Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Church in St Ambrose of Milan

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 5; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14742250500355503

1747-0234

Andrew Lenox-Conyngham,

Medieval Literature and History

Abstract Abstract A brief account is given of the life of St Ambrose and of modern scholarly views on his work. The Church was favoured by the Emperor Constantine and Christianity established as the state religion by the Emperor Theodosius. Ambrose might have been expected to have been interested in promoting the interests of the Church as an institutional and juridical organisation but he was in fact overwhelmingly interested in its spiritual aspect, as von Campenhausen asserts, opposed by Morino. The Church is seen in Ambrose's writings as the City of God and as the Kingdom of God into which believers are received. His understanding of the Church is markedly christocentric and biblical and is closely linked with his thinking on the Holy Spirit. This article also examines his attitude to the see of Rome, of which he did not recognise a general supremacy. The relevance for Christians today of Ambrose's experience of the Church as a unique spiritual fellowship is touched on. Notes 1 Homes Dudden, The Life and Times of St Ambrose. 2 The most recent and fullest collection of studies on Ambrose generally is contained in Pizzolato and Rizzi, Nec Timeo Mori. 3 von Campenhausen, Ambrosius von Mailand als Kirchenpolitiker. 4 Homes Dudden, The Life and Times of St Ambrose, vol. 2, 494. 5 McLynn, Ambrose of Milan; Williams, Ambrose of Mila; Humphries, Communities of the Blessed. 6 Davidson, Ambrose: De officiis, vol. 1, 65. 7 Brown, Augustine of Hippo, 81. 8 Among them are the works of Davidson, Corsato and Graumann. On the hymns the work by Fontaine and others and, most recently, a translation of De Fide, Ambrose's work on the Christian faith with introduction by its editor Christoph Markschies. 9 Szabó, "Le Christ Créateur chez Saint Ambroise," 17. 10 See note 8. 11 Rome itself was visited only four times by the Emperor in the course of the fourth century. 12 Fascinating reading on Julian is the historical novel by Gore Vidal. 13 Morino, Chiesa e Stato nella Dottrina di S. Ambrogio. 14 von Campenhausen, Ambrosius von Mailand, 264–265. Over 30 years later von Campenhausen repeated this view in his chapter on Ambrose in The Fathers of the Latin Church, 122. 15 Morino, Chiesa e Stato nella Dottrina di S. Ambrogio, 96. 16 Ibid., 97. 17 See Hallonsten, Satisfactio bei Tertullian. 18 von Campenhausen, Ambrosius von Mailand, 199. 19 Lenox-Conyngham, "Juristic and Religious Aspects of the Basilica Conflict of AD 386," 55–58. 20 'Nescit ecclesia publicare leges suas'; De Fuga Saeculi, 2, 8. 21 Fenger, Aspekte der Soteriologie, 147–148. 22 Corsato, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, I, 17. 23 De Apologia prophetae David, I, 17, 83. 24 De Mysteriis, 6, 30. 25 Thus when Satyrus, Ambrose's brother, was shipwrecked and wanted to be baptised, he insisted upon being baptised only by a bishop who was in communion with the Church of Rome, since the Luciferian schism prevailed where he had been shipwrecked. 26 Ambrose's frequent invocation of Jesus in his hymns is, as Paredi says, partly a reaction to Arianism. See Paredi, "La Religione di Sant' Ambrogio e la Liturgia della Sua Chiesa," 142. 27 von Campenhausen, Fathers of the Latin Church, 94–95. 28 De Fide, III, 10, 72. 29 Explanatio psalmi, 36, 36. 30 Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, II, 86. 31 Epistula extra collectionem, 1 (41), 12. 32 Ibid. 33 Oratio XVII, 8. 34 Explanatio Psalmi, 37, 43. 35 In Epist. II ad Cor. Homil. XV. 36 Epistula 74 and Epistula extra collectionem, 1a (40), 11. 37 Epistula 76 (20), 23. 38 Epistula extra collectionem 14 (63), 46. 39 De Fide, V, 14, 181. Ambrose is citing Ephesians 5.23. 40 Dassmann, Ambrosius von Mailand, 109. 41 Ambrose's use of biblical women as illustrations has helped to inspire feminist approaches to him and to other Church Fathers. See in particular Burrus, "Begotten, not Made". 42 Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, VIII, 9. See also Dassmann, Ambrosius von Mailand, 113. 43 Ibid., VI, 4. 44 Expositio psalmi, 118, 1, 4, 2. 45 Ibid., 12, 24, 2. 46 De Fide, II, 2, 32. 47 De Spiritu Sancto, II, 10, 102. 48 Adversus Marcionem, III, 23, 2. 49 De Spiritu Sancto, III, 12, 91a. 50 Ibid., I, Prol. 8. 51 Matth. Hom., 37, 7. 52 De Viduis, IV, 23. 53 Explanatio psalmi, 48, 5. 54 Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, VII, 96. 55 De Institutione Virginis, 12, 79. 56 Dassmann, Ambrosius von Mailand, 116. 57 De Incarnationis Domenicae Sacramento, 4, 33 to 5, 34. 58 See Bernareggi, "Il Volto di Sant'Ambrogio," 21–22. See also Siniscalco, "Sant' Ambrogio e la Chiesa di Roma,"141–160. 59 Epistula extra collectionem, 5 (11), 4. See also Gryson's remarks on this statement in Le Prêtre selon saint Ambroise, 192. 60 See note 25. 61 De Sacramentis, III, 1, 5. 62 To be found in Gryson, Scolies Ariennes. The edition by Kauffmann in Aus der Schule is still valuable. 63 Gryson, Le Prêtre selon saint Ambroise, 188. 64 The affair of Leontius seems to me to be of considerable importance in understanding the relations between Milan and Rome and tends to be either overlooked by writers on this topic or relegated to a footnote. Its fullest treatment is in Gryson's Le Prêtre selon saint Ambroise, but it would be good to have a more thorough study of the whole issue. 65 There are obvious similarities between Ambrose's approach and Augustine's attitude to Rome over the affair of Apiarius in 426, in which Augustine was not prepared to allow Rome to overrule the judgement of the African bishops. As one would expect, it was only gradually that a general supremacy of Rome came to be established, at least in the West, notably through the pontificate of Leo the Great, half a century after the time of Ambrose.