34. Moreover they assert that the people have been beguiled by the strains of my hymns[120]. I deny not this either. It is a lofty strain, than which nothing is more powerful. For what can be more powerful than the confession of the Trinity, which is daily celebrated by the mouth of the whole people? All zealously desire to make profession of their faith, they know how to confess in verse the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus all are become teachers who were scarcely able to be disciples.
35. But what can be more lowly than for us to follow the example of Christ, Who Phil. iii. 7. being found in fashion as a man humbled himself being made obedient unto death. And again, by obedience He delivered all: Rom. v. 19. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one Man shall many be made righteous. If then He was obedient let them learn from Him the lesson of obedience, to which we adhere, saying to them who raise odium against us, on the Emperor’s account, We render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. To Cæsar tribute is due, we deny it not; the Church is God’s, and must not be given up to Cæsar, because the Temple of God cannot by right be Cæsar’s.
36. That this is said with due honour to the Emperor no one can deny. For what can be more honourable for the Emperor than to be styled a son of the Church? In saying this we are loyal to him without sinning against God. For the Emperor is within the Church, not over the Church; a good Emperor seeks the aid of the Church, he does not reject it, we say this humbly, but we assert it firmly. Some men threaten us with fire, sword and banishment. We, the servants of Christ, have learned not to fear. To them that fear not nothing is a cause of alarm. And it is thus written, Ps. lxiv. 7. vulg. arrows of infants are their blows become.
37. It would seem now that we have made a sufficient answer to what was proposed to us. Now I ask them the same question as did the Saviour, S. Luke xx. 4. The baptism of John was it from heaven or of men? And the Jews could not answer Him. If the Jews did not annul the baptism of John, shall Auxentius annul the Baptism of Christ? For that Baptism is not from men but from Christ which the Is. ix. 6. Angel of mighty Counsel brought down to us, that we might be justified before God. Why then does Auxentius hold that the faithful, those baptized in the name of the Trinity are to be re-baptized, when the Apostle says, Eph. iv. 5. One faith, one baptism; why does he say that he is the adversary of men, not of Christ, seeing that he spurns the counsel of God, and contemns that Baptism which Christ gave us for the redemption of our sins.
LETTER XXII.
A.D. 386.
S. AMBROSE here recounts to his sister the discovery of the relics of S. S. Gervasius and Protasius, which occurred during the time of trial referred to in the last letter, and seems, by the pitch of excitement to which it raised the people of Milan, to have alarmed the court-party, and so to have caused the persecution to be dropped. The simple narrative needs no further introduction. It is strikingly told, and the question of the miracles discussed, in the ‘Church of the Fathers’ ch. iii. S. Augustine gives a brief account of the event in his Confessions, (ix. 7.) fully corroborating S. Ambrose’s statements, and also speaks of it in De Civ. Dei xxii. 8, 2, and in Serm. de Divers. cclxxvi. 5.
TO THE LADY HIS SISTER WHOM HE LOVES MORE THAN HIS LIFE AND EYES AMBROSE HER BROTHER SENDS GREETING.
1. AS I am wont to keep your holiness informed of all that goes on here in your absence, I would have you know that we have found the bodies of some holy martyrs.After the consecration of a Church[121], many began to interrupt me crying with one voice; Consecrate this as you did the Roman Basilica. ‘I will do so,’ I replied, ‘if I find any relics of Martyrs:’ and immediately my heart burned within me as if prophetically.
2. In short the Lord lent us aid[122], though even the very clergy were alarmed. I caused the ground to be opened before the rails of the Church of S.S. Felix and Nabor.I found the suitable tokens; and when some persons were brought for us to lay our hands upon, the power of the holy martyrs became so manifest that before I began to speak, one of them, a woman[123], was seized[124] by an evil spirit and thrown down upon the ground in the place where the martyrs lay. We found two men of stupendous size, such as belonged to ancient days. All their bones were entire, and there was much blood. The people flocked thither in crowds throughout the whole of those two days. We arranged all the bones in order, and carried them when evening set in,to the Basilica of Fausta[125]; where we kept vigils throughout the night, and some possessed persons received imposition of hands. The following day we transferred them to the Basilica which they call Ambrosian.During their transportation a blind man was healed[126]. My discourseto the people was as follows. When I considered in what overflowing and unprecedented numbers you were met together, and thought on the gifts of Divine Grace which shone forth in the holy Martyrs, I felt myself, I confess, unequal to this task, and thought it impossible that I could find language to express that which we can hardly conceive in mind or endure with our eyes. But when the reading of the regular Lessons of Holy Scripture began, the Holy Spirit, Who spoke by the Prophets, granted us grace to speak somewhat worthy of this great and expectant concourse, and of the merits of the holy Martyrs.