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Life of St Ambrose
Paulinus the Deacon, tr. Kaniecka, 1928
He Firmly Resists Symmachus, the Prefect of the City Who Urges the Restitution of the…
But when Theodosius had left Italy and was at Constantinople, an embassy was sent to the emperor Valentinian who was in Gaul, in the name of the Senate by Symmachus, then the Prefect of the city, regarding the restitution of the altar of Victory and the maintainance of the sacred rites. But when the bishop found this out, he sent a petition to the emperor and demanded that copies of the report be sent him, to which he himself for his part would reply. When he received this report he wrote a most splendid letter, so that Symmachus, eloquent as he was, dared answer nothing in reply; but after Valentinian of sacred memory had ended his life in the city of Vienna, which is a city of the Gauls, Eugenius ascended the throne. He, not long after he began to reign, when Flavian the Prefect of that time and Count Arbogast made petition for the altar of Victory and the maintainance of the sacred rites,—a thing which Valentinian of sacred memory, while still in tender years, had denied them when they petitioned him—forgetful of his faith granted their request.
When the bishop learned this, leaving the city of Milan to which Eugenius had come in haste, he set out for the city of Bologna, and thence proceeded as far as Faventia. And when he spent a few days there, at the invitation of the Florentines, he went down to Tuscia, avoiding rather the sight of the sacrilegious man, and not fearing injury from the emperor; for he even sent him a letter in which he addressed his conscience, from which I think that a few of the many points should be quoted here. “Even if the imperial power is great, yet consider, Emperor, how great is God. He sees the hearts of all, He examines their interior conscience, He knows all things before they happen, He knows the secrets of your heart. You do not allow yourself to be deceived and you wish to conceal things from God? Has nothing come to your mind? If they acted so persistently, was it not your duty, Emperor, to oppose more persistently for the worship of God, the most high and the true and the living, and to refuse what was to the injury of the Holy Law?” And again: “Since then I am bound by my words both before God and before men, I thought nothing else was permitted to me, nothing else proper, but to look to my own welfare since I could not look to yours.”
And in the above mentioned city of Florence, while he stayed in the home of the late Decens, who was a man of high rank and what is more, a Christian, his son, Pansophius by name, still a mere child, when he was laboring with an unclean spirit, was cured by repeated prayers and by the bishop himself imposing his hands; but some days after, seized by sudden illness, the little child breathed forth his soul. And his mother, who was very pious and full of faith and the fear of God, taking him descended from the upper to the lower part of the house and placed him on the bed of the bishop in his absence. When on his return the bishop found him there on his bed—for he had been out of the house at that time —full of pity for the mother and witnessing her faith, like Elisaeus, he laid himself down on the body of the child and through prayer succeeded in returning alive to the mother the child, whom he had found dead; and for this child also he wrote a little book so that, what he was not able to realize on account of his infant age, he might learn through reading. Nevertheless, he did not mention the occurrence in his writings, but on what consideration he refused to mention it, it is not ours to judge.
In the same city also he founded a basilica, in which he placed the relics of the martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, whose bodies he had raised in the city of Bologna; for the bodies of the martyrs had been buried among the bodies of the Jews, nor would it have been known to the Christian people, if the holy martyrs had not revealed themselves to the bishop of that church. When they were placed under the altar which had been built in this same basilica, great delight and rejoicing was there on the part of all the faithful and punishment of the demons confessing the merits of the martyrs.
At the same time Count Arbogast prepared war against his people, namely the Franks, and he valiantly routed a no small number in a battle, and with the rest he made peace. But when at a banquet he was asked by the princes of his nation whether he knew Ambrose, and he replied that he knew the man and was loved by him and was wont to dine with him frequently, he heard: “So you conquer, Count, because you are beloved by that man who says to the sun: ‘stand and it stands’.” And so I have set this down that my readers may know what fame the holy man had even among barbarian peoples. For we also know this on the report of a certain young man of Arbogast, very religious, who was present; for at the time at which they said these things he was cupbearer.
And so the bishop having set out from Tuscia returned to Milan, because Eugenius had already departed thence against Theodosius; there he awaited the coming of the Christian emperor, secure through the power of God, because He does not give up those who believe in Him to the unjust, nor does He let fall the rod of sinners on the lot of the just, that the just may not stretch forth their hands to iniquity. For Arbogast Count at that time and the Prefect Flavian had promised as they were leaving Milan, that when they should return victorious, they would make a stable in the basilica of the church of Milan and would review the clergy under arms; but when the wretched men become wickedly credulous of their demons and open their mouths into blasphemy against God, they deprive themselves of hope of victory. Moreover the cause for their disturbance was this, because the gifts of the emperor, who had involved himself in the sacrilege, were spurned by the Church nor was association with the Church in prayer granted him. But the Lord who is wont to protect His Church cast His judgment from heaven and transferred complete victory to the pious emperor Theodosius. And so after Eugenius and his satellites were crushed, when he received letters from the emperor, he had no greater care than to intercede for those whom he found under impeachment. However, sending a deacon, he first besought the emperor by letter; but after John, at that time a tribune and secretary, but who is now a Prefect, had been sent to protect those who took refuge in the church, he himself went to Aquileia to intercede for them. And pardon was easily obtained for them, because the Christian emperor casting himself at the feet of the bishop bore witness that he had been saved by his merits and prayers.
And so returning from the city of Aquileia, he arrived one day before the emperor. And the emperor Theodosius of most kind memory, after his sons were received into the Church and entrusted to the bishop, was not long in this life; and after his death Ambrose survived about three years. At this time he raised and transferred the body of St. Nazarius, the martyr, which had been buried in a garden outside the city to the Basilica of the Apostles which is near the Roman Gate. We saw, moreover, in the grave in which the body of the martyr lay—although when he suffered, we cannot learn even to this day—the blood of the martyr as fresh as if it had been shed on that very day. His head also, which had been severed by the wicked, was so whole and uncorrupted with hair and beard that it seemed to us that it had been washed and placed in the grave at the very moment at which it was dug up. And why should this be strange, since the Lord indeed has already promised this in the Gospel, that a hair from their heads shall not perish? We were also suffused with such a wondrous odor that it surpassed the sweetness of all perfumes.
When this body of the martyr was dug up and laid on a litter, we immediately proceeded with the holy bishop to the martyr St. Celsus, who was buried in the same garden,—to pray. We have learned, however, that never before had he prayed in that very place; and this was the sign of the discovery of a martyr, namely, if the holy bishop should go to pray to a place at which he had never been before. We know, however, from the custodians of the place, that it was a tradition with them from their parents, not to depart from that place from generation to generation of their people, on this account because great treasures had been buried there. And indeed great treasures they were, which neither rust nor the worm destroys nor thieves dig up and steal, because Christ is their guardian and their habitation is the court of heaven, for whom it was Christ to live and to die was gain. And so after the body of the martyr was transposed to the Basilica of the Apostles, where previously the relics of the Holy Apostles had been deposited with the greatest devotion of all, while the bishop was preaching one of the populace filled with an unclean spirit began to cry out that he was tormented by Ambrose. But he turning to him said: “Be silent, devil, because Ambrose does not torment thee, but the faith of the saints and thy envy, because you see men rise to that place whence you have been cast down; for Ambrose knows not how to be puffed up.” After these words, he who was crying out became silent and threw himself upon the ground and no longer uttered a sound by which he might cause disturbance.
At the same time, when the emperor Honorius in the time of his consulship was giving an exhibition of wild beasts from Libya in the city of Milan, as the people assembled there, permission was then given to the soldiers who had been sent for the purpose by Count Stilicho at the request of Eusebius the Prefect, to take a certain Cresconius from the church; and as he took refuge at the altar of the Lord, the holy bishop with the clergy who were present at the time surrounded him for his defence. But the multitude of soldiers, who had members of the Arian heresy as their leaders, prevailed against the few and carrying Cresconius away in exultation returned to the amphitheatre, leaving no small sorrow to the Church; for the bishop prostrate before the altar of the Lord long bemoaned the deed. But when the soldiers had returned and reported to those by whom they had been sent, the leopards on being let loose leaped with a swift bound to the very place in which they who were triumphing over the Church had taken their seats and left them severely lacerated. Then when Count Stilicho saw this he was moved with repentance so that for many days he made apologies to the bishop and even dismissed unharmed him who had been carried off; but because he was guilty of the most heinous crimes and could not be chastised otherwise, he sent him into exile, although pardon followed not long after.
At the same time, as he was going to the palace and we were following him by virtue of our office, when a certain man slipped by chance and lay prostrate on the ground, the bishop turned to Theodulus—at that time a notary, although afterwards he ruled the church of Mutina with the greatest esteem—who was laughing at the mishap, and said: “And you who stand, see that you do not fall.” When he said this, immediately he who laughed at the fall of another grieved at his own.
At the same time, Frigitil, a certain queen of the Marcomanni, when she heard of the fame of the man from the report of a certain Christian who had by chance come to her from the regions of Italy, believed in Christ, whose servant she recognized him to be, and sending gifts to the Church she asked through her envoys that she be informed by his own hand what she should believe. And to her he wrote a remarkable letter in the manner of a catechism, in which he urged her also to persuade her husband to keep peace with the Romans; when the woman received the letter she persuaded her husband to entrust himself and his people to the Romans. When she came to Milan, she grieved very much because she did not find the holy bishop to whom she had hastened; for he had already departed from this life.
Now in the time of Gratian, to retrace my steps, when he had come to the residence of Macedonius, at that time the Master of the Offices, to intercede for a certain man and had found the doors closed by the order of the official mentioned above, and obtained no opportunity to enter, he said: “You also indeed will come to the Church, and since the doors have been closed, you will not find whereby you may enter.” And this came to pass; for at the death of Gratian, Macedonius on fleeing to a church could not find the entrance although the doors were open.