Deferrari

Deferrari

SAINT AMBROSE

CONSOLATION

ON TEE DEATH OF

EMPEROR VALENTINIAN

Translated by

ROY J. DEFERRARI, Ph.D.

The Catholic University of America

INTRODUCTION

he consolation on the death of Valentinian is, substantially, the funeral sermon delivered by St.

Ambrose at the burial of the remains of the youthful Valentinian II, Emperor of the West.

One of the first acts of Theodosius, Emperor of the East, after his victory over Maximus had been to send one of his generals, a pagan Frank named Arbogast, to Gaul. Arbogast had been a soldier in the army of Gratian, Valentinian's older brother and his predecessor as Emperor of the West, and had remained loyal to him during the defection of his troops. He had also served ably under Theodosius in the campaign against Maximus. Theodosius made him magister militum of all the imperial troops in Gaul, and he ruled alone there from 388 until 391. In the summer of that year Theodosius re turned to Constantinople, and Valentinian, now twenty, took up his residence at Vienne in Gaul, as Emperor of the West.

The situation was an impossible one for Valentinian. All re cognized Arbogast as master, and Arbogast recognized only

Theodosius, who had appointed him to his post and now named him 'protector' of the young Emperor of the West.

Furthermore, Arbogast resented the very presence of Valen tinian.

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On Saturday, May 15, 392, Valentinian was found strangled with his own handkerchief. Whether Valentinian killed himself, as Arbogast made public, or whether, as many believe, he was murdered at the instigation of Arbogast, if not by his own hand, is not definitely known. St. Ambrose, our chief and best source on this question, clearly points to murder, but he apparently had no proof. He did not openly accuse Arbogast; in fact, he did not even mention his name.

Without clear evidence, he had need to be circumspect.

The corpse of Valentinian, temporarily interred at Vienne on Pentecost, the day after his death, was removed to Milan, where his sisters, Justa and Grata, went to mourn beside it daily for two months. Theodosius, as usual, was undecided as to what course to follow. In Gaul, Arbogast took advantage of this hesitancy. After overcoming the reluctance of the crea ture of his choice, he had his soldiers proclaim an imperial courtier, Eugenius, as Emperor of the West on August 22,

392. Arbogast apparently expected Theodosius to ratify this action. But Theodosius was evasive even to a special em bassy sent to his court to announce formally the suicide of Valentinian and the consequent creation of Eugenius as em peror by the army in Gaul.

More than two months after the death of Valentinian, word came from Theodosius authorizing the burial at Milan. The body was placed in a tomb of porphyry, next to that of Gratian. Mass was offered, and in the presence Valentinians's sisters St. Ambrose preached this eloquent and touching funeral sermon.

The year of the delivery is known, 392, but the month is still a matter of some controversy, and the exact day is impossible to determine from the existing sources. All in dications point to the month of August. Beyond that one cannot be more precise.

ON THE DEATH OF VALENTINIAN

lthough it MAY mean an increase of grief to write1 about a subject over which we grieve, yet, because we often find solace in recalling the one over whose grieve for the reason that he seems to live again in our discourse, while, as we write, we direct our minds to him and fix our attention on him, it has been a task of love to make known something of the last moments of Valentinian the Younger. It has been such, moreover, lest we should seem by our silence either to have blotted out the memory of a loved one who merited well of us and to have left it unhonored, or to have avoided an incentive to grief, since to grieve is often a consolation to him who grieves. Furthermore, when I speak about him or to him, let my discourse be about a man who, as it were, is present to me, or even before me. loss we (2) What, then, shall I lament first? What shall I first deplore with bitter complaint? The days of our desires have been turned into tears for us,2 since Valentinian has come to us, but not as he was hoped for. Yet even by his death he wished to fulfill his promise, but most bitter has become his presence, which was so desired. Would that he were still absent

1 The sermon was prepared for circulation in a revised, written form.

2 Cf. Tob. 2.6.

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from us, that for his own sake he might still be living! But he could not endure to be inactive when he heard that the Italian Alps were infested by a barbarian foe,3 and he pre ferred to encounter danger by wholly forsaking Gaul than to fail us in our peril. A grave crime on the part of the em peror do we acknowledge this to be, that he wished to come to the rescue of the Roman Empire! This was the cause of his death, a cause full of glory. Let us pay the noble prince a tribute of tears, since he has paid us the tribute even of his death.

(3) Yet the exhortation to weep is not necessary. All are weeping: they weep who did not know him, even they weep who feared him, even they weep who do not wish to weep, even barbarians weep, even they weep who seemed to be his enemies. What great lamentations among the peoples were caused by the course of his entire journey from Gaul hither?

For all lament, not so much that their emperor is dead, but with a family grief, as it were, that a common parent has died, and all bewail his death as a death of one of their own. For we have lost an emperor whom we lament bitterly for two rea sons: for immaturity of years4 and ripeness of age in counsels.

For these things, then, do I weep, as the Prophet has said:

'My eyes are clouded by weeping, because he who consoled me has departed from me.'5 The eyes, not only of my body but also of my mind, have been dimmed, and every sense has been enveloped by a kind of blindness, because he has been snatched from me who turned my soul and recalled it from the depths of despair to the highest hope.6

(4) 'Hear all ye people and see my sorrow. My virgins, 3 An incursion of barbarians into Pannonia early in 382 had frightened

Italy.

4 Valentinian was only twenty years old at the time of his death.

5 Lam. 1.16.

6 This probably refers to Ambrose's struggle with the court, particularly with the mother of Valentinian II, concerning the transfer to the Arians of a basilica, first the Portian Basilica, later the Basilica Nova.

ON VALENTINIAN

and my young men are gone into captivity';7 but once it was known that they were from the regions governed by Valentinian, they returned free. A barbarian foe made war on the youthful emperor, and the foe, forgetting his own victory, was mindful of the imperial dignity. Of his own accord he freed those whom he had captured, giving as an excuse that he did not know that they were Italians. We were preparing even to add a rampart to the Alps, but the majesty of Valentinian did not wait for a palisade of the Alps, for flooding rivers, for deep banks of snow, but, crossing over Alps and rivers, he protected us by the rampart of his imperial power. Therefore it seems that I should use the exordium of the Prophet's lam entation: How does Italy mourn, who hath abounded in joys?8 'Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. There is none to comfort her among all them who love her. All they who love her have despised her. All her people sigh.'9

(5) And because it has been said of Jerusalem 'she hath wept,' our Jerusalem, that is, the Church, also 'hath wept in the night,' because he who was making her more res plendent by his faith and devotion has died. Fittingly, there fore, 'weeping she hath wept, and her tears are still on her cheeks.' Truly, the suffusion of a tear-stained countenance is wont to show the abundance of weeping, when the cheeks are bedewed with tears, but because it is written: 'Her cheeks are as vials of aromatical spices begetting perfume, her lips lilies dropping full myrrh,'10 the mystical grace of the weeping Church is meant, which at the death of Valentinian has poured forth the good ointment of her sorrow and honors his life by praising it. To her his death could not have been an affliction, since the fragrance of his praise, worthy to be pro claimed by the lips of all, has taken away all stench of death.

7 Lam. 1.18.

8 Cf. Lam. 1.1-2.

9 Lam. 1.11.

10 Cant. 5.13.

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(6) The Church therefore mourns her beloved one and 'her tears are on her cheeks.'11 Hear what is meant by the cheek: 'To him who strikes thee on the one cheek, offer the other also,'12 because she is patient under pain, that the one who strikes may repent. You were struck, O Church, on your cheek when you lost Gratian;13 you offered the other also when Valentinian was snatched from you. Rightly have you tears, not on one cheek but on both, because you piously bemoan both brothers. You mourn, therefore, O Church, and from weeping your cheeks are flooded, as it were, with flowing tears of affection. What are the cheeks of the Church of which the Scripture elsewhere says: 'Thy cheeks are as the bark of pomegranates'?14 They are the cheeks on which modesty is wont to shine, beauty to sparkle, on which there is either the flower of youth or the distinguished mark of perfect age.

Therefore, at the death of her faithful emperors faith ex periences a feeling of shame, the Church blushes, as it were; and at such untimely deaths of her pious princes the whole beauty of the Church becomes sorrowful.

(7) The Church mourns in her wise men, who are, as it were, the head of the Church: 'For the eyes of a wise man are in his head.'15 She mourns in her eyes, that is, in her faithful, because it is written: 'Thy eyes are as doves apart from thy reticence,'16 because they see spiritually and know how to keep silent about the mysteries which they have seen.

She mourns in her priests, who are as the cheeks of the Church, on which is the beard of Aaron, that is, the beard of the priesthood upon which the ointment descends from the 11 Lam. 1.2.

12 Luke 6.29.

13 Of the three emperors—Valentinian, Gratian, Theodosius—St. Am brose had greatest affection for Gratian.

14 Cant. 6.6.

15 Eccles. 2.14.

16 Cant. 4.1.

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head.17 These are the ones in whom the beauty of the Church exists, in whom her flower is more pleasing, in whom age is more perfect, who, like the pomegranates, display beauty out wardly by their bodily abnegation, but inwardly with spiritual wisdom nourish the people of every age and sex who have been committed to them, subjected indeed by the world to injuries, but dispensing inner mysteries. She mourns in her virgins who are as lilies and lilies full of myrrh, exhibiting the whiteness of purity and the glory of the mortified pleasures of the body.

(8) In these, therefore, she weeps, as it is written: 'The ways of Sion mourn, her priests mourn, her priests sigh, her virgins are taken away, and she herself is indignant within herself.'18 And within herself she is indeed indignant, and to Valentinian she says: 'I will take you up and bring you into my mother's house, into the chamber of her who conceived me. I will give you to drink of a wine made with much labor of spices,'19 that is, made with much labor of spices of strong odor from the juice of my pomegranates, that he may drink the 'wine' which 'cheers the heart of man'20 and that there may flow over him the juice of the pomegranates in which there is much and varied fruitfulness. For discourse of many meanings and abounding in various texts of Scripture, the discourse of angels, the discourse of Apostles and of Prophets, whom the holy Church envelops as by a single bark, is the juice of the pomegranates.

(9) Valentinian, seeing these things filled with perfect grace, replies: 'The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed; because His mercies have not been consummated,

I have renewed them like the morning light.'21 'Many are my 17 An adaptation of Ps. 132.2.

18 Lam. 1.4.

19 Cant. 8.2.

20 Ps. 103.15.

21 Lam. 3.22,23.

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groanings and my heart has failed.'22 'The Lord is my lot, I said, therefore will I wait upon Him. The Lord is good to those that wait upon Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good to hope in the salvation of God. It is good for a man when he hath borne the heavy yoke in his youth; he shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath borne a heavy yoke.'23 And he surely is consoling himself with the reward of his virtues, because in his youth he endured labors, bore many trials; he preferred to carry on the proud neck of the mind the heavy yoke of the purpose of amendment rather than that soft yoke full of pleasures.

(10) Blessed, indeed, is he who even in his old age has corrected his error; blessed he who even at the point of death turns away his mind from vice. For 'blessed are those whose sins are covered,'24 because it is written: 'Cease from evil and do good, and dwell forever and forever.'25 Whoever, therefore, shall turn away from sins, and shall be converted to better things at whatever age, shall obtain forgiveness of his past sins, which he has either confessed with a penitent disposition or from which he has turned with a purpose of amendment.

But in meriting this forgiveness he shares the companionship of many; for there are many who have been able to recall themselves from sin both in the slippery path of youth and in old age, but rare is he who in his youth has borne the heavy yoke with earnest sobriety. This is the yoke of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: 'Come to Me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you.'26 If anyone, therefore, before he is burdened with a heavy load of sins, has borne the yoke in his youth, he

22 Lam. 1.22.

23 Lam. 3.24-28.

24 Ps. 31.1.

25 Ps. 36.27.

26 Matt. 11.28.29.

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shall sit alone; he is not to be compared with the many, but with him who can say: 'For Thou hast singularly settled me in hope.'27

(11) But perhaps you may say: How does Jeremias call the yoke heavy, when the Lord in the Gospel has said: 'For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light'?28 Now, first under stand that the Greek has 'yoke' only, and has not added heavy. Notice this, also, that, although it was so in Lam entations, in the Gospel He said 'sweet yoke' and 'light burden,' not light yoke.' I1 or the yoke of the Word can be heavy, yet sweet; heavy to the youth, heavy to the young man whose age is in fuller flower, so that he is unwilling to offer the neck of his mind in subjection to the yoke of the Word. The yoke of the Word can seem heavy because of the burdens of dis cipline, the rigor of amendment, the weight of abstinence, and the curbing of lust, yet it is sweet because of the fruit fulness of grace, the hope of eternal reward, the sweetness of a purer conscience. Still, He called the yoke of the Word

'sweet' and the burden of conscience 'light,' because for him who has taken up the yoke of the Word with a patient neck the burden of discipline cannot be heavy.

(12) He, therefore, who has borne the yoke in his youth will sit alone and will hold his peace,29 rejoicing in the eternal mysteries of divine recompense which have been revealed to him. Or, surely, he will hold his peace, having no need of obtaining a pardon for sin, when he has anticipated this need by a timely confession and has removed it by a speedy amend ment. For it will not be said to him: 'The things that thou hast not gathered in thy youth how shalt thou find them in thy old age?'30 But it can also be understood thus, that he who has borne the yoke of the Word early, that is, from his

27 Ps. 4.10.

28 Matt. 11.30.

29 An adaptation of Lam. 3.27,28.

30 Eccli. 25.5.

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youth, will not mingle with young men, but will sit apart and will hold his peace until he trains himself in the full per fection of virtue; and he will put upon his mind the cloak of great patience, and he will give his cheek to the persecutor,31 even content with the outrage, that he may obey heavenly commands.

(13) For it is a great thing either to abstain from the vices of youth or to leave them at the very threshold of youth and to turn to more serious things, for the ways of youth are treacherous and confusing. Therefore, Solomon says: 'Three things are impossible for me to understand, and a fourth which I do not know: the footprints of an eagle in flight and the tracks of a serpent on a rock and the paths of a ship that is sailing, and the ways of a man in his youth.'32

And David says: 'The sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not remember.'33 For a young man not only falls because of the frailty of his unstable age, but he also fails frequently because of his ignorance of heavenly commands; he quickly wins pardon, however, who offers ignorance as an excuse. And so the Prophet says: 'The sins of my youth and of my igno rance do not remember.' He does not say: 'The sins of my old age and of my wisdom do not remember.' But like the Prophet, who has quickly corrected and amended the vices of his youth, he offers age and ignorance as an excuse.

(14) Valentinian, also, like the Prophet even in sin, says: 'The sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not re member.' He not only said this, but also corrected his error before he learned that there was a fall into any error. And so he says: 'The amendment of my youth do not remember.'

Error is in many; in few, correction.

(15) And what shall I say further of one who thought that he ought to abstain even from the sports of youth, that 31 Cf. Luke 6.29; Isa. 50.6.

32 Prov. 30.18,19.

33 Ps. 24.7.

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the joyful ness of this age ought to be restricted, that the harshness of official severity ought to be softened, that the leniency of old age, out of keeping with his years, ought to be granted to one who was summoned to render judgment for a proven crime? Jt was rumored at first that he took delight in the games of the circus. He removed this charge so com pletely that not even on the publicly observed birthdays of princes nor in honor of the imperial dignity did he think that the games of the circus should be celebrated. Some said that he was engaged in the hunt of wild beasts and that his attention was distracted from the affairs of state; immediately he ordered all the beasts to be slain.34

(16) You could have seen the young man listening to the business of the consistory3' and truly in the spirit of Daniel rendering a just and mature decision where old men might have hesitated or been influenced by consideration of some person. The envious taunted him because he sought dinner early. He then began to make such a practice of fasting that often he gave his courtiers an elaborate banquet though he himself ate nothing, so that in this way he might satisfy both the obligations of religion and the good manners of a prince.

(17) Word was brought that the young nobles of Rome were desperately in love with the beauty and charm of a certain actress. He ordered her to come to court. The mes senger, seduced by a bribe, returned without having executed the command. He sent a second, lest he might seem to have wished to amend the vices of the youths yet could not. An occasion for calumny was given to some; yet when she was brought to court, he never gazed or looked upon her. After wards, he ordered her to leave, so that all might know that his command was not without effect and that he might teach

34 I he conversion of the younger Valentinian described here can be dated from his return to Italy in the summer of 388 after the fall of Maximus.

V> I he emperor's council.

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the youths to refrain from the love of a woman whom he himself, who could have had her in his power, had spurned.

And this he did when he was still without a wife, yet he gave proof of his chastity as though bound by wedlock. Who is so much a master of a servant as he was of his own body? Who so much a judge of others as he was the censor of his own age?

(18) What shall I say of his piety? When an informer accused men born of noble ancestry and wealthy by in heritance—things which easily arouse envy—of desiring the throne, and when the prefect prosecuted them, he replied:

No sentence of capital punishment would be imposed, es pecially on holy days. And when some days later the charge of the informer was being read, he pronounced it a calumny and gave orders to regard the accused as free until the prefect should hear the case. Neither before nor afterwards did any one, as long as the young man was emperor, fear the envy of so serious a charge. The young man smiled at what strong emperors fear.

(19) Rome had sent legates36 to recover the rights of the temples, the unholy prerogatives of the priests, and of their sacred cults; and, what is more serious, the legates were making their representations in the name of the Senate. And when all who were present in the consistory, Christians and pagans alike, said that these privileges should be restored, he alone, like Daniel,37 with the Spirit of God aroused within him, denounced the Christians for lack of faith and resisted the pagans by saying: 'How can you think that what my pious brother took away should be restored by me?' since

36 During the reign of Valentian II, four deputations were sent to one or the other of the emperors regarding the restoration of the state subsidies to the pagan religion and of the Altar of Victory to the Senate. This passage probably refers to the fourth made in 391.

Cf. E. K. Rand, Founders of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass.

1929) 14-21.

37 Cf. Dan. 13.35.

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thereby both his religion and his brother, by whom he was unwilling to be surpassed in piety, would be offended.

(20) And when he was confronted with the example of his father, that during his father's regime no one had taken away these rights and privileges,38 he replied: 'You praise my father because he did not take them away; neither have I taken them away. Did my father restore them so that you might insist that I should restore them? Finally, even if my father had restored them, my brother took them away, and in this matter I should prefer to be an imitator of my brother.

Or was my father Augustus, and my brother not? Equal re spect is due to both, and equal was the good will of both toward the state. I shall imitate both, so that I will not restore what my father could not have restored, because no one had taken it away, and I am resolved to maintain what has been established by my brother. Let Mother Rome demand what ever else she may desire. I owe love to a parent, but still more

I owe obedience to the Author of salvation.'

(21) What shall I say of the love of the provincials,39 either of that with which he himself embraced them, or of that which was paid in return to their protector by those upon whom he never permitted any imposition to be visited?

'Old taxes,' he said, 'they cannot pay; will they be able to endure new ones?' For this the provinces praise Julian. But the latter, indeed, was in the full vigor of life, in early man hood; the latter found much and exhausted all, the former found nothing and abounded in everything.

(22) While stationed in the country beyond the Alps, he heard that the barbarians40 had advanced toward the bound aries of Italy. Anxious lest his kingdom be attacked by a 38 Ambrose here refers without comment to the policy of non-inter ference in religious affairs, either Christian or pagan, adopted by Valentinian I.

39 Y'alentinian's special subjects in Gaul.

40 In this work Ambrose refers to barbarian invasions on three occasions.

Although Italy was threatened, it was not invaded at this time.

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foreign foe, he made haste to come, eager to put aside his leisure in Gaul and to assume our dangers.

(23) All that is common knowledge, but this is personal, that he often summoned me when absent and declared that I especially must initiate him into the sacred Mysteries.

Furthermore, in truth, when a rumor reached the city of Vienne that I was hastening thither to invite him to Italy, how he rejoiced, how pleased he was that I should be with him as he desired! The delay of my arrival seemed to him too prolonged. And would that no message of his coming had arrived first!

(24) I had already promised41 that I would set out, re plying both to the persons of high rank and to the prefect, as they begged me to consult the interests of the peace of Italy, that, although I could not with propriety intrude without need, I would not fail them in their necessities. My journey was decided upon. Behold, after three days a letter on pre paring stations was received, the royal accoutrements were brought in, and other things of this kind were done which indicated that the emperor was about to set out on a journey.

For these reasons the mission was abandoned by the very ones by whom it had been demanded.

(25) I seemed to myself to be responsible for my expected but unrealized appearance. But would that I owed this debt to you while still alive! I would make excuse that I had heard nothing of your perils, had received none of your letters, that I could not have come to meet you with my own horses even if I had undertaken the journey. And so, sure of pardon, while I was subtracting the days and was picking the road of your arrival, behold I received a rescript that I should con41 Because of anxiety at Milan, high officials asked Ambrose to go to Vienne and to request the emperor to come to the defense of Italy.

Ambrose promised to go, although very reluctant to interfere between Valentinian and Arbogast. A report, probably false, that the emperor was already on his way caused Ambrose to cancel his trip.

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sider it necessary to set out without delay because you wished to have me as a surety of your fidelity with your count. Did

I object? Did I delay? It was added that I should hasten quickly and that I should not consider as a reason for my journey a synod of Gallic bishops, because of whose repeated dissensions I had frequently excused myself for not going, but that he himself might be baptized.

(26) At the very moment of my departure I could have perceived indications of what had already taken place, but because of my eager haste I was unable to notice anything. I was already crossing the peaks of the Alps, and behold there came a message, bitter for me and for all, of the death of so great an emperor. I retraced my journey and bathed myself in tears. With what prayers from all did I set out! With what lamentation from all did I return! For they thought not an emperor, but security, had been snatched from them. How deeply was I torn with grief, above all, because so great a prince, because a dear friend of mine, because one so ex ceedingly fond of me had died! What emotions did I discover to have been his during those two days in which he survived the letter that he had sent me! In the evening a silentiary set out; on the morning of the third day he was already in quiring whether he had yet returned, whether I was coming.

Thus did he think that some security would come to him.

(27) O most noble youth, would that I could have found you still living, would that some delay had preserved you until my arrival! I make no promise about any power on my part, none as regards my ability and prudence, but with what great care and with what great zeal would I have restored concord and good feeling between you and your count!

How I would have offered my very self as a pledge for your fidelity, how I would have pledged myself as a surety for those of whom the count said he was afraid! Surely, if the count were not unyielding, I would have remained with you.

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I took for granted on your part that you would hear me, if you should see that I was not heard in your behalf.

(28) Much had I to keep; now I have nothing but tears and weeping. Daily are you greater unto my sorrow, you be come greater unto my grief. All testify how much you have done for me; all declare that my absence was the cause of your death. But I am not Elias, I am not a prophet, that I could have known the future, but I am the voice of one crying in lamentation42 that I may be able thereby to bewail the past. For what better have I to do than to make return to you in tears for your great affection toward me? I took you up a mere child in my arms when as an envoy I went to your enemy; I embraced you when you were entrusted to me by the hands of your mother. As your envoy I went to Gaul a second time43 and sweet to me was that service in behalf of your safety first of all, and secondly in behalf of peace and the piety with which you were requesting the remains of your brother. Not yet were you without anxiety for yourself, but already were you anxious for the honorable burial of your brother.

(29) But let us return to Lamentations and enter the very bowels of sorrow: 'What shall I testify to thee,' he says,

'or what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who shall save thee and who shall console thee, virgin daughter of Sion? For great destruction hath been wrought upon thee.

Who shall heal thee?'44 But who will console me from whom others seek the office of consolation? 'He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with gall.'45 'My bowels are

42 Cf. Isa. 40.30; Matt. 3.3; Mark 1.3; Luke 3.4; John 1.23.

43 The purposes of Ambrose's second mission to Maximus in 386 were: to secure the safety of Valentinian, threatened by the usurper; to preserve peace in the Western Empire between Maximus in Gaul and Valentinian in Italy; and, finally, to effect the return to Milan of the remains of Gratian for burial.

44 Lam. 2.13.

45 Lam. 3.5.

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in pain,'46 to use the words of the Prophet, because I have lost him whom I was about to beget in the Gospel.

(30) But he has not lost the grace for which he asked, he who today has risen before us in the sermon which I preached to the people. For when in my treatment of the assigned lesson I happened upon this, that the poor people blessed

God, I began to ask who this people was, and to distinguish between two peoples, the one rich, the other poor. The rich is the people of the Jews, the poor, that of the Church: the one, rich in the revelations entrusted to it; the other, poor and borrowing revelations from others. Rightly poor, because it was gathered by a poor Man, namely, by Him who, being rich, became poor that through His poverty we might be en riched,47 for 'he emptied Himself'48 that He might fill all.

(31) But how is He poor who had the riches of eternity and 'the fullness of divinity'?49 Therefore, He was in the flesh, and He said: 'Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power.'50 And elsewhere He says to Peter: 'To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'51 Was He, then, poor who was giving away the kingdom of heaven? But hear how He is poor: 'Take up,' He says, 'My yoke upon you, because I am meek and humble of heart.'02 Therefore, even His people, whom I see to be richer than the rich people mentioned, are poor, but not through want, for they have merited to have not only the revelations of the Prophets but also the precepts of the Apostles which were infused by the divine Spirit.

(32) Not, then, through want is he poor, but poor in spirit, to whom it was said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for 46 Jer. 4.19.

47 Cf. 2 Cor. 8.9.

48 Phil. 2.7.

49 Col. 2.9.

50 Matt. 26.64.

51 Matt. 16.19.

52 Matt. 11.29.

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theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'53 Truly blessed are the poor who received what the rich did not have. Of this number is that poor Prophet of whom it is written: 'This poor man cried and the Lord heard him.'54 Of this people is he who says: 'Sil ver and gold I have none, but what I have I give thee; in the name of Jesus of Nazareth arise and walk.'50 Therefore, that poor Founder of a poor people says: 'O God, be not Thou silent in my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me. They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and they have compassed me about with words of hatred, and have fought against me without cause. Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me, but I gave myself to prayer.'56 Prayer is a good shield whereby all the fiery darts of the Adversary are repelled.57 Therefore, the Lord Jesus prayed, and His fol lower, Valentinian, prayed.

(33) But perhaps it may be said: What did his prayer profit him? Behold, he died in the first stage of life's course.

Of the suddenness of his death, not of its manner, do I speak, for I employ not the word of censure but of sorrow.

But the Lord also prayed and was crucified; for He prayed further that He might take away the sin of the world. Let us hear, therefore, what the disciple of Christ prays for—cer tainly, for what his Master taught him. Now He taught us to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation, that is, that we fall not into sin. For this is the temptation of a Christian, if he fall into danger to his soul, but to fear death is not a part of perfection.

(34) But one should pray also for his enemies, pray even for his persecutors, as the Lord Himself prayed, saying:

53 Matt. 5.3.

54 Ps. 33.7.

55 Acts 3.6.

56 Ps. 108.2-4.

57 Cf. Eph. 6.16.

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'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'58

Behold His great clemency. They persecuted their own Author; He forgave even the grave sins of His adversaries; rather, He even excused their offenses by covering them with the cloak of ignorance, saying: 'For they know not what they do.' For if they had known, they would not have persecuted their Lord'9 on whose power and jurisdiction they believed that their salvation depended. And because the persecutors of Christ were not satisfied by His death alone, they added curses and insults. And He Himself says: 'They will curse and Thou wilt bless.'60 He taught us that we should not fear in the least curses of persecutors, since we possess the Author of blessing, and that insults should not move us when there is a Protector who can remove curses.

(35) What of the fact that he did not fear to die? Nay, rather he offered himself up for all, saying that the innocent were subjected to hatred to no purpose, that to no purpose were others being endangered on his account. And he desired death for himself rather than that he himself should be a cause of death to others. Such is the Gospel teaching of our

Lord, who at the very time of His arrest said: 'If you seek me, let these go their way.'61 And so he died for all whom he loved, a man in whose behalf his friends thought it of little account if they should all perish.

(36) We have noted his attitude of mind toward his friends. Let us consider the affection which he had for his sisters. In them he found repose, in them he obtained con solation, in them he found relaxation for the mind and soothing for his heart wearied by cares. He begged of them that if through some lapse of boyhood, if through some word, they seemed to have been offended by their brother, they

58 Luke 23.34.

59 Cf. 1 Cor. 2.8.

60 Ps. 108.28.

61 John 18.8.

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should forgive and should beseech pardon for him of the Lord God. The hands and heads of his sisters he was wont to kiss, unmindful of his imperial dignity, but mindful of his kinship, and the more he stood above others by right of power, the more humble did he show himself to his sisters.

He begged of them not to remember injury but to remember kindness.

(37) It happened that he heard a oase regarding a possession of theirs. For so great a man was he that even in the suit of his sisters he was thought by the provincials to be a just judge. Although from love he inclined toward his holy relatives, he tempered his piety with justice. He heard the case, not regarding a right, but regarding the possession of an estate. On the one hand, brotherly love struggled in behalf of his sisters; on the other, mercy for the cause of an orphan, so that he interceded with his own sisters for him. He remitted the case to a public judge, lest he might offend against justice or brotherly love. In secret, however, as we learn from the final disposition made by the noble maidens, he so impressed his pious love on his holy sisters that they were willing to re linquish the estate and to make this known. Sisters truly worthy of so great a brother, who preferred of their own accord to surrender what their mother had left them rather than subject their brother to shame on their account!

(38) This inheritance of a brother's praise and glory is for you, holy souls, a more precious bequest, and by it a de voted brother has rendered you nobler and richer. For he adorned your head not with jewels but with kisses, and he did not so much encircle your hands with royal insignia as he caressed them with his imperial lips. In the enjoyment of your presence he placed all his solace, so that he did not even long exceedingly for a wife. Therefore he deferred marriage because he was sustained by the pious affection of your graciousness. Let all this, then, be more a source of pleasure

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than of grief to you, so that your brother's glory may refresh your minds more than sorrow torment them. Tears often both sustain and relieve the mind; weeping cools the heart and consoles a sorrowful affection.

(39) You are indeed looking upon painful obsequies, but even blessed Mary stood by the cross of her Son, and the Virgin watched the passion of the Only-begotten. I read of her standing; I do not read of her weeping. Wherefore, her

Son said to her: 'Women, behold thy son,' and to the disciple He said: 'Behold thy Mother,'62 leaving to them the heritage of His love and His grace. Hence I desire, devoted children, to show you fatherly affection, since because of my sins I was not worthy to save your brother. Your brother I behold in you, to your brother I cling, your brother I consider to be present to me; nay rather, both brothers, whom I regard as my pluckedout eyes. More happily do emperors persecute bishops than love them. How much more fortunately for me did Maximus threaten me! In his hatred there was praise, in the love of these brothers is the heritage of suffering caused by death.

My sons, would that I might have been allowed to pour out this life of mine for you! A curtailment of sorrow would I have found, and more glorious would it have been for me to die for such dear friends!

(40) But, holy daughters, let me return to consoling you, although the bitterness of what has happened takes away all the force of consolation. If consolation be brief, it offers nothing wherewith to soothe a sorrowing love, but, if it be too diffuse, it brings a longer remembrance of sorrow. For the more diffuse you are, the more, while in the very act of consoling, will you affect him whom you wish to console, and the longer will you make his sorrow.

(41) Therefore, I shall not wipe away your tears by my discourse as with a sponge. I would not wish to do this even if 62 John 19.26,27.

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I could. For pious affections find a kind of pleasure in weeping, and usually a heavy sorrow is dispelled by tears. But I make this request, that by your deep grief you do not pluck out the brother who has been implanted in your hearts, or turn him away by your lamentations, or disturb him as he rests. Let him remain in your hearts, let him live in your breasts, let him cling to your pious embraces as he used to, let him imprint his brotherly kisses, let him be always in your sight, always on your lips, always in your speech, always in your minds. His state is now such that you need not fear for him as before. Forget his misfortune, hold fast to his virtue.

Hope in him as one who will help you, let him stand by as a protector at night, let not even sleep now exclude him from your presence. For his sake let repose delight you, that he may return to you more loved than ever. It is in your power, daughters, to prevent anyone now from taking your brother from you.

(42) But you wish to keep his body. Throwing yourselves upon his tomb, you cling to it. Let that tomb be for you a brother's habitation, let it be the hall of his palace, in which the members dear to you will repose.

(43) But if you again remind me of your grief because he departed so early from life, I certainly do not deny that he died at an untimely age, one whom we would have wished to support with time taken from our own life, that he might live out of our own years who could not complete his own.

(44) But I ask whether or not there is any consciousness after death? If there is, he is alive; nay, rather, because there is, he now enjoys eternal life. For how does he not possess consciousness whose soul lives and flourishes and will return to the body, and will make that body live again when it has been reunited with it? The Apostle cries out: 'We would not, brethren, have you ignorant concerning those who are

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asleep, lest you should grieve, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so with him God will bring those also who have fallen asleep through Jesus.'63 Life, therefore, awaits them for whom resurrection awaits.

(45) But if the Gentiles, who have no hope of resur rection, are consoled by this alone, in that they say that after death the departed have no consciousness and because of this no sense of pain remains, how much the more should we receive consolation because death is not to be feared, since it is the end of sin, and because life is not to be despaired of which is restored by the resurrection? Job also says that death is not to be feared, but rather to be desired by the just, when he says: 'Would that Thou mayest protect me in hell and hide me until Thy wrath pass and appoint me a time when Thou wilt remember me. For if a man is dead, he shall live. Com pleting the days of my life I shall survive until I be made again. Then Thou shalt call and I shall obey Thee; and the works of Thy hands Thou wilt not despise.'64

(46) Granted that one should grieve that he died at an early age, nevertheless one should rejoice that he departed a veteran in the campaigns of virtue. For so great was the amendment of his life in the period of youth, which is perilous for all, so great the praise of his morals, that they overshadow every remembrance of grief. For, that he died is a mark of frailty; that his character was such, a mark of admiration.

How happy would the State have been, if it could have kept him longer! But since the life of the saints is not this life on earth, but that in heaven—for to the just 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain,' since 'to depart and be with Christ is a lot by far the better,'65—we should grieve that he was so sud63 1 Thess. 4.12-14.

64 Job 14.13-15 (Septuagint) ; cf., also, Ps. 137.8.

65 Phil. 1.21.23.

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denly snatched from us, but we should be consoled that he has passed on to better things.

(47) Thus David wept for his son who was about to die; he did not grieve for him when dead.bb He wept that he might not be snatched from him, but he ceased to weep when he was snatched away, for he knew that he was with Christ.

And that you may know that what I declare is true, he wept for his incestuous son Amnon67 when he was killed, and he mourned for the parricide Absalom when he perished, saying:

"My son Absalom, my son Absalom!'68 He did not think the innocent son should be mourned, because he believed that the others had perished for their crime but that the latter would live on account of his innocence.

(48) Therefore, you have no reason for grieving exces sively over your brother. He was born a man, he was subject to human frailty. No one redeems himself from death, neither the rich man, nor even kings; nay rather, they themselves are subject to more grievous death. Job said: 'The years of the mighty one are numbered, but fear is in his ears; when he seems to have peace, then will come his destruction.'69 As for you yourselves, you, too, should bear patiently that such trials have befallen you which you see you have in common with the sainls. David also was left deserted when he lost his sons.

He would have wished, then, to die as your brother was snatched from you; he bewailed the crimes, not the death of his sons.

(49) But, granted that we must mourn. How long may the time of our grief be extended? You have finished a period of two months in the daily embracing of your brother's re mains. The daughter of Jephte alone in the Scriptures de manded a definite time for her weeping, when she learned

66 Cf. 2 Kings 12.15-17,19-23.

67 Cf. 2 Kings 13.28,29.

68 2 Kings 18.33.

69 Job 15.20-22 (Septuagint).

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that her father as he was about to set out for battle had vowed that, if successful, he would offer to the Lord whatever should meet him first. As he returned home after the victory, his daughter, aware of his love, but unaware of his vow, ran to meet him. Her father saw her and groaned, saying: 'Woe is me, daughter, that thou hast ensnared me, thou hast become a goad of pain to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord concerning thee, and I shall be unable to retract.' She said to him: 'Father, if thou hast opened thy mouth against me, do with me as it hath gone forth from thy mouth.' And again she said: 'Grant me two months, and going I shall bewail my virginity in the mountains, I and my companions.'

And so after the two months had elapsed, she returned and fulfilled the obligation of the sacrifice. By a decree of the people of Israel for four days every year she was lamented by the women of that nation.70

(50) Therefore, for bewailing the flower of her virginity the daughter of Jephte judged two months to be sufficient, and the resurrection had not yet come. And in that space of time she thought that she had been sufficiently bewailed by a few. With you all peoples have wept, all provinces mourned, and do you still think that this mourning of yours is too short?

If you could redeem your brother by your death he still would be unwilling to be brought back to life by your af fliction, for he believes that he lives better in you. He desired rather that he himself should die than that he should see any injury to you, he was ready to offer himself willingly for you, and on the very day of our sorrow he is said to have uttered these words only: 'Alas for my poor sisters! And so he grieved more for your bereavement than for his own death.

(51) But I hear that you grieve because he did not receive the sacrament of baptism. Tell me: What else is in 70 Judges 11.35-40.

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your power other than the desire, the request? But he even had this desire for a long time, that, when he should come into Italy, he would be initiated, and recently he signified a desire to be baptized by me, and for this reason above all others he thought that I ought to be summoned. Has he not, then, the grace which he desired; has he not the grace which he requested? And because he asked, he received, and there fore is it said: 'By whatsover death the just man shall be overtaken, his soul shall be at rest.571

(52) Grant, therefore, O holy Father, to Thy servant the gift which Moses received, because he saw in spirit; the gift which David merited, because he knew from revelation.

Grant, I pray, to Thy servant Valentinian the gift which he longed for, the gift which he requested while in health, vigor, and security. If, stricken with sickness, he had deferred it, he would not be entirely without Thy mercy who has been cheated by the swiftness of time, not by his own wish. Grant, therefore, to Thy servant the gift of Thy grace which he never rejected, who on the day before his death refused to restore the privileges of the temples although he was pressed by those whom he could well have feared. A crowd of pagans was present, the Senate entreated, but he was not afraid to displease men so long as he pleased Thee alone in Christ. He who had Thy Spirit, how has he not received Thy grace?

(53) Or if the fact disturbs you that the mysteries have not been solemnly celebrated, then you should realize that not even martyrs are crowned if they are catechumens, for they are not crowned if they are not initiated. But if they are washed in their own blood, his piety and his desire have washed him, also.

(54) Do not, I beseech, O Lord, separate him from his brother, do not break the yoke of this pious relationship.

Now Gratian, already Thine, and vindicated by Thy judg71 Wisd. 4.7.

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ment, is in further peril, if he be separated from his brother, if he deserve not to be with him through whom he has deserved to be vindicated. What hands he now raises aloft to Thee, O Father! What prayers does he pour forth for his brother! With what an embrace does he cling to him! How he does not suffer him to be snatched from him!

(55) Your father also is present, who under Julian spurned imperial service and the honors of the tribunate out of his love for the faith. Give to the father his son, to the brother his brother, both of whom he imitated, the one by his faith, the other equally by his devotion and piety, in re fusing to restore the privileges of the temples. What had been lacking in his father, he added; what his brother es tablished, he preserved. And I also assume the role of inter cessor for him for whom I anticipate reward!

(56) Offer the holy mysteries with your hands, with devoted love let us ask for his repose. Offer the heavenly sacraments, let us accompany the soul of our son with our oblations. 'Lift up with me, O people, your hands to the holy place,'72 so that at least through this service we may repay him for his deserts. Not with flowers shall I sprinkle his grave, but I shall bedew his spirit with the odor of Christ.

Let others scatter lilies in basketfuls. Christ is our lily, and with this lily I shall bless his remains, with this I shall re commend for his favor. Never shall I separate the names of the devoted brothers nor make a distinction in their merits.

I know that this joint remembrance will conciliate, and that this union will delight, the Lord.

(57) Let no one think that there has been any detraction from their merits because of their early deaths. Henoch was snatched away lest wickedness should alter his heart;'" Josias in the eighteenth year of his reign so celebrated the Pasch

72 Ps. 133.2.

73 Cf. Gen. 5.24; Eccli. 44.16: Heb. 11.5; Wisd. 4.11.

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of the Lord that he surpassed all the princes of the past in devotion, and he did not survive longer through the merits of his faith. Nay, rather, because grievous destruction threat ened the Jewish people, the just king was taken away before hand.74 I fear that you, too, were snatched away from us because of some offense on our part, so that, as a just man, you might escape in the eighteenth year of your reign the bitterness of impending evil.

(58) But now I shall embrace the remains that are dear to me, and shall deposit them in a fitting sepulchre, yet I shall gaze on each member. My Valentinian, 'my youth white and ruddy,'7a having in himself the image of Christ, for with such words the Church honors Christ in the Canticles.

Do not think this an impropriety, for with the sign of their lord even servants are branded, and soldiers are marked with the name of their emperor. Therefore, the Lord Himself also says: 'Touch ye not My anointed,'76 and 'you are the light of the world.'77 And Jacob has said: 'Juda, thee let thy brethren praise.'78 To his own son he spoke and revealed the Lord.

And of Joseph it was said: 'My son is grown, my son Joseph is grown,'79 and he signified Christ.

(59) Therefore it is permitted me also to mark the servant with the sign of the Lord: 'My young man is white and ruddy, chosen from among ten thousand.'80 My son was chosen when, after the death of his father, as a mere child he attained imperial power. 'His head is a rock of gold, his eyes like doves upon a flood of waters.'81 For 'There we sat and wept,'82 they said who came thence.

74 Cf. 4 Kings 23.21-24.

75 Cant. 5.10.

76 Ps. 104.15.

77 Matt. 5.14.

78 Gen. 48.8.

79 Gen. 49.22.

80 Cant. 5.10.

81 Cant. 5.11,12.

82 Ps. 136.1.

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(60) 'His belly is an ivory casket,'83 which had received the oracles of the Scriptures, so that he could say: 'My bowels are in pain,'84 as the Prophet has said. For he says this who is an imitator of Christ.

(61) 'His cheeks are as vials of aromatic spices,'80 upon which the ointment of Christ poured.

(62) 'His lips are as dripping lilies, full of myrrh. His hands are turned and as of gold, full of Tharsis,'86 because in his words justice shone forth, and in his works and deeds grace was resplendent. And in him speech was full of power and royal authority, and constancy was unchanged by any fear of death, and precious and faultless was his correction of actions, for every good laborer is the hand of Christ.

(63) 'His throat is sweet and he is all desire.'87 For how sweetly have all his judgments clung to the throats of all men!

With what great affection is his every word repeated! How greatly, my son, are you longed for by the multitudes! Upon me, certainly, you impressed those last words which I hold in my heart, the words in which you asked me to become your surety. You yourself sought of me the testimony of a glorious judgment. I was not able to present myself as a surety for you, as I was preparing to do. Yet, though absent, I declared my intention, and Christ heard me state that I was a surety in your behalf. My consent is binding in heaven, even though it is not binding on earth. I have put myself under an ob ligation to God, although I could not put myself under ob ligation to men.

(64) I have spoken of your body. Now I shall address your soul, which is worthy of the adornments of the Prophet.

I shall use, therefore, the Prophet's exordium: 'Who is she 83 Cant. 5.14.

84 Jer. 4.19.

85 Cant. 5.13.

86 Cant. 5.13,14 (Septuagint) .

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that looketh forth as the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?'88 I seem to see you in your splendor, I seem to hear you saying: 'The dawn is mine, O Father, the night of earth has passed, the day of heaven is at hand.'89 Therefore, you look forth on us, O holy soul, looking back from a region above, as it were, on things below. You have gone forth from the darkness of this world, and you shine like the moon, you are resplendent like the sun.90 And rightly as the moon, because even before, although in the shadow of this earthly body, you shone and illumined the darkness of earth, and now, borrowing light from the Sun of Justice, you enjoy bright day. Therefore, I seem to see you withdrawing, as it were, from the body, and, having thrust aside the darkness of night, rising at dawn like the sun, approaching

God, and, in swift flight like an eagle, abandoning earthly things.

(65) 'Turn, O Solamitess, turn, turn, and we shall look on thee.'91 Turn to us, O peaceful soul, that you may show your glory to your sisters and that they may begin to console themselves with the security of your repose and happiness.

Turn to us once only, that we may see you, and turn again and hasten with all speed to that great Jerusalem, the city of the saints. Or indeed, since Christ says this to the pious soul,

He commands it to turn for a little while, that its glory and its future repose with the saints may be manifest to us, and then He commands it to hasten to the company of the saints on high.

(66) 'What will you see in the Solamitess,' he says, 'who comes like the companies of camps?'92 that is, in her who has

87 Cant. 5.16.

88 Cant. 6.9.

89 Cf. Rom. 13.12.

90 Cf. Eccli. 50.7.

91 Cant. 6.12.

92 Cant. 7.1.

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fought much and against many in the flesh. For she fought against external foes, she fought against the treacherous changes of the world, she fought against the weaknesses of the body, against manifold passions. She heard from the Lord:

'Turn, O Solamitess.' She turned once to peace in the world, she turned, through renewed communion, to the favor of Christ; and thus beautiful is her turning in the world, most beautiful her stately departure and flight into heaven.

(67) And therefore she deserves to hear: 'Beautiful are become thy steps in shoes, daughter of Aminadab,'93 that is, daughter of a prince. For beautiful was the progress which you made in the body, since you used this as a shoe, not as a cloak, so that, taller and higher, as it were, you might turn your steps wheresoever you wished without any stumbling; or, in truth, that you might put off the body like a shoe, as Moses did, to whom it was said: 'Put off the shoes from thy feet.'94

(68) Therefore, your father Aminadab, that prince of the people, now says to you: 'Hearken, O daughter, and see, be cause the king hath desired thy beauty.'" 'Beautiful,' there fore, 'are become thy steps in shoes, O daughter of Aminadab.

The joints of thy thighs are like crowns,'99 that is, a grace consistent with itself in all its acts and moderation equaled the insignia of great triumphs. Therefore, because of your moderation and peaceful serenity, not even Gaul experienced an enemy, and Italy repulsed an enemy who threatened her borders. Moreover, that crowns are the insignia of victory cannot be doubted, since those who have fought bravely in war are honored with crowns.

(69) 'Thy navel is like a round bowl, not wanting tempered wine. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about 93 Cant. 7.1.

94 Exod. 3.5.

95 Ps. 44.11,12.

96 Cant. 7.1.

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with lilies. Thy neck is like a tower of ivory. Thy eyes a pool in Esebon.'97 The good navel of the soul, capable of receiving all virtues, is like a bowl, fashioned by the Author of faith

Himself.98 For in a bowl Wisdom has mixed her wine, saying:

'Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.'99 This navel, therefore, fashioned with all the beauty of the virtues does not lack mixed wine. His belly also was filled not only with the wheaten food of justice, as it were, but also with that of grace, and it bloomed with sweetness like a lily.100 His neck also was white and pure, subjected willingly to the yoke of Christ. Thoughts governed by reason, the glory of faith, and the mark of circumcision were the glorious adornment of his head, which was crowned not with royal diadems but with the insignia of the blood of the Lord.

(70) Rightly like a king, victorious over sin, and with his head encircled with a heavenly crown, does he ascend, and to his soul God the Word says: 'How beautiful and sweet art thou become, my love, in thy delights!'101 Beautiful through the glory of virtue, sweet through grace, tall like a palm, which is the prize of the victor.

(71) His brother Gratian runs to meet this soul as it ascends, and embracing it he says: 'I to my brother and his turning to me,'101 either because he desires him to cling closely to himself or because with brotherly love he stands at his side as an advocate, saying that his turning is to be preferred even to his favor.

(72) 'Come, my brother,' he says, 'let us go forth into the field, let us find rest in the villages, let us get up early to 97 Cant. 7.2-4.

98 Cf. Heb. 12.2.

99 Prov. 9.5.

100 Cf. Isa. 35.1.

101 Cant. 7.6.

102 Cant. 7.10.

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the vineyards,'10,> that is, you have come here where the fruits of the different virtues are conferred according to the merits of each of us, where the rewards of merits abound. Let us go forth, then, into a field in which our labor is not in vain, but where there is a rich harvest of graces. What you have sown on earth reap here; what you have scattered there gather here. Or at least come into the field which is the odor of Jacob, that is, come into the bosom of Jacob, so that, like poor Lazarus in Abraham's bosom,104 you also may find rest in the tranquility of Jacob the patriarch, for the bosom of the patriarchs is a kind of retreat of eternal rest.

Fittingly, therefore, is Jacob a fruitful field, as the patriarch Isaac testified, when he said: 'Behold the fragrance of my son is as the fragrance of a plentiful field which the Lord has blessed.'105

(73) 'Let us find rest,' he says, 'in the villages,' showing that repose there is more secure which, protected and walled about by the hedge of heaven's refuge, is not disturbed by the attacks of the beasts of the world.

(74) 'In our gates,' he says, 'are all the fruits of the trees; the new and the old, my brother, I have kept for thee.

Who shall give thee to me, my brother, for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother. Finding thee without, I shall kiss thee; I shall take thee up and bring thee into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I will give thee to drink wine scented with great labor from the juice of my pomegranates. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.'106 Gratian promises his brother of august memory that the fruits of the various virtues are at hand for him. For he himself was also

103 Cant. 1.11,12.

104 Cf. Luke 16.22.

105 Gen. 27.27.

106 Cant. 7.11.

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faithful in the Lord, pious and meek and pure of heart; he was also chaste in body who knew not intercourse with any woman other than his wife.

(75) Thus in the gates of his house he has fruits pre pared, and not far to seek. He offers the new and the old which he has kept for his brother, that is, the mysteries of the Old Testament and of the Gospel, and says: 'Who shall give thee to me, O brother, for a brother, sucking the breasts of my mother?'107 that is, no ordinary person but Christ Himself enlightened you with spiritual grace. He baptized you, because the ministry of men was lacking you.

Greater things have you gained, who believed that you had lost lesser. What are the breasts of the Church except the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say 'sucking,' as if the baptized were seeking Him as a draught of snowy milk.

'Finding thee without,' he says, 'I shall kiss thee,' that is, finding you outside the body, I embrace you with the kiss of mystical peace. No one shall despise you, no one shall shut you out, I will introduce you into the inner sanctuary and hidden places of Mother Church, and into all the secrets of mystery, so that you may drink the cup of spiritual grace.

(76) After he had embraced his brother, therefore, he began to conduct him to his own mansion, and, since he had proceeded beyond the ordinary in his service, he began to ascend with his brother, praying that a greater increase of love might there be granted to his brother and to himself, because the human failings, envy and pride, which in most men are wont to make void the laws of fraternal love, had been absent from them.

(77) Both the angels and other souls, on seeing them, inquire of those who by their company and office, as it were, were escorting the brothers, saying: 'Who is this that as107 Cant. 7.13-8.1-3.

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cendeth shining, leaning on his brother?'108 We have indeed no doubt concerning the merits of Valentinian, but let us now believe the testimony at least of the angels, that, with the stain of sin wiped out, he ascended cleansed whom his faith had washed and his petition had sanctified. Let us believe also, as others hold, that 'he ascended from the desert,' that is, from this arid and uncultivated place to those flowery de lights, where, united with his brother, he enjoys the bliss of eternal life.

(78) Blessed are you both, if my prayers ^will avail aught!* 11'9 No day will pass you over in silence, no prayer of mine will pass you by unhonored, no night will hurry on its course without your receiving some participation in my prayers. I will repeatedly remember you in all by oblations.

Who will prevent me from mentioning the innocent? Who will forbid my embracing you with continuous remembrance?

'If I forget thee, holy Jerusalem,' that is, holy soul, devoted and peaceful brethren, 'let my right hand forget me, let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I do not remember Jerusalem in the beginning of my joy.'110

I shall sooner forget myself than you; even if my speech ever becomes silent, my love will speak; even if my voice fails, the love which is implanted in my heart will not fail.

(79) 'How are the mighty fallen!'111 How both are fallen by the rivers of Babylon!11" How much swifter for both men have been their courses of life than the waters of the Rhone itself! O Gratian and Valentinian, beautiful and most dear to me, in what a narrow limit you have enclosed your lives! How close have been the confines of your deaths!

How near your burials! Gratian and Valentinian, I say, it is 108 Cant. 8.5.

109 Cf. Vergil, Aeneid, 9.446-447.

110 Ps. 136.5,6.

111 2 Kings 1.19,25,27.

112 Cf. Ps. 136.1.

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a pleasure to hang upon your names, and it is a delight to find rest in the remembrance of you. O Gratian and Valentinian, beautiful and most dear to all! Inseparable in life, and in death you are not separated.113 The tomb has not separated you whom love did not separate. The causes of your deaths have not parted you whom a single affection joined together. A diversity of virtues did not render you unlike whom a single religion fostered; you who were simpler than doves, swifter than eagles, meeker than lambs, more guileless than calves.114 'The arrow' of Gratian 'was not turned back,' and the justice of Valentinian 'was not in vain'110 nor his authority empty. 'How' without battle 'are the mighty fallen!'

(80) 'I grieve for you,' Gratian my son, most sweet to me.

Many are the proofs you gave of your devotion. In the midst of your perils you sought me; in your last moments you called me by name; you grieved the more at my grief for you. 'I grieve for you,' also, Valentinian my son, 'most beautiful to me. Your love has come to me as the love'116 of a dear one.

You thought that through me you were being rescued from peril; you not only loved me as a parent but you hoped in me as your redeemer and liberator. You said: 'Do you think

I shall see my father?' Noble was your desire of me, but in effectual your presumption. Woe to me for your vain hope in man !117 But you sought the Lord in His bishop. Woe to me that I did not know your wish before! Woe to me that you did not send for me secretly before! Woe to me for such dear ones as I have lost! 'How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons that were desired have perished!'118

113 Cf. 2 Kings 1.23.

114 Ibid.

115 2 Kings 1.22.

116 2 Kings 1.26.

117 Cf. Eccli. 34.1.

118 2 Kings 1.27.

ON VALENTINIAN

(81) O Lord, since no one can grant to another more than what he desires for himself, do not separate me after death from those whom in this life I have held most dear.

O Lord, I pray that 'where I am, they also may be with me,'119 that there at least I may enjoy their everlasting union, since here I was unable to enjoy their association longer. I beseech Thee, O highest God, that Thou mayest raise and revive these dearest youths by an early resurrection,120 that Thou mayest compensate for their unduly short span of life in this world by an earlier restoration. Amen.

119 John 17.24.

120 St. Ambrose would seem to be referring here to a view still held by some in his time that there would be a millenial reign of Christ, at the beginning of which the saints would rise again, and at the end of which the general resurrection would take place. But, apart from this passage and one or two others, he adheres definitely to the belief in one general resurrection. Cf. F. H. Dudden. The Life and Times of St. Ambrose (Oxford 1935) II 667-668.

t. u ■ i . * }\\' »*• •

SAINT AMBROSE

FUNERAL ORATION

ON THE DEATH OF

EMPEROR THEODOSIUS

Translated by

ROY J. DEFERRARI, Ph.D.

The Catholic University of America

. ■ ... , '

INTRODUCTION

j he oration on the death of Theodosius was de livered by the Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, on February 25, 395, the fortieth day after the death of the emperor. The date of February 26, often given in hand books, is an error created by a failure to include the day of his death in this reckoning. The occasion of the eulogy was the memorial service, held before the departure of the funeral cortege for Constantinople.

A loyal and manly friendship had existed between the emperor and the bishop, who, as they worked for a common cause, found their mutual aims and desires to be quite compatible. The man who did so much to make the empire a Christian state was Theodosius, but the chief impulse be hind him came from Ambrose.

The task of the eulogist was not merely the preparation of a discourse polished and made perfect according to rhetorical canons. Officially, the task of St. Ambrose was the pres entation of a panegyric on the dead emperor; personally it was much more. He had, of course, to give to the dead the tribute customary to his rank, but he had also to reach out to the living and to offer to each group of the varied throng comfort and salutary spiritual advice. The audience which

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gathered in the basilica was varied and interesting. It con sisted of the newly appointed Emperor Honorius, a child of ten; Stilicho, his guardian and regent of the West; the army corps which had come out of the Orient for the last campaign of Theodosius; the Milanese; and that conglomerate array of court officials and visitors that an imperial capital always attracts.

On this occasion, however, the threatening possibilities of the future cast additional gloom over the funeral cere monies and complicated the orator's emotions still more. The fate of the Roman Empire become a Christian State was now hanging in the balance. The empire as now established was only a century removed from the times of Diocletian and only a generation older than the paganism of Julian. Idolatry was still widespread and constantly trying to recuperate its failing strength. Even more dangerous foes, since they were passing under the name of Christians, threatened the Church from within. Barbarian hordes, which formed a definite part of the Empire, threatened Church and State. Theodosius, by his strength and courage, had been able to sustain the great burden and preserve both. But Theodosius was now dead. The unity of the Empire had been disrupted. To Arcadius, a youth of eighteen, had passed the Empire of the East, to Honorius, a boy of ten, the Empire of the West.

Would these young rulers rise to the occasion? It was a solemn moment when Ambrose rose to speak.

Ambrose's anxiety is shown by his repeated appeals to the army, reminding them of the victories of their chief, and ex horting them to show gratitude to their dead ruler by being faithful to his sons. It appears again in the examples chosen from the Bible of the long and prosperous reigns of two youthful kings of Israel.

ON THEODOSIUS

Then, desiring to impart a moral lesson, Ambrose develops at length an exposition of the virtues of Theodosius, choosing such as are profitable for imitation by the prince and his guardian, in whose hands the reins of the government may well prove the deciding factor either for good or for evil. In this exposition Theodosius stands forth as the exemplar of all Christian rulers. He is shown as the guardian of the Church, distinguished for piety and zeal; as the refuge and father of the poor and erring, magnanimous toward his enemies, faithful to his friends; and, finally, as the sinner, humbled, repentant, and forgiven.

' „

ON THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS

jevere earthquakes, continual rains, and darkness denser than usual gave notice of this, that our most merciful Emperor Theodosius was about to leave the earth. The very elements, then, were mourning his death.

The heavens were veiled in obscurity; the air was shuddering in unbroken gloom; the earth was shaken by tremors and filled with floods of waters. Why should not the universe itself bemoan the fact that this prince was presently to be snatched away, for was he not accustomed to alleviate the hardships of this world when by forgiveness he forestalled the punishment of crime?

(2) And he has indeed departed to receive his kingdom, which he did not lay aside, but, admitted by right of piety into the tabernacles of Christ, he has exchanged it for the heavenly Jerusalem. Having taken his place there, he says:

'As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God,' which 'God hath founded forever.'1 But he has left behind many deprived of a father's protection, as it were, and, above all, his sons. But they are not destitute whom he left as the heirs of his piety; they are not destitute for whom he gained the grace of Christ and the 1 Ps. 47.9.

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loyalty of the army, to which he was a proof that God cherishes devotion and is the avenger of treachery.

(3) Recently, then, we lamented the death of this prince, and now we are celebrating the fortieth day, with the prince

Honorius assisting at the holy altar. For as holy Joseph per formed the burial rites for his father Jacob during forty days, so this son also renders his just due to his father Theodosius.

And because some are accustomed to observe the third and the thirtieth day, others the seventh and the fortieth, let us consider what the Scriptural text tells us. When Jacob died, it says, 'Joseph commanded the servant undertakers to bury him, and the undertakers buried Israel, and forty days were completed for him; for thus the days of the funeral rites are reckoned. And Egypt mourned for him seventy days.'2

Accordingly, the observance which Scripture prescribes is to be followed. In Deuteronomy, also, it is written that 'the children of Israel mourned for Moses thirty days, and the days of mourning were finished.'3 Both observances, then, have authority because the necessary duty of filial piety is fulfilled.

(4) And so Joseph was good, who furnished the model for filial devotion, whom his father loved, and to whom his father said: 'May my God aid thee, and may he bless thee with the blessing of the earth holding all things because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, blessings of thy mother, and because of the blessings of thy father.'4 5 Joseph was the good offspring of a devoted father. So he, too, cele brates the fortieth day of his father, Jacob, that great supplantor, ' and we celebrate the fortieth day of Theodosius, who, after the example of Jacob, supplanted the perfidy of 2 Gen. 50.2,3.

3 Deut. 34.8.

4 Gen. 49.25,26.

5 Cf. Gen. 25.25; 27.36.

ON THEODOSIUS

tyrants,6 who put away the idols of the Gentiles. For his faith removed all worship of images and stamped out all their ceremonies. He grieved, too, that the remission of punishment which he had granted to those who had transgressed against him had come to naught,7 the opportunity for pardon had been denied him. But his sons will not refuse what their father granted, nor will they refuse, even though anyone should at tempt to confuse or disturb them. Those who honor his grants to individuals will not be able to refuse what he granted for all.

(5) The death of so great a prince had in it nothing more glorious, who had already consigned all to his sons: his empire, his power, and the title Augustus. Nothing, I say, more splendid was reserved for him in death than the fact that while the promised mitigation of the necessary payment of the grain tax in some cases was delayed, his successor has become the heir of these indulgences, and the one who wished to prevent this has created ill will for himself. Nevertheless, the crown of so great a favor has not been taken away from Theodosius. And not undeservedly, for if the last wishes of private citizens and the testaments of the dying have per manent validity, how can the testament of so great a prince be considered void? Theodosius is also glorious in this, that he did not make his will in the ordinary manner, for he had no further provision to make for his sons, to whom he had given everything, except to commend them to a relative who was present.8 He was obliged to provide by will for all who were

6 An allusion to Theodosius' defeat of the usurper Maximus in 388 and of the usurper Eugenius in 394.

7 In a communication to the Senate, Theodosius expressed regret that the death of Flavian, the consul who had sided with the usurpers, had deprived him of the pleasure of granting pardon.

8 Flavius Stilicho, the great general of Theodosius, was married to Serena, niece and adopted daughter of the emperor. Stilicho and Serena were appointed guardians of Honorius when he was appointed joint-emperor in 394.

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subject to him or committed to his care, so that he might dis charge legacies and designate trusts. He ordered that a law of indulgence which he left in writing be published. What is more worthy than that this law be the last will of the emperor?

(6) Thus the great emperor has withdrawn from us, but he has not wholly withdrawn, for he has left us his children in whom we should recognize him, and in whom we be hold and possess him. Let not their age disquiet you. The loyalty of his soldiers is the perfect age of an emperor, for age is perfect where strength is perfect. These characteristics are reciprocal, for the faith of an emperor also is the strength of his soldiers.

(7) You recall, I am sure, what triumphs the faith of Theodosius acquired for you. When, because of the difficulties of the terrain and the hindrance of camp followers, the army was deploying too slowly into combat position and through delay in offering battle the enemy seemed to be charging, the emperor leaped down from his horse and, advancing alone before the line, he cried out: 'Where is the God of Theo dosius?' He spoke thus when already close to Christ, for who could have said this except one who knew that he was at taching himself to Christ? By this cry he aroused all, and by his example he armed all. He was already indeed some what advanced in years, but robust in faith.

(8) The faith of Theodosius, then, was your victory: let your faith be the strength of his sons. Faith, therefore, adds to age. Hence, even Abraham did not consider age when in old age he begot a son, nor Sara, when she gave birth. And it is not astonishing if faith adds to age, since it anticipates the future. For what is faith except the substance of those things for which we hope?9 So the Scriptures teach us. There fore, if faith is the substance of those things for which we

9 Cf. Heb. 11.1.

ON THEODOSIUS

hope, how much the more of those which we see? Good is the faith of which it is written: 'But the just man lives by faith. But if he draws back, he will not please my soul.'10

(9) Now, let us not draw back at the expense of our souls, but let us cling to faith for our soul's gain;* 11 for in this warfare of faith our elders, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, obtained proof, and thus they left us a heritage of faith.

Abraham was faithful, who was justified not by works but by faith, since he believed in God.12 Isaac was faithful, who through faith did not fear the sword of his father as he was about to strike him. Jacob was faithful, who followed in the footprints of his father's faith and, while he was journeying, saw an army of angels and called it the council of God.13

(10) Elsewhere, also, that is, in the Books of Kings we read that Eliseus was in Samaria, and suddenly an army of Syrians surrounded and set upon him. Giezi saw them and said to his master: 'O Master, what shall we do?'14 And Eliseus the Prophet said: 'Fear not, for there are more with us than with them.' And he prayed that the Lord would open the eyes of Giezi. And his eyes were opened and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots around Eliseus. And Eliseus prayed that God would strike them with blindness.

And they were struck, and they entered into the city whither they were going, seeing not at all. Surely, you soldiers who have been surrounded have heard that where there is perfidy there is blindness. Rightly, therefore, was the army of the unbeliever blind. But where there is faith there is an army of angels. Good, then, is faith, which often exercises its power among the dead.15 Hence, our Adversary and his legions are daily hurled back by the virtue of the martyrs. So I think

10 Heb. 10.38.

11 Cf. Heb. 10.39.

12 Cf. Rom. 4.2.

13 Cf. Gen. 32.1,2.

14 4 Kings 6.14-16; cf., also, 4 Kings 6.17-19.

15 Cf. Col. 2.12; Acts 17.31.

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that the strings of the cithern are called fides, because, al though dead, they give forth sound.16

(11) Wherefore, we must strive more and more, lest while engaged in the tasks of life we be ungrateful, and let us bestow constant and paternal affection on the children of the pious prince. Pay to his sons what you owe to their father. You owe more to him now that he is dead than you owed to him while he was living. For, if among the children of private citizens the rights of minors are not violated without grave crime, how much more is this true in the case of the children of an emperor!

(12) It may be added: 'Of what an emperor!' Of a pious emperor, of a merciful emperor, of a faithful emperor, concerning whom the Scripture has spoken in no ordinary manner, saying, 'Great and in honor is the merciful man; but to find a faithful man is difficult.'17 If it is a great thing to find anyone who is merciful or faithful, how much more so an emperor whom power impels toward vengeance, but whom, nevertheless, compassion recalls from taking vengeance?

What is more illustrious than the faith of an emperor whom power does not exalt, pride does not elevate, but piety bows down? Of him Solomon admirably says: 'The threatening of an unjust king is like the roaring of a lion, but as dew upon the grass, so also is his cheerfulness.'18 Therefore what a great thing it is to lay aside the terror of power and to prefer the sweetness of granting pardon!

(13) Theodosius of august memory thought he had received a kindness whenever he was asked to pardon, and he was more disposed to forgiveness at the time when the emotion of his wrath had been greatest. A token of forgiveness was that he had been angry, and what was feared in others

16 Cf. 1 Cor. 14.7. There is a word play in Latin here between fides (faith) and fides (a cithern).

17 Prov. 20.6. (Septuagint).

18 Prov. 19.12. The word 'unjust' is not found in the Septuagint or Vulgate.

ON THEODOSIUS

was desired in him, that he be moved to wrath. It was the relief of the accused that, although he had power over all, he preferred to expostulate as a father rather than to punish as a judge. Often we have seen men whom he was rebuking tremble when convicted of crime, and then, when they had despaired, we have seen them freed from the charge. For he wished to win them as a fair judge, not to crush them as a dispenser of punishment, for he never denied pardon to one confessing guilt. If there was anything which the secret con science concealed, he reserved that for God. Men feared that voice of his more than punishment, because the emperor acted with such modesty as to prefer to attach men to him self by reverence rather than by fear.

(14) It is said that the greatest19 of the philosophers granted immunity from punishment to those crimes which had been committed through anger, but the divine Scripture says better: 'Be angry and sin not.'20 It preferred rather to cut off sin than to excuse it. It is better to find praise for mercy in an occasion for indignation than to be incited by wrath toward vengeance.

(15) Who, then, will doubt that he will be a powerful protector for his sons in the house of God?21 By the favor of the Lord, the Emperor Arcadius is already a robust youth;

Honorius now knocks on the door of manhood, a little older than Josias.22 For the latter, having lost his father, assumed the government and reigned continuously for thirty-one years.

He pleased the Lord because, better than the other kings of Israel, he celebrated the Pasch of the Lord and abolished false religious practices. Asa, likewise, though still of immature age when he succeeded to the throne, reigned in Jerusalem

19 Cf. Plato, Laws 9.7ff.; also, Aristotle, Nich. Ethics 7.6.

20 Ps. 4.5.

21 Cf. 1 John 2.1.

22 Cf. 4 Kings 22.1. Josias was eight years old at his accession. At the death of Theodosius, Arcadius was about eighteen and Honorius was in his eleventh year.

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forty years.23 When he was hard pressed by an infinite and innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, he had trust in the Lord that he could be among the few saved. Would that he had been as faithful during his course as he was devout at its beginning! For, one of the few saved and a victor, he after wards abandoned the Lord and asked aid from the Syrians and summoned physicians to cure a disease of the feet. Since he had received such great indications of divine favor, he ought not to have abandoned his Helper but to have retained

Him. Therefore, the physicians did not benefit him, and as an unbeliever he paid the penalty of death.

(16) But their fathers, Abiam and Amon, were both unbelievers.24 Theodosius, however, was filled with the fear of God, was filled with mercy, and we hope that he stands before Christ as a protector of his children, if the Lord be propitious to human affairs. The merciful man is a blessing.

While he assists others, he is mindful of himself, and by applying remedies to others he cures his own wounds.20 For he who knows how to forgive realizes that he is human, and he follows the way of Christ who, by assuming flesh, chose to come into this world as a Redeemer rather than as a Judge.

(17) Hence the Psalmist has said beautifully: 'I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.'2b

While this psalm was being read, we heard, as it were, Theodosius himself speaking. 'I have loved,' he says. I re cognize his pious voice and I recognize also his testimonies.

And truly has he loved who fulfilled his duty diligently, who spared his enemies, who loved his foes, who pardoned those by whom he was entreated, who did not even allow those who strove to usurp his power to perish. That voice is of one

23 Cf.. 3 Kings 15.10. Cf. also 2 Par. 14.11-12, and 16.3-42.

24 Cf. 3 Kings 15.3; 4 Kings 21.21.

25 Cf. 1 Peter 4.8.

26 Ps. 114.1.

ON THEODOSIUS

not partially, but fully perfected in the Law, saying: 'I have loved. For love is the fulfillment of the law.'27 But let us hear what he has loved. When the kind of love is not men tioned, surely the grace of divine charity is signified, where by we love what is to be desired above all desirable things.28

Of this it is written: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.'29

(18) Thus the good soul, on departing from earth and filled with the Holy Spirit, when questioned, as it were, by those who hastened to meet it as it rose to the high and lofty regions above, kept saying: 'I have loved.' Nothing is fuller than this, nothing is clearer. Angels and archangels asked repeatedly: 'What have you done on earth?' For God alone is the witness of secret things. The soul kept saying, 'I have loved,' that is, 'I have fulfilled the Law, I have not neglected the Gospel'; that is, 'I have offered myself to death and all the day long I am regarded as a sheep for the slaughter.'30

'For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor height, nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'31

(19) The Lord Jesus also teaches in the Gospel that this commandment of the Law must be observed, when He says to Peter: 'Simon, son of John, dost thou love Me?' And he answered: 'Thou knowest, Lord, that I love Thee.' And He said a second time: 'Simon, son of John, dost thou love

Me?' And again he answered: 'Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.' And when asked a third time, said: 'Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.'32 And so his threefold answer confirmed his love and effaced the fault of his threefold denial. And here, if we seek, we find the 27 Rom. 13.10.

28 Cf. Prov. 8.11.

29 Deut. 6.5; Matt. 22.37.

30 Cf. Ps. 43.22; Rom. 8.36.

31 Rom. 8.38,39.

32 John 21.15-18.

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threefold answer: 'I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. I have loved since He has inclined his ear to me, that in my day I might call upon Him. I have loved because I have found tribulation and sorrow, and for the sake of my God I have not fled the dangers of hell but have waited that they might seize and find me.'33

(20) And beautifully does he say: 'I have loved,' be cause now he had completed the course of this life. Where fore, the Apostle also says in the midst of his suffering: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.'34 Great is the Lord who has given us the struggle, whereby he who has conquered merits to be crowned. 'I have loved,' he says trustingly, 'because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.'35

(21) 'I have loved' and therefore 'he has inclined his ear'36 to me, to raise up the fallen, to quicken the dead. For God does not incline his ear so as to hear corporally but to condescend to us. He deigns thus to hear us and to lift up the substance of our weakness. He inclines himself toward us that our prayer may ascend to Him. He who offers mercy does not need a voice. He did not need a voice who heard

Moses, though silent,37 and He said that Moses cried out to Him, although he did not speak, but was pleading with unutterable groanings.38 God also knows how to hear blood,39 for which no voice exists nor tongue is present, but it received a voice by virtue of the sacred Passion. It cried out in mar tyrdom, it cried out in the parricide which it suffered as a sacrifice.

33 Cf. Ps. 114.1-3.

34 2 Tim. 4.7,8.

35 Ps. 114.1.

36 Ps. 114.2

37 Cf. Exod. 14.15.

38 Cf. Rom. 8.26.

39 Cf. Gen. 4.10.

ON THEODOSIUS

(22) 'I have loved,' he said, and therefore, 'with love I have done the will of the Lord, and I have called upon Him not on a few, but on all the days of my life.'40 For to call upon Him on certain days and not on all is the mark of one who is proved, not of one who hopes. It is to return the debt of gratitude after the manner of those who abound in wealth and not from a spirit of devotion. And so Paul said: 'Give thanks for all things.'41 For when do you not have something which you owe to God? Or when are you without a gift of God, since your daily enjoyment of living is from God? 'For what hast thou, that thou hast not received?'42 Therefore, because you always receive, always call upon God; and since what you have is from God, always acknowledge that you are His debtor. I prefer that you pay your debts rather through love than as one forced to do so.

(23) Do you hear him saying: 'The sorrows of death have compassed me'?43 'Still, I have loved the Lord even in the sorrows of death. The perils of hell have found me, not fearing indeed, but loving, but hoping, because no distress, no persecution, no dangers, no sword shall separate me from Christ.'44 Therefore, he found tribulation and sor row willingly, knowing that 'tribulation works out endurance, and endurance tried virtue, and tried virtue hope.'45 As a good athlete, he sought the contest that he might gain the crown, but he knew that this was given to him not through his own strength but by the aid of God. He could not have been victorious had he not called upon Him who helps contenders.

(24) Miserable man enters the contest to be victorious, and he rushes headlong into danger unless the name of the Lord be present with him; unless, when he fears, he prays,

40 Cf. 22.6; Ps. 26.4; Ps. 114.2.

41 1 Thess. 5.18.

42 1 Cor. 4.1.

43 Ps. 114.3.

44 Cf. Ps. 114.3; Rom. 8.35.

45 Rom. 5.3.

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saying: 'O Lord deliver my soul.'46 Hence we have these words of the Apostle: 'But I see a law of my flesh warring against the law of my mind, and making me prisoner to the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am!

Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord.'47

(25) He is victorious who hopes for the grace of God, not he who presumes upon his own strength. For why do you not rely upon grace, since you have a merciful Judge in the con test. 'For the Lord is merciful and just, and our God sheweth mercy.'48 Mercy is mentioned twice, but justice once. Justice is in the middle, enclosed by a double wall of mercy. Sins superabound. Therefore, let mercy superabound. With the Lord there is an abundance of all powers, for He is the Lord of hosts.49 Yet there is neither justice without mercy, nor with out the exercise of mercy is there justice, for it is written:

'Be not over just.'50 What is above measure, you cannot endure, even if it is good. Preserve measure that you may receive according to the measure.51

(26) Yet mercy has not impeded justice, because mercy is itself justice. 'He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor, his justice remaineth forever.'52 For the just man knows that he ought to succor the weak and the needy. Wherefore, the Lord, coming to baptism in order to forgive us our sins because we are weak, said to John: 'Let it be so now, for so it becomes us to fulfill all justice.'53 Thus, it is clear that justice is mercy, and mercy is justice. For if the mercy of God did not sustain us, how would we survive as infants in the very

46 Ps. 114.4.

47 Rom. 7.23-25.

48 Ps. 114.5.

49 Cf. Ps. 23.10.

50 Eccles. 7.17.

51 Cf. Eph. 4.7.

52 Ps. 111.9.

53 Matt. 3.15.

ON THEODOSIUS

beginning when, issuing from the womb, from warmth into cold, from moisture into dryness, we are cast forth like fishes that a flood of nature, as it were, has cast shipwrecked into this life? Reason is lacking, but divine grace does not fail.

Therefore, He Himself guards the little ones, or at least those who humbly confess that they are as little ones.

(27) Good, therefore, is humility. It delivers those who are in danger and raises those who have fallen. This humility was known to him who said: 'Behold it is I that have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly; and these in this flock, what have they done? Let thy hand be against me.'a4

Well does he say this who made his kingdom subject to God and did penance and, having confessed his sin, asked pardon.

He attained salvation through humility. Christ humbled Himself to raise up all,oa and whoever follows the humility of Christ attains the rest of Christ.

(28) And so because Theodosius, the emperor, showed himself humble and, when sin had stolen upon him, asked for pardon, his soul has turned to its rest, as Scripture has it, saying: 'Turn my soul unto thy rest, for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee.'°6 Beautifully is it said to the soul: 'Turn,' that the soul, tired out, as it were, with the daily sweat of its toil, may turn from labor to rest. The horse is turned toward the stable when it has finished its course; the ship to the port, where it is given safe anchorage protected from the violence of the waves. But what is the meaning of the phrase, 'to thy rest,' unless you understand it according to the words of the Lord Jesus: 'Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you as an inheritance from the foundation of the world'?;>l For we receive, as it were, an in54 2 Kings 24.17.

55 Cf. Phil. 2.8.

56 Ps. 114.7.

57 Matt. 25.34.

ST. AMBROSE

herited possession, the things which have been promised to us, for God is faithful and does not withdraw what he has once prepared for His servants. If our faith endures, His promise likewise endures.

(29) See, O man, the grace of Christ about you. Even while you are harassed on earth, you have possessions in heaven. There, then, let your heart be, where your possession is.°8 This is the rest which is due the just, and is denied the unworthy. Whence says the Lord: 'As I swore in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my rest.'59 For they who have not known the ways of the Lord shall not enter into the rest of the Lord, but to him who has fought the good fight and has finished his course it is said: 'Turn to thy rest.' It is a blessed rest to pass by the things of the world and to find repose in the celestial fellowship of the mysteries which are above the world. This is the rest toward which the Prophet hastened, saying: 'Who will give me wings like a dove and I will fly and be at rest?'60 The holy man knows this as his rest, and to this rest he says his soul must turn. Therefore was his soul in its rest, to which he says it must return. This is the rest of the great Sabbath, in which each of the saints is above the sensible things of the world, devoting himself entirely to deep and invisible mystery and cleaving to God. This is that rest of the Sabbath on which God rested from all the works of this world.

(30) Theodosius, now at peace, rejoices that he has been snatched away from the cares of this world and he lifts up his soul and directs it to that great and eternal rest. He de clares that he has been admirably cared for, since God has snatched his soul from death,61 the death which he frequently withstood in the treacherous conditions of this world, when

58 Cf. Matt. 6.21.

59 Ps. 94.11.

60 Ps. 54.7.

61 Cf. Ps. 114.8; Ps. 55.13

ON THEODOSIUS

he was disturbed by the waves of sin. And God has snatched his eyes from tears, for sorrow and sadness and mourning shall flee away.62 And elsewhere we have: 'He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain.'63 If, then, death will be no more, he cannot suffer a fall when he is in that rest, but he will please God in the land of the living.64

For while man is here enveloped in a mortal body subject to falls and transgressions, that will not be so there. Therefore, that is the land of the living where the soul is, for the soul has been made to the image and likeness of God, it is not flesh fashioned from earth.65 Hence, flesh returns to earth, but the soul hastens to celestial rest, and to it is said: 'Turn, my soul, to thy rest.'

(31) Theodosius hastened to enter upon this rest and to go into the city of Jerusalem, of which it is said: 'And the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.'66 That is true glory which is assumed there, and that is a most blessed kingdom which is possessed there. To this the Apostle was hastening when he said: 'We have the courage, then, and we prefer to be exiled from the body and to be at home with the Lord; and therefore we strive, whether in the body or out of it, to please Him.'67

(32) Thus freed from an uncertain struggle, Theodosius of august memory now enjoys perpetual light and lasting tranquility, and in return for what he did in this body he rejoices in the fruits of a divine reward. Therefore, because

Theodosius of august memory loved the Lord his God, he has merited the companionship of the saints.

(33) And to conclude my discourse by a kind of per62 Cf. Isa. 51.11.

63 Cf. Apoc. 21.4.

64 Cf. Ps. 114.9.

65 Cf. Gen. 1.27; 2.7.

66 Apoc. 21.24.

67 Cf. 2 Cor. 5.8,9.

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oration, I have loved a merciful man, humble in power, endowed with a pure heart and a gentle disposition, a man such as God is accustomed to love, saying: 'Upon whom shall

I rest, unless upon the humble and gentle?'68

(34) I have loved a man who esteemed a reprover more than a flatterer. He threw on the ground all the royal attire that he was wearing. He wept publicly in church69 for his sin, which had stolen upon him through the deceit of others. He prayed for pardon with groans and with tears. What private citizens are ashamed to do, the emperor was not ashamed to do, namely, to perform penance publicly, nor did a day pass thereafter on which he did not bemoan that fault of his. Need

I mention also that when he had gained an illustrious victory, yet because the enemy lay fallen in battle he abstained from participation in the sacraments until he recognized the grace of God toward him in the arrival of his children?

(35) I have loved a man who in his dying hour kept asking for me with his last breath. I have loved a man who, when he was already being released from the body, was more concerned about the condition of the Church than about his own trials. I have loved him, therefore, I confess, and for that reason I have suffered my sorrow in the depths of my heart, and thought to be consoled by the delivery of a lengthy discourse. I have loved, and I presume upon the Lord that He will receive the voice of my prayer, with which I accompany this pious soul.

(36) 'The sorrows of death have compassed me, the perils of hell have found me.'70 For perils affect many, but re medies are found for few. A bishop participates in the perils of all, and he suffers anguish in all sinners. What others suffer he himself endures; in turn, he is freed when others who are beset

68 Cf. Isa. 66.2.

69 St. Ambrose is speaking here of the public penance of Theodosius for the massacre of Thessalonica.

70 Ps. 114.3.

ON THEODOSIUS

with dangers are freed from them. I am crushed in heart be cause a man has been taken from us whom it is almost im possible to replace. Yet, O Lord, Thou alone shouldst be called upon, Thou shouldst be implored to replace him in his sons. Thou, Lord, the keeper also of little ones in this lowliness,71 save those hoping in Thee.72 Give perfect rest to Thy servant Theodosius, that rest which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints. Let his soul turn thither, whence it descended, where he cannot feel the sting of death, where he knows that this death is not the end of nature but of guilt. 'For the death that he dies, he died to sin,'73 so that there can no longer be a place for sin. And he will rise again, that his life may be restored more perfectly by a renewed gift.

(37) I have loved, and so I accompany him to the land of the living,74 and I will not abandon him until, by my tears and prayers, I shall lead the man whither his merits summon, unto the holy mountain of God,75 where there is eternal life, where there is no corruption, no sickness, no mourning, no sorrow, no companionship with the dead.76 It is the true land of the living where 'this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruptible body shall put on incorruption.'77 It is the great repose which fulfills the prayer of the living, a most glorious promise. Therefore, Psalm 114 bears the title

'Alleluia.' And, accordingly, above in Psalm 1478 we have learned the perfection of man. But while the man represented there may be perfect, he still is subject to sin because he is living in this world. There above is true perfection, where

71 Cf. Ps. 114.6.

72 Cf. Ps. 16.7.

73 Cf. Rom. 6.10.

74 Cf. Ps. 114.9.

75 Cf. Ps. 2.6; Ps. 3.5; etc.

76 Cf. Rom. 8.35; Isa. 35.10.

77 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.53.

78 The reference is really to Ps. 114, not to Ps. 14.

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sin has ceased and the beauty of perpetual rest has shone forth.

(38) We have Psalm 114, because it is the recompense of love.79 From this the Psach of the Lord received its law of celebration at the fourteenth moon, since he who cele brates the Pasch ought to be perfect. He should love the Lord

Jesus who, cherishing His people with perfect love, offered Himself in His Passion. And let us so love that, if there should be need, we shall not avoid death for the name of the Lord, we shall not have thought for my suffering, and we shall fear nothing, 'for perfect love casts out fear.'80

Sublime mystery of number, since the Father delivered His only Son for us all when the moon shone with the full orb of its light! For so is the Church, which devoutly celebrates the Pasch of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the perfect moon, she abides forever.81 Whoever during life fittingly celebrates the Pasch of the Lord shall be in perpetual light. Who celebrated it more gloriously than he who removed sacrilegious errors, closed temples, destroyed idols? For in this was King Josias preferred to his predecessors.

(39) Theodosius, then, abides82 in the light and glories in the assembly of the saints. There he now embraces Gratian, who no longer grieves for his wounds, for he has found an avenger. Although he was snatched away prematurely by an unworthy death, he possesses rest for his soul. There those two good and generous exponents of devotion rejoice in the common reward for their mercy. Of them it is well said:

'Day to day uttereth speech.'83 On the other hand, Maximus and Eugenius are in hell, as 'night to night sheweth knowl edge.' Ihey teach by their wretched example how wicked it

79 In early Christian number symbolism, the Greek letters indicating the number fourteen could signify 'Jesus-Gift.'

80 Cf. 1 John 4.18.

81 Cf. Ps. 88.38.

82 Cf. 1 John 2.10.

83 Ps. 18.3.

ON THEODOSIUS

is for men to take up arms against their princes. And of them it is admirably said: 'I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by and lo, he was not!'84 The pious man passed over from the darkness of the world to eternal day, and the wicked man was no more, for through his wickedness he ceased to be.

(40) Now, Theodosius of august memory knows that he reigns, since he is in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and contemplates his temple.85 Now, indeed, he is conscious of his kingship when he receives Gratian and Pulcheria, his sweetest children, whom he had lost here; when his Flacilla, a soul faithful to God, embraces him; when he rejoices that his father has been restored to him; and when he embraces

Constantine. Although Constantine was in his last hours when he was freed by the grace of baptism from all sins, yet, since he was the first of the emperors to believe and left after him a heritage of faith to princes, he has found a place of great merit. Of his times the following prophecy has been fulfilled: 'In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.'86 This was revealed by the great Helena of holy memory, who was inspired by the Spirit of God.

(41) Blessed was Constantine with such a mother! At her son's command she sought the aid of divine favor in order that he might take part safely even in battles and not fear danger. Noble woman, who found much more to confer upon an emperor than she might receive from an emperor! The mother, solicitous for her son to whom the sovereignty of the Roman world had fallen, hastened to Jerusalem and ex plored the scene of the Lord's Passion.

(42) It is claimed that she originally was hostess of an 84 Ps. 36.35,36.

85 Cf. Ps. 26.4.

86 Zach. 14.20.

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inn, and thus became acquainted with the elder Constantine, who afterwards obtained the imperial office. Good hostess, who so diligently searched for the manger of the Lord! Good hostess, who did not ignore that host who cared for the wounds of the man wounded by robbers!87 Good hostess, who preferred to be considered dung, to gain Christ! For that reason Christ raised her from dung to a kingdom, for it is written that 'He raised up the needy from the earth, and lifted up the poor out of the dunghill.'88

(43) Helena, then, came and began to visit the holy places. The Spirit inspired her to search for the wood of the Cross. She drew near to Golgotha and said: 'Behold the place of combat: where is thy victory? I seek the banner of salvation and I do not find it. Shall I,' she said, 'be among kings, and the cross of the Lord lie in the dust? Shall I be covered by golden ornaments, and the triumph of Christ by ruins? Is this still hidden, and is the palm of eternal life hidden? How can I believe that I have been redeemed if the redemption itself is not seen?'

(44) 'I see what you did, O Devil, that the sword by which you were destroyed might be obstructed. But Isaac cleared out the wells stopped up by foreigners, and did not permit the water to lie concealed.89 So let the ruins be re moved that life may appear; let the sword by which the head of the real Goliath was cut off be drawn forth; let the earth be opened that salvation may shine out. Why did you labor to hide the wood, O Devil, except to be vanquished a second time? You were vanquished by Mary, who gave the Conqueror birth. Without any impairment of her virginity, she brought Him forth to conquer you by His crucifixion and to subjugate you by His death. Today, also, you shall be van87 Cf. Luke 10.35.

88 Ps. 112.7.

89 Cf. Gen. 26.18.

ON THEODOSIUS

quished when a woman discovers your snares. That holy woman bore the Lord; I shall search for His cross. She gave proof that He was born; I shall give proof that He rose from the dead. She caused God to be seen among men; I shall raise from ruins the divine banner which shall be a remedy for our sins.'

(45) And so she opened the ground and cleared away the dust. She found three fork-shaped gibbets thrown together, covered by debris and hidden by the Enemy. But the triumph of Christ could not be wiped out. She hesitated in her un certainty. She hesitated, as a woman, but the Holy Spirit in spired her to investigate carefully, because two robbers had been crucified with the Lord. Therefore, she sought the middlebeam, but it could have happened that the debris had mixed the crosses one with another and that chance had interchanged them. She went back to the text of the Gospel and found that on the middle gibbet a title had been dis played, 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.'90 Hence, a sequence of sound reasoning was established and the Cross of salvation was revealed by its title. This is what Pilate an swered to the Jews who petitioned him: 'What I have written, I have written,'91 that is: 'I have not written these things to please you, but that future ages may know them. I have not written for you, but for posterity,' saying, as it were: 'Let Helena have something to read whereby she may recognize the cross of the Lord.'

(46) She discovered, then, the title. She adored the King, not the wood, indeed, because this is an error of the Gentiles and a vanity of the wicked. But she adored Him who hung on the tree, whose name was inscribed in the title;

Him, I say, who, as a scarabaeus,92 cried out to His Father 90 John 19.22.

91 Ibid.

92 Cf. Hab. 2.11. St. Ambrose often employs the scarab as a symbol of Christ.

ST. AMBROSE

to forgive the sins of his persecutors.93 The woman eagerly hastened to touch the remedy of immortality, but she feared to trample under foot the mystery of salvation. Joyful at heart, yet with anxious step, she knew not what she should do. She proceeded, however, tp the resting place of Truth.

The wood shone and grace flashed forth. And, as before, Christ had visited a woman in Mary, so the Spirit visited a woman in Helena. He taught her what as a woman she did not know, and led her upon a way which no mortal could know.

(47) She sought the nails with which the Lord was crucified, and found them. From one nail she ordered a bridle to be made, from the other she wove a diadem. She turned the one to an ornamental, the other to a devotional, use. Mary was visited to liberate Eve; Helena was visited that emperors might be redeemed. So she sent to her son Con stantine a diadem adorned with jewels which were inter woven with the iron of the Cross and enclosed the more precious jewel of divine redemption. She sent the bridle, also.

Constantine used both, and transmitted his faith to later kings. And so the beginning of the faith of the emperors is the holy relic which is upon the bridle.94 From that came the faith whereby persecution ended and devotion to God took its place.

(48) Wisely did Helena act who placed the cross on the head of sovereigns, that the Cross of Christ might be adored among kings. That was not presumption but piety, since honor was given to our holy redemption. Good, therefore, is the nail of the Roman Empire. It rules the whole world and adorns the brow of princes, that they may be preachers who were accustomed to be persecutors. Rightly is the nail on the head, so that where the intelligence is, there may be pro93 Cf. Luke 23.39.

94 C£. Zach. 14.20.

ON THEODOSIUS

tection, also. On the head, a crown; in the hands, reins. A crown made from the Cross, that faith might shine forth; reins likewise from the Cross, that authority might govern, and that there might be just rule, not unjust legislation. May the princes also consider that this has been granted to them by Christ's generosity, that in imitation of the Lord it may be said of the Roman emperor: 'Thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones.'95

(49) On that account the Church manifests joy, the Jew blushes. Not only does he blush, but he is tormented also, because he himself is the author of his own confusion. While he insulted Christ, he confessed that He was King; when he called Him king of the Jews,' he who did not believe con fessed his sacrilege. 'Behold,' they say, 'we have crucified

Jesus, that Christians after death may rise again, and, having died, may reign! We have crucified Him whom kings adore;

Him whom we do not adore they do adore! Behold, even the nail is held in honor, and He whom we crucified to death is the remedy of salvation, and by an invisible power torments demons! We thought that we had conquered, but we confess that we ourselves are conquered! Christ has risen again, and princes acknowledge that He has risen. He who is not seen lives again.' Now we have a greater struggle; now the battle against Him becomes more furious. We have despised Him whom kingdoms attend, whom power serves. How shall we resist kings? Kings are bowed under the iron of His feet!

Kings adore Him, and Photinians deny His divinity! Em perors prefer the nail of His Cross to their own diadem, and Arians violate His power!

(50) But I ask: Why was the holy relic upon the bridle if not to curb the insolence of emperors, to check the wanton ness of tyrants, who as horses neigh after lust that they may be allowed to commit adultery unpunished? What infamies

95 Ps. 20.4.

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do we not find in the Neros, the Caligulas, and the rest, for whom there was nothing holy upon the bridle?

(51) What else, then, did Helena accomplish by her desire to guide the reins than to seem to say to all emperors through the Holy Spirit: 'Do not become like the horse and mule,'96 and with the bridle and bit to restrain97 the jaws of those who did not realize that they were kings to rule those subject to them? For power easily led them into vice, and like cattle they defiled themselves in promiscuous lust. They knew not God. The Cross of the Lord restrained them and recalled them from their fall into wickedness. It raised their eyes that they might look toward heaven and seek Christ. They threw off the bit of unbelief. They took the bridle of devotion and faith, following Him who said: 'Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.'98 Thereafter, the succeeding emperors were Christians, except Julian alone, who abandoned the Author of his salvation when he gave himself over to philosophic error. After him came Gratian and Theodosius.

(52) Prophecy did not lie, then, when it said: 'Kings shall walk in thy light.'99 They shall walk openly, and es pecially Gratian and Theodosius before other princes, no longer protected by the weapons of their soldiers, but by their own merits; clothed not in purple garments, but in the mantle of glory. In this world they took delight in pardoning many. How much the more are they consoled in the other life by the remembrance of their goodness, recalling that they had spared many? They now enjoy radiant light, and, pos sessing far nobler dwellings there than they enjoyed here, they say: 'O Israel, how great is the house of the Lord, and how vast is the place of his possession! It is great and hath

96 Ps. 31.9.

97 Cf. Ps. 31.9.

98 Matt. 11.29,30.

99 Isa. 60.3 (Septuagint).

ON THEODOSIUS

no end.'100 And they who have endured the greatest hardships converse with each other, saying: 'It is good for a man when he hath borne the heavy yoke from his youth. He shall not sit solitary, and shall hold his peace, because he hath borne a heavy yoke.'101 For he who has borne the heavy yoke from youth rests afterward. Removed from the throng, he possesses a distinguished place for his rest, saying: 'For Thou, O

Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.'102

(53) Lazarus, the poor man, bore the heavy yoke from his youth, and so he rests apart in Abraham's bosom, ac cording to the testimony of the sacred text.103 Theodosius bore the heavy yoke from youth, since those who had killed his victorious father were plotting against his safety. He bore the heavy yoke, since he endured exile because of filial de votion and since he assumed the imperial power when the Roman Empire was overrun by barbarians. He bore the heavy yoke that he might remove tyrants from the Roman

Empire. But, because he labored here, he rests there.

(54) But now let us come to the transportation of the illustrious body. You weep, Honorius, illustrious scion, and give testimony of your filial love by your tears. You are sending the body of your father on a long and distant journey, for it still lacks the honor of a tomb. But the patriarch Jacob, because of the necessity of liberating his people who were being oppressed by the dangers of a great and bitter famine, also left his home, though an old man, and hastened to a foreign land. When he had died, his body, escorted by his son, was brought in the course of some days to the sepulchre of his fathers. And nothing was taken away from his merits; rather, it redounded to his praise that, having suffered the 100 Baruch 3.24,25.

101 Lam. 3.27,28.

102 Ps. 4.10.

103 Cf. Luke 16.20.

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loss of his rightful home for the sake of his family, he traveled like an exile even after his death.

(55) You weep, also, august Emperor, because you yourself will not escort the honored remains to Constantinople.

We are both in the same situation. We all shall accompany them with due sorrow. We should all like, if it were possible, to go with you as an escort for the body. But Joseph went into a neighboring province. Here, many different regions intervene; here, seas must be crossed. Even this would not be laborious to you, did not the public welfare restrain you, which good emperors place before parents and children.

Therefore, your father made you emperor, and God has con firmed this, so that you might not serve under your father only, but that you might have command over all.

(56) Do not fear lest the triumphant remains may seem to be unhonored wherever they go. This is not the feeling of Italy, which witnessed his magnificent triumphs, which, freed for a second time from tyrants, acclaims the author of her liberty. This is not the feeling of Constantinople, which for a second time has sent a prince to victory. Although she wished to retain him, she could not. She was indeed awaiting triumphal celebrations at his return and the tokens of victories. She was awaiting the emperor of the whole world, surrounded by the army from Gaul and supported by the might of the whole world. But now Theodosius returns thither, more powerful, more glorious. Choirs of angels escort him, and a multitude of saints accompanies him. Surely, blessed are thou, Constantinople, for thou art receiving a citizen of paradise, and thou wilt possess in the august hospice of his buried body a dweller of the celestial city.

INDEX

INDEX Aaron, 6, 90, 91, 246, 268 Abraham, 59, 89, 103, 155, 212, Arbogast, 263, 264, 276 n.

Arcadius, Emperor, 304, 313 Aristotle, x, 21, 82 n., 313 n.

Arius, 53, 128, 132, 167 n.

Armenians, 41, 42 Asa, 313 236, 239-243, 310, 311 Abraham's bosom, 17, 295, 331 Absalom, 208, 286 Adad, 72 Adam, 88, 124, 199, 200, 212, 237 Alexander the Great, viii Ambrose, St., as bishop, 170, astronomy, 9, 35, 47, 235 Athanasius, 66 n.

Athenagoras, xiv, xv Athens, 14, 38-45 athletes, of God, 14, 30, 32, 317 187, 190, 277, 322; closeness to brother, 164, 173, 176-179, 192, 195, 197; as envoy of Valentinian, 278; and Latin funeral oration, xix-xxi; De bono mortis, 211 n.; Expositio in Lucam, 211 n., 258 n.; In Psalmos, 217 n.; On Satyrus, Babel, Tower of, 85 baptism, 129, 144, 287, 288, 296,

barbarians, threat of invasion by, 161, 175, 176, 266, 275, 304, 331 Barnabas, 55 Basil, St., 3, 4, 150, 154, 155; an 161-259; On Theodosius, 307332; On Valentinian, 265-299 Amnon, 286 Anaxagoras, 21, 44 n.

Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana, 75 cestry of, 29-35; as bishop, 51, 59-77; care of sick, 80, 81; charity of, 57-59, 80; compar ison of, with others, 88-95; cure of emperor's son, 71-72; n.

Antioch, Council of, 133 n.

Antisthenes, x

defense of orthodoxy against Valens, 53-56; defense of right of asylum, 73-74; dispute with Eusebius, 51; death of, 95-97; education of, 35-49; eloquence of, 38, 47, 83-85; founder of monastic communities, 80; parentage of, 34; as priest, 38, 49-59; sentence of exile rescined, 71; struggle against Arianism, 53-56; struggle with Valens and Moclestus, 64-72; Trinitarian teaching of, 85-88; virtues of, 56-58, 60-62, 74-83, 95; writings of, 64, 85-88 Basil, the Elder, 34, 36, 37 basilikos logos, royal oration, ix, Cappadocia, 29, 34, 55, 75, 76 catechumenate, 128 celibacy, 79 Chalane (Babel), 85 charity, 57-59, 80, 81, 108-110, 125, 126, 134, 135, 185, 186; see also wealth chastity, 43, 73, 184, 185, 202,

Christ, 7, 14, 24, 36, 53, 60, 79, 81, 82, 87, 114, 121, 129, 164, 174, 279-281, et passim; as Ar chetype, 104; Incarnation of, xiii, 162, 166; as King, 18, 329; as Lover, 114; miracles of, 230234; as Physician, 111, 113, 140, 214, 314; as Redeemer, xiii, 162, 163, 199, 200, 215, 216, 224, 233-237, 240, 242, 244, 314, 316, 319, 324; Resur rection of, xiv, 214, 232-237, xii Beseleel, 64 Bion of Borysthenes, x bishops, inept selection of, 50, 51 Boulenger, Fernand, xvii, xxii Byzantium, 10, 38, 332 329; tears of, 165, 166; as Truth, 236, 248, 249, 328; as Word, 5, 13, 25, 54, 59, 93, Caesarea, 37, 49, 146 Caesarius, St., brother of St.

150, 212, 271 Cicero, xi, xii, xx, 160, 202 n., Gregory, charity of, 21; at court, 10-16; death of, 16, 117; education of, 8-10; eloquence of, 21; learning of, 21; mar riage of, 10; occasion of fun eral oration on, 3; as phys ician, 9-12; struggle with Ju lian, 13-16; as treasurer, 15, 20; virtues of, 8, 9, 12-16 Caligula, 330 205 n„ 255 n., 259 n.

Cleanthes, 21 Clement of Rome, xiv Cleobulus, 77 n. communion of saints, xiii, 17,

consolatio, vii-x, xvi, xix, xx consolatory treatise, as literary genre, vii, x-xv

Constantine, Emperor, xv, 325, Diocletian, 304 Diogenes, 78 n.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, xi Dudden, F. H., 222 n.

Duff., J. W., 222 n.

326, 328 Constantius, Emperor, 3 contemplation, 80, 211 Crantor, x Crates, 12, 78 Creed, the, 133 n.

Cross, true, 325-330 Cynics, x, 78 n.

Cyprian, St., xv education, as human advantage,

Elias, 52, 58, 92, 143, 233, 238, 255, 278 Eliseus, 92, 311 Emmelia, mother of St. Basil, 34 emotion, display of, xiii, 5, 6, 18, David, 19, 23, 36, 63, 65, 71, 84, 86, 92, 110, 128, 137, 152, 167, 206, 208, 210, 212, 215, 225, 236, 249, 255, 259, 272, 286,

death, as escape from misfor 96, 97, 116, 126, 165, 168, 193, 194, 200, 202, 267, 284 encomium, as literary genre, vii, ix; pagan, x, xii, xiii encomium, as laudatory unit of tunes of this world, viii, xiii, xx, 17, 20, 22, 23, 121, 155, eulogy, ix, xvii, xviii; family, 2-4, 29-34, 103-104, 122-123; physical endowments, 8, 9495; upbringing and education, 8-10, 35-49, 271-272; life and occupation, 10-12, 49-81, 124174, 175, 191, 198, 204, 205, 211, 213, 255, 320, 321; happy life follows, viii, 18-20, 22, 23, 117, 121, 155, 191, 239, 321; lot of all men, viii, xii, xvii, 19, 162, 163, 198, 199, 205, 217; natural, spiritual, and pe nal, 212-213; not an evil, 205215; origin of, 216; sin as, 211-213, 319, 320; see also Christ as Redeemer, emotions, grief, immortality, resurrec tion Democritus, x, 21 Demosthenes, Arian agent, 67 Devil, the, 63, 234, 311; out 153; moral qualities, xx, 6-8, 12-16, 56-62, 78-83, 104-115, 124-126, 133-143, 179-187, 273274, 309-310; achievements, 12-16, 49-82, 145-153, 266-267, 275, 309-312; comparison with others, 88-95, 103, 124, 130, 286, 311-314; death and funer al, 16, 95-97, 114-117, 152, 169170, 264 Enos, 89 Epicurus, 21 witted by St. Helena, 326, 327

epitaphios logos, ix, xii, xvii, God, 32, 35, 51, 53, 57, 58, 62, 68, 75, 86-90, 111, 119, 122, 123, 126, 127, 132, 169, 186, 187, et passim', anger of, 138; as Creator, xiii, xv, 9, 25, 85, 162, xviii Esau, 66 Eucharist, Holy, xiii, 113, 114, 119, 126, 180-182 Euclid, 21 Eugenius, Emperor, 264, 309 n., 181, 225 n., 234, 235, 244, 275; as Judge, 207; as Lawmaker, 31, 180; providence of, 31, 49, 188, 220, 318 gods, pagan, as ancestors, 30 Gorgonia, St., sister of St. Greg

Eusebius of Caesarea, 51, 52, 59, 147-149 Eusebius of Vercelli, 52 n.

Eusebius, Vicar of Pontus, 72 Evagoras of Cyprus, viii Eve, 111, 124, 328 exhortation, as unit of oration, ory, charity of, 108-110; date of panegyric on, 4; death of, 114-117; faith of, in Holy Eucharist, 113, 114; marriage, 105, 106, 115; parentage of, 103, 104; physical injury to, 111, 112; virtues of, 104-114 Grata, sister of Valentinian, 264 Gratian, Emperor, 263, 268, 278 ix, xvii, xviii, xx, 16-25, 154, 189-195 exordium, as unit, ix, xvii, xix, 5-6, 27-29, 101-102, 119-122, 161-164, 265-271, 307-309 Ezechias, 143 n., 288, 294-298, 324, 325, 330 Gregory of Nazianzen, St., asso ciation with St. Basil, 27, 3949, 61, 77, 97; and baptism, 144; education of, 8; interest in philosophy, 11; references to own skill in oratory, 5. 8, Faustinus, Bishop of Iconium, 4, 112 n.

Flacilla, 325 Flavian, consul, 309 n. fortune, as fate, xii; as goddess, 16, 17, 27; rhetorical method of, xvii-xix; On His Father,

funeral oration, as literary 119-156; On St. Basil, 27-99; On St. Caesarius, 3-25; On St.

Gorgonia, 101-118 Gregory the Elder, baptism and genre, vii-xxi Galen, 21 games, pagan, 17, 273 geometry, 9, 47 George of Cappadocia, 66 n.

Giezi, 311 initiation to priesthood of, 128-130; charity of, 134, 135; comparison with others, 137;

courage in resisting Julian, immortality, xiv-xvii, xx, xxi, 21-23, 205, 212, 221, 321; phoenix as symbol of, xiv, xv, 221, 222; true life in, xiii, xvii, xxi, 174, 198, 201; see also death Iphigenia, 33 Isaac, 103, 156, 239-243, 295, 311 Isocrates, viii 145, 146; defense of election of Eusebius, 147-149; family of, 122, 123; founder of church at Nazianzus, 153; illness of, 140-143, 151; marriage of, 124128; personality of, 6, 8; as priest, 131-153; official com petence of, 6; orthodoxy of, 132; and selection of St. Basil as bishop, 59-60, 155; virtues of, 6-8, 103, 104, 133-143, 152 Gregory of Nyssa, St., xvi, xix, Jacob, 66, 90, 239, 242, 290, 295, 308, 311, 331 James, St., 91, 137 Jeroboam, 50 122 n. grief, Christian attitude toward, John the Baptist, St., 52, 93 Joseph, 58, 90, 206, 290, 308, 332 Josias, 289, 313 Julian the Apostate, 3, 13-16, 53, 5, 6, 18, 121, 156, 163-165, 191, 199, 213-215; patience in, 201 - 204, 254; tempered by reason, xiii, 17, 18, 156, 198, 200, 218 Guignet, M., xviii, xix 145, 146, 148, 149, 275, 289, 304, 330 Justa, sister of Valentinian, 264 Helena, St., 325-330 Henoch, 89, 238, 289 Heraclitus, 21 Hero, 21 Herodotus, 221 n.

Hesiod, 124 n., 221 n.

Himerius, x Hippocrates, 12, 21 Homer, 42, 46, 47, 49, 148 n., Lactantius, xv, 222 n. laudatio funebris, vii, xi, xii, xix laughter, attitude toward, 106 Lawrence, St., 169 Lazarus, 213, 231-233, 242, 295,

lector, 187 Leontius, Bishop, 128 Libanius, x Lucifer of Cagliari, 52 n., 182 n.

Lucretius, xi luxury, proper attitude toward:

256 n.

Honorius, Emperor, 304, 308, 313, 331, 332 Horace, xi Hypereides, viii Hypsistarii, 122 cosmetics, 107, 125; dress, 17, 107, 136; food, 20, 45, 109,

136, 185, 273; head dresses, 107; jewelry, 107; land, 20; perfume, 17; slaves, 20; spec tacle, 45, 273 Nicaea, 16, 128 Noe, 89, 132 Nonna, St., mother of St. Greg ory, 16, 21, 116, 155; attitude toward pagans, 126; charity of, Marcellina, sister of St. Am 125, 135; conversion of hus band, 127, 128; illness of, 143, 144; personality of, 6-8; prayers of, 10, 141; prenatal dedica brose, 159, 160, 168, 169, 176, 179, 193, 194 Martial, xi martyrs, 30-33, 66, 215, 288, 311, tion of Gregory, 127; virtues of, 6, 8, 103, 104, 124-126; vision of, 144-146

Mary, sister of Lazarus, 233 Mary, Virgin, 166, 283, 328 mathematics, 9, 47 Offertory, at Mass, 70 'one soul in bodies twain,' 44, Maximinus, 30 Maximus, Emperor, 263, 278 n., 48, 164, 171, 178 Orders, Holy, 50, 128-130 Orestes, St., 76 Orphism, 225 n.

Ovid, xi, 256 n., 257 n.

283, 309 n„ 324 medicine, study of, 9, 10, 12, 36,

Menander, ix, xvii, xix, 82 n. miraculous occurrences, 111-114, 140-146, 150-151, 169, 180, 181, 230-234, 326, 327 Modestus, prefect, 67 n. monody, as literary genre, ix, Panaetius, x Paul, St., xiv, xxi, 22, 55, 84, 94, 130, 137, 211, 213, 223, 224, 238, 239, 243, 254, 317 Pericles, viii, ix Peter, St., 94, 137, 207, 233, 279, xvii, xx Moses, 6, 58, 90, 91, 129, 130, 137, 142, 229, 247, 248, 288, 308, 316 Mysteries, holy, 180, 183 mythology, pagan, 30, 33, 36,

philosophy, as life of Christian perfection, 6 n., 35, 49, 125; study of, 47, 52 Phineas, 137 phoenix, xiv, xv, 221, 222 Photinians, 329 Pilate, 73 Pindar, 44 45-48, 51, 227, 228, 256-258 Nabuzardan, see Demosthenes Nazarites, monks, 52, 132, 149 Nero, 330

faith of, in Holy Eucharist, Plato, x, xv, 21, 180 n., 225 n., 255 n., 313 n.

Pliny the Elder, 221 n.

Pliny the Younger, xi Plutarch, xi Polybius, xi Pontus, 29, 30, 34, 36, 52, 54, 72 prayer, ix, xvii, xviii, xx, 25, 98, 180; as mediator between St.

Ambrose and Marcellina, 179; and Prosper, 169 n., 172; ship wreck of, 180, 181; virtues of, 179-187 scarab, as symbol of Christ, 327 Scripture, Holy, xiii, xiv, xviii, 99, 118, 144, 163, 195, 214, 288, 289, 299, 317, 323 Propertius, xi Ptolemy, 21 Pulcheria, daughter of Theodo xx, xxi, 50, 51, 54, 55, 58, 64, 86, 119, 124, 153, 189, 208, 225, et passim.

Quotations from, or refer ences to:

Acts, 94 n., 96 n., 130 n., 137 n., 174 n„ 188 n„ 233 n., 280 n., 311 n.

Apocalypse, 213 n., 243 n., 244, 253 n., 258 n., 321 n.

Baruch, 331 n.

Canticle of Canticles, 252, 253 n., 267-269 nn., 290-297 nn.

Colossians, 24 n., 182 n., 237 n., 244-246 nn., 279 n., 311 n. sius, 325 Pyrrho, 21 Pythagoras, xv, 225 n.

Quintilian, xii n.

Rand, E. K„ 274 n.

Rebecca, 89 resurrection, of body, xiii, xiv, xvii, 216-259, 285; see also im mortality Roboam, 50 Rozynski, F., xix, xx 1 Corinthians, xiv n., 18 n., 22 n., 25 n., 31 n., 58 n., 84 n., 98 n„ 119 n., 165 n„ 191 n„ 210 n„ 211 n„ 219 n., 220 n., 223 n., 224 n„ 231 n„ 237 n„ 238 n., 243-245 nn., 248 n„ 249 n„ 254 n„ 259 n„ 281 n„ 312 n., 317 n., 323 n.

2 Corinthians, 22 n., 36 n., 79 n., 98 n„ 162 n., 214 n., 236 n., 237 n„ 245 n„ 248 n„ 279 n., 321 n.

Sabellius, 53, 132 Samuel, 70, 91, 137 Sara, 103, 155, 310 Saul, 38, 50 Satyrus, brother of St. Ambrose, charity of, 185, 186; closeness of Ambrose to, 164-173, 176179, 192-195, 197; counsel of, 170, 178; death of, 169, 170;

Daniel, 93 n., 119 n., 143, 226 n., 273, 274 Deuteronomy, 95 n., 126 n., 308, 315 n.

Ecclesiastes, 19, 20 n., 83 n., 109 n„ 137, 153 n„ 210, 226, 285, 286 John, 14 n., 68 n., 121 n., 163 n., 166 n., 205 n., 207 n., 215 n., 217, 223 n., 231-233 nn., 236 n., 243, 244, 247 n., 253, 258, 278 n„ 281 n„ 283 n„ 299 n., 315 n., 318, 327 n.

131, 134 n„ 209 n., 221 n., 268 n., 318 n.

Ecclesiasticus, 6 n., 211 n., 271 n., 289 n., 292 n., 298 n.

Ephesians, 210 n., 238 n., 245 n., 280 n., 318 n.

4 Esdras, 188-190 nn.

Exodus, 31 n., 32 n., 57 n., 64 n., 71 n., 90-92 nn., 119 n., 1 John, 313 n., 324 n.

Jonas, 63, 93 n.

Josue, 32 n., 91, 119 n.

Judges, 287 n.

1 Kings, 38 n., 70 n., 91 n., 92 n„ 137 n.

2 Kings, 71 n„ 92 n., 206-208 nn., 286 n., 297 n., 298 n., 319 n.

3 Kings, 57 n., 72 n., 92 n., 143 n., 209 n., 233 n., 247 n., 255 n„ 314 n.

4 Kings, 92 n., 143 n., 233 n., 238 n„ 290 n., 311 n., 313 n., 314 n.

Lamentations, 266-271 nn., 129 n., 130 n„ 141 n., 143 n., 229 n., 248 n., 293 n„ 316 n.

Ezechiel, 22, 212 n„ 227, 228230 nn.

Galatians, 24 n., 137 n., 243 n.

Genesis, 58 n., 85 n., 88-90 nn., 103 n„ 124 n., 174 n., 206 n., 212 n„ 229 n., 234 n., 236 n„ 238-242 nn., 289 n„ 290 n., 295 n„ 308 n., 311 n„ 316 n., 321 n„ 326 n.

Habacuc, 327 n.

Hebrews, 64 n., 91 n., 104 n., 289 n., 294 n., 310 n„ 311 n.

Isaias, 58 n., 119 n., 130, 134 n„ 143 n„ 166 n„ 226, 235 n., 243 n., 272 n„ 278 n„ 294 n„ 321-323 nn., 330 n. fames, 75 n.

Jeremias, 19, 55 n., 130, 211, 278, 331 n.

Leviticus, 245 n., 247 n.

Luke, 57 n., 58 n., 60 n., 64 n., 93 n., 96 n., 114 n„ 174 n„ 189 n„ 199 n„ 212 n„ 213 n„ 233 n., 234 n„ 239 n„ 243 n., 247 n„ 252 n„ 268 n., 272 n„ 278 n., 281 n„ 295 n., 326 n„ 328 n., 331 n.

2 Machabees, 93 n.

Mark, 94 n., 137 n., 233 n., 278 n.

255, 271, 279 n„ 291 n.

Job, 19 n„ 90, 105 n., 108,

307 n., 313-326 nn., 329-331 nn.

Romans, 24 n., 66 n., 84 n., 94 n., 162 n., 199 n., 200 n., 211 n., 213 n„ 214 n., 241 n., 246 n„ 249 n., 292 n., 311 n„ 315-318 nn., 323 n.

Matthew, 15 n., 24 n., 52 n., 57 n., 79 n., 80 n., 93 n., 94 n., 113 n., 166 n., 184 n., 185 n., 187 n., 212 n„ 224 n., 230 n„ 234 n., 239 n„ 242 n., 252 n„ 270 n., 271 n., 278-280 nn., 290 n., 315 n., 318-320 nn., 330 n.

Numbers, 119 n., 137 n., 214 n., 229 n„ 246 n„ 248 n., 249 n.

Osee, 19 n., 112 n.

2 Paralipomenon, 314 n.

1 Thessalonians, 22 n., 25 n., 165 n„ 217 n„ 231 n., 238 n„ 247 n„ 285 n„ 317 n.

1 Timothy, 119 n., 161 n., 185 n., 203 n.

2 Timothy, 95 n., 316 n.

Titus, 91 n.

Tobias, 265 n.

Wisdom, 15 n., 19 n., 35 n., 46 n., 175 n., 180 n., 209 n., 216 n., 288 n„ 289 n.

Zacharias, 325 n., 328 n.

1 Peter, 62 n., 239 n., 314 n.

2 Peter, 23 n.

Philippians, 22 n., 95 n., Ill n., 114 n., 119 n., 213 n„ 214 n., 243 n., 279 n., 285 n., 319 n.

Proverbs, 6 n., 57 n., 63 n., 106 n., 120 n., 124 n„ 135 n., 187 n., 235 n., 251 n., 272 n„ 294 n., 312 n„ 315 n.

Psalms, xiii, xxi, 19 n., 23-25 nn., 36 n., 55 n., 57-59 nn., 63 n., 65 n., 70, 84-86 nn., 90-92 nn., 96 n., 97, 109 n„ 110, 112 n., 115 n„ 117, 120 n„ 122 n., 125, 128, 136-138 nn., 152 n., 165-167 nn., 176 n„ 181 n„ 187 n., 207 n„ 208 n„ 210 n„ 211 n., 215 n„ 225 n., 226 n., 229 n., 234 n., 236 n„ 243 n., 244 n., 250 n., 252 n„ 255 n„ 258 n„ 259 n„ 269272 nn., 280 n., 281 n„ 285 n„ 289 n„ 290 n„ 293 n„ 297 n„ Seneca, xi, xiii Serena, guardian of Honorius, 309 n.

Sodom, 85 Solomon, 46, 50, 63, 83, 92, 106, 120, 125, 134, 135, 209, 210, 251, 272, 312 soul, and visions in sleep, 192; contemplative joys of, after death, 21, 22; pagan beliefs on, 217, 225, 255, 256; trans migration of, 225, 256; union of, with body, in punishment and reward, 235, 236 Spirit, Holy, 16, 53, 54, 56, 59, 63, 77, 83, 84, 86-89, 95, 105,

trumpets, allegorical interpreta 115, 129, 132, 142, 147, 150, 187, 231, 245, 249, 255, 279, 315, 327, 330 Statius, xi Stephen, St., 94, 137 Stilicho, Flavius, 304, 309 n.

Stoics, x Symmachus, L. Avianius, 176 tion of, 244-251 Valens, Emperor, 53 n., 64-67; 70, 151 n.

Valentinian I, 275 n., 289 Valentinian II, 263, 264; achievements of, 266, 267, 275; and baptism, 287, 288, 296; comparison of, with others, 286; date of consolatory ser mon on, 264; and Gratian, 288-298; mysterious death of, 264; and sisters, 281-288; up bringing of, 271, 272; virtues of, 272-275 Vergil, 169 n., 225 n., 257 n., Tabitha, 174, 233 Tacitus, xii Taurus, Mount, 76 Tertullian, xv, 256 n. theater, Greek, 49, 83, 107, 125,

Themistius, x Theodosius, Emperor, 263, 264, 268; achievements of, 309-312; comparison with others, 311314; date of funeral oration on, 303; disturbance of ele ments at death of, 307; pen ance of, 319, 322; removal of body of, to Constantinople, 297 n.

Victory, Altar of, 274 n. vigils, 110 virginity, 79, 125, 185 visions, 144-146, 192 wealth, spiritual vs. temporal, xvii, 17, 19, 21, 78, 104, 125, 332; virtues of, 309-310 Theophrastus, x Thucydides, viii Thurston, H., 199 n.

Xenocrates of Chalcedon, x Xenophon, x Xerxes, 65 topoi, viii-x, xii, xiii, xviii transmigration, 225, 256 Trinity, xiii, 53, 54, 73, 85-88, 91, 99, 117, 132, 166, 167, 240 Zeno, x

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281.1

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