Letter 65

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~383 AD Context: A reflection on the assassination of Emperor Gratian [murdered on August 25, 383, at Lugdunum/Lyon by agents of the usurper Magnus Maximus], mourning the loss of the emperor who had been Ambrose's strongest imperial supporter. Ambrose to the faithful. The Emperor Gratian is dead, murdered by the treachery of men who owed him loyalty [Gratian was betrayed by his own troops, who defected to Magnus Maximus, a rival general proclaimed emperor in Britain]. He was twenty-four years old. I mourn him not only as a subject mourns his emperor but as a friend mourns a friend and a bishop mourns his most faithful son. Gratian was the emperor who asked me to write on the faith — not because protocol required it, but because he genuinely wanted to understand what he believed. How many rulers have ever done that? He removed the Altar of Victory from the Senate. He withdrew state subsidies for pagan worship. He refused the title of Pontifex Maximus [the traditional pagan high-priestly title that every emperor since Augustus had held; Gratian was the first to refuse it]. These were not popular decisions — they cost him support among the old pagan aristocracy. But he made them because he believed they were right, and that is the mark of a ruler who serves God rather than opinion. His end was unworthy of his life. Betrayed, hunted, killed — not in battle, not in defense of the empire, but by the ambition of a man who wanted his throne. The manner of his death is an indictment of the age we live in, when loyalty lasts only as long as success. But God's judgment is not the world's judgment. The empire that rejected Gratian will one day answer for it. The man who murdered him will answer sooner. Let us pray for the soul of a young emperor who tried to do right in a world that punishes righteousness. And let us remember that the faith for which he stood is still standing, even though the man has fallen. May he rest in the peace of Christ, which the world could not give him and the world could not take away.

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