brose, there is room in the Church for all three, although they are not of equal excellence.

Probably in February, 375, Uranius Satyrus, Ambrose's beloved elder brother, died.1 The day of his death (September 17) as given in the Roman Martyrology is clearly wrong. They were very close. They shared everything: their property, thoughts and feelings, care and pleasures, even their very sickness and health. According to Ambrose, death is not an evil and should not be lamented: first, because it is the law of nature and the common lot of all men; secondly, because it brings release from the miseries of this life; and thirdly, because of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.

All the Arian activity in Milan, his own city, must have embarassed and distressed Ambrose greatly. The Empress mother Justina was still an Arian by religion and she detested Ambrose. Moreover, she was a very ambitious woman, who was determined to exercise supreme power by means of influence over her son, the child emperor, Valentinian II. She saw in Ambrose an energetic enemy of her faith and also a dangerous political rival. The empress gathered round herself a party of opposition to the bishop, whose aim was to discredit, and, if possible, to bring about the removal of the too powerful bishop. The point around which the battle would be waged was the question of providing facilities for Arian worship in Milan, which at that moment were nonexistent. Outside the walls of Milan there was a Catholic church called Portiana or the Basilica of Portius, and Justina was resolved to place this building at the disposal of the Arians. When this was refused, a second application was made

1 See Vol. 22 of this series for an English version of the two sermons St. Ambrose delivered on this occasion.

for the larger and newer basilica within the city. When asked to give this church over, Ambrose replied: "The emperor has his palaces, let him leave the churches to the bishops.' The emperor sent soldiers to secure the delivery of the basilica, but St. Ambrose with some of his faithful followers occupied it first, and remained in it, singing psalms and hymns until the soldiers were ordered to retire.

St. Ambrose was destined to play an equally important part in the struggle between Christianity and paganism. It is important to note that Milan, not Rome, Ambrose, not Pope Damasus, determined the final victory of Christianity over paganism. One of the many remains at that time of heathen worship was the Altar of Victory in the senate house at Rome, which had been removed under Gratian. Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, himself a pagan although a friend of St. Ambrose, petitioned Valentinian II to restore it, but Ambrose succeeded in defeating this petition by two letters (17 and 18) addressed to the young emperor. When Theodosius took over the imperial power in 387, still another attempt was made, but to no avail. Still later, the usurper Eugenius considered it good politics to cultivate the good will of the pagans and so ordered the Altar of Victory to be set up once more and the temples to remain open as of old. This triumph, however, was very short lived. When in the spring of 394 Theodosius defeated Eugenius at Aquileia, he brought paganism to an end, at least as a public religion. Naturally it lingered for a long time in private in the midst of indifferences, toleration, and sometimes persecution.

St. Ambrose was not only ready to exert his influence on the rulers of his day, but, as the occasion demanded, to make use of rebuke and Church discipline. Shortly after his consecration, St. Ambrose remonstrated with Valentinian I on

the severity of his reign and a number of abuses within his government. The emperor made the following famous reply: 'Well, if I have offended, prescribe for me the remedies which the law of God requires.' In 390, Theodosius had a mild sedition in Thessalonica put down with undue severity, bringing about the slaughter of some 7,000 persons. St. Ambrose at once disregarded any serious consequence for himself, and wrote him the now famous letter 51, exhorting him to repentance, and declaring that he could not be present at any celebration of the Mass until he had publicly expressed repentance. He complied with this condition at once. On another occasion the same Theodosius, following the practice in the East, entered the sanctuary of the church, a privilege reserved only for the clergy in the West. St. Ambrose rebuked him severely and made him retire to another section of the church with the laity.

Ambrose, however, was of great assistance to the imperial family in temporal affairs. To cite briefly only a few of these occasions, he undertook two different missions on behalf of Valentinian II to Trèves for the purpose of warding off an invasion by the usurper Maximus. When Valentinian II died, Ambrose delivered the eulogy which stands as one of the finest examples of early Christian funeral orations. He performed a similar service for Theodosius in 395. On several occasions, too, he interceded for the Roman emperor with the Goths. Perhaps the most important achievement of St. Ambrose in his dealings with the Roman emperors was the establishment of the principle that the Church and the State are two independent authorities, each autonomous within its own sphere, but each rendering general assistance and support to the other.

St. Ambrose's contribution to the music of the Western

Church must not be left unmentioned. He improved the song itself by introducing a more lively and melodious song, which was now rendered not by professional singers alone, but by the whole congregation, singing alternately in two choirs. He also supplied new hymns of his own composition. While Hilary of Poitiers was the first Latin hymn writer and composer of a hymn book, he did not succeed in getting his people to sing his compositions. They were excessively dull and ill adapted for congregational singing. Thus Ambrose may very properly be regarded as the father and founder of Latin hymnody.

Only two years after the death of Theodosius in 395, St. Ambrose died very early in the morning of Easter eve. Within an hour after death, his body was taken to the cathedral to lie in state that day and throughout the following night. On Easter Sunday after Mass, it was taken from the cathedral to the Ambrosian Basilica, where it was buried close to the relics of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. The church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan still shelters the dust of St. Ambrose.

The present volume contains four of the six treatises of St. Ambrose usually classified under the general title of Dogmatic and Controversial Works. These are De mysteriis, De Spiritu Sancto, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento, and De sacramentis. The last has been held of doubtful authenticity, but Fr. O. Faller, S.J., now convincingly establishes its Ambrosian authorship. The other two works of this group, De fide and De poenitentia will appear in another volume of this series.

Our translation of De mysteriis and the De sacramentis is based on the recent text by Fr. Faller in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum; the other two, on the Benedictine text, reprinted in Migne. All the treatises of this

volume, with the exception of De sacramentis, have been translated by H. de Romeston in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 10 (New York 1896). De sacramentis and De mysteriis have been translated by Thompson and Srawley (London 1950). Of great value, also, is the unprinted master's dissertation of Brother Louis Cavell of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, entitled Sancti Ambrosii 'De Incarnationis Dominicae Sacramento Liber,' A Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Washington 1955). The translations of passages from Scripture in this volume are taken or adapted from the Challoner-Rheims Version in the Confraternity edition. Each treatise will have a brief introduction of importance for itself.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE

TIMES AND WORKS OF ST. AMBROSE

339 St. Ambrose born at Trèves early in this year. 343 Beginning of heresy of Photinus.

348 Birth of Prudentius, the Christian Vergil.

349 Synod of Sirmium against Photinus.

350 Death of Emperor Constans. St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. Magnentius declared Emperor of West.

351 Condemnation of Photinus by a semi-Arian synod. 352 Liberius succeeds Julius as Pope.

353-4 St. Ambrose taken by mother to live in Rome. His sister Marcellina receives veil from Liberius at Christmas. Emperor Magnentius commits suicide.

354 Birth of St. Augustine on November 13. Death of Em