He will carry his own soul inscribed with blood, even though he will not carry a letter written in ink. Your guilt, O Judah, is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond, and inscribed upon your heart (Jer. 17:1) — that is, written there from where it proceeded. 24. Does this man, full of blood, full of gore, dare even to make mention of holding a debate? He who thinks that those whom he could not deceive by speech must be struck down with the sword, dictating bloody laws with his mouth, writing them with his hand, and supposing that law can impose faith upon men. He has not heard even what was said today: 「For a man is not justified by the works of the Law」 (Gal. 2:16); or:
「Through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God」 (Gal. 2:19) — that is, through the spiritual law of interpretation he died to the bodily understanding of the Law. Let us too, through the law of our Lord Jesus Christ, die to that law which sanctions the decrees of unbelief. It was not the Law that gathered the Church, but the faith of Christ. For the Law is not of faith: but 「the just shall live by faith」 (Gal. 3:11). Therefore faith, not the Law, makes a man just; because righteousness is not through the Law, but through the faith of Christ. But he who rejects faith and prescribes the ordinances of the law testifies against himself that he is unjust, since the just lives by faith. 25. Shall anyone, then, follow that law by which the Council of Ariminum is upheld, in which Christ was called a creature? But they say:
「God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law」 (Gal. 4:4). Therefore, they read 「made,」 that is, 「created.」 Do they not consider this very thing which they have put forward — that Christ is said to be made, but 「of a woman,」 that is, according to the birth from the Virgin He was made, who according to His divine generation was born of the Father? They also read today that 「Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us」 (Gal. 3:13). Is Christ a curse according to His divinity? But why He should be called a curse, the Apostle teaches you, saying that it is written:
「Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree」 (Gal. 3:13) — that is, He who in His flesh took up our flesh, in His body took up our infirmities and our curses, that He might crucify them; for He was not Himself accursed, but accursed in you. Indeed, you have elsewhere: 「Him who knew no sin, but was made sin for us」 — because He took up our sins, that by the sacrament of His passion He might abolish them (2 Cor. 5:21). 26. These things, brethren, I would dispute more fully before you in his very presence; but being certain that you are not ignorant of the faith, he shuns your examination, and has chosen for himself as judges some four or five heathen men — if indeed he has chosen any —
whom I would wish to be present in the assembly of all, not that they should judge concerning Christ, but that they should hear the majesty of Christ. Yet they have already pronounced concerning Auxentius, in whom, though he debates daily, they have not believed. What greater condemnation of him than that he was overcome before his own judges without an adversary? Therefore we already hold their very verdict against Auxentius. 27. And in that he has chosen the heathen, he is rightly to be condemned; for he has set aside the precepts of the Apostle, since the Apostle says: 「Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to be judged before the unjust, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints shall judge this world?」 (1 Cor. 6:1-2). And further he says: 「Is there not a wise man among you, who can judge between his brethren?」
「but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?」 (1 Cor. 6:5-6). You see that what he has proposed is against the authority of the Apostle. Choose for yourselves whether we ought to follow Auxentius or Paul as our master. 28. But why should I speak of the Apostle, when the Lord Himself cries out through the prophet: 「Hear me, my people, you who know judgment, in whose heart is my law」 (Isa. 51:7)? God says: 「Hear me, my people, you who know judgment」; Auxentius says: 「You do not know judgment.」 Do you see that he already despises God in you, who rejects the sentence of the heavenly oracle? 「Hear me, my people,」 He says, says the Lord. He does not say: 「Hear, O nations.」 He does not say: 「Hear, O Jews.」
For now the people who once were God's people have become a people of error; and the people who were a people of error have begun to be God's people, because they have believed in Christ. This people, then, judges — the people in whose heart is the divine law, not the human law: a law written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not inscribed on paper, but sealed upon the heart: a law of grace, not of bloodshed (2 Cor. 3:3). Who then does you injury — he who refuses your hearing, or he who chooses it? 29. Hemmed in on every side, he flees to the cunning of his fathers. He wishes to stir up resentment against the emperor, saying that a youthful catechumen, ignorant of the sacred reading, ought to judge, and to judge in the consistory.
As though indeed last year, when I was summoned to the palace, when the matter was being debated before the consistory in the presence of the chief men, when the emperor wished to seize the basilica — as though I then, broken by the contemplation of the royal court, did not maintain the constancy of a priest, or withdrew with my rights diminished? Do they not remember that when the people learned that I had gone to the palace, they rushed in with such force that the soldiers could not bear their violence — when, as the military count went out with light-armed troops to put the multitude to flight, all offered themselves to death for the faith of Christ? Was I not then begged to soothe the people with much discourse, to pledge my faith that no one would invade the basilica of the Church? And though my service was demanded as a favor,
yet because the people had come to the palace, resentment was stirred up against me. Into this resentment, then, they desire to bring me back. 30. I called back the people, and yet I did not escape the resentment — a resentment which indeed I judge ought to be tempered, not feared. For what should we fear for the name of Christ? Unless perhaps that which they say ought to move me: 「Then ought not the emperor to receive one basilica to which he may proceed? And does Ambrose wish to have more power than the emperor, that he should deny the emperor the means of going forth?」 When they say this, they long to entrap our words, just as the Jews who tempted Christ with crafty speech, saying: 「Master, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?」 (Matt. 22:17).
Is resentment always to be stirred up against the servants of God on account of Caesar? And does impiety summon this to itself as a slander, that it may screen itself with the imperial name? And can these men say that they are not guilty of the same sacrilege whose teaching they imitate? 31. And yet see how much worse the Arians are than the Jews. Those asked whether He thought the right of tribute should be paid to Caesar; these wish to give to the emperor the right over the Church. But as the faithless follow their author, so let us also answer what the Lord and our author has taught us. For Jesus, perceiving the guile of the Jews (Matt. 22:18ff.), said to them: 「Why do you tempt me? Show me a denarius.」 And when they had given it, He said: 「Whose image and inscription does it bear?」 They answering said:
「Caesar's.」 And Jesus said to them: 「Render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God.」 Therefore I too say to those who object to me: 「Show me a denarius.」 Jesus saw Caesar's denarius and said: 「Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.」 Can they offer Caesar's denarius for the seizing of the basilicas of the Church? 32. But in the Church I know of one image, that is, the image of the invisible God, of which God said: 「Let us make man to our image and likeness」 (Gen. 1:26); that image of which it is written, that 「Christ is the brightness of glory and the image of His substance」 (Heb. 1:3). In this image I behold the Father, just as the Lord Jesus Himself said:
「He who sees me sees the Father also」 (John 14:9). For this image is not separated from the Father, the image which taught me the unity of the Trinity, saying: 「I and the Father are one」 (John 10:30); and further: 「All things whatsoever the Father has are mine」 (John 16:15). And concerning the Holy Spirit, saying that He is the Spirit of Christ and receives of Christ, as it is written: 「He shall receive of mine, and shall declare it to you」 (John 16:14). 33. What, then, has been answered by us otherwise than humbly? If he asks tribute, we do not refuse it. The lands of the Church pay tribute: if the emperor desires the lands, he has the power to claim them; none of us intervenes. The contribution of the people can overflow to the poor:
let them not make resentment over the lands — let them take them, if it pleases the emperor: I do not give them, but I do not refuse. They seek gold; I can say: 「Silver and gold I do not seek.」 But they stir up resentment because gold is paid out. Nor do I dread this resentment. I have treasurers: my treasurers are the poor of Christ; this is the treasure I know how to gather. Would that they might always charge me with this crime, that gold is paid out to the poor! But if they object that I seek defense from them, I do not deny it — nay, I even court it. I have a defense, but in the prayers of the poor. Those blind and lame, the feeble and the aged, are stronger than robust warriors. Indeed, the gifts of the poor bind God; for it is written: 「He who gives to the poor lends to God」 (Prov.
19:17). The defenses of warriors often do not merit the divine grace. 34. They say also that the people have been led astray by the songs of my hymns. Plainly I do not deny this either. It is a mighty song, than which nothing is more powerful. For what is more powerful than the confession of the Trinity, which is daily celebrated by the mouth of the whole people? All vie eagerly to confess the faith; they know how to proclaim in verse the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus they have all become masters who could scarcely be disciples. 35. What, then, can be more obedient than that we should follow the example of Christ, who, found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death (Phil. 2:7-8)? In short, by obedience He set all free:
「For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made just」 (Rom. 5:19). If, then, He was obedient, let them receive the teaching of obedience, to which we cleave, saying to those who stir up resentment against us on account of the emperor: 「We render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God」 (Matt. 22:21). The tribute is Caesar's; it is not denied. The Church is God's; it surely ought not to be assigned to Caesar, because the temple of God cannot be Caesar's by right. 36. And no one can deny that this is said with honor to the emperor. For what is more honorable than that the emperor should be called a son of the Church?
And when this is said, it is said without sin, it is said with grace. For the emperor is within the Church, not above the Church; for a good emperor seeks the help of the Church, he does not reject it. As we say these things humbly, so we set them forth steadfastly. But some threaten fire, the sword, deportation. We servants of Christ have learned not to fear. To those who do not fear, terror is never grievous. Indeed it is written: 「The arrows of children have become their wounds」 (Ps. 64:7). 37. Enough, then, seems to have been answered to their objections. Now I ask them what the Savior asked: 「Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men?」 (Luke 20:4). And the Jews could not answer Him.
If the Jews did not annul the baptism of John, does Auxentius annul the baptism of Christ? For that baptism is not from men, but from heaven, which the Angel of great counsel brought down to us (Isa. 9:6), that we might be justified before God. Why, then, does Auxentius think that the faithful peoples, baptized in the name of the Trinity, must be rebaptized — when the Apostle says: 「One faith, one baptism」 (Eph. 4:5); and does he say himself to be an adversary of men, not of Christ — when he spurns the counsel of God, and condemns the baptism which Christ gave us for the redeeming of our sins (Luke 7:30)?
He recounts to his sister what happened at Milan over several days on account of the basilica which the Arians were seeking: how he himself was confronted by the ministers of Valentinian, while the people cried out against it; then how, when deacons were sent to invade the basilica, the Arian Castulus was seized by the people, on whose account, though he was freed by Ambrose's own care, various condemnations followed; after which the holy bishop, again challenged in the emperor's name, answered with great constancy. He adds that on the next day, the basilica being occupied, the soldiers promised they would go over to the catholics, and that the people had given up nothing of their courage: the trials of Job, and especially those he is recorded to have suffered from his wife, fitted to this time:
meanwhile that the basilica was set free, but a notary brought him harsh messages, by which he was in no way moved; lastly he subjoins the application of the prophecy of Jonah to present affairs, the joy of the people on account of the freed basilica and the large fine remitted to the merchants, the words of Valentinian to his counts, and his own reply to the threats of Calligonus. 1. Since in almost all your letters you anxiously inquire about the Church, hear what is being done. The day after I received your letter, in which you had signified that your dreams troubled you, a mass of grave disturbances began to be set in motion. And now it was not the Portian, that is, the extramural basilica that was being sought, but the new basilica, that is, the intramural one, which is larger. 2.
First, men of high rank, counts of the consistory, came to me, that I should both hand over the basilica and take care that the people stir up no disturbances. I answered what belonged to my order: that the temple of God cannot be handed over by a priest. 3. The next day it was acclaimed in the church; the prefect also came there; he began to urge that we should at least yield the Portian basilica. The people cried out against it. So then it broke up, with him saying that he would report to the emperor. 4. The next day — and it was the Lord's Day — after the readings and the homily, the catechumens being dismissed, I was delivering the creed to certain candidates in the baptisteries of the basilica.
There it was announced to me that, it having been discovered, they had sent deacons from the palace to the Portian basilica, and were hanging up the imperial curtains, and that part of the people was going there. Yet I remained at my duty and began to celebrate Mass. 5. While I was offering, I learned that a certain Castulus had been seized by the people, whom the Arians called a presbyter. They had come upon him in the street as they passed. I began to weep most bitterly and, in the very oblation, to pray God to come to our aid, that no one's blood might be shed in the cause of the Church — or rather, that my blood might be poured out for the salvation not only of the people, but even for the impious themselves. Why say more? Having sent presbyters and deacons, I rescued the man from injury. 6. Most grievous condemnations were at once decreed: first against the whole body of merchants.
And so, in the holy days of the last week, on which the chains of debtors were wont to be loosened, fetters rattle, they are placed upon the necks of the innocent, two hundred pounds of gold are exacted within the whole three days. They answer that they would give as much again or double, if it were demanded, provided only they might keep the faith. The prisons were full of traders. 7. All the palatine officials — that is, the recorders, the agents in rebus, the apparitors of the various counts — were ordered to abstain from going out, under the pretext that they were forbidden to take part in sedition; the men of honorary rank were threatened with many most grievous things unless they handed over the basilica. The persecution raged; and as if they had opened the gate, they seemed about to break forth into every crime. 8.
I myself was confronted by the counts and tribunes, that an immediate surrender of the basilica should be made, they saying that the emperor was using his own right, since all things were in his power. I answered that, if he asked of me what was mine — that is, my estate, my silver, anything of this kind that was mine — I would not refuse; although all things that are mine belong to the poor: but that those things which are divine are not subject to the imperial power. 「If my patrimony is sought, invade it; if my body, I will go to meet it. Do you wish to drag me into chains? Do you wish me to death? It is a pleasure to me. I will not surround myself with a throng of the people, nor will I hold the altars, begging for life, but for the altars I shall be more gladly sacrificed.」 9.
For I shuddered in my soul, when I learned that armed men had been sent to seize the basilica of the Church, lest, while they laid claim to the basilica, some slaughter should occur which would turn to the ruin of the whole city. I prayed that I might not outlive the funeral pyre of so great a city, or of all Italy. I detested the odium of shedding blood; I offered my own throat. There were present Gothic tribunes; I assailed them, saying: 「Is it for this that the Roman dominion has received you, that you should offer yourselves as ministers of public disturbance? Where will you go, if these things are destroyed?」 10. It was demanded of me that I should restrain the people. I replied that it was in my power not to incite them, but in God's hand to calm them.
Finally, if he thought me an instigator, that vengeance ought to be taken upon me at once, or that I should be carried off into whatever desert lands of the earth he might wish. When I had said these things, they departed; I spent the whole day in the old basilica. Then I retired home to sleep, that if anyone wished to carry me off, he might find me ready. 11. Before dawn, when I had stepped my foot over the threshold, the basilica is occupied by the soldiery surrounding it. And it is said that it was commanded by the soldiers to the emperor, that if he wished to go forth, he should have the opportunity; that they, however, would be at hand, if they saw him assemble with the catholics; otherwise they would go over to that assembly which Ambrose was gathering. 12. Of the Arians none dared to come forth; because there was no one of the citizens, a few of the royal household, and some Goths also.
To whom, as once the wagons were a dwelling, so now the Church is a wagon. Wherever that woman proceeds, she carries with her all her gatherings. 13. I perceived that the basilica was surrounded, by the groaning of the people; but while the lessons were being read, it was intimated to me that the new basilica also was full of people: that the crowd seemed greater than when all were free; that a reader was being clamored for. What more? The very soldiers who seemed to have occupied the basilica, when they learned that I had ordered them to be kept from the fellowship of communion, began to come to this assembly of ours. At the sight of them, the spirits of the women were troubled, and one rushed out. Yet the soldiers themselves declared that they had come for prayer, not for battle. Some of the people shouted.
How moderately, how steadfastly, how faithfully they begged that we should go to that basilica! In that basilica too it was reported that the people demanded my presence. 14. Then I entered upon this discourse: 「You have heard, my sons, that the book of Job was read, which is gone through by the solemn office and in due season. The devil too knew by experience that this book should be made known, by which all the power of his temptation is laid open and betrayed; and therefore today he has shaken himself with a greater commotion. But thanks be to our God, who has so strengthened you with faith and patience. I had ascended to admire one Job, but I have found all the Jobs whom I might admire. In each of you Job has revived; in each of you the patience and virtue of that holy man has shone forth.」
For what more fitting could have been said by Christian men than that which the Holy Spirit has today spoken in you? 「We ask, O Augustus, we do not fight; we do not fear, but we ask. This becomes Christians, that both the tranquility of peace be desired, and the constancy of faith and truth be not recalled even by the peril of death.」 For the Lord is our guardian, who will save those who hope in Him (Ps. 17:7). 15. But let us come to the appointed readings. You see that license to tempt is given to the devil (Job 1:12), that the good may be proved. The wicked one envies good attainments; he tempts in diverse ways. He tempted holy Job in his patrimony, he tempted him in his sons, he tempted him in the pain of his body. The stronger man is tempted in his own body, the weaker in another's.
And he wished to take from me my riches, which I have in you, and he desired to scatter this patrimony of your tranquility. He longed also to snatch from me you yourselves, my good sons, for whom I daily renew the sacrifice; he tried to involve you in certain ruins of public disturbance. Two kinds of temptation, then, I have already undergone. And perhaps because the Lord God knows me to be weaker, He has not yet given power over my body. Though I myself desire it, though I offer it, perhaps He still judges me unequal to this contest, and exercises me with diverse labors. Nor did Job begin with this contest, but in this he consummated it. 16. Now Job was tempted by heaped-up tidings of evils; he was tempted also through his wife, who said:
「Speak some word against God, and die」 (Job 2:9). You see how many things are suddenly set in motion — Goths, arms, heathen, the fine of the merchants, the punishment of the saints. You perceive what is commanded, when it is enjoined: 「Hand over the basilica,」 that is: 「Speak some word against God, and die.」 And not only 「speak against God,」 but also 「act against God.」 It is commanded: 「Hand over the altars of God.」 17. We are pressed, then, by royal commands, but we are confirmed by the words of Scripture, which answered: 「You have spoken as one of the foolish women」 (Job 2:10). No ordinary temptation, then, is this; for we have learned that those temptations are harsher which come through women. Indeed, through Eve even Adam was supplanted (Gen. 3:6);
and thereby it came to pass that he deviated from the heavenly commands. When this error was recognized, guilty in his transgressing conscience, he desired to hide, but could not hide; and therefore God said to him: 「Adam, where are you?」 (Gen. 3:9) — that is, what were you before? where have you now begun to be? where had I set you? whither have you yourself passed over? You acknowledge that you are naked, because you have lost the garments of good faith. These are leaves with which you now seek to veil yourself. You rejected the fruit; you desire to hide beneath the leaves of the Law, but you are betrayed. You desired to withdraw from the Lord your God for the sake of one woman; therefore you flee Him whom you were seeking to see. With one woman you chose rather to hide yourself, to forsake the mirror of the world, the dwelling of paradise, the grace of Christ. 18.
What shall I say of how Jezebel also cruelly persecuted Elijah (1 Kings 19:1ff.)? how Herodias had John the Baptist slain (Matt. 14:3ff.)? Yet each of them persecuted a single man; but for me, by however much my merits are far less, by so much the trials are heavier. The virtue is weaker, but the peril greater. The turns of the women succeed one another, their hatreds alternate, their devices vary, the elders are convened, the king's injury is set forth as a pretext. What reason, then, is there for a heavier temptation against this little worm, except that they persecute not me, but the Church? 19. It is commanded, finally: 「Hand over the basilica.」 I answer: 「It is not lawful for me to hand it over, nor expedient for you, O Emperor, to receive it. You can by no right violate the house of a private man; do you suppose that the house of God is to be taken away?」
It is alleged that all things are lawful to the emperor, that all things are his. I answer: 「Do not burden yourself, O Emperor, by supposing that you have any imperial right over those things which are divine. Do not exalt yourself, but if you wish to reign longer, be subject to God. It is written: The things that are God's to God, the things that are Caesar's to Caesar (Matt. 22:21). To the emperor belong the palaces, to the priest the churches. The right over public walls has been committed to you, not over sacred ones.」 Again it is said that the emperor had commanded: 「I too ought to have one basilica.」 I answered: 「It is not lawful for you to have that one. What have you to do with an adulteress? For she is an adulteress who is not joined to Christ in lawful wedlock.」 20.
While I was treating of these things, it was suggested to me that the royal curtains had been taken down, but that the basilica was crammed with people demanding my presence. And at once I turned my discourse to that, saying: 「How lofty and profound are the oracles of the Holy Spirit! In the morning hours was read, as you remember, brethren, that which we answer with the deepest grief of soul: O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance (Ps. 79:1). And in very truth the heathen have come, and more even than heathen have come; for Goths have come, and men of diverse nations: they have come with arms, and surrounding it have occupied the basilica. This we, ignorant of your height, lamented, but our imprudence supposed otherwise. 21. The heathen have come, but truly they have come into your inheritance;」
for those who came as heathen have become Christians. Those who came to invade the inheritance have become coheirs of God. I have as defenders those whom I thought enemies; I hold as allies those whom I reckoned adversaries. That has been fulfilled which the prophet David sang concerning the Lord Jesus, that 「His place is made in peace,」 and: 「There He broke the horns of the bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle」 (Ps. 76:2-3). For whose gift is this, whose work, but yours, O Lord Jesus? You saw armed men coming to your temple: on this side the people groaning and present in throngs, lest the basilica of God should seem to be handed over; on that side, force commanded against the soldiers. Death was before my eyes, lest amid these things anything should be permitted to fury:
You inserted yourself, O Lord, in the midst, and made both one (Eph. 2:14). You restrained the armed men, saying assuredly: 「If they run together to arms, if those shut up in my temple are stirred to commotion, what profit is there in my blood?」 (Deut. 32:36). Thanks therefore to you, O Christ. Not a legate, nor a messenger, but you, O Lord, have saved your people: you have rent my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness (Ps. 30:11-12). 22. These things I was saying, marveling that the emperor's mind could be softened by the zeal of the soldiers, the entreaty of the counts, the prayer of the people. Meanwhile it was announced to me that a notary had been sent who should deliver commands. I withdrew a little; he intimates the command. 「What did it seem good to you,」 he says, 「to do contrary to the decree?」 I answered: