α) We must limit ourselves to a few specimen citations. St. Ambrose declares that God wills to save all men. “He willed all to be His own whom He established and created. O man, do not flee and hide thyself! He wants even those who flee, and does not will that those in hiding should perish.”(479) St. Gregory of Nazianzus holds God’s _voluntas salvifica_ to be co-extensive in scope with original sin and the atonement. “The law, the prophets, and the sufferings of Christ,” he says, “by which we were redeemed, are common property and admit of no exception: but as all [men] are participators in the same Adam, deceived by the serpent and subject to death in consequence of sin, so by the heavenly Adam all are restored to salvation and by the wood of ignominy recalled to the wood of life, from which we had fallen.”(480) St. Prosper concludes that, since all men are in duty bound to pray for their fellowmen, God must needs be willing to save all without exception. “We must sincerely believe,” he says, “that God wills all men to be saved, since the Apostle solicitously prescribes supplication to be made for all.”(481) The question why so many perish, Prosper answers as follows: “[God] wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth, ... so that those who are saved, are saved because He wills them to be saved, while those who perish, perish because they deserve to perish.”(482) In his _Responsiones ad Capitula Obiectionum Vincentianarum_ the same writer energetically defends St. Augustine against the accusation that his teaching on predestination is incompatible with the orthodox doctrine of the universality of God’s saving will.(483)