The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of MilanAmbrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan
Religion
The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397 -- Correspondence
3. We thought moreover that we ought to take this trouble on ourselves,
not for Italy, which now for this long time has been quiet and free
from anxiety on the part of the Arians, and which is troubled with no
disturbance of the heretics; not for ourselves, for we seek not our own
things, but the things of all; not for Gaul and Africa which enjoy the
individual fellowship of all their Bishops, but that the circumstances
which have disturbed our communion on the side of the East might be
enquired into in the Synod, and all scruple be removed from among us.
4. For not only with regard to the persons about whom your Grace
condescended to write, but with regard to others who are attempting to
bring into the Church some dogma or other, said to be Apollinaris’[58],
there were several things that affected us, to which the knife should
have been applied in the presence of the parties, that a person
convicted of maintaining a new dogma and proved to be in error should
not shelter himself under the general name of the Faith, but at once
lay down both the office and name of Bishop, which he was not entitled
to by authority of doctrine, and that no threads or artifices of
delusion should remain for persons hereafter wishing to deceive. For
the person who is convicted, not in the presence of the parties, as
your Grace has truly decided in your august and princely answer, will
always lay hold of a handle for reviving the enquiry.
5. This was why we asked for a Council of Bishops, that no one
should be permitted to state what was false against a person in his
absence, and that the truth might be cleared up by discussion in the
Council. We ought not then to incur any suspicion either of over-zeal
or over-leniency, seeing that we made all our observations in the
presence of the parties.
6. In truth we drew up what was quoted, not to decide but to
give information, and while we asked for a judgement, we offer no
prejudgement. Nor ought it to have been regarded as any reproach to
them, when Bishops were invited to the Council, who in many cases were
more present by their very absence, since it contributed to the common
good. For neither did we conceive it to be a reproach to us when a
Presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, by name Paulus, demanded
that there should be a Synod both of Eastern and Western Bishops in
the province of Achaia.
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