity. Just as the art of the
period, by moving away from the naturalistic, was coming to
place a greater burden of interpretation on its viewers, so it
was felt necessary to decode teaching taken to be concealed
in the Old Testament. Indeed, Augustine felt that all or nearly
all the actions contained in it were to be taken not only
literally but also figuratively (doct. chr. 3.22.32). Ambrose often
describes something in the Old Testament as a 'figura', a
, mysterium', or a 'sacramentum'. While technically a sacramentum
could be seen as a sign, and a mysterium as what it signified,
the Greek' mysterion' was translated by the Latin' sacramentum'
in the Vulgate at Gal. 5:32, and for Ambrose the words
mean much the same thing. Hence two of his works which
are largely different versions of the same book are called
one by each title, De mysteriis and De sacramentis, and employ
the two terms interchangeably.
Ambrose's feeling for allegory has not been widely
shared for some centuries, but the similarity of his thought
world to that of some of the biblical authors may some-
times have taken him close to their intention. Touching
on Luke's having written his gospel for the most excellent
Theophilus (1 :3), Ambrose observes, referring to the mean-
ing of his name in Greek, that 'The gospel was written for
Theophilus, that is to one who loves God. If you love God
it is written for you. It is written for you, receive the gift of
the evangelist!' (Luc. l.12). Whereas some modern com-
mentators on Luke solemnly discuss Theophilus' rank and
possible identity, whether he was a Christian, and his rela-
tionship with Luke, Ambrose immediately seizes upon the
name and makes an obvious point. It may be the very point
Luke wanted his readers to make, in which case Ambrose
stands closer to him than do many modern commentators
on his gospel.

19. Porphyry Against thl' Christians, trans. in Peters (1990): 123.

81
 AMBROSE

THE CASE OF DAVID

Yet Ambrose cannot usually be read with a view to under-
standing what passages in the Bible meant to their authors.
A portion of a defence he wrote of King David allows us to
see the typological method being employed in a self-aware
manner to lead away from anything an author could have
intended. Ambrose felt that people would be astonished at
the adultery and murder committed by David if they did not
pay attention to the power of the Scriptures and the hidden
nature of the mysteries they contained (apol.Dav. 1.1). His
development of this point must have stunned his readers.readers.
Bathsheba, the woman taking a bath on whom David, stroll-
ing around his house, looked and with whom he went on to
commit adultery, signified the church of the nations who
would receive the washing of baptism from the true David,
that is Christ. On the other hand Uriah, her husband, whose
death David was to arrange, bore a name which meant ''my my
light', a clear pointer to his signifying the Devil, who turns
himself into an angel of light.
light. The exegesis is doubtless
questionable morally, but Ambrose is brazen: 'We have ana-
lysed powerful pieces of evidence, it seems to me , and we
have proved that this narrative occurred as a figure' (apol.Dav.
3.14f). One has a sense of Ambrose delighting to display his
virtuosity in developing an implausible argument,20 just as he
seems to show off in another work in which Jesus is described
as a goat, a hart and a snake in an extraordinary passage
which ends by offering a spirited defence of wolves (ps.118
6.12-17).
Another discussion of David's activities provides additional
depth. Here, Ambrose identifies the house in which he
walked with that of which Christ spoke when he said 'with
my Father there are many mansions' (john 14:2). The woman
he looked upon was naked because, having been stripped
of virtues, she lacked the girdle of immortality and was de-
spoiled of the garb of innocence. So Christ loved his church,
despite her nakedness. She was washing herself because
she was dark (cf. Song 1:5f). Having seen her naked, Christ

20. Compare 'The adultery, I say,

20. say, occurred as a figure of salvation, for
not every case of adultery is to be condemned' (apol.alt.Dav.
(apol.alt.Dav. 2.10.50) .

82
 THE BIBLE

loved her ardently; he saw his beloved naked and, being

himself the son of love, he loved her ardently. This is not
shameful adultery, but the mysteries of charity! Moreover, her
nakedness allowed her to be contrasted with the synagogue,
a woman who was veiled, and indeed a veil still lies over the
heart of the Jews (apol.alt.Dav. 8.40-9.45; cf. II Cor. 3:13-
16). In the second discussion the unfortunate Uriah is no
longer the Devil, but has become the law, the observance of
which was terminated when Christ came (9.48). We will con-
sider some of these themes later; for the time being it will
be enough to note Ambrose's ability to impose a typological
reading, indeed readings, on a narrative passage.
Ambrose's pleasure in constructing such readings was
linked to his enthusiasm for the Old Testament. Of the
twelve volumes devoted to his exegetical works in a recent
edition, those on the Old Testament occupy ten, the exposi-
tion of Luke being his only entire work on the New Testa-
ment.~1 When Augustine was preparing for baptism he asked
Ambrose for advice on what he should read. Ambrose told
him to read the prophet Isaiah, but the new convert was
baffled by the first passage he read and put the book aside.
Later he believed that Ambrose had suggested he read Isaiah
because this author announced the gospel and the calling
of the gentiles in advance more clearly than others had (con!
9.5.13). But why, one might ask, did Ambrose not recommend
the reading of the New Testament, in which the gospel and
the calling of the gentiles were not announced in advance but
explicitly described?~~ Ambrose, who saw the Old Testament
as a deep and dark well, and the New Testament as a flowing
stream, found the well more interesting than the stream.~:\

21. The balance is slightly redressed by discussions of Paul's letters in

various places: he wrote to lrenaeus on parts of Ephesians (1). 16(=76),
while portions of Romans are discussed at ('jJ. 63(=73) and lac. 1.3.9-
6.26).
22. While Riggi's suggestion (1975): 33 that Ambrose's choice of Isaiah
showed psychological insight is not persuasive, one can respect the
tradition of learned, almost in-house scholarship from which it comes.
Ps.IIR 20.3 suggests the kind of reading of Isaiah which Ambrose
mav have had in mind.
23. t,p.~xt.coll. 14(=63).78. Intriguingly, Ambrose fclt that Origen's ex-
position of the New Testament was far inferior to that he gave the
Old: ('jJ. 65(=75).1.

83
 AMBROSE

THE BIBLE
One way of looking at the Bible was to see it as the one,
mighty book. Using the language of Genesis, Ambrose de-
scribed it as a paradise or garden in which God strolled
(ep. 33(=49).3; cf. Gen. 3:8). He has recurrent images for it:
the Bible can be seen as food or a banquet, and as water
coming from heaven, whether in the form of rain, dew or
snow. 24 Nevertheless, it was not homogeneous, being a sea
into which many rivers flowed (ep. 36(=2).3). Its parts could
be classified as natural, mystical, or moral. Genesis, which
described the creation, was natural; Leviticus, which dealt
with the mystery of the priesthood, was mystical; while Deu-
teronomy, which was concerned with organizing human life
around the teaching of the law, was moral. In the same way,
of the three books which Ambrose believed Solomon had
written, Ecclesiastes was about natural things, the Song of
Songs mystical things, and Proverbs moral things (ps. 36.1).
Commenting on four wells dug by the patriarch Isaac,
Ambrose suggested that the wells of injustice and hatred
stood for moral doctrine, the well of breadth natural things,
and the well of the oath mystical things (Is. 4.22f, on Gen. 26;
the categories are again applied to the books of Solomon).
The gospels could be distinguished along the same lines, each
evangelist excelling in a different area. John, whose surpass-
ing wisdom found the Word in the beginning and saw the
Word with God, dealt in particular with natural wisdom;
Matthew, who provided precepts for living, was concerned
with morals, and what could be more in accord with reason
than the contents of Mark's gospel? Luke's gospel, however,
embraced all areas (Luc. prol.3f; Ambrose stresses the excel-
lence of the gospel of which he wrote a long exposition).
Ambrose returns to the complementary nature of the four
gospels when, referring to the soldiers who divided Christ's
garments, he observed that, when the pieces of clothing
were divided, each evangelist took something: a scarlet cloak
could be found in Matthew (27:28);John mentions a purple
robe (19:2); Mark simply mentions purple (15: 17), while Luke
has white clothing (cf. 23:11; Ambrose's discussion (Luc.
10.117) is free in its use of texts).
24. Pizzolato (1978) is the best general study; on this point, 27-39.

84
 THE BIBLE

But it was not merely the case that different books of

the Bible had different characteristics. All three areas were
found in the Psalms (ps. 36.1 f), the long psalm 11 9 tending
to be moral rather than mystical (ps.118 proLl). Individual
texts could be interpreted in more than one way. One of
Ambrose's first works, the commentary on Noah, repeatedly
contrasts a simple or literal interpretation of texts with a
deeper one (e.g. Noe 10.33f, 11.37f, 14.49, 15.50), while the
first book of his commentary on Abraham provides a moral
interpretation and the second covers much of the same
ground from a 'deeper' perspective. Verses of Luke could
be taken both morally and mystically (e.g. Luc. 4.28-35, 50;
5.36,85f), while different parts of one verse could be taken
in various ways (15.4.14).
(Is. 4.14). And for Ambrose it is the deeper
interpretation, or more precisely the moral and mystical
meanings as opposed to the natural, which are of greater
interest. The church has two eyes, moral and mystical; while
the latter is the more keen, the former is sweeter (ps.118
11.7; cf. 13.23). Even here there is a hierarchy, the mystic
reality being superior to the moral, as shown by Christ's
statement that Mary rather than Martha had chosen the
better part (ps. 1.42, on Luke 10:4lf).
10:41£).
For Ambrose, the Bible was full of signifiers in need of
decoding. Everywhere there were 'figures', such as the story
of David and Bathsheba, or the appearance of a vision to
Peter three times, which was a figure of the mystery of the
Trinity (Spir.S. 2.105). Outward appearances in the Bible
were a reliable guide to reality in the same way as they were
in the eucharist, for the canon of the mass which Ambrose
used understood the eucharistic offering to be the 'figure'
of the body and blood ofJesus Christ.:!"
Christ.:'?" The principle oper-
ated from the very beginning of the Bible. The mystery of
baptism was so old that it was prefigured (literally 'given a
figure in advance') at the origin of the world itself, for at
the very beginning, when God created heaven and earth,
'the Spirit was borne over the waters' (Gen. 1:2). Ambrose
comments in wonder: 'How old is the mystery!' (myst. 9;
the role of the Spirit in the creation is treated in more detail
at exa. 1.8.29). That the Christian sacraments and mysteries

25. Sacr.
Sacr. 4.5.21; on the consecration as effecting a kind of ''transfiguring'
transfiguring'
cf. fid. 4.10.124; inc. 4.23. See further Wilmart (1911).

85
 AMBROSE

were older than those of the Jews is an insistent theme (sa cr.
1.6.23, 4.3.10f; cf. myst. 8.44-6). Hence, the Old Testament
was significant in that it pointed beyond itself. Of what good
is the law, Ambrose enquires, if you do not know the end of
the law, if you are not aware of the mystery, if you do not
know the sacramentum (ps.11813.6)?

CHRIST IN THE BIBLE

Ambrose has much to say on the importance of Christ's
coming. Before him there is winter, but after him flowers
(Is. 4.35; cf. Song 2:1lf). If Moses led the Jewish people
through the wilderness, Christ leads through the grain-fields
and the lilies, because his passion has made the wilderness
flower like the lily (Is. 6.56; cf. Deut. 29:5, Matt. 12:1, Song
2:16). Yet he is to be found throughout the Bible. Each
testament is a cup from which Christ can be drunk (ps.
1.33), while the three measures of meal in which a woman
placed yeast signify Christ, hidden in the law, covered over
in the prophets, and fulfilled in the preachings of the gospel
(Luc. 7.188, on Matt. 13:33). Grace and law are so closely
linked that they can be seen as one wheel turning inside
another (lac. 2.11.49 and Spir.S. 3.21.162 on Ez. 1:16). A
passage in Job which seems to express power really reveals
the mysteries ofredemption (interpelL 1.4.11); the remission of
sins was announced in type through a lamb and completed
in truth through Christ (ep. 68(=26).6). Perhaps God only
rested on the seventh day after the creation of the human
being because this was a creature whose sins would be for-
given, or because of the passion of Christ, concerning which
he himself said 'I slept, was quiet and rose again' (exa.6.10.76,
on Ps. 3:6, placed in the mouth of Christ). The eighth
day and circumcision in the Old Testament were given as a
sign, 'an indication of something greater, of a future truth'
(ep.69 (=72).25).
(ep.69(=72).25).
Such an understanding had an important consequence.
The Old Testament had become the property of the Chris-
tians: the people which had come together out of the nations
claimed the law of the Lord and the oracles of the prophets,
as well as the New Testament of the Lord, as its own (ps.
36.6). The Bible could be divided into two parts, that which

86
 THE BIBLE

announced that Christ would come and that which showed

that he had come (virgb. 3.3.11), for even today, Moses and
Elijah teach the mysteries of the death of Christ (Luc. 7.11).
In the psalms Christ is born, suffers the passion, rests, rises,
ascends into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the
Father (ps. 1.8); the prophet Zechariah as well as the New
Testament reveals the omnipotence of Christ (inc. 10.114).
Just as the Hebrews of the exodus despoiled the Egyptians
when they took away their vessels, the Christian people
now have the spoils of the Jews, which means everything
which they did not realize they had (ps.118 21.12) . Even
Philo had to confine himself to a moral interpretation of
the Bible, being unaware of a spiritual one (para. 4.25). Per-
haps, Ambrose suggests, the word of God appears as a lamp
in the law, and a great light in the gospel. But for the Jews,
the lamp was hidden under a bushel. The light of the law
was not seen, while for the people arisen from the nations,
that is the church, there is light, a light having arisen for the
people who sat in the region of the shadow of death (ps.118
14.9, cf. Matt. 5:15, Is. 9:2, Luke 2:32). Ambrose takes Christ's
advice to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
(Matt. 16:11) to refer to their teaching. But the church has
hidden this teaching in its flour, softening the harsh letter of
the law with spiritual interpretation and breaking it down as
if it were a mill, revealing the secrets of the mysteries within
from the husks of the literal text (paen. 1.15.82). Ambrose's
approach denied the Jews the right understanding of their
own scriptures. 26
So it is that for Ambrose,
Ambrose , as already for the writers of the
New Testament, the Old Testament was saturated with Christ.
When Christ said 'We sang for you and you did not dance, we
mourned and you did not weep', he was alluding to his voice
as it could be heard in the books of Psalms and Lamenta-
tions (Luc. 6.5, on Luke 7:32). The words of the psalmist, 'If
I ascend into heaven, thou art there, if I descend into hell,
thou art there' (Ps. 139:8) showed that Christ was always
present with the Father (Luc. 2.94), while the verse 'You,

26. As has been well said concerning Augustine, the Jews are a 'hermen-
eeutical
utical device to define a premature closure of biblical discourse,
short of the new realm of meaning it would enter in the
th e light of the
th e
Incarnation ' (Markus(l996)
Incarnation' (Markus(l996):: 42f) .

87
 AMBROSE

Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up, and I will requite

them' (Ps. 41:11) obviously referred to the resurrection of
Christ (ps. 40.32). Ambrose reads the Old Testament in a
resolutely Christocentric way. Christ's words that the Son
of Man would be seen coming in the clouds (Luke 21:27)
referred not only to his coming when his presence would
fill the whole world, but also to the clouds which veiled the
brightness of the mystery, clouds which included Moses,
Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel and the Song of Songs, for Christ
comes in them as well. 27 Ambrose saw the Old Testament as
having been stripped of its autonomous coherence by the
New. 28 The principle is made clear:
There is a good deal of obscurity in the writings of the prophets.
But if you knock on the door of the scriptures with the hand of
your mind and examine carefully those things which are obscure,
you will gradually begin to understand the reason for what is
said and it will be opened to you by none other than the Word
of God. You have read of him in the Apocalypse, that the lamb
opened the sealed book which n()-{)ne hitherto had been able to
open, because the Lord Jesus alone has removed the veil of the
riddles of the prophets and the mysteries of the law by means of
his gospel; alone, he handed over the key of knowledge and
gave it to us so that we may open. (ps.1188.59)

Hence, thinking of Scripture as water, Ambrose can assert that

the Jew drinks and is thirsty, while a Christian who drinks
cannot feel thirsty; the former is in a shadow, the latter in
the truth (myst. 8.48).

1WO
lWO MIRACLES
But it was not merely a case of the Old Testament needing to
be interpreted in the light of the New, for the New itself con-
tained mysteries which cried out for explanation. Everything
inJohn's gospel was a mystery! (sacr. 3.2.11). It will be worth
our while examining in some detail Ambrose's treatment of
the accounts in the gospels, disquietingly similar in the eyes

27. Luc. 10.39-42. The metaphor of veiling had particular resonance in

27.
Ambrose's time, when emperors were approached through veils: cf.cf.
cp. 76(=20).4.
28. The helpful formulation of Mazza (1989) : 39.

88
 THE BIBLE

of modern readers, of Christ's feeding 5,000 people and his

feeding 4,000 people (Luc. 6.69-92). The narratives were
not straightforward: why was the larger group fed by five
loaves, and the smaller by seven? Ambrose deals with this
problem in a roundabout way. He takes the 5,000 as stand-
ing for the five senses of the body; as these people were still
involved in bodily things, they appropriately received food
in the form of five loaves. The 4,000, on the other hand,
although still in the body and involved with the world, there
being four elements which make up the earth, nevertheless
received what Ambrose calls the food of repose. This took
the form of seven loaves, for the seventh day had been a day
of rest for God after the world had been created in six days.
This suggested to Ambrose the seventh beatitude, 'Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God'
(Matt. 5:9; similar connections at Luc. 5.51). It was therefore
not surprising that the 4,000 left behind fragments which
filled seven baskets.
Typically, Ambrose does not let matters rest there: if you
eat the five loaves in a material way, and then the seven, you
will go on to eat eight loaves above the earth, eight being
the number of the resurrection . Those who partook of the
seven loaves stayed where they were for three days, perhaps
having faith in the resurrection on the third day: 'We shall
walk for three days so that we may feast with the Lord our
God' (Ex. 5:3). According to John, the five loaves were made
of barley, a food suitable for carnal people not equal to
Elijah, who ate a meal cake made from wheaten flour (I
Kings 17:12f). The two groups of people could also be dis-
tinguished with respect to their posture, the 5,000 lying on
hay and the 4,000 reclining on the ground. Yet again, the
comparison is to the disadvantage of the larger group: those
who press on the ground are superior to those who lie on
grass, Ambrose comments in language which recalls aspects of
his thinking on women, for theth e latter are those whose bodily
senses delight in soft things, and indeed 'all flesh is as grass'
(Is. 40:6), while those upon the earth, which Ambrose, with
a Mediterranean perspective, sees as producing wheat, wine
and the olive tree, obtain the food of grace. Further, those
who recline enjoy better rest than those who lie. If this were
not enough, the former had two fishes and the latter an
indefinite number, suggesting that the first group possessed

89
 AMBROSE

not only the grace of the seven-fold Spirit in the loaves, but
also, figuratively, the two testaments. The 4,000 had something
else in common with the church, for both could be seen as
having been gathered from the four parts of the world.
How are we to understand this exegesis? Correspondences
of numbers are made much of, in a way which can appear
forced and mechanical. Elsewhere, Ambrose comments that
it was fitting for the widow Anna to have given thanks when
the baby Jesus was brought into the Temple, for prophecies
concerning Christ had already been uttered by Simeon,
by a married woman and by a virgin, and there was now a
need for a widow, so that neither sex nor status would be
excluded. The classification is typically Ambrosian, with the
categories of marriage, virginity and widowhood applying to
women but not, apparently, to men. But, he continues, it is
significant that Anna had been a widow for 84 years, because
both seven twelves and two forties seem to indicate a sacred
number (Luc. 2.62). If this is obscure as symbolism, the
mathematics are even harder to understand. 29 His fascina-
tion with numbers points towards another characteristic of
Ambrose's mind, a taste for synthesis rather than analysis.
Faced with an apparent contradiction between the account
of Christ healing one blind man in one gospel (Matt. 20:30)
and two blind men in another (Luke 18:35), he breezily
comments that there is no difference: the one is a type of
the gentile people, and the gentiles were descended from
Noah's two sons Ham and Japheth (Luc. 8.80). Similarly,
while an account of Christ healing a man possessed by de-
mons seemed to be discordant with a report that he had
healed two men, the accounts were nevertheless concordant
with respect to the mystery (LuG. 6.44, on Luke 8:27ff and
Matt. 8:28ff). At Psalm 60:8, different manuscripts described
Moab as the 'hall of hope' or 'pot of my hope', but both
terms were applicable to Mary, who was a royal hall in that

29. Compare this with a passage in which Ambrose observes that the
seventh day indicates the law and the eighth the resurrection. Hence,
Hosea's taking a prostitute for 15 denarii (Hos. 3:1) suggested the
coinage of the Old and New Testaments. From this it was an easy
move to the 15 gradual psalms of David, the 15 degrees the sun
climbed when King Hezekiah received an extension to his life
(Ambrose's recollection of Is. 38:5, 8 is confused) and the 15 days
Paul spent with Peter (Gal. 1:18; ep. 68(=26).8,10).

90
 THE BIBLE

she was subject to no man but God alone and whose womb
was a pot (inst.virg. 12.79). The tendency is persistent in
Ambrose. Confronted with divergent interpretations of the
name Levi, he combines them and seeks to show that they
recall each other. 30 He was never nonplussed when his
sources attributed different meanings to letters of the Hebrew
alphabet. The fourth letter, deleth, could mean either 'fear'
or 'birth', but the meanings were in agreement, for birth
refers to the things generated in this world, by which we
understand bodily and material things which are destined
to perish, and so not far removed from fear, indeed giving
birth to it (ps.118 4.1). Similarly the twelfth letter, labd, could
mean 'heart' or 'I keep', but one who has a heart keeps the
commands of God, just as Mary kept all the sayings of the
Lord in her heart.:JI
So it was that Ambrose often worked at a verbal leve1. 32
Even such unpromising issues as the precise meaning of the
word 'was' in Genesis or 'there' in a psalm will be dealt with
by examining usage in other scriptural texts (exa. 1.7.25; ps.
35.28). The Greek word 'oikumene' means 'inhabited world'.
But as Christ inhabits his followers (II Cor. 6.16), the inhab-
ited world is the church (ps. 48.3). The occurrence of the
rare Greek word 'pisticos' at John 12:3 triggers a chain of
thought concerning the virtue of faith, a similar word in
Greek (Pistis: paen. 2.7.63). Discussing the text 'You have tried
me by fire and iniquity was not found in me' (Ps. 17:3),
Ambrose examines the themes of finding and not finding in
Scripture. Adam was found when he hid, but the tomb of
Moses was not found; Ahab was found, but Elijah was not
found, and the wisdom of God says 'The wicked will seek
me and not find me' (Prov. 1:28). Hence Jesus was sought
and not found, whereas Elijah found that he had done evil
in the sight of the Lord. When Saul sought David he could
not find him, but David found Saul whom he had not sought
(Nab. 12.51). What could be more clear?lI

30. Gryson (1966): 218.

31. See ps.118 12.1 on Luke 2:51; cf. 5.1 on the letter he and 10.1 on the
letter loth. Ambrose's interpretations usually differ from those of
Jerome (ep. 30.5).
32. More than did Augustine: for one example. Moorhead (1997).
33. Commenting on symbolism in the church fathers, Blaise notes: The
quotations follow one another, not called up bv logical necessity, but

91
 AMBROSE

COMING DOWN AND GOING UP

Let us consider how Ambrose approaches a recurrent theme
in Scripture, that of downwards and upwards motion. The
prototype was Christ, whose earthly life is framed in the Creed
by the words 'he came down from heaven ... he ascended
into heaven'. He thought of Christ as having undertaken a
series of leaps: having leaped into the world he went down
into the Jordan, ascended the cross, went down into the
grave, rose again from the grave, and sat at the right hand
of the Father (Is. 4.31; cf. ps.118 6.6). Ambrose used this
understanding as a tool to interpret obscure passages. Hence,
'He shall come down like rain' refers to the Word of God
coming down from heaven (ps.11813.24,
(ps.118 13.24, on Ps. 72:6). While
Christ's coming down referred in the first place to his
incarnation, it could be applied more broadly, for in his
humility Christ went down to the cross and to hell (ps.118
20.3) . So central was the image of Christ's descent that
Ambrose expands scriptural references to incorporate it: it
was Christ our peace, descending from heaven, who made
both one (Luc. 7.141, on Eph. 2:14). Sometimes the descent
is implicit: Ambrose goes beyond a parable in assuming
that when the good shepherd sought a lost sheep he left
ninety-nine other sheep up in the mountains (Luc. 7.210).
He happily uses the image as a vehicle for the expression of
familiar concerns, such as the relationship between Judaism
and Christianity: Christ went up from the lower to the higher,
that is from the synagogue to the church (Luc. 6.52). Fur-
ther, when Jacob saw in his sleep angels going up and com-
ing down a ladder (Gen. 28:12), he was foreseeing Christ,
upon whom hosts of angels descended and ascended (lac. (Jac.
2.4.16, on John 1:51, although Ambrose reverses the order
of the verbs).
But the image does not merely apply to Christ, for it can
also be applied to humans. Just as Adam was wounded by
robbers as he went down from Jerusalem, people go down
with their sins and go up with their merits (ps.118 21.5; we

by the pure association of words

words'' (c.1994: 17). This is fair comment,
but his complaints of 'decadent rhetoric . .. the disappearance of clas-
sical taste, of moderation, of appropriate
appropriateness,
ness, or simply of good sense'
point to lack of sympathy.

92
 THE BIBLE

shall shortly consider the notion of Adam wounded by rob-

bers). Christ, the one, came down, so that all might go up
(Luc. 2.91); he came down from heaven to pluck us up from
the lake and slime of this world and its muddy swamp (ps.
39.2). Mter Christ had retired to a mountain with his dis-
ciples to pray he came down to the throngs, where he found
the sick, for every person has to be healed before being able,
little by little, to go up the mountain as their strength in-
creases (Luc. 5.46, cf. Matt. 8:1f). When the Spirit came down
on Christ in the form of a dove, he gave us wings so that we
would learn to flyaway from land (ps.118 14.38).Just as
Christ went down, the humble publican went down from the
temple (ps.118 20.4; cf. Luke 18:14; Ambrose is aware of
the elevated position of the temple withinJerusalem). Salim,
the name of a place near which John the Baptist baptized,
means 'the person going up'. Ambrose takes this to refer to
Christ, the one who came down from heaven being the one
who also went up into heaven. But a person who lays aside
earthly things and is buried with Christ also goes up into
heaven, rising with Christ from the death of sin to newness
of life (ps. 37.3). Reflecting on Job's escape to a mountain,
Ambrose observes that going up requires an effort, but com-
ing down is dangerous.:;l
The image could easily be assimilated to baptism. Apposite
here was Paul's statement that in baptism we were buried
with Christ, and so as he was raised up we should walk in
newness of life (Rom. 6:4), and Ambrose implicitly applies
the notion of being raised up to believers when he mentions
youth being renewed like the eagle's (paen. 2.2.8; cf. Ps. 103:5).
To be baptized in Christ is to come down in his death and
go up in his resurrection (ps. 37.10). Elijah's opening of the
heavens is a 'type' of baptism, this being a case not of rain
coming down but grace going up, and no-one goes up into
the kingdom of heaven except through water and spirit (Hel.
22.84; cf. John 3:5). Such imagery was given powerful ex-
pression in the baptismal liturgy of Ambrose's time, in which
the candidate went down into a large font and then came
up. Ambrose's De sacramentis, largely concerned with baptism,
is thus replete with language of going down and coming up:

34. Ap. 11 (=29).22. The expression 'ascendenti ... lahor' recalls Vergil
Aeneid 6.129, which refers to the' labor' of a famous ascent.

93
 AMBROSE

the going down of the leper Naaman and, later, that of Christ
into the River Jordan, the coming down of the Holy Spirit
upon the latter, the coming down of the angel into the pool
at Bethesda, the fire which came down from heaven at the
invocation of Elijah, the iron axe which came up from the
waters when Elisha called upon the name of the Lord, and
the coming down of the Spirit signified by the tongues of fire
at Pentecost all pointed to the mystery of baptism, when the
candidates went down into the deep font and came up again.
When the newly baptized came to the altar clad in white, the
angels looked on and said 'Who is this who comes up from
the wilderness all in white?' (cf. Song 8:5, a text also applied
to baptism at ps.118 16.21). The church, rejoicing in her
redemption, says 'My brother has come down into his gar-
den and taken the fruit of his trees' (Song 4:16). Ambrose's
theology of the eucharist was such as to steer him away from
interpreting it in similar terms: rather than seeing the invoca-
tion of the Holy Spirit as effecting the consecration of the
elements, he saw this as being achieved by the repetition of
words used by Christ at the Last Supper. But here as well,
he took note of Christ's being the living bread which came
down from heaven (sacr. 6.1.4, on John 6:58).

A PARABLE
Our discussion of language found throughout the Bible can
be complemented by analysis of one passage, a parable told
by Jesus. According to Ambrose, parables are figures which
need to be solved (ps. 43.56). Perhaps he was stating the
view of Jesus, who did not expect all people to understand
the parables he told (e.g. Mark 4:11-13). More than the
other gospels, that of Luke contains a rich store of parables.
Ambrose was selective in those he chose to discuss in his
commentary on Luke, ignoring some of those best-known,
such as those of the man who built his house on a rock, the
sower who went out to sow, and the rich fool. Others are
the subject of careful and detailed commentary.
As an example we may take Ambrose's exegesis of the
parable of the Good Samaritan (Luc. 7.69-84, on Luke
10:30-35). The man who came down from Jerusalem on
the road to Jericho is identified with Adam, who was cast

94
 THE BIBLE

out from paradise into this world. The robbers who attacked
him were the angels of night and darkness. Who was the
Samaritan, also going down, who healed his wounds? Ambrose
believed that the word Samaritan means 'guard'. Hence,
the Samaritan can be seen as the Lord, who guarded the
little children, and as the Son of Man, who came down from
heaven and went up into heaven. The Samaritan bound up
the wounds of the man who had been attacked, poured oil
and wine on them, and placed him on his beast. But the Lord
himself bore our sins (Is. 53:5), and the shepherd placed
the weary sheep on his shoulders (Luke 15:5)
15:5).. Perhaps this
was a little awkward, but Ambrose points out that humankind
has become like a beast (Ps. 49: 12), and hence he placed us
upon his beast lest we be like the horse or mule (Ps. 32:9), so
that he who assumed our body might abolish the infirmities
of our flesh. Hence, when the Samaritan brought the wounded
man into the stable, it was we who were the beasts. Having
cared for him, the Samaritan was not free to remain. On the
next day, ' the day which the Lord has made' (Ps. 118:24),
he gave the stable hand two denarii, the two testaments
which, like coins, have stamped on them the image of the
eternal king, before returning to the place from which he
had
h ad come down (Eph. 4:9f). The reference to a stable hand
led Ambrose to think of St Paul, who described himself as
counting all things as dung (Phil. 3:8). But the apostle also
said 'Christ sent me to evangelize' (Cor. 1:17), and so stable
hands are those to whom it is said 'Go into all the world and
evangelize every creature, and one who believes and is bap-
tized will be saved' (Mark 16:15f), saved from death and the
wound inflicted by the robbers. That stable hand who can
cure the wounds of others is blessed; that person is blessed
to whom Jesus says 'whatsoever thou spendest more , when I
come again, I will repay thee'. A good steward will indeed
spend more, and Paul is a good steward, whose words and
letters overflow with what he had received, he being a good
stable hand in the stable in which 'the ass has known the
crib of his lord' (Is. 1:3) and which encloses flocks of lambs
so as to keep away rapacious wolves howling at the enclosures.
The day on which the Samaritan would repay the stable
hand for any extra expenses was the Day ofJudgment. From
this rambling discussion, Ambrose draws a conclusion: since
no-one is more our neighbour than he who heals our wounds,

95
 AMBROSE

let us love the Samaritan as both our Lord and our neigh-
bour. Let us also love the person who imitates Christ and
who has compassion on the want of another in the unity of
the body. It is not family relationship which makes a neigh-
bour, asserts AInbrose, but mercy, since mercy arises from
nature: nothing arises from nature so much as helping one
who shares the same nature. AInbrose's exegesis displays a
lack of interest in what many readers have considered the
obvious moral point of the parable. For him, its significance
was not moral but mystical, and his reading exemplifies his
tendency to elevate the mystical interpretation above the
moral. So fixed is this interpretation in his mind that he
amplifies the text to have the Samaritan coming down. The
parable does not indicate whether the Samaritan was going
down from Jerusalem or coming up to it, but AInbrose's
equating of this figure with Christ led him to apply the
familiar image of descent to him. Further, given that AInbrose
saw heaven as the celestial Jerusalem, it made excellent sense
to understand the incarnation of Christ in terms of his coming
down from that city. He loved to play on verbal similarities
between different parts of the Bible, and sees a Christological
significance in the neighbour. Indeed,just before delivering
this parable Christ had taught 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God' and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself', words
AInbrose took to refer to the Father and the Son and the
incarnation of the latter (Luc. 7.69f).

AMBROSE'S PIE1Y
AInbrose's treatment of the Bible may not be to everyone's
taste. His manoeuvres may too often seem to resemble games
of intellectual football, the points he makes random and
breathtakingly naive. It has been suggested that AInbrose's
allegorical exegesis 'could, and did, make anything mean
anything' .35 But this is to exaggerate. The meanings he drew
from texts were invariably connected with Christ. In that he
interpreted the Old Testament in the light of the New he
did not go beyond the practice of the New Testament itself,
and interpreting part of the New in the light of other parts

35. Homes Dudden (1935): 459.

96
 THE BIBLE

of the New, as he did with the parables, was simply an exten-

sion of this principle.
Ambrose's exegesis may seem abstract and bloodless. Yet
he was a person of personal piety which became stronger as
he grew older. Increasingly, Christ was not only the principle
which allowed the disparate data of the Bible to be pulled
together, but also the object of intense
inte nse personal devotion.
Ambrose often uses the expression 'Lord Jesus jesus',' , whom he
frequently invokes; only rarely does he invert the words to
speak, more formally,
formally , of 'jesus the Lord'. His religion is
Christocentric: 'Come Lord Jesus,
jesus, teach us!' (Luc.
(LUG. 5.52; cf.
ps.118 12.4) . This emphasis emerges with great clarity in the
section of the commentary on Luke dealing d ealing with the cruci-
fixion , which almost turns into a preaching of the passion.
fixion,
Apart from a few borrowings from Hilary, as far as we can
tell it is completely original. A heavy
h eavy use of the historic
present in preference to the past tense, sense 36
tense , a strong visual sense3!i
and abundant short sentences
se nte nces give the exposition a powerful
air of immediacy:
immediacy:
But now the victor picks up his trophy .... .. Now we see the trophy,
the victor climbs into his chariot ... We should consider
co nsider what
kind of thing he climbs into ... I see him naked ... .. . And an
inscription is written ...
. .. A remarkable inscription! ...
.. . Now look
at the garments
garme nts of Christ, divided ...
.. . The Lord quickly
quickly pardons
someone, because he h e is quickly converted to him ... .. . And the
Jews offered
offe red vinegar ...
.. . 'And having said this he
h e gave up the
ghost.' (Luc.
(Luc. 10.107-127)
Ambrose employs the intimacy of the second person singular
to invite his readers to accompany him to Christ's tomb:
'You come too' ('Veni el lu', Luc. 10.138), and a long devo-
tional passage, in which the language of coming down and
going up is prominent,
promine nt, is addressed to the Lord Jesus
jesus (Luc.
(LuG.
10.158-60). In another work, Ambrose observes: 'Christ is
all things for you: a stone for you,
you, so that you may be built,
and a mountain for you, so that you may go up' (interpell.
4.4.17), and signs of the personal nature of his faith are
works. 37 Discussing the expression
frequent throughout his works.~7

36.
36. Compare Helena's
H e lena's inability to believe
be lieve herself
h e rself redeemed
redee med unless she
saw the cross (ob. Theod. 43).
43 ) .
37. See for example Lur. 5.27, 52. and the words attributed to Christ at at
the end of bon. mort.
mort.

97
 AMBROSE

'1 am yours' used in Ps. 119:94 ('tuus sum'), he observes how

hard it is to say these words. Various vices claim us, saying
'You are mine', and psychological conditions say 'He's mine',
but Ambrose can say with truth '1 am yours', and hear from
the Lord Jesus the words 'You are mine' (ps.11812.37-42).

STRUCTURAL COHERENCE: THE CASE OF SHECHEM

Moreover, for all the apparent randomness of Ambrose's
approach and the sense he often gives of playing fast and
loose with the Bible, his approach is informed by structures,
and subtle connections run throughout his work. The point
may be illustrated by his discussions of a place-name often
referred to in the Bible, Shechem. He seems to have taken
as his starting point the interpretation given it by Philo, who
took it to mean 'shoulder' or 'shouldering', seeing in it a
symbol of toi1. 38 Discussing a reference to Shechem at Gen.
12:6, Ambrose broadens Philo's interpretation, observing that
it means 'shoulder' or 'neck', and hence the completion of
a task which has been set, an interpretation he neatly sup-
ports by quoting an apposite reference to a shoulder at Gen.
49:15 (Abr. 1.2.5; also 2.3.8). But when Shechem is mentioned
at Gen. 37:14, Ambrose takes it to mean 'shoulders' or 'back',
which enables him to apply it to those not converted to the
Lord who flee from his face and avert themselves (los. 3.9,
the verb 'convertere' being used so as to recall its literal sense
of 'turn towards'). When Shechem is mentioned as hav-
ing been given by Jacob to his youngest son Joseph in the
Septuagint text of Gen. 48:22, Ambrose takes it to mean
'shoulders', and hence 'works', which leads him to remark
that Jacob chose the holy Joseph as the heir of good works
before his other sons, since his brothers were unable to
equal his works (patr. 3.11; see further ep. 4(=27).16).
Doubtless there is some straining in the ways the original
meaning is extended, although it is easy to see how the
meanings of 'back' and 'works' could be taken to follow
from the primary meaning of 'shoulder'. More interestingly,

38. Shoulder: De mutatione nominum 193; Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat
9. Shouldering: De migratione Abrahami 221, Legum allegoria 3.25. In all
cases but the last the meaning of 'toil' is supplied.

98
 THE BIBLE

Ambrose extends the meaning of the word to 'one who

goes up', and in this sense applies it to the church. His
discussion of the phrase 'I will divide Shechem' (Ps. 60:6)
includes the following passage:

Shechem is the church, for Solomon chose her, she whose grow-
ing affection he could discern. Shechem is Mary, whose soul
was pierced and divided by the
th e sword of God. She chern is, ac-
cording to its meaning, one who goes up. As to who it is who
goes up, listen to what is said concerning the church: 'Who is
this, who comes up all white,
white , leaning on her brother?' (intcrpell.
(inlcrpell.
4.4.16, quoting Song 8:5)

Ambrose immediately identifies Shechem with the church.

The move may seem gratuitous, but he goes on to allude to
his grounds for making it. Behind the reference to Solomon
stands a well-known incident in which that king proposed
to divide in two a baby claimed as a son by two women, so
as to establish who the true mother was,39 and the verbal
correspondence between the dividing of the baby and the
dividing of Shechem mentioned in the psalm is precisely
the kind of connection Ambrose loved to make between
different parts of the Bible. That the judgment of Solomon
involved two women may also be relevant, for as we shall see
Ambrose frequently took women mentioned in the Bible to
represent the church, just as, when two people occur in one
story, as in the case of the two women who appeared before
Solomon, he sometimes sees the better one as the church
and the worse as the synagogue (below, pages 106ff, 183).
Hence, Ambrose's interpretative strategies allowed him to
work from the story of Solomon, to which he merely alludes,
to the church. The case of Mary was straightforward,
straightforward , for a
reference in the Bible to her soul being pierced by a sword
(Luke 2:35) made the notion of being divided appropriate
to her, and as it happened Ambrose thought that Mary rep-
resented the church (below, page 107f). When he goes on
to connect Shechem with going up he resumes one of his
favourite themes, and as we have seen he frequently sees
biblical references to going down and coming up as apply-
ing to baptism; indeed, we have already encountered him

39. I Kings 3:16-28; the word 'divide' OCCUI'S

occurs at v.25. i\mbrose
Ambrose eexplicitly
xplicitly
discusses the judgment of Solomon at of!
off 2.8.44-7.

99
 AMBROSE

interpreting the verse of the Song quoted here in this

light (above, page 94), just as we have seen him applying a
reference to a woman bathing to the church receiving the
washing of baptism (above, page 94). Ambrose's brief com-
ments on Shechem therefore turn out to be by no means as
disjointed as they may appear at first sight. They are in-
formed by structuring themes and metaphors which allowed
him to impose on the texts ready-made frameworks of inter-
pretation.

ALLEGORY ACROSS THE CENTURIES

Ambrose's approach to the Bible is not exceptional. Many
readers across the centuries, not all of them in the classical
or Judea-Christian
Judeo-Christian traditions, have interpreted texts allegoric-
ally,4D and such an approach was to predominate in the middle
ages. In recent centuries many commentators on the Bible,
especially those influenced by the Reformation and Enlight-
enment, have turned away from it. But fashions change, and
Ambrose's approach to the Bible appears more cogent now,
for modern literary theory encourages us to think of texts as
being the property of their readers rather than their authors.
This change in the balance of power between writer and reader
was partially anticipated by Ambrose, when he remarked
that, while the Bible nourishes us, we in turn can nourish
one of the prophets when we give him our faith, the degree
of progress we have made, our minds, our feelings, and the
support of our hearts, which we have placed in the light of
the gospel (ep.ext.coll.
(ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).80), and has made it respect-
able for different readers, or the same reader, to see more than
one meaning in a text. Hence, when Ambrose interprets the
Song of Songs or the parable of the Good Samaritan in two
ways it does not follow that one, at least, of them is 'wrong',
for there may be an indefinite number of valid readings.
Doubtless Ambrose would have parted company with modern

40. A Muslim theologian, the Baghdad scholar Ghazali, ob. 1111 (in his
Reuivifaction oj the sciences oj religion), observed that 'according to the
opinion of some scholars, every verse [in the Qur'anJ can be under-
stood in sixty thousand ways, and that what still remains unexhausted
(of its meaning) is still more numerous' (quoted in Peters Pe ters (1990) :
148) .

100
 THE BIBLE

literary critics in that he believed in an objective, supernatural

reality to which the Bible gave access; for him, the lack of an
authoritative reading was connected with its very author-
ity.41 But modern practice open to multiple readings has
revivified a tradition of which Ambrose was one of the leading
exponents.

41. Acute comments in Markus (1996): 9.

101
 Chapter 4

CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS

AND PAGANS

Starting from lowly beginnings, the Christian church seemed

to carry all before it. Catholic authors of antiquity often give
the impression that the success of their cause was inevitable,
and their self-confidence was certainly one of the reasons for
its success. But some of the apparent optimism of Ambrose
and others was an exercise in putting on a brave face, for
many chose to remain outside the church. In a parable told
by Jesus, three people refused to come to the banquet pre-
pared by God, and Ambrose knew just who they were: the
pagans,Jews and heretics, who were excluded from the king-
dom of heaven. 1 Throughout his episcopate, Ambrose devoted
much energy to the groups who rudely turned down their
invitations. Dealings with them had been complicated by
the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the
empire, which necessarily implicated the state in the church's
relations with those outside it, and Ambrose found that those
in a position to exercise power could not always be relied
upon to act as he would have hoped. In this chapter we shall
examine important dealings Ambrose had with heretics and
pagans in the 380s, and the dealings with the state which
these brought in their wake.

THE SUCCESS OF THE CHURCH

Never has the standing of the Christian church within society
changed so rapidly as it did in the fourth century. It opened
with the last great persecution of the church (303-311). The

1. Luc. 7.197-200, on Luke 14:12ff.

14: 12ff.

102
 CHURCH, STATE,
STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

impact of this was particularly clear in Rome, where, of the

three popes who died during the period, the first weakened
under persecution and the following two died after being
banished from the city. Moreover, because of difficulties
in securing replacements, during this period the church of
Rome functioned without a bishop for over four years. It
was a shaky start to the century, but early in the reign of
Constantine the 'Edict of Milan' (313), which proclaimed
full toleration of religion, was promulgated. With great speed,
the Christian community moved from worshipping in house
churches and catacombs to the imposing basilicas which were
built, often with state funds. Imperial patronage combined
with a strong sense of its own worth to make the standing of
the church in society increasingly strong, particularly after
the attempts of the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363)
to revive the cause of paganism failed.
So it was that, from the vantage point of Ambrose, the
history of the church appeared as a wonderful success story.
While the martyrs held an important and in some ways
growing place in its folk memory and cultic practice, by his
time its leaders could look on the past with satisfaction and
the present with complaisance. Despite the various waves
and storms which sometimes assailed the church (Noe 1.1), l.1),
Ambrose could interpret the request of the Gadarenes that
Christ would depart from them as a prophecy that the whole
earth would be filled with the fear of God (ps.11810.22, on
Luke 8:37): 'So great has been the progress of the church!'
(ps.118 17.19). Everything had changed for the better, he
believed. The church, seen as the moon in the Old Testa-
ment, had at first been hidden in the darkness, but little by
little, as she waxed, she had come to shine brightly.2
There were good grounds to accept such optimistic as-
sessments. Further, the balance of power between the church
and the state was changing, the latter being often awkward
in its dealings with strong bishops. Athanasius, the bishop of
Alexandria (328-373) who was a strong leader of the Nicene
party, emerged triumphant in his struggles against emperors,
despite being exiled five times. Moreover, cracks were appear-
ing in the facade of Roman political power. To the persistent

Ep. 73(=18)
2. Eft. .23f; cf. patr. 3.13. Ambrose frequently uses the moon as an
73(=18).23f;
image of the church
church,, e.g. exa. 4.7 .29, 8.32.
4.7.29,

103
 AMBROSE

problems of rebellions led by generals and tensions between

emperors, which sometimes boiled over into war, was added
the defeat of the Romans by Germanic troops at the battle of
Adrianople in 378. This triggered a series of interconnected
events which were to culminate, just under a hundred years
later, in the deposition of the last emperor in the West. No-
one in the fourth century could have foreseen this outcome,
but a sense of unease was already developing during the
episcopate of Ambrose.

THE STATE
In its own right, the empire did not particularly concern
Ambrose . To be sure, he saw its interests and those of the
church as sometimes coinciding. Towards the end of his
life Queen Fritigil of the Marcomanni, a tribe living near
the Danube, wrote to him asking what she should believe.
Ambrose sent her a catechism and advised her to persuade
her husband to keep peace with the Romans, whereupon
the king handed himself and his people over to the Romans
(VAmb. 36). But in general Ambrose was nonchalant about
the empire, as his treatment of the census held by the Romans
referred to in the second chapter of Luke's Gospel shows.
In the early third century the census had been discussed by
Hippolytus, who stressed the opposition between the kingdom
of Christ and the Roman empire, while conversely Origen, at
about the same time, saw a providential connection between
the coming of peace to the Roman world and the birth of
Christ. Although Ambrose touches on the latter theme,3 his
handling of the topic suggests a view of the empire which
was neither negative nor positive. 4 Doubtless this degree of
coolness was more easily attained after Christianity's recent
successes, but Ambrose's treatment of the biblical passage
points towards a fundamental lack of interest in the Roman
empire.

3. Commenting on the words 'He maketh wars to cease unto the end of
the eanh'
earth' (Ps. 46:9),
46:9) , Ambrose observes that when Augustus came to
power wars ceased, which allowed the sending of the apostles through-
out the world (ps. 45.21) .
4. Buchheit (1984). Ambrose discusses the census at Luc.
Luc. 2.36f.

104
 CHURCH,
CHURCH. STATE,
STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

His loyalties were directed elsewhere. As we have seen, he

saw bishops as having a nobility which placed them before
those holding the highest offices of the state (above, page
35); for him, Job was a witness more considerable than he
would have been had he been master of the Roman empire
(interpel!. 2.3.9). His imagination loved to dwell on the hero-
ism of the martyrs, like St Pelagia, when persecuted by the
state (below, page 134), and at different times in his life he
identified himself with the biblical figures of Elijah, Nathan
and John the Baptist, who had all sturdily rebuked kings
guilty of injustice. Nothing could bestow greater honour
on an emperor than his being called a son of the church,
Ambrose informed one emperor in language which would
have astonished earlier sovereigns; the emperor, he felt,
was within the church and not above it (ep. 75a(=21a).36).
Such a line enabled enemies to accuse him of wanting to
be more powerful than the emperor (ibid. 30). They could
take a more diplomatic tone: 'You rule over all things', a
pagan senator soothingly wrote to Valentinian II (Ambrose
ep. 72a(=17a) .18).
ep.72a(=17a).18).
The visible weakening of the military position of the empire
during Ambrose's episcopate caused him little alarm. Indeed,
such was his lack of interest in earthly structures that the
possibility that the end of the world was at hand was a mat-
ter of small concern. He felt that the biblical name Gog was
to be identified with the Goths and that, with the Goths and
Armenians having come to believe, the gospel had been
preached throughout the world, and so the end of the world
might be anticipated (Luc.(LUG. 10.14, an unexpected comment
for the Goths had been converted to Christianity in an anti-
Nicene form; fid.fid. 2.16.138; cf. LUG.
LuG. 10.10). Wiser heads dis-
agreed with Ambrose on both these matters," but the coolness
with which he could contemplate the destruction of the
whole earth and the end of the world (exG.fr.
(exc.fr. 1.30) suggests
a degree of distance from it.

5. His identification of Gog with Goth was accepted by neither Jerome

(CCSL 72: 11; 75:480,
72:11; 75:480. the latter passage contradicting an unnamed
Ambrose) nor Augustine (civ.dei 20.11). Similarly,
Similarly. Augustine was more
cautious about the spread of the gospel (ep. 199.46f; cf. 197, 197. citing
Matt. 24:14)
24: 14).. Augustine identified the signs in the sun
sun,, moon and stars
21 :25) with the church (ep.
(Luke 21:25) (ep. 199.38f).

105
 AMBROSE

THE CHURCH AS FEMALE

While Ambrose was not greatly concerned about the institu-

tion of the state, he had a lot to say about the church, in com-
mon with other early Christian thinkers. For some of these,
such as Cyprian and Augustine, the subject was one for re-
flection in its own right. In the works of Ambrose the church
is not examined systematically, but the topic occurs frequently
and is treated consistently. Two themes are recurrent.
The first of these involves the identification of individuals
mentioned in the Bible with the church. There is a large crop
of such people in Genesis, the first of them being Eve, and
it will be worth our while examining closely a passage, dense
with biblical quotations and allusions, in which Ambrose
considers her in relation to the church.
Mter
After the creation of Eve, Adam referred to her as 'bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh', and said 'she shall be
called woman, since she was taken from man' (Gen. 2:23).
This was a great mystery (Eph. 5:32), that the two will be
one flesh and that a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife (Eph. 5:31, Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5),
just as we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his
bones (Eph. 5:30 referring to Christ's body). Who is this
'man', on account of whom the 'woman' leaves her parents?
The church left her parents when she was brought together
from among the gentiles, in accordance with the words of
the prophet, 'forget your people and the home of your
father' (Ps. 45:10), and the man is he of whom John the
Baptist spoke: 'Mter
'After me comes a man who was made before
me' (John 1:30). God took a rib from Adam's side as he
slept (Gen. 2:21), and this man is the one who slept, was
quiet and rose again, since the Lord received him (Ps. 3:5).
The rib stands for power, since, when a soldier opened up
the side of the crucified Christ, water and blood poured out
(John 19:43) for the life of the world (Mark 14:24, John
6:51). And, Ambrose continues after developing another
point which need not concern us, this rib is Eve, the mother
of all the living (Gen. 2:22, 3:20). Christ's words after the
resurrection, 'Why seek ye the living among the dead?' (Luke
24:5), mean that those who are without him and do not
share in life are dead; they do not participate in him, he

106
 CHURCH. STATE,
CHURCH, STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

being life (John 14:6)

14:6).. Hence, the church is the mother of
the living (Gal. 4:26; Luc. 2.86).
It cannot be denied that this is a difficult passage. The
argument is jumpy, compressed and allusive, its force is weak-
ened by Ambrose failing to render a key word in a way which
would capture an important pun in the original Hebrew,6
and at one stage it simply fails to work, for the argument
depends upon it being a woman who leaves her parents, but
the passage in St Paul which Ambrose is following (Eph. 5:31)
indicates that it is a man who leaves his parents and is joined
to his wife
wife.. Yet the structures of Ambrose
Ambrose's
's thinking are clear.
Adam is identified with Christ. The sleep of Adam during the
creation of Eve is connected with a reference in a psalm to
sleep, which early Christian commentators saw as a prophecy
of the death of Christ, and the flowing of life-giving water
and blood from the pierced side of Christ is paralleled by
the emergence of the mother of all the living from the rib
of Adam. Hence Ambrose can assert that Adam is to Eve as
Christ is to the church, Eve and the church having being
'built' to help Adam and Christ (Luc. 2.87); that Eve had
been formed to help the human, just like the church (ps.
39.11); that Adam and Eve symbolize, respectively, the soul
and the body (see above, page 56f) and the church and
(LuG. 4.66, where the latter pair of items seem in the
Christ (Luc.
wrong order); and that, just as Eve did not take a second
husband, so the church cannot know a second husband
(vid. 14.89).
Eve is not the only person in the Bible Ambrose sees
as symbolizing the church. We have already encountered
Bathsheba in this role (see above, page 82f),
82f) , and to her may
be added other figures from the Old Testament. 7 The com-
mentary on Luke is full of such people, foremost among
them Mary. Indeed, just as St Paul suggested that Christ was

6. The common English translation of Gen. 2:23, 'She shall be called

woman because she was taken out of man', reproduces a pun in the
o riginal Hebrew (ishshah . .. ish), but the play on words could not be
brought out in the Greek of LXX, from which Ambrose would have
b een working. This is a pity,
been pity. for the Latin of the Vulgate catches it
(virago . .. de ViTO)
viro)..
7. Sarah: Abr. 1.5.38; Rebekah : Abr. 1.9.90, ps.118 4.14; Rachael : ps. 37.10;
the widow of Zarephath: vid.
vid. 3.
3 .14.
14. The list could be extended.

107
 AMBROSE

the last Adam (I Cor. 15:45), Ambrose felt that Mary was the
second Eve, from which it followed that she would have
inherited Eve's status as representing the church. If the
church was noteworthy for being without spot, despite being
married (Eph. 5:27), so was Mary (Luc. 2.7). When Christ
commended Mary to John, whom Ambrose sees as the young-
est of his followers, she resembled the church, who had
earlier been joined to the older people but had now chosen
the society of a younger people (Luc. 10.134). 'How beautiful,'
Ambrose exclaims, 'are the things which are prophesied
concerning Mary in the figure of the church!' (inst.virg.
14.89). In his commentary on Luke, Ambrose sees the woman
with the flow of blood, the woman who entered the house
of Simon the leper, the woman who was bent over, the
woman who placed yeast in the flour, the woman who lost a
piece of silver, and the wife who was not to be put away by
her husband as representing the church. If the widow who
contributed two mites to the treasury of the Temple is not
so interpreted in this work, where she is scarcely mentioned
(at 7.157, out of sequence), she is in a letter (ep. 68(=26).5).
Persistently, Ambrose sees the sinful woman who anointed
the head of Christ as the church. 8s Revelling in paradoxes, he
describes the church as a chaste prostitute, a sterile widow and
a fruitful virgin (LuG. 3.23). The images may seem chaotic,
but Ambrose's thinking on this topic is structured. Every one
of the biblical personages he sees as denoting the church is
a woman.
Female identity was shared by another person in the Bible
Ambrose came to identify with the church, the bride in the
Song of Songs.9 Mter drawing on this book in his first work,
the De virginibus, he showed no particular interest in it until
the mid-380s, when he wrote commentaries on two portions
of iL IO One of these was in a book on Isaac and the soul, half
of which Ambrose devoted to commenting on the greater
part of the Song of Songs (2:1-8:6). Here he followed an
interpretation developed by Origen, who treated the female
character of the Song as standing for the soul. But she could

8. Ep.ext.coll. 1 (=41) .12; Hel.

Hel. 10.37; Luc.
Luc. 6.14.
9. See on this Dassmann (1966).
9. (1966) .
10. The De virginitate, another work probably written at this time, also
includes a commentary on part of the Song (4:7-5:2) .

108
 CHURCH. STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

be understood in another way. way. The theme of Yahweh being

the bridegroom of his chosen people Israel, already found
in some parts of the Old Testament (Ps. 45, Hos. 2), came,
in some currents of Jewish thought, to be imposed on the
man and woman in the Song, whose mutual love was felt to
represent that between Yahweh and his people. 11 The notion
of the chosen people being the bride of Yahweh was re-
worked by St Paul, who, in a famous passage, described the
church as being married to Christ (Eph. 5:3lf). The way was
therefore open for Christian writers to go back to the Song
and read it in this light, and this was done in the third cen-
tury by Tertullian and Hippolytus. Ambrose was particularly
indebted to the latter.
Despite his tendency to be cool towards wives, Ambrose
relished
relish ed this interpretation . It occurs in some of his earliest
writing (exc.fr. 2.118f) , and was sustained. The Exameron
alludes to various passages of the Song which mention the
wom an, all but one of which Ambrose takes to refer to the
woman, th e
church.l~ The interpretation finds its fullest expression in
the massive
m assive commentary on Psalm 119. When Ambrose
reached the last verse, 'I have gone astray like a lost sheep',
he added, as a coda to the work, a commentary on part of
the Song (8:5-14, taking it up at almost exactly the point
where
whe re he h e left it in the Isaac, even though he goes on to offer
a different interpretation). Here, H ere, although Ambrose sees
the last verse of the psalm as indicating both 'the soul and
the church', he tends to identify the female figure of the
Song with the church. The commentary concludes by dis-
cussing words which Ambrose, following the translations of
Symmachus and Aquila against the Septuagint, believes were
addressed to the woman in the Song, 'Thou Thou that dwellest
among the gardens' (Song 8:13). H Hee observes that the church
began in a garden, Eve having been created in Eden, whereas
Christ later suffered in a garden (John 19:41). Coming at the

11. Hence the

11, th e use of the Song in IV Ezra: 'Out of all the flowe rs I haveh ave
ch osen thee one lily ...
chosen .. . out of all the birds that have beeb ee n created
th ou hast chosen for thyself
thou thyse lf one dove
dove'' (IV Ezra 5:24,
5:24, 26; cf.
cf. Song 2:2,
1:1 5 and
1:15 a nd 4:1).
12.
12, The exception is at 6,6.39,
6.6.39, where the
th e ' beautiful among women' of
Song 1:8 is seen as the soul. The Th e comme
commentary
ntary of Basil, on which
Ambrose drew extensively, applies none of these texts to the church c hurc h .

109
 AMBROSE

end of a long commentary, the conclusion may have an air

of bathos, and it certainly constitutes an awkward touchdown,
but the point is a neat one. It allows the church and Christ
to be brought together by means of gardens.
We have already seen Ambrose apply to virgins the sexual
longing described in the Song of Songs (above, page 53f).
Now he applies its opening verse to the church:

Think of a virgin, long betrothed and fittingly on fire with a

passionate love. She has learned from trustworthy people of the
many and outstanding exploits of the one she loves. Often, as
her desires remained unfulfilled, she found the delays intoler-
able, and she did everything in her power to see the one to whom
she was betrothed. One day she obtained what she had desired.
Full of joy at the unexpected coming of her betrothed, she was
not interested in formal greetings or exchanging words, but
immediately demanded what she wanted. In the same way the
holy church, betrothed in paradise at the beginning of the world,
prefigured in the flood, announced through the law, and called
by the prophets, had been awaiting the redemption of humans,
the beauty of the gospel and the coming of her beloved for so
long. Impatient at the delay she rushes at his lips, saying 'Let
him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth', and, delighted with his
kisses, adds The wonderful things you give are better than wine!'
(ps.118 1.4, quoting Song 1:2)

Ambrose's view of the church was one which may seem

strange today. He did not see it primarily as an association
of people who chose to come together because of shared
beliefs, nor as an institution to be defined in terms of a
hierarchical structure, although the status he attributed to its
clergy, particularly its bishops, points in that direction. IISS The
female personages who, time and time again, are identified
with the church, point to its fundamental and objective real-
ity, that of being the wife or bride of the Lord. It is a powerful
concept, although as we shall see, these female figures were
not the only ones of religious significance in the time of
Ambrose.

13. 'Where is the church except where the staff and grace of bishops
flower?' (Is. 8.64, with an implied reference to the staff of the priest
Aaron, cf. Num. 17:8)
17:8)..

110
 CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

POLEMIC AGAINST ANTI-NICAEANS

The doctrine promulgated by the council of Nicaea con-
cerning the relationship between the Father and the Son
was destined to become the standard Christian position. But
in the fourth century many found it difficult to adopt a
thoroughgoing Nicene approach, and recent work has dem-
onstrated both the variety of positions adopted by anti-Nicene
thinkers, who cannot by any means all be termed 'Arians', and
their numerical strength,14 things for which the triumphalist
writings of the pro-Nicene authors of the period had not
prepared us. Constantius II, the emperor when Auxentius
became bishop of Milan, was sympathetic to an anti-Nicene
position, and gatherings of bishops at Sirmium (357) and
Rimini (359) had produced statements of belief contrary to
that expressed at Nicaea. The emperor in the West when
Ambrose became bishop, Valentinian I, was easy-going in
matters of religion and disinclined to take a strong stand,
while his brother Valens, the eastern emperor, increasingly
came to sympathize with the anti-Nicaeans. Ambrose's cau-
tion when he became bishop was therefore prudent. He
accepted the validity of the ordinations conducted by his
predecessor, and his early writings, while pro-Nicene, are by
no means polemical. Only as time passed did Ambrose come
to express a strong position on the Trinity, and this was
because of circumstances beyond his control.
As far as we can tell from the biography written by Paulin us,
Ambrose's becoming bishop of Milan was an act of com-
munal consensus, and he did not seek to disturb this. His
early commentaries on Genesis reveal him as Nicene in his
convictions, but by no means strident. He corrects Philo when
he considers him to minimize the importance of the 'word'
Christians took to refer to the Son,15 and he let his feelings
be known in an intrusive passage within his first oration on
Satyrus (exc.fr. 1.12-14), yet the context is not polemical. 16

14. See in particular Williams (1995).

15. At Cain l.8.32, for example, he asserts, on the basis of John 5:17, that
the Word of God is not a work, 'as a certain person maintains', but
one who works (see further S'AEMO 2/1: 229 n. 10).
16. It has widely been believed, on the basis of a passage in Paulinus
(VA mb. 11), that he visited Sirmium in the early years of his episcopate

111
 AMBROSE

But by 381 an anti-Nicene bishop, julian Valens, was active in

Milan, and when another bishop of that persuasion, Palladius,
wrote shortly afterwards that there had been no successor
to Auxentius in the see of Milan,17 he implicitly denied
Ambrose's status as bishop of the city. In an unambiguous
show of independence, Valens conducted ordinations
(ep.ext. coll. 4(=10).10). Another unwelcome clerical interloper
was Ursinus, the defeated candidate in the bitter struggle
for the papacy in 366, and Ambrose was later to claim that
Ursinus and Valens had plotted against the peace of the
church in Milan (ep.ext.coll.
(ep. ext. coli. 5(=11).1).
Other arrivals were more important. On 17 November
375 Valentinian I died of a stroke, angered beyond endur-
ance by the arrogance of envoys sent by a Germanic people.
Power in the West passed to his elder son in Gaul, the sixteen-
year-old Gratian, who had already been proclaimed emperor
in 367. Elsewhere, a group of officials proclaimed his younger
brother, the four-year-old Valentinian II, emperor, although
he was destined never to enjoy effective power. The Nicaeans
had no reason to welcome the accession of Gratian, whose
religious position was unclear, and their opponents could
be cheeky. According to Paulinus, during Gratian's reign
two chamberlains posed Ambrose a question concerning
the incarnation while he was preaching. They promised to
return another day to hear his reply, but when the day came
and the bishop and people were waiting for them they left
town in a large carriage, from which they fell to their deaths.
Nevertheless, Ambrose gave his discourse, which Paulinus
states was later published as his work on the incarnation
of the Lord (VAmb. 18). By telling this story Paulinus may
have been seeking to provide a plausible context for the
origin of this book, but, whatever the origin of the work may
have been, it reveals Ambrose's need to argue for the Nicene
position in Milan.
Military developments strengthened the position of the
anti-Nicaeans in the city. In the spring of 378 Gratian
marched eastwards to help Valens fight the Goths, who were
causing problems after being admitted onto Roman territory

to consecrate a Nicene bishop for that see, but it is highly likely that
no such visit occurred (Williams (1995) : 122-26) .
17. Scolies, ed. Gryson , 322.
17.

112
 CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

two years previously. But in August, while Gratian was still

at Sirmium, the battle of Adrianople was fought, and Valens
was killed. There were immediate short-term results. On 19
January 379 Theodosius, a military man in his early thirties,
was elevated to be the new emperor in the East, while in the
West the young Valentinian and his mother,Justina, left the
now exposed city of Sirmium to take up residence at Milan.
Justina was a strong supporter of the anti-Nicaeans, and one
of the city's churches was made available for their use.
It was against the background of the accession of Gratian
and the coming to Milan of Bishop Valens, Ursinus and, in
particular, Justina and Valentinian, that Ambrose wrote his
most sustained purely theological work, the De fide. He wrote
in response to an initiative of Gratian, which he saw in bib-
lical terms. Just as the queen of the South and King Hiram
came to Solomon, so now the 'holy emperor Gratian', imitat-
ing the royalty of ancient times, wished to hear of Ambrose's
faith. But Ambrose recoiled from the implications of his
comparison: while he was no Solomon, Gratian was not the
ruler of one people but the emperor of the whole world,
who had decreed that Ambrose was to express his faith in a
book, not with a view to acquiring knowledge but to give
his approval (fid. 1 prol. 1). We may take these words at
face value: Gratian had commissioned the work not to be
instructed by a great bishop, but to learn of the faith of
Ambrose. Indeed, Gratian may have commissioned the De
fide in response to charges of heresy which enemies in Milan
or elsewhere had laid against the bishop. 1H
The first two books of the De fide were probably presented
to Gratian in March 380. 1'1 Never one to pull his punches,
Ambrose expressed his convictions in a robust way, asserting
that the bishops meeting at Nicaea had taken heresy away
from the whole world (l.l.5). But the anti-Nicene commun-
ity in Milan itself disproved this hearty claim, and Bishop
Palladius of Ratiaria published a refutation of Ambrose's
arguments. As so often, the arguments advanced by a loser
within the Christian tradition are hard to establish, but we
know that Palladius sought to refute Ambrose's charge that
anti-Nicaeans held that the Father and the Son were 'unlike',

18. So Williams (1995): 145f.

19. McLynn (1994): 102.

113
 AMBROSE

and accused him of failing to distinguish the things which

belonged to the Father and to the Son as individuals. Hence,
Ambrose produced what are now books three to five of the
De fide. They present a theologically more sophisticated case.
Having read books by anti-Nicene authors, Ambrose aban-
dons the argument that 'Arians' teach that Christ is unlike
the Father, and expands on the application of the key notion
of substance to the debate, even if it is not worked through
clearly (esp. 3.14.122ff).
3.14.122ff) . But the presentation of material in
these books is confused, doubtless because they are based,
Ambrose 's written work often was, on sermons. 20 While
as Ambrose's
Gratian was in Milan for Easter in 381, Ambrose produced a
work on the Holy Spirit which the emperor had sought, the
De Spiritu sancto, in which he drew on the best available
Greek scholarship, in particular the writings of Athanasius,
Didymus, Origen and, most remarkably, a book by Basil on
the Holy Spirit which had only been written in 374/75.
It must be said that the De jidefails to engage with its op-
ponents. While it abuses Arius it fails to cite him, nor does
it discuss the thoughts of subsequent anti-Nicene thinkers
such as Aetius and Eunomius. Ambrose claimed he could
not be bothered to read these authors, as they all said the
same things (jid. 1.6.43ff). But this was quite untrue, for
while his opponents were united in their dislike of the theo-
logy of Nicaea there was a good deal of variation in their
thinking. Ambrose's opponents were not impressed, and his
thinking on the Trinity has attracted the scorn of some
modern scholars. 21 Some of the knock-down arguments from
the Bible on which he relies are remarkably forced. Seeking
to show that there was not a time when Christ did not exist,
he quotes words spoken of Jesus after he had died: 'Truly,
he was the son of God' (Matt. 27:54), and comments '''He
was", says the centurion, and the Arian says "He was not!'"
(fid. 1.17.113f). When someone addressed Christ as 'good
teacher' he replied 'Why do you call me good? No-one is
good except God alone.' This exchange may be thought to

20 . See 3.17.142, 4.10.119, and perhaps 5 pro!. 8f. Such carelessness in

20.
preparing a work destined for the eyes of the emperor is striking.
21.
21 . Hanson suggests that 'too often
ofte n his arguments are, as rational dis-
cussion , beneath contempt' (1988) : 669. Homes Dudden
Dudde n was more
positive (1935): 195.
195.

114
 CHURCH,
CHURCH. STATE,
STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

create difficulties for those arguing for the deity of Jesus,

but according to Ambrose, by not denying the title 'good'
Jesus indicated that he really was God (fid. 2.l.15-2.32, on
Luke 18:19; also Luc. 8.65; virgb. 3.l.3). In another work,
Ambrose argued that Peter's reply to those who accused
him of being a follower of Jesus, 'I do not know the man'
(Matt. 26:72), showed that Peter did not know him as a man
but as God, just as he correctly denied being a disciple of
the man (John 18:17), for he was not a disciple of a man
but of Christ. 22
If Ambrose's writing on this topic has any strength, it
arises from the qualities we have observed in his writing on
other topics. His way of approaching the Bible allowed him
to see it as being full of pointers to the Trinity. As early as
the creation, the spirit of God 'which moved upon the face
of the waters' (Gen. 1:2) was not air or breath, but the Holy
Spirit, and the statement that 'In the beginning God created
heaven and earth' (Gen. 1:1) necessarily referred to Christ,
given that 'all things were made by him and without him
was not anything made that was made' (John 1:3). Hence,
in the very making of the world, the working of the Trinity
shone forth (exa. 1.8.29).
l.8.29). In one of his earliest works,
Ambrose discusses an inciden
incidentt when Abraham lifted up his
eyes and saw three men. He invests the event with Trinitarian
significance: it was God who appeared to Abraham and shone
before him, and the person in whose presence God shone
saw the Trinity (Abr. l.5.33; cf. Cain l.8.30). Yet Ambrose's
remorseless piling up of such data can weary the reader.
Points which seem to be unrelated are forcefully adduced,
one after the other, perhaps reflecting Ambrose's experience
in the courts. As so often, the heart of his case is to be found
not in the evidence but in the structures which underlie it.
His understanding of the Trinity, and the difficult notion of
how one being and two others derived from it could be
equal, is expressed in three recurrent images.
'How many things has Jerusalem the virgin made!' asserted
Jeremiah, according to the translation Ambrose read. 'Her

Luc. ]0.82. In his commentary on Matthew,

22. Luc. Matthew. Jerome dismissed this
(CCSI. 77:262)
point as frivolous (CCS/, 77:262 )., while Augustine thought it perverse
(PL 35: 1810). Elsewhere. Ambrose accepts that Peter erred in deny-
35:]810).
ing Christ (ob.ThPOd. 19)
\9)..

115
 AMBROSE

breasts, fed from the rock, will not be lacking, nor snow
from Lebanon, nor will the water which is carried by a strong
wind depart from her' (cf. Jer. lS:13f). Ambrose took this
opaque text to refer to the virgin's being refreshed by the
springs of the Trinity, for according to the apostle 'the rock
is Christ' (l
(1 Cor. 10:4), while brightness is from God and a
river is from the Spirit (virgb. l.5.22)
l.5.22).. As so often, Ambrose's
words have more force than is immediately obvious, for when
St Paul spoke of Christ as the rock he had in mind the rock
struck by Moses, from which flowed water (Ex. 17:6), and
elsewhere Ambrose discusses Christ's description of himself
as a source of water (e.g. ps. 35.22 on John 4:14) and sug-
gests that Christ was the fountain which watered paradise
(para. 3.13). The image is thus one of the Son and the Spirit
flowing like water, while God, that is the Father, is seen as
snow, from which water flows as it melts. Elsewhere, Ambrose
sees the Spirit as a river flowing from the throne of God
(Spir.S. 3.154), and both the Father and the Son as springs,
the Spirit being water coming from a spring, or a river.
Nevertheless, Ambrose was aware that this image could be
pressed too far: all three persons of the Trinity could be
said to be both springs and rivers (Spir.S. l.15.152-16.161)
l.15.152-16.161)..
Another image worked in the same way. Ambrose thought
of the deity as shining forth in the incidents of the Bible,23
and if it were true that a spring produces a river but a river
does not produce a spring, it was also true that light pro-
duces brightness but brightness does not produce light; yet
brightness and light have one nature in common (fid.4.S .95).
Hence, when the prophet spoke of the 'brightness of the
eternal light' (Wisd. 7:26), by 'brightness' he meant the shin-
ing quality of the light of the Father in the Son (fid. l.7.49;
see further 13.79). Neither has priority in time; it could not
be said that brightness came after light, nor that light came
before brightness (fid. 4.9.10S).
In a third image, Ambrose sees Christ as the Father's arm
(virgb. 3.3.3), or right hand (Spir.S. 2.7.69 fin). In the creation,
the Son acted as the arm of God and the Spirit as his finger;
when the psalmist described the heavens as 'the work of thy
fingers', the plural alluded to the Spirit's sevenfold nature
(apol.alt.Dav. 12.63 on Ps. 8:3, cf. Is. 11:2f). Or the Son could

23. E.g. 'eluceat' (exa. 1.8.29) , 'refulget'

'refulget" (Abr. 1.5.33), discussed above.

116
 CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

be seen as the right hand of God and the Spirit as his finger.
What was the finger with which God inscribed the tablets of
the Law but the Holy Spirit?24 That the Spirit is God's finger
is made clear by the parallel expressions 'the finger of God'
and 'the Spirit of God' (Lue. 7.92 and Spir.S. 3.3.11 on Luke
11:20, Matt. 12:28). Yet Ambrose is again aware that the
image is an inadequate one, for the Spirit is also the hand
of the Father and of the Son (Spir.S. 3.16.114, taking the
hand ofJohn 10:29 to apply to the Spirit; see further 3.5.34).
These images point in the same direction. A river originat-
ing from a spring and brightness from a light are derived, yet
in substance identical to that from which they are derived,
just as, more precisely, the notion of the Son and Spirit
respectively as the arm or hand and the finger of the Father
suggests that the Spirit comes from the Father by way of the
Son, a position which foreshadows a later emphasis in western
theology. Ambrose recognized that the images were not
entirely satisfactory, but valuable as attempts to express the
inexpressible. Behind them stood the one substance com-
mon to the three persons, something shown in the practice
of baptizing in the one name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, and this was not to be wondered at, given
that there was one substance, one divinity and one majesty
(saer. 2.7.22). The son of Love was himself love, possessing
this not because of something that happened (ex aeeidentibus) ,
but always in his substance (Is. 5.46).
Why then did the Bible sometimes seem to imply the
inferiority of the Son? Numerous passages could be used
against Nicene theology, as: 'And of Zion it shall be said,
This and that man was born in her' (Ps. 87:5), and 'The
Lord created me, the beginning of his ways' (cE. Provo 8:22).
More worryingty, many incidents in the life of Jesus seemed
to suggest that the Son was less than the Father, and he
himself had said 'But of that day and hour knoweth no
man, not the angels of heaven or the Son, but my Father
only' (Matt. 24:36). Opposed as he was to any notion of
subordination in the Son, Ambrose argued that such texts
only applied only to Christ in his incarnate nature, not that

24. Spir.S. 3.3.11-4.17, where other examples of the Spirit as a finger are
given. See further 2.7.69, where the Son is also seen as the right hand
of the Father.

117
 AMBROSE

which he shared forever with the Father (e.g. fid. 3.11.83ff).

The situations they described arose, not from the begetting
of Christ before all ages, but from the humanity which the
Son took upon himself in time.
While Ambrose was writing with theological intent, his work
also has a political edge, for he argued that the welfare of the
empire and correct belief were linked. Pagan emperors had
been accustomed to sacrifice to Fortuna, and now Ambrose
tells Gratian that victory is won by the faith of the emperor
rather than the strength of warriors (fid. 1 pro1.3).
pro1.3) . More
pointedly, towards the end of the second book, and so of
the entire work as it was initially envisaged, he states that he
must not detain Gratian, who was intent on war and planned
to bring trophies of victory back from the barbarians. This
victory was already predicted in the Bible, for Ezekiel spoke
of Gog coming from the north (Ez. 38:14-16), and Ambrose,
responding to a verbal similarity in his customary way, had no
doubt that 'Gog' meant 'Goth' (Ez. 39:10-12). The matter
was one of urgent relevance, for the defeat at Adrianople
had been inflicted by Goths, dealing with whom had sud-
denly become important for the empire. Ambrose suggests
to Gratian that the anti-Nicene convictions of the emperor
Valens had been responsible for the defeat, in strident words:
'There
There can be no doubt, holy emperor, that we, who have
paid the penalty for another's misbelief, will be helped by
the catholic faith which is strong in you.' Indeed, the areas
where sacrilege was strong were just those where barbarians
were making incursions. Uttering a principle dangerously
susceptible of verification, Ambrose tells Gratian that the
name and worship of the Lord Jesus would lead the army
(in general, fid.
fid. 2.136-43; similarly SpiT.S. 1 pro1.l7) .

PERSECUTION OF ANTI-NICAEANS
As time passed the wind turned against the anti-Nicaeans. As
early as 20 August 379 Gratian issued from Milan a law against
heresies, a category which probably included anti-Nicene
belief. 25 In 380 Valens' successor Theodosius was baptized into

Cod. Theod. 16.5.5. Williams, following Gottlieb, argues that the law was
25 . Cod.
directed against Donatists (1995: 157-161) . But some of his evide
evidence
nce

118
 CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS AND PAGA."IS

the Nicene faith, and the anti-Nicene bishop of Constanti-

nople was deposed and replaced by one of the outstanding
thinkers of eastern Christianity, Gregory of Nazianzus. The
following January a law was issued from Constantinople in
support of the practice of the Nicene faith and opposing
heresies, those of Photinus, Arius and Eunomius being
named. Their adherents were to undergo the savage penalty
of being branded, and were denied the right to worship
(cod. Theod. 16.5.6).
Following a meeting between Gratian and Nicene bishops,
a council was held at his behest at Aquileia, in northern
Italy, in September 38l. It came after a council which took
place in Constantinople from May to July 381, the second
ecumenical council, at which about 150 eastern bishops pro-
duced an extended version of the Nicene Creed. The western
council was to be on a smaller scale. Ambrose suggested to
Gratian that there was no need to trouble many bishops
with attendance at it, and only 25 bishops were on hand
when it opened, about half of them from northern Italy.
Palladius, the leader of the anti-Nicaeans, had anticipated
that bishops from the East, where his theology was better
represented, would attend, but when the council opened he
found himself with only two allies, Bishop Secundianus of
Singidunum (Belgrade) and the priest Attalus of Poetovio
(Ptuj). It met not in a basilica but in a room in which the
bishop of Aquileia, Valerian, sat in an elevated position be-
side Ambrose, with two stenographers ready to record what
was said. The setting must have resembled that of a court of
law, a familiar one to Ambrose, and Palladius found himself
in a situation not unknown at other times in the history of
the church, that of arriving at what he had thought would
be a discussion to find himself on trial.
The council of Aquileia is unusual among early church
councils in that we have a verbatim report of the discussions.
They are not edifying. The proceedings were opened by
Ambrose, who had read out a letter written by Arius in which
he said that the Father alone was eternal. The anti-Nicaeans
were asked how they stood on this question: if they thought

supports the view that it was aimed at anti-Nicenes; moreover, its

reference to those who claimed clerical titles recalls Ambrose's 'audis
aliquem sacerdotem did (Luc. 7.52).

119
 AMBROSE
AMBROSE

the Son was not eternal they could make their case, and if
they thought the proposition was to be condemned, they
could condemn it. Palladius said that he was not obliged to
answer, for Ambrose had seen to it that the council was not
general and full, and in the absence of their fellow bishops
his side could not speak of their faith. Ambrose brushed
away the point, demanding to know whether Palladius agreed
with Arius that the Father alone was eternal and whether
this was said according to the Scriptures. Palladius refused
to reply, and after other bishops had intervened he again
raised the question of the eastern bishops whose attendance
he had expected. Ambrose cut him short:
Forget about the matter of the easterners; today I want to know
what you think. The letter of Arius has been read out to you,
and your practice is to deny that you are an Arian. Today,
defend Arius or condemn him.

Palladius replied: 'You don't have the authority to ask this

of me.' The exchange showed that the council was really a
clash between Ambrose and Palladius, and indicated who
was in the dominant position. As the latter continued to
refuse to speak, Ambrose and his allies began to anathemat-
ize opinions with which they credited him, and ultimately
Palladius was drawn into discussion of matters of detail.
Doubtless the application of a technical vocabulary was
a good way to clear up suspect theological understandings,
but as the discussion continued both sides revealed them-
selves as wearisome and pedantic. At one point, for example,
Ambrose asked Palladius to assent to the words that Christ
was 'true God, the son of God' ('verum deum filium dei').
Palladius said that, according to the Scriptures, he was 'the
true son of God, God' (,verumfilium
('verum filium dei deum'). The reply was
ambiguous, for the adjective 'true' could refer to either the
'son' or the word 'God' at the end of the phrase. An exchange
ensued:
Bishop Ambrose said: 'Do you say he is true God, the son
of God?'
Palladius said: 'When I say he is the true son (of God), what
need is there for more?'
Bishop Ambrose said: 'I'm not asking whether you say he is
the true son (of God), but for you to say he is true God, the son
of God.' (Gesta, Acta 18 (ed. SAEMO 21))
21»

120
 CHURCH. STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

There was nothing new in such verbal manoeuvres,2ti but

behind Ambrose's skirmishes it is possible to detect the tactics
of an expert in judicial procedure. Palladius describes him
as having clerics skilled at taking notes copy down uncon-
sidered remarks, and as acting as though he was trying to
extort something by the kind of terror one would associate
with a censor, like a public authority.27 Unsurprisingly, the
council concluded by condemning the three anti-Nicene
clergy. A document was dispatched to Gratian, Valentinian
and Theodosius, summarizing what had occurred and ask-
ing them to take steps against the heretics.
The council is not only unusual in that a report of its
proceedings survives. Remarkably, the proceedings have
survived in a manuscript of the fifth century which contains
the first two books of Ambrose's De fide as well as other pro-
Nicene material, which was annotated by an anti-Nicaean who
added critical comments in the margins, yet another sign of
the persistence of anti-Nicene beliefs. Palladius also wrote a
bitter rejoinder to the council, which makes it clear that he
regarded Ambrose as the prime mover. Any sympathy one
might have for him as the underdog is not likely to survive
the reading of this document, in which Palladius accuses
Ambrose of, among other things, knowing nothing about
the Bible and being a blasphemer, a servant of Antichrist
and a man of lascivious and sordid life.2~ He suggested that
Ambrose spend thirty or forty days expounding his faith
before the senate of Rome. For his part, Palladius was pre-
pared to send works he had written which could be read out
in public, before an audience which would include pagans
and Jews as well as Christians.2~' But a person in Ambrose's
position had no need to respond to this proposal.
The council of 381 was Ambrose's council, revealing both
his power and the forceful way in which he exercised it.

26. Ambrose's predecessor in Milan, Auxentius, had agreed with Hilary

of Poitiers that Christ was 'natum ex patre Deum verum filium ex Deo
patre', but the expression was ambiguous. It could be taken as either
'True God born of the Father, the son of God the Father', or 'God
born of the Father, the true son of God the Father' (Contra Arianos
14, PL 10:617f).
27. Scalies, 282; cf. a later reference to Ambrose as 'judge', 304f.
28. Scolies, 294-300.
29. Scolies, 322.

121
 AMBROSE

Doubtless his sway was not as great as he would have wished.

An awkward situation had developed in the church of Antioch,
where two pro-Nicene bishops, Paulin us and Melitus, each
claimed the see. The former was backed by the churches of
Rome and Alexandria, among others, but Melitus enjoyed
overwhelming local support, and the council of Aquileia
attempted to resolve this delicate situation by decreeing that,
on the death of one of the rivals, the other was to assume
control over the whole church in the city. But Antioch is a
long way from Aquileia. The proposal came to nothing, and
a letter sent in the names of Ambrose and other bishops of
Italy to Theodosius, the emperor in whose territory Antioch
lay, laments that on the death of Melitus another bishop
had been imposed, despite what had been decided by the
council of Aquileia, attendance at which had been prescribed
for the bishops of the whole world (ep.ext.coll. 6(=12) ). This
estimate of the scale of the council and its importance was
breathtaking in its chutzpah. It was precisely on the issue of
the limited attendance that Palladius based his initial refusal
to speak, and the Antiochenes could hardly have been ex-
pected to accept instruction from what was little more than
a local council in northern Italy. But the proposal reflects
the confidence and ambition Ambrose had come to possess
in the early 380s.

PAGANS
Ambrose knew funny stories about the gods worshipped by
the pagans. :10
:lO He knew of a king who took a gold cloak off a

statue ofJupiter and replaced it by one made of wool, saying

that the golden one would have been too cold in winter and
too hot in summer! He also removed a beard made of gold
from a statue of Aesculapius, saying that he should not have
a beard while his father, Apollo, was beardless (virgb. 2.5.36).
But laugh as he might, Ambrose was faced with the puzz-
ling obstinacy of adherents of the traditional religion who
remained content to follow the way of their ancestors, and
their strength may well have been greater than our sources,

30. His critique of classical mythology and cults is well summarized by

JJenal
e nal (1995): 518-22.

122
 CHURCH, STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

overwhelmingly Christian by the end of the fourth century,

would have us believe. In 383 they profited from a political
change. While Gratian was campaigning in the Alpine prov-
ince of Rhaetia, Magnus Maximus, the military commander
in Britain, was acclaimed emperor, and led an army onto the
Continent. Deserted by his troops, Gratian was killed on 25
August, an awkward fate in the light of Ambrose's recent
claim that correct belief would bring him victory. The rise
of Maximus complicated the political situation. Theodosius
continued to hold the East; in the West, Valentinian II re-
tained control of Italy, Pannonia and Mrica, while Maximus
now held the Gauls. At one stage Ambrose, in circumstances
which remain mysterious, travelled to Trier, the city of his
birth, to negotiate with Maximus on behalf of Valentinian.
We do not know the outcome, but the regime of the young
Valentinian was precariously placed.
It is therefore not surprising that it made overtures to
non-Christians, such as the Frankish general Bauto, who
held a consulship in 385. More significant were its advances
towards the old Roman aristocracy, which were reflected in
appointments to high office. In 384 the pagan Praetextatus
became praetorian prefect, although he died before the year
was out. The last known vestal virgin, Coelia Concordia,
erected a statue in his honour. The most substantial figure
to receive preferment was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. A
famed orator who held various pagan priesthoods, Symmachus
was saddened by the number of people becoming Chris-
tians, and complained, doubtless with justification, that some
people had been led to desert the altars of the gods by their
ambition (Symm. ep. l.51). His involvement in a project to edit
the voluminous history Livy had written of republican Rome
reveals an antiquarian enthusiasm far from the concerns
of Ambrose. Towards the middle of 384 he was appointed
prefect of the city of Rome. This was a major office, which
carried with it the presidency of meetings of the senate.
However, it was usually held for a short time; we know of
seven people who had already held it in the 380s. Symmachus'
tenure was therefore a brief window of opportunity for the
adherents of the old religion, and he made the most of it.
While he was broad-minded enough to write letters of re-
commendation for bishops (ep. l.64, 7.51), he would happily
use the patronage at his disposal to advance the interests of

123
 AMBROSE

non-Christians. Hence, when asked in the autumn of 384

to appoint a teacher of rhetoric for Milan, his eye fell on
a non-Christian, Augustine. But by then, Symmachus had
embarked on a more substantial project.
The first emperor, Augustus, had placed a statue dedicated
to the goddess of Victory in the recently completed Curia
Iulia, and he probably dedicated in her honour an altar later
known to have been located near the entrance to the senate.
As the fourth century advanced, the attitudes emperors took
towards the altar became a clear pointer to their religious
convictions. Constantius removed it, Julian the Apostate
restored it, and Gratian removed it again. Members of the
senate who appealed for the restoration of the status quo
on that occasion were thwarted by the lobbying of Pope
Damasus and Ambrose. However, Valentinian's need for sup-
port and Symmachus' coming to office meant that another
attempt to restore it could realistically be made, and in a
formal report written to Valentinian II in 384, the prefect
argued for the restoration of the altar and state subsidies for
the pagan cult.: cult.:ll
Symmachus lavished on his report the eloquence for which
he was renowned. His approach was formal, as evidenced by
his use of a ceremonially full way of addressing the emperor
which he suppressed when he revised his correspondence
for publication,~2 and prudent, being circumspect as to the
worship of the traditional Roman deities. Symmachus, whose
report attributes eternity to Valentinian, the city of Rome
and the empire,33 was prepared to argue for a long-term
view. Against the 'fame' of the most recent period, he looks
back to the ways of his ancestors and asks that old men like
himself be able to transmit what they had received as boys,
the love of custom being great. If a long passage of time
confers authority on a religion, the faith which has lasted
for many centuries should be maintained; we should follow
our parents, who were happy to follow their own parents.
Symmachus has the figure of Rome speak, a poignant touch,

31. Ambrose ep. 72a(=17a» . On the political background,background. Matthews

(1975): 205-10.
32. Ibid
Ibid.,., 1 ad fin
fin;; see further MCH edn, p.
p . xvii.
33. Ibid ., 3,7,14; eternity was an imperial attribute, and Rome had for
centuries been referred to as the eternal
e ternal city.

124
 CHURCH, STATE.
CHURCH. STATE, HERETICS AND PAGANS

given the minor role the city had come to play within the
empire. The ploy was in accordance with a fashion in the
empire,
literature of the time for Rome to be depicted as interceding
before powerful figures, and Symmachus' use of the conven-
tion was appropriate, for Rome was generally seen as being
elderly,34 a circumstance well suited to the argument he had
her make: thanks to the ancestral ceremonies, the laws of
Rome had been spread through the world and invaders driven
away, and it would not be fitting if she had been saved only
to be censured in her old age. In any case, old age is difficult
to correct. Shifting his ground, Symmachus argues that there
were sensible reasons for restoring subsidies to traditional
forms of worship, a withdrawal of subsidies from the vestal
virgins having been followed by famine and a poor harvest.
All he was seeking, he maintained, was the restoration of
the situation which existed in the reign of Valentinian's
father, Valentinian I, who was now looking on the tears of
the priests from the starry arc of heaven. His son should
correct what Gratian had been led to do by bad advice, so
that times past would be well thoughthoughtt of.
Polite in its address, stately in its expression and beguilingly
irenic in its content, the report of Symmachus stands in
contrast to the methods of Ambrose, who dealt with the
possible restoration of the altar and subsidies in two letters
to Valentinian. The first (ep. 72(=17)) was written before
he had seen Symmachus' petition. It is uncompromising.
Whereas Symmachus had adopted a conciliatory approach,
writing calmly of two ways of thinking and two points of view
and enunciating a view famous in the history of religious
liberalism, 'We cannot arrive at so great a mystery by one
path', Ambrose operated with categories which were more
sharply defined. Valentinian, whom he addresses as 'most
Christian emperor', is told that his welfare depends upon the
worship of the true God of the Christians. Unlike Symmachus,
Symmach us,
Ambrose is prepared to name the other side, to whom he
persistently applies the hostile term 'pagans' .'1') He asks for
a copy of Symmachus' report and proceeds to engage in a

34. Cf. Claudian De hellobello gildonico 1.25; an aged Rome is also implied at
ob. Val. 20.
ob.
'gentiles' ; Ambrose usually uses a different word,
35. Latin 'gentiles'; word , 'gentes' ., for
gentiles as distinguished from Jews. Jews.

125
 AMBROSE

rhetorical ploy which was to serve him in good stead years

later: ifValentinian came to the wrong decision and went to
church, he would find either no bishop, or one who resisted.
The words he puts in the mouth of such a bishop again
suggest the black and white of Ambrose's perspective: 'The
church does not seek your gifts, because you have adorned
the temples of the pagans with gifts. The altar of Christ spits
out your donations, because you have made an altar to idols.'
Given that Valentinian II had made his headquarters in
Milan, the statement bluntly indicated how Ambrose would
act should Valentinian attempt to make donations to the
church after acceding to Symmachus' request. Worse follows:
his murdered brother Gratian is made to ask Valentinian
whether his enemies could have done anything worse: 'You
have abrogated my decrees, which the person who lifted up
arms against me has not yet done.' Ambrose's tactic was to
browbeat Valentinian, a teenager, but when he made a sly
allusion to the sound policies of Maximus, who threatened
the regime of the young emperor, he was hitting below the
belt. Finally, Ambrose has the young emperor's father express
disappointment, in a comparatively low-key speech. His son,
who in the concluding sentence is addressed by the unadorned
word 'emperor', is warned not to injure God, his father and
brother, but to act before God in a way beneficial to his
salvation.
Ambrose's request for a copy of Symmachus' report was a
manoeuvre common among political operators. He was suc-
cessful, and when he had read his opponent's case he wrote
a lengthy rejoinder (ep. 73(=18) ). His reply was a polished
piece of writing, which contains far more reminiscences of
the poetry of Vergil than any other letter he wrote. Style,
however, did not conceal forcefulness. The first sentence,
while politely referring to Valentinian as 'your clemency', is
sharply addressed to 'you, emperor'; Ambrose disdained
Symmachus' elaborate courtesy. Valentinian was bluntly told
to consider not the elegance of the words Symmachus had
employed but the strength of the argument. As Ambrose
saw it, his opponent had advanced three arguments on behalf
of what he called 'the sect of the pagans'. Responding to
the proposition that Rome needed her old cults, he adopted
a tone of heavy sarcasm, while arguing that history could be
used to prove the contrary. The point is made in a hectoring

126
 CHURCH. STATE. HERETICS AND PAGANS

style, with a remorseless flow of short sentences, many of

them aggressively interrogative. Rome herselfthen launches
into a speech, arguing that the trophies of victory were won
by the strength of soldiers, not the entrails of animals. She
was not ashamed to be converted, together with the whole
world, in her old age, for there was no shame in moving on
to better things. When Symmachus stated that one could
not arrive at so great a mystery by one path, he was showing
his ignorance of the voice of God. Ambrose's response to the
request for the restoration of old altars is firm: as a Christian
emperor, Valentinian II has learned to honour the altar of
Christ alone. As for the vestal virgins, they were inferior to
Christian virgins, and Symmachus' second argument, con-
cerning the allocation of stipends to them and the priests, is
refuted with reference to the inability of the church to gain
property from wills. Ambrose finally turns to the argument
which blamed Christians for recent misfortunes in the empire,
one which would later evoke Augustine's City aJGod. He sets
his face against this in terms which contradict the thesis he
had set before Gratian a few years previously, that faith was
more important than the strength of warriors:

What they believed to be a goddess and victory, is only a gift,

not a power; it is something donated, it does not dominate; it
religions.:l6
comes from legions, not the power of religions.:

Whereas Symmachus repeatedly emphasized the claims

of antiquity, Ambrose urges the possibility of improvement:
all things are making progress and getting better. When he
states that the coming of the church is like the harvest and
vintage which occur at the end of the year, we again see the
church finding itself at home in a world it saw as changing
for the betterY

36. f:<.p.
f:<.:p. 73(=18).30; cf. 7. Ambrose's prose is emphatic: 'donatur non
dominatur, legionum gratia non religionum potentia' (ep. 73(=18) .30). Yet
a few years earlier Ambrose had argued the contrary when writing for
Gratian (above, p. 118).
37. Ambrose's response to attempts to blame Christians for contemporary
problems is significantly diffe
differe
re nt from that of Cyprian, who stressed
the aging of the world: Mazzucco (1980) . Yet elsewhere hhee describes
the world as getting old and laying aside the vigour of its youth
10.46) .
(bon. mort. 10.46).

127
 AMBROSE

The clash between Ambrose and Symmachus shows on one

side aggression, sharpness of categories and belief in progress,
and on the other politeness, indefiniteness and nostalgia.
Another difference lies in their use of rival feminine per-
sonifications. As we have seen, the images Ambrose had of
the church, in whose interests he campaigned, were feminine,
while Victory, whose altar Symmachus defended, was a female
figure, as was Rome, whom he represented as speaking on
her behalf. The identification of tutelary responsibilities with
female figures was deeply rooted in the ancient world, and
the tradition remained alive: when Alaric the Goth came up
to the walls of Athens in 395 he was believed to have seen
Athena walking about them, armed and ready to resist. 38
Against a living tradition of female guardians, Ambrose placed
a feminine church.
His success came quickly. The fate of the altar and sub-
sidies was discussed at a meeting of the emperor's advisory
council, the consistory. Not all its members were Christians,
but Ambrose's arguments prevailed.
prevailed . As he recalled some
years later, 'the counts acquiesced' (ep.ext.coll. 10(=57).3),
and it was determined that the altar and subsidies would
not be restored. By February 385 Symmachus was out of
office, having been replaced by a man almost certainly a
catholic Christian, and the window of opportunity he had
sought to exploit had closed.

Ambrose had reason to feel content. Within a few years he

had been victorious over heretics and pagans, two of the
three enemies of catholic Christianity. His main involvement
with the remaining one, the Jews, would occur later. Before
then, his resolve was to be tested in affairs of a very different
kind.

38. Zosimus 5.6.

128
 Chapter 5

THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y

MILAN, SINFUL OR CHRISTIAN?

Some of the inhabitants of Milan were complacent about
sin. One man responded to Ambrose's suggestion that at his
age he should be baptized with the assertion that there was
no need, as he had neverneve r sinned (sacr. 3.13)
3.13).. Yet Ambrose
saw the city as full of sinners. Some were all too interested
in fine clothes. Barely able to tolerate wool, they decked
themselves out in silk as far down as their feet. I Others were
quarrelsome and seekers of revenge; to guard against these
tendencies, Christ had sent his disciples to preach the gospel
without gold, silver, money, or a staff (fas.
(jos. 13.78).
13.78) . Others were
drunkards, whose vice Ambrose attempted to combat by
preaching a series of sermons which he turned into a book. 2
Yet others,
others, Ambrose claimed, were capable of walking straight
past their own parents as they stood begging at the entrance
of the church (Luc. 8.76).
8 .76) . But human sinfulness, however
varied its manifestations, found certain basic expressions.
Discussing the statement
stateme nt of Jesus that 'Everyone who sins is
a slave to sin', two examples came to Ambrose's mind: surely
every avaricious person and everyone subject to lust was a

1. Luc. 5.107. Adam wore skins

skills after the expulsion from paradise, not silk
(paen.2.11.98).
(paen.2.11. 98).
2. The De Helia et ieiunio. References to passages of the Bible 'you have
heard today' (19.70,
(19.70, 20.75, 21.77) show its origin in preaching. Yet in
addition to the drunkenness
drunke nness which brings about stumbling, unsteadi-
ness and sensory change , there is another,
another, spiritual kind which warms
the mind with the grace of virtue and turns aside every infirmity (Noe
29.111),
29.111). as well as the
th e sober intoxication provided by the eucharist
(below.
(below. p. 146).
146) .

129
 AMBROSE

slave? (los. 4.20). Similarly, Christ's refusal to reveal the time

of his Second Coming and the Last Judgment was a device
to keep adulterers and robbers on their toes (fid. 5.17.210).
Doubtless other ways of schematizing sins were possible. 3 But
when Ambrose contemplated the propensity of humans to com-
mit sins,just two, lust and avarice, came persistently to mind. 4
The first of these could be indulged in private,S yet it
disfigured public life. The temptation posed by prostitutes
is a theme never far from Ambrose's mind; he can describe
pleasure as a prostitute, restless at home and wandering in
public squares. 6 Against the temptations posed by such women,
whose eyes constituted a trap for their lovers (paen. l.14.73),
he set the figure of the patriarch Joseph, who firmly resisted
the advances of Potiphar's wife. In admiration of his saintly
nature, Ambrose frequently styles him 'holy Joseph'.7 But the
defeat of lust could allow avarice to flourish unchecked, for
the latter vice was not only common among laypeople, who
could at least claim that their behaviour was prompted by
concern for their children and relatives, but among celibate
clergy as well. 8
Two of Ambrose's books are devoted to avarice and its
implications for society. In one he discusses the biblical story
of Naboth, who was killed by King Ahab when he refused to
give up his small vineyard, and denounces in vehement terms
the oppression of the poor by the rich. 9 It was a theme with
urgent contemporary relevance, for the period was one
during which small holdings were being concentrated into
ever larger estates and small farmers continually oppressed. 1o

3. Almost all sins could be seen as originating in delight of the flesh, the
display of glory or the greed for power (Luc. (Lue. 4.33-35);
4.33-35) ; lustfulness,
avarice and treachery are given at Jug. 4.17.
7.33; ps.118 5.30, 16.45.
4. E.g. off. 3.6.37; patr. 7.33;
5. Temptations which befall people as they sleep are discussed at ps.118
8.46.
8.46.
6. Cain 1.4.14. See too e.g. apol.alt.Dav. 3.14; bon. mart. 9.40; Luc.
mort. 6.24, 9.40; Lue.
4.63; pam. 1.14.68, 73. On loose women, cf. above, p. 44.
2.11.59,15.74,16.83, 3.6.42; ps.1l812.31.
7. As at off. 2.11.59,15.74,16.83,3.6.42;
VAmb. 41.1£; see further below, p. 161£.
8. VAmb.
9.
9. Ambrose's social thought is widely discussed; see for example Colombo
(1974) and Vasey (1982). That these studies point in different direc-
tions suggests the unsystematic nature of Ambrose's thinking.
thinking.
10. Ambrose's opening sentences bring out the contemporary applicabil-
ity of the text; for the social context, see Ruggini (1961) , esp. 23-28 .

130
 THE BISHOP AND THE CITY
CI1Y

Ambrose knew of those who joined house to house and estate

to estate, as if they could live alone in the earth, wanting
to make their own something which was common to all. 1 1
Another work, which deals with the book of Tobit, a text
contained in the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible,
attacks usury in memorable terms, and its heavy reliance on
puns (Tab. 4.13-5.17) indicates that Ambrose was aiming at
a wide audience. Money, he suggests, is like the waves of the
sea. But whereas the sea can be calm, the waves of interest
never rest. They are always driven to and fro , sinking the
shipwrecked, casting forth the naked, stripping those who
are clothed and receding from the unburied (Tab. 5.16).
Like the sea, the usurer absorbs the properties of all in his
waves yet is never filled (Tab. 13.44). Ambrose has only scorn
for those who sold grain for great profit in times of scarcity
and were saddened by a good harvest (off. 3.6.37-44) .1 2
More generally, the public life of the ancient world was
enacted in places which remained largely impervious to
Christianity. Ambrose encouraged young women to flee the
forum and streets for the desert which led to the kingdom
(virgt. 8.46-9.52). Circus games, theatrical shows, pantomimes,
wrestlers and horse-racing were no more than vanities (ps.118
5.28; cf. Jug. 1.4), a sentiment which may have been as popular
as the encouragement Ambrose gave to virginity. Believers
were easily distracted from going to church by the rival
attractions of circus games and the theatre (ps.118 16.45;
others enjoyed a quiet life in the less Christianized country-
side). Yet some of these diversions were of structural import-
ance in Milan's civic life life,, for sometimes people paid for
circus and theatrical shows, or gladiatorial and hunting shows,
to win popular favour (off. 2.21.109).
2.2l.109). Ambrose's anti-urban
polemic had complex roots, among them a Roman tradition
of moralizing. When Pompey erected the first stone theatre
in Rome in the first century BC he was so afraid of criticism

1l. Ps.118 12.42 (where a borrowing from Is. 5:8 should be added to
the textual apparatus in the SAEMO edition); exa. 6.8.52. See too
Abr. 1.3.12, ps.118 6.32, and more distantly exa. 5.5.14, 10.27.
12. Yet Ambrose did not particularly sympathize with the poor. His com-
mentary on Luke seems to soften the ethical teachings of Jesus; see
for example Luc.
Luc. 5.64 on 6:20 (although in fact Ambrose gives the
text in the milder form of Matt. 5:3), Lu(. 5.69-71 on 6:24, and LuG.
Luc.
8.70f on 18:25
18:25..

131
 AMBROSE

that he installed within it a temple built so that the steps

would seem to lead to it, and such authors as Horace firmly
located vice in the city. Another influence was Christian,
for the monastic movement which had recently sprung up
exalted the desert over the classical polis.
But the city was not entirely lost. In some ways it was
becoming more Christian, as its rapidly changing skyline
showed. In a city already boasting an impressive cathedral,
Ambrose erected three new churches. To the west of the
city was the large Basilica Ambrosiana, 50.4 metres long
and 26 in breadth,13 a building so identified with the bishop
that people were calling it the 'Ambrosiana' while he was
still alive (ep. 77(=22).2). On the main road to Rome he
dedicated the Basilica Apostolorum, also known as the
Basilica Romana, now called San Nazaro, after the saint whose
body Ambrose placed there in 395. It was even larger than
the Ambrosiana, being 56 metres long by 45.3 across.
Constantine had erected a basilica dedicated to the Holy
Apostles in Constantinople, and Ambrose's building imitated
both its cruciform shape and dedication, perhaps to assert
the status of Gratian's capital, Milan, at a time of rivalry
between him and Theodosius, in Constantinople. 14 Finally,
he began work on the church of San Simpliciano. Ambrose's
building activities, undertaken at a time when the erection
of buildings for secular purposes was slowing down over most
of the western empire, were an impressive sign of wealth
and confidence, and made the powerful presence of the
church in the city manifest.

A SKIRMISH OVER CHURCHES

It was probably late in 384 that the anti-Nicene community
in Milan gained another bishop, when Auxentius Mercurinus,
a pupil of the great Bishop Ulfilas, arrived in the city. Not
surprisingly, Ambrose was hostile, accusing him of adopt-
ing his second name to deceive people (ep. 75A(=21a).22).
Ambrose's congregation would have thrilled to his descrip-
tion of false prophets in sheep's clothing who were wolves

13. I regret not having been able to consult Perer (1995).

14. McLynn (1994): 227-32.

132
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY
CITY

within, when, slyly alluding to Auxentius' origins within the

modem Romania, he mentioned a certain person with the
title of bishop whose limbs were hardened by the Scythian
snow (Luc. 7.52).
Early in 385 Ambrose was invited to a meeting of the
emperor's consistory at which he was asked to make a church,
probably the Basilica Portiana outside the city, available for
I
Auxentius and his community to celebrate Easter. 15 " Alas, he

had many enemies at court. Commenting on a passage in

Luke 's gospel concerning a rich man dressed in purple, he
Luke's
invited his 'reader', presumably standing for those who heard
the passage when delivered in a sermon, to imagine 'Arians'
intent upon worldly concerns, seeking the company of
royalty and desiring to attack with military might the truth
of the church as they reclined in the midst of purple (Luc.
8.17). Presumably Justina would have celebrated Easter with
Auxentius and the anti-Nicen e community in any church
Ambrose made available. But, Ambrose states in a letter,
when the people found out that he had been asked to a
meeting in the palace they rushed there, and when a count
tried to drive them away they all said they would die for the
faith of Christ (ep. 75A(=21a)
75A(=21a).29);
.29); Ambrose's claim of pop-
ular support and the theme of martyrdom would be frequently
reiterated in the months to come. The government did not
press the point, and Justina and Valentinian spent Easter
outside Milan. But on 23 January 386 a law was issued guar-
anteeing the right of assembly to those who accepted the
faith promulgated at both the anti-Nicene council of Rimini
(359) and the Nicene council of Constantinople (381) . More-
over, if people who supposed that the right of assembly
was granted to them alone tried to provoke agitation, 'they ' they
should know that as authors of sedition and as disturbe
disturbers rs of
the peace of the Church, they shall also pay the pe nalty of
high treason with their life and blood' . It> The law, clearly
drafted with Ambrose in mind , caused a stir; the official asked

15. The following events prese nt problems of interpretation whicwhichh are

well-nigh
we uroy (1988) is particularly useful. A Ufe of
Nauroy
ll-nigh intractable; Na
Athanasius known to Photius (Bibliotheca 482a) has that bishop agree-
ing with Constantius in 346 that one church in Alexandria would be
made available to Arians and one in Constantinople to Nicenes, a
fascinating detail of IInce rtain relevance.
relevance.
16. Cod.
Cod. Theod. 16.l.4 (trans. Pharr).

133
 AMBROSE

to draft it, Benivolus, resigned in protest. As the government

prepared for the following Easter, Ambrose's thoughts turned
towards martyrdom. .

MARlYRDOM
More than half a century after Constantine brought about
the peace of the church, the cult of the martyrs flourished. 17
Although Ambrose was part of the establishment, who was
accused by enemies of persecuting them just as Roman offi-
cials had the martyrs,18 they played an important part in his
imagination. He admired St Pelagia, who saved herself from
rape by jumping to her death out of a window, although the
words he attributes to her, 'I am dying willingly; no-one will
lay a hand on me', could be held to suggest that she was a
suicide more than a martyr. 19 Fascinated as he was by per-
secution,20 Ambrose's enthusiasm for the martyrs led him to
look a little disdainfully at the Christians of his own time. 21
Mter describing the torments suffered by the martyrs, he
can exclaim: 'Would that 1 deserved to be such!' (ps.118
2l.8f; cf. ep. 23(=36).4).
A sign of Ambrose's feeling is given by a passage in the
De officiis, a work which reached its final form towards the
end of the 380s although it may have been based on earl-
ier material, in which a discussion of the virtue of fortitude
culminates in an enthusiastic encomium of the bravery of the
martyrs. The section follows a passage on bravery in warfare,
but Ambrose did not find this topic congenial, for after a
perfunctory description of three brave warriors mentioned
17. Dassmann (1975).
18. He was accused of acting towards the anti-Nicaean Bishop Palladius
in the way a Roman judge had towards the martyr Cyprian: Comment-
aires de Maximus, ed. Gryson, Scholies 201£.
19. VirgO. 3.7.33-36, with ep. 7(=37).38, from where these words are quoted.
Whereas Augustine was uncertain whether such conduct was proper
(civ.dei. l.26), Ambrose felt that when the chance of a praiseworthy
death offered itself it should be snatched (off. 2.30.153; see further
exc.fr. l.18).
20. Christians glory in blood, Ambrose informed Valentinian (ep.
73(=18) .11). In one of his interpretations of the parable of the Good
Samaritan, the man who went down from Jerusalem on the road to
Jericho is a person who declined martyrdom (paen. l.1l.51).
2l. See for example ps.11814.17, with 11.2l.

134
 THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y
CITI'

fonn of words which will resonate

in the Bible he asks, using a form
throughout this section: 'What shall I say of the Maccabees?'
The bravery the members of this family displayed against King
Antiochus is powerfully evoked: Judas Maccabeus uttered the
words 'Let us not leave any charge against our glory!' and
found an occasion of death more glorious than a triumph
in arms. 'But what shall I say of the passions of martyrs?'
Ambrose later inquires, as he turns again to the triumph of
the Maccabees over the proud King Antiochus. But other
martyrs occur to Ambrose: 'What shall I say of the mother?
.. . What shall I say of the two-year olds? ...
... . .. What shall I say
of St Agnes?' He goes on to describe the martyrdom of St
Laurence, providing a lively speech in which Laurence asked
Pope Sixtus to allow him to accompany him to his martyr-
dom. Sixtus refused to take his disciple with him: Laurence's
triumph over the tyrant would be more glorious! So it came
to pass, and Ambrose quotes Laurence's joke to those roast-
ing him, 'This side is cooked, turn it over and eat.' By his
strength of mind, Laurence overcame the nature of fire
(off. 1.40.196-41.207).
1.40.196-41.207) .
Ambrose's
Ambrose 's feelings on martyrdom are also apparent in
the conclusion of a work based on sermons quite possibly
preached in the first months of 386, the De Iacob. 22 While it
ostensibly deals with the biblical account of the patriarch
Jacob, its real theme is the power which a mind directed by
reason can exercise over the passions. It opens with the
story of how King David desired to drink water from a source
behind the lines of the enemy he was fighting. Yet when
men brought him some of it, at the risk of personal danger,
he poured it away, for although desire had preceded reason,
reason resisted desire. It had been human of David to desire
in a way contrary to reason, but he laudably cheated a desire
devoid of reason in a reasonable way (lac. 1.1.3, on IV Mace.
3:6-18). This account sets the scene for the entire work. One
22. Well (1992)::111.
We ll discussed by Brown (1992) Ill. The date is briefly aand
nd incon-
clusively discussed in SAEMO 3:215f, to which I would add tha thatt the
powe rful concluding section on th
powerful thee Maccabees may be connected
with the celebration of th eir festival on 1 August, in which case the
their
themes
th emes of resistance to illicit powepowerr would have beebeen exercising
n exe rcising
whichever
Ambrose well into which given
eve r year the addresses were give n in. Typic-
ally, Ambrose mentions a biblical text 'which you have hheard eard read
out today' (2.5. 23), yet at the beginning of the second book hhe
(2.5.23), e refe rs
refers
to the preceding book and the one which follows.

135
 AMBROSE

of Ambrose's sources for this teaching is the Neoplatonist

author Plotinus (cf. below, page 169ff") , whom he follows late
in the first book when he discusses what he calls a perfect
man. For such a person, who seeks only the one, outstand-
ing good, such things as the body and its health, and his
children, will be of little concern; in fact, the body will be of
no interest to him (1.8.36ff). When Ambrose finally turns in
the second book to the ostensible topic of the work, Jacob
and his happiness, he makes the point that, whereas passion
enslaves, a person who is the overseer of his own will and
coerces the appetite of bodily passion is free (lac. 2.3.12).
The life of a perfect person is marked by the use of reason.
Towards its end, this work lurches in an unexpected and
exciting direction. Observing how happy Jacob was at the end
of his life, Ambrose comments on the happiness of Joseph
in prison, ofIsaiah when he was being cut in half, ofJeremiah
when he was being drowned, and of Daniel when he stood
amid the lions. These curious examples of human felicity
lead to a discussion of the supreme example of happiness,
that of the mother of the Maccabees who experienced the
happiness of seeing her seven sons die and being killed
herself (lac. 2.9.42). Ambrose gives a strongly felt account
of the persecution of this family by the tyrant Antiochus,
in which he closely follows account given in the deutero-
canonical book of IV Maccabees. This text, written in Greek
in the last century Be or the first century AD, is preserved
in a number of manuscripts of the Septuagint, which is doubt-
less the context in which Ambrose read it, and it provides a
version of the story of the Maccabees more strongly expressed
than the better-known one given in II Maccabees. Ambrose
puts powerful speeches into the mouths of the scribe Eleazar,
each of the seven brothers, and their mother. The second
brother, in intense pain as the skin is pulled off his head, is
made to exclaim 'How sweet it is to die for religion!' Ambrose
simplifies, and dejudaizes, his source, which has the brother
say 'How sweet is every form of death on behalf of the
religion of our fathers' (IV Mace. 9:29), his words recalling
a line in a poem by Horace, who wrote of how sweet and
fitting it was to die for one's fatherland. 23 The dichotomy of

23. With Ambrose lac. 2.11.47 (,quam dulce est mori pro religione') compare
Horace Carmina 3.2.13 ('dulce et decorum est pro patria mori').

136
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

the claims of religion and those of the state, one of the

chief themes of Ambrose's episcopate, was nowhere more
clearly expressed than in the events of 386.

EASTER 386
Events began to move quickly as Easter drew near. Our source
for them is a letter Ambrose wrote to his sister Marcellina
(ep. 76(=20) ), which provides his version of what happened,
but because it cannot be verified against other sources its
reliability is uncertain. On Friday 27 March an important
group, made up of counts from the consistory, approached
Ambrose, asking him to hand over not the Basilica Portiana
but the cathedral, and insisting that he would see that the
people did not cause a disturbance. The demand was arrog-
ant, for the cathedral was the church in which Ambrose
presided as bishop of the city, the surrendering of which
would have compromised his standing. The counts' con-
cern for the behaviour of the people reveals a difficulty the
consistory foresaw, for the cathedral was located in the heart
of a densely settled part of the city,24 and Ambrose may have
been able to manipulate the people of the area. He refused:
'I answered, as was suitable to one of my rank, that the
temple of God could not be handed over by the bishop.'
His emphasizing, perhaps in a prickly way, the dignity of his
episcopal rank is not surprising. Another concept was more
important. In earlier times the charge of 'handing over'
(traditio) had been levelled against bishops who surrendered
copies of the sacred texts in times of persecution. Behind
this usage lay that of the gospels, which use this word for
the handing over of Jesus to Roman power by the Jews and,
worse, the handing over of Jesus to the Jews by Judas. The
word Ambrose used for what was asked of him was therefore
one with remarkably sinister connotations. On the following
day he was acclaimed when he entered the church. Then
Eusignius, who had recently been appointed praetorian pre-
fect, entered, to make a more modest proposal, that Ambrose
cede the Basilica Portiana, but the people responded
by crying out, and he withdrew. On Palm Sunday, while

24. Arslan (1982): 204.

137
 AMBROSE

Ambrose was 'handing over' the Creed to candidates for

baptism,25 word came that some of the people had rushed
baptism,25
to the Basilica Portiana, having heard that the church was
being prepared for the arrival of the emperor. Ambrose
remained where he was and began to say mass, in the midst
of which he was distracted by news that an anti-Nicene priest
was in danger of being lynched by the people. A posse of
clergy was dispatched to save him. Ambrose wept bitterly as
he proceeded with the liturgy, praying that if blood were
shed it would be his.
Shortly afterwards heavy penalties were imposed on mer-
chants, suggesting the collusion between them and Ambrose
was suspected,26
suspected,26 while members of the palace staff were told
to desist from activities which could be thought to indica
indicate
te
involvement in rebellious strife. In Ambrose's words, 'per-
secution was boiling'. On Tuesday a group of counts and
tribunes asked him to hand over the basilica quickly, but he
replied that, while they were welcome to his own possessions,
things which were divine were
we re not subject to the powe
powerr of
the emperor. Did they wish to carry him off to his death in
chains? He assured them that he was willing to be sacrificed
before the altars. Mter making more fruitless appeals the
delegation departed, leaving the self-dramatizing bishop to
pray that he would not live to see the ruin of the great city,
or of all Italy. Before dawn on Wednesday, news came that
the Basilica Portiana had been surrounded by soldiers. In the
midst of confusing reports and tension, Ambrose preached
to the people.
A passage from the book of Job had been read, and as
usual Ambrose tried to relate the lesson to current circum-
stances. God had delivere
stances. delivered
d Job into the power of Satan (Job
1:12)
1:12),, but, knowing that Ambrose was weak, he had not
given the Devil power over his body, even though Ambrose
longed for this to happen and was prepared to offer him-
self. Job had been told by a woman 'Say something against
God and die' (Job 2:9); Ambrose had been told 'Hand over
the basilica.' His audience would immediately have seen the

25 . The formal language ''symbolum

symbolum . . . tradebam' (4) picks up the 'traderem'
of (2).
26. We lack evidence which would supply a helpful context conte xt fo
forr this
occurre nce .
occurrence.

138
 THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y

implied reference to another woman, Valentinian's mother

Justina, a point which Ambrose strengthened by reminding
his hearers of how Eve led Adam astray, and how Jezabel
and Herodias persecuted Elijah and John the Baptist. He
represented himself as talking sharply to Valentinian: 'Don't
trouble yourself to think, emperor, that you have some im-
perial right over things which are divine.' Mter telling him
that, if he wished to have a long reign, he should be subject
to God, he asserted a general principle: 'Palaces belong to
the emperor and churches to the bishop. Rights have been
given to you over public buildings, but not sacred ones.' If
Valentinian wanted a church, Ambrose could only answer,
in words which showed he saw himself playing the role of
John the Baptist to the emperor's Herod, 'It is not right for
you to have it, for what have you to do with an adulteress?'27
The language was strong and brave. But before he finished
speaking, word came that the royal curtains in the Basilica
Portiana had been gathered together. These were the cur-
tains which screened a ruler from his subjects, of the kind
to be seen in late-antique mosaics at Ravenna, and their
removal constituted a retreat by the authorities. Moreover,
the basilica was said to be full of people demanding the
presence of Ambrose. Meanwhile a messenger came, asking
on behalf of the emperor why Ambrose acted against the
order which had been given. Was Ambrose, he asked, a
tyrant? This was an extraordinary suggestion, for the word
implied that he was setting himself up as an illegitimate ruler,
and shows how seriously the government took his stand. 28
Ambrose protested that he had not acted in such a way:
when he had heard that troops had occupied the basilica he
had said that, while he could not hand over the basilica, he
ought not fight, and he had expressed the belief that the
emperor would join them. Far from being a tyrant, such
power as Ambrose had was that of offering his life. More-
over, the Old Testament showed priests bestowing power,
not claiming it. His implied claim to bestow power was not

27. Compare Ambrose's 'Non tibi fiat illam habere' with John's 'non [icet
tibi habere earn' (Matt. 14:4, Vulgate). The adulteress referred to by
Ambrose is the anti-Nicaean community.
28. Ambrose will later speak of illegitimate emperors as tyrants (e.g.
ob. Theod. 53).

139
 AMBROSE

conciliatory, and towards the end of his discourse Ambrose

played his trump card, just as he had towards the end of his
letter to Valentinian during the controversy over the altar of
Victory. But now Ambrose boldly named the person who
could destroy Valentinian's regime: 'Maximus doesn't say
that I'm a tyrant!' It was a dangerous stroke, but it sufficed.
On the next day the emperor ordered the withdrawal of
troops from the basilica, and the return of the fines the
merchants had paid. The soldiers who had been carrying
out Valentinian's
Valentinian 's orders rushed to the altars and kissed them.
Ambrose emphasized the popular response: what happiness
there was among all the people! His letter to his sister con-
cludes with the restatement of a central theme, his willing-
ness to die a martyr: 'May the Lord turn them aside from
the church, may they aim all their spears at me, may they
slake their thirst with my blood.'
Valentinian had been forced to back down. He continued
to refer to Ambrose as a tyrant, and, in an unexpected reprise
of the theme of handing over, complained to his counts that
if Ambrose told them to they would hand him over, bound.
An unpleasant exchange of words took place between Ambrose
and the chief of Valentinian's bedchamber, the eunuch
Calligonus. Ambrose distrusted eunuchs, believing that they
often turned the mind of a king towards what was in their
own interests rather than the public good (exa. 5.21.68). He
told his sister that Calligonus said to him, with a significant
look, 'Do you despise Valentinian while I am alive? I'm tak-
ing away your head!' His reply was rude: 'May God allow
you to do what you have threatened. May I suffer what is
appropriate for a bishop, and may you do what is appropri-
ate for a eunuch.' The exchange can hardly have pleased
Calligonus. Valentinian had quit Milan by 20 April,29 leaving
the city to its bishop.

MUSIC AND HYMNS

Music was important to Ambrose. He approved of the prac-
tice of Pythagoras, who hired a musician to play something
that would soothe his heart, made anxious by worldly cares,

29.
29. On that date he issued a law from Aquileia: cod. Theod. 13.5 .17.

140
 THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y

before he went to bed (virgb. 3.4.19). He thought of the

great story of the Bible as having being played out to music.
At its very beginning, the gathering of the waters (Gen. 1:9)
made Ambrose think of the singing of psalms, something
which rivalled the gentle sound of lapping waters, for the
sound of waves could be heard when men, women, virgins
and children sang the psalms responsorially (exa. 3.5.23).
The two canticles in the books written by Moses resembled
the two ages of the world and the two lights of heaven, and
cast a radiance over Moses' whole work (ps. 1.4f, on Ex. 15,
Deut. 32). Ambrose took pleasure from the story of Miriam,
the sister of Moses, and her tambourine (exh.virg. 7.47, virgb.
2.2.15-17), and observed that the singing of David cast out
the spirit which oppressed Saul, that Solomon had singers
in the temple, and that Christ himself sings to us in the
gospel (ps.1l8 7.26).
It was therefore fitting that Ambrose's two works on parts
of the Psalms both begin with discussions of singing. He felt
that the pleasures of psalm 119 and the sweetness of singing
delighted the ears and caressed the mind (ps.1l8 proLl; see
further lac. 2.9.39). More detail was provided in a passage
which, being placed at the beginning of his commentary on
psalm 1, reflects his approach to the entire psalter. Within
the Bible the book of Psalms is especially sweet, and after
running through various songs to be found in the Bible, from
which he typically omits those in the New Testament, he
observes that in a psalm teaching and beauty contend with
each other: it is sung for delight and learned for instruction,
its sweetness penetrating deep down. Yet there was a danger
that delight in its sweetness would arouse the passions of the
body, and when Ambrose mentions young women singing a
hymn to God with sweetness of voice one hears an echo of
the sweet voices of another group of women, the Sirens, whose
sweet singing was to be resisted (above, page 59f). Again,
one feels that he may be playing with fire.
At some stage during the controversy over the basilicas
Ambrose hit upon a practice new to Milan. As Augustine
described it, to prevent the people from suffering weariness
and sorrow, he introduced the eastern practice of singing
hymns and psalms (con! 9.7.15). His innovation is also men-
tioned by Paulinus, who states that antiphons, hymns and
vigils then began to be celebrated in the church of Milan

141
 AMBROSE

(VAmh. 13.3), and both authors state that his innovation was
quickly imitated by other churches. But Ambrose went beyond
instituting an influential custom, for he was the author of
some of the hymns which were sung. There were ample pre-
Christian precedents for the writing of hymns, as for example
the pieces written by Horace; the Greek word 'hymnos' origin-
ally referred to a composition in praise of gods or heroes.
Hilary of Poitiers had recently composed hymns in Latin
for the use of Christians, and now Ambrose set out to do
the same. Many hymns have come down to us in his name,
of which fourteen have a good claim to authenticity. All are
written so as to be appropriate to some point in the passing
of time. Four, those for the crowing of the cock, dawn, the
third hour and the lighting of the lamps, are connected
with the time of day; another three are concerned with feasts
of the church year, Christmas, Epiphany and Easter; while
another group, which concerns martyrs whose feasts were
kept on particular days, again shows the importance of the
martyrs for Ambrose. He designed the hymns for insertion
into public worship at a time when his congregation may
have needed something to boost its morale.
They are very simple in style. In such ways as an avoidance
of subordinate clauses they share in the characteristics of
Ambrose's writing when it seeks to represent the spoken word
(above, page 66). Each hymn consists of eight verses of four
lines, almost always made up of eight syllables. The words in
each line usually make sense when taken as a unit, making
the hymns easily understood as they were sung. While Ambrose
composed according to the classical laws of metre, using iambic
dimeters, the metrical rhythm often coincides with the accen-
tual rhythm of everyday speech, which again facilitated con-
gregational use. Augustine was aware of the danger that
people would not understand what they sang in church, in
which case their singing was like that of birds (Enarrationes in
Psalmos 18.2.1; CCSL 38: 105), but this was unlikely to happen
when his hymns were sung. Like other church leaders of his
time, Ambrose was an intellectual communicating with a wide
public to a degree unusual in the ancient world.
We have two nearly contemporary responses to Ambrose's
hymns. One is that of Augustine. In 386, at a time of spiritual
hymns.
crisis, he may have been particularly susceptible, but there can
be no mistaking the impact the hymns had on him: 'How I

142
 THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y

wept during your hymns and canticles!' (conJ 9.6.14, cf. 7.16).
He had a similar experience in the following year when,
after the death of his mother, he could not cry. Not even
the offering of the eucharist brought tears to his eyes, and a
bath he took to relieve his tension brought no relief. Only
after remembering the words of one of Ambrose's hymns
could he weep (conJ 9.12.31-33). Their ability to induce
tears left Augustine in no doubt as to the power of Ambrose's
hymns. Neither did Ambrose's enemies in Milan doubt
it. He summarizes their attitude: 'It is said that I beguiled
the people by the songs of my hymns.' He did not deny the
charge: what was more powerful than a great song, or the
daily confession of the Trinity in the mouths of the whole
people (ep. 75A(=21a).34)? But the accusation, as transmitted
by Ambrose, cut deep, for while the noun 'carmen' has as its
primary meaning 'song', it can also mean 'magical chant' ,30
and a suggestion that Ambrose's hymns acted on the people
as spells seems to lie behind this accusation. Ambrose replied
by pointing out their educational use: 'All those who had
scarcely been disciples before were turned into teachers.' The
claim that Ambrose's hymns were spells was an acknowledg-
ment oftheir power over the people of Milan, and, indirectly,
of his ability to strike a genuinely demotic tone.
The hymns therefore contributed to the unity and morale
of the worshipping community which other kinds of singing
were already building up. How could other pleasures available
in the city compete? The lascivious music of the theatre and
the sound of reed instruments had nothing in common with
the concord of the people singing together. For this was true
harmony, when people of different ages and diverse virtues
sang a psalm together in complete concord (Luc. 7.237f).
Those worshipping with Ambrose would display a unity of
which his enemies had best beware.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER

The setback suffered by Valentinian was given added impact
by the approach of Easter. This was the climax of the church's

30. Cf. Vergil Aeneid 4.487, Edogae 8.68. Ambrose himself uses the word
in this sense: exa. 4.8.33.

143
 AMBROSE

year, and Ambrose avoided going far from Milan even during
the forty days of Lent which preceded it. 31 Throughout the
world, new believers were baptized and sacred virgins veiled
during the Easter vigil (exh. virgo 7.42); across the whole world,
concordant prayer was poured forth (ep.ext.coll. 13(=23).7);
in Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople, indeed
in the whole world thousands were cleansed on the one day
by the sacrament of baptism (Spir.S. 1.17f). The universality
of the observance indicated its importance. Ambrose saw
Easter as being connected with the biblical Passover. This was
a standard position in early Christianity; indeed the biblical
word for Passover, 'Pascha', was used by Christians for Easter.
But he also saw the feast as reaching back beyond this to the
very beginning of the Bible. 'This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months', God said to Moses and Aaron of
the first month of spring, in which the Israelites left Egypt
(Ex 12:2). Ambrose developed this notion by identifying
that month with the one in which God made heaven and
earth. So the turn of the seasons, when the rays of spring
shone after the ice and fogs of winter and the reproductive
cycle of plants began again, provided an image of the birth
of the world. Building on Paul's remark that the Israelites
who left Egypt and passed through the sea were baptized in
the cloud and sea (I Cor. 10:1f), and assigning these events
to spring, he concludes that they took place at the time
when the Pascha of the Lord Jesus Christ was celebrated
every year, a time of passing from vices to virtues. This made
it appropriate for an exposition of the biblical words con-
cerning the first month to be addressed to those who had
been regenerated in baptism (exa. 1.4.13f, based on sermons
preached in Holy Week). The creation and Exodus were at
the centre of Ambrose's view of Easter. 32
But the significance of Easter was more than purely theo-
logical. The law provided that all prisoners, except those
guilty of the most serious crimes, were to be released on
Easter Day.33 It was turning into an occasion of social cohesion,

31. Ep. 36(=2).27. A study of the significance of Easter in the urban life
of late antiquity would be welcome.
32. Helpful material in Cantalamessa (1979).
33. For the release of prisoners, see cod. Theod. 9.38.8, issued in time for
Easter 385; Ambrose's 'venit pascha, venit indulgentia, advenit remissio

144
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

when commumties
communities which were increasingly contoured by
religion would go to the cathedral to welcome into the church
new believers, some of whom would have come to town from
the surrounding countryside for baptism. 34 For Ambrose,
whose Easter hymn is full of words denoting water,3', baptism
was a key aspect of the season. Cathedrals built in the fourth
century had large baptisteries, in which ceremonies of extra-
ordinary power would be enacted on the night before Easter.
These owed something to the community rituals of public
bathing, and when Christians referred to the place where
baptisms were carried out as a 'baptisterium' they were using
what had been for centuries the ordinary Latin word for a
bathing place. The candidates for baptism would be anointed,
a practice familiar from the baths, and descend into the
font, which had the dimensions of a small swimming pool.
There, in a ritual suggestive of burial, they would be immersed
three times, once for each person of the Trinity. When they
emerged they would be anointed again and the bishop would
wash their feet. Such nocturnal ceremonies recalled the rites
of initiation into mystery religions. When Rufinus described
Ambrose's baptism in terms of his being 'initiated into
sacred things' (HE 11.11), he registered, at least on a verbal
level, correspondences with pagan practice.:\(j
The newly baptized would then proceed from the baptistery
to the spacious cathedral, where the bishop would celebrate
the eucharist and they would take communion for the first
time. Doubtless some were incredulous at what they were
told was the transformation of bread and wine into the body
and blood of Christ,:17
Christ,'ll but Ambrose replied that the heavenly
words of consecration showed that this indeed happened,
the 'transfiguration', as he tended to call it, being effected
by the words of Christ himself. Psalm 23 was sung while

peccatorum' (Is. 4.35) may be ambiguous. A letter of Cassiodorus on

the freeing of prisoners, probably at Easter, deals with 'indulgentia'
(Variae 11.40; ed. CCSL 96:458).
34. As did Augustine for his baptism on the night of 24/5 June 387 (con!
9.6.14).
35. 'Diluit', 'refundens', 'abluat', 'mundans soluat'.
36. See further below, p. 168.
37. Ambrose notes the comments 'It's my usual bread!' and 'It doesn't
look like blood to me!' (saa. 4.4.14, 20).

145
 AMBROSE

communion was administered, its references to a table and

a cup running over being taken to refer to the eucharist.
Ambrose saw participation in the sacrament as a kind of sober
intoxication, a paradoxical notion which had already been
used by Philo, Origen and Plotinus. 38 While Ambrose was
aware of the evil of drunkenness, one of his hymns con tains
the words 'let us joyfully drink the sober intoxication of the
Spirit', a wording precisely reflected in Augustine's descrip-
tion of Ambrose distributing the sober intoxication of God's
wine to the people. 39
The Easter vigil was thus a night of impressive ceremonies
and heady experiences, and at both font and altar the central
figure was the bishop. He also gave addresses to those pre-
paring for the sacrament and the newly baptized. Ambrose's
De sacramentis contains six addresses given to the newly bap-
tized on the days of Easter Week, explaining things it would
not have been proper to have explained to them previously,
and the text which has come down to us almost certainly
reproduces verbatim the spoken words of Ambrose.40 The
work is characterized by such features as a word-order sim-
ilar to that of modern English, parataxis, short propositions,
repetitions, questions and indeed puns, as well as the use of
words in senses which point towards usage in modem Romance
languages. 41 Few intellectuals of antiquity took it upon them-
selves to communicate with the wider public in such a way,
yet Ambrose, like his near contemporaries Cyril ofJerusalem,
Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine, delivered simple addresses

38. Lewy (1929), Dassmann (1965): 190-92. Ambrose knew of a good

intoxication which leads to good and pleasant things and brings about
an ecstasy of the mind (mentis excessus; ps.1l8 13.24) . The wine which
'brings joy to the human h heart'
eart' (Ps. 104:15)
lO4:15) gives the intoxication of
sobriety (fid. 1.20.135).
39. Hymn 2 (In aurora). 23f, cf. sacr. 5.3.13 and myst. 8.43; similar expres-
sions occur in Paulin us of Nola (Poemata 24.685, 27.106; 27.106; PL 61:628,
650). More generally, the reception of communion can be seen as
drunkenness (ps.11815.28. Augustine's description: can! 5.13.23).
40. Compare Augustine's sermon 37, which exists in identical transcripts
by two independent stenographers.
stenographers.
41. Word order: 'You saw water. But not every water heals. heals. But the wate
waterr
heals
h eals which has the grace of Christ' (sacr. 1.5.15, inverting two words).
Puns: '/udaei . .. ius dei' (4.3.lO)
(4.3.10) . Words used in new senses: ''verevere tatum
ubi tota innocentia, tota pietas, tota gratia, tota sanctificatio' (sacr. 1.3.9) .
See Lazzati (1955) and Mohrmann (1952).

146
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

communicating essential things to ordinary people. As do his

hymns, the De sacramentis allows us to catch Ambrose attempt-
ing to communicate with as wide a section of society as pos-
sible. Some of his material was secret. The written-up version
of his addresses, the De mysteriis, which would have been read
by non-believers, omits direct reference to material involved
in what modern scholars call the disciplina arcani, a practice
of disclosing key teachings only to believers shortly before
or after baptism; as expressed by Ambrose, explaining the
mysteries to the unbaptized would be betrayal rather than
explanation (myst l.2). As late as the time of Ambrose, the
Lord's Prayer and the Creed were not to be made public
(Cain l.9.37, inst.virg. 2.10), and such concerns must lie
behind the failure of his commentary on Luke to discuss
passages dealing with the Lord's Prayer and the institution
of the eucharist. 'Now is the time and the day for us to hand
over the Creed', Ambrose would announce on Palm Sunday
to those awaiting baptism a week later (expl. 1; significantly
in its written form this short work, an exposition of the
Creed, does not reproduce the text in full). So too the texts
of the eucharistic canon and the Lord's Prayer are given in
the De sacramentis, but not its written-up version, the De
mysteriis. An air of excitement would have accompanied the
transmission of such important secrets.
So it was that Easter was when a bishop most clearly ful-
filled his functions. Bishops who, by some chance, found
themselves unable to officiate at the Easter ceremonies, were
distraught. It is easy to imagine Ambrose presiding in 386,
in the cathedral from which enemies had sought to dislodge
him, surrounded by the faithful, the 'people' who had so
loyally supported him in the recent days of turmoil and
threatened martyrdom, with great satisfaction.

CONTROVERSY WITH ANTI-NICAEANS

Mter Easter his enemies struck back. Ambrose was summoned
to debate with the anti-Nicene Bishop Auxentius on the Trin-
ity before the constistory. If he declined the summons, he was
told that he would be free to leave Milan. But he was not
keen to participate, and responded to the imperial proposal
by preaching to the people an address against Auxentius

147
 AMBROSE

which is worth extended summary.42 He assured his hearers

that he would never desert the church, as he feared the Lord
of the world more than the emperor of this age. He asserted
that if the emperor were to act as royal power generally
does, he would undergo what bishops usually do. This slightly
melodramatic utterance, verbally similar to that Ambrose
represented himself as having recently addressed to the
eunuch Calligonus, may have been intended to convey the
message that persecution would be met by martyrdom. Would
that he were certain that the church would not be handed
over to heretics! He would willingly have gone to the palace
of the emperor to debate with Auxentius, but struggles in
the palace rather than in the church did not comport with
the office of bishop. Ambrose rammed home the familiar
point about handing over: when he was asked to hand over
the sacred vessels of the church he replied that he was pre-
pared to hand over his own property, but he could not tear
away and hand over that which he had received so that he
would protect it, not hand it over. He was also concerned
for the salvation of the emperor, a sentiment surely full of
the affection a bishop owed an emperor.
As he often did, Ambrose turned to his purposes a lesson
which had been read out during the liturgy, which suggested
encouraging precedents for someone being persecuted by
royalty. God had supported Elisha against the king of Syria,
and Peter against both Herod and the pagans prior to his
crucifixion. For his part, Ambrose had walked past the palace
every day, even though he had been expecting that something
important would happen, perhaps the sword or fire. It had
been suggested that he leave the city and go elsewhere, but
where would he go? Where was there? Everywhere were
groans and tears, as the orders were given for catholic bishops
to be cast out from the churches and for those who resisted
to undergo the sword, and for all the functionaries to be
outlawed if they did not carry out what was ordered. Just as
the Lord Jesus had redeemed the world in one moment, in
one moment Auxentius had slain many peoples, some by
the sword and others by sacrilege. Now, with his savage mouth
and bloody hands, he was seeking a basilica from Ambrose.

42. Ep. 75A(=21a), usually called the Sermo contraAuxentium. McLynn (1994)
(1994)::
186, whom I follow, dates it to after Easter, others to Palm Sunday.
Sunday.

148
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

Another portion of the Bible which bore on the present

situation was the account of the holy man Naboth. When
asked by a king to give up his vineyard, he replied bluntly:
'Far be it from me to hand over the inheritance of my
fathers.' Thereafter the king, deceived by the advice of a
woman, came into possession of the field by means of the
death of Naboth. The reference to a woman was already
pointed, given the role Valentinian's mother Justina played
in the controversy, and that to handing over which Ambrose
read into the text43 made it even more applicable to present
circumstances: if Naboth did not hand over his vineyard,
should we hand over the church of Christ? Only one response
was possible: 'Far be it from me to hand over the inheritance
of Christ!' (cf. I Kings 21:3). In any case, to whom could he
hand it over? The attitude of the Arians was like the hostility
of the Jews to the children who sang the praises of Christ as
he entered Jerusalem. And whereas Jesus had driven people
from the temple with a whip, Auxentius deployed sword and
axe. How could such a man of blood and savagery dare to
suggest a discussion? He thought to compel people to believe
by a law, asserts Ambrose, thinking of the law enacted that
January, but against him Paul asserted that justification was
not by the works of the law (Gal. 2:16-19, of questionable
relevance). Turning to Christ's injunction to render unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the
things which are God's, Ambrose observes that, as the church
is God's, it cannot be delivered to Caesar. The emperor would
be most honoured when he was called the son of the church,
for he was within the church, not above it. Fire, the sword
and exile were threatened, but the servants of Christ should
not fear. The sermon ends inconsequentially. Having re-
sponded to the proposal of a debate, by implication in the
negative, Ambrose asks Auxentius a question: why did he
believe in rebaptism?
As with so many of the works of Ambrose, this sermon lacks
coherence. 44 It is held together by a powerful animosity
towards Auxentius and intimations of ferocious persecution,

43. LXX renders 'give', rather than 'hand over'.

44. McLynn (1994: 206) sees this as evidence of Ambrose responding
to audience participation, but changes of direction are typical of
his works.

149
 AMBROSE

although no other source indicates that this occurred or was

expected to occur. Ambrose was simply deploying rhetoric
based on the great persecutions of pagan emperors, just as
in the sixth century catholic authors would attribute perse-
cuting zeal to the anti-Nicene King Theoderic. Before long
Ambrose wrote to Valentinian, declining to appear before
the consistory, on the grounds that bishops, not lay people,
should judge bishops (ep. 75(=21)).
75(=21». Valentinian's father had
not acted in this way, even though he was much older and,
unlike his son, had been baptized. Then Ambrose changes
tack: he would have come to the consistory had the bishops
and people allowed him, but they said that matters of faith
should be discussed in the church before the people. He
had been told that it made little difference whether he left
the altar of Christ willingly or handed it over, for were he
to leave he would still be handing it over. With these
restatements of familiar themes, and an odd reference to an
order that all the other churches were to be taken possession
of, Ambrose concluded his letter. Another letter Valentinian
received at about this time may have unsettled him more.
It came from Maximus, whose name Ambrose had invoked
before Easter. Playing on the weakness of Valentinian's posi-
tion, the emperor in Gaul reminded Valentinian of his pres-
ence and alluded to the troubles in Milan. And if this were
not enough to intimidate Valentinian, Ambrose had another
card up his sleeve.

THE DISCOVERY OF RELICS

Milan was soon to witness more amazing scenes. 45 In a letter
to his sister which is our main source for them, Ambrose
states that he had a feeling something would happen. 46

45. For what follows, Dassmann (1975)

(1975)..
46. Ep. 77(=22). Curiosity as to the kind of feeling Ambrose had is not
satisfied by his vague language:
language: 'Statimque subiit veluti cuiusdam ardor
praesagii.' Augustine wrote that God revealed the hiding place of the
martyrs to Ambrose visually (,per visum', conf. 9.7.16, just as Paulinus
death,,
has Ambrose appear to people 'per visum' and 'in visu' after his death
VAmb. 50f) or through a dream (civ.dei. 22.8). Other sources are less
VAmb.
precise: Bishop Gaudentius of Brescia and Paulinus have th thee martyrs
merely revealing themselves to Ambrose (PL 20:963; VAmb. 14; cf. 29,

150
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

On 17 June he ordered that the ground near a grille located

before the shrine of the martyrs SS Felix and Nabor was to
be cleared. Two bodies, those of men whose wondrous stature
showed they had lived in an earlier time, were found, and a
demon seems to have identified them as SS Gervasius and
Protasius. The names were generally unknown, but some
old men said they had once heard them and read them on
an inscription. Their bones were unbroken, although there
was much blood. A huge crowd gathered around, and the
relics were taken to the basilica of Fausta for an all-night
service and the laying on of hands, following which they
were carried to the new Basilica Ambrosiana. Along the way
occurred a miracle rich in metaphorical significance: a blind
person was healed. 47 Ambrose then preached a sermon which
he claims to have reproduced in the letter to his sister.
Earlier in the year, Ambrose had observed that he could
only offer tears against Gothic soldiers (ep. 75a(=21a).2). Now,
the LordJesus was providing more efficacious protection, in
the persons of the martyrs:
These are the defenders I have obtained for you, holy people,
who may benefit all and harm no-one. Such were the defenders
I wanted and such are the soldiers I have, soldiers not of the
world but of Christ. I fear no ill-will from them, whose support
is both great and safe. May they also aid those who bear me ill-
will! Let them come and see my bodyguards, for I do not deny
that I am surrounded by such arms. 'Some in chariots and some
in horses, but we shall be made great in the name of the Lord
our God'. (cf. Ps. 20:7)

Yet again, Ambrose had defiantly challenged the Roman

state, whose actions against him had been carried out by
soldiers. Again, he went on to draw attention to Elisha
who, surrounded by the army of the Syrians, prayed that his
servant's eyes would be opened, whereupon he saw armies of

where the martyrs Vitalis and Agricola revealed themselves to Ambrose),

while Paulinus of Nola speaks of God revealing the martyrs to Ambrose
(ep. 32.17; PL 61:339).
47. 'Where there is misbelief there is blindness' (ob. Theod. 10; a reference
to the power of the martyrs follows shortly). Compare Ambrose's
hymn 7 (In die Paschae) , verse 6, 'illuminating the blind with sight'.
On the healing of blindness and baptism, cf. e.g. ep. 67(=80).5f, behind
which lies Acts 9:8-18.

151
 AMBROSE

angels beyond counting. He described the martyrs as 'patrons',

these being people who defended the interests of others. His
images were all confrontationalist. Turning towards a theme
which had exercised him before Easter, Ambrose stated that,
while he was not worthy of being a martyr, he had obtained
these martyrs for the people, and proposed that their remains
be interred beneath the altar of the new basilica. In this way
he linked the cult of the martyrs with himself, for not only
was that the altar at which he offered the eucharist, but he
had planned to be buried there himself, thinking it proper
for a bishop to rest where he had offered the sacrifice. But
he would yield to the martyrs the right hand side. On this
scarcely modest note the sermon came to an abrupt end.
Ambrose was keen to identify himself with the martyrs,
perhaps because he was still uneasy. Paulinus and Augustine
both seem to misdate the finding of the relics to Holy Week,
an error which suggests they interpreted it in the light of
the tensions of that period. 48 That tensions between himself
and the court continued can be deduced from Paulinus'
description of miracles associated with the martyrs. For some
time Ambrose had thought that 'Arians' lacked proper respect
for martyrs (fid. 2.15.135), and people associated with the
court now claimed that those from whom unclean spirits had
ostensibly been driven had been bribed to act a part. But
one of the crowd was suddenly seized by an unclean spirit,
and began to cry out that those who denied the authenticity
of the martyrs or did not believe in the unity of the Trinity
as taught by Ambrose would be tormented, just as he was.
The warning was not heeded, for those who should have
been converted murdered the embarrassing man by drown-
ing him in a pool (VAmb.
(VAmb. 15f).
15£).
Despite hostility from the court, Ambrose had the crowd
on his side. The people cried out that the deposition of
the relics should be postponed until Sunday, but Ambrose
brought the ceremony forward to the following day, when
he again addressed them. Mter complimenting his hearers
on their enthusiasm he began to attack unnamed enemies.
Envious people who could not tolerate the crowds which had
assembled hated what they were doing, he declared. In their
madness they denied the merits of the martyrs, something

48. Paulinus 'per idem tempus' (VAmb. 14.1);

48. 14.1) ; Augustine 'tunc' (conJ. 9.7.16).

152
 THE BISHOP AND THE CI1Y

which the very demons confessed. Just as the Jews denied

that Christ was the Son of God even when they heard the
devil say that he was, now the Arians were denying the evid-
ence of the demons, who cried out that the martyrs were
torturing them, and of a blind man, well known in the city,
who was healed when he touched the edge of the fabric in
which their relics were wrapped. Ambrose briefly switches
into a more informal style:

Here I ask whether they envy me or the holy martyrs. If it's me,
have other miracles been happened through me, through my
work, in my name? Why, then, do they envy me something
which is not mine?

The sentiments so vehemently expressed seem out of place

in a discourse on martyrs, and remind us of the dapth of
Ambrose's involvement. Against the testimony of the demons
that the martyrs were genuine, the 'Arians' claimed that what
were called miracles were false and contrived shams. Ambrose
was scornful: he had heard of many things being made up,
but no-one had gone so far as to pretend to be a demon!
The best proof of the authenticity of the relics were the
miracles which had occurred.
The importance played by the dead in Christianity was
known to its enemies,19 and it was growing. A few years earlier
Pope Damasus had conducted digging campaigns which led
to the discovery of martyrs' bodies in Rome, where the cult
of Peter and Paul was increasingly important. Ambrose had
been uneasily aware of Milan's lack of martyrs, a deficiency
which he had now stunningly overcome. The stature of the
church of Milan had been enhanced, in a way that enhanced
Ambrose's authority within it. Something similar was to
occur years later, when the body of the martyr Nazarius was
brought from a garden beyond the city to the basilica of the
apostles, as was the body of the martyr Celsus. When this
was done, one of the people, possessed by an unclean spirit,
began to cry out that he was being tormented by Ambrose,
but the bishop rounded on him, telling him to be quiet.
According to Ambrose, it was the faith of the saints and the

49. Julian the Apostate famously observed that the world was being filled
with tombs and sepulchres (Contra Galilaeos 335B).

153
 AMBROSE

envy of the devil at seeing humans ascend to the place from

which he had been cast down that was tormenting him. The
possessed person fell to the ground and said no more (VAmb.
(VAmb.
32f). Here again, we see the growing power within the com-
munity of its bishop as he brought relics to a place where
they would be firmly under his control.

AMBROSE VICTORIOUS
In the short term, the importance of the discovery of relics
lay in the harm it did the government. 5O Cumulatively,
Ambrose's actions in 386 may have fatally weakened the
position of Justina and Valentinian, while in Gaul Maximus
was presenting himself as a friend of the church. The pose
may not have been entirely convincing, given that he had
murdered Gratian, but emperors were always prepared to
cultivate whatever constituencies seemed promising. Early
in 386 a rigorist Spanish bishop, Priscillian, had been tried
at Maximus' court at Trier and found guilty of sorcery, a
crime which carried the death penalty.51 Priscillian was an
old enemy of Ambrose, for not only had the bishop of Milan
refused to see him when he came to Italy seeking support
in 383, but such benefit as Priscillian derived from his visit
arose from a document he obtained from the magister militum
Macedonius, whose relations with Ambrose were poor (cf.
VAmb. 37). Maximus supported mainstream ecclesiastical
opinion , while Valentinian's court seemed determined to
antagonize it. So when he invaded Italy in the summer of
387, in an expedition which is not well documented, he was
able to pose as the avenger of the wrongs done the church
(Rufinus HE 11.16). Valentinian and Justina did not linger.
They took ship to Thessaloniki, whereupon Maximus estab-
lished himself as emperor in Milan. He was not to last long.
In 388 Theodosius invaded Italy, where he encountered
Maximus in two battles. The latter was captured and put to
death at Aquileia in August. Later in the autumn Theodosius

50. This is true despite a need to revise a received view, according to

which Ambrose violated a recent law against the translation of relics
(so e.g. McLynn (1994): 213), against which Markus (1990) : 144f.
551.
1. Chadwick
Ch adwi ck (1976).

154
 THE BISHOP AND THE CIlY

arrived in Milan, to Jom

join the list of emperors who had to
deal with the turbulent bishop of the city.
Meanwhile, the eunuch Calligonus, with whom Ambrose
had exchanged harsh words, came to a sad end, being put
to death for immoral conduct. 52 52 This must have happened
by about 388, when Ambrose alluded to it in his work on
Joseph (los. 6.29-33). When he discussed the dreams which
the officials of Pharaoh (whom he thought of as eunuchs)
told Joseph in prison, Ambrose refused to comment on the
dream of the second eunuch, which Joseph interpreted to
mean that he would be put to death. He utters a rhetorical
question: 'But what shall I say about those eunuchs?' This is
a device which, as in his discussion of the martyrs (above,
page 135), Ambrose uses to emphasize the material which
follows. Eunuchs, he goes on to observe, are people of weak
and feeble status, for all their hope is in the will of the king.
Hence, if they commit a trivial offence, they are in grave
danger, and Ambrose represents himself as recoiling in hor-
ror at the death of his enemy.
It was a good time for Ambrose. In a work written in the
late 380s, he looked with satisfaction at the standing of the
church. For what did the gathering of the waters on the third
day of the creation refer to but the catholic church being
filled up with heretics and pagans (exa. 3.1.3; cf. Gen. 1:9)?
It was as if the season had turned:
Behold the acceptable time, when the year is not stiff with the
wintery frosts of murky unbelief and the unformed surface is
not frozen by the deep snows of blasphemy, the ice remaining
firm. Freed from the storms of sacrilege, the earth is now ready
to give birth to new fmits,
fruits, and produces old ones. Yes, the storm
of all controversies has come off the boil: boil: the heat of each worldly
passion and every blaze which cooked the people of Italy through
the fires of perversity, first that of the Jews and then of the
Arians,
A.rians, is now tempered by a serene breeze. The storm is calmed,
concord sails, faith breathes, and now the sailors seek again the
harbours of faith which they had left. They place sweet kisses on
the shores of their fatherland, rejoicing to have been freed from
dangers and rescued from errors.
errors."'·':'

Time would tell whether this would last.

52. Augustine ContraJulianurn

Contra Julian urn 6
6.14.41
.14.41 (PI.
(PL 44:845).
53. Luc.
Luc. 99.32.
.32. The reference to Jews
J ews is puzzling.

155
 AMBROSE

THE CI1Y AND ITS BISHOP

We have considered a number of issues in this chapter. In
many ways, the cities of late antiquity remained untouched
by the church, human sinfulness and the structures of ancient
urban life proving hard to uproot. Yet a glance at the skyline
of Milan would have shown how important the church had
become. Ambrose's struggle with the court over the use of
churches reveals much of the standing of the church and
its bishop in the city. He entered the fight with great assets,
among them the strength of his conviction, expressed in the
concepts of martyrdom and handing over, which he com-
municated in powerful sermons. This could not be matched
by his opponents, whose situation was in any case threatened
by Maximus. Yet other considerations were more significant.
Ambrose enjoyed the support of an enthusiastic community,
whose commitment he built up by the singing of hymns, the
celebration of Easter, and the cult of relics. These observ-
ances united those who participated in them, were pitched
at a populist level, and remained firmly under episcopal
control. Doubtless Ambrose did not carry all with him, and
his repeated references to 'the people' must refer to a com-
mitted element among Milan's Nicene Christians, perhaps
especially the less well-off who lived near the cathedral. Such
people may have had little in common with the wealthy
families which provided the church with its consecrated
virgins. But with their support Ambrose carried the day in
the city, in a way which anticipates the role bishops would
play for centuries to come.

156
 Chapter 6

ON DUTIES

Towards the end of the 380s Ambrose produced his longest

work on a non-biblical theme, a treatise on duties (De officiis).
It is not an easy work to read. Not only does it suffer from
Ambrose's failings as an editor, which caused him to juxta-
pose in a confusing way material originally presented orally
with formally written elements,) but he was not clear in his
own mind as to the audience for which the book was in-
tended, for although the book is addressed to his clergy,
large portions of it seem unrelated to their specific needs.
We may assume that the work was undertaken with them in
mind, but that Ambrose,
Ambrose, never a systematic thinker, followed
his own inclinations in developing themes which led him away
from the concerns of those for whom the work had been
initially intended. Yet the book which he found himself
writing is full of interest. It provides important evidence for
the status of the clergy, an increasingly significant group in
society, towards the end of the fourth century, and beyond
this its contents raise the issue of how Ambrose was able to
reconcile his beliefs as a Christian with what he knew of the
intellectual and philosophical traditions of antiquity. For most
of this chapter we shall therefore be concerned with this
theme, which will involve analysis of other works of Ambrose
we have yet to conside
considerr in detail.

1.
1. Towards the beginning of the book are references
refere nces to parts of the Bible
which have been read out 'today' (off 1.3.13,
l.3.13, 4.15; 1.8.25) and ele-
ments of an informal style which sit uneasily with a clear statement
that he was composing a written work (1.7.23). Cohesion is argued for
in the important studies of Steidle (1984, 1985).

157
 AMBROSE

THE DE OFFICIIS
Ambrose begins his work by pointing out the duty of teach-
ing imposed on bishops, and goes on to discuss the danger
of talking too much and the value of silence. He states that
he had been thinking about psalm 39, when it came into his
mind to write to his 'sons', as he calls the clergy of Milan, on
the subject of duties. The movement from meditative reflec-
tion on a part of the Bible to exposition is a typically Ambrosian
reflex. But the point which follows is unexpected. Ambrose
observes that the topic of duties had received the attention
of a number of students of philosophy, such as Panaetius and
his son among the Greeks and Cicero among the Latins. 2 Just
as Cicero wrote to instruct his son, so now Ambrose would
write to mould his sons, not loving those whom he had borne
in the gospel less than he would have had he received them
in marriage, nature being no stronger than grace in provoking
love. But, Ambrose wondered, was it appropriate for someone
in his position to write on the topic of duties? The word was
certainly suitable for philosophers, but it also occurred in
the Bible, for the gospel said of Zacharias: 'When the days
of his duty were completed, he went home' (Luke 1:23),
and hence it could be used by Christians. Having made this
defence, based as his arguments so often are on an identity
of words rather than ideas, Ambrose moves onto the attack.
The writing he was undertaking was not pointless, because
he valued duty in a different way from the philosophers,
who in any case were figures of the past. 3 Whereas they think
that the goods of this world are to be prized, we count them
as losses, since a person who receives good here will be
tormented elsewhere. Ambrose concluded the introductory
portion of his book with a standard rhetorical ploy which
he may not have meant his readers to take seriously: his
work would appeal to those who sought not fine writing but
straightforward arguments (off. l.9.29).

2. Panaetius' son is otherwise unknown; perhaps his existence was sug-

gested to Ambrose by Cicero's having written on duties to his son
Marcus.
3. Note the tenses, 'aestimamus . .. aestimaverunt'. But the distinction is
weakened in the following sentence.

158
 ON DUTIES

In this way Ambrose located his work with respect to the

works of non-Christian writers, in particular Cicero. His debts
to Cicero were enormous. Ambrose owed the very title of
this work to his Roman predecessor, whose De officiis also
provided him with much of his material and a structure.
Cicero's very addressee, his son, was paralleled by the 'sons'
for whom Ambrose represented himself as writing his book.
We have already seen how comfortable Ambrose was in using
non-Christian sources, whether Philo in his early biblical
commentaries or Cicero and Seneca when he came to com-
memorate his dead brother. Now, writing a serious book in
an area where the tradition of work was firmly non-Christian,
it was appropriate for him to consider the issues which sep-
arated him from his predecessors in the field, such as the
teachings of the philosophers that God has no concern for
the world, a topic which he treats in an unusually non-biblical
way (off. l.13.47-50) , that God does not know what happens,
and the problem of apparent injustice in the world. The
first book mainly deals with what is honourable (honestum).
Mter examining the virtue of silence, Ambrose settles into a
discussion of the four cardinal virtues, long praised in the
ancient world. He sees the first among them as prudence
(or wisdom), from which are derived the other three,justice,
fortitude and temperance. The list is taken from Cicero, and
the sequence in which it presents the virtues contradicts
that which Ambrose presents in some of his other writings,
where he places justice as the primary virtue. 4 From these
four virtues are born the various kinds of duties (off. l.25.116).
The four cardinal virtues can be found in the lives of biblical
characters, who, as usual in Ambrose, turn out to be figures
from the Old rather than the New Testament, and he provides
substantial discussions of each of them. The second book,
which deals with what is useful, is less structured. A good deal
of it is taken up with money. Ambrose stresses that people
who are concerned with money or personal influence will
be of doubtful reliability, and that a good reputation, espe-
cially in the church, is to be sought by other means. The
clergy should seek to earn respect for their mercy, fasting,
integrity, doctrine, reading, the praise they give the activities

4. Para. 3.18; ps.11811.11. Yet prudence is explicitly given the primacy at

off. 1.27.126, and comes first at Abr. 2.8.24; Is. 8.65.

159
 AMBROSE

of others and their avoidance of boastfulness, rather than

seeking to obscure the merits of the bishop by affecting know-
ledge, humility or mercy (off. 2.24.122£). Avarice, Ambrose
held, was an ancient evil, and money something which should
be despised.
The third book, in which the honourable and the useful
are brought together, begins with a reference to David teach-
ing us to walk in our heart as in a spacious home. 5 Scipio had
said that he was not alone when he was alone, and never
less at leisure than when he was at leisure (Cicero off. 3.1.1),
a paradoxical sentiment in which, Ambrose thought, he had
already been anticipated by a host of people mentioned in
the Bible. Mter a lengthy display of biblical one-upmanship
Ambrose returns to the themes of the honourable and the
useful, and asserts that what is honourable surpasses what is
useful (off. 3.6.37). He concedes that the two qualities often
go together. Some years previously those foreign to the city
had been expelled from Rome in time of famine, but shortly
afterwards Rome had to seek grain from the very people whose
children had been banished. Not only was the expulsion of
the foreigners wrong, but as it turned out it was to no avail,
whence it followed that what was honourable was also useful
and what was useful honourable. 6 But the superiority of the
honourable was clear, as the manner in which the Israelites
took the Promised Land (off. 3.8.53-56) and numerous other
events described in the Bible showed. Nothing, Ambrose
asserts, is to be placed before what is honourable, but nei-
ther should friendship be passed over (off. 3.22.126). He
concluded his work by stating that he had given his sons
things to keep in their minds and put to the test. His three
books contained nearly all the relevant examples and many
of the sayings of their elders so that, even if the writer's style
was not attractive, good instruction would still be found
there (3.22.139).

5. Ambrose's words 'David propheta docuit nos tamquam in amplo domo

deambulare' unexpectedly echo the words he used elsewhere to describe
the activity of David, 'deambulans' in his' domus' on the afternoon when
he caught sight of the naked Bathsheba (apol.Dav. 1.2; apol.alt.Dav. 2.5).
6. Off. 3.7.45-52; the second half of this passage is a powerful piece of
writing. The expulsion was the work of Symmachus, while prefect of the
city. It would therefore have occurred at about the time of Ambrose's
controversy with him over the altar of Victory.

160
 ON DUTIES

An unusual work among the writings of Ambrose, the De

officiis is interesting in more than one way. Most obviously, it
gives insight into the life of the clergy in Ambrose's time.

THE CLERGY
Ambrose saw the clergy as people with dignity. He reminds
his readers that he once refused to admit a friend into the
clergy because his way of walking left something to be desired,
while another person, already a cleric, irritated him by his
insolent gait. Such people gave an impression of levity and
of being men about town. Ambrose had clear ideas on how
a member of the clergy should walk: he was to avoid being
so slow that he looked like a statue and so quick that he
resembled an acrobat. His style of walking should have 'an
appearance of authority, a weight of gravity, an imprint of
tranquillity' (off. 1.18.72-5). Such a man would be a person
of self control. Concern for this resonates through the advice
Ambrose gives. It lies behind the injunction that the clergy
should avoid the company of intemperate people, for those
who sought pleasure, especially in banquets, play and fun,
would weaken their manly gravity. It was necessary to guard
against any impulse to slacken one's resolve. The clergy
should avoid the banquets of outsiders, involving as they did
a love of feasting, the telling of stories and the possibility of
drinking too much.' Young clergy were only to go to the
homes of widows and virgins for the sake of visiting, and
then only in the company of their elders, the bishop or, in
case of need, priests, for even those of faultless conduct
could be held in suspicion. Free time could be profitably
spent in reading the Bible and prayer (off. 1.20.87f). Jests
were inconsistent with the discipline of the church, and
could not be found in Scripture,
Scripture , while the telling of stories
could weaken one's gravity (off. 1.23.102f). Ambrose has little
to say on any temptation women might pose the clergy, being
rather concerned with the gossip which innocent behaviour
be haviour
could cause. Avarice, which may have been in an obscure way

7. Off. 1.20.85f. One of the lessons Augustine learned from Ambrose

was not to attend banquets held
h eld by one's fellow citizens (Possidius
VAug.27).
VAug. 27).

161
 AMBROSE

linked with chastity, was more of a problem. Writing to an

emperor, Ambrose observed that the first victory of chastity
was the defeat of desire for possessions, because desire for
gain was a temptation for modesty (ep. 73(=18).12), and that
he saw avarice as a problem for celibate clergy is implied by
Paulinus (VAmb. 41). He knew that some who restrained
themselves from sexual activity were seized by avaricious
yearning (ps.118 16.45), which meant that avarice could be
a particular temptation for chaste members of the clergy
(Luc. 4.53).
The clergy were to be separate from the familial and social
lives of those around them. Among such men, deprived of
other relationships, friendship would be important:

PreselVe, my sons, the friendship into which you have entered

with the brothers. Nothing in human affairs is more beautiful
than this. For it is the solace of this life for you to have someone
to whom you may open your heart, with whom you may share
private things, and to whom you may entrust your innermost
secret. You then have in place a faithful man who will rejoice
with you when things go well, suffer with you in times of sorrow,
and encourage you when you are attacked. (off. 3.22.132)

The language is powerful, and that Ambrose was proposing

a dauntingly high estimate of friendship did not escape the
notice of medieval readers. 8 But Ambrose's sentiments are
borrowed, being a paraphrase of the sentiments of Cicero
(especially Laelius de amicitia 6.22), and they need not imply
anything about himself. Indeed, we may speculate whether
they had any relevance to him at all, for there is scarcely any
evidence for friendship in his life. The solitary reference to
an unsatisfactory friend whom he refused to admit to the
clergy is scarcely compelling, and close personal relationships
of the kind Jerome and Augustine enjoyed, and which can
be documented from sources of a similar kind to those we
have for Ambrose, in particular letters, are unknown in his

8. Ailred of Rievaulx quotes a passage from off. 3.22.136 fairly accurately,

but his disciple Walter found the doctrine so sublime and perfect that
he did not dare to aspire to it, and was willing to settle for the concept
of friendship suggested by Augustine, which seemed less demanding
(De spirituali amicitia 3.83-85, ed. CCSL Continuatio medievalis 1; cf.
Augustine con[ 4.8.13).

162
 ON DUTIES

case. The biography of Paulinus breathes no hint that he

had a friend.
Ambrose saw the job of the clergy as one of high status.
The very word 'duties' he applies to their tasks indicates
this.9 It was also suggested by his implicit comparison of the
duties of the clergy for whom he wrote his book with those
of the person for whom Cicero wrote, his son Marcus, whose
career was distinguished. By basing himself on Cicero's text,
Ambrose was saying something about his own status and
that of his 'sons', the clergy. It was true that only a few
followed their physical fathers into the clerical ranks, an
unusual circumstance in a society where sons often followed
fathers in a field of employment. But Ambrose pointed out
that the work was burdensome and abstinence was difficult
for the young, who did not find a life of obscurity attractive.
The clergy were not to be downhearted in the face of this,
for Ambrose told them that the service in which other peo-
ple were engaged involved things of the present, whereas
theirs was was to do with future things. lo At one point, after
following Cicero, Ambrose comments:

If those who exhort people to enter public life give these pre-
cepts, how much more ought we, called to duty in the church,
do such things as may please God, so that the power of Christ
might be in us? Hence we may be looked on with approval by
our Emperor, so that our members may be the arms of justice,
not arms of flesh in which sin reigns but arms strong for God by
which sin is destroyed. (off. 1.37.186)

The emperor served by the clergy is superior to the one

served by those who enter public life, Ambrose implies, yet
again valorizing the church at the expense of structures of the
Roman world. Moreover, his comparison of the clergy with
members of the imperial civil service again raises the general
question of the connections between classical antiquity and
a new world increasingly coloured by Christianity. It will be
worth our while to return to this topic.

9. See above, p. 45 n. 11. Duty is also an important theme in Ambrose's

one letter to his clergy (ep. 17(=81).
10. OJ!. 1.44.218. The verb he uses, 'militare', is often applied in the
Theodosian Code to the activity of those in the civil service, as it
may have been by Ambrose at ep.ext.coll. 10(=57).6.

163
 AMBROSE

AMBROSE AND CLASSICAL THOUGHT

When he began wntmg writing the De officiis, Ambrose followed
Cicero's work of the same name closely, but as he proceeded
he steadily became more original. Whereas in the first book
Ciceronian reminiscences occur largely in bunches, in the
second they occur with less density, often at the beginning
or the end of a passage, while apart from one solid block they
are thinly sown in the third book.ll As his work advanced
Ambrose increasingly adopted a biblical and exemplary tone;
indeed, he ended by drawing attention to his use of a great
number of examples (off. 3.22.139), which he drew from the
Old Testament twice as often as the New. A book which
began by locating itself against a background of classical
philosophy had become steadily more biblical as it advanced.
One might see here a representation of the intellectual
trajectory of late antiquity. Yet Ambrose was not prepared
to write off non-Christian thought. Indeed, he asserted a
direct connection between the Greeks and the Bible. Early
in the De officiis he asks whether Panaetius and Aristotle were
earlier than David, and states that when Pythagoras, who came
before Socrates, told his disciples to maintain silence, he was
simply passing on the teaching of David in a garbled form
(off. 1.10.30f). In his biblical commentaries, Ambrose had
already staked out a claim for Christian ownership of the Old
Testament. Here he went further, claiming with insistence
that whatever was good in classical thought had biblical ori-
gins. The idea was not original. It occurs in earlier Christian
authors l2 and, like so much else to which Ambrose was
attracted, it had developed in the Judaism of the Hellenistic
period, for Philo had stated that Heraclitus drew on Moses
(Quaestiones in Genesin 3.5). Oddly enough there was even a
parallel to this position in Cicero, who held that a number
of Greek philosophers had visited Egypt for instruction in
intellectual matters (de fin. 5.29.87). Such a belief is implied
in one of Ambrose's earliest works, when he spoke of the
wise of the world having drawn their teaching from 'our
laws' and derived it from the fountain of the divine law

11. T
Testard
estard (1989)
(1989):: 118. Note a recent argument that Ambrose sought to
replace Cicero's work: Davidson (1995)
(1995)..
12. See briefly Moorhead (1983) .

164
 ON DUTIES

(exc.fr. l.42),
1.42), and he went on to assert it with confidence.
Cicero, Panaetius and Aristotle are said to have taken over the
teaching of Job, 131:1 who is elsewhere said to have been older
1.12.43f). The same argument
than Plato and Cicero (off. l.12.43f).
occurs in others of his works. Plato, he asserts, went to Egypt
to learn the oracles of the law of Moses and the sayings of
the prophets (ps.11818.4), whereas David lived long before
Plato; indeed, not only Plato's teacher but the grandparents
of his grandparents could not have seen him, for David came
at the beginning of the kingdom of the Jews, while Plato
lived after the time of the captivity, when the Jewish mon-
archy had already been undone (ps. 35.1). One of Plato's
borrowings was the idea of a garden which, among other
things, he took from the Song of Songs (bon.mort. 5.19, 21).14
Ambrose felt that such borrowings could even have occurred
at a verbal level, for when Vergil used the noun 'puer', which
usually means 'child', to mean 'slave', whether directly or
indirectly he may have been following the use of Scripture.
Scripture.I"
1'>
Ambrose asserts that he used the writings of Esdras in one
of his books so the pagans might know that the things at
which they marvel in the books of philosophy were taken
across from ours (bon. mort. 10.45; an interesting sign that
Ambrose anticipated a readership for this work outside the
Christian community). Yet the pagans could not be trusted
to have comprehended what they took: 'The orators of the
world placed the things which they stole from our books in
theirs, but he who first said it has the right way of under-
standing it' (off. 1.21.92).
l.2l.92). In a curious way, this strategy of
attributing good things in pagan writings to the influence of
the Bible may have worked in favour of the pagans, by guar-
anteeing the validity of some of their ideas. But as this was
only achieved by placing them in the contextcon text of the Bible,
Ambrose's strategy irretrievably undermined their autonom-
ous value. His position was an easy one for someone who

13.. Off. 1.36.179f; the verb 'transtulerint' may also contain suggestions of
13
'translated', one of its meanings in classical Latin. Ambrose frequently
uses it for the activities of pagan scholars confronted with the Bible,
as at bon. mort. lO.45,
10.45, 12.55; fuga.
fuga. 8.5l.
8.51.
1.28.131-33, l.29.14l.
14. See further off. 1.21.94, l.28.131-33, 1.29.141.
1.9.82, referring to Verg. Eclogal'
15. Abr. l.9.82, Eclogae 1.45, with which compare Gen.
42:2 (where Ambrose's 'puer' translates the ''pais'
pais' of LXX; Vulg. reads
'serous') .

165
 AMBROSE

had access to many of the writings of the philosophers to

take; for future generations whose intellectual horizons were
narrower, Ambrose's position may have come dangerously
close to legitimizing ignorance.
We may use the De officiis as a point of departure for fur-
ther discussion of Ambrose's intellectual culture. Just as he
was coy in acknowledging his use of Philo in commentaries
written at the beginning of his episcopate, Ambrose is under-
stated as to his indebtedness to Cicero, whom he mentions
just five times (1.7.24bis, 1.12.43, 1.19.82, 1.136.180)
1.136.180).. Today,
many would see issues of intellectual honesty being involved
here, and Ambrose has been accused of being 'an unscru-
pulous plagiarist' of Cicero in the course of one learned
critique. But the charge is not well founded in detail,16
detail,16 and
may miss the extent of the changes Ambrose made to Cicero.
For example, considering the virtue of modesty, he recalls
the case of Ham, who laughed when he saw his father Noah
naked. Ambrose holds that from this arose an ancient cus-
tom, in Rome and many other cities, for adult sons not to
bathe with their fathers, nor sons-in-law with their fathers-
in-law, lest the authority which comes from the respect due
to a father be lessened (off. 1.18.79)
1.18.79).. His discussion of the
prohibition of inter-generational bathing takes its origin from
Cicero, who handles it differently and, obviously, provides a
different reason for it (off. 1.35.129). Again, writing of the
duties of young men, the Roman author observes:

A young man should respect those who are older, and choose
from among them some fine people who are well thought of,
on whose advice and authority he may rely; for the ignorance
of someone just beginning should be set on a firm footing and
ruled by the prudence of older men. In particular, this age is to
be protected from desires and exercised by the toil and endur-
ance of both mind and body, so that activity in the duties of war
and politics may be successful. (Cicero off. 1.34.122)

16. Hagendahl (1958): 346-72 (the words quoted are at 372). Concern-
ing off. 1.25.118, 'Primi igitur noslri definierunt prudentiam in veri consislere
cognitione',, Hagendahl notes: 'In spite of the literal agreement with
cognitione'
Cicero's definition ... Ambrose pretends to follow Christian author-
(350).. Yet it is clear from what follows that the author-
ities (nostril' (350)
ities to whom Ambrose refers are those of the Old Testament, who
came before Cicero.
Cicero.

166
 DUTIES
ON DUTIES

Ambrose is much more to the point:

Good young men should have the fear of God, defer to their
parents, hold older people in honour, preserve their chastity,
not scorn humility, and love clemency and modesty, which are
as an ornament to the age of youth. (off. 1.17.65)

The two passages are very different. Not only is the syntax of
Ambrose less complex, but the virtues which are commended
are dissimilar and the purposes for which Cicero states they
are to be exercised find no echo in Ambrose. Ambrose uses
Cicero's work as a starting point from which he can go on
to express his own ideas, rather than a body of ideas to be
engaged with. The apparently careless manner in which he
appropriated Cicero may have been connected with his hav-
ing to read his work in scrolls rather than the codices which
were generally used for the works of Christian authors, which
would have caused him technical problems of a kind familiar
7
to users of microfilms. 17
I
Yet,
Yet, however haphazard his use of Cicero, Ambrose re-
mained open to the pre-Christian past. This was even true at
the level of language. In some ways his Latin is very Christian.
For example, he persistently refers to the first day of the
week as the Lord's day, although laws issued at the time by
Christian emperors still use the classical expression 'Day of
the Sun' .18 A description of David fighting against the Titans
of classical mythology does no more than add an elegant
touch to his prose, an appropriate one given the gigantic
stature of David's opponent Goliath (off. l.35.177). But when
he writes of himself offering the sacrifice of the eucharist
the terminology which came naturally to him was that which
classical authors had used for pagan sacrifices. 19 Similarly,
17. Suggested, not conclusively, by Testard (1989): 75f.
18. Ambrose uses (dies) dominica at Luc. 8.26, ps. 47.1, saer. 4.6.29; cf.
cod. Theod. 2.8.lf and 8.8.3 (with 11.7.13), referring to 'the Day of the
Sun, which our ancestors rightly
righ tly called the Lord's day'. The term used
by Ambrose was the one with a future in the Romance languages (cf.
Italian domenica, French dimanche, Spanish domingo).
19. With 'nobis adolentibus altaria' (Luc. 1.28), compare 'adolere altaria'
(Vergil aen. 7.71, Lucretius 4.1237). Ambrose's vocabulary was not
precise: at ep. 72(=17)
72(=17).14
.14 ara
am is used of both Christian and pagan
rhetorical
altars, doubtless for rhetori cal effect; altaria of pagan and ara am of
Christian at ep. 73(=18) .lO;
.10; altan'
altarp and ara
am both used of Christian altars
at virgb. 1.11 .65.
l.11.65.

167
 AMBROSE

Ambrose applied language drawn from non-Christian religious

practice to baptism. In his funeral orations, he spoke of people
being 'initiated into sacred mysteries' (ob.Val. 23, cf. 51) and
'initiated into the more perfect mysteries' (exc.fr. 1.43; cf.
1.44.49), and in a formal letter to Valentinian he wrote of
the initiation of the emperor Constantius into the sacred
mysteries (ep. 73(=18).32). Even in semi-formal works, he
spoke of mysteries which it would not have been right to
make known to those not yet initiated (myst. 1.1.2) and young
women initiated into the sacred mysteries (virgt. 5.26).
Such terminology, while it had long been used by Christians,
would not have raised an eyebrow had it been used among
pagans, for they employed it to describe their own rights of
initiation into mystery religions. 20
It would be ridiculous to suggest, on the strength of such
verbal similarities, that Ambrose saw himself as doing the
same things as officiants at pagan ceremonies. In various
works he persistently uses the explicitly Christian noun 'bap-
tism' for the sacrament, so his preference for language of
initiation in some works is a sign of the level at which he was
writing, and of a tendency to use different vocabularies for
different audiences. Similarly, when he compared heresy to
two monsters of classical mythology, the Hydra and Scylla
(jid. 1.6.46), the learned allusion was not well received by
his enemy Palladius, who urged him to desist from useless
story-telling. Indeed, Palladius made the cutting suggestion
that Ambrose brought up matters concerning monsters in
his long-winded address simply to flaunt his literary know-
ledge (Palladius apol. 87; Scolies, ed. Gryson 272). Such
allusions were appropriate only in works written for learned
readers, and those to which Palladius took exception occur
in a work addressed to the Emperor Gratian, himself a student
of the scholar and poet Ausonius. Yet Christian and non-
Christian discourses were permeable enough to operate at
all registers. When Ambrose, in a hymn designed for popular
singing, described the apostle John as standing motionless, he
was using an expression derived from Vergil which a pagan
contemporary, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, applied
to the Emperor Julian the Apostate, so fragile was the

20. Cf. Cicero Tusculanae disputationes 1.29.

168
 ON DUTIES

division between ancient and Christian spirituality.21 At the

level of vocabulary Ambrose was happy to adopt explicitly
non-Christian usage. To what extent was this also true of
non-Christian thought?

NEOPLATONISM
Ambrose liked to think that the simple truth of the fishennen
fishermen
stood in the way of the words of the philosophers (inc. 9.89).
He exuded a gruff, matter-of-fact air of common-sense real-
ism. As in political life, so in intellectual life Ambrose saw
the tide as flowing strongly in the right direction:

The philosophers remain alone in their colleges. See how faith

with its arguments is of greater weight:
those who dispute at length are deserted each day by their
comrades;
they who believe simply grow each day.
The philosophers are not believed; the fishennen are.
are.22
The dialecticians are not believed; the publicans are.

These comments are not borne out by his own practice.

It is one of the great achievements of modern scholar-
ship on Ambrose to have discovered that at some points he
drew upon the works of a great non-Christian philosopher,
Plotinus. 23 A Greek-speaker born in the East, he had taught
in Italy during the third century of the Christian era, and
after his death his writings were published by his disciple
Porphyry as the Enneads ('groups of nine'). The founder of
a tradition now usually referred to as 'Neoplatonism', since
it involved what its participants thought of as a revival of
the teachings of Plato, Plotinus developed a complicated

2l. See on his use of'immobilis

21. of 'immobilis .... stet it , (aen. 12:398-400) Fontaine (1982),
.. steW'
with an intriguing query as to the applicability of the expression
'Antike und Christentum', given that Christianity developed as a part of
antiquity (551 n. 81).
l.13.84; philosophers and fishermen are also played off at inc.
22. Fid. 1.13.84;
9.89, while philosophy and dialectic are criticized at jid. fid. 1.5.42
l.5.42 and
ps.118 22.10. In all cases, Ambrose's comments occur in the context
ps.11822.10.
of attacks on 'Arian' thinking; hhence e nce he is making a point about
heresy as well as philosophy.
23. See especially Courcelle (1950) and (1963).

169
 AMBROSE

philosophical system in which he posited the existence of the

One, from which proceeds the world of ideas, from which
in tum proceeds the spirit of the universe, this last being
responsible for the creation of material things. Plotinus'
thought is difficult and it is not expressed clearly, but Chris-
tian thinkers and those on the fringes of Christianity in late
antiquity were fascinated by the points of contact it seemed
to offer with their own beliefs. It was through reading
Plotinus that Augustine, philosophically far more acute than
Ambrose, thought himself advised to return to himself, and
found himself far from God in what he termed a region of
unlikeness (can! 7.10.16, a passage full of reminiscences from
Plotinus). Similarly, it was from 'the books of the Platonists'
that he learned to seek an incorporeal truth (can! 7.20.26).
Mter his conversion to Christianity he drew on Neoplatonic
teaching in his attempts to give expression to the mystery of
the Trinity, and a long section of the City of God is devoted
to delineating the common ground and the differences
between the 'Platonists', by whom he chiefly means Plotinus
and Porphyry, and Christianity. At the very end of his life,
when the town of Hippo was besieged by the Vandals,
Augustine's biographer Possidius describes him taking com-
fort from the opinion of 'a certain wise man', as he circum-
spectly terms Plotinus, that 'He is not great who thinks it
is great that wood and stones fall and those destined for
death die' (VAug. 28, quoting enn. 1.4.7). The impact of
Plotinus on Christian intellectuals such as Augustine made
him an important element in the second of the three major
encounters which have taken place between Greek philosophy
and a monotheism of Semitic origin.
It is not clear how Ambrose came to know of Plotinus,
although the lack of allusions to his ideas in early works may
indicate that he only discovered him some time after he had
become a bishop. He may have been introduced to him
by his 'father in grace', the scholar Simplicianus, who had
Neoplatonic leanings. In one of his letters to Simplicianus,
Ambrose credited him with showing how far from the truth
the 'books of philosophy' were (ep. 2 (=65) .1), but this may
reveal how Ambrose wished to understand his learned
correspondent, or perhaps how Simplicianus wished to be
understood. When Augustine was in Milan Simplicianus gave
his approval to his reading of Neoplatonic books, and told

170
 ON DUTIES

him of Marius Victorinus, a formidable scholar of Mrican

origin who included Neoplatonism among his intellectual
interests, and in whose conversion to Christianity he had
been involved (con! 8.2.3-5) .24 But Ambrose made very little
use of Neoplatonic texts in his early works, when the influ-
ence of Simplicianus on him is likely to have been at its
strongest, and we must be sceptical as to the existence of a
Neoplatonic circle at Milan. 25 Moreover, Ambrose's knowledge
of the writings of Plotinus was not wide, for his borrowings
from Plotinus in specific works tend to come from a very
narrow range of the Enneads in each case,26 and it is possible
that his access to Plotinus was by way of an intermediate
source or sources. 27
One of the phrases in Plotinus which made the greatest
impact on Christian readers was his observation that one
should flee to one's true country. Intimations of it, perhaps
not reflecting conscious recollection of it, occur in contexts
where one would not expect to see the influence of Plotin us
on Ambrose. Discussing the biblical story of the wise men
who worshipped the infant Jesus, Ambrose points out that
they came to him by one way and went away by another. He
links this circumstance with the teaching ofJesus on the two
ways, one of which leads to destruction and the other to life
(Matt. 7:13f). But Ambrose replaces 'life' with 'kingdom',
which allows him to suggest that the former is the way of
sinners which leads to Herod, while the latter way is Christ,
by which one goes back to one's country. By being on guard
against Herod we may gain an eternal dwelling place in the
heavenly country (Luc. 2.46; ep. 11 (=29) is saturated with
the language of Plotinus).
Plotinus) .

24. See further civ.dei 10.29 fin. Many of Victorinus' works sUlvive.
24.
25. Madec (1987).
26. The index of ancient authors appended to the SAEMO edition of the
De Isaac indicates eight borrowings, but all but one of them are from
a short section of the Enneads (1.6.7-1.8.8), and the other may be
from Origen rather than Plotinus directly (SMMO 3:51 n. 35); all
but three of the ten passages used in the De bono mortis are from the
first book of the Enneads; and of the nine passages drawn on in lac.,
seven fall in the range 1.4.2-1.4.16.
27. Madec (1974), together with Savon (1977b). The narrow range ofthe of the
Enneads on which Ambrose draws in his various works could be held
to support this hypothesis.
hypothesis .

171
 AMBROSE

Ambrose's use of Plotinus is particularly striking in three

works which seem to have been written within the space of a
few years, De Isaac vel anima (On Isaac or the soul), De bono
mortis (On the Good of death), and De Iacob et vita beata
(Jacob).2s Hence, an influence on Ambrose's thinking from
outside the Judea-Christian tradition apparently came to
operate in a significant way after he had been a bishop for
over a decade. One of these works, that on Jacob, we have
already examined (above, page 135ff); we shall now con-
sider the other two, which as it happens are closely linked.
The De Isaac, as its subtitle suggests, is largely concerned
with the soul, a topic on which Ambrose believed the Song
of Songs had a good deal to say. In this work he interprets
the bride of the Song as the soul. He sees her as being set
on the chariots of Aminadab (Song 6:12), which were drawn
by horses. These could be good, in which case they stand for
the virtues of the soul, or bad, in which case they represent
bodily passions. Ambrose identifies the good horses with
the cardinal virtues, here itemized as prudence, temperance,
fortitude and justice, and names the four bad horses as wrath,
ardent desire, fear and iniquity (Is. 8.65; the four bad horses
are identified as wrath, cupidity, enjoyment and fear at virgt.
15.95). The good horses, which fly upwards as they raise
themselves from the earth to higher things, lifting the soul
with them, behave in a very Neoplatonic way, and Neoplatonic
themes are particularly clear in both the argument and the
expression given to it as the book moves towards its climax.
'Let us take the wings which, like flames, head towards higher
regions!' exhorts Ambrose, following Plotinus (Is. 8.78; cf. enn.
1.6.7). When he asserts that the fount of life is the highest
good (summum bonum) and that we should flee to our true
country he appropriates concepts readily to hand in Plotinus,
even though he immediately Christianizes the latter point

28. Courcelle (1950a, 1963a) has argued that the De Isaac, De bono mortis
and the Exameron are versions of sermons which Augustine heard in
386 and which led him to accept a Neoplatonist interpretation of
Christianity. His theory is exciting but remains unproven, for not
only does the dating of these works remain open, but what Augustine
later remembered as having learned from Ambrose was a general
principle of biblical interpretation, already widespread, that 'the letter
kills but the Spirit gives life' (II Cor. 3:6), rather than any doctrine
which can be traced to Neoplatonic sources (con! 6.4.6).

172
 ON DUTIES

29
when he observes that Jerusalem is the mother of all. all.~) But
what does this flight consist of, Ambrose asks? He answers in
tenns
terms drawn from Plotinus. When he asserts that the father-
land cannot be reached by feet, chariots or horses but rather
by mind (animus), eyes and interior feet (Is. 8.79) he closely
follows his source, according to whom feet, carriage and
boat will not suffice (enn. 1.6.8). The 'good' (bonum) we
seek is God, who is the only good, for there is no-one good
but the one God (cf. Mark 10:18). We know this good in a
spiritual way: just as only a healthy eye can look at the sun,
so only a good soul can see the good. Life is a good, good, but
death is not to be feared, for while it is rest for the body it
brings freedom and release for the soul. We are not to fear
the one who kills the flesh but not the soul (cf. Matt. 10.28),
for someone who takes away our clothing can steal what is
ours, but not what we ourselves are. Having already delivered
himself of the opinion that the pleasures of the body are evil
enticements, from which the soul flees like a sparrow from a
broken snare (7.61), Ambrose is definite in his identification
of individuals with their souls: 'We are souls ... we are souls;
our limbs are (just) clothes' (Is. 8.79).
We have already seen Ambrose taking a negative view of
the human body (above, page 56ft),
56ft"), but this scarcely prepares
us for the finale of the De Isaac. Ambrose's identification of
individuals with their souls and his understanding that these
are released by death are views for which there is scarcely
any support in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, just as his
implication that the body will be discarded is hard to square
with the teaching on the resurrection of the body found in
the Apostles' Creed. His view represents the triumph of Greek
speculation over any dignity Christian thought has vested in
the body.
Ambrose developed his position in a book on the good
of death, De bono mortis, in which he deals with a question
posed by Plotinus: 'If life is a good, how is death not evil?': evil?':>o
>o

29. Is. 8.78; see Plotinus enn. 1.6.7 (summum bonum), 1.6.8 (flight to true
country; but Plotinus has himself borrowed the language of Homer,
Iliad 2.140). A comment by Plotinus shortly afterwards that we should
flee to where the Father is assisted in a Christian interpretation of
this passage.
30. Enn. 1.7.3. Ambrose had already discussed the topic in the second
oration on the death of his brother, exc.fr. 2.39, within a section with

173
 AMBROSE

He replies that there are three kinds of death: a death arising

from sin, a mystical death by which one dies to sin and lives
for God, and that by which we complete our journey through
life, which he follows Plotinus in defining as 'a separation of
soul and body'. 31 What, then of the body? Ambrose is blunt:
'The body is your enemy, which makes war on the mind. ,32
Another image derived from Plotinus (enn. 1.4.16, cf. 1.1.3),
suggested a less negative view: the body could be seen in a
neutral way, as a means by which virtues could be displayed,
for the soul was able to use the body as an instrument or
organ on which it could play the tunes of chastity and tem-
perance, the song of sobriety, the sweet sound of bodily
integrity, the pleasantness of virginity, and the seriousness
of widowhood. 33 One way of understanding Christ's words
concerning two or three gathered together in his name was
to see them as referring to the soul and the body or the
flesh, the former bringing the latter under control, just as
Paul castigated his flesh and brought it into slavery.34 The
third kind of death, when the soul is separated from the
body, brings pleasure to few, but this is the fault not of
death but of weakness: 'Taken captive by the pleasure of the
body and delight in this life, we dread the end of the jour-
ney, in which there is more bitterness than pleasure' (bon. mort.
2.3). The categories of pleasure and delight, which Ambrose
elsewhere saw as having been involved in the Fall and in the
light of which he interpreted the singing of the Sirens, make
their return, yet again linked with the body. As life is so full
of hardships, Ambrose is not surprised that the book of
Ecclesiastes, having praised the dead above the living, went

overtones of Plotinus (e.g. the notion of 'returning to that country'

at 2.33).
31. Enn. 1.6.7; consult SAEMO 3:131 n. 6 on the notion of the three
kinds of death, which goes back to Origen, and n. 9 on the Platonic
background to the third death (which is similarly defined at 8.31, but
note that Courcelle, cited here, errs in seeing Macrobius writing before
Ambrose).
32. Bon. mort. 7.26; see in general Seibel (1958).
33. Bon.mort. 6.25; see too lac. 1.8.39: Luc. 6.10.
34. lnst.virg. 2.10f, on Matt. 18:19f. There is more here than meets the
eye, for Paul's 'enslavement' of his body (1 Cor. 9:27) recalls the
rulership exercised by the man over the woman (Gen. 3:16); for
Ambrose's association of the body with women, see above, p. 58.

174
 ON DUTIES

on to say that 'above both these is the one not yet born, who
does not see this evil' .35
Ambrose argued his case with the forcefulness of a school-
boy debater: if life is a burden, its end is a relief. A relief is
good, death is the end; therefore, death is good (bon. mort.
2.5). When Simeon, having taken the infant Jesus into his
arms, said 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace'
(Luke 2:29) he meant a release from the chains of the body,
an image which recalls that of the body as a prison. Seeing
death in this way, Ambrose praises it as a freeing from the
chains of the body, and argues that we should flee evils and
lift up our soul to the image and likeness of God (5.17).
This expression combines the notion of flight, borrowed
from Plotinus, with an allusion to the biblical teaching that
humankind was created in the image and likeness of God
(Gen. 1:26), the latter replacing a reference in Plotinus to
Plato's notion of humans 'being made like God' (enn. 1.2.1;
cf. Plato Theaetetus 176). Ambrose's amendment Christianizes
the vocabulary, but scarcely the thought. The Song of Songs
again makes an appearance, the bride again being seen as
the soul (5.18-20). But Ambrose's argument seems to point
away from the sense of the Christian Scriptures, and he
makes heavy weather of them. To make a quotation from
Paul fit his argument he takes a reference to his members
warring against the law of his mind as applying to the soul
(7.26 on Rom. 7:23), while a reference by Jesus to his 'life'
is changed to make it apply to his soul (10.43 on John
10:18). IV Ezra, a Jewish work written in the early Christian
period, is altered, a reference to souls that have striven
to 'overcome the innate evil thought that it might not
lead them astray from life unto death' (IV Ezra 7:92) being
amended so that the souls have 'overcome the flesh and
have not been bent over by its allurements' (11.48). Paul's
teaching on the resurrection of the body, difficult to square
with Ambrose's emphases, makes only a fleeting appearance
(8.33), while conversely Ambrose praises the teaching of
'the Greeks' (8.34). He goes on to write of the soul:
35. See EccI.4.2f. The thought is a commonplace with Ambrose. In his
second oration on Satyrus he had commented favourably on such
an opinion (excJr. 2.30, quoting the same text from Ecclesiastes), and
elsewhere he stated that a dead person is esteemed above the living,
and one who has not been born above the dead (ps.118 18.3).

175
 AMBROSE

Let that part which is on good terms with the virtues, a friend of
the disciplines, zealous for glory, a follower of the good and
subject to God, fly to that elevated place and remain with that
undefiled, perpetual and immortal good. Let it hold fast to
Him and be with the one from whom its kinship is derived, just
as a certain person says: 'Whose offspring we are.' It is evident
that the soul does not die with the body, because it does not
come from the body. (9.38)

The image of the flight of the soul is Platonic in origin

(Phaedo 79D) , and the statement attributed to 'a certain per-
son' is from Aratus, a Greek writer of the third century Be.
Ambrose borrowed it from St Paul, who quoted it in a sermon
(Acts 17:28). But as the book moves towards its end it be-
comes far more Christocentric. Ambrose turns to the figure
of Christ, and speaks of following him, the one without whom
no-one goes up (12.55). The biblical and liturgical notion of
going up was important to Ambrose (above, page 92ff), 92ff) , and
it was also easy to link with Neoplatonic thought, according
to which the soul, when freed from the prison of the body,
flies upward to the higher place whence it had come. 36 The
point is neatly made,
made,just
just as a reference in a psalm to finding
good things in the land of the living (Ps. 27:13) is used to
Christianize the Neoplatonic notion of the good. Indeed,
such are the similarities between Neoplatonism and Christ-
ianity that Ambrose, using a standard ploy, states that the
philosophers gained their idea of the 'highest good' from
the Bible. We should advance with confidence to life, he con-
cludes, seeking the risen and ascended Christ.
The use to which Ambrose put Plotinus is of a different
order from that to which he put Cicero in the De officiis. In
the latter case his debts, while substantial, are largely in terms
of words and the organization of material, and in any case
the material Ambrose drew from Cicero concerns ethics
rather than doctrine. The things which Ambrose found
Plotinus saying came closer to the heart of Christianity. When
we consider the thinking of Plotinus now, it seems in some
ways to express and in other ways to subvert Christian doctrine.
But as Ambrose understood Plotinus, his teaching could

36. Cf. Cain 2.10.36. Hence Ambrose can de

describe
scribe the soul of the departed
emperor Theodosius as re returning
turning to the place whence it came down
(ob. Theod. 36).

176
 ON DUTIES

be assimilated very easily into the structures of Christianity.

Indeed, some of what he says in passages influenced by
Plotinus he had already said in earlier books, in particular
when he discussed the body. Hence there is no need to
see Plotinus as a determining influence on the thought of
Ambrose. To be sure, he went through a period of enthusi-
asm for him, but this meant nothing more than the addition
of Plotinus to the list of Ambrose's intellectual enthusiasms.
Just as he drew on Philo in early works, but disdained to do
so in some of his later com
commentaries
men taries on Genesis, and just as
he felt free to interpret the figure of the bride in the Song
of Songs in various ways, for a while he was captivated by
what he found in Plotinus.

SYNTHESIS
Yet there was no escaping the reality that Plotinus, and the
current of Neoplatonism he h e represented, was hostile to Chris-
tianity. Despite this, Ambrose was happy to take and exploit
what he found there. It has been well said that Ambrose has
an extraordinary and disconcerting aptitude to empty for-
substance. ,II An example of this, which also
mulae of their substance.'I'
reflects his interest in words rather than ideas, is furnished
by his use of the word' conscientia' (perhaps 'self-awareness')
in the De officiis, which suggests his difficulties in integrating
biblical incidents with the sense he found in the word.'IR But
Ambrose's ability to bring together
toge ther such disparate materials
as those he encountered in Cicero and Plotinus point to one
of his strengths as a thinker which we have already encoun-
tered in our discussion of his work on the Bible, his synthes-
izing power. Ambrose had an ability to take what seem to be
very dissimilar things and make them fit categories already
established in his mind. We shall return to this theme, taking
as an example things that come in fours.

37. Madec (1974): 175, who goes on to observe that one is dealing
de aling here
with a process of substitution and
a nd not doctrinal synthesis.
38. Testard (1973), who makes the inte
interesting
resting suggestion that the dimin-
ishing number of occurrences of the word as the book proceeds
indicates Ambrose's awareness of the problem and his inability to
overcome it (247).

177
 AMBROSE

As we have seen, Ambrose felt that the four virtues could

be seen in various parts of the Bible. Indeed, they were
represented by the four rivers of paradise mentioned in
Genesis 2. In this context they carried an additional layer of
meaning, for they also stood for the four ages of the world.
Hence the Phison represented wisdom and the period be-
fore the Flood, the Gihon temperance and the time of the
patriarchs, the Tigris fortitude and the time of the law and
the prophets, and the Euphrates justice, a quality which is
connected with the Gospel (para. 3.15-22). This understand-
ing of the rivers of paradise involves taking the four virtues
in an unusual order (cf. above, page 159), but it is partially
corroborated when Ambrose discusses God's promise that
the land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates
would belong to the descendants of Abraham (Gen. 15:18).
The river of Egypt, which Ambrose identifies as the river
Gihon, stands for earthly things, such as chastity of the body,
patience and temperance, whereas the Euphrates stands for
virtues of the soul, among which is justice, the pre-eminent
virtue upon which the proper exercise of prudence and
bravery depend (Abr. 2.10.68).
2.10.68) .
Another part of the Bible contained the prophet Ezekiel's
description of four living creatures which had the faces,
respectively, of a human being, a lion, an ox and an eagle,
and four wheels which were associated with them. Ambrose
held that the prophet wished to describe the soul, whose
motions are as four horses. Naming them in Greek, he iden-
tifies them as reason, passion, desire and discernment, each
of them being signified by one of the living creatures. The
wheels with which they were associated turn out to be
the virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice.
Elsewhere he interprets the human being as standing for
prudence, the lion for fortitude, the ox for temperance
and the eagle for justice. 39 Another reference to the virtues,
as we have seen, was implicit in the chariots of Aminadab,
where the contrary vices were also indicated (Song 6:12; see
above, page 172) The virtues could also be discerned in the
beatitudes declared by Christ, for the poor in spirit have

39. Am-.
Abr. 2.B.54, on Ez.l (Ambrose believes that Plato drew some of his
teaching from this pan of the Bible) ; virgt. IB.1l4f. Good discussion
e nal (1995): 52B-31.
in JJenal

178
 ON DUTIES

temperance, those who hungered and thirsted for justice

obviously possess that virtue, those who weep are prudent
and those who are hated have fortitude (Luc. 5.62-68). In
all these instances Ambrose reads the four categories into
biblical passages; in some cases he uses them as a tool to
suggest other four-way schemes of itemization. Another
four-way patterning was suggested by the four parts into
which Ambrose believed, going beyond the accounts in the
gospels, that Christ's garment was divided by the soldiers
who crucified him: he connects these with four colours,
and the different qualities of the four evangelists (above,
page 84).
The ancient notion of there being four elements out of
which the body was made offered another way of understand-
ing the data of the Bible. Aaron's ephod was made of gold,
and then blue, purple, scarlet and flax (Ex. 39:2). Given
that blue is like the air, purple water, and scarlet fire, while
flax comes from the earth, Ambrose felt that this combina-
tion of colours indicates the four elements which constituted
the human body (fid. 2 prol. llf). An identical point is made
concerning the bed of Solomon. It was constructed from
the wood of Lebanon, its columns were made of silver and
its base of gold, while its back was strewn with gems (Song
3:9f). What does this bed reveal but our body, for the gems
stand for air, gold for fire, silver for water and wood for earth,
the four elements which make up the body (virgb. 3.5.21)?
It must be said that here, as in the case of Aaron's ephod,
there is a degree of straining: the ephod's having also
been made of gold, and additional information concerning
the middle of Solomon's bed, each of which would have
introduced an awkward fifth category into the discussion,
are understandably passed over. Sometimes the strokes of
Ambrose's brush are uncomfortably broad, as when he as-
serts that the statement that in the beginning God created
heaven and earth really comprehends all four elements
(exa. l.6.20), and that while Christ hung on the cross all
the elements did him service, even though he only men-
tions the sun, presumably doing duty for fire, and the earth
(jid. 2.1l.96).
Ambrose, then, loved to make connections. His intellectual
world was one of synthesis. Not for him the company of those
who sought for exact knowledge:

179
 AMBROSE

What is so obscure as the investigation of astronomy and geo-

metry, which they carry out? And to measure the great extent
of the air, and to imprison the heaven and sea with numbers, to
leave the causes of salvation and to seek errors? (off. 1.26.122)

At this point he engages with a passage of Cicero, who had

named scholars who excelled in astrology and geometry
(off. 1.19; Ambrose alters Cicero's 'astrology' to 'astronomy').
It must be said that the Romans themselves were not par-
ticularly adept at scientific work, and Ambrose's coolness
may represent a Christianized version of an attitude already
widespread in his society, but Cicero had mustered more
enthusiasm than Ambrose could manage. Synthesis, rather
than analysis and measurement,
measurement, interested him. His mind
was happy placing things together and seeing connections
between them, and it was in this context that, as a Christian,
he approached the ideas of Plotinus.

CONCLUSION
The themes we have considered in this chapter are diverse,
but they share a common characteristic. Ambrose's locating
the position of the clergy in society by comparison with that
of a Roman noble entering public office was a sensible strat-
egy in the fourth century, but it was to have little resonance
in the following centuries, for before long western Europe
was to see the emergence of political structures in which the
figure of the Roman noble would be oflittle direct relevance.
Similarly, his using a work of Cicero as the basis for a discus-
sion of the duties of the clergy must have given readers in
the following centuries a feeling that his work was part of an
outmoded discussion, for they would have expected a more
explicitly Christian framework. In the same way, the theory
that the Greeks borrowed their good ideas from the Hebrews
was not destined to endure. While Augustine noted with
approval in one of his early works the discovery of 'our own
Ambrose' that Plato travelled to Egypt when Jeremiah was
there, whence he came to know 'our literature',
literature' , as time
passed he turned against the theory.40 It was to have a very

40. Jeremiah: doct.christ. 2.28.42. Turns against theory: civ.dei 8.llf; retr.
retr.
2.4 (PL 32:632).

180
 ON DUTIES

limited life in the West, doubtless because the insecurity of

Jewish and then Christian thinkers faced with the attractive-
ness of classical thought, which may have prompted the
creation of the theory, ceased to be a problem for Christians
as their faith triumphed. Indeed, the tenses Ambrose uses
in the expressions 'they thought' and 'we think' (above,
page 158) suggest a feeling that pagan thought was a thing
of the past with which there was no real need to engage.
Even Plotinus, however attractive Ambrose found him in
the years of his intellectual maturity, posed no great threat
to his equilibrium. He assimilated ideas and expressions into
his own writing and calmly went on. Works written late in
his life show Ambrose steadily becoming more Christian
and biblical in his approach.
The mid-380s therefore emerge as an interesting stage in
Ambrose's intellectual development. We have already seen
that it was then that he set about comparing translations of
parts of the Old Testament, and how the thinking of earlier
commentators then led him to develop extended comment-
aries on sections of the Song of Songs. To these signs of intel-
lectual activity we may add his interest in Plotinus. That this
was a time of heavy involvement in affairs of state can only
heighten one's sense of the energies which Ambrose had at
his disposal in these years. The period which was to follow
would confront him with problems which were less tractable,
yet Ambrose's responses were to be as creative as ever.

181
 Chapter 7

THE ELDERLY BISHOP

The victory of Theodosius over Maximus in 388 meant

the end of various tensions in Ambrose's political life. But
circumstances changed quickly. Before long he picked two
fights with Theodosius, one over an incident concerning
Jews and the other over reprisals the state exacted after an
incident in Thessaloniki. Other developments, in particular
the murder of Valentinian, which led to a civil war, and the
death of Theodosius, which brought a Germanic general to
power in Italy, demanded appropriate responses from the
bishop of what was effectively the capital city of the West.
The first of these events involved a topic of great interest to
Ambrose. We shall approach it by way of the broad contours
of Ambrose's thought on Jews.

THE JEWS
Ambrose sawall kinds of continuities between the world of
the Old Testament and that of his own day. The Latin word
he used for a priest of Old Testament times, 'sacerdos', was
the very word he tended to use for a Christian bishop, and
he thought of his office in the church in terms of the Jewish
priesthood (ep.ext.coll. 14(=63).48ff, esp. 59, written to the
church of Vercelli). It was natural for him to feel he could
rely on the biblical figure of Eleazar, a fellow sacerdos, to
help him with his prayers. l Similarly, for much of the Old

1. lac. 2.10.43, a bold stroke given that Eleazar was merely a scribe (II
Mac. 6:19), although of priestly family (I Mac. 5:4). Ambrose almost
always uses the word 'sacerdos' to mean bishop should he use it for

182
 TilE ELDERLY BISHOP
THE

Testament the Septuagint rendered the Hebrew noun for

the 'community' of Israel by the Greek word 'ecclesia', 'ecclesia' , the
word used in Latin as well as Greek for' church', a transla-
for 'church',
tion Ambrose was perfectly content to follow (e.g. Luc. 3.30;
ps.11810.3). He was happy to identifY
ide ntifY the prophet Elisha as
a disciple of Christ (ep. 51 (=15 ).6). It was therefore legitimate
for him to see the Jews of biblical times as 'our ancestors'
and 'our fathers'.~
Genesis, the Psalms and the Song of Songs, the books of
Yet Genesis,
the Old Testament to which Ambrose continually returned, returned,
are secondary to the story of the Exodus and the giving of
the Law in the understanding Judaism has of itself. For all his
interest in the Jewish scriptures and some Jewish exegesis of
them, Ambrose found little to detainde tain him in the parts of the
Bible in which Jewish identity
ide ntity is most clearly expressed. His
treatment
treatme nt of texts sometimes lessens their Jewish nature, as
when he edits out the references
referen ces to the Maccabees being the
children of Abraham found in I Maccabees.:\ And whatever
standing the Jewish people may once have had, Ambrose
decisively replaced in God's favour by
felt that it had been decisively
the Christian people. He H e persistently
pe rsiste ntly interprets the tales of
sibling rivalry in which the elder
elde r is overcome by the younger,
which are such an important and sustained feature of the
book of Genesis, as referring to the synagogue and the church,
J ewish and Christian peoples, respectively,~
or the Jewish respectively ,~ just as he
displays an extraordinary ability to relate pairs of individuals
mentioned in different parts of the th e Bible, one bad and one
good, to Jews and Gentiles.'
Gentiles.'>> He
H e often interprets the parables

priest, as at off. 2.15.69, another term te rm is used nearby

nearby for bishop);
bish op);
JJerome
erome and Augustine use it for hoth both priest and bishop, while subse-
quently it tends to mean priest.
2. See for example Cain 1.8 1.8.:31, 9.35; fP. 57(=6).2;
.31. 9.35: 57(=6).2: ep.
fp.fxt.roll. 14(=63).28;
fxl. roll. 14 (= 63).28;
12; sarro 1.4.11. St Paul described the Jews as 'our fathers' (I
43.12;
/1.1. 43.
11.1. (1
Cor. 10:1).
10:1) .
3. See above, p. 136 for Ambrose's replacement of 'the religion ooff our
fathers' by ''religion'.
religion'.
4. So his exegesis of Cain and Abel (Cain 1.2.5), Ishmael and Isaac (Abr.
1.4.28), Esau and Jacob (lar:. 2.3.10), aand nd Leah and Rachael (lac. 2.5.25).
Compare Jacob's blessing of Ephraim aand nd Manasseh (Ja r. 2.9.37).
(lac.
5. Hence the two children of David by Bathsheba (apol.alt.Dav. 7.38); two
mmene n in a city, one rich and oone poor (ibid. 111.57);
ne poor I .57); two brothers in
the parable of the prodigal so n (I,ut:.
son (I,ll(:. 7.239); two women a att a mill
(Luc. 8.48).
(Luc.8.48).

183
 AMBROSE

ofJesus as portraying the Jews negatively with respect to the

Christians. 6
The Jews, therefore, had been replaced by the Christians.
Jesus once spoke of two women grinding at a mill. The mill
could be taken to stand for the world, but Ambrose pre-
ferred to think of it as the human body which encloses the
soul like a prison. In this mill the synagogue, or bad-living
soul, is unable to separate the inner part of the grain from
the husks, but the holy church, or the soul unstained by
contact with sins, offers good flour to God (Luc. 8.48, on
Luke 17:35). In this dense cluster of images, the soul is seen
as being enclosed in the prison of the body; it is assimilated
into the church, a move authorized by Ambrose's long medi-
tations on the Song of Songs; and the church is compared,
to its advantage, with another female figure, that of the
synagogue. The failure of the Jews to follow the clear lead of
their own Scriptures and join the church exasperated
Ambrose. He found their unbelief, quite simply, damnable
(exh.virg. 10.66). Commenting on a passage of Genesis, he
accused the Jews of failing to understand what they read
and not wishing to believe what Moses wrote. For what could
be more obvious?
In this place they are invited to pass over to the church of God,
and those who were confined within the borders of Judaea to
migrate to the people of God who have come together from the
whole earth, from all nations and peoples, to become a great
people. When Jacob was called by his sons, the Jewish people
was invited to grace by Peter, John and Paul. (Ios. 14.82, on
Gen. 46:2-4)

Ambrose's attitude to Judaism came to take a harder edge.

In late works he explicitly blamed Jews for the crucifixion
of Christ (patr. 2.9), and went beyond the contents of the
Gospels to have 'the Jews' offer Christ vinegar (Luc. 10.124).
He even turned the statement that God's law was the truth
against them: because they did not receive the truth in the
form of Christ, they did not really possess the law (ps.118

6. In addition to the parable of the prodigal son (above, n. 5) are those

of the two debtors (Luc. 6.24) and the barren fig-tree (Luc. 7.160-72).
The woman with the flow of blood, whom Ambrose identified as the
church, could be seen as carrying away the kingdom of the synagogue
by force (Luc. 5.113).

184
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

119:142)!
18.36, on Ps. 119: l42)! Elsewhere, Ambrose sets up a syllo-
gism: God is known in Judaea; God is truth; therefore truth
inJudaea;
is in Judaea. But this only applied to the Jews of the past;
when the later Jews turned aside from the ways of their
fathers, truth passed from them to the church (ps.11812.19).
The Jews, therefore, had no future: when St Paul said that
God chose things which are not to destroy things which are,
he meant that God chose the people of the Gentiles to
destroy the people of the Jews (Luc. 7.234, on I Cor. 1:28).
1 :28).
Many of Ambrose's hostile observations arise from biblical
references to a synagogue or the synagogue. Following a
loose translation in the Septuagint, Ambrose saw the whole
synagogue as having put to death a lamb, whom he saw as
Christ.'7 A man in a synagogue who had an
representing Christ.
unclean spirit could be identified with the Jewish people
in their wickedness and shameless behaviour (Luc. 4.61).
Chillingly, in one of his last works, he observed that the
laughter of the Jews as they tormented Christ would set the
synagogue on fire for ever (exh. virgo 11. 76) .

CALLINICUM
The phrase had contemporary resonance. The mood in
the empire was becoming more hostile to Jews, as evid-
enced by a law of March 388, according to which marriage
between a Christian and a Jew was to be taken as adultery
(cod. Theod. 3.7.2). But an incident which occurred in the
following summer showed that Ambrose was ahead of official
opinion. A group of Christians, at the instigation of their
bishop, burned a synagogue at Callinicum, the modern ar-
Raqqah, just to the north of the Euphrates. In addition, a
group of monks destroyed the meeting place of an heretical
group, the Valentinians. They had been celebrating the feast
of the Maccabees, and perhaps, like Ambrose, they felt a
bond with those martyrs of biblical times. When a report
from the count of the East reached Theodosius in Milan, he
ordered that the bishop was to pay for the rebuilding of the
synagogue and that the monks were to be punished. In this
he reckoned without Ambrose.

7. Ps. 39.14 on Ex. 12:5f; LXX reads 'synagogue' for ·congregation

'congregation'.
'.

185
 AMBROSE

Our chief source for the following events is a letter

Ambrose wrote to Theodosius at the end of the year from
Aquileia, where he seems to have gone to participate in the
election of a new bishop. It is a fine example of aggressive
writing. Even its form of address, 'Ambrose to Theodosius
the emperor', rudely placed the name of the author before
that of the recipient and failed to use the honorific titles
usually applied to emperors; when Ambrose later revised
the letter, he changed it in these respects. H Taking up the
concept of the eucharist as an offering, which he was among
the first in the West to employ, Ambrose resorts to black-
mail: if he were not worthy of being heard by the emperor
he would not be worthy of offering the eucharistic sacrifice
for him. 0 Opposing the freedom of speech appropriate to
bishops to an improper silence, Ambrose suggests that the
difference between good and bad rulers is that the good
love freedom, the wicked slavery. He assures Theodosius
that he was exercising his freedom of speech out of obedi-
ence to God and love for him, and that he knows him to be
good, clement, mild and peaceable. With the preliminary
pleasantries out of the way, Ambrose develops the argument
in a dramatic direction: if a bishop agreed to pay for the
rebuilding of a synagogue, as the emperor sought, he would
become an apostate; if he refused, martyrdom awaited him!
Either alternative would be foreign to Theodosius' times,
and would recall the days of persecution, a period towards
which Ambrose's imagination was always prepared to turn.
In any case, he was prepared to plead guilty himself: 'I cry
out that I set fire to the synagogue, certainly that I told
them to do it, lest there be a place where Christ was denied. '
Ambrose then adopts the rhetorical ploy of assuming that
the order given to the bishop had been revoked, before
suggesting that if the count of the East were to order the

8. The original letter is ep.ext.coll. la(=40); the revised version, ep. 74=(40),
is addressed 'To the most clement prince and most blessed emperor
Theodosius Augustus, Ambrose the bishop'.
9. Ambrose uses the term to refer to his offering of the eucharist: cf. ep.
77(=22).13; ep. 76(=20).5; ep. ext. coli. 1(=41).28, 11(=51).14; off. 1.41.205;
see as well Paulin us VAmb. 10.1. He seems to have thought of himself
as offering the eucharist on behalf of emperors in particular, e.g.
ob. Val. 78, with sacr. 4.4.14 on prayers for rulers at the eucharist.

186
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

rebuilding of the synagogue from Christian funds he would

be an apostate.
Changing direction, Ambrose goes on to consider events
of the recent past. When the apostate Emperor Julian ordered
the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem, the workers had
been burned by divine fire. The homes of prefects at Rome
and that of the bishop of Constantinople had been set on
fire, and no-one was punished; why, then, should people be
punished for the burning of a synagogue, 'a place of unbelief,
a house of impiety, a shelter of madness which God himself
has condemned?' The Jews set many basilicas on fire at the
time of Julian without being punished, and the judge who
condemned a man who overthrew a pagan altar to martyrdom
was thereafter regarded as a persecutor, and shunned. And
anything said by the Jews, who had brought false witnesses
against Christ, was bound to be false. They would take pleas-
ure in seeing countless hosts of Christians persecuted and
murdered, regarding it as a triumph similar to those they
er~oyed in former times.
The letter then changes direction again. Ambrose repres-
ents the prophet Nathan reminding King David, a younger
son just as Theodosius was, of all the benefits he had received.
But the real speaker in this passage is Christ, the person being
addressed is Theodosius, and the benefits which are described
as being received by the latter, in particular the defeat
of an enemy who clearly stands for Maximus, are tailored
to Theodosius' recent past. Ambrose expresses himself
with strength: of the ten sentences placed in the mouth of
Christ, nine intimidatingly begin with the pronoun '1'. He
argues that Maximus was defeated because he posed as an
upholder of public order after a synagogue was set on fire at
Rome. Surely there was a warning here for Theodosius; and
if this were not sufficiently alarming, Ambrose alludes to the
danger to Theodosius' salvation. But the latter threat is left
hanging, as Ambrose returns to a favourite theme. Many
people were plotting against the church, and what answer
would Ambrose give if orders from Milan led to Christians
being killed by the sword, cudgels or balls of lead? When he
revised the letter, Anlbrose added a hectoring passage at the
end, which included a dire threat: he had acted in as hon-
ourable a way as possible so that the emperor would hear
him in the royal quarters rather than it being necessary for

187
 AMBROSE

him to give him a fonnal

formal hearing in church.1O But this was
no more than a case of prophecy after the event.
Yet again, Ambrose's letter to Theodosius demonstrates
the difficulty he had in sustaining a line of argument, and
the ease with which extraordinarily exaggerated images of
persecution came to him. Its real significance lies elsewhere.
At one point he addresses Theodosius:

But public order concerns you, emperor. Which, then, is the

more important, the display of public order or the interests of
religion? Repression should yield to religion. (cp. 74(=40).11)

We have already seen Ambrose argue that the rights of reli-

gion were superior to those offamily feeling (above p. 66ft');
here he places them above those of the state. Again, Ambrose's
polemic attacked an important part of the Roman world.
Perhaps there was safety in writing in such terms from out
of town, but Ambrose rarely lacked courage, and on his return
to Milan he spoke publicly when Theodosius came to church,
delivering an address the words of which are included in a
letter to his sister Marcellina (ep.ext.coll. 1 (=41) )).. Mter com-
menting on the need for admonition to be harsh as well as
mild, Ambrose discussed the biblical passage which recounted
Christ's visit to the house of Simon the Pharisee, when a
woman bathed his feet with her tears. When the Pharisee was
asked whether one who was forgiven a little or one who was
forgiven much loved his creditor more, he replied that it was
the former. Christ praised his judgment (iudicium) but cen-
sured his feeling (affectus). These are the very terms Ambrose
elsewhere applies to the attitudes Isaac and Rebekah displayed
towards their son (above, page 4lf), and the Pharisee was
found deficient in the characteristic associated with women.
Ambrose uses erotic language to express the lesson to be
learned from this. Commenting on Jesus' words to Simon,
'You did not give me a kiss, but this woman has not ceased
to kiss my feet from the time I came in', he observes:

The synagogue does not have a kiss. The church has, she who
waited expectantly, who loved, and who said 'Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth!' (Song 1:2). She wanted to put out
her burning longing, which had lasted so long and become

10. The verb 'audire' is used in the same way as it is at fid. 1I pro!.!.
prol.l.

188
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

greater as she awaited the coming of the Lord, with his kiss, bit
by bit, and to slake her thirst through this gift.

If the Pharisee had any kiss, it was no more than the kiss of
the traitor Judas (ep.ext.coll. 1 (=41).14, 16, on Luke 7:36-50).
For the woman and Simon constitute yet another of the
biblical pairs Ambrose sees as standing for the church and
the synagogue: the woman who washed Christ's feet with her
tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them and anointed
them with oil joined the many women in the Bible who
represent the church.
After discussing God's kindness to the Jews in biblical times,
Ambrose approaches the climax of his address by returning
to a topic he had already developed in his letter to Theodosius,
the rebuke the prophet Nathan addressed to King David.
Again, it is clear that David stands for Theodosius. 11 Freely
embroidering the biblical text, Ambrose makes God, speak-
ing through Nathan, remind David of all that he has done
for him, before asking:

Will you, then, deliver my servants into the power of my enemies

and take away what belonged to my servant, thereby branding
yourself with sin and giving my enemies something to boast about?

A" if this was not pointed enough, Ambrose then announced

that he would go on to speak not about the emperor but to
him. He advised him to imitate the woman in Simon's house
who treated Christ's body so well. But Christ's body is the
church, and hence Theodosius would do well to pardon and
grant peace to those who had sinned, pay honour to people
who were not important, and guard the one body of the
Lord Jesus, so that he in turn would guard the empire.
After Ambrose came down from the apse into the main
body of the church, words passed between him and The-
odosius. At that point the liturgy should have proceeded
towards the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice, but Ambrose
had already indicated in his letter to the emperor that if he

11. Whereas Theodosius was described in Ambrose's letter to him as pious,

clement, mild and tranquil (ep. 74(=40).5), here David is said to have
been pious and merciful (ep. 74(=40).25). Mercy is also among the
characteristics attributed to David at of/ 1.24.114, and occurs among
the clusters of virtues attributed to Theodosius at oh. Theod. 12, 33.

189
 AMBROSE

were unworthy of being heard he would be unworthy of

offering the sacrifice. Theodosius remarked that he had been
the topic of the address, to which the bishop replied that
he had dealt with what was to the emperor's benefit. The
emperor observed that he had been too hard in having
the bishop rebuild the synagogue, a verdict which he had
changed, and that monks committed many wrongs, a view
few neutral observers of the period would have disputed. 12
Timasius, a distinguished general and close ally of ofTheodosius,
Theodosius,
began to speak strongly against the monks, but Ambrose
silenced him:
him: he was dealing with an emperor who had the
fear of the Lord; it would be necessary to deal with Timasius,
who spoke so harshly, in another way.l ~ Ambrose stood for a
while before the seated emperor, and asked Theodosius to
allow him to offer the sacrifice for him with peace of mind. 14 \4
The emperor said that he would alter the decision. But this
was not enough: prompted by Ambrose, he promised that
no harm would befall Christians because of an inquiry con-
ducted by the count. Ambrose said 'I ' I act in accordance with
your good faith.' He then repeated the words, whereupon the
emperor said 'Act.' Ambrose then made his way to the altar,
having a sensation of the divine
divin e presence as he offered the
sacrifice.
Ambrose represents his encounter with Theodosius as
a confrontation which he won: 'All things were done to my
liking' (ep.ext.coll. 1(=41).28). We only have his side of the
story, and this as told to his sister; siblings have been known
to exaggerate their triumphs to each other. But it is worth
remembering that while Ambrose, as so often in his life,
delivered his address from an elevated position, when he
came down from the apse he was standing before a seated
emperor who was doubtless surrounded by people ready to
take his side. While Ambrose represents himself as having
competently dealt with the impertinent words of Timasius,
the general's intervention would have been an awkward
reminder that there were always rivals for the ears of the

12. Concern about turbulent monks is relected in a law issued on 7 Sep-

tember 390, ordering that monks were we re to dwell in desert places and
desolate solitudes (cod. Theod. 16.3. 1).
13. Timasius' role in this incident recalls that of Caligonus in 386.
14. Such is the tension of this scene that in his letter to Marcellina de·
scribing the incident Ambrose uses the historic present (dieo).
(dieo) .

190
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

emperor; he was aware that, while there were many people in

the Roman empire, those close to the emperor enjoyed greater
favour (Luc. 5.61 fin.). Further, the body-language of their
encounter may have suggested that Ambrose was making a
request of the seated emperor. Indeed, it has been suggested
that Ambrose was the loser in the affair, which enabled
Theodosius to appear in a good light and cost Ambrose his
good wil1. 15 Theodosius went on to spend at least part of the
summer of 389 in Rome. Few people would choose to spend
that season in Rome, and during his sojourn there he may
have been bidding for the support of traditionalist circles not
likely to have seen eye to eye with Ambrose. On his return
to Milan a delegation in the pagan interest, representing
part of the senate, came to the city. Ambrose spoke to the
emperor face to face; for several days thereafter the bishop
did not approach him (ep. ext. coll. 10(=57).4). We may well
conjecture a falling-out.
At about this time Ambrose wrote a tract on penitence
(De paenitentia). The question had arisen because of a rigorist
group, the Novatians, who, while orthodox in doctrine,
claimed that those who committed serious sins could not do
penance and be received back into full membership of the
church. Against them, Ambrose argued that the Spirit of
God was more inclined to mercy than harshness (paen. 1.2.9).
In a relatively original work, he marshalled a great volume
of evidence from the Bible for God's mercy towards sinners.
Essaying another interpretation of the parable of the Good
Samaritan, Ambrose sees the person going down from Jeru-
salem to Jericho as having relapsed from the combat of
martyrdom to the concerns of this life. Yet the Samaritan
did not pass him by, but cared for him and cured him;
and Christ said 'Go and do thou likewise' (paen. 1.11.5lf).
Ambrose's notion of penitence is a little imprecise, owing to
a tendency of the Latin of the period to express verbal ideas
by the use of a simple verb and a noun or adjective, which
caused 'repent' to be expressed by 'do penitence'.lIi There

15. McLynn (1994), esp. 307f, against Brown (1992): 109, where The-
odosius is seen as having been 'forced into the dangerous habit of
giving way to bishops'.
16. 'Agere paenitentiam'. The tendency is also reflected in the use of'salvum
facere' for 'salvere', 'save'.

191
 AMBROSE

is therefore an ambiguity in the expression, which sometimes

must mean simply 'repent' (e.g. paen. 2.4.27) rather than
carrying out some penitential practice. But whatever reality
was expressed by the words, Ambrose's attitude was sunny.
God, he held, was willing to forgive a sinner. It was an em-
phasis all the more significant for having been clearly stated
just before he had another major falling-out with Theodosius.

REPRESSION AT THESSALONIKI
In 390 a riot broke out in ThessalonikiY The sources are
confused, perhaps hopelessly so, but as far as we can tell a
charioteer was imprisoned after making improper advances
in a tavern to a man in the following of the general in com-
mand of Illyricum. Rioting ensued, in which the general
himself was killed. This was not something Theodosius could
tolerate, and he seems to have ordered that citizens of the
town were to be killed, up to a fixed number, as a reprisal.
It was reported that 7,000 people were killed in the ensuing
massacre, which lasted for three hours. Whatever the reality
may have been, on 18 August Theodosius issued a law from
Verona prescribing that unusually severe punishments were
not to be exacted for thirty days after they had been decreed
(cod. Theod. 9.40.13), apparently an acknowledgment that an
overly swift and savage punishment had recently been carried
out. When Theodosius returned to Milan, Ambrose failed
to meet him. It was put out that this was because Ambrose
was not well, but writing to the emperor (ep.ext.coll. 11 (=51) )
he made it clear that he had not wanted to see him, and
explained why he was unhappy.
The letter is a famous one. It is a private communication
between two people, so confidential that some and perhaps
all of it was written in Ambrose's own hand, to be read by
Theodosius alone. Voicing a familiar concern, Ambrose com-
plains of having been excluded from the emperor's coun-
sels. He states that he alone of the members of the consistory
had been denied the right of speaking, and that sometimes
Theodosius had been angry when Ambrose found out about

17. For what follows, see McLynn (1994): 315ff.

192
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

matters decided upon in the consistory in his absence. IS

But such exclusion may have provided a licence for boldness
in correspondence:

That you have a zeal for the faith I cannot deny, that you have
the fear of God I do not doubt. But your nature is impetuous.
If someone tries to calm it, immediately you turn to mercy; if
someone encourages it, you stir it up the more so that you can
hardly restrain it. If no-one moderates it, would that no-one
would kindle it! Freely I entrust it to you; restrain yourself, and
overcome nature by applying goodness.

This is firm language to use to an emperor.

Ambrose claimed that what had been done in Thessaloniki
was without precedent. Yet the themes of the letter are famil-
iar. Again he writes to Theodosius of David: when he was
accused of having behaved wrongly the king admitted his
sin, and, Ambrose admonishes, 'sin is not taken away except
by tears and repentance'. An allusion to the goodness and
clemency of Theodosius restates qualities he has already
attributed to the emperor. When Ambrose comes to the heart
of the matter, his threat turns out to be familiar: 'I shall not
dare to offer the sacrifice if you intend to be present.' The
letter concludes with a passage explicitly stated to have been
written in Ambrose's own hand for Theodosius' eyes alone.
One night, he says, he dreamed that when Theodosius came
to church he found he was not allowed to offer the sacrifice;
other things occurred, which he passes over. Christians,
Ambrose feels, will condemn their sin rather than defend it.
The letter concludes with a warm message alluding to The-
odosius' two sons, Arcadius and Honorius: 'Most blessed
and most flourishing, may you with your holy offspring
enjoy perpetual tranquillity, august emperor!'
Ambrose's letter has often been interpreted as implying
that he excommunicated Theodosius, although when read
with care it can be seen not to. l !) His assertion that he would
not dare to offer the sacrifice if the emperor were present does

18. Paulinus complained that counrs acted in secret with the emperor
while Ambrose was kept in the dark (l0l.mb. 24.1), and Ambrose blames
Theodosius' sin which led to the massacre at Thessaloniki on the
deceitful conduct of others (ob.Thmd. 34).
19. McLyun (1994): 326f.

193
 AMBROSE

not entail this: if, some months after the massacre, Theodosius
had not shown contrition, Ambrose might well have hesitated
to offer the eucharist. A few years earlier he had threatened
not to offer it if he were not heard by Theodosius, and
he may now have been using the same tactic. To be sure,
Ambrose later said that Theodosius did public penance and
abstained from taking the sacrament until his sons came
(ob. Theod. 34), but his withdrawal from the eucharist could
have been voluntary, for he did the same thing a few years
later after a military victory, and there is no reason to con-
nect his behaviour then with Ambrose. 20 The account of
Theodosius' penance supplied by Rufinus does not mention
Ambrose: according to him, Theodosius was rebuked by the
bishops of Italy, acknowledged his fault and, declaring his
guilt with tears, did public penance in the sight of the whole
church. Laying aside royal pride he patiently fulfilled the
period prescribed for him (HE, 11.18). Later authors elab-
orated upon these events (below, page 212), but there is no
need to accept their stories.
When Ambrose's biographer Paulinus came to write his
account of the affair of Thessaloniki, he fabricated a dialogue
between the emperor and the bishop. He has Theodosius
assert, in an attempt to justify himself, that David was guilty
of both adultery and murder, to which Ambrose replies 'You
followed him going astray; follow him mending his ways'
(VAmb. 24). This is a piece of fiction, for the reply attributed
to Ambrose is copied from one of his works on virginity
(inst. virgo 4.31). Nevertheless, Paulinus' story is a reminder
of how important David had become important to Ambrose.
Just as political developments in 386 had led him to con-
sider the Maccabees, his difficulties with Theodosius now
prompted him to reflect on King David. 21 21
He was a resonant
figure in the early Christian period, whose victory over Goliath
was depicted in both Jewish and Christian art. Ambrose,
however, was interested in another aspect of his career.
In about 388 he had delivered a series of addresses on King
David. He recognized that aspects of the king's behaviour
could easily be condemned, and his Apologia (,defence') of

20. Having defeated Eugenius and Arbogast, Theodosius abstained from

20.
communion until his sons arrived from Constantinople (ob.Theod. 34)..
(ob. Theod. 34)
21. See Roques (1996).

194
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

David is largely taken up with inviting people to penitence.

It was apparently intended for a wide audience, for it con-
tains sections addressed to pagans, who were offended at
the king's committing adultery and homicide, to Jews, who
erroneously thought he was the son of God, and to Christians.
Ambrose was struck by one aspect of David's behaviour: 'He
sinned as kings generally do, but he did penance and wept,
which kings do not usually do' (apol.alt.Dav. 3.7). And his
description of David as 'noble in faith, outstanding in mercy,
strong in his hand' (apol.Dav.
(apol.Dav. 3.9), recalls the qualities he
admired in Theodosius. Ambrose observed that there was
no difference between the wrath of a king and that of a
lion; but a person who incited him and became involved in
it sinned against his own soul (apol.alt.Dav. 3.9). The harsh
sentiment may be that of a person nursing a grievance at
having been excluded from Theodosius' circle of advisers.
After the massacre at Thessaloniki Ambrose wrote up the
text of his defence of David and published it in a revised
form containing a commentary on psalm 51, which deals with
the repentance of the king after he had committed adultery
with Bathsheba and seen to the killing of her husband. 22
The second half of the work closely follows the writings of
the Alexandrian authors Didymus the blind and Origen,
which shows that Ambrose had reworked the defence he
had originally delivered orally. We may ask why he did this.
The oldest surviving manuscript for this part of the text
Theodosius. 23 which makes it highly
contains a dedication to Theodosius,23
likely that Ambrose wrote for him,
him. to induce him to do pen-
ance. This would explain signs of haste in its composition. 24
Ambrose had already assimilated the figures of David and
Theodosius when writing to the emperor and preaching be-
fore him after the troubles at Callinicum,
Callinicum. and again in writing
to him after the massacre at Thessaloniki. The revised version
of his defence of David constitutes the final statement of
this theme. To the continuities which Ambrose saw between
the Old Testament priesthood and the Christian episcopate

22. This is the version entitled Apologia in modern editions; confusingly,

confusingly.
the version which preceded it is called the Apologia altera (,other
(' other
defe nce') .
defence')
23. See the edition in eSEL, 32/ 2: 299 .
eSEI-, 32/2:
24. SAEMO 5:47.
5:47.

195
 AMBROSE

we may therefore add the way in which a Christian ruler could

be assimilated into the figure of an Old Testament king. The
theme was to have a great future in Christian Europe.
The affair of Thessaloniki was another victory for Ambrose,
his most palatable to modern eyes. The aggressive tone he
had earlier adopted towards Justina concerning the basilicas
and Theodosius over Callinicum is here used against a harsh
action of the state, from the overturning of which Ambrose
and the church stood to gain nothing. In February 391 The-
odosius, in a sign of good will, prohibited all pagan sacrifices
and closed temples to the public (cod. Theod. 16.10.10). Shortly
thereafter he returned to the East, from which he was only
to return at the head of an army.

CHURCH AFFAIRS
At about this time Ambrose became involved in a church
council which was held, for reasons which cannot be sur-
mised, in the southern Italian town of Capua in 392. Among
the matters discussed was the dispute within the church of
Antioch, which the council of Aquileia had unsuccessfully
sought to settle in 381. Like many such controversies, it com-
fortably outlasted the issues which generated it. The council
decided to place the matter in the hands of the bishop of
Alexandria, who was to consult with the bishop of Rome,
thereby abandoning the line which Ambrose had pursued.
The council also considered the case of Bishop Bonosus of
Nis, who was held to have taught that Mary bore children
after she gave birth to Jesus. Ambrose argued against this
position in his work on the institution of a virgin (inst. virgo
5.35-9.62), and in a letter which he seems to have written
on behalf of the council, but those present felt unable to act
against Bonosus (ep. 71 (=56a)). In 393 a council at Milan
followed the lead of Pope Siricius in condemning another
heretic,Jovinian, and those associated with him. Among other
things, they taught that married people were not inferior to
virgins. Ambrose dealt with this issue in familiar terms: the
wife was bound by the chains of marriage, while the virgin
was free of chains. While marriage, Ambrose still believed,
was good, virginity was better. But another doctrine of the
heretics, that Mary had not remained a virgin in the act of

196
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

giving birth to Christ, called for something new in response.

Ambrose's defence of the virginity of Mary in giving birth
is heavily based on allegorical readings of biblical texts,
although he argues on the basis of a precise reading of a text
in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 'Behold
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son' (Is. 7:14), that Mary
remained a virgin not only in conceiving but also in bearing
her son (ep.ext.coll. 15(=42).5).

THE DEATH OF VALENTINIAN

While such activities reveal the stature Ambrose had acquired
as an elder statesman within the church, the last years of his
life were dominated by political tensions. They originated
in Vienne, the town in Gaul where the young Valentinian
lived. Ambrose looked on him as a person of sound views.
In 391 a group of senators came from Rome to plead for the
restoration of pagan privileges; according to Ambrose, while
everyone in the'consistory, Christians and pagans, supported
their petition, Valentinian rejected it (ep.ext.coll. 10(=57).5;
ob. Val. 19f, 52). But the emperor was under the tutelage of a
powerful Frankish general, Arbogast, who felt sure of the
favour of Theodosius, having supported him in his struggle
against Maximus. Valentinian could not rid himself of his
protector. Early in 392 a threat of barbarians prompted the
sending of Ambrose to Vienne to ask Valentinian to come
to Italy, at about the same time as Valentinian, for reasons
of piety or statecraft, wrote to Ambrose asking him to come
and baptize him. But as Ambrose journeyed across the Alps
in the spring of 392 to undertake what had become a twofold
mission, word came that Valentinian had been found dead.
Some believed he had taken his own life; others alleged that
he had been murdered on the orders of Arbogast. The body
of the young emperor was taken to Milan for burial, and
Ambrose delivered a commemorative address, the De obitu
Valentiniani, perhaps late in July.
This work has a different feel from the two discourses
Ambrose had pronounced on his dead brother nearly twenty
years earlier. While it shares with the first of them an abund-
ance of tears, there are few borrowings from classical authors,
and at one point Ambrose, reflecting the more scholarly

197
 AMBROSE

interest he had come to take in the biblical text, feels that

his audience will be interested in a problem posed by the
Greek of one passage. He begins with a lament for the dead
emperor, which is heavily indebted to the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, although Ambrose's verbal approach to the Bible
continued to get in the way of clarity: a reference to tears
running down cheeks (Lam 1:2) suggested Christ's instruc-
tion to turn the other cheek, which in turn prompted the
reflection that the church had been struck on one cheek by
the loss of Gratian and on the other when Valentinian had
been snatched away. He had been a virtuous young man.
On one occasion he ordered that an attractive actress for
whom the noble youths of Rome had fallen was to be brought
to the court, but when she came he disdained to look at her
and merely sent her away. Was anyone else so much a lord
over his own body? To be sure, he had not been baptized,
but Ambrose told his mourning sisters not to worry, for his
desire for the sacrament meant that he had possessed the
grace which would have come from it. He proceeds to a
eulogy of the deceased, whom he describes as 'my white and
ruddy young man', praising his head, belly, lips, and mouth
in terms drawn from the Song of Songs, only then going on
to praise his soul. Here again, the use to which the Song is
put is unexpected, but it is clever, for the verse 'I am my
brother's and his desire is towards me' (Song 7:11, LXX) leads
into the final portion of the work, in which the language of
the Song is used to suggest Valentinian's meeting his brother,
the murdered Gratian, in heaven. A passing reference to a
brother sucking the breasts of the speaker's mother (Song
8:1), and an interpretation of the breasts as the sacrament
of baptism, allows Ambrose to reiterate that Valentinian had,
in a sense, been baptized. Ambrose hopes that, after his
own death, he will be with Gratian and Valentinian.
When Argobast declared his choice of an emperor to re-
place Valentinian on 22 August, it was clear he was taking
no chances. The successor was Eugenius, a teacher who had
joined the civil service and come to hold a post overseeing
imperial rescripts. 25 His appointment foreshadowed those of
nonentities which generals sometimes made in the following
century. Paulinus was later to claim that Arbogast boasted of

25. Kastel"
Kaster (1988)
(1988):: 403f.

198
 THE ELDERl.Y BISHOP

being a friend of Ambrose and often sharing banquets with

him (VAmh. 30), but when the emperor he had elevated wrote
to Ambrose the bishop failed to reply (ep.ext.coll. 10(=57).11).
Such caution was understandable until Theodosius showed
his hand from Constantinople, but circumstances made it
increasingly difficult for Ambrose to remain neutral.
In 393 Eugenius and Arbogast arrived in Milan. Ambrose
was awkwardly placed, for if he remained in the city he would
have to enter into relations with a government which had
yet to secure its legitimacy. Hence,
H e nce, forgetful of a principle
he
h e had enunciated during th thee events of 386,26 he felt an
extended absence was called for. He retreated to Bologna,
and thereafter Faenza and Florence, where he consecrated a
basilica. Beneath its altar he placed the relics of two martyrs,
Vitalis and Agricola, which he had exhumed from a Jewish
cemetery at Bologna after their presence had been revealed
to the local bishop in a vision. Before he returned home,
Ambrose wrote to Eugenius (ep.ext.colL 10(=57) ). He explained
that his departure from Milan was the result of his fear of
God, not his fear of emperors: he had not been silent before
other emperors and he would not be silent before Eugenius!
Ambrose rehearsed events concerning the endowments of
the pagan temples in earlier times, before accusing the new
emperor of having given the endowments to pagan senators,
a stratagem which would allow subsidies for pagan worship
to be maintained. Ambrose reminded Eugenius of the power
of God and drew his attention to a similar case mentioned
in the Bible, when persecution ceased because of the faith of
the fathers 27 and paganism gave way. No-one forced Eugenius
to act as he diddid,, no-one had him in his power: he should
have consulted with a bishop before acting as he had.
The sting of the letter was in its convoluted concluding
sentence: 'Wishing, as you do, for us to pay deference to you,
allow us to pay deference to the One whom you would like to
be thought of as the source of your authority.' Eugenius may
have wished his authority to be seen as coming from God, but
Ambrose was taking no chances. His attitude was distandistanced,
ced,
as shown by the intitulature he h e used: while he applies the

26. '1 am not accustomed to flee and leave the church' (ep. 75a(=21a)
26. .2).
75a(=21a).2).
27. The ' fathers' wereJews.
27. were Jews. Ambrose's telling of this story is a remarka ble
remarkable
example of his ability to strip a biblical passage of Jewish significance.

199
 AMBROSE

imperial characteristic of clemency to Eugenius, the epithets

'most blessed' and 'most Christian' which Ambrose used of
other emperors are absent. His true feelings may be con-
tained in a letter written to his clergy at a time which cannot
be identified but may have been then (ep. 17(=81». It is
dense with biblical references, even by the standards of
Ambrose, and coherent themes are hard to extract from it,
which may be a sign that it dealt with sensitive matters it was
not safe to broach directly. Ambrose begins by pointing out
how bad it is for clergy to desist from their duties, perhaps a
surprising comment if Ambrose were writing from outside
Milan. He goes on to observe that Christ, despite being a
child, is greater than an old and foolish king whom he does
not name:
Let us therefore live under [Christ], so 'the old and foolish
king' (Eccl.
(Ecc1. 4:13) may have no power over us. Wishing to reign
as the lord of his own will and not to be under the chains of the
LordJesus, he grows old in his sins and passes into a deformed
foolishness. For what is more foolish than to be intent upon
earthly things, having abandoned the things of heaven, and to
choose things which are weak and fragile, looking on everlast-
ing things as inferior? (ep. 17(=81)
17(=81).12)
.12)

We have no evidence for the age of Eugenius, but the

reference to an old and foolish king who turned away from
heavenly things could have been a coded reference to an
emperor who was building bridges to pagan opinion.
The refusal of Ambrose to support the new regime made
it, in turn, more inclined to cultivate non-Christians. Later
Christian polemic may have overstated the scope of whatever
degree of pagan revival occurred at the time, but Eugenius
certainly reappointed a staunch pagan, Nicomachus Flavianus,
to the office of praetorian prefect. He had held it at least as
early as 390, but when Valentinian died Theodosius seems
to have appointed another person to it. 28 Ambrose's old
antagonist Symmachus made plans to attend a festival in
honour ofVesta. 29 Eugenius was diplomatic enough to offer

28. PLRE 348 (Flavianus). In the preceding year, at the beginning of

Eugenius' reign, Flavianus' son had been appointed prefect of th thee
city of Rome (PLRE 346).
29. t-p. 2.59, assuming a late date for this letter; her festival was held on
9 June.

200
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

gifts to the church, but according to Paulinus these were

rejected, and he was not admitted to common prayers (VAmb.
3l.3). One understands why Ambrose's customary bravery
deserted him.
But the doom of Eugenius was already being prepared.
The demise of Valentinian opened the way for Theodosius
to pass the empire on to his two young sons, referred to by
Ambrose at the end of his private letter a few years earlier.
On 8 November 392 he enacted in Constantinople stronger
legislation against pagan worship (cod. Theod. 16.10.12), and
in the spring of 394 led to Italy a large army, which in-
cluded many barbarian troops. Alarming stories were told
that Eugenius and Flavianus had taken an oath that if they
defeated Theodosius their horses would be stabled in a basil-
ica at Milan and clergy forced into the army, and Ambrose
claimed that they threatened savage persecution against the
churches (ps. 36.25). He was always inclined to exaggerate
threats, and in view of the power which the church had come
to enjoy such a plan would have been foolhardy. Nevertheless,
the tide which had been flowing so strongly towards Christian-
ity had, at least momentarily, turned. Ambrose returned to
Milan at about the beginning of August, as his enemies were
leaving to confront Theodosius. The armies met near the
River Isonzo, in the area where many armies invading Italy
from the East in late antiquity encountered its defenders. On
5 September the fighting went against Theodosius, and on
the following day the battle again turned against him. Rufinus
describes him throwing away his weapons and resorting to
prayer, whereupon a strong wind sprang up from behind
his army, and his cause triumphed (HE 2.33). Eugenius was
beheaded, while Argobast took his own life.
Initially, relations between the triumphant emperor and
Ambrose were awkward. His earlier dealings with Ambrose
may well have made Theodosius resentful,:lo and he may have
thought Ambrose's hands-off attitude towards the regime
of Eugenius disloyal. Theodosius wrote him a cool letter.
Ambrose replied, again suggesting a connection between

30. This would explain an order to the count of the Orient to restrain
those who forbade Jewish meetings for worship and attempted to
destroy and despoil synagogues (rod.:r'hrod. 16.8.9, of 29 September
393).

201
 AMBROSE

the offering of the eucharist and the emperor: had he not

held Theodosius' letter in his hand as he offered the sacrifice
(ep.ext.coll. 2(=61).4f)? Paulinus told a story that Theodosius
cast himself at the feet of Ambrose, attributing his success to
the merits and prayers of the bishop, but his account is sup-
ported by no other evidence and merely reflects his desire
to inflate the position of his hero (VAmb. 31.5). The victorious
emperor acted towards his former foes with his customary
mildness. But the cause of the pagans was now lost, and
Flavianus committed suicide.

THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS

Theodosius was not to enjoy his triumph for long. He was
ill, and on 17 January 395 died while still in Milan, a city
which knows cold winters. The body lay in state for forty days,
after which Ambrose delivered an address, On the death of
Theodosius (De obitu Theodosii). In some ways Ambrose's task
was easy, for whatever difficulties he had had with the late
emperor, the first mature and accomplished man to hold the
office in the West since Valentinian I, his defeat of Eugenius
and Argobast had, at the last, made it possible for him to be
portrayed as a friend of the church. On the other hand, his
decease created an awkward political situation. Theodosius
left behind two sons, Arcadius, born in about 377, who would
assume power in the East, and Honorius, a mere ten years
old, who would govern in the West. There, effective power
would be held by another of the great Germanic military
commanders of the period, Stilicho. What was to stop him
playing Arbogast to Honorius' Valentinian?
Ambrose's address on Theodosius is the most interesting
of his four discourses on the dead. It begins in gloom, plac-
ing Theodosius' demise in a context of the cosmic events
which, for centuries, had been thought fitting portents of
the deaths of emperors. Yet the style is light. Always sensitive
to his audience, Ambrose adopted a folksy tone, doubtless
in the hope of influencing as wide a cross-section of the
people as he could. His message is insistent: Theodosius'
sons enjoy the grace of Christ and the faith of the army. Just
as Theodosius had cast down the faithlessness of tyrants, his
faith doing away with the worship of idols, the faith of the

202
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

soldiers sufficed to provide a perfect age for an emperor,

the faith of the emperor in turn supplying the strength of
his soldiers. Turning towards the soldiers, Ambrose observes
that the faith of Theodosius had gained them triumphs; old
in years but strong in faith, he had given strength to all. The
faith of Theodosius was their victory; their faith would be
the strength of his sons, for faith supplies what is lacking in
age. Ambrose proceeds to discuss examples of faith in the
Bible, using the word fourteen times in a short passage. It
occurs to him to describe the patriarchs of Genesis as having
been involved in a 'warfare of faith', and from this he easily
moved back to military matters. Now explicitly addressing
the soldiers among his hearers, Ambrose alludes to the recent
victory of Theodosius:

You have heard, you soldiers standing around, that where

there is misbelief there is blindness. The army of the faithless
was deservedly blind, but where there is faith, there is an army
of angels.

When Ambrose stressed the importance of faith, he was

using the word in two senses. One of these was that of the
orthodox Christian faith. Employed in this way, the word
recalled a comment Ambrose made when he informed
Gratian that victory came from the faith of the emperor
more than from the strength of the soldiers (fid. 1 pro!. 3;
see too above, page 118). But the army which Theodosius had
recently led to Italy included a large number of barbarians
from the region of the Danube (Sozomen HE 7.24) whose
faith was by no means Nicene. Paulin us termed the com-
manders of the army at this time 'Arians' (VAmb. 34), and
many of the Germanic troops who were finding their way
into the army were not Christians of any kind. If they were
following Ambrose's address, they must have understood
the word 'faith' in another sense, that of human fidelity or
loyalty, as Ambrose had intended it to mean when speaking
with Theodosius over the affair at Callinicum.:l1 Less than a

31. Ep.ext.coIL 1 (=41) .28. He had also used the word in this sense when
referring to the army of that emperor being made up of many un-
tamed nations which God had caused to have faith, as if it were made
up of one race (ep. 74(=40).22).

203
 AMBROSE

decade earlier, during the struggle over the churches of

Milan, Ambrose had played on the antagonism aroused by
Gothic troops in the entourage of Valentinian; now, in more
straightened political circumstances, he optimistically spoke
of the good faith of such people. It was a sign that the
western empire was increasingly to depend on the attitude
of Germanic soldiers.
Mter touching on Theodosius' virtues of goodness, mercy
and faithfulness, Ambrose characteristically changes direction.
He begins an exposition of the opening portion of psalm 116,
placing the utterances made there, starting with the words
'I have loved', in the mouth of Theodosius. He then makes
these words his own as he lists the good qualities which had
made him love Theodosius, among them the humility with
which he performed penance in public after the massacre at
Thessaloniki. Ambrose envisaged a celestial imperial gather-
ing, at which Theodosius embraced Gratian, who no longer
grieved at his wounds, for he had found an avenger. Maximus
and Eugenius, on the other hand, could now safely be seen
as languishing in hell, and Valentinian II, whom Ambrose
had located in heaven together with Gratian in an address
delivered less than three years earlier, is not mentioned. But
the heavenly company would include Constantine, the first
Christian emperor whose times saw the fulfilment of the
saying of the prophet 'On that day, that which is upon the
bridle of the horse will be holy to the Lord Almighty' (cf.
Zech 14:20). At this point Ambrose produces one ofthe most
dazzling passages he ever wrote. 32
Constantine's mother Helena, he states, wished to secure
divine protection for her son. Ambrose sees her as having
been an innkeeper. Little status attached to this job, but
Ambrose made the most of its biblical possibilities:

A good innkeeper, who so carefully sought out the Lord

Lord's's stable
[cf. Luke 2:7]! A good innkeeper, who was not ignorant of that
innkeeper who cared for the wounds of the man wounded by
robbers [Luke 10:35]! A good innkeeper, who preferred to be
thought of as dung, so that she might gain Christ [cf. Phil. 3:8]!

32. I know of no earlier interpretation similar to that developed by

Ambrose. Jerome found it pious but ridiculous (PL 25:1540),
25:1540). but the
sixth-century hymnographer Romanos Melodos accepted it.

204
 ELDERLY BISHOP
THE ELDERlX

He tells how Helena went to Jerusalem and inspected the

site of the Lord's passion. Digging, she found three crosses,
but was unable to establish which was the Lord's. She then
read the account in the gospel, according to which the in-
scription Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews' had been placed
above the cross which stood in the middle. She found the
inscription, and so adored the King who, hanging on the
cross, cried out to his Father like a scarab, asking him to
forgive the sins of those persecuting him.:B
him.:~~ Having also found
the nails which had been used at the crucifixion, she ordered
that a bridle be made out of one of them, thereby fulfilling
the prophecy of Zechariah, and that the other was to be
placed in a diadem. Both these were sent to Constantine.
Ambrose comments:

A good nail for the Roman empire, which rules the whole world
and clothes the forehead of princes, so that there might be
preachers where there had been persecutors ... A crown on
the head, reins in the hand: a crown from the cross so that faith
may shine, and reins from the cross so that power may rule.

Now, as even a nail used in the crucifixion came to be held

in honour, the church rejoiced, while the Jew blushed and
suffered torments. The language Ambrose uses to represent
the Jews speaking is strong:

We thought we had won, but we confess ourselves beaten ... Now

our struggle against him is greater, our battle more fierce. We
have despised the one to whom kingdoms are subject and whom
power serves. How shall we resist kings? Kings bend down before
the nail which fastened his feet.

But why, Ambrose asks, did the prophet describe that which
is upon the bridle as holy? This referred to the curbing of
the insolence of emperors. Having left behind the muzzle
of unbelief, the emperors took the bridles of devotion and
faith; not only Constantine but the others too, all of whom
were Christians except Julian.
The conclusion of the discourse is therefore reassuring.
It had begun by responding to fears created by the death of

33. An implicit reference to Hab. 2: 11

11,, where l.XX
LXX has a scarab speaking
Predictably, Jerome was hostile to the identification
from the wood. Predictably.
of the scarab with Christ; see Dolger (1930).

205
 AMBROSE

Theodosius, but these fell away as Ambrose expounded a

'whig' interpretation of fourth-century history. No longer
were there emperors like Nero and Caligula! For the words
of the prophet, 'kings shall walk in thy light' (Is. 60:3, LXX),
had been fulfilled, most clearly in Gratian and Theodosius.
Looking back from the vantage point of 395, Ambrose pro-
duced his final evaluation of the emperors with whom he
had been so involved. Valentinian I, the ambiguous figure
whom the pagan Symmachus had located in the starry arc
of heaven, and the young Valentinian II were edited out of
the sequence of good emperors. But whatever the changes
in the line-up, Ambrose interpreted Roman history from
the time of Constantine positively. Turning to Theodosius'
younger son, Ambrose puns, describing Honorius weeping as
his father's body, 'still dishonoured and lacking the honour
of a tomb', began its longjoumey to burial in Constantinople.
But his remains will not lack honour there, for his glorious
return to that city will be accompanied by a band of angels
and a throng of saints. How blessed Constantinople will be,
concludes Ambrose, possessing the body of one who dwells
in paradise and inhabits the city above.

LAST YEARS
The sentiment was a fine one. But power in Milan was in
the hands of the general Stilicho, with whom Ambrose had
to come to an accommodation. Stories told by Paulinus
suggest that relations between them were awkward. On one
occasion, a detachment of troops commanded byanti-Nicaeans
went to a church where a criminal had taken sanctuary and,
despite the protests of the clergy, took him to the amphi-
theatre where Honorius was staging games to mark one
of his consulships. While Ambrose wept before the altar,
prostrate in prayer, leopards attacked the soldiers. Stilicho
spent some days making satisfaction to the bishop, and the
criminal was exiled (VAmb. 34). When Stilicho complained
to Ambrose that one of his slaves had taken to forging docu-
ments after being healed of a demon, the bishop delivered
him over to Satan. To the astonishment of all, before he
had finished speaking the man was seized by an unclean
spirit (VAmb. 43).

206
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

Involvement with the court also occurred after more relics,

those of the martyr Nazarius, had been discovered in a gar-
den outside the city in July 395. Paulinus reports that the
martyr's blood was so fresh it could have been shed that
very day, his head was intact, and his hair and beard were
fresh. There was a wonderful smell, sweeter than that of any
spice. When his body had been lifted up and placed on a
litter, Ambrose then went to pray at a place in the same
garden where he had never prayed before, and where another
martyr, Celsus, had been buried. The watchmen told Paulinus
of their parents' advice never to leave the place, great treas-
ures having been placed there. The body of Nazarius was
taken to the basilica of the Apostles, which came to be named
after him. While Ambrose was preaching, someone, filled by
an unclean spirit, began to cry out that Ambrose was tortur-
ing him, but the bishop told him to hold his tongue, for it
was not Ambrose who was torturing him, but the faith of the
saints and his own envy at the sight of humans going up to
heaven, whence he had been cast down. In any case, Ambrose
announced, he did not know how to be puffed up (VAmb. (VAmb.
32f). The church was decorated with marble from Libya
which Stilicho's fervently Christian wife, Theodosius' niece
Serena, supplied in thanksgiving for favours she had received
(GIL 6:6250). The court apparently found it worthwhile to
seek the support of Ambrose.
But he was now old. His horizon became darker, the views
on God's grace he came to express being more influenced
by St Paul and Augustinian in their emphasis. 34 He began to
refer to his words as those of an old man (ep. 28(=50).16;
32(=48).7),
32(=48) .7), and a round of activities took its toll. He became
involved in the election of a new bishop at Vercelli, and
ordained a friend, Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia. Mter ordain-
ing a bishop for Pavia in February 397 he fell ill and took to
his bed. According to a tradition known to Paulin us, when
Stilicho heard that Ambrose was not well he commented
that if such a man were to leave the body Italy itself would
be threatened with extinction, and sent leading men whom
Ambrose loved to ask him to pray that his life would be
extended. Ambrose's reply was brisk, and memorable: 'I have

34. Faust (1983): 136. See fOl' example Luc. 7.27 ('deus
(' deus quos dignaturvocat
dignatur vocat
fa cit', quoted several times by Augustine) .
et quem vult religiosum facit',

207
 AMBROSE

not lived among you so as to be ashamed to continue to

live, and I am not afraid to die, because we have a good
Lord' (VAmb. 45).
Ambrose had become concerned about the difficulty of
finding men worthy of being bishops, and wept bitterly when
he heard that a good one had died. It is therefore not
surprising that he intervened when he overheard a group of
deacons talking about who would succeed him in Milan.
They would themselves have been potential candidates for
the office, but one of them mentioned Simplicianus, whom
Ambrose regarded as his father in grace. Hearing the name,
to their alarm he cried out three times from his bed of
sickness 'Old but good!' As he prayed, Ambrose saw the Lord
Jesus approaching him smiling, and a few days after this he
composed himself to die, stretching out his arms in the shape
of the cross and praying so quietly that bystanders could
not hear his voice as his lips moved. The bishop of Vercelli
whom he had recently ordained gave him the sacrament and
Ambrose died, early in the morning of 4 April 397. It was
the day before Easter. His body was taken to the cathedral,
where the Easter baptisms were carried out in its presence.
On Easter Day it was taken to the Basilica Ambrosiana where,
as he had planned, he was buried (VAmh. 46-8). Simplicianus
duly succeeded him as bishop, to be succeeded in turn
by Venerius, one of the deacons who had heard Ambrose
approving Simplicianus.
At the end of his life Ambrose had been dictating a com-
mentary on psalm 44 to Paulinus. In his biography, Paulinus
asserted that, while he was taking down Ambrose's words,
he suddenly saw a flame like a small shield cover his head
and gradually enter his mouth, like a householder going
indoors. Then his face came to look like snow, afterwards
regaining its usual appearance. Paulinus was so surprised
that he could not write down what Ambrose was dictating
until the vision passed. As it turned out, this was the last
day of Ambrose's work, and the commentary remained un-
finished. The deacon eastus, to whom Paulinus confided
the vision, explained it with reference to the Acts of the
Apostles: what he had witnessed was the coming of the Holy
Spirit (VAmb. 42.3; cf. Acts 2:3). Perhaps, although Paulinus'
language hints at another biblical perspective, that of the

208
 THE ELDERLY BISHOP

appearance of Christ described in the narratives of the

Transfiguration. 3[,
Paulinus' story faithfully represents the way his subject had
developed. Much of what Ambrose did cannot be admired.
His personality and background combined to make him overly
convinced of the rightness of his causes, hectoring in tone,
a bad listener, and possibly hungry for power - respects in
which he provided a malign example for later leaders of the
church. In political affairs and other matters his relationship
with the world around him was complex, for Ambrose often
operated along the fault lines which separated this world
from medieval Christendom, his ideas pointing beyond the
environment in which they were articulated. In the midst
of these tensions, Ambrose grew. While Paulinus' account
of his life begins with the standard classical motif of bees
entering his mouth, its end is unambiguously Christian. In
the same way, Ambrose's religion came to touch deeper parts
of his being. It is beyond the scope of this book to pry into
this area, but the fire and snowy appearance mentioned by
Paulin us reflect a sustained theme of the commentary on
psalm 44 he was then dictating, which is packed with refer-
ences to light (ps. 43.6-8,12,15,
43.6-8, 12, 15, etc). Perhaps it was the very
light to which he would shortly be admitted. For Ambrose
believed that the shadow of the law, the darkness of night
and the gloom of the Jews had already yielded to the gospel,
which allowed an image of good things to be seen. A third
stage lay in the future, when the image would pass away and
the truth come:

Go up into heaven, therefore, and you shall see those things of

which there was a shadow or image here
here.. You shall see, not in
part and not in obscurity but in fullness
fullness,, not behind a veil but
in light. (ps. 38.25f)

35. On this occasion Christ's fac e shone as the sun (Matt. 17:2),
17:2). and his
clothing was whiter than snow (Mark 9:3).

209
 Chapter 8

NACHLEBEN

Not all Ambrose's contemporaries were taken with his

work. In a catty mood, Jerome once wrote that he would
not comment on the works of Ambrose while the bishop
was still alive, lest he be accused of flattery or of telling the
truth. l But the reputation of thinkers often lies in the hands
truth.!
of those they influenced, and Ambrose was fortunate in the
role he played in the life of Augustine, for whom he became
more important early in the fifth century. This was a period
when Augustine was involved in bitter controversy with the
adherents of a point of view within Christianity labelled
'Pelagian', and he often found it worth his while to quote
the unimpeachably orthodox Ambrose against his opponents.
He sometimes did this in a cheeky fashion: after reproducing
passages of Ambrose which contradict the teaching of Pelagius,
Augustine quotes Pelagius to the effect that not even an
enemy would 9.zuestion
<tuestion Ambrose's faith and his sure grasp of
the Scriptures. Augustine played on Ambrose having been
not only his teacher but also the destroyer of his oppon-
ents,3 which is precisely the way in which he is depicted in
Paulinus' biography, with which Augustine was in some way
connected. Paulin us introduced the figure of Ambrose to a
wide readership, both directly and by way of the inclusion of
much of his material in the immensely popular Golden Legend
prepared by a Dominican of the thirteenth century, James

1. PL 23:751. As this chapter covers a wide area, and seeks to offer general
perspectives, it is not extensively footnoted.
2. ContraJulianum 1.lOf, 30 (PL 44:645-47,661).
44:645-47, 661).
3. E.g. Contra secundum Juliani responsionem opus imperjectum 5.41 (PL
45:1478).

210
 NACHLEBEN

of Voragine. His work became a source of pithy sayings, to

be misquoted by Charlemagne, according to his unreliable
biographer Notker, and misquoted more interestingly by
Bede, in the last weeks of his life. 4 By the tenth century it
had been translated into Greek,5 in which language Ambrose
was also commemorated in a large number of hymns. His
memory lingered in Milan, where early in the sixth century
he was mentioned in the works of Ennodius. In particular,
Ennodius alluded to Ambrose's success in his controversy
with Symmachus in a witty epigram: Victory had taken the
palm of eloquence from her friend and it passed to Ambrose.
Data from various sources was later fused with legendary
material to create the potent figure, larger than life, who
emerged in the History of Milan written in about 1100 by
Landulf.
The boldness with which Ambrose treated emperors, in
particular Theodosius, was another reason for posthumous
fame, and eastern authors elaborated with enthusiasm on
this aspect of his activities from an early date. Sozomen,
the Byzantine author of a church history who wrote between
439 and 450, found Ambrose noteworthy for his freedom
of speech in the presence of the powerful (HE 7.25.2,13),
while his contemporary, Theodoret, wrote an account of his
dealings with Theodosius after the massacre at Thessaloniki
which is more than half legend (HE 5.1 7). Whereas Sozomen
has Ambrose grabbing Theodosius' robe and denying him
entry to church, and explicitly states that Ambrose excommun-
icated the emperor, Theodoret describes Ambrose saying
that Theodosius was like a dog, and relates with enthusiasm
the humiliation endured by the emperor before he was re-
admitted to communion. Ambrose, he felt, was to be praised
for his brave words and Theodosius for his docility. It was with
menace that the Mrican bishop Facundus informed Justinian
that Theodosius had been chastized and excommunicated

4. Notker Gesta Caroli 2.10, where Louis the Pious is compared to Ambrose
(ed. G.H. Pertz, MGH Scriptores 2). Cuthbert's letter on the death
of Bede is in B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, cd. Bede's Ecclesiastical
History of the English People, Oxford 1969, 581, but Cuthbert has' deum'
for Paulinus' 'dominum', revealing a misunderstanding similar to that
of Augustine (above, p. 14).
5. McLure (l972f).

211
 AMBROSE

by Ambrose. 6 Ambrose's dealings with emperors have some-

times been interpreted by modem
modern scholars as victories which
made possible the later successes of the western church in
its dealings with the state,7 but this is implausible. The case
of Ambrose can easily be parallelled in the East by that of
his near-<:ontemporary
near-contemporary John Chrysostum, bishop of Constan-
tinople, whose resistance to the state was at least as striking,
and the early heightenings of the victories of Ambrose occur
in texts written in the East, where another biography of
Ambrose based on Theodoret's account was to be written,
and not the West. The Latin chroniclers of the early middle
ages seem not to have known of Ambrose's dealings with
Theodosius, although Byzantine readings were mediated
to the West through Cassiodorus' Historia tripartita, which
follows Theodoret in providing a version of his election
emphasizing the role of Valentini an and, more importantly,
a long account of his dealings with Theodosius after the
massacre at Thessaloniki. Cassiodorus' account of Ambrose,
as well as that of Paulinus, was used by the author of a Life
in the ninth century, and such traditions lie behind the use
to which the precedent of Ambrose was put by Pope Gregory
VII (l 073-1085). Seeking to justifY his excommunication
of the Emperor Henry IV, Gregory cited Ambrose as an ex-
ample of a bishop who had not merely excommunicated
an emperor but also forbidden him to remain in the part
of the church reserved for priests and, indeed, kept him out
of the church, an interpretation which could be politely
described as fancifu1. 8
Yet Ambrose's chief legacy to the following centuries was
neither a starring role in a widely read biography nor the
provision of a model of dealing with secular authorities which
later ecclesiastics found to their taste, but the body of his
writings. Of these, the hymns were the most widely known.
Augustine, writing within a few years of Ambrose's death,
states that the practice of singing hymns and psalms accord-
ing to the custom of the eastern lands which he introduced

6. CCSL 90A:396.
7. As by Rahner (1992).
8 . Regis/rum 4.2,8.21 (ed. E. Caspar, MGR Epp.sel.
Epp.sel. 2). See further Schieffer
(1972) , who incidentally brings out how intennittently
intermittently Ambrose's
example was appropriated.

212
 NACHLEBEN

had been imitated in nearly all the world (conj. 9.7.15; cf.
VAmb. 13.3). This is doubtless an exaggeration, but the hymns
were certainly well known in Italy, where Pope Celestine
(422-432) was aware that Ambrose had made the people sing
words from a hymn on Christmas Day, from which he was
able to quote four lines (CCSL 25:112), and an inscription in
the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, who was buried at Ravenna
in 450, contains verses from another (ClL 11:276). In the
Rule he wrote for monks in the sixth century, St Benedict
used the word 'ambrosianum' for a hymn sung at some of the
offices.
The more formal works met with varied fates. The fact
that Augustine quoted from a wide variety of them indicates
that some were being copied and diffused very early, and
the respectable number of early manuscripts confirms this.
Two manuscripts of the fifth century contain portions of the
commentary on Luke, while one of the following century
contains more than half the work. Three of the great Italian
preachers of the early fifth century, Chromatius of Aquileia,
who succeeded Ambrose's old ally Valerian as bishop in that
city, Maximus of Turin and Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna
made use of this commentary, although Leo of Rome ap-
parently did not. In the early eighth century Bede drew on
it heavily for his commentary on Luke, in the prologue to
which he places Ambrose alongside Augustine, Gregory and
Jerome, an early grouping of these four great fathers (CCSL
120:7). The earliest full manuscript of the commentary on
psalm 119 dates from the ninth century, although the portion
covering the letter cof is extant in a sixth/seventh-century
manuscript. The series of commentaries on twelve psalms seems
to have been slower to find copyists, and while Cassiodorus
was aware that Ambrose had written on the psalms, he made
no use of his writings in his own long commentary on them.
The commentary which Ambrose never quite wrote on the
Song of Songs was, as it were, reconstituted from discussions
in his various works by a Cistercian author of the twelfth
century, William of St Thierry (ed. SAEMO 27).
The most popular of Ambrose's works has been the
Exameron. Part of it survives in a manuscript of the seventh
century, and its appreciative readers included one in the
ninth century who uttered words which could have been
spoken by many: 'If you delight in the beauty of creatures

213
 AMBROSE

you should keep going back to the Exameron of Ambrose,

just for fun. ,9 The animal lore Ambrose presented over-
laps with that contained in a bestiary, the Physiologus, and
the fact that the textual tradition of this work is complex
makes the direct influence of Ambrose's work hard to trace.
However, references to the practices of animals in the
letters Cassiodorus wrote in the sixth century seem to draw
directly on the Exameron, while the author of a Liber gloss-
arum preserved in a manuscript of the late eighth century
used it as well, not for the moral and religious information
it contained but also as a factual source for the habits of
animals. 10
Of Ambrose's non-biblical works, the De officiis was re-
cognized by both Augustine and Cassiodorus as useful, but
it was to face stiff competition from the Regula pastoralis of
Pope Gregory the Great. It is not hard to see why Gregory's
book became the more widely read: not only was it shorter
and, it could be argued, possessed of greater psychological
insight, but it owed less to a Roman world-view which medi-
eval readers must have found alien. A Spanish bishop who
wrote to Gregory after reading the Regula pastoralis quoted
remarks of Hilary and Augustine which he felt were similar
to Gregory's teaching, but did no more than allude in a
general fashion to the De officiis,
officiis,lI\I and it is not clear that
Gregory himself knew this work of Ambrose. Yet it con-
tinued to find readers, being quoted by Bishop Atto of
Vercelli in the tenth century as well as Ailred of Rievaulx in
the twelfth.
The oldest surviving manuscript of the De fide was written
in northern Italy in the fifth century, while another, now in
the library of the archbishop of Ravenna, was written at the
turn of the sixth century, as was the oldest surviving manu-
script of the De Spiritu Sancto; the Italian provenence of these
manuscripts may reflect the concerns of Nicaeans when Italy
was under anti-Nicaean governments in the immediate post-
Roman period. The De fide had the honour of being cited at
the four ecumenical councils which followed Ambrose's

9. PL 131:995A, a comment to be picked up by a monastic author of the

twentieth century, Thomas Merton (1968): 296.
10. Barbero (1990), esp. 156f.
11. Gregory Reg. 1.41a (ed. L.M. Hartmann,
Hartmann , MGH Ep. 1)
1)..

214
 NACHLEBEN

death, those of Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451) and Con-

stantinople II and III (553, 680f) , and a complete, or at least
substantial, translation of it into Greek may lie behind the
volume of quotations from it in early Byzantine florilegia.
A passage from the De incamationis dominicae sacramento was
quoted by the iconophil council of Nicaea in 787, the last
ecumenical council according to the Orthodox reckoning,
but a Carolingian author who wrote a response to that coun-
cil, probably Theodulf of Orleans, queried the use to which
it was put, claiming that the Byzantines had failed to under-
Latin. 12 The De sacramentis
stand the purport of Ambrose's Latin.12
has played an important part in the controversies on the
eucharist which have occurred within western Christianity,
having been drawn on by Paschasius Radbertus in the ninth
century and both Berengar and Lanfranc in the eleventh.
During the Reformation its authenticity was denied by Prot-
estants who found what they took to be a catholic tendency
in its theology distasteful, but it is now accepted as having
been written by Ambrose. Even the Apologia David, scarcely
one of Ambrose's major works, was to influence the portrayal
of the Capetian King Robert the Pious by the eleventh-
century author Helgaud.1 :l
All this may suggest that Ambrose was a gigantic figure,
whose works were destined to play a determining role in
subsequent intellectual life. Yet later generations may have
been attracted by his style as much as by the content of his
works, for the sweetness of his writing was widely praised.
Perhaps this judgment was already implicit in Paulinus' story
of bees entering Ambrose's mouth when he lay asleep as an
infant. In his Institutes, Cassiodorus draws attention to his style
as much as the content of his writings, and the vocabulary is
consistent, Ambrose being praised for being sweet, pleasant
and eloquent, and having a 'milky' style. Scholars with intel-
lectual agendas more demanding than that of Cassiodorus
were less inclined to call on Ambrose's services. When Bede
came to write his commentary on Genesis he found the
writings of Augustine and Jerome served his purposes better
than those of Ambrose, despite his voluminous output on
the first book of the Bible, and Bede's commentary on Luke

12. Libri Carolini 2.15 (PL 98:1079f).

13. Hamilton (1997).

215
 AMBROSE

uses Jerome's commentary on Matthew more often than

that of Ambrose on Luke itself. In his Summa theologica,
Thomas Aquinas cites Ambrose somewhat less often than
Jerome, less than half as often as Gregory, and a tenth as
often as Augustine. The spread is less wide in the theolo-
gical writings of Abelard, who seems to have found Jerome
more useful than Gregory, but again Ambrose brings up the
rear among the four great fathers of the Latin West. Thomas
and Abelard, powerful thinkers who loved to wrestle with
ideas, seem to have found relatively little to engage them in
Ambrose. As Europe passed beyond the medieval period,
perspectives changed in ways which were reflected in the
works of Martin Luther. His literal approach to Scripture
meant that, among the fathers, he referred far more fre-
quently to Jerome and Augustine than Ambrose.
Yet Ambrose's position as a respected exegete was secure
in the middle ages, and it may be the case that, in very broad
terms, the relative degree of interest later scholars took
in Ambrose and Augustine is an index of their general
orientations. Many intellectuals in the medieval period were
given to a meditative recycling of the works of their pre-
decessors, in rather the same way that Ambrose had often
been. In this respect, and a general taste for synthesis over
analysis, the qualities of Ambrose's mind were akin to those
of many scholars during the following centuries. For them,
Ambrose's attractiveness may have lain in his having been
an eloquent and orthodox spokesperson for an emerging
catholic position on various issues, rather than for the degree
of originality, insight and precision he possessed in working
out that position. In addition, he may also have appealed to
later readers because he offered them things which were
not otherwise available.
When Ambrose disparaged non-Christian points of view,
he was attacking ideas which were current in his time. But
as Christianity became more central to intellectual life and
the transmission of the texts on which this life was based,
the works of non-Christians became less easy of access. For
readers in later centuries, whose intellectual horizons were
narrower than those of the mental world of the fourth cen-
tury, Ambrose may have conveyed an air of the broad out-
doors. Moreover, as we have seen, his thought was nourished
on books written in Greek, which gave him access to an

216
 NACHLEBEN

intellectual world more spacious than that at the command

of many of the other Latin fathers (however much one may
suspect that what he took from the Greek authors was less
than what they had to offer) and still more broad than the
restricted intellectual world inhabited by most scholars of
the first half of the middle ages. The very respectable body
of material already produced by Christian writers in Mrica,
which Augustine was to deploy to good effect, left few traces
in the writings of Ambrose. Of his favourite Latin authors,
Cicero stood outside the Christian tradition, as did Ve Vergil,
rgil ,
whom in any case Ambrose used as a source of poetic images
rather than ideas, and Hilary of Poitiers
Poi tiers was himself tributary
to Greek thought. To an extraordinary extent, the major
influences on Ambrose were writers in Greek;
Greek; while his read-
ing of poetry was predominantly in Latin, for theology and
ideas he turned to Greek authors. Ambrose was thus superbly
placed to present material which would find appreciative
readers in the largely Greekless centuries which were to
follow in the West. The authors he used were little known in
the succeeding centuries, some of the works on which he
drew being unknown even to modern scholarship. Most of
them were never translated into Latin, and some of the
translations which were made, such as those of Plotinus which
ofPlotinus
Augustine read, were not to enjoy a wide readership.
readership.
Ambrose's posthumous stature therefore owed something
to his having lived at the right time and enjoyed the right
education. But we can be more precise than this, for it is
not simply the case that Ambrose read books in a strange
language. Secular Greek writers from the classical period
works. Some of the later, Christian
are scarcely present in his works.
authors who are, such as Athanasius and Basil, were major
thinkers in what we now see as the central, orthodox tradi-
tion, but it is noteworthy how many of those Ambrose drew
on were, in one way or another, marginal to that tradition.
Indeed, surprising as it may seem
seem,, the pivot of Ambrose's
intellectual life may have been the thought-world of Hellen-
istic and Roman Alexandria. It seems to have bee been
n here that
Jewish scholars composed the Septuagint, and it was in that
city that Philo
:Philo and Origen, respectively aJew and a Christian
of dubious orthodoxy,
orthodoxy, wrote.
wrote . Among the other authors
Ambrose used most, Plotinus was a pagan, Hippolytus a
schismatic, and Eusebius stood at some distance from Nicene

217
 AMBROSE

theology. The intellectual world of these writers of Greek,

especially those in Egypt and Italy, to which Ambrose offered
indirect access would have been immensely exotic by the
standards of the Carolingian period, for example. Hence
Ambrose's appropriation of Greek material, while its appar-
ently unthinking nature earned him the scorn of Jerome,
may have given his works a fascinating allure for readers in
the medieval West. It has been plausibly suggested that the
attractiveness of Ambrose to the ninth-century scholar John
the Scot, who names him thirty-six times and textually cites
him some twenty times, may have arisen from the closeness
of both Ambrose and John to Greek thought,14 but even
those less attuned to such influences must sometimes have
responded to the sheer unusualness of much they read in
Ambrose.
Yet Ambrose did not only live at the end of a period in
ashe
intellectual life. Just as he wrote shortly before the intellectual
horizons of the West entered a period of contraction, so
he stood towards the end of the Roman empire in the West.
A century after he died, it had ceased to exist there, leaving
the church, which had so prospered during the fourth cen-
tury, to outlive its former patron, the state. Its leaders, the
bishops, had a bright future in Europe, but the habits of class
and of the exercise of leadership in a complex bureaucracy
which Ambrose brought to the job of bishop and which
defined the way he exercised it, did not. Few in future gen-
erations would think of the duties of the clergy in terms
derived from Cicero, and the elan which bishops possessed
would be derived from sources other than their having spent
years sitting on a tribunal. Yet, as we have seen throughout
our study, Ambrose cannot be seen as simply a figure of the
ancient world, for his thinking and activities looked beyond
that world. His attitudes to women, the Bible and other texts,
the church and the secular state, as well as the authority he
could command in his city, in varying degrees all pointed
beyond the fourth century and firmly into the middle ages.
It is this sense of pointing beyond the world in which he
lived that gives Ambrose a lasting fascination.

14. Madec (1976).

218
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

WORKS BY AMBROSE
Ambrose has been well edited. In addition to the versions
given in PL (Patrologia Latina), which reprints a Benedictine
edition of the late seventeenth century, most of his works are
available in CSEL ( Carpus Script(ffUm Ecclesiastic(ffUm Latin(ffUm) ,
each equipped with a superb critical apparatus. There is also
a complete recent Italian edition, SAEMO (Sancti Ambrosii
Episcopi Mediolonensis Opera) (Milan/Rome, 1977ff), which
supplies facing Italian translations as well as introductions and
commentaries, and this is the edition which I have generally
had on my desk. The following list aims to combine concision
with much information as possible. Arranged according to
the abbreviated forms used to cite Ambrose's works in this
study, it supplies full titles, indicates key editions, concern-
ing which more detail is available in Clavis Patrum Latin(ffUm,
3rd edn., Steenbrugis 1995 39-50, some translations, and
for most works gives an idea, sometimes very approximate,
of the date of composition; for some it has not seemed
worthwhile to suggest a possible date of composition. The
abbreviation 'Ramsey' is used for B. Ramsey, Ambrose (London
and New York, 1997).

Abr. De Abraham CSEL 32, SAEMO 2 (c.382f)

apol.alt.Dav. Apologia David altera CSEL 32, SMMO 5 (c.388)
apol.Dav. De apologia prophetae David CSEL 32, SAEMO 5
bon. mort. De bono mortis CSEL 32, SAEMO 3, FC 65 (c.391)
Cain De Cain et Abel CSEL 32, SAEMO 2, FC 42 (c.378)
ep. Epistulae CSEL 82, SAEMO 19-21, FC 26

219
 AMBROSE

exa. Exameron CSEL 32, SAEMO 1, FC 42 (late 380s)

exc.fr. De excessu fratris CSEL 73, SAEMO 18, FC 22 (377)
exh.virg. Exhortatio virginitatis SAEMO 14 (394)
expl.symb. Explanatio symboli CSEL 73, SAEMO 17
fid. De fide CSEL 78, SAEMO 15 (378-380)
fuga De fuga saeculi CSEL 32, SAEMO 4, FC 65 (c.394)
Rel. De Relia et ieiunio CSEL 32, SAEMO 6 (c.387-390)
Rymnes ed. and trans. J. Fontaine et at, Paris 1992, SAEMO
22
lac. De Iacob et vita beata CSEL 32, SAEMO 3, FC 65 (386)
inc. De incamationis dominicae sacramento CSEL 79, SAEMO
16, FC 44
inst.virg. De institutione virginis SAEMO 14 (393f)
interpell. De interpellatione lob et David CSEL 32, SAEMO 4, FC
65 (388f)
los. De Ioseph CSEL 32, SAEMO 3, FC 65 (c.388)
Is. De Isaac uel anima CSEL 32, SAEMO 3, FC 65 (c.39l)
Luc. Expositio euangelii secundum Lucam CSEL 32, SAEMO llf
(c.385-89)
myst. De mysteriis CSEL 73, SAEMO 17, FC 44; trans. Ramsey;
ed. and German trans. J. Schmitz, Freiburg 1990
Nab. De Nabuthae histaria CSEL 32, SAEMO 6 (386-390); trans.
Ramsey
Noe De Noe CSEL 32 (c.377f)
ob. Theod. De obitu Theodosii CSEL 73, SAEMO 18, FC 22
(395)
ob. Val. De obitu Valentiniani CSEL 73, SAEMO 18, FC 22; trans.
T.A. Kelly, Washington D.C. 1940 (392)
off. De officiis ed. and trans. M. Testard (Les Devoirs), Paris,
1984-1992, SAEMO 13 (388f)
paen. De paenitentia SC 179, SAEMO 17 (c.389f)
par. De paradiso CSEL 32, SAEMO 2, FC 42 (377f)
patr. De patriarch is CSEL 32, SAEMO 4, FC 65 (c.391)
ps. Explanatio psalmorum xii CSEL 64, SAEMO 7f (387-397)
ps.118 Expositio psalmi cxviii CSEL 62, SAEMO 9f (386-388?)
sacr. De sacramentis CSEL 73, SAEMO 17, FC 44; ed. J.H.
Srawley and trans. T. Thomas, London 1950; ed. and Ger-
man trans. J. Schmitz, Freiburg 1990
Spir.S. De Spiritu Sancto CSEL 79, SAEMO 16, FC 44 (381)
Tob. De Tobia CSEL 32, SAEMO 6; trans. L.M. Zucker, Wash-
ington D.C. 1933 (c.388)
vid. De viduis SAEMO 14 (377f)

220
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

virgb. De virginibus SAEMO 14 (377), trans. Ramsey

virgt. De virginitate SAEMO 14 (late 380s)

WORKS BY OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS

This list excludes works by classical and Christian authors
cited for background or by way of comparison.
Ammianus Marcellinus, trans. J.c. Rolfe, London 1950-52
Augustine, Confessions, ed.J. O'Donnell, Oxford 1992; trans.
H. Chadwick, Oxford 1991 (con[.)
Augustine, De Civitate Dei (The City of God), ed. CCSL 47f,
trans. H. Bettenson, Harmondsworth 1972 (civ.dei)
RH. Charles, ed., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament, Oxford 1913
Julian, The Works of the Emperor julian, ed. and trans. W.C.
Wright, London 1913-23
Paulinus, Vita di S. Ambrogio, ed. M. Pellegrino, Rome 1961
(VAmb.); trans. Ramsey, FC 15
Philo, ed. and trans. F.H. Colson et aI., London/New York
1929-62
Plotinus, ed. and trans. A.H. Armstrong, London 1966-88
Possidius, Vita A ugustini, ed. M. Pellegrino, Alba 1955 (VA ug);
trans. FC 15
Scolies ariennes sur Ie concile d'Aquilie, ed. R Gryson, Paris
1980 (=SC 267)
Symmachus, Quae supersunt MGH AA 6
The Theodosian Code, trans. C. Pharr, Princeton N J. 1962
( cod. Theod.)
Zosimus, New History, trans. RT. Ridley, Canberra 1982
The historians Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret are avail-
able in SAEMO 24, and have been translated into English
in the The Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers (the first two in
2/2, Theodoret in 2/3).

WORKS BY MODERN AUTHORS

The following list constitutes only a small proportion of rel-
evant work; material on Ambrose himself is listed annually
in L 'an nee philologique, while the bibliography in McLynn
(1994) is an excellent guide to general work on the period.

221
 AMBROSE

Arslan, E.A. (1982) 'Urbanistica di Milano Romana', Aufstieg

und Niedergang der ROmischen Welt II, 12/1, 179-210.
Aubineau, M. (1955) 'Les ecrits de Saint Athanase sur la
virginite', Revue d'ascetique et de mystique 31, 140-73.
Barbero, G. (1990) 'Contributi allo studio dal "Liber
Glossarum" " Aevum 64, 151-74.
Blaise, A. (c.1994) A Handbook of Christian Latin: Style, Morpho-
logy and Syntax, trans. G.c. Roti, Tumholt/Washington D.C.
Bloch, A. and Bloch, C. (1995) The Song of Songs, New York.
Brown, P. (1967) Augustine of Hippo, London.
Brown, P. (1988) The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual
Renunciation in Early Christianity, New York.
Brown, P. (1992) Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity:
Towards a Christian Empire, Madison.
Buchheit, V. (1984) 'Hippolyt, Origenes und Ambrosius uber
den Census Augusti', Vivarium Festschrift Theodor Klauser,
Munster, 50-56.
Cantalamessa, R. (1979) 'La concezione teologica della
Pasqua in sant' Ambrogio', Paradoxos politeia studi patristici
in onore di Giuseppe Lazzati, Milan, 362-75.
Chadwick, H. (1976) Priscillian of Avila, Oxford.
Chastagnol, A. (1960) La prifecture urbaine it Rome sous le bas-
empire, Paris.
Colombo, O.P. (1974) A doutrina de santo Ambrosio sobre 0 uso
dos bens temporais, Porto Alegre.
Consolino, F.E. (1982) 'Dagli exempla ad un esempio di
comportamento cristiano: il de exhortatione virginitatis di
Ambrogio', Rivista storica italiana 94, 455-77.
Corbellini, C. (1975) 'Sesto Petronio Probo e l'elezione
episcopale di Ambrogio', Istituto Lombardo Accademia di
scienze e lettere rendiconti dasse di lettere e scienze morali e storiche
109, 181-89.
Courcelle, P. (1950a) 'Plotin et saint Ambroise', Revue de
philo logie, 29-56.
Courcelle, P. (1950b) Recherches sur les 'Confessions' de S.
A ugustin, Paris.
Courcelle, P. (1963a) 'Anti-Christian arguments and Christian
Platonism: from Arnobius to St Ambrose', in A. Momigliano,
ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the
Fourth Century, Oxford, 151-92.
Courcelle, P. (1963b) Les Confessions de S. Augustin dans la
tradition litteraire: Antecedants et postirite, Paris.

222
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Courcelle, P. (1965) 'Tradition platonicienne et traditions

chretiennes du corps-prison', Revue des etudes latines 43,
406-43.
Dassmann, E. (1966) 'Die Kirche und ihre Glieder in der
Hoheliederklarung bei Hippolyt, Origenes und Ambrosius
von Mailand', Romische Quartalschrift 61, 121-44.
Dassmann, E. (1975) 'Ambrosius und die Martyrer',Jahrbuch
fur Antike und Christentum 18, 49-68.
Davidson,1J. (1995) 'Ambrose's de officiis and the intellectual
climate of the late fourth century', Vigiliae christianae 49,
313-33.
Dolger, F J. (1930) 'Christus im Bild des Skarabaus. Der Text
scarabaeus de ligno in Habakuk 2, 11 nach der Auslesung
von Ambrosius und Hieronymus', Antike und Christen tum
2, 231-40.
Duval, Y.-M., ed. (1974) Ambroise de Milan, Paris.
Faust, U. (1983) Christo seroire libertas est. Zum Freiheitsbegriff
des Ambrosius von Mailand, Salzburg.
Fenger, A.-L. (1982) 'Tod und Auferstehung des Menschen
nach Ambrosius' De excessu fratris II' in JenseitsvorsteUungen
in Antike und Christentum Gedenkschrift fiir Alfred Stuiber,
Munster, 127-39.
Fischer, B. (1970) 'Hat Ambrosius von Mailand in der Woche
zwischen seiner Taufe und seiner Bischofskonzekration
andere Weihen Empfangen?', Kyriakon Festchrift Johannes
Quasten 2, Munster, 527-3l.
Fischer, B. (1984) '1st Ambrosius in Trier geboren?', Vivarium
Festschrift Theodor Klauser, Munster, 132-35.
Fischer, B. (1988) 'Bonum dominum habemus - WIT haben einen
guten Herrn. Ein Rhema des heiligen Ambrosius' in Itinera
Domini . .. Festschrift Emmanuel V. Severns, Munster, 99-105.
Fontaine,]. (1982) 'Un cliche de la spiritualite antique
tardive: stetit immobilis', Romanitas-Christianitas Festschrift
Johannes Straub, Berlin.
Gibbon, E. (1896+) The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, ed. ].B. Bury, London.
Gilliard, F.D. (1984) 'Senatorial Bishops in the fourth cen-
tury', Harvard Theological Review 77, 153-75.
Goody,]. (1983) The Development of the Fami(-v and Marriage in
Europe, Cambridge.
Grosso, G. (1983) 'La "Lettera alle vergini" Atanasio e
Ambrogio', Augustinianum 23,421-52.

223
 AMBROSE

Gryson, R (1966) 'L'interpretation du nom de Levi (Levite)

chez saint Ambroise', Sacris erudiri 17, 217-29.
Hagendahl, H. (1958) Latin Fathers and the Classics, GOteborg.
Hamilton, S. (1997) 'A new model for royal penance?
Helgaud of Fleury's Life of Robert the Pious', Early Medi-
eval Europe 6, 189-200.
Hanson, RP.C. (1988) The Search far Christian Doctrine: the
Arian Controversy 318-381, Edinburgh.
Heinen, H. (1985) Trier und das Trevererland in romischer Zeit,
Trier.
Homes Dudden, F. (1935) The Life and Times of St Ambrose,
Oxford.
Jenal, G. (1995) Italia ascetica atque monastica, Stuttgart.
Kaiser, E. (1964) 'Odyssee-Szenen als Topoi', Museum
Helveticum 21, 109-36.
Kaster, RA. (1988) Guardians of Language: the Grammarian
and Society in Late Antiquity, Berkeley.
Klein, R (1970) 'Die Kaiserbriefe des Ambrosius Zur
Problematik ihrer VerOffentlichung', Athenaeum 48, 335-
71.
Krautheimer, R (1983) Three Christian Capitals, Berkeley.
Lamirande, E. (1979) 'Quelques visages de seductrices. Pour
une theologie de la condition feminine selon saint
Ambroise', Science et esprit 31, 173-89.
Lamirande, E. (1981) 'La datation de la "Vita Ambrosii" de
Paulin de Milan', Revue des etudes augustiniennes 21,44-55.
Lawrence, P. (1997) 'Les moniales de l'aristocratie: gran-
deur et humilite', Vigiliae christianae 51, 140-57.
Lazzati, G. (1955) 'L'autenticiti del De sacramentis e la
valutazione letteraria delle opere di S. Ambrogio', Aevum
29, 17-48.
Lazzati, G., ed. (1976) Ambrosius episcopus, Milan.
Lewy, F. (1929) Sobria ebrietas: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte
der antiken Mystik, Geissen.
Lizzi, R (1989) Vescovi e strutture ecclesiastiche nella citto'
tardoantica (Lltalia Annonaria nel IV-V secolo d.C.), Como.
McLure, R (1972f) 'The Greek translation of the Vita
Ambrosii of Paulinus of Milan', Sacris erudiri 21, 57-70.
McLynn, N. (1994) Ambrose of Milan, Berkeley.
Madec, G. (1974) Saint Ambroise et la philosophie, Paris.
Madec, G. (1976) Jean Scot et les peres latins', Revue des
etudes augustiniennes 22, 134-42.

224
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Madec, G. (1987) 'Le milieu milanaise philosophique et

christianisme', Bulletin de littirature ecctesiastique 88, 194-
205.
Markus, R (1990) The End of Ancient Christianity, Cambridge.
Markus, R (1996) Signs and Meanings. Word and Text in
Ancient Christianity, Liverpoo!.
Liverpool.
Matthews,]. (1975) Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court
A.D. 364-425, Oxford.
Mazza, E. (1989) Mystagogy. A Theology of Liturgy in the Patristic
Age, Eng!. trans!' New York.
Mazzarino, S. (1973f) 'II padre di Ambrogio', Helikon 13f
111-17.
Mazzarino, S. (1989) Storia sociale del vescovo Ambrogio, Rome.
Mazzucco, C. (1980) 'Due visioni cristiane del mondo e due
stile: Cipriano "ad Demetrianum" 3-5 e Ambrogio "Epistula"
XVIII 23-29', Civilta classica e cristiana 1, 219-4l.
Merton, T. (1968) Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Garden
City, N.Y.
Mohrmann, Ch. (1952) 'Le style oral du De sacramentis de
Saint Ambroise', Vigiliae christianae 6, 168-77.
Moorhead,]. (1983) 'The The Greeks, pupils of the Hebrews',
Prudentia 15, 3-12.
Moorhead,]. (1997) 'Cooking a kid in its mother's milk:
patristic exegesis of an Old Testament command',
Augustinianum 37, 261-7l.
Nauroy, G.G. (1998) 'Le fouet et Ie miel: Ie combat
d'Ambroise en 386 contre l'arianisme milanaise', Recherches
augustiniennes 23, 3-86.
Nauroy, G.G. (1990) 'Du combat de la Ia piete a la confession
du sang. Une interpretation chretienne du martyre des
Maccabees chez Ambroise de Milan', Revue d'histoire et de
philosophie religieuses 70, 49-68.
Oppel,]. (1993) 'Saint Jerome and the history of sex', Viator
24, 1-22.
Ope
Opelt,
It, 1. (1968) 'Das Bienenwunder in der Ambrosiusbio-
graphie des Paulinus von Mailand', Vigiliae christianae 22,
38-44.
Otten, RT. (1963) 'Amor, caritas and dilectio: some obser-
vations on the vocabulary of love in the exegetical works
of St. Ambrose', Melanges offerts a Mademoiselle Christine
Mohrmann, Utrecht, 73-83.
Paredi, A. (1960) S. Ambrogio e la sua eta, 2nd edn, Milan.

225
 AMBROSE

Paredi, A (1963) 'Paulinus of Milan', Sacris erudiri 14,206-

14, 206-
30.
Pellegrino, M. (1979) '''Mutus ... loquar Christum" Pensieri
di sant' Ambrogio su parola e silenzio', Paradoxos politeia
studi patristici in onore di Giuseppe Lazzati, Milan, 447-57.
Perer, M.L.G., ed. (1995) La basilica di S Ambrogio: il tempio
ininterotto, Milan.
Peters, F.E. (1990) Judaism, Christianity and Islam 2, Princeton,
NJ.
Picard, J.-Ch. (1988) Le souvenir des eveques: sepultures, !isteslistes
episcopales et culte des eveques en ltalie
Italie du nord des origines au
Xe siecle, Rome.
Pietri, Ch. (1992) 'Aristocratie milanaise paiens et chretiens
au IVIV" siecle', in G.S. Chiesa and E.A Arslan (eds.) Felix
temporis ratio, Milan, 157-70.
Piredda, AM. (1991) 'Susanna e il silenzio. L'interpretazione
di Ambrogio', Sandalion 14, 169-92.
Pizzolato, L.F. (1976) 'La coppia umana in sant' Ambrogio',
in R. Cantalamessa (ed.) Etica sessuale e matrimonio nel
cristianesimo delle origini, Milan, 180-21l.
Pizzolato, L.F. (1978) La dottrina esegetica di sant'Ambrogio,
sant 'Ambrogio, Milan.
Poirier, M. (1979) '''Christus pauper factus est" chez Saint
Ambroise', Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 15, 250-57.
Puech, H.-C. and Hadot, P. (1959) 'L'entretien d'Origene
avec Heraclide et le Ie commentaire de Saint Ambroise sur
l'evangile de Saint Luc', Vigiliae christianae 13, 204-34.
Rahner, H. (1992) Church and State in Early Christianity, EngI.
transI., San Fransisco.
Riggi, C. (1975) 'Lineamenti delle personalira di S. Ambrogio
nel ricordo agostiniano', Salesianum 37, 3-37.
Roques, M. (1996) 'L'authenticite de l'Apologia David altera:
historique et progres d'une controverse', Augustinianum
36, 53-92, 423-58.
Rosso, G. (1983) 'La "Lettera alle vergini" Atanasio e
Ambrogio', Athenaeum 23, 421-52.
Ruggini, L. (1961) Economia e societa nell' 'Italia annonaria',
Milan.
Savon, H. (1977a) Saint Ambroise devant l'exegese de Philo le
Juif, Paris.
Savon, H. (1977b) 'Saint Ambroise et la philosophie a propos
d'une etude recente', Revue de l'histoire des religions 173-
96.

226
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Seibel, W. (1958) Fleisch und Geist beim heiligen Ambrosius,

Munich.
Steidle, W. (1984) 'Beobachtungen zu des Ambrosius Schrift
De officiis', Vigiliae christianae 38, 18-66.
Steidle, W. (1985) 'Beobachtungen zum Gedankengang im
2. Buch von Ambrosius, De officiis', Vigiliae christianae 39,
280-98.
Testard, M. M. (1973) 'Observations sur la theme de la
"conscientia"', Revue des etudes latines 51,219-61.
51, 219-6l.
Testard, M. (1989) 'Recherches sur quelques methodes de
travail de saint Ambroise dans Ie De officiis',officiis' , Recherches
augustiniennes 24, 65-122.
Thelamon, F. (1981) Pai"ens
Paiens et chretiens au iv" siecle, Paris.
Vasey, V.R. (1982) The Social Ideas in the W01RS of St Ambrose.
Nabuthe ', Rome.
A Study in the 'De Nabuthe',
Vismara, G. (1987) 'Ancora sulla "episcopalis audientia"
(Ambrogio arbitro 0 giudice?)"
giudice?)', Studia et documenta historiae
et iuris 53, 53-73.
Williams, D.H. (1995) Ambrose of Milan and the end of the
Nicene-Arian conflicts, Oxford.
Wilmart, D.A. (1911) 'Transfigurare', Bulletin dd'ancienne 'ancienne
littirature et d'archeologie chretiennes, 282-92.
Zelzer, M. (1987) 'Ambrosius von Mailand und das Erbe
der klassischen Tradition' , Wiener Studien 100,201-26.

227
~
~
CXl

The late Roman world of Ambrose

 INDEX

Aaron, priest lIOn.

Abelard 216
°
11 n. 13, 179 paenilrnlia 19lf
De paenitrnlia
De paradiso 45-7,72
45-7, 72
Abraham 44, 44, 57, 64, 115 De sacramrntis 93f, 146f, 215
Adam 40, 44, 45-8, 49, 92, 94, D"
DI' Spiritu Sancto 114-18,214
Sancia 114-18,2 14
106f, 138 De Tobia 131
Adrianople, battle of (378) 33, De viduis 40
104, 113, 118 vi1ginibus 40, 48-50, 65-9
De virginibus
Aesculapius 122 De virginitate 40, 53f
Aetius 114
] 14 E.pislulae 7-9,
E.pistulae 7-9. 125-7, 137-40,
Africa 21, 37 147-50, 150-5, 186-90, 192f,
Agnes, virgin martyr 52, 135 199f
Ahab, king 29, 130 Exame10n 72f, 213f
Exameron
Ailred of Rievaulx 162 n. n . 8, 214 41 , 51
Exhortatio virginitatis 41,
Exhortalio
Alaric,
Alaric, Goth 128 Explanatio super psalmos xii 73f,
Alexandria 122,133 n. 15,144, 15, 144, 208f
196,217 Expositio de psalmo cxviii 109f,
Ambrose, works of (main 213
references) : Expositio euangelii
f'uangelii secundum
Abraham 44, 57f Lucam 74, 88-90, 94-6, 97,
Apologia David aitera ] 94f
altera 82f, 194f 106f, 213
De apologia prophetae
projJhetae David 82, Hymns 141-3
195,
]95,215215 Interpellatione lob el David 73,
InterpellationI' 73, 99f
De bono mortis 173-6 Ammianus Marcellinus 168f
De Cain el Abel 6lf, 72 Anna, widow
~dow 43, 90
De excessu fralTis
fralris 37-9 ('Arians ' ) 13, 17,
anti-Nicaeans CArians')
De fide 113-18, 214f
Defide 28,111-22, 132f, 147-50,
De fuga saeculi 73 152f, 169 nn.. 22, 203,
203 , 214
lacob 135-7
De lacob Antioch 122, 144,196
instilulione virginis 40f
De institulione Antiochus, king 135f
De Isaac vel anima 172f
De Apollo 122
mysteriis 147
De mysleriis Aquila, translator 79, 109
De
De Nabulhae historia 130f
Nabuthae hisloria n. 1, 154, 186
Aquileia 2 II.
De obilu Theodosii 202-6 council of (381) 12, 12, 119-22,
119-22,
De obilu Valenliniani 197f
obitu Valentiniani 196
De officiis 34, 60f, 134f,
I 34f, 157-214 Aratlls
Aratus 176

229
 AMBROSE

Arbog~t 197, 198-201, 202 Hebrews 80

Arcadius, emperor 193, 202 Isaiah 4 n. 2, 68 n. 47
Arians see anti-Nicaeans Job 86
Aristotle 164, 165 John 84,88
Arius 16, ll9f Lamentations 198
Athan~ius, bishop of Alexandria Leviticus 84
20 n. 12, 53, 68, 103, ll4, Luke 42, 74, 78, 81, 84, 89f, 97,
133 n. 15, 217 104, 131 n. 12
his Life of Antony ll, 29 Mark 78,84
Athena 128 Matthew 78, 80, 84
Athenagor~ 38 I Peter 80
Athens 128 Proverbs 84
Attalus, priest ll9 Psalms 41, 73f, 79, 85, 87f, 141,
Atto, bishop ofVercelli 214 208f
Augustine, bishop of Hippo 3, 10, Song of Songs 52, 53f, 55, 56,
ll, 14, 19,27, 31, 49, 79 n. 57,84, 108-10, 172, 184, 198,
17, 81, 83, 105, 124, 142f, 145 203
n. 34, 146, 162, 170f, 210, Tobit 131
212t 214, 215t 217 Zechariah 204f
his City of God 127 bishops 30-5, 158
his Confessions 12, 35f blindness 50 n. 21, 151, 153, 203
on Ambrose 35f, 76f, 115 n. 22, body, the 55, 56-9, 173-7, 179,
141,146, 150n. 46, 152, 180 184, 198
Augustus, emperor 63, 104 n. 3, Bologna 100
124 Bonosus, bishop of Nis 196
Ausonius 63, 168
Auxentius, bishop of Milan 16, Caligula 206
17, 24, 31, lll, ll2, 121 n. Calligonus, eunuch 140, 148, 155
26 Callinicum 185, 195, 203
Auxentius Mercurinus, bishop Capua, council of (392) 196
132f, 147-9 Cassiodorus, his Historia tripartita
avarice 130f, 161f 212, 213, 214, 215
Castus, deacon 208
baptism 22f, 28, 30, 37, 55, 93f, Celestine I, pope 213
99f, 144f, 146f, 167, 198 Celsus, martyr 153, 207
B~il, bishop of Caesarea 5, 72 n. Chalcedon, council of (451) 215
2,73,74,109 n. 12, ll4, 217 Charlemagne 211
Bathsheba 82f, 107 Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia 9,
Bauto, general 123 213
Bede 211, 213, 215 church, the 47, 50 n. 20, 82f, 90,
Benedict, St 213 94, 99f, 102f, 105, 106-10
Benivolus 134 Cicero 7 n. 9, 20 n. ll, 34, 38, 46
Berengar 215 n. 13, 59, 62 n. 35, 158, 159,
Bible, books of (main references 162, 164, 165, 166f, 176, 177,
only): 180, 217, 218
Deuteronomy 84 Claudian 125
Ecclesi~tes 84 clergy 33, 158, 159f, 161-3, 200
Ezekiel ll8, 178 Concordia, Coelia, vestal virgin
Genesis 44, 45-8, 72f, 84, 106, 123
178, 184 conscientia 177

230
 INDEX

Constantine, emperor 1,17,

1,17,103,
103, Eunomius 114, 119
132, 204, 205, 206 Euphrates, river 31 n . 37, 178
Constantinople 1, 30, 63, 119, 133 Eusebius 74, 217
n . 15, 144, 187, 199, 201, 206 Eusignius, praetorian prefect 137
basilica of the Holy Apostles 132 Eve 40, 42 n. 4, 45-8, 49, 106f,
councils of (381) 119, 133; 108, 109, 138
(553) 215; (680f) 215
Constantius II, emperor 111, 124, Facundus, bishop 211
133 n . 15, 168 Faenza 199
creeds 76, 118, 138, 147, 173 faith 202-4
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and Faustus, Manichean 35
martyr 49, 127 n. 37, 134 n . Flavianus, Nicomachus 200, 201,
18 202
Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem 146 Florence 199
friends, friendship 8f, 160, 162f
Damasus, pope 124, 153 Fritigil, queen of the Marcomanni
Daniel 136 104
David, king 73,82f,
73, 82f, 135, 141, 160,
164, 165, 167, 187, 189, 193, Galla Placidia, mausoleum of 213
194-6 Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia
death 173-6 150 n. 46, 207
Deborah 31 n . 37 Gervasius and Protasius, martyrs
delight 46, 47, 58, 59, 60, 174 150-4
Delilah 61 Ghazali, Muslim theologian 100
demons 29, 151 n.40
n . 40
Devil, the, Satan 46, 82 , 154, 206 Gihon, river 178
Didymus 114, 195 Gog 105,118
105, 118
Diocletian, emperor 1 Goliath 194
Dionysius, bishop of Milan 16 Goths 33, 105, 112, 118, 151, 204
Donatists 118 n. 25 Gratian, emperor 2, 11, 63, 112f,
Donatus 77 118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125,
126, 127, 132, 154, 168, 198,
Easter 133, 143-7, 208 203, 204, 206
ecclesia 183 Greek language 2lf,
21f, 75f, 78f, 80,
Egypt 164, 165, 180 81,91,178,197,210
Eleazar, scribe 136, 182 Gregory I, pope 3, 213, 214, 216
elements, four 55, 89, 179 Gregory VII , pope 212
Elijah, prophet 29, 52, 73, 87, 93, Gregory, bishop of Nyssa 146
94, 105, 139 Gregory of Nazianzus 22, 119
Elisha, prophet 94, 148, 151 , 183
Elizabeth
Elizabe th 43, 44 ' handing over' (traditio) 137f,
e njoyme nt 46, 47
enjoyme 140, 148, 149, 150
Ennodius 211 Hannah 77
Ephesus, council of (431) 215 Hebrew language 78, 107
Esdras 165 Helena, mother of Constantine
eucharist, mass 30, 85, 94, 138, 66 n. 43, 204
143, 145f, 147, 153, 167, 186, Helgaud 215
189f, 193f, 202 Henry IV,
N, emperor 212
Eugenius, usurper 198-201, 202, Heraclitus 164
204 Herod, king 61 , 139, 148, 171

231
 AMBROSE

Herodias 139 Judith 61

heretics 102, 155 (see also anti- Julian, emperor 64, 103, 124, 153
Nicaeans) n. 49, 168, 186, 205
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers 17, 74, Julian Valens, bishop 112
121 n. 26, 142, 214, 217 Juliana, widow 51, 62, 65 n. 41
Hippolytus 73, 104, 109, 217 Jupiter 122
Hiram, king 113 Justina, empress 42, 113, 133,
Holophernes 61 139, 149, 154
Holy Spirit 85, 93f, 114, 115-17, Justus, bishop 8 n. 12
208
Homer 59, 79, 173 n. 29 Landulf 211
Honorius, emperor 193, 202, 206 Lanfranc 215
Horace 79 n. 17, 132, 136, 142 Laurence, deacon and martyr 66
Hydra, the 168 n. 43, 135
hymns 141-3, 212f Lent 144
Leo I, pope 213
Illyricum 192 Leontius, senator 24
Irenaeus 8 n. 12, 75 Levi 91
Isaac 4lf, 64, 84, 188 Liberius, pope 21, 68
Isaiah, prophet 4 n. 2, 68 n. 47, Life of Martin 11
83, 136 Livy 123
Isonzo, river 201 Lord's Prayer 147
lust 130
Jacob, patriarch 98, 135f, 184 Luther, Martin 216
James of Voragine 210f
Jephthah 61 Maccabees 60, 135f, 183, 185
Jeremiah 136, 180 Macedonius, magister militum 11,
Jerome 3, 54, 77, 162, 213, 215f 154
his letters 21 Manicheans 35f, 43, 63
his Life of Paul 11 manliness 6lf
on Ambrose 26, 31 n. 37, 73, Marcellina, sister of Ambrose 7, 9,
105 n. 5, 115 n. 22, 204 n. 21, 36, 52, 68, 69, 137, 150,
32, 210, 218 188
Jerusalem 187, 205 Marcus, son of Cicero 158, 162
Jesus Christ 53f, 82f, 86-8, 92-8, Marcus Aurelius, emperor 1
106-10, 114-18, 171, 205, Marius Victorinus 8 n. 13, 171
208f marriage 43-50, 51
Jews, Judaism 34, 66 n. 43, 83, Martha, sister of Lazarus 85
86-8, 92, 102, 109, 121, 153, Martin, bishop of Tours 26
182-9, 195, 205, 209 martyrs, martyrdom 69, 103,
Jezabel 139 134-7,148,153,186,187,
Job 73, 93, 105, 138, 165 191 (see also Agnes, Cyprian,
John the Baptist 44, 105, 106, 139 Laurence, Pelagia)
John Chrysostum, bishop of Mary, blessed Virgin 34, 43, 48,
Constantinople 212 68, 69, 70, 76, 90f, 99, 107f,
John, disciple 108, 184 196f
John, praetorian prefect 10 Mary, sister of Lazarus 56, 81
John the Scot 218 Mary Magdalene 48
Joseph 42, 98, 130, 136, 155 mass see eucharist
Jovinian, heretic 196 Maximus, bishop of Turin 213

232
 INDEX

Maximus, Magnus, usurper 123, Palladius, bishop of Ratiaria 112,

126, 140, 150, 154, 155, 182, 113,119-21,122, 134 n . 18,
187, 197, 204 168
Melitus, bishop in Antioch 122 Panaetius 158, 164, 165
Menander Rhetor 38 parables 70 n. 17, 94, 183f
Merton, Thomas 214 Good Samaritan 94-6, 134, 191
Milan 2, 65, 113, 126, 129-33, Good Shepherd 92
137-40,143,188,191,192, Great banquet 102
197, 199, 200, 201, 202,
202 , 204 Paschasius
Pasc hasius Radbertus 21 2155
basilica Ambrosiana 28, 132, Passover 144
151,208 Paul, St, apostle 41,48,51,61,
basilica Apostolorum 132, 207 80,83
80 , 83 n. 21,95
21,95,, 107f, 144,
basilica of Fausta 151 174, 175, 176,184, 185, 207
basilica Portiana 133, 137f, 139 Paulinus, deacon
deacon,, his Life of
cathedral 17, 137 Ambrose 9-12 , 13, 18f, 20, 21,
church of San Simpliciano 23f, 24f, 27, 28, Ill, 112,
132 14lf, 150 n. 46, 152, 162f,
council at (396) 196 194, 198f, 200, 203, 206-9,
shrine of Felix and Nabor 151 210,215
mind 47, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61 Paulinus,
Paulin us, senator 64
Miriam 52, 141 Pavia 207
monks 33, 185, 190 Pelagia, virgin martyr 69, 105,
Moses 34,86,
34, 86, 87, 164, 165, 184 134
music 5959,, 140-3 Pelagius, heretic 10, 210
Pelagills,
penance, penitence 30, 19lf, 194
Naboth 73, 130, 149 Peter, St, apostle 45, 85 , 115, 148,
Nathan, prophet 105, 187, 189 184
Nazareth, alleged birthplace of Peter Chrysologus, bishop of
Jesus 31 n. 37 Ravenna 213
Nazarius, martyr 153, 207 Philo 8, 45 n. 11, 57, 72f, 80, 87,
Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople 111,146,159,164,166,169,
22 177,217
Neoplatonism 56, 58, 169-77 Phison, river 178
Ne ro, em
Nero, emperor
peror 206 Photinus 119,169-77
Nicaea, councils of (325) 16, Ill , Photius 133 n. 15 ]5
113; (787) 215 Physiologus 214
Ph.vsiologus
Noah 42,90 pietas 66f
pie/as
his sons 166 Plato 20, 165
165,, 180
Notker 211 Pliny 7, 20 ll.
n. 12
Novatians 191 PlotinllS 58,80, 136, 146, 169-76,
181,217
Origen 72 n. 4, 74, 83 n. 23, 104, Pompey 131
108,110,146,174 n. 31,195, Pontius Pilate 27f
217 Porphyry 169, 170
Ovid 38 Possidius, biographer of Augustine
Possidills,
170
' pagans' 15, 17, 32, 37f, 102, 121, Praelextatus 15, 123
122-8,155,164-9,191,
122-8, 155,164-9,191, 195, Priscillian, heretic 154
197, 199 Probus, praetorian prefect 20, 22
Palladius, bishop in Antioch 122 Pythagoras 140,164

233
 AMBROSE

Quintillian 79 n. 17 Sixtus, pope 66 n. 43, 135

Socrates, historian 12, 19 n. 10
Rachael 107 n. 7 Socrates, philosopher 164
Ravenna 139, 214 Solomon, king 99, 113, 141, 179
Rebekah 41, 107 n. 7, 188 Soteris, virgin and martyr 21 n.
Rhaetia 123 17,52
Rimini, council of (359) 111, soul 56f, 58, 59, 61,172-4,184
133 south, Queen of the 113
Robert the Pious, king 215 Sozmonen, historian 12, 19 n. 10,
Roman empire 1,20, 104f 211
Romanus melodos 204 n. 32 Stilicho, general 202, 206f
Rome 2, 122, 124f, 127, 144, 160, suicide 69 n. 50, 134, 202
166, 187, 191, 196 Susannah 77
church of Sta Maria Maggiore Symmachus, Quintus Aurelius,
15 senator and prefect of the
curia Iulia 124 city 12, 32, 37, 123-8, 160 n.
first stone theatre 131 6, 200, 206, 210
Rufinus, his Ecclesiastical History 9, Symmachus, translator 79, 109
17,18,20 n. 12, 145, 194,
201 tears 37, 143, 197
Tertullian 109
Sabinus, bishop 34 Theoderic, king 150
sacerdos 182 Theodoret, historian 12, 211,
Salim 93 212
Samson 61 Theodosian Code 12
Sarah 44, 107 n. 7 Theodosius I, emperor 7, 22, 113,
Satan see Devil, the 118f, 121, 122, 154f, 176 n.
Satyrus, brother of Ambrose 7, 36, 182, 185-91, 192-6, 197,
22, 36-9, III 199, 20lf, 202-4, 206, 211
Saul, king 141 Theodotion, translator 79
Scipio 34, 160 Theodulf of Orleans 215
Scylla 168 Theophilus 81
Secundianus, bishop of Theotimus 50
Singidunum 119 Thessaloniki 154, 182, 192, 193,
Seneca 38, 159 195, 204, 212
senses 47, 49f, 54-6, 57, 89 Thomas Aquinas 216
Septuagint 78f, 109, 136, 183, Tigris, river 31 n. 37, 178
185,217 Timasius, general 190
Serena, wife of Stilicho 207 Titans 167
Servius 77 Tobias 73
Shechem 98-100 Trier 1, 2, 20f, 123, 154
silence 22 n. 19, 33 n. 42, 34, 36, Trinity 115f, 143
69, 76f, 158
Simeon 90 Ulfilas, bishop 132
Simon the Pharisee 188f unclean spirits 152, 153, 185, 206,
Simplicianus 8,31, 170f, 207 207
Sirens 59f, 141, 174 Uranius, alleged father of Ambrose
Siricius, pope 196 21 n. 16
Sirmium 2,22, III n. 16, 113 Uriah 82f
council of (357) 111 Ursinus 112

234
 INDEX

Valens, emperor 111,118 vestal virgins 70, 123, 125, 127

Valentinian I, emperor 17, 23, Victor, martyr, shrine of 37
24,111,112,125,202,206, Victory, altar of 124-8
212 Vienne 197
Valentinian II, emperor 11, 22, virgins, virginity 40, 43, 50, 51-4,
105, 112f, 121, 123-7, 139, 62,64-70,90, 144, 161, 174,
140, 143, 150, 154, 168, 182, 196f
197~ 200, 201, 204, 206 virtue, virtues 60, 61
Valentinians, heretical group 185 virtues, cardinal 159, 172, 178f
Valerian, bishop of Aquileia 119, Vitalis and Agricola, martyrs 199
213
Vandals 170 widows, widowhood 43, 62, 90,
Venerius, deacon and bishop 208 161, 174
Vercelli, bishop of 207,208 William of St Thierry 213
Vergil 63, 67,93 n. 34, 126, 165, wives 43-50,51, 62f, 90,196
168f,217
Verona 192 Zacharias 42, 44, 158
Vesta 200 Zarephath, widow of 107 n. 7

235