Ambrose: The Governor and Bishop
Around 340 AD, Ambrose (Aurelius Ambrosius) was born to wealthy parents inside the Germanic territory of the Roman Empire. His pagan father was a high-ranking military official, and his mother was a convert to Christianity. As a child, Ambrose received an excellent education in both Roman traditions and Christian doctrines. He was also exceptionally skilled in leadership and rhetoric. During his lifetime, Christianity was overtaking paganism as the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine had already issued the Edict of Milan in 313, requiring religious tolerance for Christians. However, Ambrose still witnessed the convulsive struggle for religious dominance. At the age of thirty, Ambrose saw the anti-Christian hostility of Emperor Julian, Rome’s last pagan emperor.
Several years after Julian’s death, Ambrose’s impressive skillset and family connections led to his appointment as a Roman provincial governor with a new home in Milan. As a governor, he was beloved by the people. As he grew older, he began to embrace the Christian faith. In 374 AD, the city broke out in civil unrest over doctrinal divisions among candidates vying to become the new bishop of Milan. When Ambrose addressed the crowds to urge calm, they responded by chanting, “Ambrose for Bishop!” Eight days later, after being pressured to embrace the role to bring peace between factions, Ambrose agreed to transition from an unbaptized governor to become the Bishop of Milan.
Ambrose: The Evangelist & Apologist
There is no doubt that Ambrose had authentic faith. His writings reveal an exceptional understanding of faith, worship, and theology. The world’s most brilliant men, like Saint Augustine, traveled to Milan to study under his teaching. In his book, Confessions, Augustine wrote that Ambrose was “known to the whole world as among the best of men.” Before Augustine’s conversion, Ambrose famously counseled his mother, Monica, who had been mourning for her pagan son’s soul. Ambrose famously comforted this weeping mother by stating, “It is not possible that the son of these tears should perish.”
Augustine, perhaps the greatest theologian in church history, claimed that God used Ambrose to lead him to faith. Prior to meeting Ambrose, Augustine resisted Christianity, largely because he believed that Christians were uneducated, and the Bible was “impossible to be defended.” However, Ambrose showed uncommon wisdom in demonstrating the supremacy of Christianity over all other belief systems. Augustine marveled at how Ambrose taught “most soundly,” which gave him confidence that the doctrines of Christianity “had now begun to appear to me capable of defense.”
Bishop Ambrose was a powerful preacher, an anointed evangelist, a compassionate counselor, and a brilliant apologist. On April 24, 387, after a brief mentorship, Ambrose baptized Augustine into the faith. Augustine would later write that God led him to Ambrose so that Ambrose could lead him to God.
As a pastor, Ambrose cared about winning souls, defending the faith, and shepherding his flock. Ambrose could be charming and tender, but he had the zeal of an unflinching lion when it came to upholding the Word of God—even if it meant confronting the emperor himself.
Ambrose: Defender of the Church
In 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius, along with his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, issued the Edict of Thessalonica making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.
In 388 AD, after a mob of Christians destroyed a Jewish synagogue in the Syrian city of Callinicum, Theodosius ordered the synagogue to be rebuilt with funds from the church treasury—forcing innocent Christians to participate in a perceived act of idolatry. The emperor also unleashed General Timasius to impose brutal intimidation tactics on local monks to quell passions. As a bishop, Ambrose supported religious tolerance for Jews, and he applauded the edict requiring punishment of persons guilty of damaging synagogues. But Ambrose objected to the emperor’s indiscriminate punishment of Christians. Though this took place more than 2,000 miles east of Milan, Ambrose confronted the emperor.
In a letter to Theodosius, Bishop Ambrose acknowledged that he was “unworthy to be heard” by “the most clement prince” and the “blessed Emperor.” Then he offered a forceful rebuke. After acknowledging the danger of calling an emperor to repentance, Ambrose wrote, “We have One Whom it is even more perilous to displease…. I speak in very truth for fear of offending God.” After explaining his willingness to voice an objection, Ambrose explained that the emperor had a moral obligation to protect liberty, while the priest had a moral obligation to confront injustice.
It is neither the part of an emperor to refuse liberty of speech, nor of a priest not to say what he thinks. For there is nothing in you emperors so popular and so admirable as to appreciate freedom in those even who are in subjection to you by military obedience. For this is the difference between good and bad princes, that the good love liberty, the bad slavery. And there is nothing in a priest so full of peril as regards God, or so base in the opinion of men, as not freely to declare what he thinks.
Ambrose: The Fearless Preacher & Prophet
After respectfully imploring Theodosius to make the right decision, Ambrose warned that he would not relent, vowing to use his pulpit to voice his objections. He politely assured Theodosius that he should “rather listen to me in the palace, lest, if it were necessary, you should listen to me in the Church.” Still, the emperor did not rescind his orders. When Theodosius later came to the church at Milan, Ambrose preached on how God lifted His anointing and removed King Saul from his throne for murdering priests (1 Samuel 22:17), adding that it was “an evil spirit stirred up to persecute the priests of the Lord.”
Ambrose was obviously expecting the emperor to recognize his own sin in this story. Incredibly, he did. Ambrose wrote, “When I came down from the pulpit, he said to me: ‘You spoke about me.’ I replied: ‘I dealt with matters intended for your benefit.’” Before he left the church that morning, Theodosius rescinded his orders and put an end to the campaign of General Timasius. However, their most intense confrontation was yet to come.
Ambrose: Defender of the Masses
In 390 AD, Emperor Theodosius unjustly executed thousands of people in the city of Thessalonica. According to fifth-century historian Sozomen, the Roman general Butheric arrested a very popular charioteer after he “attempted an outrage” with the general while he was “shamefully exposed,” likely suggesting an unwanted homosexual advance. Once new chariot races were scheduled at the hippodrome, the people demanded for their favorite charioteer to be released. When General Butheric refused, the city rioted and murdered him. The historian Sozomen wrote:
On hearing of this deed, the wrath of the emperor was excited immediately, and he commanded that a certain number of the citizens should be put to death. The city was filled with the blood of many unjustly shed; for strangers, who had but just arrived there on their journey to other lands, were sacrificed with the others.
Theodoret, a fifth-century theologian, wrote, “Multitudes were mowed down like ears of grain in harvest-tide…. It is said that seven thousand perished.”
Bishop Ambrose was appalled by the emperor’s actions. Theodosius, realizing that Ambrose would object, stripped the bishop of his right to address the imperial courts. In a letter to Theodosius, Ambrose refused to remain silent, citing numerous examples of biblical prophets who were obliged to confront wicked tyrannical figures. Pointing to scripture, Ambrose then challenged the emperor, “Should I keep silence? But then my conscience would be bound, my utterance taken away, which would be the most wretched condition of all. And where would be that text?”
Citing men like Nathan and Moses who were not “afraid of the arms of the mightiest kings,” Ambrose likewise assured the emperor that he would not cower from him. With a genuine desire to call the emperor to repentance, he asked, “Are you ashamed, O Emperor?” Ambrose wrote of how David repented and found the forgiveness of God, and he expressed his hope “that the examples of these kings may stir you up to put away this sin from your kingdom, for you will do it away by humbling your soul before God. You are a man, and it has come upon you, conquer it. Sin is not done away but by tears and penitence.”
Just as David was known for his love of God prior to his great sin with Bathsheba, Theodosius had been known for his piety, and Ambrose attempted to awake in the emperor a desire to please God.
I urge, I beg, I exhort, I warn, for it is a grief to me, that you who were an example of unusual piety… should not mourn that so many have perished. Though you have waged battle most successfully, though in other matters, too, you are worthy of praise, yet piety was ever the crown of your actions. The devil envied that which was your most excellent possession. Conquer him while you still possess that wherewith you may conquer. Do not add another sin to your sin by a course of action which has injured many.
Ambrose: Guardian of Church Purity
After assuring Theodosius that the Lord “wills to chastise His servants, that He may not lose them,” Ambrose informed the emperor that he would no longer be permitted to participate in the sacraments. “I dare not offer the sacrament if you intend to be present,” he wrote. “I have been warned, not by man, nor through man, but plainly by Himself that this is forbidden me.”
Once again, the emperor ignored Ambrose’s letter and showed up at the church doors. The historian Sozomen described this encounter:
When he drew near the gates of the edifice, he was met by Ambrose, the bishop of the city, who took hold of him by his purple robe, and said to him, in the presence of the multitude, ‘Stand back! A man defiled by sin, and with hands imbrued in blood unjustly shed, is not worthy, without repentance, to enter within these sacred precincts, or partake of the holy mysteries.’ The emperor, struck with admiration at the boldness of the bishop, began to reflect on his own conduct, and, with much contrition, retraced his steps. It appears that it was for these and other acts of cruelty that Ambrose rebuked the emperor, forbade him to enter the church, and excommunicated him.
Everyone must have been wondering what might happen. An emperor willing to slaughter thousands to exact justice for the death of one man would surely execute this brazen bishop. However, the Spirit of God moved through Ambrose’s courage to change the heart of the emperor and to promote justice. The historian Sozomen explained:
Theodosius publicly confessed his sin in the church, and during the time set apart for penance, refrained from wearing his imperial ornaments, according to the usage of mourners. He also enacted a law prohibiting the officers entrusted with the execution of the imperial mandates, from inflicting the punishment of death till thirty days after the mandate had been issued, in order that the wrath of the emperor might have time to be appeased, and that room might be made for the exercise of mercy and repentance.
