as you have been in battle, and great in other respects, yet mercy was ever the crown of your actions. The devil has envied you your chief excellence: overcome him, while you still have the means. Add not sin to sin by acting in a manner which has injured so many. [§ 13] For my part, debtor as I am to your clemency in all other things; grateful as I must ever be for this clemency, which I have found superior to that of many Emperors and equalled only by one, though I have no ground for charging you with contumacy, I have still reason for apprehension: if you purpose being present, I dare not offer the Sacrifice. That which may not be done when the blood of one innocent person has been shed, may it be done where many have been slain? I trow not.-L.F. xlv. 325, 328. No. 111. Ambrose's Criticism of Apollinarianism, 390 From Ambrose, Ep. xlviii. § 5 (Op. II. i. 991; P.L. xvi. 1153 A, B). [§ 5] Wherefore as against Photinus this is our sentence, and as against Apollinaris it is also a proper safeguard; our confession, namely, that as in the form of God He lacked nothing of the Divine nature and fullness, so in that human form there was nothing wanting in Him so as to cause Him to be judged imperfect as Man; for He came in order to save man altogether. Truly it would not have been fitting that He Who had accomplished a perfect work in others. should suffer it to be imperfect in Himself; for if aught was wanting to Him as Man, then He did not redeem the whole man, and if He did not redeem the whole man, He deceived us, for He said that He had come in order to save the whole man. But since it is impossible for God to lie, He deceived us not; wherefore, seeing that He came to redeem and save the whole man, He took upon Him the whole of that which belonged to human perfection.-L. F. xlv. 316. VOL. II. ང་ No. 112.-The Election and Consecration of a Bishop, 396 From Ambrose, Ep. lxiii. §§ 1-3 (Op. II. i. 1022 sq.; [§ 1] I am overcome by grief that the Church of the Lord, which is among you, has still no Bishop, and alone in all the regions of Liguria and Emilia, of Venetia, and the adjacent parts of Italy, stands in need of those ministrations which other Churches were wont to ask at her hands, and, what causes me still more shame, the contention which causes this delay is ascribed to me. For as long as there are dissensions among you, how can either we determine anything, or you make your election, or any man accept the election, so as to undertake among men who are at variance an office difficult to bear the weight of, even among those that agree? [§ 2] Are you the scholars of a confessor, are you the offspring of those righteous fathers, who as soon as they saw holy Eusebius, though before he was unknown to them, put aside their own countrymen, and forthwith approved of him; and required no more than the sight of him for their approval? Rightly did he who was chosen unanimously by the Church, turn out so eminent a man, rightly was it believed that he whom all demanded was chosen by the judgment of God. It is fitting therefore that you follow the example of your fathers, especially since it behoves you, who have been trained by so holy a Confessor, to be better than your fathers, forasmuch as you have been trained and taught by a better preceptor; and to show forth a visible sign of your moderation and concord, by unanimously agreeing to the choice of a Bishop. [§ 3] If the Lord has said, If two of you shall agree as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven: For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them; how much less, when many are assembled in the name of the Lord, where all agree together in their petitions, how much less ought we in any wise to doubt that there the Lord Jesus will be present to inspire their will and grant their petition, to preside over the ordination and confer the grace?-L.F. xlv. 358-9. No. 113.-The Union of Monastic and Clerical Life, 396 From Ambrose, Ep. lxiii. §§ 66, 71 (Op. II. i. 1038; [§ 66] But if even in other Churches such deliberation is used in ordination, how much care is required in that of Vercellæ, where two duties seem equally required of the Bishop, monastic severity and ecclesiastical discipline? For Eusebius of blessed memory was the first to bring together in the West these two differing requisites, and though living in the city observed the monastic institute, and with the government of his Church united the sobriety of an ascetic life. Great increase accrues to the grace of the priesthood when young men are thus obliged to practise abstinence and to obey the laws of chastity, and, though living within the city, to renounce its customs and ways. [§ 71] Now this endurance in holy Eusebius throve under the monastic discipline, and by being accustomed to a stricter rule, he imbibed a power of bearing hardships. For it is certain that in the higher kinds of Christian devotion these two things are the most excellent, the Clerical function and the Monastic rule. The first is trained to be obliging and courteous in its behaviour, the second is accustomed to abstinence and endurance; the one lives as on a theatre, the other in secret; the one is seen, the other hidden. It is the saying of one who was a noble combatant, We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to Angels. Worthy truly was he to have Angels as his spectators, when he wrestled that he might attain the prize of Christ, when he contended that he might lead on earth an Angel's life, that he might overcome the wickedness of spirits in heaven, for he wrestled with spiritual wickedness. Rightly was the world a spectator of him whom it was called on to imitate.L.F. xlv. 379-81. No. 114. The Condemnation of Origen, at Rome, 400 From Anastasius, Bishop of Rome, 398-†401, ap. Jerome, Ep. xcv. § 2 (Op. i 559; P.L. xxii. 774), to Simplicianus, Bishop of Milan. [§ 2] Being informed then by a letter of the aforesaid bishop (s. Theophilus, of Alexandria), we inform your Holiness that we in like manner, who are set in the city of Rome in which the prince of the Apostles, the Glorious Peter, first founded the Church and then by his faith strengthened it; to the end that no man may, contrary to the commandment, read those books which we have mentioned, have condemned the same; and have, with earnest prayers, urged the strict observance of the precepts which God and Christ have inspired the Evangelists to teach. We have charged men to remember the words of the venerable Apostle Paul, prophetic and full of warning: If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Holding fast, therefore, this precept, we have intimated that everything written in days gone by by Origen that is contrary to our faith is also rejected and condemned by us. N. & P.-N.F. vi, 186. No. 115.- The Gloria in Excelsis, (?) c. 400 From Codex Alexandrinus, of the fifth century (Facsimile O.T. iii 569 [1883]). Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord,*1 heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; O Lord, the only begotten Son Jesu Christ; [and O Holy Ghost]. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. * Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father,* 1 * Omissions; additions. have mercy upon us. For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord,* [Jesus] Christ,* to the glory of God the Father.--Amen. The Prayer Book (corrected by the original).-K. No. 116. The Te Deum, c. 400 From Niceta, Bishop of Remesiana: Works, ed. TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. We praise thee as God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee: the Father everlasting. To thee Cherubin and Seraphin: continually do cry: 2 Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth; 3 4 Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory." "The Father of an infinite Majesty ; Thine honourable, true: and only-begotten Son; TU REX GLORIAE, CHRISTE. Thou art the King of Glory: O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father. doth When thou tookest upon thee [our] human nature to deliver it thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. : When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: thou We believe that thou shalt come: to be our judge. 1+ and Archangels [Milan]. 3 chorus. 2+ saying [Milan]. numerus. 5 exercitus. |