LETTER LXXXII. 

S. Ambrose tells Marcellus that he has been appointed to decide the case in which he and his brother Laetus and their sister were concerned, and why he undertook rather to act as arbiter than as judge in it. He urges Marcellus to submit willingly to his loss, praising him at the same time for having himself offered so equitable an adjustment of the matter, and tells him why he has nevertheless made some change in the settlement, and ends by shewing how the success gained by the several parties has been without general detriment to the Church.

AMBROSE TO MARCELLUS.

1. The law suit which you did not indeed institute of your own accord, but took up when begun by others, the obligations of piety and a desire of approving your bounty towards the poor leading you thereto, has in the course of its adjudication devolved into my hands. I took cognisance of it by the tenor of the Imperial enactment, and both the authority committed to me by the blessed Apostle and the form and character of your own life and conduct have laid this upon me. Having myself censured the keeping alive amongst you your ancient animosity, I found myself obliged by the parties to hear their cause.

2. I blushed to refuse, I must confess, particularly since the advocates of either party recriminated on each other, asserting that my investigation would make manifest to whose side the suffrages of right and justice would incline. Why need I say more? When the days were almost concluded, and only a few hours remained, in which the Prefect was hearing other business; the advocates in the suit requested that it should be adjourned for a few days, that I might preside as judge. So much zeal was shewn by Christians to prevent the Prefect from interfering with the jurisdiction of the Bishop. They stated moreover that certain matters had been conducted in an unseemly manner, and each party, according to his own inclination, brought forward points as proper to be heard by the Bishop rather than the Prefect.

3. Overcome by these reasons, reminded also of the Apostolical precept, which reproves Christians, saying,  Do not ye judge them that are within? and again,  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with his brother, and that before unbelievers,  I accepted the hearing of the cause, on condition however that I should settle the terms of the compromise. For I saw that, if I decreed in your favour, the other party might not acquiesce; while, if the sentence were given for him, you and your holy sister would abandon your defence. And thus there would have been an unequal rule of decision. Suspicion might also have attached in their eyes to the influence which the sacerdotal relation would exercise over my mind. For when does the defeated party consider the others to have greater equity than himself? And truly, the expenses of this old-standing contest would have been intolerable to both parties, had its termination been without fruit, or without, at least, the solace of munificence.

4. Since, therefore, I perceived that the issue was doubtful, the law disputed, the pleas on both sides numerous, and that petitions to the emperor of an invidious character were being prepared  09-1 1. a It seems necessary to the sense here to insert 'quae' before 'obtexerent.' which contained charges of tampering with his decrees, perceiving also that in case of his being victorious he would rigorously sue for double the mesne profits, and for the costs of this protracted suit; while it was unbecoming your office to demand the expenses of the cause, and not competent for you to claim any of those profits which as possessor you had received, I preferred settling the dispute by a compromise to any aggravation of it by a decree. For there were other disputes liable to be raised, and what was still more grievous, although these disputes might be removed, hatreds would remain which are detrimental to feelings of good will.

5. Involved in these difficulties, and feeling that the office of the priest, the sex of the woman and the gravity of her widowed state, and regard for my friend appealed to me with a threefold and weighty claim, I thought that my course of conduct should be to desire no one's defeat, but the success of all. Nor was my intention baffled; you have all overcome, as regards kindred, as regards nature, as regards Scripture which says,  Why do ye not rather take wrong, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? 

6. But perhaps you deem yourself aggrieved by the unfavourable issue of the suit, and by your pecuniary losses. Better surely for priests are the losses than the gains of the world; For  it is more blessed to give than to receive. But perhaps you will say, I ought not to have been exposed to fraud, to have suffered injury, to undergo loss. What then? Would you have inflicted these things? But although you did not do so, he would have complained of suffering them. Consider therefore what the Apostle says,  Wliy do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? So one may almost say that he who suffers not a wrong, inflicts it, for he who is the stronger ought to be the one to bear it.

7. But why do I treat with you as if this was my concern rather than your own? For in order to compound the quarrel you offered that for the time of her life your sister should possess part of the farm, but that after her death all the property should be ceded to your brother, and that no one should sue him either in your name or in that of the Church; but that, if he chose, he should hold it without being called on to dispense any portion to the Church. When I had declared this, and extolled the great grace of munificence which had thus been implanted in your mind, your brother replied that such an arrangement would be pleasing to him if all fear of injury to the property were removed. For how, he asked, could a woman, who was a widow besides, manage a property liable to tribute? How could it profit him, your yielding up to him your right of possession, if he supposed that greater losses would accrue to him from the bad cultivation of the land?

8. The advocates on either side were influenced by these considerations. Wherefore, with the consent of all, it was determined that the honourable  09-2 2. b v. c. here is an abbreviation for vir clarissimus, a title of official rank, see note in p. 101. Laetus should undertake the farm, and should pay yearly to your sister a certain quantity of corn wine and oil. By this means your holy sister was relieved from anxiety, not deprived of her rights; she relinquished, not the fruits but the labour, not the revenues, but the hazard as it is often called of an uncertain return of them. If violent storms of wind should destroy the harvest, your sister will still retain undiminished the fruits of the seed-time. Laetus will ascribe to himself the unfavourable conditions of the arrangment, and should the pressure of necessity from time to time and of extraordinary imposts become severe, your sister will stand clear both of Laetus' loss and of receiving benefits from you; while Laetus will console himself with the proprietorship of the estate.

9. Thus all have gained their point: Laetus, because he obtained the right over the property, which he had not before; your sister, because she will now enjoy the annual profits without dispute or strife; no one, however, will have gained so complete and glorious a victory as yourself, for together with the fulfilment of your bountiful dispositions towards your sister, you have rendered her partner of your fraternal union. For you have conceded, to your brother the property, to your sister the usufruct. But as regards the Church, nothing is lost to her which is gained to piety; for charity is no loss but a gain to Christ, charity also is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And thus the cause has been concluded according to the Apostolic model. We used to grieve that you were at strife, but your strife has been profitable, because it has led you to put on the form of the Apostolical life and discipline. Your strife was unbecoming the priesthood, but this transaction befits even the Apostolic rule.

10. And fear not that the Church should be placed out of the range of your bounty. She also partakes of your fruits, fruits even more plentiful, for she enjoys the fruit of your teaching, the service of your life, she has that fertility which you have watered by your discipline. Rich in these profits she seeks not temporal things, for she is in possession of what is eternal. But you have added not only Apostolical but also Evangelical fruits, for the Lord has said,  Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness. You also have made to yourself friends, and, what is remarkable, from those who were at variance with you. You have made brethren return under the laws of kindred, you have assured then by this charity and this grace that they shall be received into eternal habitations.

11. Thus, under the guidance of Christ, and the directions of two priests, yourself, that is, who gave the first outline, and myself who gave the sentence, the peace which we have made will not fail; for there have been so many concurrent voices in favour of fidelity, that perfidy cannot be without punishment.

12. Laetus will now plough for his sister, whereas before he grudged her the services of others; Laetus will now gather the harvest for his sister, though he could not before endure the gifts of others; he will bear the fruits to the granaries of his sister, and this he shall do gladly  09-3 3. 1 laetus , in renewed accordance with the proper signification of his name.

13. You meanwhile, being conformed to the image of the Apostle of Christ, and assuming the prophetic authority, shall say unto the Lord,  Thou hast possessed my reins. This possession better becomes Christ, that He may possess the virtues of His priest, that He may receive those fruits which belong to integrity and continence, and what is more, to charity and tranquillity.

Farewell; love me, for I also love you.

EPISTOLA LXXXII.

 Quomodo in MARCELLI,  Laeti et amborum sororis causa   1276A   constitutus sit judex, et quare illam cognitionem ita susceperit, ut maluerit arbitrum agere, commemorat, litis exponit statum, ac Marcello damnum non aegre ferendum ostendit. Hinc eum laudat, quod arbitrum se ipse praestiterit longe aequissimum. Cur tamen in ejus arbitrio nonnihil mutaverit, docet: ac demum qua ratione singuli sine Ecclesiae damno vicerint, declarat. 

AMBROSIUS MARCELLO.

1. Apud me decursus est tui textus negotii, quod non intulisti, sed recepisti; quia erat et pietatis necessitas, et probandae in pauperes liberalitatis voluntas. Cognovi autem secundum sacrae formam praeceptionis, in quam me induit et beatissimi Apostoli auctoritas, et tuae doctrinae ac vitae forma et disciplina.  1276B Nam cum ipse arguerem quod adhuc inter vos maneret veternosum jurgium, cognoscendi mihi necessitatem partes imposuerunt.

2. Erubui recusare, fateor, cum praesertim togati utriusque partis invicem se lacesserent, dicentes ut meo sub examine liqueret, cui parti majora juris vel justitiae suffragia forent. Quid plura? Cum jam conclusi essent dies, et paucarum horarum superesset spatium, quibus tamen alia audiret praefectus negotia; petierunt causae patroni prorogari paucorum dierum tempora, ut ego residerem cognitor. Tantus ardor erat christianis viris, ne praefectus de episcopi judicaret negotio. Aiebant praeterea nescio quae gesta indecore, et pro suo quisque studio jactabat, quae episcopo potius judice, quam praefecto  1276C examinari oporteret.

3. His confusus, simul admonitus Apostolicae praeceptionis, quae arguit, dicens:  Nonne de iis qui intus sunt, vos judicatis (I Cor. V, 12)? Et iterum:  Saecularia igitur judicia si habueritis, contemptibiles qui sunt in Ecclesia, illos constituite ad judicandum. Ad verecundiam vestram dico. Sic non est inter vos sapiens quisquam, qui possit judicare inter fratrem suum: sed frater cum fratre judicio contendit, et hoc apud infideles  (I Cor. VI, 4); recepi cognitionem, ita tamen ut compositionis essem arbiter. Videbam enim quod si pro tuis judicarem partibus, posset ille non acquiescere: si pro illo ferretur sententia, obediret tua et sanctae sororis defensio. Erat ergo iniqua decernendi conditio. Posset etiam illis videri suspecta  1276D necessitudinis sacerdotalis gratia. Quando enim victus quemvis alium quam se aequiorem putat? Et quod verum est, erant vetusti jurgii intolerabilia utrique parti dispendia; si finis ejus aut 1101 fructu careret, aut liberalitatis solatio.

 1277A 4. Cum igitur anceps judicium, jus controversum, multiplices ab utraque parte actiones cernerem, invidiae plenas supplicationes, rescriptorum quoque obreptiones obtexerent: adverterem etiam gravi conditione illum, si vicisset, acturum de duplis fructibus, et de sumptibus annosae litis: tuo autem officio non convenire, ut expensas jurgii posceres: nec competere, ut quidquam de fructibus possessor ageres, quos percepisses; malui jurgium compositione caedere, quam pronuntiatione acerbare. Alia enim habebant excitari jurgia: tum, quod est gravissimum, etsi jurgia sublata forent, erant tamen odia mansura, quae apud bonos mores dispendii sunt.

5. Inter hos aestus positus, cum me persona sacerdotis,  1277B feminae sexus, viduae gravitas, amici quoque contemplatio, trino quodam non perfunctorio conveniret nomine, illud sequendum putavi; ut neminem vinci vellem, et omnes vincere. Nec fefellit sententia; vicistis enim omnes germanitati, vicistis naturae, vicistis Scripturae dicenti:  Quare non magis injuriam accipitis? quare non magis fraudem patimini (I Cor. VI, 7)?

6. Sed putas te gravatum jactura juris, damno pecuniae. Meliora utique sacerdotibus damna, quam lucra saeculi sunt:  Beatius est enim dare, quam accipere (Act. XX, 35). Sed forte dicas: Fraudem non debui pati, injuriam non debui perpeti, damnum subire. Quid ergo? Inferre velles? Sed etsi tu non inferres, ille se passum diceret. Itaque vide quid  1277C dicat Apostolus:  Quare non magis fraudem patimini? Ut prope videatur, qui non patitur, fecisse; tolerare enim debet, qui fortior est.

7. Verum quid ego ita tecum ago, quasi hoc meum, et non tuum sit? Tu enim obtulisti, quasi arbiter litis, ut soror in diem vitae suae possideret partem praedii, post obitum ejus fratri cederet omnis possessio. Neque quisquam eum vel tuo, vel Ecclesiae conveniret nomine: sed sibi haberet, si ita mallet, ut nihil dispensaret Ecclesiae. Hoc cum ego praedicarem, et praeferrem tantam animo tuo infusam liberalitatis gratiam, respondit germanus tuus placere sibi oblationem, si metus deteriorandae possessionis  1278A decederet. Quemadmodum enim femina, et quod est amplius, vidua possessionem regeret tributariam? Quid sibi profuturum, quod sibi jura possessionis cederes; si majora ex incultu agri subeunda sibi damna arbitraretur?

8. Movebat hoc utriusque partis togatos. 1102 Itaque omnium conspirante assensu, placuit ut Laetus v. c. agrum susciperet, et certum numerum frumenti, vini, olei, sorori quotannis pensitaret. Ergo sanctae germanae tuae non jus, sed sollicitudo decessit: non fructus, sed culturae labor: non reditus, sed incerti eventus quaedam, ut dicitur vulgo, alea. Si tempestates ventorum graves proventum impedierint, sorori tamen tuae sua ubertas manebit. Si nimia siccitate aruerint locorum gignentia, sorori  1278B tamen tuae sata non minuetur fecunditas. Sibi ascribet Laetus conditionem oblationis suae: si necessitates temporum et extraordinariae incubuerint exactiones, germana tua beneficio tuo, ut dispendio Laeti, immunis erit: Laetus autem se proprietate locorum solabitur.

9. Vicistis ergo omnes: Laetus, quia jus loci adeptus est, quod non tenebat: soror, quia annuis potietur fructibus jam sine lite, sine jurgio; nemo tamen plenius, nemo gloriosius quam tu vicisti, qui dum erga sororem confirmari vis liberalitatem tuam, in utrumque eam fraternae consortem necessitudinis contulisti. Nam et fratri concessisti proprietatem, et sorori usus fructum: nihil autem adimitur Ecclesiae, quod pietati acquiritur; charitas enim non  1278C damnum, sed lucrum Christi est; denique charitas fructus Spiritus sancti est (Galat. V, 22). Apostolico igitur charactere cognitio decursa est. Dolebamus ante quod litem haberes: profuit jurgium, ut formam indueres apostolicae vitae et praeceptionis. Illud sacerdotio non congruebat, haec transactio et apostolicam decet normam.

10. Nec vereare ne immunis sit atque exsors Ecclesia liberalitatis tuae. Habet et illa fructus tuos et quidem uberiores, habet fructus doctrinae tuae, habet tuae vitae stipendium; habet fecunditatem, quam tuis institutis rigasti. His dives reditibus, non quaerit temporalia; quia aeterna possidet. Addidisti autem  1279A ei non solum apostolicos, sed etiam evangelicos fructus; Dominus enim dixit:  Facite vobis amicos de iniquo mammona (Luc. XVI, 9). Fecisti et tu amicos, et quod mirabile est, ex dissidentibus. Fecisti in jus germanitatis redire fratres, fecisti eos hac charitate, hac gratia securos esse, quod suscipiantur in aeterna tabernacula.

11. Christo igitur auctore et duobus arbitris sacerdotibus, te qui formam prior dedisti, me qui sententiam prompsi, facta pax non claudicabit; quando tanta fidei convenerunt suffragia, ut perfidia non possit esse sine poena.

12. Arabit Laetus sorori, cui antea alienos invidebat labores: messem Laetus sorori colliget, 1103 in qua ante ferre non poterat alienas donationes:  1279B deferet fructus ad sororis horrea, et hoc laetus faciet, recepta etiam jam nominis sui proprietate.

13. Tu interea conformatus in apostolum Christi, assumens propheticam auctoritatem, dices ad Dominum:  Possedisti renes meos (Psal. CXXXVIII, 13). Haec melius possessio Christum decet; ut virtutes sacerdotis possideat sui, hos fructus capiat, qui sunt integritatis et continentiae, et quod est amplius, charitatis et tranquillitatis. Vale, et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.