Letter 50016: Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Gratian.

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Emperor Gratian Date: ~380 AD Context: Ambrose addresses the emperor on the Incarnation and the relationship between Christ's two natures, countering Apollinarian ideas [the heresy that Christ lacked a human mind/soul] alongside Arianism. Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Gratian. Your Clemency asks how we should understand the mystery of the Incarnation — how the Son of God, who is eternal, entered time; how the Creator took on the form of his creation. The answer is not difficult in principle, though it is inexhaustible in depth. The Son assumed a complete human nature — body and soul — without ceasing to be what he always was. He did not become less God by becoming man; he made humanity more by joining it to the divine. Some say he took only a body, not a human mind [a reference to Apollinarianism]. But what he did not assume, he did not heal. If the Son took no human mind, then the human mind remains unredeemed — and it is precisely the mind that most needs redemption, since sin begins in the will before it reaches the hand. Others say that in becoming man the Son ceased to be equal to the Father. This is the Arian error in another guise. The Incarnation was an addition, not a subtraction. The divine nature lost nothing; human nature gained everything. I write to you about these matters, most faithful Emperor, because the enemies of the faith are inventive. When one heresy is defeated, they produce another. When Arianism retreats, Apollinarianism advances. Our vigilance must be constant, our theology precise, and our confession unwavering. Hold to this: one Christ, fully God and fully man, two natures united in one person, without confusion and without division. This is the faith of the Church. This is your faith. This is the faith that will endure.

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