Letter 16: Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius.

LETTER 61. He explains why he had withdrawn from Milan and returned there promptly, and, having given thanks to God for the aid granted to Theodosius, he promises that he will comply with that emperor's wish. Commending his piety in the highest terms, he asks that he show clemency. Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius. 1. You supposed, most blessed Emperor, as I learned from your august letter, that I was far away from the city of Milan because I believed that your affairs had been abandoned by God. But I was not so imprudent, nor so unmindful of your virtue and your merits, that I failed to presume that heavenly aid would be present to your piety, by which you would vindicate the Roman Empire from the savagery of a barbarian brigand and from the throne of an unworthy usurper. 2. I therefore hastened to return at once, after I had learned that the man whom I had thought I ought rightly to avoid was now gone; for I had not deserted the church of Milan, which had been committed to me by the Lord's judgment, but I was avoiding the presence of one who had entangled himself in sacrilege. And so I returned around the Kalends of August, and from that day I have remained here. Here, Augustus, the dispatches of your Clemency found me. 3. Thanks be to the Lord our God, who has answered your faith and piety, and has restored the pattern of ancient holiness; so that we might see in our own time what we marvel at in the reading of the Scriptures: that so great a presence of divine aid was in the battles, that no mountain peaks delayed the course of your advance, and no enemy arms brought any hindrance. 4. For these things you judge that I ought to give thanks to the Lord our God: I will do so gladly, being conscious of your merit. It is certain that the victim which is offered in your name is pleasing to God, and of how great devotion and faith this is! Other emperors, at the outset of a victory, order triumphal arches to be prepared, or other emblems of triumphs: your Clemency prepares a victim for God, and desires that an offering and a thanksgiving be celebrated to the Lord through the priests. 5. Although I am unworthy and unequal to so great a charge and to the solemn celebration of such vows, nevertheless I write what I have done. I carried the letter of your Piety with me to the altar, I placed it upon the altar itself, I held it in my hand while I offered the sacrifice; so that your faith might speak in my voice, and the dispatches of the Augustus might discharge the office of the priestly offering. 6. Truly the Lord is favorable to the Roman Empire, since he has chosen such a prince and a parent of princes, whose virtue and power, established at so great a height of triumphal empire, is supported by such great humility, that he has conquered emperors by virtue and priests by humility. What should I wish for? Or what should I desire? You have everything: and so from what is yours I shall obtain the sum of my prayers, you are pious, Emperor, you have the greatest clemency. 7. Yet I wish for you again and again increases of piety, than which the Lord has given nothing more excellent; so that through your Clemency the Church of God may, just as it rejoices in the peace and tranquillity of the innocent, likewise also be glad in the absolution of the accused. Pardon above all those who have not sinned before. May the Lord preserve your Clemency, Amen.

EPISTOLA LXI. Cur Mediolano secesserit, ac mature eodem redierit, declarato, gratiisque Deo propter opem THEODOSIO praestitam actis, voluntati ejusdem principis obsecuturum se pollicetur. Cujus pietatem summe commendans, ut clementia utatur petit. AMBROSIUS THEODOSIO imperatori. 1. Arbitratus es, beatissime imperator, quantum ex augustis litteris tuis comperi, me longe abesse ab urbe Mediolanensium; quia res tuas crederem a Deo destitui. Sed non ego ita imprudens, aut virtutis et meritorum tuorum immemor abfui, ut non praesumerem coeleste auxilium pietati tuae adfore, quo Romanum imperium a barbari latronis immanitate et ab usurpatoris indigni solio vindicares. 2. Festinavi igitur illico reverti, posteaquam illum, quem jure declinandum putaveram, jam abesse cognovi; non enim ego Ecclesiam Mediolanensem dereliqueram Domini judicio mihi commissam: sed ejus vitabam praesentiam, qui se sacrilegio miscuisset. Redii itaque circiter kalendas Augustas, ex illo die hic resedi. Hic me, Auguste, clementiae tuae apices repererunt. 3. Gratias Domino Deo nostro, qui fidei tuae pietatique respondit; et formam veteris restituit sanctitatis; ut videremus nostro tempore, quod in Scripturarum lectione miramur, tantam in praeliis divini auxilii fuisse praesentiam, ut nulli vertices montium adventus tui cursum retardarent, non hostilia arma impedimentum aliquod afferrent. 1021 4. Pro his gratias me censes agere oportere Domino Deo nostro: faciam libenter conscius meriti tui. Certum est placitam Deo esse hostiam, quae vestro offertur nomine, et hoc quantae devotionis et fidei est! Alii imperatores in exordio victoriae arcus triumphales parari jubent, aut alia insignia triumphorum: clementia tua hostiam Deo parat, oblationem et gratiarum actionem per sacerdotes celebrari Domino desiderat. 5. Etsi ego indignus atque impar tanto muneri et tantorum votorum celebritati; tamen quid fecerim scribo. Epistolam pietatis tuae mecum ad altare detuli, ipsam altari imposui, ipsam gestavi manu, cum offerrem sacrificium; ut fides tua in mea voce loqueretur, et apices Augusti sacerdotalis oblationis munere fungerentur. 6. Vere Dominus propitius est imperio Romano; quandoquidem talem principem et parentem principum elegit, cujus virtus et potestas in tanto imperii constituta culmine triumphali, tanta sit humilitate subnixa, ut virtute imperatores, humilitate vicerit sacerdotes. Quid exoptem? quidve desiderem? Omnia habes: ex tuis itaque summam votorum capessam, pius es, Imperator, clementiam habes maximam. 7. Opto tamen tibi etiam atque etiam incrementa pietatis, qua nihil Dominus praestantius dedit; ut per tuam clementiam Ecclesia Dei sicut innocentium pace et tranquillitate gratulatur, ita etiam reorum absolutione laetetur. Ignosce maxime his, qui non ante peccarunt. Dominus clementiam tuam conservet, Amen.