Letter 1

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Emperor Gratian Date: ~380 AD Context: Ambrose sends the first book of his treatise "On the Faith" to Emperor Gratian, who had requested instruction on the Catholic faith against Arianism before departing on a military campaign. To the most gracious Emperor and most blessed Augustus, Gratian — Ambrose, Bishop, sends greetings. Since your Clemency has asked me to write something on the faith — not because you doubt, but because you desire to know more fully — I have composed this work at your command. It would have been more fitting for others, more learned and more eloquent, to undertake it. But since you have demanded it of me, I obey; for obedience to you is obedience to God, who has placed you over us. You are about to go to war [Gratian was preparing a campaign against the Goths along the Danube]. You asked for weapons of faith before weapons of steel. For the first line of defense is always faith: the soldier of Christ does not need armor alone but the shield of devotion. I have therefore set down in order the Catholic teaching on the Trinity, not in the style of learned disputation but in the plain language that a soldier-emperor might carry into the field. The Son is not a creature but the Creator. He is not subordinate to the Father but of one substance with him — true God from true God, as the Council of Nicaea [the ecumenical council of 325 AD that defined Trinitarian orthodoxy] declared. I send this to you, most faithful Emperor, confident that you will read it with the same fervor with which you requested it. And may the God whom you confess grant you victory, for he has always been the ally of those princes who defend the true faith. Farewell, Emperor most beloved of God. May the Lord preserve and strengthen you in the faith always.

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